Book Recommendations

[guedo79]

Two great TSR books:

Finder's Bane and Tymora's Luck by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb.

I'm a bit plane happy but you don't have to know the 2e multiverse to enjoy them.

 

[Celebrim]

Guy Gabriel Kay: Most anything though especially 'Tigana'

Gene Wolf: The quadrology beginning with 'Shadow of the Torturer'

Also the duology beginning with 'Soldier of Arete'.

Sean Russel: The duology beginning with 'Initiate Brother'.

Neil Gaimen: 'Neverwhere', 'The Sandman' series, and 'American Gods'

Douglas Adams: 'Dirk Gently's Holoistic Detective Agency' and 'The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul'

HP Lovecraft: Anything. I'm particularly fond of 'The Color out of Space', but there are alot of good complete collections out there now.

William Shakespeare: 'Hamlet', 'The Tempest'

Homer: 'The Illiad' & 'The Odessey'

I'm not sure of the arthur, but 'Beowulf'

Orson Scott Card: 'The Seventh Son' (And if you can stomach them, the rest of the 'Alvin Maker' stuff is decreasingly satisfying. Sort of like Robert Jordan.)

China Meiville: 'Perdido Station'

 

[StalkingBlue]

You may want to search for older threads on reading recommendations. There have been various great threads on this over the past year or so.

Here are a few tidbits:

Steven Erikson, The Malazan Book of the Fallen - three books are now out in a series scheduled for ten instalments, an epic, continents-spanning read with a cool magic system and lots of sub-plots.

I second the recommendation of Robin Hobb; this is another pseudonym for Megan Lindholm, but her Robin Hobb novels are in a much grittier and more atmospheric style, which I enjoy a lot.

Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun. A classic. Wolfe's worlds are just awesome. This tetralogy's main character is an executioner and torturer by trade (of all things!). If you like it, go on to read the Book of the Long Sun and the Book of the Short Sun trilogies, which are very loosely linked to the Book of the New Sun.

Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana. He's written a few other fantasy novels, most with a strong alternate history touch (The Fionavar Tapestry is probably the most widely known), but Tigana is really his best work.

On a lighter note: Steven Brust - the Taltos novels. A hitman in a world dominated by bullying elves, where organised crime and hit contracts appear to not be particularly frowned upon, seeing that resurrection is available ... unless you've had the bad luck to have been killed with an illegal demonic blade. Written in a style much reminiscent of Thirties private eye novels and rather fun.

 

[Skarp Hedin]

It's similar to Lovecraft except it's very well written.

I will of course immediately agree that perception of what is well written and what is not is a matter of personal taste.

That having been said, this quote made me laugh, hee hee.

For good reading material, it's always good to go for different genres as well. For example, I recently read The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and thought it was pretty good indeed.

Fantasy-wise, though, Turtledove and Moorcock are really good.

 

[drothgery]

Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana. He's written a few other fantasy novels, most with a strong alternate history touch (The Fionavar Tapestry is probably the most widely known), but Tigana is really his best work.

Minor quibble. I'd argue that Sarantine Mosaic Duology (Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors) is probably Kay's best work. The first book definitely sets up a quasi-Byzantium, but the second makes more than a few radical departures from the history (or so I understand; I'm more of a World War II guy than a Byzantium guy when it comes to history).

 

[Hand of Evil]

JV Jones' The Bakers Boy
Simon Green - Hawk & Fisher, Blue Moon Rising, Deathstaker
David Ducan -
Karl Edward Wagner - Kane books (if you can find them)
David Gemmell - Waylander and other stuff
William King - Gotrek & Felix books
Alan Dean Foster -
Adrian Cole - Omaran Saga
Christopher Rowley - Bazil Broketail
Keith Taylor - Felimd Macfal Bard
Zelazany - Nine Princes in Amber, ShadowJack, Lord of Light, Dilvish the Damned
...

 

[WayneLigon]

Garth Nix
-- Sabriel
-- Abhorsen (sequel to Lirael)
-- Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr

Tanya Huff
-- Fire's Stone

Rebecca Bradley
-- Lady in Gil
-- Scion's Lady
-- Lady Pain

Deborah Chester
-- The Sword
-- The Ring
-- The Chalice

Deborah Christian
--Truthsayer's Apprentice

P. C. Hodgell
--Godstalk

Lynn Flewelling
-- Luck in the Shadows
-- Stalking Darkness
-- Traitor's Moon

-- Bone Doll's Twin (Set many many years before the first series)

Mickey Zucker Reichert
-- Legend of Nightfall

Juliet E. McKenna
-- The Thief's Gamble (and sequels)

 

[Pielorinho]

I agree that the Sarantine Mosaic, by Guy Gavriel Kaye, is his best work -- at least, of the ones i've read. I've not read Tigana yet.

Le Guin is fantastically good.

Sabriel, by Nix, was really hard for me to get into. The foreshadowing was so heavy that the book held few surprises, and the main character was so bad at picking up hints that my girlfriend and I gave her a particularly unflattering nickname.

If you're willing to brave the children's section of the library, you can't go wrong with the Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander. They're about as high-fantasy as you can get, and they're very, very good. Start with the Book of Three and work your way through them.

Daniel

 

[Bob Aberton]

I second, third, and fourth Garth Nix's "Abhorsen" series.

Excellent dark fantasy. Great characters. The coolest magic system that ever was. Genuine suspense. And some really, really creepy horror scenes that scare without being gross.

"Sabriel" is particularly cool. Gave me nightmares for a week or so, but I consider that a good point.

Also try the "Coldfire Trilogy" by C. S. Friedman. Also a cool setting, neat magic, and ya gotta love the characters.

 

[LiVeWiRe]

How could I have forgotten Tad Williams & Glenn Cook?!?

Both are excellent suggestions Luke!

T.H. White's Once and Future King is also excellent!