Sell me on a book.

[Stumblewyk]

I'm going to the library tonight to get a new library card, and since I'm plum out of books to read that I own, I'm going to be bringing something home with me.

Here's my personal literary "likes", in no particular order:

• Fantasy sagas (WoT, SoIaF)
• Zombie fiction
• Short story anthologies (nearly any genre)
• Modern mythology
• Alternate history
• "Hard" Sci-fi - recently gotten into Alastair Reynolds
• Favorite Authors - Robert Jordan, GRRM, Neil Gaiman

Now, recommend something for me to "check out" (see what I did there?) tonight. Honestly, I'm open to anything, but I'm going to need more to go on than just a title.

Ready?

...

GO.

 

[Artur Hawkwing]

Dark Elf Trilogy (Forgotten Realms) by R. A. Salvatore

Empire of the East by Fred Saberhaggen (SP?) (prequel to his Books of Swords series)

For a bit of a unique sci-fi twist, I'd recommend the Chanur Saga by C. J. Cherryh

For light reading try the early Dragonriders of Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey

If you really want to get into the way back machine:

The Lensman Series by E. E. "Doc" Smith

There's my two cents. I'll wait for my change.

 

[Bullgrit]

Zombie fiction = World War Z by Max Brooks

Bullgrit

 

[Mallus]

Here's three: the Psalms of Isaak by Ken Scholes (Lamentation, Canticle, Antiphon). First three books in a series of five.

They've got great characters, interesting world-building (mix of fantasy and sci-fi), and, most importantly, charm in spades. No series in recent memory brought me closer to the feeling of sheer delight in reading I had when I was a kid.

Really, these books are magic.

 

[Stumblewyk]

Dark Elf Trilogy (Forgotten Realms) by R. A. Salvatore

Empire of the East by Fred Saberhaggen (SP?) (prequel to his Books of Swords series)

For a bit of a unique sci-fi twist, I'd recommend the Chanur Saga by C. J. Cherryh

For light reading try the early Dragonriders of Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey

If you really want to get into the way back machine:

The Lensman Series by E. E. "Doc" Smith

There's my two cents. I'll wait for my change.

Unfortunately, I can't stand D&D fiction. I can't abstract the mechanics from the fiction. Empire of the East sounds interesting. Chanur Saga looks...pulpy. I have a hard time getting excited for that kind of thing. McCaffrey might be worth looking into. The Lensmen series suffers from the same problem as the Chanur Saga for me. Unless I'm misreading my initial impression of it.

Zombie fiction = World War Z by Max Brooks

Bullgrit

An excellent suggestion, but alas, I read it several years ago.

 

[Crothian]

[*]Fantasy sagas (WoT, SoIaF)

--Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It is not a complete series, the second one came out this summer. But I like it better then the two fantasy sagas you have mentioned. It does meander some and the point of the story is more the story then the plot.

[*]Zombie fiction

--World War Z is good, but to suggest something else go with Feed by Mira Grant. It takes place 20 years after the Zombie Apocalypse and deals with society dealing with it.

[*]"Hard" Sci-fi - recently gotten into Alastair Reynolds

--Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It is a great book about the elderly volunteering for war instead of dying.

Those are just some suggests if you need more, just ask. And if you check something out you don't like no real lose just return and grab something else.

 

[Mark CMG]

Short story anthologies (nearly any genre)

Strictly genre fiction or is literary fiction included on your list?

 

[Mark CMG]

Interesting side note -

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/jefishman/2011/10/publishing-primacy-—-folio-29-hand-selling/

 

[Artur Hawkwing]

Unfortunately, I can't stand D&D fiction. I can't abstract the mechanics from the fiction. Empire of the East sounds interesting. Chanur Saga looks...pulpy. I have a hard time getting excited for that kind of thing. McCaffrey might be worth looking into. The Lensmen series suffers from the same problem as the Chanur Saga for me. Unless I'm misreading my initial impression of it.

Chanur: A lot of people have issues with C.J.'s writing because her stories often center around strong female characters with weak male characters, especially in her space born stories. The Chanur Saga gets a bad rap because the Human Race isn't the center of the story. The first book was okay, the trilogy that followed was excellent, IMHO.

The Chanur novels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lensman: This series was sort of ahead of its time. Reading Triplanetary would get you a good hang of the series. There was an anime style movie in the 90's that really didn't have a lot of connection to the series.

Lensman series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Empire of the East: Great book even just as a stand alone. I'm including the wiki link for the Books of Swords, which does cover the Empire of the East, which is a rewrite as one novel of the 4 shorter novels comprising the Empire of the East series.

Books of the Swords - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Stumblewyk]

Here's three: the Psalms of Isaak by Ken Scholes (Lamentation, Canticle, Antiphon). First three books in a series of five.

[...]

Really, these books are magic.

Sounds promising, sadly my library doesn't have them on hand. I can get them through the network, but that doesn't help me tonight. =/

--Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

--World War Z is good, but to suggest something else go with Feed by Mira Grant. It takes place 20 years after the Zombie Apocalypse and deals with society dealing with it.

--Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It is a great book about the elderly volunteering for war instead of dying.

Count me among the group of fantasy readers that was thoroughly unimpressed by Name of the Wind when I read it. Well, that's not fair - the construction of the narrative is fascinating. But Kvothe just flat-out annoys me. Sadly, my library does not have Feed, or Old Man's War.

Strictly genre fiction or is literary fiction included on your list?

I'd say literary fiction is fair game.

Also, I think, courtesy of the SFSignal/NPR Top 100 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Flowchart, I'm looking at either Anathem or Rendezvous at Rama, both of which my library has in stock. Unless someone convinces me otherwise...