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I need more books!

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I started a thread – http://tinyurl.com/b7t26 – a bit less than a year ago in a search for reading material.

I’m in need of some more! A recent post in a current thread by Tony Hopkinson has suggested more and some that I missed last time. So I’m starting this thread and I’m odering:

Kushiel’s Dart – Jacqueline Carey
Foreigner – CJ Cherryh
The Runes of Earth – Stephen donaldson

The last thread got me Darkover (enjoyed – still reading), Miles Vorkosigan (funny), the Clan of the Cave Bear and so on (enjoyable but she’s bit too obsessed with the size of the hero’s privates!), The Horse Whisperer (v.good), Watchmen and American Gods (thanx, BFF!), The Hyperion Omnibus (still not read), Coldfire Trilogy (Good. Salamander, where are you?), David Gemmell (thanx Apotheon and others), and more…

I’m going back over it and making up some more Amazon orders but I’d like some suggestions from any new peers and new suggestions from old peers.

[b]what is your favourite book?[/b]

Recommendations from me: Robin Hobb and the “Farseer”, “Tawny Man” and “Liveship” interlocking trilogies. Stephen Donaldson – absolutely [b]anything[/b] that he’s written – GAP and Thomas Covenant are the best known but Mordant’s Need is just brilliant. George R.R. Martin – possibly the best Sword and Sourcery ever!

OK. I’m waiting.

Neil 😀

Topic

ha!

In reply to I need more books!

get a spellchecker and dictionary too…..

before you go “odering” some more “Sourcery” !!!

Sorry.

Had to.

😀

GG

passing the hat

In reply to ha!

How do the sheep recognise him when you borrow his hat? :O

(marky mark! That STILL cracks me up!) 😀

Gadget – I stand ashamed

In reply to ha!

I have just finished re-reading Pratchett’s “Sourcery” so it must have been on my mind.

My excuse and I’m sticking to it!

Neil :p

I JUST got done with

In reply to I need more books!

the original Dracua. A very strange aproach to writing a story, and it was the first time I had ever read it dispite having seen dozens of vampire shows. (some good, many not quite so good).

Will have to go back through the pile and see if there was anything worth mentioning or not. For the most part, I am just going to hop on your coat tails to make my own list.

Carry on my good man, carry on! 😀

Dracula

In reply to I JUST got done with

You may not be aware that Stoker was infected with syphilis. I read the novel as an allegory on the spread of a sexually transmitted disease into Victorian England.

In addition, did you notice the number of modern conveniences that appear in the novel? The type-writer that Mina uses to compile her notes, the gramaphone Dr. Seward uses to record his patient notes, the telegram that Van Helsing sends, etc.

A Great Twist On The Vampire Story

In reply to Dracula

Brian Lumley – Necroscope

Easy reading and a great plot, kind of like Stephen King but without all the lame character developments. (guess that means it’s not really like King then…) One of the best horror story’s I’ve ever read.

Necroscope

In reply to A Great Twist On The Vampire Story

Its been a while, but I read the entire series. I thought the final books of it were stretching it a little.. as if he was struggling to come up with new ideas for it. The concept of a vampire being ‘born’ from a parasitic infection was very cool. I also liked the way the could manipulate their bodies, stretching and such. The vampire world was very cool.

Reply To: I need more books!

In reply to Necroscope

the whole series is very cool TBH with 2 notable exceptions. bear in mind the whole saga is made up of 4 series

Necroscope – 5 books
Vampire World – 3 Books
Lost Years – 2 books (though these should only be read in desperation, using lead lined gloves and full HAZMAT precautions. the worst of the whole saga)
And finally

E-Branch – 3 Books

Frankenstien

In reply to I JUST got done with

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstien was a laborious read and nothing like what I expected it be either. Almost a romance novel in its approach. Odd how the styles change over the years, isn’t it.

– beads

Wells

In reply to Frankenstien

I’ve been immersed in rereading all the HG Wells I could get hold of lately – in part to remind myself what beautifully written books War of the Worlds and The Time Machine are and to purge the awful botched film versions of those books from my mind. But the flavour of War of the Worlds is just wonderful. Christopher Priest did a sequel to both in the same style called The Space Machine but it appears long out of print sadly.

I agree!

In reply to Wells

H.G. Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (think Sherlock Holmes) are masterful writers. The Invisible Man is another great read from H.G. Wells.

Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein

In reply to Frankenstien

Great series of books! Read both the 1st and 2nd installment a few months ago, and am eagerly awaiting book #3. The modern day Dr. Frankenstein, the return of his first creature – who is very humane, very intelligent, a wonderful surprise! I’d recommend this series!

Most ‘true to the book” Dracula movie…

In reply to I JUST got done with

If you are looking for the most ‘authentic’ (as far being accurate to Bram Stoker’s book) I recommend you see Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).

If you haven’t seen it yet, it is the creepiest and most enjoyable Dracula movie I have yet seen (and I think I have seen them all, even the crazy ‘Dusk ‘Till Dawn’ series).

Gary Oldman does a fantastic job as the Count, making you empathize with his fate while horrified and awed by the depths of his evil and what he is capable of. The scene where Count Dracula enters Johnathan’s room while he is shaving is VERY creepy. And Oldman’s rendering of the medieval Count’s ‘Carpathian’ accent makes Bela Lugosi seem like a cartoon character.

The cast includes Keannu Reeves as Jonathan Harker, Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Van Helsing, and Winona Ryder as Mina Murray, Jonathan’s fiance. Tom Waits turns in a fantastic semi-cameo as the unfortunate Renfield in the local asylum. Excellent performances by all.

Dracula’s seduction and ruination of Mina’s best friend Lucy Westenra as she prepares for her wedding (played beautifully by a fair-skinned, red-headed Sadie Frost). As Dracula’s nightly visits increase, Lucy daily becomes paler and more evil.

The way Oldman moves and makes hand gestures really convince you that Dracula is more beast than human.

The only thing I did NOT like was the ridiculous hair-do the Count had when Jonathan first meets him in Transylvania. Other than this, if you like vampire movies, this one is the best. Not too gory, fascinating and scary.

Hope ya like it…..

God Loves Laughter

In reply to I need more books!

The story of William Sears. Brilliantly hilarious book.

Or Maybe Just For Fun …story of the birth of Linux by Linus Torvalds

]:)

Well

In reply to I need more books!

try Keith Laumer’s Bolo series.
if you like the idea of AI powered super tanks.
and war stories.

a Single Bolo, in the latter series of them [ Mark 25 and higher ], was capable of destroying all life on a planet.
all under the control of an artificial intelligence.

Gordon Dickson’s Future History, better known as the Dorsai Novels.

For an examination of how war damages the human spirit, David Drake’s books are a good read.

Piers Anthonys ORN, Omnivore and OX trilogy is an odd read. Mute looks at how society treats those that are “different”. [ or was Mute by Poul Anderson ]

Poul Anderson’s Gateway series is an entertaining read.

Gateway

In reply to Well

Done that. Love the idea that in the future we’ll pass our dead personalities into cyberspace. Slowing down to talk to “meat intelligences”. I do that most of the time now when talking to end users!

😀

Hmmm … That sounds very interesting

In reply to Gateway

Right .. That book is now on my “Read this weekend” list

]:)

P.S Whats the name of the book? Gateway is a series isnt it?

“Gateway” is the first book

In reply to Hmmm … That sounds very interesting

There are four in the series. We don’t get the future “Internet living” until the last two but you should read them all. The first one was written in 1977 so some of the future projections are a bit off the mark but it won – and correctly so – awards for that year.

Neil 😀

Thanks Neil

In reply to “Gateway” is the first book

I am making a beeline for Amazon … right about now 😀

]:)

War damaging the human spirit….

In reply to Well

Another good story focusing on that, in a sci-fi environment, is “Armor” by John Steakley.

Imagine getting dropped onto an alien planet during an interstellar war, and having each mission recorded by the suit of armor you were wearing. Years later, someone finds the suit of armor and watches your exploits like they happened yesterday. That’s just the basic premise, its a lot more in depth than that.

I’ve read that and Starship Troopers more times than I’d care to count. Those two are definately well worn friends in my library.

A little different

In reply to I need more books!

The Dream of Eagles Series from Jack Whyte, I think I mentioned it last time. It tries to take the Arthurian legends and make them fit “real history”. Its starts at the end of Roman Britain. I’m currently on one of the followup books “Clothar the Frank” which is about the Lancelot story.

James

I looked at that series last time

In reply to A little different

but I like ones that have an ending so I was a bit wary. I have, this time, aded The Skystone to the Amazon order on the basis that if I like it, I’m set for a while.

For Merlin, try The “Crystal Cave”, the first of Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy. Very good but probably not available now.

Neil

Mary Stewart

In reply to I looked at that series last time

I’ve read eveyrthing she has written I think. I started in the 70s, with many of the Arthurian legend books. I’ve read the original Mallory.

And on the side, I bought the anniversary edition of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD – wicked funny and now my son is hooked.

James

Jack Whyte’s Arthurian saga is pretty good…

In reply to I looked at that series last time

You’ll like it, my 20 year old son loved it.

American history

In reply to I need more books!

I need some good fiction covering anything pre- the Revolution up to and just beyond the Civil War as I’ve not read much fiction covering that era. I prefer current authors, though, as I have problems with styles contemporary to the history.

(I hate Dickens)

What no James Fennimore Cooper?

In reply to American history

As a young brat I went into the Library in Grade 2, being totally bored with kiddie lit, and looked for the biggest book there. I should explain I had been reading since 4, read the newspaper daily at 7. The biggest thickest tome there was “The Deerslayer” by James Fennimore Cooper. It was perfect – the prose is very dense and you can’t skim it. And the opening scene was very descriptive and beats the heck out of the kind of stuff my boy reads today. I went on to the whole series, Last of the Mohicans etc.

James

You talk a good fight, James

In reply to What no James Fennimore Cooper?

I’ve read The Last of the Mohicans and I found the style not quite to my taste.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

In reply to What no James Fennimore Cooper?

The Barsoon novels or pretty much any thing he wrote

The Red Badge of Courage

In reply to American history

This one is a ghost story, a war story, coming of age, etc.

If you prefer something really dark, I’d recommend John Ridley’s Those Who Walk In Darkness and That Which Fire Cannot Burn. Both are very noir-ish with very failed human beings and super-beings that are in a death struggle to survive. Don’t look for heroes in these novels, as those that would do good often come to bad ends, which sadly reminds me all too much of real life.

Mark Twain

In reply to American history

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is a fun one (It’s the only first edition Mark Twain in my library), although I’ve read a lot of his stuff.

I’ve always meant to read that one

In reply to Mark Twain

I’ve read – haven’t we all – Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn but nothing since childhood. It’s on the list – at ?2.01 I can’t lose.

Burr

In reply to American history

Gore Vidal wrote a spellbinding novel. My whole family has read it. The thing is he had so much history there it is annoying. Read Turtledove’s alternative histoy also. It is pretty good…

James Michener?

In reply to American history

He did a lot of historical works – I remember reading Hawaii and Centennial, but he’s done so much more. If I remember correctly … Centennial was very long, but the book was so much better than the television adaptation.

Michener

In reply to James Michener?

Got ’em all. I like his historical style. I read most of them a quite few years ago, now.

I wonder if the characters in “Texas” are really true to life.

Eh, Marky Mark?

fictionalized diaries

In reply to American history

There is a series of ‘children’s books’ called the Dear America series. They are diaries of kids who lived in various times from coming over on the Mayflower through World War II and based on actual writings. They make good quick interesting reading. Try the juvenile section of your local library for these and other books. Any more, I’m finding more interest in the Young Adult and Juvenile sections than adults for reading material. Ramona

Some suggestions for you

In reply to I need more books!

.
Global Warming and Global Politics (Environmental Politics), by M. PATERSON

Global Warming and Other Eco Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death, by Ronald Bailey

Earth Report 2000: Revisiting the True State of the Planet, by Ronald Bailey

Ecoscam: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse, by Ronald Bailey

The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, by Bjorn Lomborg

Global Crises, Global Solutions, by Bjorn Lomborg

Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists, by Peter Huber

Meltdown : The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media, by Patrick J. Michaels

Hot Talk Cold Science: Global Warming’s Unfinished Debate, by S. Fred Singer

The Satanic Gases, Clearing the Air about Global Warming, by Patrick J. Michaels

Taken By Storm: The Troubled Science, Policy and Politics of Global Warming, by Christopher Essex, Ross McKitrick

Global Warming – Myth or Reality? : The Erring Ways of Climatology, by Marcel Leroux

Global Warming: The Truth Behind the Myth, by Michael L. Parsons

Bad Weather: Misconceptions and Myths Revealed, from Ball Lightning to Global Warming, by Richard M. Todaro

Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming, by S. George Philander

You did this last time!

In reply to Some suggestions for you

I was after fiction, Max – not friction. As well you know!

Now, unless you’ve something appropriate to contribute, [b]get your libertarian arse off my thread![/b]

😀

But Neil – You should read some of this stuff

In reply to You did this last time!

How can you debate against an opponent’s position if you don’t fully understand that position? One of the first enviro-political books I read was Al Gore’s Earth in the Balance. I read it cover to cover, and it’s still on my bookshelf. (I’d even get him to autograph it if I had the chance.)

It is Fiction…

In reply to But Neil – You should read some of this stuff

Gore was, is a lying politico. He was poor at his predictions. He also is given a pass by so many people who don’t realize he is a nutcase…

And is now…

In reply to It is Fiction…

A professor at Columbia University in New York City. Not bad for a lying politico and general nutcase.

I’m no Gore fan myself but atleast he’s out of the public venue.

– beads

I agree

In reply to But Neil – You should read some of this stuff

Most of what Max has posted here does fall into what I would refer to as ‘Modern Fiction’.

Just show me the way to stop sending money to the Middle East in the form of the national gas tank and I’ll be happy. Non-fiction only, please. 😉

– beads

Gentlemen! There is a time and a place

In reply to You did this last time!

The time might be now but the place is elsewhere!

State of Fear – Michael Crichton

In reply to Gentlemen! There is a time and a place

Well, if you want fiction on global warming…

I love his books in general, though I haven’t got around to reading this. It has been sitting on the bookshelf for over half a year. I love movies based on his books too. Its a shame that Timelines was horribly made.

This is quite a controversial position to take. As I understand it (from reading the back cover), his position is that global warming is false. Can’t wait to read it.

D

Absolute Must-Read!

In reply to State of Fear – Michael Crichton

Great book – full of intrigue, action, a little romance, and exceptionally extensive research! Just what I’ve come to expect from Crichton.
At the end of the book, Crichton states his opinion – global warming may be happening, but is probably only minimally caused by human activity, is very possibly a net positive, and action to stop or reverse any warming that is, in fact, occuring is (as have been most attempts at environmental management) very likely to suffer heavily from the interferance of the Law Of Unintended Consequences!

The Adept Series

In reply to I need more books!

By Katherine Kurtz. Excellent series but a little hard to find now and then. A modern spirtitualist of many past lives battles evil in modern society. Its enough to make most conservatives wretch in dire pain. Recommended many times to many people.

Now, back to reading some of these other recommendations – which I am enjoying very much! Great thread. Thanks!

– beads

The Sword of Truth has within the series the best book…

In reply to I need more books!

The Sword of truth series: Wizards first rule through Chainfire. Just remember to read them in order. Pillars of Creation isn’t bad. It just comes after Faith of the Fallen…

I even got my wife and 20’s daughter to read them… Since my wife had already dressed in red leather, she really appreciated it.

I’ve not read any of Goodkind

In reply to The Sword of Truth has within the series the best book…

but Wizards First Rule is on the Amazon order.

Thanks for the recommendation. There seems to be quite a few in the series and all thick. Amazon UK are partnering it with “A Game of Thrones” by George Martin and if it’s even half as good as that…

I’ll be pressing the [buy ’em] key tomorrow.

It isn’t

In reply to I’ve not read any of Goodkind

The first four were excellent, then he seemed to start cribbing from Jordan’s wheel of time.

Jordan’s Wheel of time is turgid and boring.

In reply to It isn’t

I review books on the side, and I am probably the only person who despises Jordan’s writing…

I burn through a Goodkind book in three-four hours.I’d try to read them slower to enjoy them, but they all are too good except Pillars of Creation…

I have to remind myself I am getting paid to read Jordan. Perhaps it is that Jordan pulled stuff from Goodkind, or they independently come up with similar ideals.

Neil: try the L.E. Modestit Recluse series…

Tim

Wouldn’t say he was turgid myself

In reply to Jordan’s Wheel of time is turgid and boring.

though he’s rapidly beginning to annoy me. Pretty much the same as Goodkind’s Sword of Truth.
Both have lost, the idea they started out with to me.
Still at least they haven’t hurried to the end like King did with the Dark Tower.
We’ve obviously got different tastes though if you like L.E. Modesit, tried one, didn’t like it.
Each to their own though.
Also you can grow out of books, I used to love the lensman book’s, and Dune, find them very difficult now.
Some people like David Eddings as well, so there’s no accounting for taste.

They are much better Neil

In reply to I’ve not read any of Goodkind

Please don’t start them until you have two uninterrupted days to read. I’d hate for you to get fired over them…

Tim

For Non-fiction

In reply to I need more books!

Non-Fiction:The soul of the New Machine. For fantasy try the Dragon Prince series. It is actually a different view and political,as well as social commentary. The second three books of the series, have a different, less pleasant flavor.
I would then try a little Space Opera:Midshipman’s Hope: the Seafort series, and last but not least,
Springer’s book on Tensor Calculus I am not 100% sure this doesn’t belong with the other fiction here…

Albatross

In reply to I need more books!

by me: poetry, philosophy, politics. Slightly cheaper at B & N than at Amazon.

More, well

In reply to I need more books!

Greg Bear’s Eon and Eternity
For light but enjoyable read
David Weber’s Honor Harrington books
David Weber & John Ringo’s March Trilogy (March Upcountry

David Feintuch’s Hope series (sort of Hornblower in space)

Allen Steele’s Coyote trilogy
Tad Williams, Start with The Dragonbone Chair

Eric Frank Russell’s Men, Martians and Machines
Walter Jon Williams Ambassador’s Progress
A.E. Van Vogt’s Null-A books. Old but very good.

Not to everyone’s taste Samuel R Delaney’s Dhalgren. Warning the ‘hero’ is a bi-sexual manic depressive amnesiac. So don’t read it if the other side of the street gives you the heebies. Queer, but a true master of prose.

Buzz Aldrin’s Encounter With Tiber
Yes the Buzz Aldrin, very good hard SF book

Steven Erikson’s Malazan Books of the Fallen. (Starts with Gardens of the Moon) This is a guy who Mr Donaldson reads by the way.

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Curse Of Challion, Paladin Of Souls. Easily back to her best with these.

Charles Sheffield, start with Proteus, not the member for god.

As much as I enjoyed the Land and the Gap, I still think Mordant’s Need is the best thing he’s written.

Tell me what you think of the Kushiel trilogy. I’ve never read anything like it.

Best SciFi I’ve read

In reply to More, well

“The Sparrow” Mary Doria Russell and its sequel “Children of God”

I’ll give it a go

In reply to Best SciFi I’ve read

I run out of books quick

Try this site.

In reply to I need more books!

If you have not tried http://www.baen.com/library you should. There are almost 100 SF books you can download free. Got paper? Not to mention TONS
of books you can purchase.

3 shall be the number of the counting…

In reply to I need more books!

Neil,
Let me give you 3 suggestions for hard fantasy, and I hope for your sake you haven’t already read them (I wish I could read them again for the first time):

The “Elric of Melnibone” series by Michael Moorcock,
the “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser” series by Fritz Leiber, and the “Book of Lost Swords” series by Fred Saberhagen.

C.S. Lewis

In reply to I need more books!

Join me on my quest to read the works of C.S. Lewis.

I’m also reading “Leading with the Heart” by Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K).

Space Trilogy – just too deep

In reply to C.S. Lewis

I was planning to take a long bus trip, and looked for reading material. I had greatly enjoyed Chronicles of Narnia, and so thought I’d give The Space Trilogy a try. The first book, Out of the Silent Planet, was very entertaining. However, I stopped reading by the middle of the 2nd, Perelandra. This series of books is to Christianity what Animal Farm was to communism. There are so many parralels between these books and the classic story of good vs. evil, God vs. Satan … which in itself makes for good reading … but it just gets too deep. You find yourself analyzing every little part of it. “What does he REALLY mean by that?” And there are parts of the book where its one character’s monologue about morality. It was just too deep and tedious for me to finish.

You seem to like sci fi and fantasy

In reply to I need more books!

My 3 favorite authors:

James P. Hogan. A physicist who makes sure his stories don’t require much suspension of disbelief. “Code of the Lifemaker” is my all-time favorite, about encountering a world populated by machines who find it easy to create organic matter artificially. They think WE are robots left over from a dead civilization of machines. All his books are intriguing and based on solid science.

Robert L. Forward (r.i.p.). Another scientist, this one specializes in speculating on what kind of life would arise in very un-earthlike environments.

Alan Dean Foster. A good yarn spinner. His sci fi is entertaining and he has the rare knack for crafting a good ending. “Midworld” is a classic that gets grudging respect from the mainstream. His fantasies are more light hearted and full of humor. The “Spellsinger” series about a law student trapped in a parallel universe where animals talk and magic is real is a riot. “Kingdoms of Light and Darkness” is a more sober tale of the battle between good and evil, but it’s still full of fun, and the protagonists are the talking familiars of a dead wizard who have to carry on his mission; it would be particularly appealing to a dog lover.

If you enjoyed “Clan of the Cave Bear” there are about five sequels and they’re just as good.

Try a mainstream novel by a Nobel winner: “Henderson the Rain King” by Saul Bellow. My wife, with an M.A. in English, turned me on to this knowing that I don’t have much patience with traditional novels. It’s wonderful. Lots of fun but full of drama.

I didn’t discover “Winnie the Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner” until I was in my 30s. I’m glad I did. The message is that there’s a child in each of us. That child will love these books.

Book by Ben-Ami Scharfstein…

In reply to I need more books!

…I enjoyed the book “A Comparative History of World Philosophy: From the Upanishads to Kant”.

By the very nature of book, it is not possible for the author to dwell deep into any one of the World philosophies. But, he does scractch the tip of the iceberg, and he does it well. It has a tendency to leave one with an urge to know more about each of the philosophies.

business alignment

In reply to I need more books!

My favorite book is Manage IT As A Business.

He was a Christian, but

In reply to I need more books!

One of my all-time heroes is Albert Schweitzer. He is mostly known only in his role as the jungle doctor.

But there were so many other facets to his life.

His autobiography:

“Out of my Life and Thought.”

How about?

In reply to I need more books!

My nephew, Alexander, aged 31, never ceases to amaze me. [He is a Unix Systems Administrator]

I didn’t hear from him much for quite a while, and then he emailed me the document he had been compiling — a list of ALL plays that could be read or downloaded free from the Internet. The size of the list was mind-boggling. He intends to set it up as a free resource, and is working on making it self-updating.

Well if that wasn’t enough, last night he told me of his New Year’s resolution. Quite a modest goal, really — to read every play that has ever been written.

“Well, my plan is to start with the ancient Greeks and move on from there.
I’ve already read about 30 plays since the beginning of the year. So far Aristophanes is my favourite.”

I Need More Books We Get Books!

In reply to I need more books!

We are an Auctions Company in Michigan near Traverse City. We often auction books of large amounts during the summer and in smaller amounts duing the year. There is old books 1800’s-1900’s we ven dig Barnard books out of the metro area and sold them new still in the boxed cases.
anyway to visit our website aaauctionservicetwl.com if you want updates when we have the auctions or just to talk with more detail my email is twlaaas@aaauctionservicetwl.com

Where to Look

In reply to I need more books!

I’m not going to suggest any books for you until we get an idea of your interests.

When I retired, last year, I started reading. Basically, I read fiction for the first 8 months. The way I chose the books was to examine the best-seller lists and choose from them. I also have a list of good authors in mind.

Beginning in August, I switched to non-fiction related to aviation history because I entered the program to become a docent (tour guide) at the Udvar-Hazy Center (located near Dulles Airport in VA.)

My methodology is to look first in the local library…I can examine the collections on line and even order on-line. When the book is available, I go to the library to pick it up. They can even use the Inter-Library Loan program to get books that are not in their collection.

If you do much reading, using the library is much more cost-effective.

Stephen King – not what you think

In reply to I need more books!

Stephen King has always been my favorite author, which is why I picked up the first book in the Dark Tower series “The Gunslinger”. In the Epilogue of The Gunslinger, he tells you that there are 7 books, but he’s not sure if he can finish them all. This was shear torture for me and millions of other fans of the series, which was started in 1982/3. Rest assured, he just finished the last one in 2005.

This series in NOTHING like the Stephen King we all know and love. 🙂 However, there are references to the Dark Tower characters and events in at least 15 of his other books including classics such as “The Stand” and “Salems Lot”.

This story is more Sci-Fi meets old west and weaves in and out of modern day. These are by far the best books he’s ever written.

Trust me….if you pick up this first book, you will not be able to put it down and will spend the following 7 weeks as part of Rowland’s ka-tet.

Thankee-sai.

Rhonda

Dark Tower series

In reply to Stephen King – not what you think

I think I have the first 4 or 5 – I remember being part of the Paperback Book Club and getting them through that. Then there was a long period without any Dark Tower books, and so I haven’t read the rest. The reason I liked this books more than his usual fare is the lower degree of gore. Some of his horror books are just too graphic for me. Have you read his new book – the crime drama? I was wondering how violent that might be.

School Books

In reply to Dark Tower series

Sorry, I haven’t. Outside of the Dark Tower, I haven’t read anything but text-books and the Chronicles of Narnia since 2002. My daughter read his new book “Cell”, which centers around cell phones. She said it was really good.

Cool another dark tower fan

In reply to Stephen King – not what you think

I just finished reading The Dark Tower last month. I loved it and hated it at the same time. The ending was pure crap. And it doesn’t matter that he said we’d hate the end, I still hated it 🙂

Geek Stories

In reply to I need more books!

Nobody seems to have thought of these two unusual and classic geek books, true stories but written as novels:

The Cuckoos Egg, Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage – Clifford Stoll
(Stoll was systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. He began a one-man hunt of his own, spying on the spy, this is his wild and suspenseful true story, a year of deception, broken codes, satellites, missile bases, and the ultimate sting operation).

The Newtonian Casino – Thomas Bass
(The true story of how a group of young physicists and computer scientists developed a computer to predict the results of roulette. They then smuggled the device into the casinos of Las Vegas, hidden in the soles of their shoes).

Both a little out-of-date in the fast moving world of computers, but cracking reads never-the-less.

Two answers here and more, please read both

In reply to I need more books!

1. My favourite fiction is – political election promises.

2. My favorite reading, once I get beyond the Cambell era SciFi authors like Niven, Azimov and Heinlein are

Ann McCaffery – all her stuff Pern Dragons, Brain and Brawn ships, Freedom Series, Tower and Hive, the lot

Dick Webber – The Honour Harrington series is marvellous, go to the Baen website and you can download a copy of the first book in the series for free to give it a try, then go out and buy all the series – most people do. That’s why the freebie – get you hooked.

Elizabeth Moon – The Serano series is is nice light reading.

I also love the historical mystery novels by Peter Tremayne, Ellis Peters, and Lindsay Davis.

Grisham’s novels are good to – The Firm, Pelican Brief, Runnaway Jury, etc – every one I have read is good.

Harry Potter is nice light reading too. Some of the later books may be heavy to carry but they are still light weight material, just lots of pages in each book.

I am Australian and have not found any Aussie writers that I can really recommend. Most of those that make the best seller list are in the romance novel or historical romance novel groups. Paul Jennings is starting to get a good rep but that is mainly aimed at older teens – don’t know how that will go with you.

Oh, and Enid Blyton does some nice light reading as well, lol.

BTW I am trying my hand at writing at the moment and anyone who wants to read my first short story, and possibly comment on it for me, can email me at ernest@bywater.net.au and I will send a copy of the 18 KB .rtf file.

Aussie writer

In reply to Two answers here and more, please read both

Jacqueline Carey. Kushiel series, more than superb

Matthew Reilley

In reply to Two answers here and more, please read both

I believe he’s from down-under and his Scarecrow series is mile-a-minute action.

ALSO. . .

In reply to I need more books!

If you want something light, “Skinny Dip” by Carl Hiaasen is one of the funniest you’ll ever read.

Sci-fi / Fantasy Books

In reply to I need more books!

City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, Volume 1)
River of Blue Fire (Otherland, Volume 2)
Mountain of Black Glass (Otherland, Volume 3)
Sea of Silver Light (Otherland, Book 4)
by Tad Williams

Neuromancer (Remembering Tomorrow), by William Gibson

Count Zero, by William Gibson

The Great Book of Amber : The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 (Chronicles of Amber) by Roger Zelazny

Snow Crash, by Neil Stephenson

Altered Carbon, Richard Morgan

Mind Players, by Pat Cadigan

The Player of Games, Iain Banks

If you enjoyed those

In reply to Sci-fi / Fantasy Books

and I did, try some of Peter F. Hamilton’s more recent work

Try some of his old stuff as well

In reply to If you enjoyed those

Night’s Dawn Trilogy is still one of his best.

Snow Crash is one of my favorites…

In reply to Sci-fi / Fantasy Books

… and Niel Stephenson has a more recent trilogy, The Baroque Cycle, populated by everyone who was anyone in the 1600’s. Long, three 800 page volumes, but the first one was facinating. The other two are on the shelf, waiting for a spell where I can concentrate on them.

You’ve discovered Pratchett. I think The Fifth Elephant and Soul Music are two of the best. I think you need to be of his age to really appreciate all of the references in the latter.

David Brin, a for-real rocket scientist, has two great trilogies out – I don’t recall the name of the first series (Sundiver, etc.). The second is the Uplift Trilogy (Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore and Heaven’s Reach).

A great oldie you may have missed is Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. Also Shockwave Rider by him.

I’ve seen some good non-fiction lately, although some of it is a bit speculative. Jared Diamond’s books are facinating. But by far the best is 1491 by Charles Mann. It is a fresh look at what the Americas were like before the European’s arrived. Since I’m half Cherokee, I found it particularly interesting. Not many people were aware of the work he quotes. My family has had an interest in the old populations, especially the Mississippian culture. Now I know what happened to them.

Reply To: I need more books!

In reply to I need more books!

I would recommend anything by R.A. Salvatore. A friend gave me one of his books, and now I have 10. Once he pulls you in to one of his books you are his. Warning nothing will get done around the house til you are done.

good call

In reply to Reply To: I need more books!

He’s a very talented author. Made my one of ex-girlfriends (who happened to hate anything D&D related) read one of his early forgotten realms novels … she raided my library and read all the rest of them after she finished it.

Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Clancy

In reply to I need more books!

Robert Jordan the entire ‘Wheel of Time’, David Eddings ‘Belgarion’, ‘Mallorean’, Clancy anything pre ‘Sum of all Fears’ and ‘Rainbow Six’. Stephen King anything before ‘The Dark Half’, this one and Clancy are getting to wordy now.

David Eddings ?

In reply to Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Clancy

I’m saying nowt.

No I am .

DAVID EDDINGs !!!

The Barbara Cartland of SF.

BLIZZARD ROCKS!

In reply to Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Clancy

I’d recommend David Gemmel or the Eddings couple but I sometime feel their works are a bit repetitive and predictable.
My personal favourite gotta to be Warcraft(War of the Ancients trilogy) by Richard A. Knaak.
I know Blizzard rocks!
The read is totally awesome especially if you dig magics.

Ditto on Gemmel – try Michael Moorcock

In reply to BLIZZARD ROCKS!

I read quite a few of the David Gemmel books a while back, and though i can’t recall their names, I found the stories featuring the big axe-man interesting. I also initially enjoyed the stories featuring the swordsman who had two swords with a soul/life of their own, but I soon grew tired of them when I realized al of his work was just rehashed Conan and Elric of Melnibone (sp?) stories.

The other thing that REALLY bothered me about Gemmel’s books were that they were all connected, but not in any chronological or sensible relationship. They just bounced around featruing the same protagonists, and never explored them very fully. It was a good marketing ploy, but as a reader, I found myself wasting/buying a lot of books with misleading stories to get what I wanted just so I could continue a particular story line.

But your posting reminded me of a series of books that I forgot to suggest and can not recommend highly enough – the Elric of Melnibone series by Michael Moorcock.

These are about the last king of a dying race of albino warrior/sorcerers (hints of Atlanteans) and his decision to break their ancient pact with the old Gods of chaos in their war with Order. These books are very deep, and their stage is truly cosmic in proportion.

And Elric’s sword is the first one I ever read of possessing such a terrible curse – it is possessed by a bloodthirsty demon that drinks the souls out of those that it kills, and is linked to Elric’s vitality – if he doesn’t kill with it, he will die – and it often betrays him and kills on its own volition – I think it was called Stormbringer? I think a new story was released just a year or two ago, but they started back in the 1970’s.

These are great books and Moorcock is a fantastic writer – sword & sorcery combines with a cosmic war for the possession of Earth and its future – the demise of Chaos and the dawn of the age of reason and Order, with pantheons of deities on both sides and their earthly agens/demons.

Clancy is wordy now, I agree

In reply to Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Clancy

I do agree that after Rainbow Six, Clancy got a little too wordy. Bear and the Dragon is good, once the action kicks in, but that doesn’t happen unitl there are about 350 pages left. Without Remorse, the story of Mr. Clark, is really good and stands by itself very well.

If you enjoy Clancy, but are looking for a more “techy” edge, try Dale Brown. Flight of the Old Dog is the first one from him, and he keeps the same characters (mostly) through out all his books. Larry Bond is also top notch, but I haven’t seen much from him lately. Last I heard he’s still working on getting the game Harpoon 4 published, but I haven’t been looking for his books for a while.

I’ve also heard good things about Harold Coyle, in the past, but haven’t read anything by him.

have you tried …

In reply to I need more books!

PaperBackSwap.com…trade books with other members

GREAT THREAD IDEA! Thx

In reply to I need more books!

The first in my listing isn’t my favorite but I think that for us in the IT field it might represent something of a religious IT relic of some sort. The ‘Neuromancer’ by William Gibson was released early 1984. It blew my mind to read this. William Gibson had foreseen so much of what has become reality. The ‘Neuromancer’ is an absolute read for anyone who has a passion for their field.

Now that’s said here are some of my favorites:

Books by Stanislas Lem a very prolefic author, you might want to start with ‘Eden’ or ‘Solaris’;

As for Isaac Asimov, one of the three god fathers of Sci-Fi, I don’t know where to start. (side note: Asimov invented the word Robotics) ‘Bicentennial Man’, ‘iRobot’, the ‘Foundation Series’ trilogy. and numerous brilliant short stories.

Anything written by Robert Heinlein, start with
‘Stranger in a Strange Land’

Anything written by Michael Moorcock, I’d start with the Elric or the Korum series.

Anne Mccaffrey’s ‘Dragons of Pern’ series

The original Dragonlance series started by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Trust me on this one, it’s some of the best fiction to come out of TSR’s dungeons. The first in the series is called ‘Dragrons of the Autumn Twilight’. I read 30 or so books of the series and only one or two didn’t hook me.

The Robert Lundrum series of ‘Bourne’, if you’ve only seen the movies, don’t worry the story line and plots in the book are 80% different.

‘The Broker’ by John Grisham.

‘The Bridge over the River Kwai’ by Pierre Boule

‘Blade Runner aka Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’ by Philip K. Dick

‘The Eye of the World’ (The Wheel of Time, Book 1) by Robert Jordan

Project Gutenburg and Fin-de-Siecle

In reply to I need more books!

Project Gutenburg has assembled 17,000 free ebooks available online without copyright impediments. From DaVinci to H G Wells, they have the most fascinating stories by the best autors of all time. These are the stories that define our Culture. Some txt, some Html, some audio, or all three. Pop the best 100 collection into your computer to read (or listen) on the train, unless like Kirk you just love the message of the paper itself, and do not get off the train at Willoghby!

Fin-de-Siecle (end of the 19th century) books have great sci-fi themes, esp. for techies: man often misuses, overestimates, or overly depends on the powers of science and superior technology, only to suffer the consequences.

Site: http://www.gutenberg.org/

Top 100: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top

? Frankenstein, M Shelly: Unlike the cheesy movies, brilliant scientist treads in the domain of God, creates Life, only to be driven to destruction. Who is the “monster” really: Dr Frankenstein, his Creation, man’s idolatry of technology, or technology itself (leading to man’s eventual doom)?

? Heart of Darkness, J Conrad: An army of “businessmen” working for King William II infiltrate and take the Afrian Congo, but the raw nature of the Congo overwhelms the greatest “civilization” and technology on earth.

? The Time Machine, H G Wells: Two stories in one. Scientists creates Time Machine, meets girl, looses girl, saves girl, and …. Also finds that in the future there are two races of mankind. The Eloi have everything they need, no labor, all play and leisure, and stunning beauty, thanks to thechnology and machines kept running by the ugly Morlocks. Shocking end!

? Pride and Prejudice, J Austen: Here, civilization is technology, the method of mating, breeding,and controlling every aspect of fine upstanding British Empire, until it is overcome by man’s most basic need.

-MAC

Varied SF and Fantasy to keep you happy!

In reply to I need more books!

I’m using my husband’s account to post–I’m a librarian and SF/fantasy fan so he asked me to help you out.
You mentioned a while ago you’re not familiar with Canadian & Australian authors so I’ll start there..

From Canada: Since you like hard SF I’d recommend Robert J Sawyer. For wonderful urban fantasy definitely try Charles de Lint, who weaves in Celtic, Native and African magic in along with plenty on music (he’s also a folk musician). If you like Pratchett (and bad puns with your SF) there’s transplanted Yank Oh Damn, he wrote the Callahan books, can’t remember his name…(Just tried Amazon)–he’s Spider Robinson.

My favorite Australian author, who writes teen fantasy but sophisticated enough for grownups is Garth Nix.

As for Americans, most of my friends who like Lois McMaster Bujold (you must read Curse of Chalion and her other Chalion-world fantasies!) also like Kage Baker’s stories of immortals created to “save” items throughout history, starting with “In the Garden of Iden,” which has only 1 or 2 books to go in the series so you won’t have to suffer as long as the rest of us have. Also her fantasy (only novel so far is “Anvil of the World”)

I’m guessing you don’t mind reading teen-level books (most SF fans don’t)–if you haven’t read Pullman’s His Dark Materials series yet it’s excellent. Also try Diane Duane’s Wizardry series, starting with So You Want to Be a Wizard?
If you want more graphic novels to read Hayao Miyazaki’s “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind” (which is a complete series!) is excellent SF with an ecological theme and beautiful watercolor-style art. (If the name sounds familiar it’s because he directed the films Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, etc.) There’s other SF and fantasy manga (Japanese graphic novels) too but that’s one of the best plot- and characterization-wise.

My best friend who likes hard SF more than I do would recommend Vernor Vinge, Charles Sheffield and Michael Flynn.

Lastly, if you haven’t read Ursula K. LeGuin, I can’t recommend her highly enough and neither can thousands of SF/Fantasy fans. She writes character- and social-milieu-driven (rather than tech-driven) novels and short stories, and is quite feminist and socially liberal, especially in her later novels. I’d recommend either “The Dispossessed” or “The Left Hand of Darkness” for a first try.

I can’t resist ending with this…if you aren’t doing this already, you could save yourself some money by trying your local library before shopping at Amazon…

Enjoy!
Beth Jenkins Chandler
Yank Librarian, official Equipment/Computer Person at my branch (so I am a bit of a techie!)

Here’s a few…

In reply to I need more books!

Neil have you tried The Second Son by Charles Sailor. Maybe the Ring World Series or go back farther to the John Carter of Mars, etc.
Good reading to you.

mysteries

In reply to I need more books!

Hi,
I created this website for the mystery bookseller Murder by the Book in Denver, Colorado:
http://www.murderbythebook.com

It lists favorites of many site users and the newsletters contain reviews of mystery books.

Good luck in your search,
—
Michael Cordova
21st Century Technologies, Inc.

Denver SEO Web Design Company – 21stsoft.com

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clark, The Lost Worlds of 2001
——————————————-

Have a look at The Field

In reply to I need more books!

Mind opener.

3 Classics – and their friends

In reply to Have a look at The Field

Piers Anthony – Battle Circle (brutal)
Brian Lumley – Necroscope series (intriguing)
John Varley – Wizard Series (what a concept)

I am currently reading The Sceptre of Mercy series by Dan Chernenko (The Bastard King, The Chernagor Pirates)
Thieves World (Robert Lynn Asprin/Lynn Abbey), The Darksword Trilogy (Margaret Weiss/Tracey Hickman) and Rings of the Master (Jack L. Chalker) were all good series.

Mark

Sos The Rope

In reply to 3 Classics – and their friends

great book. Titan/Demon/Wizard stands out very well.
Try
Jack Vance’s Planet of Adventure (Chasch, Wankh, Dirdir and Pnume) I think you’ll like it.

Anthony’s most brutal writing

In reply to Sos The Rope

Piers Anthony is a great / complete writer, I’ve read MOST of his.
I have read Jack Vance before and will look for these. Thx, I am due to start a new series.

Sounds like I should finish off The Gunslinger too, I think I ended about book 5.

I never post here, but I read a lot of posts, always found your input to be logical/ well thought out responses. Now I know why ….. 😉

Now I’ll change your mind

In reply to Anthony’s most brutal writing

Battle Circle is the only series I’ve liked, the rest of them I could n’t get into at all. My mum loves Xanth, but I can’t take that. I fell out with the Dark Tower, haven’t even read the last one. Loved the first four, get the impression he hurried from then on.
Start posting anyway sometimes I could do with some back up !

Not even Incarnations of Immortality?

In reply to Now I’ll change your mind

I liked Xanth for the humorous quips and the characters grew on me.
I think that was why I never actively pursued any other books in the Dark Tower, alla sudden it changed, was hoping it didn’t continue that way.
Sword and Sorcery has always been my personal calling from Sir Doyle on …. JRR Tolkien, Terry Brookes, Stephen Donaldson and then too many to mention…… 😉
And I will get more verbal here ….. lot less flaming …. LOL

Donaldson has got to be one of the best

In reply to Not even Incarnations of Immortality?

He reads Steven Erikson. Now I sit about and wait for the next installment in the Malazan tales of the fallen. Then Erikson say’s you need to read a guy called R Scott Baaker. Now waiting for number three in the series Prince Of Nothing, because it’s brilliant. Both guys are heavy sword and sorcery but with a slant that’s off the beaten track not the usual earthy human warrior and elven prince kick ass manouvre.

aww

In reply to Sos The Rope

I remember it well, actually the entire trilogy.

an extremely interesting set.

Ringo, Weber, Hunt, Hamilton….Herbert and Reynolds

In reply to I need more books!

If you have not read “A Hymn Before Battle” by John Ringo you are missing out. Quite frankly its probably the best military sci-fi novel to appear in 20 or more years. Likwise the stars at war series by David Weber is excellent. In this series you especially should check out “In Death Ground” and “The Shiva Option.” David Weber also pens the Honor Harrington series which is more political and has a slightly different reader demographic, but still maintains quite a bit of action. Hunt’s series that starts with the “Dark Wing” is intrigueing but is kinda B5ish in that you never have all the answers…so pick up the next book, etc. Hamilton wrote the excellent Fallen Dragon which I think alienated some of his fans but will actually stand as one of his best works. It starts as one thing and becomes something else entirely.

Now…howzabout the legends…
If you have not read Dune…no matter who you are or where you are from you are missing out on one of the greatest philosophical works ever written. Yes, its fiction, but it elevated Sci-Fi from spaceships and robots to high thought and introspection. In fact, because of most of its religious and political themes its required reading in many, many, seminiaries.

And in a similiar way Alastair Reynolds reinvented Sci-Fi for the 21st century by incorporating ideas from William Gibson and others into traditional space opera to create something entirely new. Revelation Space, Chasm City, and Redemption Ark are wonderfully great works that reimagine Sci-Fi in light of the science of the last decade.

James P. Hogan

In reply to Ringo, Weber, Hunt, Hamilton….Herbert and Reynolds

I have read everything from him, very good hard science, not a lot of fantasy. Why no one has made “Bug Park” a movie is a mystery.

Hogan

In reply to James P. Hogan

Start with the Giant’s trilogy “Inherit the Stars” or “The Two Faces of Tommorrow”.

No can’t take that

In reply to Ringo, Weber, Hunt, Hamilton….Herbert and Reynolds

Fallen Dragon was ‘orrible. Liked it to the last page, then he ran into a variant of the grandfather paradox and wrecked the entire book. So it started out well and went crap in my opinion. Neil’s read Dune. God Emperor, superb book.
Reynolds I couldn’t get into, but maybe Neil will like it.
If you like Weber, try the series he did With John Ringo starting with March Upcountry. Turn your brain off, lay back and enjoy.

Couple of titles

In reply to I need more books!

If you haven’t read them you might want to conside “The Illuminatus! Trilogy” and “Schrodinger’s Cat Trilogy.”

The Illuminatus! Trilogy: A conspiracy theorist’s wet dream dealing with the war between the Illuminati and the followers of Eris. Covers everything from the fall of Atlantis to the Kennedy assasination to the pyramid on the dollar bill.

Scrodinger’s Cat Trilogy: A look at quantum theory and quantum psychology. Covers the lives of a handful of more minor characters from Illuminatus in a few parallel realities.

Both have some fairly heavy drug references (more in Illuminatus! than Schrodinger’s Cat), so if you find that offensive you may want to pass on them.

Have you read the Helmsman series?

In reply to I need more books!

Neil,

If you have not read the Helmsman series, you have missed a great 7 books. The basic story line is a space opera/epic that follows the career or Wilf Brim, and parallels European history from 1910 to WW2, but across a galaxy. The author is a retired NASA/military engineer, ill (Merle) Baldwin, and is paperback from the 90’s and the frst two were re-edited and reissued in the US by Timberwolf Books. Timberwolf was supposed to do all of them but has apparently imploded, and stalled on the third, as well as release of some more that were to carry the story further. The Other author is David Weber and Steve White and their “Starfire Universe” 4 or 5 books of great space epic naval battles, found through Baens Books. The Baen web site is a great place for sci-fi fantasy authors as that is all they do, and they do it well. Too bad the Helmsman was hung out to dry

More books

In reply to I need more books!

Hi Neil,

I rarely respond to messages like this, but when I saw we are kindred spirits about Stephen Donaldson, I thought I should let you know a few of my favorites and recent good reads. Some you may have read, but here you go:

Elizabeth Haydon’s “Symphony of Ages” series–now up to six volumes, I think. All imaginative and beautifully written. Rhapsody is an interesting and nicely-developed heroine, and the story line is fresh in all of the volumes, like Donaldson’s. The first three in the series are Rhapsody, Prophecy and Destiny. She’s not a whiner like Thomas Covenant. 🙂

Larry Niven’s “The Integral Trees”. It’s a classic, and a beautifully developed idea of how a human world might evolve without gravity. It’s part of a series, but this one was the best, and stands alone well.

Terry Goodkind’s “Wizard’s First Rule” (First in the Sword of Truth series). I would assume you have read some of his books. Readers love him or hate him, and I was able to get emotionally involved with his struggle for “true love”. A male friend recommended this one to me, saying it was the best he had read.

For non-fantasy fiction and other “good reads” I recommend these:

“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” by Mark Haddon. It is a very intriguing and well crafted book about an autistic boy, with the story told from his point of view.

“A Thousand Days in Tuscany” by Marlena DeBlasi. It’s like taking a vacation without leaving home and will leave you craving asiago, grana and parmesan! (Unless it’s too much from the female point of view for you)

“The Red Queen” by Margaret Drabble. A two-track novel where a modern academic who is changed by the experience of reading the history of an 18th century Korean crown princess who ruled through the men of her time. The historical sections are particularly haunting.

Update to add this: How could I have forgotten one of my favorite books…Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card? A young boy with special abilities in a futuristic setting is the focus of a galactic epic. Anyone who is a multiplayer gamer will especially enjoy this, and of all the “Ender” series, it’s the best.

Enjoy!

Check out Neal Stephenson

In reply to I need more books!

I have read a couple of books by Neal Stephenson and have thoroughly enjoyed them. In particular, Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon were both a lot of fun, spun a good tale, and had some connection to computer technology too!

More reading

In reply to Check out Neal Stephenson

I heartily second/third endorsements of David Weber, John Ringo & Eric Flint. The 1632 series is alternate history, of sorts. Honor Harrington is wonderful, all however many of them there are now; Weber successfully crossed over to fantasy with the Oath of Swords series; the March Upcountry series is great for character development as well as action-adventure.

On another note, fine old classics like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian series (and Tarzan, too, darn it!), and EE Smith’s Lensman books are worth another read.
Susan Cooper wrote an amazing series called the Dark is Rising, which is classified as young adult/children for reasons that escape me.

For free classic pulp fiction (Doc Savage, the Spider, the Avenger, the Shadow, etc) go to http://www.blackmask.org – they have full text, online, downloadable in multiple formats, every genre you can think of and most famous authors, including Kipling, Burroughs, Rafael Sabatini (Captain Blood, the Sea Hawk etc), many many others

Do you like World War II fiction? Try Douglas Reeman, Alister MacLean (Brits, not American, but good stuff), Jack Higgins.

Non-Fiction:
Krakatoa, by Simon Winchester – ties the eruption into the way the world worked at the time – I’m reading the rest of his books now to see if they’re as good as this one.

Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer – about the little-known but amazing battle off Samar in 1944 – destroyers vs. the Yamato! Reads like fiction, but isn’t.

Flags of our Fathers by James Bradley – the flag raising on Iwo Jima – a famous picture, but who were those guys? This tells you, by the son of one of them. Great book!

For really dense, thick books: A History of the Twentieth Century by Martin Gilbert, in 3 volumes. This is a year-by-year chronology, and is very well written. He pulls in tidbits of interest I’d not come across before. I’m only on volume 2, but vol 1 was excellent & so far so is vol 2 (just finished 1945).

Have fun!

new author – sci-fi / mystery – excellent

In reply to I need more books!

Check out
“Blind Traveler Down a Dark River”
by Robert P. Bennett.

This sci-fi mystery takes you into the life of an everyday guy who happens to be blind and makes his way through the world using a device which feeds him sounds identifying his location and objects around him. One day a problem with the system causes it to describe what’s going on a few blocks away. Now it’s not magic – describing a scene with sound is not like seeing so of course the details are fuzzy and initially it’s just confusing. Gradually though he realizes he has witnessed a murder. The police don’t believe him ( a blind man who claims to witness a murder when he was’t even there ), so he needs to investigate himself.

I think you’ll find this to be fun, easy reading and very interesting. The technology is actual real technology currently in prototype use
see – http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/pgs/main.htm
The story is well researched and gives a good sense about what it may be like to be a blind man in a sighted world – as well as both the benefits and the limitations of technology which may be just around the corner.

This is the author’s first novel, but he has written articles frequently for newspapers and magazines often focused on disability issues, people who have striven despite obstacles, new technology which is available for enabling access to the world, and problems the disabled may face in living in an able bodied world.

If you are interested you can read more about the novel at
http://www.enablingwords.com/traveler.htm

OK – I am prejudice – I’m the author’s brother, but don’t let that stop you. I think you’ll find “Blind Traveler Down a Dark River” a really good read.

As for getting the book in London – I think Amazon UK carries it, but you can also order a copy by mail or electronic download from the author.

the wellspring of cyberfiction

In reply to I need more books!

William Gibson’s Neuromancer is worth a re-read. I did a week ago, and was surpised how this book had everything from which grew series like Hyperion, Matrix, et. al.

I got a new perspective how concepts can *inspire* and create new authors, works, even genres without the product being necessarily a ripoff, IE, when I first read and saw the Hyperion / Matrix, it did not register why the themes were familiar, even with the open nod to Gibson in Hyperion.

In Dan Simmons Hyperion, “the original cyber-cowboy Billy Gibson” is named; the name ‘The Matrix’ in context was coined in Neuromancer; and the plot of Johnny Mnemonic is found in the recollection of the character Molly’s who herself smells Trinity-ish although she isn’t into cyberspace. Indeed, extending that line of though all the plot devices of The Matrix trilogy can be found in The Neuromancer – as with the cyber part of Hyperion.

I don’t know if Gibson got his ideas elswhere and for myself I haven’t heard these comparisons made before.

Enjoy! Cheers,

Gibson & Sterling pretty much

In reply to the wellspring of cyberfiction

invented cyberpunk. Read the Difference Engine with Gibson and Holy Fire by Sterling himself.
If you want to read recentish breakthrough novel in the fantasy genre, start with Steven Erikson’s Gardens Of The Moon.

I’ll take a look

In reply to Gibson & Sterling pretty much

Thanks, I hadn’t heard of Sterling I’ll keep an eye for that next time I allow myself to go to a bookstore -I’m about 10 feet of bookshelf space behind in reading books I’ve already bought 🙂

I am going to recommend

In reply to I’ll take a look

Melanie Rawn’s books one more time. They actually had a Europe/US political view embodied in several characters…

Her interview on BBC from 1993-1994 I believe it was mentioned this concept in retrospect…

More books!

In reply to I need more books!

My first suggestion is that you visit http://www.baen.com/library/ and download a bunch of the free books they offer. Yeah – you have to use your laptop to read them. You may find that to be a worthwile tradeoff.

Baen gets a lot of my money these days because they got me hooked on the authors who wrote those free books. I now purchase most of the monthly subscriptions at http://www.webscription.net/baen/orderform.asp.

As far as books to start off with . . . Hmmm

Pyramid Scheme by Eric Flint
Rats, Bats and Vats by Eric Flint
Doc Sidhe by Aaron Allston
Lt. Leary Commanding by David Drake

Doggone it – I’m listing some of my favorite books from the free library. I’m gonna stop now – download them all and read away. Then start purchasing the monthly subscriptions. You get an awful lot of reading material for US $15.00 – 5 to 8 complete books.

One word of warning: Baen pads out some of the monthly subscriptions with books from the free library. I personally don’t see that as a problem – I wouldn’t be buying that months offering if I didn’t like what I had already read.

One final carrot to entice . . . each of the books offered by Baen’s webscription service allows reading of the first half or so of the entire book. You get a very good chance to see how the book is going before you have to purchase it.

dwayne

Reply To: I need more books!

In reply to I need more books!

“the code book” by simon singh

Heard of The Dresden Files?

In reply to I need more books!

I’m currently reading them and have quite enjoyed the first two. Here’s a link to a website where you can browse a chapter of two as well as hear clips from the audio books, if you are interested in that:

Dresden Files

Also you may want to consider as others have mentioned reading some of the classics as well.

Suggestions

In reply to I need more books!

Favorite Autor: Patrick O’Brian
Ideal Introduction: The Golden Ocean
Favorite Books: Aubrey/Maturin Series

Other Favorites:
Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Dick Francis, John D. McDonald

Neal Stephenson – Cryptonomicon, Vol I of Baroque Cycle, Haven’t read Snow Crash but will, hear it’s great

Colleen McCullough – Masters of Rome Series

Forgot – Aussie War Story Author

In reply to I need more books!

J E McDonnell – based on his own life and his mates. Mostly set in WW2 is a moden day Conrad concetrates on the interactions of the people on board but plenty of action too. He started life as a teenage sailor and worked his way up through the ranks to become an officer. Most are paperbacks by Howitz Publishing and have frequently been reprinted in various editions

My absolutely favorite books

In reply to I need more books!

Raymond E. Feist is the Author
1. Riftwar saga
Magician apprentice, Magician Master, Silverthorn and Darkness at Sethanon
2. Riftwar legacy
Krondor the betrayal, Krondor the assasins and Krondor the tear of the gods
3. Prince of the blood and King’s buccaneer
4. Serpenwar saga
Shadow of a dark queen, Rise of a merchant prince, Rage of a demon king and Shards of a broken crown
5. Conclave of shadows
Talon of the silver hawk and 2 others.

This guys is an awesome story teller and my absolute favorite author

He also wrote Faery tale and co-wrote The empire series with Janny Wurts which is a sequel to the riftwar saga from the other side of the rift.

2-absolute favorites – SciFI and history

In reply to I need more books!

My favorite science fiction is ‘The Foundation Trilogy’ all you math and probablity geeks will like this one. And, history is ‘His Excellency, George Washington’ best book I’ve ever read.

More than a trilogy

In reply to 2-absolute favorites – SciFI and history

Just remember, that just starts the story arc, and continues through two or three more books. I never liked the ending, with GIA and basically ” You will be assimilated”.

Try Flint and Weber [Baen Books]

In reply to I need more books!

Eric Flint and David Weber have some fun reading out. Try Baen Books (www.baen.com)

Baen Books online are great! Cheap!!

In reply to Try Flint and Weber [Baen Books]

You can read online!

Legacy of the Alldenata

In reply to I need more books!

This is a 4 part “trilogy” that’ll blow your socks off if you like major action and major characters!! The only thing that I will say is that you MUST read the series from the begining…starting with “A Hymn Before Battle” and ending(at least for the major portion) with “Hell’s Faire”! When you’re done…you’ll want more…you become so wrapped up with the characters that you want to run out and ask them…”What happens next??”!!

Oops posted to wrong thread Here with corrections

In reply to I need more books!

Elizabeth Moon She’s been mentioned, but not the Paksenarrion trilogy – Well worth the read. I think this is her best work.
Charles de Lint. Almost anything. Start with Moonheart.
Peter Tremayne – Sister Fidelma series. In real life he is a historian specializing in dark ages ireland so the background is authentic. Oddly, his real name is Peter Ellis, & Ellis Peters wrote the Cadfael series mentioned elsewhere
Mary Stewart – the Arthurian trilogy
Tami Hoag – Gritty Detective stories
Mo Hayder – Tokyo ( based in the reality of the Nanking massacre – very disturbing. It needs to be a morning read so you have the day to get over it.)
RF Delderfield – light historical WW1-2 period
Bernard Cornwell. So far I have Gallows Thief & Grail Quest series. both gripping, but I found quite a few inaccuracies in Grail Quest
SF seems to have been covered pretty well, though I don’t recall seeing Harry Harrison (Deathworld, SSRat), Fred Hoyle (Black Cloud) or Fred Pohl
Ursula Le Guin – esp. Earthsea Cycle. Some of her later books are a bit weird.
Wilbur Smith has been mentioned. I’ll second the motion
Bill Shakespeare – anything at all.
I will also second Kushiel series
Tobsha Learner – Witch of Cologne
Matthew Reilly – Very light on character development & accuracy, but they rattle along. Expect to finish in one sitting.

Books I’ve re-read

In reply to I need more books!

My favorites, because they are the only ones I’ve ever read more than once :
1. The Godfather
2. Interview with the Vampire
3. The Thornbirds
4. Winds of War
5. War and Remembrance

Old (Classic) Fantasy & not-so-old horror

In reply to I need more books!

After floating around in the Navy for 6 years and riding trains 1.5 hours to and from work one way for the last 20 years in Tokyo, I have read a lot of books (and I read anything – trashy to classic & love ’em all). So here are some of my favorites for suggestions:

Classic Fantasy (you have to appreciate early 1900’s style of literature to enjoy these – you know, when people still loved the language – flowery, proper English, lightly poetic, dreamily fantastic):

ANYTHING by H.P. Lovecraft.(Google “Cthulhu Mythos” for more in the same vein). Creepy, nightmarish stuff – nothing gory, just induces that ‘what’s that noise/shadow at the window feeling’ when you’re reading it at night.

Ditto for (authors):
August Derleth, Arhur Machen, Robert W. Chambers, Lin Carter, or Clark Ashton-Smith.

‘The Beast of Averoigne’ by Clark Ashton Smith

‘The Star Seed’ by James Ambuehl

Sword & Sorcery? Go back to the roots for the best – Robert E. Howard, the creator of ‘Conan’, ‘Kull’, ‘Soloman Kane’ and other pulp-fiction larger-than-life sword slingers battling sorcery and rescuing the hapless heroine.

Did you like ‘Lord of the Rings’? Try “The Worm Ourobus’ by E.R. Edison. Or ‘Jurgen’ or ‘The Certain Hour’ by James Branch Cabel

For pure poetic dream fantasy:
Absolutely anything by Lord Dunsany

‘There and Back’ or ‘At the Back of the North Wind’ by George MacDonald.

‘The Wood Beyond the World’ or the ‘Well at the World’s End’ by William Morris.

Not-so-old horror:
Clive Barker – hands down one of the best – very creepy-his stories ended up as the ‘Hellraiser’ series and many others.

And one of the best (now that the series is FINALLY finished after – I think – about 10 years), Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ series. Takes a lot of patience (I think the whole series is 6 or 7 rather large books), but this is an amazing tale. Truly epic in scope and depth of character development. Only for the serious reader who likes to get lost in a story for a LONG time should tackle these. But it is well worth it.

For those who like to read on-line, a listing of (supposedly) the world’s largest collection of on-line books(free),at:
http://digitalbookindex.com/about.htm

And lastly (before ‘gadgetgirl’ gets me) sorry for any typos in here, I need a new keyboard desperately (thanks to my grandson’s cocoa).

I’ve read

In reply to Old (Classic) Fantasy & not-so-old horror

The Wood Beyond the World.. by William Morris (copy of the Kelmscott Press edition). I Loved the calligraphy print.

I also liked The Double Tongue by William Golding. I’ve read Lord of the rings many times but always struggled over some tedious passages.

Joseph Heller’s Catch22 is an old favourite. 🙂

Thanks, I’ll check out Lord Dunsany

Thanks, try this one-‘Lord of Light’ by Zelazny

In reply to I’ve read

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny – considered to be Zelazny’s best book, it’s about Earth space travelers/colonists/explorers? who are guiding a world towards civiliztion using Hindu mythology, but they set themselves up as the Hindu Gods, to take a direct hand in changing things when needed, able to exhibit the powers of the various members of the Hindu pantheon through altered/enhanced psyche or via their technology.

But there is a rebel, disgusted with the travelers using the planet as ‘a combination whorehouse and game preserve’, who decides to change things to give the planet’s citizens true enlightenment and freedom.

Fast paced, thoughtful, filled with spectacular intrigues and battles, demons (pure elementals – native to the planet and imprisoned by the ‘Gods’ to protect the population).

An excellent read, first published in 1967, I must have read it about 10 times over the years (until my college student son ‘stole’ my beat-up hardback cop so he could read it over and over). At least it is still in the family.

I agree, Dark Tower is good, now that its done.

In reply to Old (Classic) Fantasy & not-so-old horror

The Dark Tower series is definately a good read. The first 3 titles aren’t too bad (200-300 Pages). Books 4 and 5 are a little more hefty, as well as 7. 6 seems a little light, but I’ve moved on to listening to them via Audio instead of reading the text.

Like you, I’ve got a roughly 1 hour commute each way. My difference is its via car, as opposed to train. So, the commute can vary as much as a half hour, one way or the other.

I also enjoyed “The Stand” from King. That one, in an unedited form, is roughly 1500 – 2000 pages. I’m probably going to end up going back and reading “Salem’s Lot” because of the re-introduction of one of the characters from that book in the Dark Tower series.

Herbert George Wells

In reply to I need more books!

Wells, H. G. (Herbert George Wells), 1866?1946, English author. Although he is probably best remembered for his works of science fiction, he was also an imaginative social thinker, working assiduously to remove all vestiges of Victorian social, moral, and religious attitudes from 20th-century life. He was apprenticed to a draper at 14 and was later able through grants and scholarships to attend the Univ. of London (grad. 1888). Inspired by the teaching of T. H. Huxley, Wells taught biology until 1893, when he began his career as a novelist.

His early books, full of fantasy and fascinating pseudoscientific speculations, exemplify the political and social beliefs of his time. They include The Time Machine (1895), The Wonderful Visit (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

In the novels of his middle period Wells turned from the fantastic to the realistic, delineating with great energy and color the world he lived in. These books, considered his finest achievement, include Kipps (1905), Tono-Bungay (1909), and The History of Mr. Polly (1910). His later books are primarily novels of ideas in which he sets forth his view of the plans and concessions individuals must make in order to survive.

Included among these final works, which became increasingly pessimistic as Wells aged, are The World of William Clissold (1926), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), World Brain (1938), and Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945). His other works include the immensely popular Outline of History (1920) and The Science of Life (1929), which was written in collaboration with his son G. P. Wells and Julian Huxley.

Ash a Secret History – Mary Gentle

In reply to I need more books!

This was also published as four separate novels, so beware

Check out Tim Powers

In reply to I need more books!

About a year ago, I stumbled upon novels by Tim Powers, when I found a reference to his novel Declare in another forum. I wouldn’t necessarily call him sci-fi, or fantasy, but perhaps more alternative fiction.

Declare is you’d get if the first Indiana Jones movie, “Raiders of the Lost Arc” was written like a John LeCarre cold-war spy novel. The book flicks back and forth through the live of a sleeper agent, recently reactivated in the 1960s to go back and clean up a mess that started during his work as a resistance radio operator in WWII France. Well paced, well thought out, with lots of historical nods, it keeps the strange and supernatural elements on a partially-glimpsed level until you’re hooked into the novel.

Anubis Gates, another of his novels, is a fairly light Time-Travel-oops-someone-gets-stuck-in-the-past romp. Last Call ties the early Las Vegas gangster days into tarot cards, prophesey, The Fisher King, and the Grail legend, and is just too hard to describe. Ignore the bad blurb on the back of the book, just buy it and read it. I can’t decide if this book or Declare is the best Tim Powers I’ve read so far, but it’s a close tie. Enjoy!

Try Isaac Asimov’s…

In reply to I need more books!

Isaac put out more than 500 books in his lifetime. Some sci-fi some fact. Does both very well. Here is my short list of must reads to get u started:
1.Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
1.I, Robot(yes same name as the movie but besides the 3 laws of Robotics & a few other things little resemblance)
3.The Caves of Steel
4.The End of Eternity
5.The Naked Sun
6.Asimov’s Mysteries
7. The Robots of Dawn
8.Robots and Empire

Have fun.

Asimov was a biochemist

In reply to Try Isaac Asimov’s…

As was I – once. I’ve read everything he ever wrote – fact and fiction.

I do wish that Foundation had stopped with three, though.

John Sandford and Jeffrey Deaver

In reply to I need more books!

If you’re interested in Detective novels, it’s hard to beat these two authors. Sandford has Lucas Davenport ‘Prey’ novels (about 11) and 3 or 4 Kidd novels. Deaver is also exceptional with Lincoln Rhyme (I believe the Bone Collector was one of his, but I’ve never seen the movie).

Lucas Davenport rocks!

In reply to John Sandford and Jeffrey Deaver

Lucas Davenport is the coolest ex-cop turned video game designer turned detective that there is! I’ll have to admit that I liked the books better before he married Weather (um, what kind of name is that?). This has got to be the best series ever – been reading them for 15 years!

Okay if you insist, I’ll play nice – A real book suggestion

In reply to I need more books!

.
State of Fear, by Michael Crichton.

You’re welcome.

Amazon order #2 is now being built

In reply to Okay if you insist, I’ll play nice – A real book suggestion

This is on it. I’ll get back to you!

Interesting Book

In reply to Okay if you insist, I’ll play nice – A real book suggestion

I’m a reasonably good Critchton fan, and I did enjoy State of Fear. Its a little slow to start, but once it gets rolling, its good.

The ramp up is similar to Prey. Its a little slow to start, but once gets its wheels moving, its very interesting.

Favorite Book…

In reply to I need more books!

Well mine of course….real life friends and excerpts of our real life in a thriller

Tomorrow’s Sacrifice http://www.stevemallard.com

Different type: Mayday

In reply to I need more books!

Nelson DeMille’s “Mayday”.
An interesting “Alas:Babylon” kind of idea, with
some fascinating ideas about the world “In case
of…”

Gotta Read these someitmes..

In reply to I need more books!

Dearest, You gotta read these, found Tim Parks accidental in Half price books, they were cheap. you may find them on internet.. Tim Parks teaches english (he is English) at Verona Italy.. He writes comedy, family life, mystery. and way out old stuff.. list is Hard to choose favorite.
“An Italian Education”, if you have or will have children you need this.
“Mimi’s Ghost” murder of gigilo,, ahhahaha ea moment sexual,,

“Juggeline The Stars” Mimi was so popular he did a sequal.. another murder mystey.. Of course murder Italy style

“Adultry and Other Diversions” guide for getting through the hahahahah of life..
Rose

I chose, at random, Italian Neighbours

In reply to Gotta Read these someitmes..

It’s always nice if a new author comes up trumps.

We’ll see!

Thanks

The Riftwar Series and other books by Raymond Feist

In reply to I need more books!

Hi,

An interesting thread…

Seeing your interests, I think you should try The Riftwar Series, a set of 4 books that can rival Lord of the Rings in story and characterization[the prose is much easier to read, but there is a little more drama compared to subtleness of LOTR].

Somebody also mentioned the Baen.com site. Some books are simply great, while others have revolting parts. Honor Harrington series (sci-fi) and the Belisarius series are good ones.

Regards
Sridhar

I’ve read most of Feist

In reply to The Riftwar Series and other books by Raymond Feist

and I think he was slowly losing the plot. I like series that have an end and then the author can go on and do another series.

I really don’t think that he comes close to Tolkien for consistency and depth.

Too right

In reply to I’ve read most of Feist

The guy used to write dictionaries for languages he invented, so he could compose natural looking verse from it. Man was mental.
Feist got a bit samey for me too, though I still enjoy Magician, got the ‘directors cut’ in hardback for my collection.

Good reads

In reply to I need more books!

Pillars of the earth by ? Fossett

and also the Skinner series by Quintin Jardine

And while you are looking for fantastic fiction, did you know of this site:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/index.html

My wife and I belong to a library reading group, and get books to read different from the ones tht we suggest to the librarian – she has a mind of her own – But books that we would never think of reading otherwise.

Enjoy.

PM

Some more books

In reply to I need more books!

hmmm, how long have I got?

to start – Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman – Always worth a read (even after my 893476234th time of reading it is still good)

Harry Turtledove – Guns of the south, and the world war series (and the sequel series (i think its called the conquest series)

Katherine Kerr – Deverry Series (dawnspell, darkspell etc)

Good Omens

In reply to Some more books

I can’t think of a book that I’ve enjoyed more. I’m a huge Pratchett fan but I think that Gaiman and he together were just unbeatable.

I’ve quoted some bits of it other threads – the Bugger Alle Thys Bible and the burning of Agnes Nutter.

Reply To: I need more books!

In reply to Good Omens

I Just love the naming of the hell hound.

sheer genius

and at the end it gets upset because the world is going to end and he has only just got the hang of chasing cats

Humour and science fiction/fantasy

In reply to I need more books!

I haven’t read the preceding posts, so I may have duplicated other suggestions.
Anything by Terry Pratchett, Tom Sharpe, and the Niven & Pournelle team.
The Beiderbecke Trilogy by Alan Plater is very funny.
Although for younger readers, the Harry Potter series and Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials trilogy are good reads.

Done the lot of them

In reply to Humour and science fiction/fantasy

Obviously, I agree with you

My local cheapo bookshop had a selection of about a dozen by Sharpe and I bought one of each. Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape are my favourites.

science fantasy

In reply to I need more books!

You seem to like fantasy. Have you tried Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time series (goes on for ever!), David Eddings – Belgarion series, Mallorean series, Sparhawk novels. These are available in the UK and I assume in the US. Also if you like thrillers, try Colin Forbes.
Hope this helps. Now what its like to have nothing to read.

Mark Chadbourn

In reply to I need more books!

Glad to see a fellow Donaldson fan – how delighted were you when “Runes of Earth” came out?

I feel I need to add Mark Chadbourn to the list of authors. Get hold of “World’s End”, first in his “Age of Misrule” trilogy. Then read “Scissorman” (more of a horror novel) which gives an insight into preceding events. Highly excellent contemporary fantasy.

Book Recomendation

In reply to I need more books!

I recently read “Waiting for Gertrude” by Bill Richardson & “Faith and Betrayal: A Pioneer Woman’s Passage in The American West” by Sally Denton. The 1st is a light enternaining fiction (antipathy of “Cats”); the 2nd is a biography that is a different kind of look back at the old west. Both are fairly short (1st-184pp & 2nd-183pp) so are quick reads.

Sci Fi/Fantasy Suggestions (Bakker, Card, and Steakley for starters)

In reply to I need more books!

Based on the Books in Previous Posts, let me suggest a few..

‘Armor’ by John Steakley – This book is like a kick in the gut. One of teh best SciFi Military books I have read.
‘Vampires’ by John Steakley – Horror novel using same basic characters as Armor, in a totally different story, genre etc. Kind of Interesting, but still a Great Book. Ignore the assinine movie made of this book.
The Prince Of Nothing Trilogy by R. Scott Bakker. Books – ‘Prince of Nothing’, ‘The Warrior-Prophet’, and ‘The Thousandfold Thought’. Very Lord of the Rings like in the sense that the world is very developed and it is like reading a history of a world. Very well done.

Also – And I can’t believe I don’t see anyone referencing this (unless I missed it) ‘Ender’s Game’ by Orson Scott Card. There is whole series of books that springs from this one, but that is teh start, and it is an amazing book. Also, just about anything by Orson is Awesome. His Characters are incredible.

Those are my Picks.

Also – Nice pick on Coldfire Trilogy. Those were good!

Neil, if you’re anything like me, you never…………………………..

In reply to I need more books!

throw any book away and always retrieve those you lend to people. This can be a bit cumbersome if you are talking hardcovers but I’m this way even with pocketbooks and softcovers.

Oh I will toss those which I consider intellectual bubble gum but lately I’ve found myself wading through boxes of books I’ve previously read and rediscovered some old friends which I have’t read for some time. I am trying to organize my collection but this gets bogged down when I come across something I haven’t read in 10 – 12 years and reread it.

If it’s part of a series, then it is only natural to want to read the other books in the series. This probably accounts for the duplicates I keep stumbling across, especially three sets of “Lord of the Rings” and two “Hobbits” but also several other authors, not all of them Sci-Fi. I’ve got all the original Ian Fleming, James Bond series , with a couple of duplicates, most everything by Alister McClean, even westerns by Luke Short as well as other genres.

I’ve been trying to sort this mess out for five years or so now but my efforts go for naught when I keep stopping to reread some gems. The one thing I’ve noticed is that I enjoy reading an old favourite; if it was good the first time around, it will be good the second and it refreshes your memory for the details you may have forgotten.

Don’t misunderstand me; I still buy books but lately while browsing the book stores, I’m finding a lot of reissued favorites that I’ve forgotten. I’ve often bought a book, only to get half way through it and recognize it as something familiar that I’ve read before. Quite often it turns out to be something retitled or an author who wrote under a pseudonym, republishing it under his proper name. That’s a bit annoying but then it becomes fun to track down the original to check for anything different other than the change of name or title.

Lately I’ve been rereading a lot of Asimov, not for any particular reason but just to refresh my memory. So if you’re running out of new things to read, you might enjoy rereading some favourites that you’ve read in the past.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

I have bookshelves in my loft

In reply to Neil, if you’re anything like me, you never…………………………..

for the overflow. Unlike you, I do give books to the local Scouts every couple of years when I have a clean-out. The first time I contacted them and said that I had a few books for their jumble sale, they sent a couple of ten-year olds round with carrier bags. Last time, they sent the troop minivan.

I do re-read books but I always like a flow of new ones – hence the threads! The first thread got me a lot of good stuff and I’m hoping for more this time.

I have read everything Asimov ever wrote, fiction or not. Like you, I’ve forgotten how many copies of the Lord of the Rings that I’ve owned.

The strange thing is that some books just disappear. I don’t loan or borrow books – buy your own! – I know that I’ve not given them to the scouts. I think that they may just evaporate…

If anyone is reading this, I need more non-fantasy! What I’m looking for – amongst others – is the US (or Canadian) equivalent of the Hornblower and Sharpe books. Historical novels by a contemporary author.

Neil 😀

If you like historical sea stories read………..

In reply to I have bookshelves in my loft

the Richard Bolitho series by Alexander Kent. Try to start at the begining when he is a midshipman and follow through till he becomes an admiral and a colonial governor; good stuff and very much in tune with the Hornblower series. I’ve also read most if not all of the Sharpe series and there is another set, the characters name is Ramage but the author’s name escapes me for the moment. I also like Jack Higgins books featuring Sean Devlin and most of his other characters as well. Fast paced, easy reading and surprisingly enjoyably, rereadable.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

If you can’t read a book twice

In reply to Neil, if you’re anything like me, you never…………………………..

it wasn’t worth reading once.
Old stuff AE Van Vogt, and one of my all time favourites Eric Frank Russel

My favorite sci-fi

In reply to I need more books!

I was given a book back in the late ’70s that looked like it was going to be just another production line sci-fi washout. It was called “Inherit the Stars”. A perfect example (literally!) of you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. This book gives a unique twist to all the old sci-fi storylines. In one fell swoop, the end of the book puts forth a plausible explanation of extra-terrestrials, space flight, and the missing link. Most of what I consider good sci-fi was written during the “Golden Age” in the ’50s, but this one ranks right up there with Asimov, Heinlein, etc. Well worth the read.

P.S. — If you like your fiction in history rather than the (then) future, try “The Iron Lance” or “The Black Rood” by Stephen Lawhead.

The Traveler

In reply to I need more books!

Read a great book over the summer – was “The Traveler” A Novel” by John Twelve Hawks (apparently a pseudonym). No one knows anything about the author. The story itself is part sci-fi, part prophetic, part new age. Very compelling story, and the door was left open for a sequel or series of books.

I stole, I mean borrowed, this review off of Amazon.com … ‘Twelve Hawks presents big ideas about free will and determinism, good versus evil, social control, and alternate dimensions, all while impressing with knowledge ranging from the New Testament to string theory. Although reviewers compared the novel to the films Kill Bill, Star Wars, and The Matrix?with echoes of authors Dan Brown, Stephen King, George Orwell, and Michael Crichton thrown in?they called it wholly original. Given its complexity, the author (a mysterious entity living “off the Grid” who?s unknown even to his agent and editor) could have fumbled anywhere. But he didn?t, from the sophisticated plot to the compelling heroine. If you?re “happy with the status quo, you?d probably regard the novel as hippie/trippy New Age Nonsense,” notes the Washington Post. For everyone else, the “novel?s a stunner” (People).’

Fascinating, Disturbing, Interesting

In reply to I need more books!

Try “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. An especially engrossing read in this day and age. My main view while reading was waiting for the story’s hero to become the hero.

Terry Pratchett, Tad Williams, Neal Stephenson

In reply to I need more books!

Pratchett’s Discworld Series is essential reading for stress relief!
Tad Williams’ Otherland and Memory, Sorrow & Thorn series are great.
Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon isn’t the usual magic and/or space opera, but really excellent reading and the characters are people like us.

If you like historical type books, here’s an old one

In reply to I need more books!

This from an old guy…
If you like history (early unsettled far western U.S in this case – California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado) try “Men to Match my Mountains” by Irving Stone published originally by Doubleday in 1956.

This must have been one of my all time favorites because I read it shortly after it was published (a single hardbound volume the size of a dictionary as I recall) and I remember it to this day. It relates the story of the early settlers of this region from their perspective. An excellent account of the conditions and hardships faced by the Donner party and others.

Regards,

Jim

The Devil in the White City

In reply to I need more books!

The full title of the book is “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America” by Erik Larson. It is a great fictionalized account of two major events that occured at the same time in 1893 Chicago – the World Fair and the invasion of a serial killer. The historical detail is fantastic – the writer pulls together the two stories wonderfully. I learned a lot too – including the history of the Ferris Wheel, which was made specifically for this World’s Fair. Highly recommending this book.

Have you tried …

In reply to I need more books!

the Emperor series by Conn Iggulden (based on the life of Julius Caesar)?

Also on the sci-fi/fantasy front David Gemmell is a must – my personal favourites of his are Morningstar, Legend, Lion of Macedon and The Dark Prince

Sherri S Tepper

In reply to I need more books!

An extraordinary author I have enjoyed is Sherri S Tepper. Her ?The Gate Into Women?s Country? is a thought provoking novel. I was introduced to her work in her Mavin Manyshaped series, which I can also recommend. Actually I have enjoyed all of her books that I have come across.

One I’ve always liked…

In reply to I need more books!

was “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman. It pretty much gave me a new way to view the world and not get so stressed about work and stuff. It definately had me laughing more than a few times 🙂

“Treasure Island” by Robert Lewis Stevenson, and most books from David Eddings but especially “The Redemption of Althalus” are also at the top of my favorites list. (Some people say all of Eddings stories are the same story told with different characters but I like ’em anyway…They’re always a fun read for me)

Have fun Amazon-ing.

The Chronicles of the Raven

In reply to I need more books!

I’ve just started reading this set of books by James Barclay. They are very well written and very enjoyable. The set starts with ‘Dawnthief’.

Other books in my collection I can recommend:- Stephen Donaldson, Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan (yep I like them both – regardless of who nicked what ideas from who!), Raymond E Feist (already mentioned) and Terry Brooks Shannara series.

If you fancy some fiction that isn’t sci-fi/fantasy, my partner has the Diana Gabaldon ‘Outlander’ series. It’s historical based fiction and pretty good too!

Seconding Diana Gabaldon

In reply to The Chronicles of the Raven

My daughter and two good friends read her avidly, and preorder all her works.

It’s fun reading this list! Neil, do you want stand alone current fiction, or only series?

Sci- Fi- Frank Herbert did more then “Dune”

In reply to I need more books!

Asimov is definitely one of my favorites, but Herbert is a second one. Besides the “Dune” series he wrote many other books that spellbinding. “The White Plague” is a single standing book that may set you thinking, and my favorite is dramatic series about human and non-human sentients starting with “Destination:Void” and continues with burning intensity in “the Jesus incident” and two more books thereafter. “man of two worlds ” will crack you up, and after that you are hooked.

Fritz Lieber, James Reston, Richard Rhodes

In reply to I need more books!

going from the simultaneous invention/parody of Sword and Sorcery by Lieber, through Restons ‘popular’ histories, and then the brilliant non-fiction of Richard Rhodes ‘Dangerous Feasts’ (Hot Zone meets the Andromeda Strain) or his ‘The Atomic Bomb’. James Herriot’s Yorkshire Vet series.

Robin Hobb

In reply to I need more books!

This is one of the most complete series I owned.
(as I own all 9 books) maybe because I finally reach that financial stability that allows me to buy every book I take a fancy to. (no I haven’t finished reading it)

Anyways, her book is nice, but it gets pretty depressing. The hero doesn’t have the glory happy ending that is common in the fantasy books.

Jane Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear is also another series that I follow over 10 years. I finally got the last one (I think) “The Shelters of Stone” but I guess I grew out of her writing style (or it got worse in the last couple of books) so I haven’t finished reading this one.
I highly recommend the first few though: “Clan of the cave bear” to “The mamoth hunter”

Totally in agreement

In reply to Robin Hobb

I cannot recommend Robin Hobb more highly. You’re right about the things that happen – especially to Fitz.

Keep reading to the end of “Tawny Man”, though. 😀

I read the “Clan of the Cave Bear” in reasonably close succession. Apart from her obsession with the size of Jodalar’s wedding tackle, the characters became more and more unbelieveble as they invented/did/said things that no-one had done before. Her style and sense of proportion changed. I think I really enjoyed only the first two.

Neil 🙂

There were originally meant to be six books

In reply to Robin Hobb

Jean Auel stated fairly early in the series (I think it was on the dust jacket of H/C book 1) there were to be a series of six books. After reading the first one I looked forward eagerly to the rest. I was increasingly disappointed. I barely finished PoP and vowed never again.

Apparently her publisher thought so too. SoS was many many years later and from a different publisher. Their spin was that JA and the original publishers had a falling out. Scuttle butt was that it was over her inability to write!

I did eventally read SoS and it was an improvement on #4 -It would be hard not to be – but still nowhere near the quality of #1

It would appear she has had a “falling out” with her new publisher too. Still haven’t seen book six & its been about five years since #5

Jordan lost it somewhat in the later WOT, but even at his worst he is better than JA #3 and on.

Recommending Brian W. Aldiss

In reply to I need more books!

Have you tried the Helliconia Trilogy by Brian W. Aldiss? I read it ages ago, but still remember being impressed by the way he combines science (astronomy, geology, biology, climatology,…)and fantasy in this epic story of a rather unique planet and its life-forms. (No Sorcery involved, though…)

One of the best ….

In reply to Recommending Brian W. Aldiss

I forgot to mention that in my post, I keep re-reading and it doesn’t lose nothing

Deryni books

In reply to I need more books!

Any of the Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz. Real D7D type stories

OK. So far I’ve ordered…

In reply to I need more books!

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Kushiel’s Dart
Foreigner (Foreigner Universe Books)
The Runes of the Earth: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Wizards First Rule: Wizard’s First Rule Bk.1 (The Sword of Truth)
Italian Neighbours
The Darkness That Comes Before (Prince of Nothing S.)
Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen)
The Stars My Destination
State of Fear
The Skystone (The Camulod Chronicles)

Oh, and some unbeatable telly…

Hill Street Blues – Series 1

I’m still working back through both lists so if I seem to have ignored your suggestion then I’ve either read it or haven’t got around to it yet.

Or I think it’s likely to be crap :p

Thanks everybody…

Neil 😀

so

In reply to OK. So far I’ve ordered…

when exactly did you win the lottery?

And why didn’t you tell me???!!!

😀

GG

Because

In reply to so

it was only ?10.

This is my saved up drinking money from when I was on the dizzy tablets. I don;t want to save it so I’m buying books and – probably – some more drink.

:p

Terry Goodkind

In reply to I need more books!

I agree totally about Stephen R Donaldson. He is brilliant and I’ve read everything he’s written. Still waiting patiently for the second of the new chronicles. I finally found someone who has read The Mordant’s Need series, I loved that series.

For something new and equally great, yet written in a completely different style (less description, more cut to the chase), Terry Goodkind’s ‘Sword of Truth’ Series in absolutely phenominal. So far there are 9 books: 1. Wizard’s First Rule 2. Stone of Tears 3. Blood of the Fold 4. Temple of the Winds 5. Soul of the Fire 6. Faith of the Fallen 7. Pillars of Creation 8. Naked Empire 9. Chainfire.

Soon to be released is book 10. Phantom. I can’t wait! This series is the first since Covenant that actually moved and affected me. He is an incredible writer. Wait no longer if you want to read some fantastic fantasy.

Check back up a couple of posts

In reply to Terry Goodkind

And you’ll see “Wizards First Rule” on my amazon order.

😀

You’ll eventually thank me for recommending Goodkind

In reply to Check back up a couple of posts

You may end up agreeing more with me… About Goodkind at least…

It’s just been delivered to my desk

In reply to You’ll eventually thank me for recommending Goodkind

Wizard’s first Rule. Bloody hell! It’s a thick un!

I’m on it tomorrow.

As for agreement on other things? I’m sure that will happen once you come to your senses.

:p

Yes, but you will eventually see the truth.

In reply to It’s just been delivered to my desk

I know that you are smarter than some of your posts. In particular the one about the SD legislature. If you notice we often move from state to state here in the US. If you don’t like it MOVE…

If you don’t want a financial boon or a hit, work to change it. Pissing and moaning is just a sad waste of time.

SD Legislature

In reply to Yes, but you will eventually see the truth.

I am, thank you, far enough away not to worry. It was merely that when I first saw the scope of their anti-abortion laws, I was somewhat taken aback by the stupidity and short-sightedness – indeed, the hypocrisy – of their stance.

As I live a great distance, literally, politically, ethically and culturally from any part of Dakota (I couldn’t even point on a map to within a thousand miles without luck), I wouldn’t worry for me or them.

Neil 😀

One day we’ll have to start a thread to see how much of our difference of opinion is cultural conditioning and how much is due to you just being wrong.

As my wife says…

In reply to SD Legislature

The only problem with me being Mr. Right was she didn’t realize my first name not Always, it is All Ways. 😉

I agree and commend you on good taste.

In reply to Terry Goodkind

Zedd’s description reminds me of my one uncle…

Reply To: I need more books!

In reply to I need more books!

Anything by Robert Jordan will be good. Armor by John Steakley was also a good one. One of my favorites The Legend of Nightfall by Mickey Zucker Reichert. That’s just off the top of my head. If any of these appeal to anyone let me know.

Sci-Fi

In reply to I need more books!

I have Read TONS of sci-fi and a couple of my fav’s were Assimov’s Foundation series (excellent space opera), Andre Norton’s Forrunner series( one of the best story tellers around) and Gordon R Dickson’s Dorsai series ( good for the military outlook) hope you enjoy them I certainly did!

Sample Other Genres?

In reply to I need more books!

Neil,

I’ve also been a sci-fi and fantasy lover all my life, but you’ve been already been tipped to some of the best of those genres: Crichton’s State of Fear (most excellent book!), Stephen R Donaldson, etc. I was given The Runes of the Earth: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant for my birthday last December. I loved the original Covenant Chronicles, but have had a hard time getting into this one. Not that it’s not interesting and well-written — quite the contrary — but because, like the original, Runes’ main characters are absolutely depressing portraits of self-hating people. Sends me down into the dumps myself reading it.

Anyway, recently I’ve gotten into other genres, especially spy novels and mysteries. I don’t know if they would hold your interest or not, but I’ll list the ones I’ve enjoyed.

Spy:

– Any of the Gabriel Allon spy/assasisn series by Daniel Silva (The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death In Vienna, The Prince of Fire).

– Anything by John Le Carr?, especially Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or The Little Drummer Girl

Mysteries:

There’s always the classic authors, like Agatha Christi, but then there’s some lesser-know authors that are just as good or better: Rita Mae & Sneaky Pie Brown have some great mysteries (even more enjoyable if you’re an animal lover), and Sallie Bissell (who is from my native hometown of Nashville) has a good mystery series based on her main character, Mary Crow, a modern Cherokee lawyer who lives in the Appalacian Mountains of North Carolina.

How about Dan Brown’s books, The DaVinci Code, or Angels and Demons? For me, The DaVinci Code wasn’t the page-turner I was lead to believe it was, and its prose is a bit amateurish, but it held my interest.

And of course you just can never go wrong with Dean Koontz: Life Expectancy, Velocity, Intensity, his Odd Thomas series, his new Frankenstein series (based on Mary Shelley’s novel, this is the story of Frankenstein and his monster in modern times, and the real monster is not the man-made fellow), Taking, The Face, etc. You could base a whole Amazon order on Dean Koontz’s books!

Good reading.

Not DAN Brown read Dale Brown!!!

In reply to Sample Other Genres?

I am also into Military fiction. The religios fiction I get from reading Neils Posts!!!

Dan Brown and plagarism?

In reply to Not DAN Brown read Dale Brown!!!

Interesting intellectual exercise going on in the courts.

Once upon a time, some gentlemen wrote a “Non-fiction” book (though parts were obviously fiction) called “Holy Blood Holy Grail”. Decades later Dan Brown takes the premise of this non fiction book and makes a mystery novel out of it, without crediting the original non-fictional title. Can Dan Brown be guilty of plagarism, if the original authours of the non-fiction book proport it to be fact? Can you copyright facts?

Whats even more fun is that the original debunking of the first work started shortly after it was published and is still very effective at debunking the DaVinci codes….

One of the main premises, that a secret society exists that has memebers who can trace their bloodline to Christ was actually debunked before the “Holy Blood Holy Grail” went to press, though the authors did not modify their book or make any apologies until years later.

Oh what a tangled web we weave…..

BTW I read the Holy Blood Holy Grail book when younger and the followup whose name I forget. I haven’t read the DaVinci Code but I watched a DaVinci debunking show and even though I read “Holy Blood Holy grail” twenty years ago, I still recalled most of the premise, and thought to myself that it was too close to Holy Blood Holy Grail, and that was months ago. The suit was announced this week.

James

James

Lobachefsky – Tom Lehrer song in action!

In reply to Dan Brown and plagarism?

Plagerize,
Let no man’s work evade your eyes.
But Plagerize,Plagerize,Plagerize
but remember to call it research!

My apologies to Tom Lehrer.

Alternative History and more current fair

In reply to I need more books!

If you are looking for reasonablely good, historically based fiction with a twist, I can recommend Harry Turtledove. He’s got different books for different sections of time and he tends to write multiple book story lines. I am a fan of his, but I can only read about 3 or 4 of his books in a row before needing to move to something else.

I can also recommend the Archer’s Tale series from Cornwell. Its based in England and France during the Hundred Year’s War. It’s also known as the Grail Quest trilogy.

The last historical novelist duo I can recommend are Micheal and Kathleen Gear. They are known for their “People of” series of books, based upon archeological evidence of Indian grounds in the US.

As for other stories, if you are looking for some decent horror, try F. Paul Wilson. I read his books “The Keep” and “Midnight Mass” and enjoyed both of them. If you are looking for a “grisham lite” kind of author, Paul Levine’s “Solomon vs. Lord” book is very amusing.

Beyond that, I’ve got the last two Dark Tower books, an Orson Scott Card book from the Bean story set, and the Star Trek physics book qued up to go on my Ipod. I’m hoping to start one of those three in the next week or so. I’ve also pulled out my MS Press books to get ready for 2 more Microsoft tests. Gotta Love IT, right?

Repairman Jack

In reply to Alternative History and more current fair

I love this character. I read one, and then had to buy a bunch of the previous ones. I see there’s a new one out in paperback and I’ll probably get that soon.

I did see those…

In reply to Repairman Jack

I did see those on Wilson’s website. I haven’t picked any of them up. They look interesting, so I may have to take a look at them over the summer.

Ahhh…..The Keep

In reply to Alternative History and more current fair

I commend you on your good taste – this is a heck of a good read,, seemingly a simple good vs. evil almost ‘vampire’ story, but a closer look opens up quite a few doors to things we might like to forget (racial hatred, the price of revenge, demons vs. angels, The Holocaust).

If you get a chance, check out the movie they made of it – considering the condensed time a film has to contend with, most of the story was transported faithfully to the screen. Some good acting, and spooky too.

Well World

In reply to I need more books!

How about Jack Chalker’s Well World Series? It starts with “Midnight at the Well of Souls”. I’d also recommend the stand-alone “A War of Shadows”.

Boox to read you might like

In reply to I need more books!

I’m new here so don’t know what’s already been recommended so forgive me if I repeat anything:

* Neal Stephenson [sometimes billed as Neal R Stephenson]
CRYPTONOMICON

Also has a new trilogy

* Thomas Pynchon
MASON & DIXON
GRAVITY’S RAINBOW
V
THE CRYING OF LOT 49
VINELAND

* Tom Robbins [that’s Tom not Harold]
FIERCE INVALIDS HOME FROM HOT CLIMATES
HALF ASLEEP IN FROG PYJAMAS
EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES
JITTERBUG PERFUME
ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION
STILL LIFE WITH WOODPECKER

* Vikram Seth
AN EQUAL MUSIC

* Chuck Palahniuk
LULLABY

* E.M. Forster
HOWARD’S END
A ROOM WITH A VIEW

Happy reading!
Alistair Bain

This is good

In reply to I need more books!

http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/charters_downloads.html

Not exactly a book but good reading anyway.

My latest book is “People of the Lakes”. I never thought fictional, pre-history could be a great read, but I like it.

In the barn I have at least (8) 3’x2’x2′ tupperware containers full of Sci-Fi, Adventure, Science and Technology, and everyotherdangthing books that I’ve read and re-read so many times I don’t care if I ever read them again.
If this miserable cold keeps me home long enough I might index them.
Make me a reasonable offer.

Maybe I should put ’em on ebay.

First update – reading chosen at random

In reply to I need more books!

Having now read Foreigner by CJ Cherryh I’m trying to buy the next couple in the series but I can only find them second hand and Inheritor only in hardback at ?20! Thanks a bunch, Tony! That’s drinking money I’ve got to spend. :p

The Skystone (Camulod Chronicles) was enjoyable but I’m not completely sure that I’ll buy any more yet. I probably will.

Starting The Wizards First Rule by Terry Goodkind next.

Thanks, all. Hope some others have got good suggestions!

Neil 😀

For a break from the SF genre

In reply to I need more books!

I suggest anything written by Admiral Daniel V. Gallery including his Autobiography. His account of the capturing of the U-505 during WWII is a great naval tale.
Another author that I’ve enjoyed on the lighter-side are the weirdly titled collections of short-stories by Patrick McManus, first given to me as a gift. Now I have everyone of his books. I don’t often read humor, especially outdoorsman type humor, but this author has a different slant and is one of only a few that can make me laugh right out loud. Sometimes I need that.

Potter

In reply to I need more books!

Neil: the Potter series is good if you like the dark side of stuff. Having read then watched the movies, I was amazed at how closely my mind developed the sites to those of the movie producers. Makes for interesting but heavy (the thickness of the books)reading. Ramona

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