(no subject)

[kippurbird]

Book recommendations! I need good book recommendations!

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Anything by Lois McMaster Bujold. Particularly:

Fantasy: Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls. The Spirit Ring. The first two are part of her "Chalion" universe, the second is an AU historical fantasy. There's also her recent The Sharing Knife: Beguilement, but that is just the first half of a book that cut in half byu her publisher for length, so you may want to wait until July when Part Two comes out.

Sci-Fi: Barrayar, The Warrior's Apprentice, The Vor Game, Borders of Infinity (short stories), Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance (Hugo Winner), Memory, Cetaganda. All part of her "Vorkosigan" series, but written to work as standalones. There are later books, but they depend a lot on knowing the cahracters to appreciate the background details.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

I've read some of her stuff... what was it... gah... I can't remember now. I liked it. It was her sci-fi series. There was this woman who married the enemy guy and ... things. Um baby born with weak bones... I'm not making much sense, am I?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

One more (if you like webcomics).

Terinu, a sci-fi graphic story written and drawn by Peta Hewitt. Excellent art, and good characterization. I will admit that the title character has "Stu" written all over him, but he's saved by not being perfect, and successfully irritating his friends whe nhe acts annoying.

[reverie-shadow.livejournal.com]

"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski!

O yeah, who didn't see that one coming?

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

What's that one about?

[custardpringle.livejournal.com]

Told you before, but it bears repeating: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Yes. I just had a discussion about that book over dinner tonight actually.

[prototypical]

This recommendation is not light reading by any stretch of the imagination - the shortest book in the set is probably over 400 pages - but it's worth the read. Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars septology. Amazingly detailed fantasy, fun with religion (which is always a plus in my books), and the characters still pop up in my dreams. I have only read the first five, but I plan on going through the entire series slowly so I remember what's going on before I get to the end.

The titles (in order) are King's Dragon, Prince of Dogs, The Burning Stone, Child of Flame, The Gathering Storm, In the Ruins, and Crown of Stars

[lccorp2.livejournal.com]

*George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series.

*The Lions of Al-Rassan, by Guy Gavriel Kay.

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

Really, you can just say 'Guy Gavriel Kay'. The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantine Mosaic duology, Tigana, it's all good.

[searchingstars.livejournal.com]

Well, I think enjoying Paolini automatically disqualifies me as being able to pass along any "good" book recommendations :P but just in case...

Anything by Terry Pratchett, except for Strata and uh, Dark Side of the Moon (or is it Sun? I don't know. I didn't enjoy it so much, so I didn't pay that much attention. :P)

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Read most of Pratchett. At least all his Discworld books. They kept me sane during the earlier parts of the analysis.

[oceans-heart.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Anne Bishop's Dark Jewels Trilogy yet?

[prototypical]

First of all, it's the Black Jewels Trilogy. Secondly, it rocks. Read it once, should add it to the list of fantasy to go through slower.

[liritarofrohan.livejournal.com]

I always suggest Tad Williams' Otherland series. *Grins*

[oceans-heart.livejournal.com]

Such a great series!

[spoofmaster]

Easy or hard? I'm always trying to get people to read Crime and Punishment, but if you want something less dense...hmm...you into Jane Austen? Sorry, keep recommending the old ones. Something more modern...Lawrence Block's burglar series (The Burglar in the Rye, The Burglar who Thought he was Bogart, etc) are nice, light mystery fare with a good writing style, but they get fairly repetitive from book to book and the narrator tends to withhold clues. Going back to older books, have you read the original Phantom of the Opera? It's pretty spiffy.

[the7bells.livejournal.com]

Dinotopia Lost :) I just finished it.

[emily-goddess.livejournal.com]

Ursula K. Leguin is amazing. If you haven't read any Earthsea, you MUST do so.

Also, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series is amazing (and with the first movie coming out this year, now is the time to jump on the bandwagon). The first book is The Golden Compass (Northern Lights in the U.K.).

On a completely non-fantasy note, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is an accessible, readable overview of what we know about the universe: everything from the Big Bang to the the structure of atoms, from rocks to living things. It's like a crash course in Things That Make You Look Smart At Parties. And if you've read any Bryson, you know there's plenty of his wry, Britishy humor in there as well (and if you've not read Bryson, you should. Check out A Walk in the Woods or I'm a Stranger Here Myself).

[ghostgecko.livejournal.com]

2nding Pullman. I was highly amused to find the philosophy of the Church of Satan as a children's book!

Also Le Guin, although I wasn't as impressed with Earthsea. I'd recommend any of her short story collections, for example "The Birthday of the World" or "Changing Planes".

Let's see. I haven't read much fiction lately that I liked. "War for the Oaks" by Emma Bull is a great example of how to write a sue-like character who manages not to be a sue at all. George R R Martin's "Fevre Dream" was a great vampire novel. I'd heartily recommend any of the Agent Pendergast books, especially "The Cabinet of Curiosities" and "Still Lufe With Crows". They're about Aloysius Pendergast, a genius albino FBI Agent from the deep south and the slightly x-filesesque mysteries he solves.

[karma-kalisutah.livejournal.com]

For some GOOD high fantasy, try Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. It's a quintet consisting of The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron (which is NOTHING like the Disney cartoon, if you're wondering), The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King. I love me some character development, animal characters who actually act like animals for the most part, acknowledgement of how difficult it is to become a master of anything, gray-area characters, and honest, bittersweet endings. It's the perfect Eragon antidote.

[canadianevil.livejournal.com]

The Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher. It's the first book in the Codex Alera, and I really thoroughly enjoyed it.

He's best known for the Dresden Files, which I ALSO highly recommend.

[ladyphoenixia.livejournal.com]

Fantasy?

Have you read George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy and sequels, and Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn? All brilliant, brilliant series.

If you haven't, you should. If you have, I have more recs. ;)

Oh, and William Goldman's The Princess Bride?

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

The Princess Bride should be mandatory reading. They should teach it in middle schools. Everywhere.

[ambientfiligree.livejournal.com]

Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Banewreaker and Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake

[gjohnsonkoehn.livejournal.com]

Across the Nightingale Floor, Grass for his Pillow and Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Someplace to be Flying or Trader by Charles De Lint
The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
And, just for a switch out of the fantasy genre, Dread Empire's Fall, The Sundering and Conventions of War, by Walter Jon Williams

[(Anonymous)]

Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy if you want a series that does something interesting with dragons and tells a story from multiple (interesting) points of view.

[(Anonymous)]

Charles de Lint

Anything by him, really, although I'm particularly partial to The Onion Girl, Spirits in the Wires, and Someplace to be Flying.

De Lint writes urban fantasy, which is like Harry Potter but better integrated - fantasy in a realistic, well-realized modern city. You've got the classic sorts of nature spirits, and then the ones that have adapted to city life. It's really quite wonderful

[(Anonymous)]

Gah! And Widdershins! How could I have forgotten that? If you read Onion Girl, you have to read Widdershins afterward.