Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[SirHoneyBadger]

I liked the Silmarillion, too, but yeah that's not the first time I've heard someone compare it to the Bible.

I'll second that Terry Pratchet, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Herbert are three of the very best fantasy/scifi writers out there.

I'll also highly recommend Gene Wolfe. Easily, and consistently, one of the best writers (of fantasy, or otherwise) of this century.

John Crowley's 'Little, Big' is one of the best books, ever. The Solitudes isn't bad, either, but I'm having trouble getting through it. That's likely more me, and less Crowley, though.

Azimov is...ok, but I can live without him.

Heinlein's not bad, entertainment-wise, but he had a lot of agendas going on.

Ray Bradbury is excellent. One of my absolute favorites for sci-fi.

Robert Jordan's writing is just awful. Always has been.

Raymond E. Feist: Stick to 'Faerie Tale', 'Magician', 'Silverthorn' (it's not very good, but it's in the middle of two good books), and 'Darkness at Sethanon', as well as the 'Empire' collaboration with Janny Wurtz (who's quite a good writer, herself, by the way--I recommend 'Master of Whitestorm'.). Anything Feist wrote after those gets steadily more awful.

George R R Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire' started out great (the first two books and the short stories), but the writing quality's really getting ugly.

David Gemmell isn't bad. Maybe not consistently great, but good for passing the time. I'm surprised noone mentioned him.

If you want to try something really interesting and out there, sci-fi wise, I suggest George Alec Effinger, particularly his 'Marid' series.

I also recommend Steven Brust's 'Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill'. I like his Dragaera series, but I wouldn't call them his best work.

[Vattic]

A good number of the books already suggested I would have to second, 1984 and Brave New World for instance are very interesting, I found the plots slightly dull however but the ideas and points they raise are very interesting and thought provoking. I also enjoyed The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

I recently finished Doors of Perception and Island each by Aldous Huxley the author of Brave New World, the former two being an account of his use of mescaline administered by a Doctor and the later almost a sequel to Brave New World, get them if you enjoy Brave New World but skip Doors of Perception if you like, although its short and it relates to Island.

One other book I found amusing was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thomson. If you have seen the film and you enjoyed it then get this, its very funny and I just love his writing style. If you enjoy this one you'll want to check out his other works.

I know a lot of people who really like The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, its Sci-Fi about first contact but not quite what you might be expecting. I enjoyed it a fair amount although I haven't read nearly enough Sci-Fi for comparison.

One thing to consider is that all the books I've mentioned, excluding The Dark Tower and The Mote in God's Eye, are fairly short, 200 - 300 pages but are well regarded books with good content.

[MC Dirty]

<deleted>

[chaoticag]

This would be under the fantasy section, right?

[MC Dirty]

<deleted>

[Little]

Neil Gaiman is awesome.

The Dark Tower series PISSED ME OFF!

I READ SEVEN FUCKING NOVELS AND THE ENDING IS INCONCLUSIVE! 
GAH!

[Vattic]

Little I do know what you mean but it didn't bother me really as I enjoyed the journey in the book. With most films I know how they will likely end with "happily ever after" or something similar but it doesn't stop the film being enjoyable and even keep you guessing at times.

[Jude]

Never ever read Michael Moorcock. I slogged all the way through the Elric books because I was OCD about finishing, and it was not worth it AT ALL. The only books where anything interesting happens is in the first and last ones...the other ones are just him wandering around trying to get random McGuffins for contrived reasons. Terrible.

[Org]

Would you recommend reading "The Hobbits" before "The Lord of the Rings" (the three books)?

Would you recommend the other books edited from Tolkien's notes?

I also have just bought the 4th book of the Halo series, Ghost of Onyx. I finished the first three books last year.

The next series I have in mind is Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy"... and maybe all the books in Earthsea.

I'm trying to catch up... being a Hong Kong Chinese, while I've read many Chinese novels, I think I heard too much but read too little of these English classics and masterpieces. I already read many of H.P. Lovecraft's work on WikiSource.

Read Hobbit first

[Little]

Little I do know what you mean but it didn't bother me really as I enjoyed the journey in the book. With most films I know how they will likely end with "happily ever after" or something similar but it doesn't stop the film being enjoyable and even keep you guessing at times.

I know, I just wanted more conclusion then that. When you grow to love a character, you want an ending, even if it's a bad one.

[Bromor Neckbeard]

Yeah, I was fairly (okay, extremely) unhappy with that ending.  Am I alone in thinking that King got his muse knocked out of him when he got hit by that van?

Because I grew up reading the Dark Tower series.  In his forewords he talks about how he doesn't "create" the stories so much as excavate them from his subconscious, and they're lurking down there fully formed.  So back when he was writing about Roland's father knocking him across the bed in the whorehouse, he knew the series was going to end with the Fellowship of the Tower visiting Stephen King and reading some of the other books he wrote, and then after that it was gonna turn out that the story that we read (and paid hundreds of dollars for, in some cases) wasn't even the real story and didn't count?  Bullshit.

To add insult to injury, he goes and retcons the earlier books so that they match up to the later books.  There's an entire generation of kids growing up today that don't know about how "to speak of The Beast is to speak of the ruination of one's own soul."  Or apparently nowadays it's to speak of a crazy old coot who wouldn't even make it as a boss in a Metal Gear Solid game, much less the guardian of the Tower.

For that matter, what ever happened to Thomas and Dennis?

[SirHoneyBadger]

It sounds like Stephen King came down with a bad case of George Lucas.

[praguepride]

A Song of Ice and Fire FTW!

They're as thick as LotR but actually enjoyable to read

Be warned, they're very very dark in tone. While it is appropriate in context, the author doesn't gloss over the dark parts of medieval society. Let's just say they don't call it Raping & Pillaging for nothing.

[Fishersalwaysdie]

They're as thick as LotR but actually not as imaginative and without any point

Be warned, the writer is very very fond of incest and cruelty. While it is appropriate in context, the author doesn't gloss over any part that contains torture or brutalities. Let's just say they call it epic fantasy for nothing.

I suppose it's okay if you want to read big amounts of text.

[Kagus]

If you find a story you really like and a writer who has a style you can't help but love, there's really no maximum amount of text you can chew through.