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[Jackrabbit]

Yes. Have you read A Midsummer Nights Dream? Somehow Oberon manages to stretch about two sentences into maybe a two minute speech.

All he had to say was "I feel sorry, I've got the child, I'll remove the spell. You, Puck, take this ass head of this fellow, that he may all to Athens back again repair, and think no more of tonights accidents but as a fearful vexation of a dream."

But instead he goes all verbose on your ass.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

The Culture series by Iain M Banks are good. He's written some non-culture books, and some non-sci-fi books under the name Iain Banks.

[Muz]

The Conan the Cimmerian books short stories. They're sexist, racist, and violent, but hey, it's got great pace and makes magic special. It's old, but a good read for any sword & sorcery fan, just like roguelike lovers should play ADOM.

H.P Lovecraft is also a good read, if you put aside the dialogue.

[Mr Tk]

OP: Dune will be EASY to find.

But as for recommendations.

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds: Hard Sci Fi. A mining ship gets stuck going faster than light while following one of the moons of Jupiter which has decided to fly out of the Solar System.

Count of Monte Cristo: I've just started reading it myself, but so far it's very good!

Robert Jorden's Wheel of Time: Epic fantasy saga. I do admit it does start to drag out a little from book 7 to 10, but book 11 it starts to get good again.

Anything David Eddings, or Raymond E Feast.

The other thing you can do is go to your library and just get lots of random books out that interest you. Doesn't matter if you don't read them all, just have fun.

[LegoLord]

Neil Gaimen also writes some good stuff (in case that hasn't already been mentioned - I forget).

I also second that Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is a good series, though I haven't read the whole of what's out.  I really ought to get back to that at some point.  It's being completed by a different author, just as a side note.

[ChairmanPoo]

IMHO TWoT is too long, and jumps the shark too many times, to be a straightfoward recommendation. Particularily since the series is unfinished and the author is dead.

It's not that it's bad. It's... entertaining. It's the SF&F equivalent of Peruvian soap operas. (aka, pretty much a guilty pleasure)

[Gorjo MacGrymm]

Fantasy:
The Books of the Malazan by Stephen Erickson.  Unbelievable.  Redefining the fantasy genre.

Sci-Fi:
Honorverse series by David Weber.  There is nothing I can say to really impart how badass it is.

Historical Naval/Military Fiction:
Patrick O'Brian - nuff said
Platoon (yes that platoon).  The book is a w e s o m e - in comparison the movie kindatotally sucks, and the movie actually rocks so.....................

Classic Fantasy:
LOTR & Silmarillion

Classic Sci-Fi:
Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke
Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison
Northworld series by David Drake (really the only stuff i like from him - maybe his RCN series is allright - i cant stand his fantasy.  I havent read his hammers slammers series so I will let someone else comment on that.

Other non genre specific Fiction For Fun:
Dirk Pitt novels by Clive Cussler - pure indulgence
Stephen King - may I suggest starting with his short stories anthologies - u might even recognize some from movies *wink
Conan the Barbarian anthologies - especially the original ?13? pulp novels by Robert E. Howard (mostly)
Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs, plus his novels about the guy on mars (sorry, name eludes me at the moment - I am sure someone will correct my deficiency).
Steve Perry - The man who never missed.


More soon

[deadlycairn]

Why do people recommend Silmarillion? Its more a history text than a story - although I suppose YMMV.

Also, read Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. Seems like a reasonable sci-fi story, until you realise it was written 50 years ago, making it plain psychic.

[Gorjo MacGrymm]

Silmarillion is my personal favorite actually, and yes, its very historical.  But it also has amazing stories in it.

Yes.  READ BRADBURY.  I should have had him on my classics list.

[Davion]

For fantasy, I'd suggest Glen Cook's "The Chronicles of the Black Company"

You're basically following an elite mercenary unit, the Black Company, during a period of war, with the story being written as though you are reading the annals of the unit as told by their medical examiner/historian. It's really gritty and raw for a fantasy series, and since it's told from the perspective of soldiers it's not really portrayed in the ho-hum black and white way that most fantasy books depict conflict. The most interesting aspect of the books is that the Black Company ends up working for the side that is considered "absolute evil" by the rest of the world, and for all intents and purposes they are, but the Company doesn't care because it's doing a job: fighting and getting paid for it.

It's a refreshing take on fantasy, in my opinion.

[Mr Tk]

I just remembered the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.

Hypno toad says "READ IT"

[ChairmanPoo]

it isn't that good. The first series is OK (not extraordinary, though). The second trilogy jumped the shark. The third one nuked the fridge.

[chaoticag]

OP: Dune will be EASY to find.

You jinxed it, jinxer!
You can find the sequels and the prequels, but not the original Dune.
So I went and got the Chronicals of Amber, the Algebraist and Starship troopers. I would have gotten more, but we were in a hurry.

[userpay]

For fantasy, I'd suggest Glen Cook's "The Chronicles of the Black Company"

You're basically following an elite mercenary unit, the Black Company, during a period of war, with the story being written as though you are reading the annals of the unit as told by their medical examiner/historian. It's really gritty and raw for a fantasy series, and since it's told from the perspective of soldiers it's not really portrayed in the ho-hum black and white way that most fantasy books depict conflict. The most interesting aspect of the books is that the Black Company ends up working for the side that is considered "absolute evil" by the rest of the world, and for all intents and purposes they are, but the Company doesn't care because it's doing a job: fighting and getting paid for it.

It's a refreshing take on fantasy, in my opinion.

I've read a few of that guys books within that world. Oddly enough I got tired of them, maybe its because I had the three novels together in one book books but for somereason it didn't quite click for me.

One series I forgot to mention was the incarnations of immortality series. Tis a series about the 7 main incarnations, death, time, fate, war, nature, evil, and good, and its 1 book per incarnation. Its in a modernday scifi/fantasy sort of setting.

[Vester]

OP: Dune will be EASY to find.

You jinxed it, jinxer!
You can find the sequels and the prequels, but not the original Dune.
So I went and got the Chronicals of Amber, the Algebraist and Starship troopers. I would have gotten more, but we were in a hurry.

I was lucky to find a copy of Dune in a bargain bin at a  bookstore.