Recommend me some books and I shall do the same
Being rather ill lately has made me want to curl up with a good book (or audiobook, thanks to migraines), but the problem is I tend to have a hard time finding a book I can really get into. For the last two years I've asked all of you out there to recommend TV shows to me, and I've gotten into some great shows because of that - Avatar: The Last Airbender, The 4400, Burn Notice, and many others.
So now I'd like for you all to do that for me with books. I'll give you some examples of stuff I have and haven't liked in the past, and hopefully you can give me some good recommendations.
Pretty much all of these are sci-fi or fantasy related in some way or another. I don't tend to read too many other genres of fiction, so if you're going to recommend a book from a different genre it had better be fantastic.
Books I've Enjoyed and Books I haven't, sometimes all in the same series.
The Assassin's Apprentice and the subsequent Tawny Man series: This was a nice surprise. It's a book I started reading almost entirely because of the title, and one that just drew me in and didn't let go for six books. Despite a mildly disappointing ending (honestly, I've hardly ever read an ending that didn't disappoint me a little bit, which is probably because I just want it to go on forever), the whole series was, for me, a gripping read all the way through. It's one of those rare fantasy series that didn't seem to lose steam at any point.
I never did read The Liveship Traders series by the same author (Robin Hobb), because it didn't seem as gripping to me. I also have to admit that I'm so reluctant to talk about how much I like these books because Robin Hobb is almost viciously anti-fanfiction, which I find to be the kind of stance that tends to gravitate towards arrogant (and usually not-very-good) authors. I will always of course respect the wishes of any author who doesn't want fanfiction, but I won't pretend to understand the point behind it.
Wizard's First Rule: Another one I'm really reluctant to mention. The last two-thirds of the series is some of the worst crap ever written, but this book is one that I have to admit I liked right away and still basically like to this day. If you can divorce this story from the sequels (the next three books are okay, but nowhere near as good as this one) then you may be able to enjoy it. The viciously violent scenes towards the end may turn some people off and hint at the almost Mel Gibsonesque love of torture Terry Goodkind would eventually exhibit, but overall I always really liked that book.
Nine Princes in Amber and the Corwin Cycle: Roger Zelazny's classic Amber series is just great, and he's one of those authors who influences me no matter what I write. I'm sure I've probably been unconsciously imitating his writing style at one time or another, which I don't think I would be too upset about. The Corwin series (the first five books in the Amber universe) are just a great original treat. Corwin as a character is just excellent, an arrogant but somewhat softened schemer and warrior from a family that's full of the same. I've always kept in my head the way one reviewer once referred to Corwin's narrative (his story is told from his POV in the first person) as having a profound sense of "personal epic" about it, and that really comes across. You get the sense that Corwin is telling you his story as he saw it, embellishing certain things and just overall making it a more interesting story than it might have otherwise been.
The last five books in the series don't end as well, as the protagonist changes to a different character and the series ends unfinished after Zelazny passed away, but the first five are great and I re-read them at least once a year.
Ender's Game: While I absolutely despise the direction taken in the series as Orson Scott Card's political and religious views become more apparent (and more racist/sexist), the original Ender's Game is a solid classic from start to finish. The first three sequels, starting with Speaker for the Dead and ending with Children of the Mind are all pretty decent as well, although by Children you start to see more of the political/religious bullshit start to show up.
Then Card switches over to the Ender's Shadow series, where it turns out Ender was a chump and Super-Brain Bean was the one behind every great thing that he ever did. I know a lot of people like Ender's Shadow, but I cannot fathom why, since Bean is as Mary-Sue a character as I have ever seen in my life, and any scene where he's interacting with Ender makes him seem like he's got brain damage all of a sudden since Card was obviously not planning on Bean being that kind of character when he first wrote Ender's Game. The later books in the Shadow series wind up become pure drivel, with rampant sexism, racial and cultural stereotyping, and a decimation of the great characters of Ender's Game (turns out Peter wasn't really a somewhat evil genius who managed to manipulate the world into becoming its leader, eventually bringing the world into a unified government and bringing about unprecedented peace. Bean did it and just gave Peter credit. Blargh.)
But like with Terry Goodkind, if you ignore the later books in the series, Ender's Game and even the first three sequels are some great sci-fi, and show why Orson Scott Card was truly great. And heck, maybe he will be again someday. His technical skills are excellent, at least as far as I'm concerned. I could just do without the "A woman's greatest accomplishment in life is to be a baby factory" stuff.
The Princess Bride: A lot of people love the movie, but you have to read the book. The characters of Fezzik and Inigo become so much better when you can read their full backstories, and the book itself is every bit as irreverent, weird, dramatic, and hilarious as the movie is. If you have watched the movie and liked it but you haven't read the book, then you should be ashamed of yourself.
The Dark Tower: This is a series I just read recently, and it was actually what I was in the middle of reading when I started on See Noir Evil. I blame Stephen King for inspiring me to start that story, as it's a bit darker than anything I've written before. That's not to say they're all that similar, but just the style in which King writes The Dark Tower is one that I liked, and I incorporated it into See Noir Evil a bit in terms of how the narrative is presented. I like to think it works.
I won't say anything specific about the ending itself, except to say that the author's note before that chapter is something you may want to take to heart, because it's pretty dead-on.
It's not my absolute favorite series of all time, but I did like it. It's a solid series, and one that's made me want to check out more of King's work, particularly The Stand, which I plan on reading eventually. I'd say I gave the whole series a B.
Red Branch: The story of the Celtic hero of myth, Cuchulain (or however you want to spell it this week), by Morgan Llwelyn. I haven't gotten into too many of her other books, but this one I've always enjoyed. She has a knack for taking the myth and working it into a solid story that seems to flow easily from one point to another.
Riders of the Sidhe: Another Celtic-themed book, although much different from Red Branch. This is not a popular series and one that's hard to find, but I got it from the library many a year ago and really liked it. This was probably about ten years ago though, so my memory may be faulty. I keep thinking I'll buy a used copy of the trilogy someday, but I still haven't gotten around to doing it.
The story is the story of the Celtic god Lugh, only it's told in the style of a sci-fi/fantasy tale. Lugh is a young boy destined to defeat Balor One-Eye and the Formors, who have taken over and oppressed the land of the Tuatha De Danaan. If you know anything about Celtic mythology then you'll be able to draw all kinds of parallels to the myths that inspire the story, and I think it all works out pretty well. It's very Star Warsish, with Lugh being Luke, Mananaan being Obi-Wan, and Balor being a Darth Vader type, but somehow it all seems to work.
The Siptrassi series and specifically The Jerusalem Man books. I read this series before I ever read The Dark Tower, and the similarities are pretty striking. I kind of like the Jerusalem Man a little better, but it's surprising how similar he and Roland Deschain are as characters. Then again, Clint Eastwood style gunfighter in a post-apocalyptic world seems like a no-brainer of a character, so I don't think there was any stealing from one author from the other.
I liked the overall story of this series better than The Dark Tower, although there's some strange sexism at a few places. In the prequel books that re-tell the tale of King Arthur and set up the events that will lead to the post-apocalyptic future, the Gwendolyn character dislikes the Arthur character and mouths off to him when he's trying to plan a battle. He slaps her across the face, and this show of force apparently puts her right in line and she falls in love with him afterwards. I almost stopped reading after that point, but I continued and it seemed to be an isolated incident, and there are some strong female characters in later books, so it may be that he was attempting to suggest that this SPECIFIC character would react that way, and not women in general. I was afraid for a little while that I was reading some crazy Gor King Arthur book, and I don't think I could handle that.
I would suggest to anyone who wants to read the series to maybe just go straight to the Jerusalem Man books, as the King Arthur ones aren't as good. Still, if you want to know the full backstory, it wouldn't hurt.
Pretty much anything by Arthur C. Clarke. The guy is a legend, and with good cause. As boring (sorry, but it's boring) as 2001: A Space Odyssey is in many parts, the book more than makes up for. The whole Odyssey series is quite good. I also really liked a story by him that I cannot remember the name of now, I think it may be City Beneath the Stars or something like that. I know it was actually published twice, the second time with fairly heavy revisions and a different title. Anyway, it's hard to go wrong with him.
I also just realized he has a sequel series to the Odyseey series called "Time's Odyssey," written with a co-author. I may check it out to see if it's any good.
General author kudos also go to Isaac Asimov. I'm not much of a fan of Robert Heinlein, personally, but that's mostly because of the ridiculous rhetoric that makes up most of Starship Troopers.
Interesting side note: I love the movie Starship Troopers. It's the greatest response I could think of to that book, where all of its ideals are presented from the other point of view, and you get to see the kind of scary culture of violence and mindless fascism that gets produced. Anyone who sees that movie as a mindless action flick needs to actually read the book first and then realize that the movie is a complete parody of it. Considering I thought the book needed a good lampooning, I love it.
The Forever War: is a cool story about a soldier who keeps re-enlisting in an interstellar war because every time he returns home so much time has passed due to relativity that he can't think of anything else to do. That's a very abridged synopsis, but it's well worth checking out. I'm in the process of reading the completely unrelated book by the same author The Forever Peace
A Song of Ice And Fire: Now I like this series, but I do have to mention that it's difficult as hell to stick with. It's definitely not light reading, and it's not exactly feel-good reading either. This is gritty fantasy at its finest. But really, would it hurt to have a good guy have a triumphant victory and save the day without getting his skull crushed just once, George? Still, this is one of the more original fantasy series to come out in quite some time, and it will always leave you guessing as to what will happen next. No one is safe when George R.R. Martin is around.
The Darksword Trilogy: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman write a LOT of cookie-cutter fantasy books about elves and dwarves and crap like that, but this series of theirs I actually really enjoy. I've re-read it several times, and I'm always a little surprised that I still enjoy it each time. A lot of people don't like the direction taken in the third book, but I actually kind of do. The last book, an epilogue tale that's not part of the trilogy, does tend to kind of make a mess of things though. Better to just read the original trilogy and leave Legacy of the Darksword alone.
Harry Potter. Natch.
Now as for some popular stuff I've never really liked: Anything by Anne Rice (she's a nut) or Anne McAfferey (the pretentious writing style turns me off to her right way). I never did get into Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, despite attempting to several times. The same is true for The Belgariad with Pawn of Prophecy and the like. I just felt it was too cliche. It's odd, I don't like stories about individuals with unique powers and even a destiny to use them, but I don't like the idea of a "chosen one" who is meant to do something great even though they've never exhibited any kind of cleverness or ability. I like my heroes and heroines to be extraordinary because of what they do and who they are, not because of what they're destined to do. A dumb
So I'll stop there. That's just a really small sampling of stuff I've enjoyed, and really barely scratching the surface. There are dozens, if not hundreds more I could put up there, but given my mood at the moment those are the first ones that came to mind. So recommend to me books you think I might like based on that, or just books that you enjoyed yourself, just be sure to tell me why you enjoyed them.
So now I'd like for you all to do that for me with books. I'll give you some examples of stuff I have and haven't liked in the past, and hopefully you can give me some good recommendations.
Pretty much all of these are sci-fi or fantasy related in some way or another. I don't tend to read too many other genres of fiction, so if you're going to recommend a book from a different genre it had better be fantastic.
Books I've Enjoyed and Books I haven't, sometimes all in the same series.
The Assassin's Apprentice and the subsequent Tawny Man series: This was a nice surprise. It's a book I started reading almost entirely because of the title, and one that just drew me in and didn't let go for six books. Despite a mildly disappointing ending (honestly, I've hardly ever read an ending that didn't disappoint me a little bit, which is probably because I just want it to go on forever), the whole series was, for me, a gripping read all the way through. It's one of those rare fantasy series that didn't seem to lose steam at any point.
I never did read The Liveship Traders series by the same author (Robin Hobb), because it didn't seem as gripping to me. I also have to admit that I'm so reluctant to talk about how much I like these books because Robin Hobb is almost viciously anti-fanfiction, which I find to be the kind of stance that tends to gravitate towards arrogant (and usually not-very-good) authors. I will always of course respect the wishes of any author who doesn't want fanfiction, but I won't pretend to understand the point behind it.
Wizard's First Rule: Another one I'm really reluctant to mention. The last two-thirds of the series is some of the worst crap ever written, but this book is one that I have to admit I liked right away and still basically like to this day. If you can divorce this story from the sequels (the next three books are okay, but nowhere near as good as this one) then you may be able to enjoy it. The viciously violent scenes towards the end may turn some people off and hint at the almost Mel Gibsonesque love of torture Terry Goodkind would eventually exhibit, but overall I always really liked that book.
Nine Princes in Amber and the Corwin Cycle: Roger Zelazny's classic Amber series is just great, and he's one of those authors who influences me no matter what I write. I'm sure I've probably been unconsciously imitating his writing style at one time or another, which I don't think I would be too upset about. The Corwin series (the first five books in the Amber universe) are just a great original treat. Corwin as a character is just excellent, an arrogant but somewhat softened schemer and warrior from a family that's full of the same. I've always kept in my head the way one reviewer once referred to Corwin's narrative (his story is told from his POV in the first person) as having a profound sense of "personal epic" about it, and that really comes across. You get the sense that Corwin is telling you his story as he saw it, embellishing certain things and just overall making it a more interesting story than it might have otherwise been.
The last five books in the series don't end as well, as the protagonist changes to a different character and the series ends unfinished after Zelazny passed away, but the first five are great and I re-read them at least once a year.
Ender's Game: While I absolutely despise the direction taken in the series as Orson Scott Card's political and religious views become more apparent (and more racist/sexist), the original Ender's Game is a solid classic from start to finish. The first three sequels, starting with Speaker for the Dead and ending with Children of the Mind are all pretty decent as well, although by Children you start to see more of the political/religious bullshit start to show up.
Then Card switches over to the Ender's Shadow series, where it turns out Ender was a chump and Super-Brain Bean was the one behind every great thing that he ever did. I know a lot of people like Ender's Shadow, but I cannot fathom why, since Bean is as Mary-Sue a character as I have ever seen in my life, and any scene where he's interacting with Ender makes him seem like he's got brain damage all of a sudden since Card was obviously not planning on Bean being that kind of character when he first wrote Ender's Game. The later books in the Shadow series wind up become pure drivel, with rampant sexism, racial and cultural stereotyping, and a decimation of the great characters of Ender's Game (turns out Peter wasn't really a somewhat evil genius who managed to manipulate the world into becoming its leader, eventually bringing the world into a unified government and bringing about unprecedented peace. Bean did it and just gave Peter credit. Blargh.)
But like with Terry Goodkind, if you ignore the later books in the series, Ender's Game and even the first three sequels are some great sci-fi, and show why Orson Scott Card was truly great. And heck, maybe he will be again someday. His technical skills are excellent, at least as far as I'm concerned. I could just do without the "A woman's greatest accomplishment in life is to be a baby factory" stuff.
The Princess Bride: A lot of people love the movie, but you have to read the book. The characters of Fezzik and Inigo become so much better when you can read their full backstories, and the book itself is every bit as irreverent, weird, dramatic, and hilarious as the movie is. If you have watched the movie and liked it but you haven't read the book, then you should be ashamed of yourself.
The Dark Tower: This is a series I just read recently, and it was actually what I was in the middle of reading when I started on See Noir Evil. I blame Stephen King for inspiring me to start that story, as it's a bit darker than anything I've written before. That's not to say they're all that similar, but just the style in which King writes The Dark Tower is one that I liked, and I incorporated it into See Noir Evil a bit in terms of how the narrative is presented. I like to think it works.
I won't say anything specific about the ending itself, except to say that the author's note before that chapter is something you may want to take to heart, because it's pretty dead-on.
It's not my absolute favorite series of all time, but I did like it. It's a solid series, and one that's made me want to check out more of King's work, particularly The Stand, which I plan on reading eventually. I'd say I gave the whole series a B.
Red Branch: The story of the Celtic hero of myth, Cuchulain (or however you want to spell it this week), by Morgan Llwelyn. I haven't gotten into too many of her other books, but this one I've always enjoyed. She has a knack for taking the myth and working it into a solid story that seems to flow easily from one point to another.
Riders of the Sidhe: Another Celtic-themed book, although much different from Red Branch. This is not a popular series and one that's hard to find, but I got it from the library many a year ago and really liked it. This was probably about ten years ago though, so my memory may be faulty. I keep thinking I'll buy a used copy of the trilogy someday, but I still haven't gotten around to doing it.
The story is the story of the Celtic god Lugh, only it's told in the style of a sci-fi/fantasy tale. Lugh is a young boy destined to defeat Balor One-Eye and the Formors, who have taken over and oppressed the land of the Tuatha De Danaan. If you know anything about Celtic mythology then you'll be able to draw all kinds of parallels to the myths that inspire the story, and I think it all works out pretty well. It's very Star Warsish, with Lugh being Luke, Mananaan being Obi-Wan, and Balor being a Darth Vader type, but somehow it all seems to work.
The Siptrassi series and specifically The Jerusalem Man books. I read this series before I ever read The Dark Tower, and the similarities are pretty striking. I kind of like the Jerusalem Man a little better, but it's surprising how similar he and Roland Deschain are as characters. Then again, Clint Eastwood style gunfighter in a post-apocalyptic world seems like a no-brainer of a character, so I don't think there was any stealing from one author from the other.
I liked the overall story of this series better than The Dark Tower, although there's some strange sexism at a few places. In the prequel books that re-tell the tale of King Arthur and set up the events that will lead to the post-apocalyptic future, the Gwendolyn character dislikes the Arthur character and mouths off to him when he's trying to plan a battle. He slaps her across the face, and this show of force apparently puts her right in line and she falls in love with him afterwards. I almost stopped reading after that point, but I continued and it seemed to be an isolated incident, and there are some strong female characters in later books, so it may be that he was attempting to suggest that this SPECIFIC character would react that way, and not women in general. I was afraid for a little while that I was reading some crazy Gor King Arthur book, and I don't think I could handle that.
I would suggest to anyone who wants to read the series to maybe just go straight to the Jerusalem Man books, as the King Arthur ones aren't as good. Still, if you want to know the full backstory, it wouldn't hurt.
Pretty much anything by Arthur C. Clarke. The guy is a legend, and with good cause. As boring (sorry, but it's boring) as 2001: A Space Odyssey is in many parts, the book more than makes up for. The whole Odyssey series is quite good. I also really liked a story by him that I cannot remember the name of now, I think it may be City Beneath the Stars or something like that. I know it was actually published twice, the second time with fairly heavy revisions and a different title. Anyway, it's hard to go wrong with him.
I also just realized he has a sequel series to the Odyseey series called "Time's Odyssey," written with a co-author. I may check it out to see if it's any good.
General author kudos also go to Isaac Asimov. I'm not much of a fan of Robert Heinlein, personally, but that's mostly because of the ridiculous rhetoric that makes up most of Starship Troopers.
Interesting side note: I love the movie Starship Troopers. It's the greatest response I could think of to that book, where all of its ideals are presented from the other point of view, and you get to see the kind of scary culture of violence and mindless fascism that gets produced. Anyone who sees that movie as a mindless action flick needs to actually read the book first and then realize that the movie is a complete parody of it. Considering I thought the book needed a good lampooning, I love it.
The Forever War: is a cool story about a soldier who keeps re-enlisting in an interstellar war because every time he returns home so much time has passed due to relativity that he can't think of anything else to do. That's a very abridged synopsis, but it's well worth checking out. I'm in the process of reading the completely unrelated book by the same author The Forever Peace
A Song of Ice And Fire: Now I like this series, but I do have to mention that it's difficult as hell to stick with. It's definitely not light reading, and it's not exactly feel-good reading either. This is gritty fantasy at its finest. But really, would it hurt to have a good guy have a triumphant victory and save the day without getting his skull crushed just once, George? Still, this is one of the more original fantasy series to come out in quite some time, and it will always leave you guessing as to what will happen next. No one is safe when George R.R. Martin is around.
The Darksword Trilogy: Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman write a LOT of cookie-cutter fantasy books about elves and dwarves and crap like that, but this series of theirs I actually really enjoy. I've re-read it several times, and I'm always a little surprised that I still enjoy it each time. A lot of people don't like the direction taken in the third book, but I actually kind of do. The last book, an epilogue tale that's not part of the trilogy, does tend to kind of make a mess of things though. Better to just read the original trilogy and leave Legacy of the Darksword alone.
Harry Potter. Natch.
Now as for some popular stuff I've never really liked: Anything by Anne Rice (she's a nut) or Anne McAfferey (the pretentious writing style turns me off to her right way). I never did get into Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, despite attempting to several times. The same is true for The Belgariad with Pawn of Prophecy and the like. I just felt it was too cliche. It's odd, I don't like stories about individuals with unique powers and even a destiny to use them, but I don't like the idea of a "chosen one" who is meant to do something great even though they've never exhibited any kind of cleverness or ability. I like my heroes and heroines to be extraordinary because of what they do and who they are, not because of what they're destined to do. A dumb
So I'll stop there. That's just a really small sampling of stuff I've enjoyed, and really barely scratching the surface. There are dozens, if not hundreds more I could put up there, but given my mood at the moment those are the first ones that came to mind. So recommend to me books you think I might like based on that, or just books that you enjoyed yourself, just be sure to tell me why you enjoyed them.