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Pulling Teeth posted:I'd like some recommendations please: For the second one, you might like Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series, starting with Altered Carbon.
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Apr 28, 2014 19:18
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barkingclam posted:Pynchon rules, but don't overlook Mason & Dixon, which I thought was a lot easier to follow than Gravity's Rainbow. Yes, much easier to follow (not hard to do since GR might be the most complex post-war novel), provided you can stick it out long enough to acclimate yourself to the prose style, which is masterful and beautiful but demands that you chew each sentence thoughtfully.
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Apr 29, 2014 01:33
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Pulling Teeth posted:I'd like some recommendations please: The Last Policeman is a pre-apocalyptic police procedural set in a near future as a large asteroid will be striking the earth. There are 2 more books, the last one due out July 15th. Each book is a stand-alone arc tied together by societal collapse. Altered Carbon is a noirish detective tale set about 500 years in the future. This is one of my all time favorite books.
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Apr 29, 2014 01:48
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Misanthropic fiction. I've read Gulliver's Travels.
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Apr 29, 2014 15:05
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Sir John Feelgood posted:Misanthropic fiction. Not sure if James Morrow's Godhead trilogy quite qualifies as misanthropic, but it's rather dark and excellent. Very compelling; always one of my go-to recommendations.
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Apr 29, 2014 15:39
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Is the Damned Trilogy by Alan Dean Foster any good? Haven't read anything by him before.
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Apr 29, 2014 17:43
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Sir John Feelgood posted:Misanthropic fiction. Mentioned it on the previous page, but Saki's "Clovis" stories are fairly misanthropic, and hilarious. I wonder if Updike's "Rabbit" novels would qualify; it's been a while since I've read them
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Apr 29, 2014 17:55
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Brainamp posted:Is the Damned Trilogy by Alan Dean Foster any good? Haven't read anything by him before. I've read a lot of ADF, and the kindest adjective I can use for him is "workmanlike." He won't blow you away, but he can get a story from A to B competently enough. That said, The Damned is probably some of his best work, and it's a fun premise -- I'd say it's worth a try to see if it suits you.
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Apr 30, 2014 01:09
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This is a bit of a long shot, but years ago I really enjoyed the children's books by David Almond. They had a 'bleak yet beautiful' feel to them that I really liked. If anyone has read them, I'm looking for something similar but on an adult level.
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Apr 30, 2014 09:12
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Sir John Feelgood posted:Misanthropic fiction. Hard to go past Céline. Here he is on his fellow countrymen: quote:nothing but a hodgepodge of filth like me, rheumy, flea-bitten, aloof, who, chased by hunger, plague, tumors, and cold, ran aground here, arriving broken from the four corners of the earth. They couldn’t keep going because the ocean stood in their way. That’s France and that’s the French…. Vicious and spineless, raped, robbed, gutted, and always halfwits…. We don’t change a bit! Neither our socks nor our masters nor our opinions or, if we do, too late to have it matter. We’re born followers and die of it! Soldiers without pay, heroes for all humanity, talking monkeys, tortured words, we’re the minions of King Misery! We’re in his grasp! When we’re foolish, he squeezes…. His fingers forever around our necks, it’s hard to speak…. No way to live…. His post-war trilogy (Castle to Castle, North, Rigadoon) is one of the greatest things written in French in the 20th century, second only to Proust.
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Apr 30, 2014 15:38
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Recommend me a loving awesome adventure novel like the Tintin books/film?
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Apr 30, 2014 15:55
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Hedrigall posted:Recommend me a loving awesome adventure novel like the Tintin books/film? Well, if you didn't mind the kinda racist elements in Tintin, there's always things like H. Rider Haggard's She or King Solomon's Mines, which are both good and bad in similar ways.
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Apr 30, 2014 16:09
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Hedrigall posted:Recommend me a loving awesome adventure novel like the Tintin books/film? Prince Valiant
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Apr 30, 2014 16:28
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Hedrigall posted:Recommend me a loving awesome adventure novel like the Tintin books/film? Kim by Rudyard Kipling. John Buchan's Greenmantle. Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male.
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Apr 30, 2014 16:37
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I am looking for a noir or detective novel set in LA, preferably during the forties and fifties. I've already read The Big Sleep and the LA Quartet.
Take the plunge! Okay! fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Apr 30, 2014 |
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Apr 30, 2014 18:41
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mcustic posted:I am looking for a noir or detective novel set in LA, preferably during the forties and fifties. I've already read The Big Sleep and the LA Quartet. Unless you hated The Big Sleep, you could do worse than hunting down the rest of the Philip Marlowe books. Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins books are pretty good too.
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May 1, 2014 00:51
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It's 30C here (and the barbarians around me are talking in Fahrenheit): recommend me a fast-paced summer read. I like John Sandford's stuff, and have a weakness for the Reacher corpus, but find a lot of "Cliff Hardrock, Rogue Patriot" stuff (like Brad Thor) to be beyond my tolerance. Police, thriller, sci fi..probably something in that vein? Read Olin Steinheuer's stuff recently and liked it, likewise with Charles Cummings and The Expat.
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May 1, 2014 01:52
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mcustic posted:I am looking for a noir or detective novel set in LA, preferably during the forties and fifties. I've already read The Big Sleep and the LA Quartet. Jack Webb has a series that starts with The Big Sin, I have read several of the series now and really enjoyed all of them.
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May 1, 2014 12:35
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I have a slightly odd recommendation request. My ten-year-old nephew hates to read and has never read anything voluntarily - until he discovered Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. He likes it because there's a lot of violence and swearing, and I was just really excited that he was finally reading. His mom is fine with the swearing and violence but refuses to let him read any more because there's a couple of sex scenes later on. So, I guess my request is for a violent fantasy book, swearing optional, no sex, suitability for a ten-year-old negotiable. Anyone...?
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May 1, 2014 13:51
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I started reading David Gemmell books at that age, and if he likes the First Law trilogy, he will go apeshit over Gemmell. I'd recommend avoiding Lion of Macedon because I remember there was a lot of oral sex in that, but I don't really remember any sex in the Druss or Waylander series. I guarantee you he'll go crazy for Gemmell. Also, when I was that age (or maybe a year or two older) my absolute favorite book series was the Chronicles of the Raven by James Barclay - Dawnthief, Noonshade and Nightchild. They're utter trash shlock popcorn books about a series of SUPER ROUGH warriors who hang out in a bar and beat up wizards, and there's dragons and juvenile melodrama that sometimes just really scratches that super dumb itch to read a series about a nameless guy swording the hell out of some weird goblins while staying significantly different from Tolkien. I was given those books by my mother's boss (she worked in a bookstore) at the time, as he specifically told my mother "these don't have sex in and he'll love them."
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May 1, 2014 14:58
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Quincyh posted:His mom is fine with the swearing and violence but refuses to let him read any more because there's a couple of sex scenes later on. So, I guess my request is for a violent fantasy book, swearing optional, no sex, suitability for a ten-year-old negotiable. Anyone...? The most American thing. Anyway, Dragonlance Chronicles is fairly age appropriate, has one implied sex scene, but isn't quite as violent as he may want. But it was my favorite thing ever at that age. Maybe the Black Company, the first trilogy has attempted seduction but no sex iirc regulargonzalez fucked around with this message at 16:48 on May 1, 2014 |
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May 1, 2014 16:46
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Yeah, I was super into Dragonlance around that age. Also maybe the Drizzt series? It's not something I ever read myself, so maybe someone else can weigh in on it, but as far as I know it's just "super awesome dude kills lots of other dudes and it's totally sweet".
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May 1, 2014 17:14
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Quincyh posted:I have a slightly odd recommendation request. My ten-year-old nephew hates to read and has never read anything voluntarily - until he discovered Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. He likes it because there's a lot of violence and swearing, and I was just really excited that he was finally reading. His mom is fine with the swearing and violence but refuses to let him read any more because there's a couple of sex scenes later on. So, I guess my request is for a violent fantasy book, swearing optional, no sex, suitability for a ten-year-old negotiable. Anyone...? I can't believe I'm recommending this, but: many of the Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy novels. There's implied sex in a few of them, but for whatever reason romantic relationships are pretty much eschewed in the series (and all Black Library fiction), except for a few side characters here and there. As for violence, well, there's a reason it's called "bolter porn." It's science fiction setting, technically, instead of fantasy, but it feels way more like fantasy than it does sci fi.
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May 1, 2014 17:21
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Sweet, thanks, I'll get him started on Gemmell and move on from there. Thank you!
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May 1, 2014 17:33
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Quincyh posted:I have a slightly odd recommendation request. My ten-year-old nephew hates to read and has never read anything voluntarily - until he discovered Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. He likes it because there's a lot of violence and swearing, and I was just really excited that he was finally reading. His mom is fine with the swearing and violence but refuses to let him read any more because there's a couple of sex scenes later on. So, I guess my request is for a violent fantasy book, swearing optional, no sex, suitability for a ten-year-old negotiable. Anyone...? Abercrombie has a young adult book coming out in a month or two called Half a King. Until then there's Scott Lynch. Lies of Lock Lamora has really good action adventure violence and inventive swearing and didn't have any sex scenes that I can remember.
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May 1, 2014 17:42
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Mechanism by which the species attempts to self-perpetuate = bad Mechanism by which the species attempts to self-destruct = good See, Europe, this is what happens when you round up a bunch of sexually-backward, religiously-violent goons and kick them across an ocean to the most geographically well-defended continent on the planet. America is what the world had coming to it. I'm just saying.
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May 1, 2014 19:13
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May 1, 2014 19:22
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mcustic posted:I am looking for a noir or detective novel set in LA, preferably during the forties and fifties. I've already read The Big Sleep and the LA Quartet. Ever read anything by Ross Macdonald? His Lew Archer books (I've only read The Chill, but he wrote a few others) might fit the bill.
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May 1, 2014 21:25
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mdemone posted:Mechanism by which the species attempts to self-perpetuate = bad Hmm could you work this up into a full OP and then post it in D&D? I really want to know more!
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May 1, 2014 22:55
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Mr. Squishy posted:Hmm could you work this up into a full OP and then post it in D&D? I really want to know more! Oh zip it, I was having a bad afternoon.
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May 2, 2014 02:39
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The only fantasy series I've ever read are Discworld when I was a teenager and HBO's Game of Thrones novelizations (I'm currently listening to the combined Dance/Feast audiobook). What should I check out next? Wizard battles are a plus but not a requirement.
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May 2, 2014 16:23
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Illinois Smith posted:The only fantasy series I've ever read are Discworld when I was a teenager and HBO's Game of Thrones novelizations (I'm currently listening to the combined Dance/Feast audiobook). What should I check out next? Wizard battles are a plus but not a requirement. Check out the fantasy recommendations megathread. Otherwise, I may need to make this my sig file: Hieronymous Alloy posted:If you're just looking for a good entertaining fantasy book with likeable characters and a decent story, my standard recommendations are Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, Tigana or Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, and Stardust or Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
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May 2, 2014 16:45
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Illinois Smith posted:The only fantasy series I've ever read are Discworld when I was a teenager and HBO's Game of Thrones novelizations (I'm currently listening to the combined Dance/Feast audiobook). What should I check out next? Wizard battles are a plus but not a requirement. If you're not a big reader, I think a good series to ease into it given your requirements would be the Magician series by Raymond Feist. Magician: Apprentice, Magician: Master, and A Darkness at Sethanon. They're pulpy fun, with a badass wizard showdown / meltdown at one point. They don't have the depth of Game of Thrones but are fun and more approachable.
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May 2, 2014 17:25
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Thanks. After consulting my roommate and the megathread I think I've settled on this and Abercrombie's First Law trilogy for the next few months. Malazan sounds great but I don't know if I want to tackle another huge sprawling series that's twice the size of ASOIAF right now.
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May 2, 2014 18:16
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Illinois Smith posted:Thanks. After consulting my roommate and the megathread I think I've settled on this and Abercrombie's First Law trilogy for the next few months. Malazan sounds great but I don't know if I want to tackle another huge sprawling series that's twice the size of ASOIAF right now. Well if you ever do feel like getting into another huge series, then Malazan is probably the one for you if you love epic wizard battles.
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May 2, 2014 18:25
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savinhill posted:Well if you ever do feel like getting into another huge series, then Malazan is probably the one for you if you love epic wizard battles. Also Malazan has the advantage over Song of Ice and Fire that the main series is actually completed.
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May 2, 2014 19:51
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Though Ice and Fire makes sense.
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May 2, 2014 21:05
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Thans for all the detective recommendations. Exactly what I was looking for. I'll probably start with Lew Archer.
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May 2, 2014 21:10
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Hey, looking for your favorite British novels from the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Thanks.
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May 3, 2014 17:24
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Sir John Feelgood posted:Hey, looking for your favorite British novels from the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Frankenstein duh. If you read that and liked it, then Polidori's The Vampyre might be your jam. I've been meaning to read it forever. It's the one recommendation here I haven't read. I like Walter Scott, and I'd start with Ivanhoe, which is a deconstruction of the medieval romance, then Waverley (also a deconstruction of romance), then whichever plot summaries of his other stuff tickle your fancy. Jane Austen, start with Pride and Prejudice obviously. She is funny and amazing and her novels actually have a lot of pain in them. W.H. Auden on Austen: posted:
Charles Dickens' first book The Pickwick Papers comes out of the late 18th / early 19th century tradition, much more than his other novels which are obviously clearly mid-Victorian. Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey is pretty weird and good. He's gets high and goes window shopping. And William Blake's stuff aren't "novels" per se, but they are bizarre and awesome 18th-century graphic novels, pretty much. Find the visuals (Blake Archive is one way, but not necessarily the easiest way to go through them).
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May 3, 2014 19:12
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