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IceNiner posted:I was hoping for something on the encouraging side, offering a sense of hope and eventual escape from her lovely parents without being loaded with Pollyana stories or simple platitudes.
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Sep 5, 2011 01:17
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Rage Nage posted:I really, really love the science-fiction books of Michael Marshall Smith (Only Forward, Spares, One Of Us) - I just can't get enough of the way he writes. Having read everything SF he has to offer, I'm looking for some more dystopian surrealist fiction, and would really appreciate any recommendations... If you want surrealist dystopian science fiction then I'm presuming you've read Philip K. Dick. On the slim chance you haven't, go get A Scanner Darkly and one of his short fiction anthologies immediately. The man's work is definitely surreal and definitely bleak (paranoid schizophrenia will do that to a man). The Triumphant fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Sep 5, 2011 |
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Sep 5, 2011 02:29
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IceNiner posted:This is going to be a request that I'm guessing one of the lady goons here might be able to answer. What I would read at that age were collections of faerie tales particularly the ones from Hans Christian Andersen. I also recommend The Golden Compass and A Series of Unfortunate Events. GreyLondon fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Sep 6, 2011 |
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Sep 5, 2011 02:53
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Hey guys, I'm looking for some reading recommendations as I just ran out of reading material. I'm looking for books like ASOIAF -- cynical low fantasy with wry humor. So far: Liked: - ASOIAF series - The First Law, Best Served Cold, The Heroes - The Lies of Locke Lamora - The Magicians (Lev Grossman) Didn't like: - Red Seas Under the Red Skies ( I stopped giving a poo poo about the protagonists) - The Magician King (Grossman started embracing the fantasy conventions too much) I'd appreciate any recommendations that would fit the pattern. Thanks.
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Sep 5, 2011 05:50
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Jewlian posted:Hey guys, I'm looking for some reading recommendations as I just ran out of reading material. I'm looking for books like ASOIAF -- cynical low fantasy with wry humor. You might like The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan. It has a sequel coming out next month. It's very gritty/gruesome fantasy with some awesome ideas, and it has a kickass gay protagonist. Oh, but if you can't handle some explicit sex (of the gay, lesbian and straight varieties) then avoid. You prude.
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Sep 5, 2011 06:22
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Hedrigall posted:You might like The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan. It has a sequel coming out next month. It's very gritty/gruesome fantasy with some awesome ideas, and it has a kickass gay protagonist. Oh, but if you can't handle some explicit sex (of the gay, lesbian and straight varieties) then avoid. You prude. I could certainly do without gay sex scenes. Not due to prudishness but rather due to lack of interest in man on man action. I might check it out, though. How is the author's sense of humor?
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Sep 5, 2011 06:40
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Pretty dark but there are some laughs in the book iirc. It was good! I'm gonna "read" it again on audiobook next month in anticipation of the sequel.
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Sep 5, 2011 06:42
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Rage Nage posted:I really, really love the science-fiction books of Michael Marshall Smith (Only Forward, Spares, One Of Us) - I just can't get enough of the way he writes. Having read everything SF he has to offer, I'm looking for some more dystopian surrealist fiction, and would really appreciate any recommendations... Someone else already mentioned PKD, so I'll take the opportunity to recommend Stanislaw Lem. He wrote excellent absurd, satirical, dystopian science ficiton.
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Sep 5, 2011 09:02
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PeterWeller posted:Someone else already mentioned PKD, so I'll take the opportunity to recommend Stanislaw Lem. He wrote excellent absurd, satirical, dystopian science ficiton. Great, I haven't heard of him. Any book in particular you'd recommend?
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Sep 5, 2011 15:29
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Jewlian posted:Hey guys, I'm looking for some reading recommendations as I just ran out of reading material. I'm looking for books like ASOIAF -- cynical low fantasy with wry humor. You might dig The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. I just finished it a couple days ago and it's a really interesting concept (a half-made world with a wild West and an ancient long-settled East, with two warring factions known as the Line and the Gun trying to recover a secret that may change the world) - basically a revisionist-style Western mixed with some fantasy. It reminds me a bit of Lynch and Abercrombie in tone - lots of gritty action and "fucks" dropped frequently, and some great characters (Creedmoor in particular).
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Sep 5, 2011 16:49
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Rage Nage posted:Great, I haven't heard of him. Any book in particular you'd recommend? Memoirs Found in a Bathtub is probably his best.
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Sep 5, 2011 17:56
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I am looking for books on The Russian Space Program early years, 1940 to 60, specifically the race to put a man into space. I've found a few books, but their all by British Publishers it seems. Anyone know of any easy to obtain books, meaning I can just go to the library and request them, on the subject. Also, strangely enough the library doesn't really have a section on foreign space programs. edit: Books I've so far come across have been highly inaccurate, theirs a ton of russian books onthe program they're just unfortunately not in english which is frustrating as there are several biographies.
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Sep 5, 2011 18:01
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I'm sure this has been asked before, but search turned up nothing. I'm looking for some mystery novels in the same vein as Larsson's Millennium Triolgy. I know they're nothing amazing, but I really enjoyed them and was hoping to read some similar books.
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Sep 5, 2011 20:16
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Oodles of Wootles posted:I'm sure this has been asked before, but search turned up nothing. I'm looking for some mystery novels in the same vein as Larsson's Millennium Triolgy. I know they're nothing amazing, but I really enjoyed them and was hoping to read some similar books. If you mean Nordic-set mystery novels, Henning Mankell's Wallander series might be up your alley.
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Sep 5, 2011 21:38
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Oodles of Wootles posted:I'm sure this has been asked before, but search turned up nothing. I'm looking for some mystery novels in the same vein as Larsson's Millennium Triolgy. I know they're nothing amazing, but I really enjoyed them and was hoping to read some similar books. Mankell is a good suggestion, also check out Jo Nesbo and Jussi Adler-Olsen.
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Sep 5, 2011 22:50
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Oodles of Wootles posted:I'm sure this has been asked before, but search turned up nothing. I'm looking for some mystery novels in the same vein as Larsson's Millennium Triolgy. I know they're nothing amazing, but I really enjoyed them and was hoping to read some similar books. I enjoyed Michael Ridpath's Fire and Ice series. It's a bit different in that they're set in Iceland, are written by a Brit and feature a Boston detective.
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Sep 5, 2011 23:19
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Thanks guys, originally I wasn't looking for Scandinavian settings, but after thinking about it, that was definitely something that drew me to the books.
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Sep 5, 2011 23:40
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My eleven year old brother has gotten really interested in reading since the summer started. Any book recommendations on what I could pick up for him? He's mainly into fantasy / adventure, but likes 'regular world' stories too - such as the work of Louis Sachar. He's already finished the Harry Potter series, Skullduggery series and How to Train Your Dragon series. He'd be curious about any genre though and he reads at an advanced level for his age.
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Sep 5, 2011 23:51
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Godface posted:My eleven year old brother has gotten really interested in reading since the summer started. Any book recommendations on what I could pick up for him?
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Sep 6, 2011 00:05
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Godface posted:My eleven year old brother has gotten really interested in reading since the summer started. Any book recommendations on what I could pick up for him? Percy Jackson and the Olympians is the next obvious step for an HP fan. 39 Clues is a pretty good adventure series that features an 11yo and 14yo brother and sister doing it up National Treasure-style and for fantasy there's the epic, anthropomorphic Redwall or the Peter Pan-based Peter and the Starcatchers. Also, there are some mild content issues, but I Am Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President (think Dexter's Lab meets The Tin Drum) is one of my favorite books of the past few years.
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Sep 6, 2011 01:17
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Godface posted:My eleven year old brother has gotten really interested in reading since the summer started. Any book recommendations on what I could pick up for him? The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper is another great fantasy YA series with an 11-year old protagonist. I also really enjoyed The Hobbit when I was around that age, but be careful it's a gateway drug and the next thing you know he's freebasing the Silmarillion.
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Sep 6, 2011 03:33
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IceNiner posted:This is going to be a request that I'm guessing one of the lady goons here might be able to answer. This is hard. I (somewhat) fit your criteria, but everything I can think of that was helpful had a context to it; it wasn't the book in isolation, it was the book *and* the things it led to. But when I think about what I imprinted on most strongly back then, it was Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery. It's fantasy, which was vital, because I couldn't compare it to my real life and feel inferior. It has a heroine who is abused and unloved and planning her revenge on the people who have screwed her over, and then she gets helped by an awesome guy and ends up becoming the most important woman on the entire planet and saving the entire world, and yet she is never a particularly nice person, nor overly feminine. Yes, there's a lot of sexism in it, it's from the 60s, but honestly when I was 14 it told me everything I needed; all you have to do is stick it out and refuse to give up and you end up queen of everything. I daydreamed myself into this book for *years*. And if she likes it there are 8 million sequels, and then there's Mercedes Lackey who writes basically the same thing but with the possible downside that her heroines are often very very nice and gentle and sweet.
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Sep 6, 2011 04:23
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Idonie posted:This is hard. I (somewhat) fit your criteria, but everything I can think of that was helpful had a context to it; it wasn't the book in isolation, it was the book *and* the things it led to. Thanks. I appreciate this recommendation and also the others posted by fellow book goons.
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Sep 7, 2011 02:53
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I looked and didn't see anything but does anyone have recommendations for good retro-future themed books? I'm talking about like the 1950's Atom age style space explorer kind of deal. Bubble helmets, bullet shaped rockets, ray-guns, Buck Rogers kind of thing. I'm ah uge sucker for that kind of aesthetic style and would love to read a few books in a similar vein
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Sep 7, 2011 04:16
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Dr. VooDoo posted:I looked and didn't see anything but does anyone have recommendations for good retro-future themed books? I'm talking about like the 1950's Atom age style space explorer kind of deal. Bubble helmets, bullet shaped rockets, ray-guns, Buck Rogers kind of thing. I'm ah uge sucker for that kind of aesthetic style and would love to read a few books in a similar vein Have you read the original Buck Rogers stories? "Armageddon_2419_A.D." and "The Airlords of Han." They were written in the 30's, though, not the fifties. Maybe look for a compilation of the Flash Gordon comic strips.. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Sep 7, 2011 |
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Sep 7, 2011 05:13
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Rage Nage posted:I really, really love the science-fiction books of Michael Marshall Smith (Only Forward, Spares, One Of Us) - I just can't get enough of the way he writes. Having read everything SF he has to offer, I'm looking for some more dystopian surrealist fiction, and would really appreciate any recommendations... Jeff Noon is the obvious one for me. The are a lot of similarities although Noon's stuff is probably a little more surreal and out-there (at least what I've read).
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Sep 7, 2011 11:17
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I'm looking for an incredibly atmospheric mystery novel where the "place" is as much of a character as the characters. Think Twin Peaks, the video game Heavy Rain, or even the vibe of a film like Mullholland Drive or The Machinist. Supernatural or mystical elements would be welcome, but I'm not looking for some sort of Jim Butcher or Stephen King thing in this case - I can easily scratch that itch in the horror genre. Noir and/or police procedural vibes are totally welcome, but the key is on the atmosphere/place and the mystery.
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Sep 7, 2011 16:07
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Transistor Rhythm posted:I'm looking for an incredibly atmospheric mystery novel where the "place" is as much of a character as the characters. Think Twin Peaks, the video game Heavy Rain, or even the vibe of a film like Mullholland Drive or The Machinist. Supernatural or mystical elements would be welcome, but I'm not looking for some sort of Jim Butcher or Stephen King thing in this case - I can easily scratch that itch in the horror genre. Noir and/or police procedural vibes are totally welcome, but the key is on the atmosphere/place and the mystery. I think Tana French does a nice job of this with her debut novel In the Woods. Her follow-ups are definitely worth reading too, though maybe have slightly less an emphasis on place. Cherie Priest's southern gothic series, beginning with Four and Twenty Blackbirds, are amazingly rich with their swampy Chattanooga locale. Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, if you're looking for classics, makes the manor very much its own character. I don't know how you feel about YA but Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls definitely turns the flooded town of Olive into its own breathing entity. Bohemienne fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Sep 7, 2011 |
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Sep 7, 2011 16:31
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Transistor Rhythm posted:I'm looking for an incredibly atmospheric mystery novel where the "place" is as much of a character as the characters. Think Twin Peaks, the video game Heavy Rain, or even the vibe of a film like Mullholland Drive or The Machinist. Supernatural or mystical elements would be welcome, but I'm not looking for some sort of Jim Butcher or Stephen King thing in this case - I can easily scratch that itch in the horror genre. Noir and/or police procedural vibes are totally welcome, but the key is on the atmosphere/place and the mystery. The City and The City by China Mievile.
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Sep 7, 2011 17:09
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Transistor Rhythm posted:I'm looking for an incredibly atmospheric mystery novel where the "place" is as much of a character as the characters. Think Twin Peaks, the video game Heavy Rain, or even the vibe of a film like Mullholland Drive or The Machinist. Supernatural or mystical elements would be welcome, but I'm not looking for some sort of Jim Butcher or Stephen King thing in this case - I can easily scratch that itch in the horror genre. Noir and/or police procedural vibes are totally welcome, but the key is on the atmosphere/place and the mystery. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
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Sep 7, 2011 19:10
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Transistor Rhythm posted:I'm looking for an incredibly atmospheric mystery novel where the "place" is as much of a character as the characters. Think Twin Peaks, the video game Heavy Rain, or even the vibe of a film like Mullholland Drive or The Machinist. Supernatural or mystical elements would be welcome, but I'm not looking for some sort of Jim Butcher or Stephen King thing in this case - I can easily scratch that itch in the horror genre. Noir and/or police procedural vibes are totally welcome, but the key is on the atmosphere/place and the mystery. The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson) The House Next Door (Anne Rivers Siddons): is probably more supernatural than what you're looking for, but it's not a grossout/fright-fest
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Sep 7, 2011 21:04
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Gravy Jones posted:Jeff Noon is the obvious one for me. The are a lot of similarities although Noon's stuff is probably a little more surreal and out-there (at least what I've read). Thanks, I just read the descriptions for his Vurt series, and they sound exactly what I'm looking for. Just ordered all 4 from Amazon 
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Sep 7, 2011 21:14
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Oodles of Wootles posted:I'm sure this has been asked before, but search turned up nothing. I'm looking for some mystery novels in the same vein as Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. I know they're nothing amazing, but I really enjoyed them and was hoping to read some similar books. I just finished the trilogy and really enjoyed it. I would like to find some novels along the same lines, specifically with a focus on strong ladies. I liked the Swede setting, but the "woman who hates men who hate women" aspect is more important to me.
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Sep 10, 2011 05:14
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Asstro Van posted:I just finished the trilogy and really enjoyed it. I would like to find some novels along the same lines, specifically with a focus on strong ladies. I liked the Swede setting, but the "woman who hates men who hate women" aspect is more important to me. The first thing that comes to mind are Zoe Sharp's Charlie Fox novels.
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Sep 10, 2011 11:34
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Encryptic posted:You might dig The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. I just finished it a couple days ago and it's a really interesting concept (a half-made world with a wild West and an ancient long-settled East, with two warring factions known as the Line and the Gun trying to recover a secret that may change the world) - basically a revisionist-style Western mixed with some fantasy. It reminds me a bit of Lynch and Abercrombie in tone - lots of gritty action and "fucks" dropped frequently, and some great characters (Creedmoor in particular). Thanks for this, picked up the book and it is awesome. Quick read with a great ending.
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Sep 11, 2011 17:14
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Does anyone have any suggestions for books similar to Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks? Also any suggestions on dystopian future/pandemic/outbreak/zombie literature? I've read the Hunger Games trilogy and they were ok, but targeted a bit too young for me. I've read The Long Walk (I think that's what it's called?) by Stephen King, and that was pretty awesome. I've been reading The Strain trilogy, and that's pretty decent, but a bit too religiousy for me (anything that has the plotline of "Oh well the whole world is doomed, but it's ok, there's just a psychic link to the main-boss, so if we kill him the world is saved" really irritates me). The first half of The Passage was *amazing*, then as soon as it went out of the present and into the future and everything became a bit too religiousy with the psychic creatures I stopped liking it.
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Sep 11, 2011 21:07
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Womens Jeans posted:Does anyone have any suggestions for books similar to Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks? I haven't read it myself, but "Feed" has gotten some attention lately.
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Sep 11, 2011 21:16
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Doc Faustus posted:I haven't read it myself, but "Feed" has gotten some attention lately. Read that... wasn't too much of a fan of it. It seemed way too contrived and wasn't at all gritty or realistic.
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Sep 11, 2011 21:28
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I know this is going to be very general, but it's worth a try. I want a book that has the following qualities: 1) Easy to read and get into. I don't want something that is overly complicated, takes a while to get into, is overly descriptive, etc etc. I want something straightforward. Also, not pretentious. I feel like most books I try to read these days are very, very pretentious. 2) No agenda. I don't want to feel like the author is conveying his opinions and beliefs on me. I want it to feel objective. 3) Well written. This may seem like a no-brainer, but many books that have #1 are not well written. 4) Somewhat clean, meaning no graphic sex scenes. Are there many books like this? Chekhov short stories are like this. Also The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a bit like this. It can be about anything, in any time period or setting, and so on.
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Sep 11, 2011 21:47
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Womens Jeans posted:Also any suggestions on dystopian future/pandemic/outbreak/zombie literature? World War Z, Earth Abides, Counting Heads, most Philip K Dick... there are a lot out there. Scroll back through the last few pages of The Sci-Fi/Fantasy thread, this question pops up a lot.
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Sep 11, 2011 22:25
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