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Chamberk posted:Any good fiction books on the Russian or Chinese revolutions? I've read Dr. Zhivago, which was pretty good, but anything on those subjects would be great. Bulgakov's The White Guard is a good one, set during the last days of the collapse of Kiev. It's permeated by a sense of inescapable doom, though the fact that he treats his subjects, a fairly ordinary middle-class family, as people and not enemies of socialism got him in hot water with the authorities - trouble that was, oddly enough, repeatedly stamped out by Stalin himself. Here he is, speaking to a conference of Ukranian writers, beating his head against a brick wall: 'Even people like Bulgakov have something useful to offer. I'm talking in this instance about The White Guard. Even in a work like that, even a man like that, still has something useful to offer. Why am I saying all this? Because you need to apply broader scales in assessing literature. Right-wing and left-wing aren't appropriate.' inktvis fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Mar 1, 2012 |
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Mar 1, 2012 10:00
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KildarX posted:I am looking for books containing Thief, Assassins, or Monster Slayers in training with a decent section of the book focusing on their training or upbringing as one, preferably fantasy, but I wouldn't mind something with a modern bent. The first book in the Mistborn Trilogy has a fair amount of this. The other two books not so much but regardless, it might be worth checking out.
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Mar 1, 2012 14:27
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Srice posted:The first book in the Mistborn Trilogy has a fair amount of this. The other two books not so much but regardless, it might be worth checking out. Seconding this so much. The first book sounds exactly like what you want, too, but the rest of the series is also quite good.
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Mar 1, 2012 16:39
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KildarX posted:I am looking for books containing Thief, Assassins, or Monster Slayers in training with a decent section of the book focusing on their training or upbringing as one, preferably fantasy, but I wouldn't mind something with a modern bent. The writing is what you would expect from fantasy pulp, but as far as story/content it sounds like this is something you're looking for, and I found it pretty entertaining. The entire first book is about his training. Wikipedia posted:The Farseer TrilogyThe Farseer Trilogy follows the life of FitzChivalry Farseer (Fitz), a trained assassin, in a kingdom called The Six Duchies while his uncle, Prince Verity, attempts to wage war on the Red-Ship Raiders from The OutIslands who are attacking the shores of the kingdom by turning the people of the Six Duchies into Forged ones; still alive, but without any emotion, memory or soul. Meanwhile Prince Regal's jealousy and the indulgence of his own selfish whims threatens to destroy Six Duchies.
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Mar 1, 2012 16:55
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He listed the Farseer books  .
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Mar 1, 2012 19:55
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Oh, haha. I guess I never associated the name of the trilogy with the actual books  . Not sure what I thought he was mentioning, but in my mind, it's "that assassin series".
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Mar 1, 2012 21:40
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I'm looking for a creepy fantasy or science fiction book. I'm not opposed to horror, I just like reading it when combined with fantasy or science fiction. Creepy is preferable to horror. The darker the better.
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Mar 2, 2012 03:22
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Queen Of Spades posted:I'm looking for a creepy fantasy or science fiction book. I'm not opposed to horror, I just like reading it when combined with fantasy or science fiction. Try Starfish by Peter Watts.
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Mar 2, 2012 12:26
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American Civil War The three volume series by Shelby Foote is great - he was heavily featured in the Ken Burns doc. Military fiction (Not sci-fi) I actually came here to post a "thank you" to whoever it was that had recommended Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes to me a few weeks ago. I'm not that far in but it is what I was looking for soldiers in the thick of it, not propaganda, not an adventure novel about heroes - regular guys growing up and trying to stay alive.
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Mar 2, 2012 15:12
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Queen Of Spades posted:I'm looking for a creepy fantasy or science fiction book. I'm not opposed to horror, I just like reading it when combined with fantasy or science fiction. Hull Zero Three was good. It had sort of a Dead Space feel, trapped on a large, labyrinth-esque spacecraft.
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Mar 2, 2012 19:06
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Queen Of Spades posted:I'm looking for a creepy fantasy or science fiction book. I'm not opposed to horror, I just like reading it when combined with fantasy or science fiction. ).Starfish and Hull Zero Three are also home-run recommendations. If you dig Starfish, move on to it's bigger and better older bro Blindsight.
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Mar 2, 2012 22:50
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Evfedu posted:Perdido Street Station would fit the bill, also China Mieville did an entire collection of creepy fantasy-esque stuff called Looking For Jake, which is probably my favourite collection of short stories ever (of the three I've read I'll second Blindsight. Awesome book, and the author has released it as a free ebook! I haven't read Starfish, but am adding it to my to-read list.
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Mar 3, 2012 00:18
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Well, I got really interested in the Tyrion character from the Ice and Fire series. Any recommendations based on books with awesome characters like him? Humor, wit, clever stuff. Could be any genre really, just looking for a book with interesting characters and maybe character development.
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Mar 3, 2012 01:22
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Have you considered Infinite Jest? It has interesting characters that also develop.
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Mar 3, 2012 04:02
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Does anyone know a good book on the Roman Empire or more specifically, the fall of it? I heard Gibbon's book was a bit outdated so I'm looking for something more modern.
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Mar 3, 2012 04:33
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Can anyone recommend me some speculative fiction novels/short stories in the vein of extreme scientific optimism/techno-utopianism/post-scarcity economics?
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Mar 3, 2012 09:38
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3000psi posted:Can anyone recommend me some speculative fiction novels/short stories in the vein of extreme scientific optimism/techno-utopianism/post-scarcity economics?  (short story collection)http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6741362-oceanic
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Mar 3, 2012 10:47
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butt baby posted:Does anyone know a good book on the Roman Empire or more specifically, the fall of it? I heard Gibbon's book was a bit outdated so I'm looking for something more modern. I bought The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather recently, it's pretty good.
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Mar 3, 2012 11:23
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butt baby posted:Does anyone know a good book on the Roman Empire or more specifically, the fall of it? I heard Gibbon's book was a bit outdated so I'm looking for something more modern. I liked Adrian Goldsworthy's How Rome Fell.
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Mar 3, 2012 11:51
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I am looking for some speculative fiction about WWIII. Ideas?
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Mar 3, 2012 23:53
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Epic Mount posted:I am looking for some speculative fiction about WWIII. Ideas? WW3 as seen by people during the coldwar? "The Third World War" by Gen. John Hackett.
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Mar 4, 2012 00:57
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Epic Mount posted:I am looking for some speculative fiction about WWIII. Ideas? Well, the most common scenario for this is USSR vs. America, Cold War goes hot, and my favorite recommendation for this Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising. I know Clancy's name is sort of persona non grata nowadays, but this was written in the 80s back before he lost his drat mind, and is my favorite war novel of all time. Team Yankee by Harold Coyle is really good, too, but except for the prologue, set as a series of news reports, it's all told from a tank captain's perspective, so if you're more interested in combat, especially tank combat, I'd pick Team Yankee, while if you want more of a political look at how such a war could start and end (but still with a lot of combat) go with Red Storm Rising. There's also Ralph Peters's Red Army, which is the same theoretical war but told entirely from the Soviets' perspective, but it's been sitting unread on my bookshelf for a while now, so I can't personally speak for its quality, just thought I'd point it out. It's really well-regarded, though, and I enjoyed the other war novel by Peters that I've read. While I'm here, I'll repost my last question that never got answered: WeaponGradeSadness posted:Are there any good biographies of Napoleon out there? An overview of the Napoleonic Wars would be good, too, if anyone knows any of those.
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Mar 4, 2012 00:58
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:Are there any good biographies of Napoleon out there? An overview of the Napoleonic Wars would be good, too, if anyone knows any of those. I've only seen the miniseries, but Shogun by James Clavell might be up your alley.
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Mar 4, 2012 01:41
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:Are there any good biographies of Napoleon out there? An overview of the Napoleonic Wars would be good, too, if anyone knows any of those. Napoleon by Victor Kronin is a good choice, as well as The Rise and Reign of Napoleon by Robert Asprey, a two-volume set. If you can find it, The Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler is an exhaustive overview of his battles.
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Mar 4, 2012 02:05
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Recommend me an alternate history novel. Specifically one where Germany won the second world war.
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Mar 4, 2012 02:19
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Secx posted:Recommend me an alternate history novel. Specifically one where Germany won the second world war. Fatherland by Robert Harris
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Mar 4, 2012 02:40
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So I accidentally happened to catch this terrible/awesome movie on SyFy called Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant which stars the following people: John C. Reilly, Willen Dafoe, Salma Hayek, Jane Krakowski and Kristen Schaal. Yeah, I know, what the gently caress. Anyway, it combined with the fact that I like Vampire Diaries (shut the gently caress up it's actually a really entertaining show past like the first 1/3 of the first season) and I liked Buffy/Angel and Vampire: the Masquerade as a kid has led me to a startling and unpopular realization: I like vampires. Really all that supernatural sort of stuff. Honestly I don't know how I didn't realize this before. I've always like occult stuff like The Invisibles and Illuminatus!/Principia Discordia and HP Lovecraft until I got sick of what a lovely writer he is (drat good ideas tho). Vampires and poo poo aren't much of a stretch from that, just more fantastical. Anyway, I imagine with the recent vampire craze there's been a lot of lovely books written about vampires, but has there been anything actually worth reading? In other words, any books that do vampires and supernatural poo poo pretty much the opposite of Twilight. Secx posted:Recommend me an alternate history novel. Specifically one where Germany won the second world war. Absolutely Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. Even if what I said above makes you hate me on a deep, personal level. I promise it's what you want.
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Mar 4, 2012 03:27
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Secx posted:Recommend me an alternate history novel. Specifically one where Germany won the second world war. Philip Roth's The Plot Against America is pretty good and the hardcover's on sale at Amazon, too.
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Mar 4, 2012 03:38
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Secx posted:Recommend me an alternate history novel. Specifically one where Germany won the second world war. SS GB Len Deighton. Operation Sealion was a success. The book follows an English Scotland Yard detective working for his Wehrmacht and SS superiors in solving a murder.
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Mar 4, 2012 03:47
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Conduit for Sale! posted:So I accidentally happened to catch this terrible/awesome movie on SyFy called Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant which stars the following people: John C. Reilly, Willen Dafoe, Salma Hayek, Jane Krakowski and Kristen Schaal. Yeah, I know, what the gently caress. Anyway, it combined with the fact that I like Vampire Diaries (shut the gently caress up it's actually a really entertaining show past like the first 1/3 of the first season) and I liked Buffy/Angel and Vampire: the Masquerade as a kid has led me to a startling and unpopular realization: I like vampires. Really all that supernatural sort of stuff. Honestly I don't know how I didn't realize this before. I've always like occult stuff like The Invisibles and Illuminatus!/Principia Discordia and HP Lovecraft until I got sick of what a lovely writer he is (drat good ideas tho). Vampires and poo poo aren't much of a stretch from that, just more fantastical. I quite enjoyed The Strain books, but they're like a mixture between zombies and vampires. Not drama-filled vampire cliques so much as intelligent monsters trying to infect everyone. There are supernatural elements as well, though.
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Mar 4, 2012 03:50
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Conduit for Sale! posted:So I accidentally happened to catch this terrible/awesome movie on SyFy called Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant Maybe try reading the Darren Shan books? They're YA, but he's pretty decent as far as that goes. My favorite vampire story of recent vintage is John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In; I disliked The Strain and hate The Passage.
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Mar 4, 2012 03:59
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Secx posted:Recommend me an alternate history novel. Specifically one where Germany won the second world war. If you read anything other than The Man in the High Castle after asking for this kind of recommendation, you fail as human being.
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Mar 4, 2012 07:22
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Conduit for Sale! posted:
My go-to recommendation is Sunshine by Robin McKinley.
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Mar 4, 2012 08:58
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:If anyone knows any good books--ideally history but historical fiction would be cool too--about samurai, preferably focusing on battles and duels and all the other good old-fashioned ultraviolence, that would be appreciated as well. I like the historical fiction of Eiji Yoshikawa: Musashi, Taiko, The Heike Story. I can't remember if they focus on battles so much but they do follow historical events pretty closely.
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Mar 4, 2012 09:25
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Ok, so I've really liked Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles and Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard sequence. What's similar that can I read while I wait for those lazy loving asswipes to finish more books?* Oh, and how's Killing Lincoln? It looks interesting but ... Bill O'Reilly? *-not really this entitled
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Mar 4, 2012 21:16
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Krakkles posted:Ok, so I've really liked Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles and Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard sequence. What's similar that can I read while I wait for those lazy loving asswipes to finish more books?* what's worse is that Rothfuss has already finished the series and they are just spacing out the releases...
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Mar 4, 2012 21:21
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Can anyone recommend some good murder mystery books? I just finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its got me on a bit of a kick.
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Mar 5, 2012 01:48
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Les Oeufs posted:Can anyone recommend some good murder mystery books? I just finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its got me on a bit of a kick. If you want some (much better) Scandinavian thrillers, check out Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series or Jo Nesbo's unfortunately-named Harry Hole series.
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Mar 5, 2012 02:06
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Secx posted:Recommend me an alternate history novel. Specifically one where Germany won the second world war. "A Moon of Ice" by Brad Linaweaver. Hitler wins WW2, and conquers most of Europe and Russia and has reached a stalemate with the US, this deals with the time period of relative peace.
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Mar 5, 2012 04:16
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Les Oeufs posted:Can anyone recommend some good murder mystery books? I just finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its got me on a bit of a kick. Henning Mankell is good, especially if you want the same Scandinavian vibe.
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Mar 5, 2012 05:06
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