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Couch Life posted:I really enjoy the survival aspect of apocalypse stories and was wondering if anyone had anything in that style? Stuff like The Walking Dead, but not a comic book. Fantasy is good as well. Really, any gritty survival story about a (preferably) small group of people against holy poo poo things. Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham The Passage by Justin Cronin - this one is the first in a series The Death of Grass by John Christopher/Samuel Youd (think it was called something else in the US?) On the Beach by Nevil Shute - it's somewhat less the usual survival part of the apocalypse story and super depressing Swan Song by Robert McCammon - I found this one a bit meh personally but others like it, it has more the supernatural flair similar to The Stand Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Star Man's Son/Daybreak 2250 AD by Andre Norton - it's very much a sci-fi novel of it's time, very schlocky Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank - one of the first classic nuclear apocalypse stories
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Jan 17, 2014 22:10
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Couch Life posted:I really enjoy the survival aspect of apocalypse stories and was wondering if anyone had anything in that style? Stuff like The Walking Dead, but not a comic book. Fantasy is good as well. Really, any gritty survival story about a (preferably) small group of people against holy poo poo things. I'll recommend The Last Canadian by William C. Heine
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Jan 17, 2014 22:27
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Check out the Post-Apocalypse Recommendations thread as well, if you need more suggestions. I'm using the app so I can't link it, but it shouldn't be buried too far in the Book Barn.
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Jan 17, 2014 23:20
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Enfys posted:Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Those, along with Earth Abides, are my standard recommendations.
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Jan 18, 2014 00:01
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funkybottoms posted:Those, along with Earth Abides, are my standard recommendations. I was gonna recommend Earth Abides too, but there's really no "holy gently caress things" as an enemy, and is way more of a survey of a post-apocalyptic world.
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Jan 18, 2014 00:03
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Sandwolf posted:I was gonna recommend Earth Abides too, but there's really no "holy gently caress things" as an enemy, and is way more of a survey of a post-apocalyptic world. Nothing on a grand scale like zombies or a comet, but there are plenty of things that have profound impacts/implications on and for the group. True, it might be more subtle than what was requested, but I think it's all the more powerful for it.
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Jan 18, 2014 00:16
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Couch Life posted:I really enjoy the survival aspect of apocalypse stories and was wondering if anyone had anything in that style? Stuff like The Walking Dead, but not a comic book. Fantasy is good as well. Really, any gritty survival story about a (preferably) small group of people against holy poo poo things. I'll back up Enfys on The Death of Grass (No Blade of Grass in the US) - one of the few PA stories I've read that follows the brutal logic of survival all the way through. The Day of the Triffids is a classic as well. I also really enjoyed Peter Heller's recent novel The Dog Stars, set in a plague-devastated Colorado, which doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but everything it does it does very well - especially liked the main character's partnership with a man he doesn't quite trust. Oh, and not really a book recommendation, but if you enjoy The Walking Dead you really must play the game, which is far superior to the TV show (and I say that as a fan of the show). It's the kind of game even people who don't play games can enjoy, since most of it involves interacting with your fellow survivors and managing relationships, and it has by far one of the best and most heart-wrenching stories I've ever found in a game. Available on all iOS platforms too.
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Jan 18, 2014 04:09
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I just finished The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway, and it really moved me. I'd like to read more "classic" literature, maybe some Orwell, Faulkner, or Huxley. I don't know, what are some good reads along those lines?
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Jan 18, 2014 23:05
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I finished The Old Man and the Sea a couple of months ago and I found it pretty powerful but also serene at the same time.
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Jan 19, 2014 10:40
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Just finished The Stand (Unabriged Version) by Stephen King. God, I don't recommend it. Too long. I anti-recommend it.
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Jan 19, 2014 10:44
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Donald Kimball posted:I just finished The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway, and it really moved me. I'd like to read more "classic" literature, maybe some Orwell, Faulkner, or Huxley. I don't know, what are some good reads along those lines? A few posts up I recommended The Idiot by Dostoevsky and The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas -- both really great books and I thoroughly endorse the translation in the Project Gutenberg versions. Huxley's Brave New World is great. Orwell's 1984 gets all the mass media love (and it's legitimately good too) but I like BNW better. Sadly, our society is combining the worst elements of the two (constant survellience + continual feed of entertainment to distract and inure us from poo poo we should actually care about) Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is very good. I'm not sure what age you consider the classics to start at, but for the most part they are considered classic for a reason and you won't go wrong with anything from Jane Eyre to Oliver Twist to The Bell Jar. I mean, I could make hundreds of recommendations, given that your question is asking "What books of the last 500 years should I read". If you like Hemingway, why not read more Hemingway to start?
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Jan 19, 2014 13:29
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Donald Kimball posted:I just finished The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway, and it really moved me. I'd like to read more "classic" literature, maybe some Orwell, Faulkner, or Huxley. I don't know, what are some good reads along those lines? Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury or Catch-22 by Joseph Heller sort of go along with the Orwell/Huxley theme and are good reads.
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Jan 19, 2014 14:05
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Donald Kimball posted:I just finished The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway, and it really moved me. I'd like to read more "classic" literature, maybe some Orwell, Faulkner, or Huxley. I don't know, what are some good reads along those lines? If you've never read any Faulkner before, maybe start with one of his lighter reads, like The Reivers or The Unvanquished? They're not as great as some of his other books, but stuff like Absalom, Absalom!, where there's different people narrating the story (and they're all pretty unreliable) can be pretty daunting. His short stories are great, too: maybe try The Bear and see what you think.
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Jan 19, 2014 16:24
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The easiest and best place to start with Faulkner is the Go Down, Moses short story collection. The stories all fit together into a single overarching novel, but each is accessible independently and some are easier to approach than others so you can work on it like a puzzle. For Orwell start with his essays -- "Politics and the English Language" and "Shooting an Elephant." What I'd really recommend if you like Hemingway though is Steinbeck. Read Cannery Row.
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Jan 19, 2014 17:06
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No Longer Flaky posted:Just finished The Stand (Unabriged Version) by Stephen King. God, I don't recommend it. Too long. I anti-recommend it. Let me recommend the originally published (i.e., abridged) version of The Stand. Really shows what an editor can do for an author.
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Jan 19, 2014 22:34
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I read the 1000+ page version of The Stand and I thought it was great. Long yes, but still a great book.
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Jan 20, 2014 02:26
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RCarr posted:I read the 1000+ page version of The Stand and I thought it was great. Long yes, but still a great book. I usually recommend for people to read the abridged version first, then read the long version if they're so inclined. I enjoyed both versions, personally.
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Jan 20, 2014 02:47
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regulargonzalez posted:Huxley's Brave New World is great. Orwell's 1984 gets all the mass media love (and it's legitimately good too) but I like BNW better. Sadly, our society is combining the worst elements of the two (constant survellience + continual feed of entertainment to distract and inure us from poo poo we should actually care about) For my money Animal Farm is the far superior and more enjoyable book to 1984. The second is one of those books that is really important to society, and needed to be written, but is actually a tedious drag to read.
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Jan 20, 2014 02:54
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No Longer Flaky posted:Just finished The Stand (Unabriged Version) by Stephen King. God, I don't recommend it. Too long. I anti-recommend it. The first half was good, but the man has a serious problem with endings. He puts hundreds of pages of effort into making you think you're reading one book, and then he's like "Haha, gotcha!" at the end. I guess after so many pages he can't figure out a good way to tie up all those loose ends, so he just destroys them all with something really convenient. If you didn't like The Stand, don't bother with Under the Dome pretty much the same basic plot arc happens, nearly everyone dies in a fire at the end because a crazy guy decides God is telling him to destroy everyone, so the 850 pages of intricate plot with all the loose ends you've been wanting to find a conclusion for is suddenly meaningless because they're all dead and it was just aliens being random dicks. Though if you liked The Stand, Under the Dome is probably a good choice.
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Jan 20, 2014 03:06
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I agree. You kind of have to go into a Stephen King book expecting a great story and a poor ending.
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Jan 20, 2014 03:43
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As somebody who enjoys horror films and recently started to read more, I'm looking for some horror fiction book suggestions. Something involving demonology would be great as I really like the themes in the Paranormal Activity series or The Conjuring (2013). Bonus points if it involves architectural horror. I'm a big fan of Louisiana/southern gothic type things (though this setting isn't mandatory). Not a fan of zombies or aliens. I hope I gave you enough to go on. Is the Amityville Horror book any good? I've heard mixed reviews but I think the negative ones mostly involve it being portrayed as a true story, which of course it isn't.
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Jan 20, 2014 06:08
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Speaking of Stephen King, I've never actually read anything from him before and started The Gunslinger a while ago, and it was very hard to read. I kept having to go back and re-read pages because it was so hard to follow. Does this series at least get easier to keep up with later on? I love the idea and the premise but not the execution right now in the first book. Also, I'd like to check out John Saul, what's a good place to start?
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Jan 20, 2014 14:04
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Really? The Gunslinger I remember as being a relatively simple and easy to follow book. Was it the prose or the structure? I do vaguely remember a flashback sequence but don't recall it being distracting. It's common opinion, even amongst fans, that the series goes horribly downhill towards the end. Like, off-the-wall crazy nonsensical poo poo.
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Jan 20, 2014 14:12
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If you find the first Dark Tower book challenging, then stop now, things will not get better.
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Jan 20, 2014 14:34
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Actually, though the story is dead simple, I find the first gunslinger actually one of King's hardest to read books. It's on the level of sentence structure and syntax or something, because everything else he writes is just so much smoother and more pleasant to read. I think it has to do with the fact that it was written by an 18-year-old King. I'd actually say skip to the next Dark Tower book, and see how that goes.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:10
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Yeah it was just the wording mostly, I had to read it slowly and carefully to understand what was going on. I got about a third of the way through the first book before I put it down. Shame about the rest of the series though, I'll probably avoid it since it doesn't sound worth the effort.
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Jan 20, 2014 21:08
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TommyGun85 posted:I'm looking for a book (or series) that is about a gigantic wall (not ASoIaF) and a bunch of civilizations that live on it or something like that. I heard about it a while back and cant remember the name. Hieronymous Alloy posted:Likely _Stone and Sky_. TommyGun85 posted:That's the one. Thanks. Is it any good? This is from a couple of pages back but I just wanted to add that I've read the trilogy (Stone and Sky/Sea/Sun) 2 or 3 times through and I love it. It's not mindblowing or high literature or anything, just a fun adventure series involving an infinite vertical world, dragons, basilisks, Neolithic people, wood-spirits, merfolk, Krakatoa, Charles Darwin, and manipulation of history by altering memories.   (^^^^ pretty much everything you need to know about the setting ^^^^) If anyone has any trouble getting hold of the third book (Stone and Sun) by the way, I have an extra copy. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 12:20 on Jan 21, 2014 |
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Jan 21, 2014 12:15
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So I'm on a mystery kick lately, and enjoy detective fiction. But I prefer something different. Can anyone recommend me good mysteries with an eccentric detective, or one that has an unusual handicap/circumstance? Examples of books that fit what I'm looking for: Inherent Vice by Pynchon: a detective who's constantly stoned or on hallucinogens. The Little Sleep by Tremblay: a detective who suffers from severe narcolepsy which causes hallucinations, memory loss, and automatic behavior while asleep. The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters: a detective story set in a world that will be destroyed in six months. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Rankin: a little boy and a teddy bear detective in Toy Land. Three Bags Full by Swann: a flock of sheep solve a mystery. [b]The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie[b] by Bradley: A 12 year old girl who loves chemistry solves a murder. (I wasn't the biggest fan.) Any other good books that fit this category? Especially ones that are on par with the first three I mentioned.
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Jan 21, 2014 16:15
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Franchescanado posted:So I'm on a mystery kick lately, and enjoy detective fiction. But I prefer something different. Can anyone recommend me good mysteries with an eccentric detective, or one that has an unusual handicap/circumstance? Howard Engel has a long running detective series, fairly standard stuff until the 11th book in the series, Memory Book: quote:Aging, Jewish-Canadian gum-shoe, Benny Cooperman, awakes in hospital from a coma to discover that he has forgotten many things about himself and his recent past. He has also lost the ability to read, although he still can write: alexia sine agraphia. The therapists give him a memory book as an aide to functional recovery; he must record vital information for later deciphering. He learns that he was found unconscious in a dumpster with a blow to the head; beside him lay the corpse of a woman professor.
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Jan 21, 2014 16:34
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Franchescanado posted:So I'm on a mystery kick lately, and enjoy detective fiction. But I prefer something different. Can anyone recommend me good mysteries with an eccentric detective, or one that has an unusual handicap/circumstance? Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, Timothy Hallinan's Junior Bender Mysteries, Joe Lansdale's Hap and Leonard series, Daniel Woodrell's The Bayou Trilogy, Don Winslow's Neal Carey Mysteries, Mike Carey's Felix Castor series, Phlip K Dick's Ubik (which is not strictly a detective novel, but still works as one, and definitely meets the "unusual circumstances" requirement)
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Jan 21, 2014 16:59
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Franchescanado posted:So I'm on a mystery kick lately, and enjoy detective fiction. But I prefer something different. Can anyone recommend me good mysteries with an eccentric detective, or one that has an unusual handicap/circumstance? Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe is as eccentric as they come. Try The League of Frightened Men for starters.
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Jan 21, 2014 18:06
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terrorist plumber posted:Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I'll second this, although it is first and foremost, in typical Douglas Adams fashion, a comedy. A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. Policeman instead of a detective but that's basically semantics; it's a mystery story and there's definitely eccentricity.
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Jan 21, 2014 19:41
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I am looking for a modern novel that makes me want to see the world. Something like The Savage Detectives by Bolano. Working long days now so it has to be an easy read.
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Jan 21, 2014 22:44
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regulargonzalez posted:A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. Policeman instead of a detective but that's basically semantics; it's a mystery story and there's definitely eccentricity. Agreeing with this.
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Jan 21, 2014 23:07
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terrorist plumber posted:Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. While I agree this is a great book, it only becomes a mystery novel about halfway through and really only to Dirk himself. This book shouldn't be read if you're expecting a true mystery, but should be read if you're looking for a gripping comedy.
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Jan 21, 2014 23:34
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Klayboxx posted:While I agree this is a great book, it only becomes a mystery novel about halfway through and really only to Dirk himself. This book shouldn't be read if you're expecting a true mystery, but should be read if you're looking for a gripping comedy. There's a mystery established pretty early on: how did the couch get stuck in the stairwell / how to get it unstuck
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Jan 22, 2014 00:11
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Franchescanado posted:So I'm on a mystery kick lately, and enjoy detective fiction. But I prefer something different. Can anyone recommend me good mysteries with an eccentric detective, or one that has an unusual handicap/circumstance? I don't know if they fully qualify as 'eccentric detective' but I enjoy all the novels by Martin Cruz Smith involving Arkady Renko solving cases, such as Gorky Park, Wolves Eat Dogs, Polar Star... He may not be eccentric but he's certainly flawed and since he seems to spend a good deal of his time fighting with Soviet political interference to do his job, that might qualify under the 'handicap'  In any case, they're darkly funny in parts and I enjoy the writing. edit: for a older-era crime novel by the same author, Rose is excellent.
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Jan 22, 2014 01:46
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regulargonzalez posted:There's a mystery established pretty early on: how did the couch get stuck in the stairwell / how to get it unstuck I suppose you are correct! 
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Jan 22, 2014 03:46
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Franchescanado posted:So I'm on a mystery kick lately, and enjoy detective fiction. But I prefer something different. Can anyone recommend me good mysteries with an eccentric detective, or one that has an unusual handicap/circumstance? Not sure if this is too out there for you but there is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon in which the 'detective' is a 15 year old autistic kid. It was one of those BIG DEAL books about a decade ago.
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Jan 22, 2014 05:37
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Poutling posted:Not sure if this is too out there for you but there is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon in which the 'detective' is a 15 year old autistic kid. It was one of those BIG DEAL books about a decade ago. Oh, yeah, this is a great recommendation.
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Jan 22, 2014 05:57
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