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I was wondering if there are any good post apocalypse/zombie books or series out there? I was playing The Walking Dead 2 yesterday and thought it would be neat to read something (not comics though) about people trying to make it in a hosed up new world. Something that really tries to envision what life and society would be like rather than some gag cash-in on the zombie craze. I've read The Road which I loved, Word War Z which I found so-so and I tried to read Forest of Hands and Teeth which turned out to be some awful Twilightesque teen love triangle poo poo.
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Apr 1, 2014 15:26
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You could try Cell by Stephen King
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Apr 1, 2014 15:30
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Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower isn't so much apocalyptic as a look at an all too plausible near future. Aside from one or two weak sci-fi elements, the book as a whole is outstanding.
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Apr 1, 2014 15:57
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After a slow start and on reflection I really ended up enjoying Heart of Darkness, especially the bits before he actually met Kurtz and there were just legends surrounding him; are there any other really good books/stories that are sort of a character study of someone who is never actually met???????
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Apr 1, 2014 15:58
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regulargonzalez posted:You could try Cell by Stephen King Uh.... how about THE STAND by Stephen King!? Immensely better than Cell, and one of my favorite books of all time. No zombies, but goddamn that's a good book.
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Apr 1, 2014 16:11
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Dr Scoofles posted:I was wondering if there are any good post apocalypse/zombie books or series out there? I was playing The Walking Dead 2 yesterday and thought it would be neat to read something (not comics though) about people trying to make it in a hosed up new world. Something that really tries to envision what life and society would be like rather than some gag cash-in on the zombie craze. I've read The Road which I loved, Word War Z which I found so-so and I tried to read Forest of Hands and Teeth which turned out to be some awful Twilightesque teen love triangle poo poo. I really like Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, although it is very much a specialized taste -- the dialect it's written in can be horribly annoying.
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Apr 1, 2014 16:22
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Dr Scoofles posted:I was wondering if there are any good post apocalypse/zombie books or series out there? While I personally did not care for it, "literary genre" people dug Colson Whitehead's Zone One.
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Apr 1, 2014 17:09
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Dr Scoofles posted:I was wondering if there are any good post apocalypse/zombie books or series out there? I was playing The Walking Dead 2 yesterday and thought it would be neat to read something (not comics though) about people trying to make it in a hosed up new world. Something that really tries to envision what life and society would be like rather than some gag cash-in on the zombie craze. I've read The Road which I loved, Word War Z which I found so-so and I tried to read Forest of Hands and Teeth which turned out to be some awful Twilightesque teen love triangle poo poo. I second The Stand, Zone One was ok. I really enjoyed these: Blindness by Jose Saramago The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (relatively optimistic take on the genre) In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster The Passage by Justin Cronin (part 1 of a trilogy. Technically about vampires but they are more like monsters) Wool by Hugh Howey There are also some spin off novels for The Walking Dead. They're alright, nothing amazing. I'm on my phone so can't give you a link, but there was a thread in the Book Barn with post-apocalyptic recommendations.
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Apr 1, 2014 21:33
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Dr Scoofles posted:I was wondering if there are any good post apocalypse/zombie books or series out there? When I was younger (by 2 or 3 years), I read a bunch of zombie anthologies/series/novels. So, let me save you some pain. Here are some anti-recommendations for zombie series. * White Flag of The Dead - Joseph Talluto : featuring the super awesome protagonist who is super awesome at everything and even though his forgettable sidekicks don't always make it, you won't care because they go on a super awesome mission to liberate the Bill of Rights from the zombies and a Universal Soldier knockoff who is also a pedo. * Day by Day Armageddon - JL Bourne : a journal-style series focused on a super awesome military guy who is super awesome at killing zombies. Written by an actual military guy. Gets worse and worse as the story goes on. * The Morningstar Saga-Z.A. Recht : Take the above, add in 28 Days Later backstory and some boring POLITICAL INTRIGUE about how the gub-ment made teh zombiez. * Monster Island/Nation/Planet - David Wellington: zombies and spaceships and egyption mummies and commandos and just loving dumb. * The Rising - Brian Keene : notable for quite possibly being the worst book I have ever read. As above, zombie books are generally pretty terrible as a whole - but this one is like five standard deviations about the mean shittiness. Essentially, an alien wizard who might be an Egyptian god controls zombies to do 9/11 on The Heroes. *As the World Dies - Rhiannon Frater : meh, okay but totally forgettable On a more positive note, for something like The Road but without the grinding depression, I loved Lost Everything. Lost Everything is like Cormac McCarthy's The Road if written by Terrence Malick. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12139883-lost-everything
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Apr 2, 2014 02:30
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BrosephofArimathea posted:
I think you're confused on this one. Monster Island was the one in which a bog mummy uses wizard-zombie powers to fight a group of Somali pirates who have come to NYC to find AIDS medication for their queen or something. Also the primary antagonist is another zombie wizard named, I believe, Gary. The Rising is the one in which the Large Hadron Collider undoes an ancient spell keeping evil angels locked in a parallel dimension and they make zombies somehow. I think there's an evil military commander and a lot of rape. Both of them are terrible.
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Apr 2, 2014 03:39
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End Of Worlds posted:I think you're confused on this one. Monster Island was the one in which a bog mummy uses wizard-zombie powers to fight a group of Somali pirates who have come to NYC to find AIDS medication for their queen or something. Also the primary antagonist is another zombie wizard named, I believe, Gary. Isn't The Rising (well, part #2) the one where they board up a skyscraper but then the zombie god/demon uses his wizard powers to find all the sleeper cells in NYC and makes the zombie terrists blow up the building with rocket launchers and grenades, then mindcontrols birds/mice/etc to kill everyone because then the aliens can kill all the plankton or something equally dumb? (definitely lots of rape, too) No spoiler tags because it's retarded.
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Apr 2, 2014 06:17
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BrosephofArimathea posted:Isn't The Rising (well, part #2) the one where they board up a skyscraper but then the zombie god/demon uses his wizard powers to find all the sleeper cells in NYC and makes the zombie terrists blow up the building with rocket launchers and grenades, then mindcontrols birds/mice/etc to kill everyone because then the aliens can kill all the plankton or something equally dumb? Hahaha what?
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Apr 2, 2014 09:16
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Thanks all for the recommendations and the anti-recs too! I've been struck down with illness so this is the perfect time for me to download samples and see what sticks. I forgot to mention before that I've read Wool and absolutely loved it, it's the exact sort of thing I was hoping to find again. Sadly I found it's prequel Shift to be really boring. The Stand might be my first go-to, simply because I thought Under The Dome was pretty good. Thanks again gooonnsss
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Apr 2, 2014 09:16
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Noise by Darin Bradley is more during-the-apocalypse than post-apocalypse, but if you want a different take on this type of thing it's worth reading. Just try to find a good deal on it 'cuz it's really short.
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Apr 3, 2014 00:19
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You guys need to read Monday begins on Saturday by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky. Its russian fairy tales + 1950's Soviet science. The combination sounds horrible, but it works very well.
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Apr 4, 2014 17:43
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Any suggestions for a good introduction to Russian literature?
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Apr 4, 2014 18:36
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Finished the Broken Empire trilogy and loved almost every bit of it. Now, however, I find myself wanting some sci-fi. I haven't read much sci-fi, but I enjoyed the Halo novels, some of the Warhammer 40k books, Philip K Dick's works, and... Metro 2033 I think? Basically I like post-apoc and soft sci-fi stuff over the hard "super realistic" stuff.
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Apr 4, 2014 18:43
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PlatinumJukebox posted:Any suggestions for a good introduction to Russian literature? Like a survey, or just some good representative books? For the latter, I can't recommend Dostoevsky's The Idiot highly enough. My favorite novel of his. I read the version on Project Gutenberg and the translation hit my exact sweet spot of being neither too period nor too modern; not too "foreign" flavored nor too colloquial. That said, Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn are really my only experiences with Russian lit so I'll leave it to others to make additional suggestions. e: Anna Karenina is also good and very Russian in flavor. I didn't care for it as much as Dostoevsky's works but it's worth a read.
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Apr 4, 2014 20:47
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The Russian lit thread would be a good place to start I think. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3390257
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Apr 4, 2014 21:05
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PlatinumJukebox posted:Any suggestions for a good introduction to Russian literature? Basically any russian author published by Macmillian press in the 1960s-1970s is guaranteed to be top-shelf. Arkady & Boris Strugatsky are good to look into. So is Stanislaw Lem.
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Apr 4, 2014 21:10
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tuluk posted:Basically any russian author published by Macmillian press in the 1960s-1970s is guaranteed to be top-shelf. Not that Lem isn't awesome, but he's not really Russian...
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Apr 4, 2014 21:34
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Brainamp posted:Basically I like post-apoc and soft sci-fi stuff over the hard "super realistic" stuff. Maybe Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan? It's hard in the sense that the tech is meant to be internally consistent, and there's a lot of it central to the plot, but it doesn't spend pages upon pages sperging about particle collisions and chemical compounds. It's really colour for the noir detective story, like local custom would be for one set in an exotic location. Brutal violence/torture trigger warning, though interestingly/depressingly all the torture stuff was taken from Amnesty International reports. 
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Apr 4, 2014 22:30
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Lem wasn't russian but he was one of the better Russian bloc authors out there. It's just amazing that the english translations of his works were so good, with the whole polish->french->english translation track that most of his books had.
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Apr 4, 2014 22:37
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tuluk posted:Lem wasn't russian but he was one of the better Russian bloc authors out there. Fair enough- I meant to emphasize really because I saw your point, but he's not part of that Grand Canon of Russian Literature.
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Apr 4, 2014 23:43
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Never really read a lot of fiction, hoping to find some more. Some close friends bugged me non-stop to read Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles, did that, was shocked how much I enjoyed it. Was really fantastic. Went looking for something similar, got pointed to Sanderson and Abercrombie, so I'm trying them out, though I'm not particularly enthralled by Abercrombie. For some extra flavor, Douglas Adams is my favorite author of all time and pretty much all I read for years was Hitchhikers Guide and Dirk Gently stuff. Also didn't really enjoy Discworld but I did love "The Long Earth" series by Pratchett/Baxter. Sanderson is apparently some sort of mutant born to write forever so I'll have a bunch of his stuff to work through, just wondering if anything stands out given these factors I should get into.
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Apr 5, 2014 00:18
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cams posted:Never really read a lot of fiction, hoping to find some more. Some close friends bugged me non-stop to read Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles, did that, was shocked how much I enjoyed it. Was really fantastic. Went looking for something similar, got pointed to Sanderson and Abercrombie, so I'm trying them out, though I'm not particularly enthralled by Abercrombie. A Song of Ice and Fire.
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Apr 5, 2014 08:55
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Where's a good start for Discworld? I love Good Omens and I love Hitchhikers (Douglas Adams, I know,) and I'm looking for something similar in tone to that observational and earnest humour. I tried the first book in the Discworld series but I found myself wandering off, the book being a bit more expository and not a whole lot happening, nothing about the prose particularly standing out. Should I stick through with the book or try another book in the Discworld series? If not Discworld, any other book with that kind of dry, observational humour. Of all things, Roald Dahl comes to mind as another example of what I'm looking for. I love books with a strong sense of voice but it's hard to come across ones that can also pull off the kind of self aware humour that Adams and Pratchett did so well in Good Omens and Hitchhikers, respectively. There's something almost conversational to their tone. LEFTENANT RIGHTIE fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Apr 6, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 07:23
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LEFTENANT RIGHTIE posted:Where's a good start for Discworld? I love Good Omens and I love Hitchhikers (Douglas Adams, I know,) and I'm looking for something similar in tone to that observational and earnest humour. I tried the first book in the Discworld series but I found myself wandering off, the book being a bit more expository and not a whole lot happening, nothing about the prose particularly standing out. Should I stick through with the book or try another book in the Discworld series? Don't get too hung up on the order of the Discworld books. There are a number of mini-series with continuity in the cast of the characters etc, but a lot of them are pretty much standalone. So, skip the Colour of Magic and try something like Small Gods (Discworld theology is really interesting) or Guards!, Guards! (detective pastiche with one of the series best characters), or Mort (an introduction to DEATH, who is probably the most iconic Discworld character).
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Apr 6, 2014 14:32
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LEFTENANT RIGHTIE posted:Of all things, Roald Dahl comes to mind as another example of what I'm looking for. Have you read his adult novel My Uncle Oswald? If not, do so immediately. That goes for anyone, really. Hilarious and clever book.
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Apr 6, 2014 15:36
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LEFTENANT RIGHTIE posted:Where's a good start for Discworld? I love Good Omens and I love Hitchhikers (Douglas Adams, I know,) and I'm looking for something similar in tone to that observational and earnest humour. I tried the first book in the Discworld series but I found myself wandering off, the book being a bit more expository and not a whole lot happening, nothing about the prose particularly standing out. Should I stick through with the book or try another book in the Discworld series? If you want a self-contained book, Small Gods is really good. If you'd rather the beginning of one of the mini-series, I recommend Guards! Guards! Colour of Magic is pretty mediocre though, agreed.
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Apr 7, 2014 01:20
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What is considered the definitive version of Journey to the West?
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Apr 7, 2014 02:22
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I loved True Detective and I was wondering if there were books that had similar structure. A police drama/mystery that has significant psychological horror elements and the case ruining their lives. Available on audible a big plus.
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Apr 7, 2014 02:42
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End Of Worlds posted:I think you're confused on this one. Monster Island was the one in which a bog mummy uses wizard-zombie powers to fight a group of Somali pirates who have come to NYC to find AIDS medication for their queen or something. Also the primary antagonist is another zombie wizard named, I believe, Gary. Maybe I'm looking back with rose-tinted glasses because I read it way back when it was on the internet and I was still a teenager, but I quite liked Monster Island and Monster Nation... a lot of the stuff about Egyptian bog mummies etc. sounds stupid in description but I thought it worked while I was reading it. At least I did at the time. Nation is definitely the better book, being a prequel dealing with the slow collapse across the US. Regarding post-apocalyptic stuff in general, no recommendation is complete without any John Wyndham, especially Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes. Chas McGill posted:Don't get too hung up on the order of the Discworld books. There are a number of mini-series with continuity in the cast of the characters etc, but a lot of them are pretty much standalone. So, skip the Colour of Magic and try something like Small Gods (Discworld theology is really interesting) or Guards!, Guards! (detective pastiche with one of the series best characters), or Mort (an introduction to DEATH, who is probably the most iconic Discworld character). Apparently Pratchett himself recommended Guards! Guards! as the best entry point to the series. I agree about Mort, though, I think that's the first book where he really hit his stride. Reading the first three books is something you should go back later and do; it's interesting to see how the series developed but they're not actually very good. The first two in particular are basically just a send-up of Dungeons & Dragons, which is weird to look back on 30 books down the line when he's writing what I'd consider to be truly great literature.
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Apr 7, 2014 03:48
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blakout posted:I loved True Detective and I was wondering if there were books that had similar structure. A police drama/mystery that has significant psychological horror elements and the case ruining their lives. Available on audible a big plus. In terms of atmosphere I think you'd very much dig John Hawkes's The Lime Twig, which is a preposterously ominous novel about criminal goings-on at and about a horse race. "You suffer The Lime Twig like a dream. It seems to be something that is happening to you, that you want to escape from but can’t." - Flannery m'f'ing O'Connor
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Apr 7, 2014 17:32
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blakout posted:I loved True Detective and I was wondering if there were books that had similar structure. A police drama/mystery that has significant psychological horror elements and the case ruining their lives. Available on audible a big plus. Pretty much any Dennis Lehane has everything you mention there, and more! Especially the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series (the fourth of which was adapted into Gone Baby Gone, the Ben Affleck film)
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Apr 7, 2014 17:32
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blakout posted:I loved True Detective and I was wondering if there were books that had similar structure. A police drama/mystery that has significant psychological horror elements and the case ruining their lives. Available on audible a big plus. Cool thought! I second this recommendation and thanks to the two who already posted some. True Detective was indeed awesome, and I loved the philosophical aspect of it, too.
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Apr 7, 2014 20:53
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David Peace's crime novels are great for being super dark and oppressive, having horrid crimes that gently caress up and over anyone's life they touch, with whoever's investigating/narrating spiraling down the drain the deeper they get into it. James Ellroy's good for this too. James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheux novels are set in Louisiana and have an alcoholic detective main character who suffers hallucinations. The audiobooks for them are really good 'cuz they're narrated by Will Patton.
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Apr 7, 2014 21:53
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Brainamp posted:Basically I like post-apoc and soft sci-fi stuff over the hard "super realistic" stuff. I really liked I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. The movie... not so much. But the book is terrific.
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Apr 7, 2014 23:54
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Hey goons hope to get a recommendation on my next book to read. I am a huge fan of urban fantasy books in general but honestly theres a very good chance I have read any that might be suggested. Im also a fan of fantasy and sci fi in general and would like something a little on the lighter side if at all possible. No recommendations of GRR martins stuff (Hated it) pulpy fiction and sci fi is definately up my alley.
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Apr 9, 2014 22:00
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Kea posted:Hey goons hope to get a recommendation on my next book to read. I am a huge fan of urban fantasy books in general but honestly theres a very good chance I have read any that might be suggested. Im also a fan of fantasy and sci fi in general and would like something a little on the lighter side if at all possible. No recommendations of GRR martins stuff (Hated it) pulpy fiction and sci fi is definately up my alley. I just finished Lines of Engagement, a light military sci-fi. It wasn't perfect, but I liked it enough that I bought and started the sequel.
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Apr 9, 2014 23:31
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