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Fruits of the sea posted:Any recommendations for fictional non-fiction books? Two examples are Motel of the Mysteries and The Atlas of Remote Islands.
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Feb 15, 2017 12:17
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Fruits of the sea posted:Any recommendations for fictional non-fiction books? Two examples are Motel of the Mysteries and The Atlas of Remote Islands. Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars. If you enjoy fantasy lit, Diana Wynne Jones's Tough Guide to Fantasyland is a funny take on fantasy cliches in the form of a travel guide. Selachian fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Feb 15, 2017 12:18
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Add Hav by Jan Morris as some very well done fictional history/travel writing made more interesting by Morris herself being a fairly renowned irl historian and travel writer
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Feb 15, 2017 18:09
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Can someone recommend contemporary sci-fi that isn't The Expanse? It's a little shallow and pulpy for my tastes.
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Feb 15, 2017 18:28
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Dazerbeams posted:Can someone recommend contemporary sci-fi that isn't The Expanse? It's a little shallow and pulpy for my tastes. It would help to know what else you've read so that we a) know what else you like and b) don't recommend things you've already read.
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Feb 15, 2017 19:44
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regulargonzalez posted:I mean, it's plot heavy in a very GoT, plots-within-plots type of way, but it has a lot of world building and atmospheric / setting-type things that make it feel very authentic. The first 50 pages or so can be a bit intimidating with all the names thrown at you but I don't know anyone who has read through the entirety who doesn't love it and feel they have a better understanding of feudal Japan. Dirty Frank posted:Its a cool book so I don't want to put you off, but It is mostly about drama. Still seems in the same ball park as I wanted. As long as the setting is historically accurate and has basis in reality I am interested.
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Feb 15, 2017 22:11
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Ulio posted:Still seems in the same ball park as I wanted. As long as the setting is historically accurate and has basis in reality I am interested. If you want something completely different, Royall Tyler's translation of Heike Monogatari is absolutely fantastic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Heike There's some slow-moving parts, but also a lot of blood and guts and demonds and suicides, and it's a very vivid depiction of a very important point in Japanese history (the end of effective imperial rule and the beginning of the shogun period)
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Feb 15, 2017 22:37
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Ornamented Death posted:It would help to know what else you've read so that we a) know what else you like and b) don't recommend things you've already read. I haven't read too much sci-fi unfortunately. I loved Dune, Ender's Game, and Left Hand of Darkness. Like I said, I'm hoping for something contemporary. Political elements and world building are desirable.
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Feb 16, 2017 03:08
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Dazerbeams posted:I haven't read too much sci-fi unfortunately. I loved Dune, Ender's Game, and Left Hand of Darkness. Like I said, I'm hoping for something contemporary. Political elements and world building are desirable. CJ Cherryh. Her career ranges from the 80s to now, and if you want world-building and politics, take your pick: Cyteen is a masterclass about cloning a deceased politician and scientist on a human colony, Downbelow Station is about a space station caught between sides in a war, and Foreigner is about aliens and humans trying to coexist on a planet. She's my favorite author, and all of her stuff is rock-solid. edit: Also, while I haven't read it yet (I know I know), I read this review of Luna: New Moon and it sounds like what you're looking for. Lots of complex politics on the moon. StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Feb 16, 2017 |
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Feb 16, 2017 03:11
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Dazerbeams posted:I haven't read too much sci-fi unfortunately. I loved Dune, Ender's Game, and Left Hand of Darkness. Like I said, I'm hoping for something contemporary. Political elements and world building are desirable. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
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Feb 16, 2017 03:17
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Dazerbeams posted:I haven't read too much sci-fi unfortunately. I loved Dune, Ender's Game, and Left Hand of Darkness. Like I said, I'm hoping for something contemporary. Political elements and world building are desirable. The Culture novels by Iain Banks. I like Consider Phlebas as a starter.
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Feb 16, 2017 03:46
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Franchescanado posted:The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
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Feb 16, 2017 04:31
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Inspector_666 posted:The Culture novels by Iain Banks. I like Consider Phlebas as a starter. I was going to suggest that as well. But for something fairly different, Near + Far by Cat Rambo is really good. I also like Machine of Death. And the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy is pretty good.
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Feb 16, 2017 07:37
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Dazerbeams posted:I haven't read too much sci-fi unfortunately. I loved Dune, Ender's Game, and Left Hand of Darkness. Like I said, I'm hoping for something contemporary. Political elements and world building are desirable. Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy (Ancillary Justice et al) sounds very much like what you're looking for
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Feb 16, 2017 08:10
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I will check these out, thanks for the suggestions!
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Feb 16, 2017 13:51
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Selachian posted:Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy (Ancillary Justice et al) sounds very much like what you're looking for Seconded. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress also ticks all of your boxes except "contemporary" and is one of the best sci-fi books ever imo.
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Feb 16, 2017 15:01
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Dazerbeams posted:I haven't read too much sci-fi unfortunately. I loved Dune, Ender's Game, and Left Hand of Darkness. Like I said, I'm hoping for something contemporary. Political elements and world building are desirable. I'd recommend the rest of LeGuin. Especially _The Dispossessed_.
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Feb 16, 2017 15:39
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Lawen posted:Seconded. I read Stranger in a Strange Land and found that I didn't really enjoy Heinlein. Is his other work that much different in tone?
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Feb 16, 2017 18:39
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Dazerbeams posted:I read Stranger in a Strange Land and found that I didn't really enjoy Heinlein. Is his other work that much different in tone? His books vary pretty widely but they're all aimed at an audience of intelligent, 1950's era teenage boys. I don't mean that as a criticism. Heinlein was very good at writing books that challenged the moral and intellectual assumptions of his audience, but the modern reader should probably keep in mind who Heinlein's target audience was.
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Feb 16, 2017 19:04
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Dazerbeams posted:I read Stranger in a Strange Land and found that I didn't really enjoy Heinlein. Is his other work that much different in tone? He's all over the place. Stranger really is his weirdest book (Number of the Beast, I Will Fear No Evil, Farnham's Freehold, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, and Time Enough For Love come close though) but he wrote a metric gently caress ton of stuff from hard science fiction to horror to one of the best time travel stories ever (All You Zombies). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein_bibliography Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Feb 16, 2017 |
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Feb 16, 2017 19:09
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Dazerbeams posted:I read Stranger in a Strange Land and found that I didn't really enjoy Heinlein. Is his other work that much different in tone? I'm not a huge Heinlein fan either, Stranger in a Strange Land and his other weird free love stuff isn't my cup of tea. But Starship Troopers and Moon is a Harsh Mistress are very different and I really liked both (Moon in particular). My phone kept trying to autocorrect to Mom is a Harsh Mistress.
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Feb 16, 2017 23:07
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Lawen posted:My phone kept trying to autocorrect to Mom is a Harsh Mistress. Which could very well be a later Heinlein novel.
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Feb 16, 2017 23:15
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I like most of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but IIRC it does have some of that standard Heinlein weird sex stuff, specifically I think that's the one where the protagonist decides it's OK to gently caress his fourteen-year-old cousin because it was just dumb and arbitrary cultural assumptions making him think there was anything wrong with that.
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Feb 17, 2017 07:36
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Fruits of the sea posted:Any recommendations for fictional non-fiction books? Two examples are Motel of the Mysteries and The Atlas of Remote Islands. Maybe Never any end to Paris fits the bill?
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Feb 17, 2017 13:43
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What's a good nixon biography?
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Feb 18, 2017 08:32
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It's not a complete biography (it mostly focuses on his political career from 1968 to just before Watergate), but Rick Perlstein's Nixonland is always worth a read.
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Feb 18, 2017 13:52
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one man against the world also focuses on his presidency but delves heavily into his biography to piece together why nixon was such a hosed up weirdo
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Feb 18, 2017 17:22
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Grossman's Crooked is the most factually accurate portrayal IMO.
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Feb 18, 2017 21:58
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:Grossman's Crooked is the most factually accurate portrayal IMO.
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Feb 18, 2017 23:55
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Thanks for the recommendations! None of them were what I expected, but I guess it was a strange request to begin with. anilEhilated posted:Not quite as pleasant as Remote Islands but I enjoyed Bolano's Nazi Literature in the Americas. This especially goes to a darker place than I would have guessed. I bounced off 2666, but I'll give it a try. Looking it up also led me to Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings which looks like it could work even though it gives away the conceit in the title. I also remembered/came across some other "non-fiction" books, in case anybody else wants to go down the same rabbit hole. The Voynich manuscript, of course. Stanislaw Lem apparently had a thing for publishing collections of reviews of non-existent books  Then I found a bunch of bunch of fantasy/sci-fi bestiaries and the like on Goodreads. They are less interesting to me, I guess because it's immediately apparent that they are fantasy.
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Feb 19, 2017 17:13
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Might be obvious if you like this kind of thing but Borges did a bunch of notes for fictional books and they're a joy to read.
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Feb 19, 2017 17:58
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oh, yeah. The Borges collection Labyrinths also has a bunch of stories that are narrated and framed as if they're about real languages and places and so on.
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Feb 19, 2017 22:16
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A human heart posted:I don't think it is actually Well don't hold out on us, what would you put forward instead?
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Feb 20, 2017 06:53
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klapman posted:recently I just read through The Magicians and its two sequels, and did so in about a week because I loved them so much. ... does anyone have some obvious "gimme" titles based off those books? klapman posted:Ended up reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro in the meantime, which I can highly recommend to basically everyone with a pulse. ... due to the constant first person narration style it almost felt less like a book and more an expertly transcribed storytelling - it pulled me in in a big way, and I read it in two big 2 hour long chunks, sometimes just enjoying the "scenery" as it was. I just wish it was a happier book. Will definitely be checking out the others he's written.
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Feb 20, 2017 21:52
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klapman posted:Will give it a shot! Ended up reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro in the meantime, which I can highly recommend to basically everyone with a pulse. I'd read earlier in the thread that it caused a lot of people to cry, but personally I'm much more fond of the incredible sense of "place" Ishiguro managed to convey. It's become rare for me to be able to perfectly visualize locations and such in books, but due to the constant first person narration style it almost felt less like a book and more an expertly transcribed storytelling - it pulled me in in a big way, and I read it in two big 2 hour long chunks, sometimes just enjoying the "scenery" as it was. I just wish it was a happier book. Will definitely be checking out the others he's written. I think you should try John Irving, with A Prayer for Owen Meany, The World According To Garp or The Cider House Rules being the most popular to recommend (I personally enjoy Owen Meany most). Any of his books will give you what you ask and will make you run the gamut of emotions.
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Feb 20, 2017 22:12
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I finally got around to Hex after a recommendation about 400 pages back. It was alright. Only one real gripe (spoilers, obvs.) I thought the ending would have been much better if Steve and Katherine brought Tyler back, and the town revolted against him when he returned to their chaos with his undead son. Making him kill the son. Making Steve the new Katherine for the next iteration of Black Springs. They kind of touched on it with him and the sewing kit at the end, but I really wanted them to have gone full-bore into it when I realized what could have been. 4/5, enjoyed the atmosphere the most. Characters were a little flat. edit: 400 posts, not pages. Doctor_Acula fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Feb 20, 2017 |
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Feb 20, 2017 23:51
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I've got some Amazon ebook credit to burn and I wanna read something fun instead of the angry bastard current affairs and history poo poo I normally get into. Anyone got any good recommendations on like a dark modern magical type story? I wanna read American Gods but might try to find a paperback first. Like magic, political intrigue, noir poo poo, etc? Something that feels maybe in place in a world like Mage: The Awakening?
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Feb 21, 2017 04:18
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I've got some Amazon ebook credit to burn and I wanna read something fun instead of the angry bastard current affairs and history poo poo I normally get into. More pulp than not, but I really enjoyed Simon Green's Nightside series. A private detective takes cases for the magical underside and they're fairly pleasing and quick to read.
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Feb 21, 2017 04:21
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I've got some Amazon ebook credit to burn and I wanna read something fun instead of the angry bastard current affairs and history poo poo I normally get into. Clive Barker's Imajica might do you.
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Feb 21, 2017 12:21
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I've got some Amazon ebook credit to burn and I wanna read something fun instead of the angry bastard current affairs and history poo poo I normally get into. edit: Don't know if you consider Cold War-era spying "political intrigue", but Declare by Tim Powers is utterly fantastic and well worth checking out as well. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Feb 21, 2017 |
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Feb 21, 2017 12:47
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