Your favourite fiction recommendations.

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by CrowZer0, Jun 30, 2015.

  1. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

    What would be your favourite works of fiction that you would recommend others to read and why? What did you like about it?

    I'll start of with Roal Dahl's books for children, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the chocolate factory, the Witches, why? As far back as I can remember this was my first love of books as a child and when I first realised how good a book can be.

    C. S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia, these were my first fantasy books and also my first series that really made me fall in love with the genre, my second fantasy series that sealed the deal for me was Harry Potter.

    As an adult my favourites would include A song of Ice and fire as this was my first fantasy books for adults, I love the gritty nature, the politics and the cold hard brutality of the books and the complexity where everything fits together.

    I would also recommend Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy, I enjoy the characters and the theme of dark humour throughout, I enjoy the grey lines between tradition good and bad characters and I enjoy the brutal violence written so well.

    Scott Lynch's The Gentlemen ******* series, again brutal, clever and dark also the first books I have come across that look at con artists who bite off more they can chew in a fantasy world.

    Patrick Rothfuss- Kingkiller Chronicles, The Name of the Wind had me more captivated by its writing than any other book before. Reading his words are like reading poetry telling a great story.

    Brandon Sandersons Mistborn Trilogy, a great writer and story teller and a fantastic new system of magic and a world where the bad guy won.

    Those are some of my favourite books, what are yours and why? (Although I have mentioned a lot of fantasy, this thread is for all fiction).
     
  2. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" by Suzanna Clarke - rich, detailed world and an alternative history with magick thrown in!

    "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman - the first book of his I read and still has a spell all of its own.
     
  3. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

    I've seen the new BBC show of Jonathan Strange, as for Gaiman have you read American God's? If so how does Neverwhere compare?

    Both added to my read list.
     
  4. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

    I think I need to add Alexandre Dumas's The count of monte cristo and the Three Musketeers to my list. Could the count of Monte Cristo be the first prison break and ultimate revenge story?

    Also the first superhero /super spy and the man responsible for super villains Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes. I've been so obsessed with fantasy recently I forgot about these classics.
     
  5. Guitar Nado

    Guitar Nado Valued Member

    I have so many favorites, but will list just some that pop into my head:

    The Forever War - Joe Haldeman. A great Sci-Fi war story, from the perspective of a reluctant soldier.

    Ready Player One - Ernest Cline. A great gritty cyberpunk-ish story with tons of 80's pop culture references thrown in (this is an actual plot point!).

    Wool (the entire Omnibus/saga).Hugh Howey - A unique distopian world with a pretty unique setting. It originally was a bunch of short stories for the kindle, but you can get them all in one bundle.
     
  6. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    here's a some 20th century classics i would recommend....

    for whom the bell tools: hemingway. has it all: action, drama, romance.
    ulysees: joyce. there really is nothing like it. an immense challenge, but incredible.
    the great gatsby: fitzgerald.
    as i lay dying: faulkner. a wonderful intro to the author.
     
  7. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Different...Neverwhere feels more microcosmic.

    Have you read "Anansi Boys"? Its a great read!
     
  8. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

    Not yet. :d, I tend to go through Authors I'm currently finishing up on through Eddings and was planning on finally going through Ayn Rynds Atlas Shrugged and Steven Eriksons Malazan but because that's over 10k pages I keep putting it back. It's been on my list for years and I keep reading shorter works first.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2015
  9. SWC Sifu Ben

    SWC Sifu Ben I am the law

    The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
    The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
    Ringworld - Larry Niven
    Neuromancer - William Gibson
     
  10. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

    Why?
     
  11. ap Oweyn

    ap Oweyn Ret. Supporter

    You look like you enjoy fantasy. I'd say go back to some of the founding fathers (and mothers) of sword & sorcery. Robert E. Howard (Conan, Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane), Fritz Lieber (Fafhrd & Gray Mouser), Moorcock (Elric of Melnibone), C.L. Moore (Jirel of Joiry), etc.
     
  12. Mushroom

    Mushroom De-powered to come back better than before.

    The Long Halloween
    Tim Sale (art) and Jeph Loeb (story)
     
  13. SWC Sifu Ben

    SWC Sifu Ben I am the law

    The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
    →masterfully written about the devil, but not in a satanic sense. It's really unique and just all round so well written IMO. I'm usually a fast reader but I had to take this slow because of the density of the work. It's very artful without being flowery or pretentious.

    The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
    →this one is... strange. I guess I like strange in my fiction because that's why I read fiction to begin with. It's about a somewhat normal guy who gets caught up in things beyond his ken. Kind of a Naked Lunch deal.

    Ringworld - Larry Niven
    →I like when authors put a lot of thought into crafting their universe and Niven did so as much as Tolkien or Roddenberry. It may also have been the inspiration for the HALO concept in the videogames.

    Neuromancer - William Gibson
    →it has to do with hacking and an odd dystopic japanized future. The mix of being virtually in networks and the real world is very seamlessly done and not as artificial or boring as it often comes off in other writing.
     
  14. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    when i was a teenager--talking 80's here--i loved those books!
     
  15. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

    I've read Conan, and Solomon Kane, I'm not too keen on sword and sorcery. I've read a lot of fantasy some after I read I forget. I was re reading a Robin Hobbs assassin's apprentice only yo realise I had already read it when I was 15 and found it enjoyable but forgettable.
     
  16. CrowZer0

    CrowZer0 Assume formlessness.

    Why? :)
     
  17. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    Came to post this. You would also like Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum. These two works were the principle inspiration for Salman Rushdie's work, The Satanic Verses, which would also be on my must read list.

    I'm also a terminal fan of Thomas Pynchon, whose breakout novel V. might have everything there is of life in it and none of it.
     
  18. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    Oh. Funny story. I was staying at a friend's house and started Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale on the way down. I hung out with my friend, got a little drunk and then stayed up until 10 am the next day reading the book. I didn't manage to get any sleep that night and went to a party with my (now) girlfriend. We had been dating for four years, but had some rough times and had broken up and were only beginning to reconcile. I was still suspicious and thought she was being duplicitous and got wildly drunk and… maybe some other things. Anyway, I wound up in the bathroom, really, REALLY believing that I was in a totalitarian misogynistic state and she comforted me until we left. We spent the rest of the night sitting under the trees and counting stars and looking for weird bugs. Been together another six years now. Thanks Atwood.
     
  19. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    here are some later 20th century novels i would highly recommend.....

    underworld: don delillo. a walk through america and american history, with lots of interesting characters.
    blood meridien: mccarthy. if you like westerns, this is for you. off the charts violent, and almost surreal in it's setting
    slaughterhouse five: vonnegut. bordering on science fiction, but a walk through multiple times and places with it's protagonist at the center.
    invisible man: ellison. at times, inrcedibly fantastical story of being black in america.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2015
  20. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    some 19th century english novels

    moby dick: melville. honestly, and i'm not exagerrating, maybe the greatest american novel ever.
    a tale of two cities: dickens. high drama, history, romance, amazing.
    middlemarch: eliot. terrific period piece. highly recommended english novel.

    i have a ba in english. so this thread has kind of awakened that aspect of my personality. it's all i can do to not post about 1000 novels. :)
     

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