The Book Recommendation Thread

Beaker · Post by **Beaker** » 2003-11-13 10:06pm

American Tabloid - James Ellroy

Imajica - Clive Barker

Do androids dream of electric sheep - Phillip K Dick

Great Apes - Will Self

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2003-11-13 10:33pm

The Dark Is Rising series, by Susan Cooper.

The Chronicles of Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis

The Pern Novels, by Anne McCaffrey

The Dark Elf Saga, by R.A Salvatore (yes, all of them)

Heralds of Valdemar series, by Mercedes Lackey (first novels I ever read with a gay man as the hero, and he ws so *kawaii!*)
Also check out her Serrated Edge and Bedlam Bards series.

Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. (Warning: Adult themes)

Anything by Robin McKinley.

Publius · Post by **Publius** » 2003-11-13 11:20pm

InnerBrat wrote:Frankenstein is a lot better than the movies make it out to be.

De gustibus non disputandum est, of course.

While not the finest ever, Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series is certainly worth trying. It chronicles the decline and disappearance of the Republic until the battles of Philippi in a loose pair of trilogies (the careers of Marius and Sulla in The First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, and Fortune's Favorites, and of Caesar in Caesar's Women, Caesar, and The October Horse).

Other series which are tremendously enjoyable include C. S. Forrester's Horatio Hornblower saga (which Stormbringer has thoughtfully already listed) and the Baroness Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel books (most of which are difficult to find; see Blakeney Manor for on line texts).

One should also consider reading Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers trilogy (be advised, though, that Twenty Years After and The Viscount of Bragelonne, or Ten Years Later are fairly difficult to find -- especially Ten Years Later, which is usually split into three books, The Vicomte of Bragelonne, Louise de la Vallière, and The Man in the Iron Mask).

PUBLIUS

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-11-14 11:58am

I enthusiastically second Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. It's the second best book that I've ever read. It's so good that I will never see either of the two films based on it, since they could in no way compare to the film that played in my head as I read it...

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-11-14 01:44pm

LadyTevar wrote: Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. (Warning: Adult themes)

I second that and add the two Merry Gentry novels by her too, third one isnt long off now.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-11-14 01:57pm

War As I Knew It - Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy

We Were Each Other's Prisoners - Lewis Carlson

Unintended Consequences - John Ross

Middle Earth Series - J.R.R. Tolkien

lukexcom · Post by **lukexcom** » 2003-11-14 02:09pm

Starcrossed, by Stravo.

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2003-11-14 02:13pm

Dan Simmons:

Hyperion
The Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
The Rise of Endymion

Vernor Vinge:

A Fire upon the Deep
A Deepness in the Sky

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-11-14 06:11pm

I highly recommend the Area 51 series. It's engrossing and....well, fun. It attempts to explain the myths and legends of mankind (And even religious doctrine) as though they were all the result of Alien intervention. Just plain neat. here's one review I found:

M. Keller wrote: missed this book when it first came out. Now, however, I wish that I hadn't.

Area 51 is the lead-off or "pilot" for a series of science fiction books under the same header with different sub-titles, which explore the different aspects of just what sort of influence alien life has had on the planet Earth in the past 20,000 years. Yes, you read right, 20,000 years.

I won't ruin it for you, but suffice it to say that according to the series, we are ~not~ alone. Area 51 opens with a US Army special forces officer, Captain Mike Turcotte, infiltrating security at the fabled testing range in Nevada. He quickly learns that there are a ~lot~ of things going on out there that he, one: wasn't ready to know about and two: is not sure if the world at large would be ready to know about, either.

In essence, that's what his mission is: infiltrate the base and advise the President's scientific advisor, Doctor Lisa Duncan, as to what he finds there. Aliens ~do~ exist, there ~are~ flying saucers and the government has ~known~ about this since the 1950's. Add to that, there is an inescapable tie-in with the lost continent of Atlantis and Human history is not what it once seemed. The story picks up from there and goes full tilt into a myriad of different hurdles that Duncan, Turcotte and friends must overcome to get to the truth of the matter.

Area 51 starts out kind of slow, but if you can get past that, this book is a conspiracy theorist's dream come true. Although some of it is a little far fetched for me, I enjoyed the book overall and have since purchased the rest of the series to read at my leisure. And, just so you know, it doesn't peter out like some books in other series that I won't mention, either. It keeps going strong, adding more and more to the mythos that we already know about Area 51.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-11-14 08:09pm

Publius wrote:While not the finest ever, Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series is certainly worth trying. It chronicles the decline and disappearance of the Republic until the battles of Philippi in a loose pair of trilogies (the careers of Marius and Sulla in The First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, and Fortune's Favorites, and of Caesar in Caesar's Women, Caesar, and The October Horse).

Those are pretty darn good for historical fiction and they get the history right while being entertaining. Good reads indeed but definitely heavy, historical reading.