Book recommendation:

[Punning Pundit 4,746]

Post title says it all. Steven Brust is one of my favorite authors. I wrote a short post about why.

http://goo.gl/0QYurC

[WonderWAAAGH 7,153]

I cornered Tycho of Penny Arcade fame at SDCC a few years back to ask him for some book recommendations, and Brust's name came up. Still haven't gotten around to reading him yet, though.

Edited June 12, 2015 by WonderWAAAGH

[Punning Pundit 4,746]

The fact that Brust isn't as well known as, say, Raymond Feist is just disappointing to me.

[Budgernaut 6,255]

I highly recommend Brandon Sanderson. The Mistborn trilogy was particularly good. Brandon Sanderson writes fantasy, but the magic systems in his books always feel super unique.

[WonderWAAAGH 7,153]

I got about two chapters into Mistborn and gave up. I mentioned it to a friend after the fact, who'd apparently already read Sanderson, and then shared his low opinion of the series with me. I guess I'm not missing much.

Still waiting on Rothfuss' latest.

[Norym 291]

I loved both Ready Player One by Ernest Cline & Fluency by Max Barry.

 

I also thing one can never go wrong by reading Steinbeck or Vonnegut.

 

Here is a link to my LibraryThing page.  It is a listing of everything I have read since 1996.

[Tipperary 2,370]

I got about two chapters into Mistborn and gave up. I mentioned it to a friend after the fact, who'd apparently already read Sanderson, and then shared his low opinion of the series with me. I guess I'm not missing much.

Still waiting on Rothfuss' latest.

I didn't know it was physically possible to tolerate Rothfuss, AND you dislike Sanderson? What kind of bizarro world is this.

[Norym 291]

If you are looking for dark Fantasy, the Black Company series by Glen Cook

 

 

Excerpt of first chapter of first book.

 

Probably my favorite fantasy series.

[TasteTheRainbow 8,726]

So somehow I've managed to live like 5 years in a world with Ready Player One without reading it. This was a huge mistake. This book is the greatest nerdgasm of a book that I've ever read.

If any of you haven't read it you really should. Sequel comes out in a couple weeks and you will buy it Day One!

[Biophysical 15,761]

I love me that Black Company.  I read the first book a long time ago and thought it was okay.  I read it against some years later and "got" it a lot better, then read a bunch more.  I haven't finished the series yet, but every once in a while I try to make a board game that plays like one of their campaigns, in that the preferred strategy is making the other guy chase you around the province until he's out of food, his morale is low, all the locals are on your side, and then you give battle.  I've never been remotely successful.  

 

My standard recommendations are:

 

Anything by Alastair Reynolds:  Hard science fiction space opera, lots of different stories in a world where humans are spread among a handful of stars.  There's no faster than light travel.  

 

Anything by Neal Stephenson:  I love the Baroque Cycle more than any book series ever, even the big classics of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.  

 

The Book of the New Sun (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, & The Citadel of the Autarch), by Gene Wolfe:  Awesome if you like your Science Fiction with a very literary slant, you don't mind re-reading passages to make sure you understand what happened, and you're okay with processing sort of made-up words by context only.  

[Punning Pundit 4,746]

So somehow I've managed to live like 5 years in a world with Ready Player One without reading it. This was a huge mistake. This book is the greatest nerdgasm of a book that I've ever read.

If any of you haven't read it you really should. Sequel comes out in a couple weeks and you will buy it Day One!

I've got an email in my inbox from 8 March 2014. It's a friend of mine reminding me that he recommends I read Ready Player One. It's not just that he thinks it's a good book, he specifically thinks it's the sort of book that I will enjoy.

I will get to it. I swear.

[Crabbok 9,869]

So somehow I've managed to live like 5 years in a world with Ready Player One without reading it. This was a huge mistake. This book is the greatest nerdgasm of a book that I've ever read.

If any of you haven't read it you really should. Sequel comes out in a couple weeks and you will buy it Day One!

There is a sequel to Ready Player One coming out?!?!?!  

 

  Ok so I'm not much of a reader, but I just finished school and had this book laying around from an old LootCrate and I decided this was a good time to pick up a physical book (Aside of an audio book) and read it.  I read the whole thing in about 2 days and I've never, ever read something so amazing!  (Keep in mind I'm not much of a reader so that's not saying much I suppose).   I found myself reading it at work, shouting things like "OMG", and "Holy F****" as I flipped the pages.   Needless to say I LOVE this book! 

 

  And ANYONE who is at least in their 30's and who even resembles the term geek shoudl really go out and ready it today.  

[TasteTheRainbow 8,726]

The sequel is called Armada and looks to be closer to The Last Starfighter than Ready Player One. I think there's a sample chapter out there on the Internet, but I've been avoiding it.

[Mr Tough Guy 397]

Is it really a sequel? I thought it was his follow up book but not neccesarily a sequel to ready Player One, anyway I have it pre-ordered, Ready Player One is easily my favourite book of the last 10 years

 

 

So somehow I've managed to live like 5 years in a world with Ready Player One without reading it. This was a huge mistake. This book is the greatest nerdgasm of a book that I've ever read.

If any of you haven't read it you really should. Sequel comes out in a couple weeks and you will buy it Day One!

There is a sequel to Ready Player One coming out?!?!?!  

 

  Ok so I'm not much of a reader, but I just finished school and had this book laying around from an old LootCrate and I decided this was a good time to pick up a physical book (Aside of an audio book) and read it.  I read the whole thing in about 2 days and I've never, ever read something so amazing!  (Keep in mind I'm not much of a reader so that's not saying much I suppose).   I found myself reading it at work, shouting things like "OMG", and "Holy F****" as I flipped the pages.   Needless to say I LOVE this book! 

 

  And ANYONE who is at least in their 30's and who even resembles the term geek shoudl really go out and ready it today.  

 

 

You should give the audiobook a listen too, It's read by Will Weaton   which gives it an extra dimension since Will's mentioned in the book

[TasteTheRainbow 8,726]

Yea it's not really a sequel. But same universe and all that, right?

[millernumber1 119]

I've never been tempted by Sanderson's doorstoppers, but his two YA series, The Rithmatist and The Reckconers are both very enjoyable, and his novella series, Legion and Legion: Skin Deep, are really fun sci-fi/fantasy concepts with nice writing.

 

I thought Ready Player One felt a bit too predictable - a lot of the stuff we similar to Neal Stephenson's Reamde, but I felt Stephenson, even though he dropped the VR/MMO aspect about halfway through as a serious plot thread, was a lot more complicated and interesting than Ready Player One.

 

I've been really enjoying Pierce Brown's Red Rising series. Has a lot of similar worldbuilding DNA as The Hunger Games, Ender's Game, and the Divergent series, but feels a lot more thought through and less annoyingly metaphorical than Divergent.

 

Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief YA series (The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings) is a really knotty, complicated, emotionally fraught series of Byzantine-era AU political fantasy/adventure. I like to compare it to Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, only without quite as much **** and incest. Plenty of murder, backstabbing, and morally ambiguous characters, though.

[Crabbok 9,869]

I recently finished "The Martian" and loved it.   Not really Sci-Fi, more Science-y, though technically still Sci-Fi since it's slightly in the future with some technology that isn't quite here yet.  Really a great book though, and a movie coming out soon. 

 

  Starting on the Lost Fleet series now.  A friend highly reccomended it. 

[SFC Snuffy 809]

I'd heartily recommend the First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. The series consists of a trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They are Hanged, & The Last Argument of Kings) and three standalone books (Best Served Cold, The Heroes, & Red Country).

 

It's a light magic setting - magic features prominently is the overall story, but almost never touches the lives of the average person on the street. The stories are quite violent, a little racy, and read quickly, but are engrossing enough that you don't want to put the book down.

 

Best character of the series for me is Logen Ninefingers, a.k.a. the "Bloody Nine," who is a reluctant berserker. Really, really good stuff!

 

For sci-fi, I still pick up the occasional Man-Kzin Wars anthology - I think they're up to 14 or 15 now? Light reading, but some good science goes a long way toward suspension of disbelief.

[TasteTheRainbow 8,726]

Pretty solid review of Dark Disciple, a new Star Wars book.

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2015/07/07/a-new-novel-star-wars-dark-disciple/

[mikodz 6]

The Lost Fleet series, only real space combat ever described. Sadly Star Wars ship-to-ship fights are a fairy-tail, funny and awesome but still a bogus

 

http://www.jack-campbell.com/_series/lost_fleet/lost_fleet_intro.htm

[TasteTheRainbow 8,726]

The Expanse also has realistic space combat.

[Mr Tough Guy 397]

I recently finished "The Martian" and loved it.   Not really Sci-Fi, more Science-y, though technically still Sci-Fi since it's slightly in the future with some technology that isn't quite here yet.  Really a great book though, and a movie coming out soon. 

 

  Starting on the Lost Fleet series now.  A friend highly reccomended it. 

 

I'm about three quarters through the martian and loving it so far, I love the fact that the main character Mark has a good sense of humour, can't wait to see the movie. 

Will hopefully finish reading it just in time to start reading Armada when it's released next week

[mikodz 6]

A little bit, i still prefer Fleet Space Zombies were cool tho...

[Crabbok 9,869]

Pretty solid review of Dark Disciple, a new Star Wars book.

http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2015/07/07/a-new-novel-star-wars-dark-disciple/

 

That review states that Star Wars Episode 7 is set to be released in December of 2016!   I know it's a typo but my heart still sank. 

[TasteTheRainbow 8,726]

Yea the reviewer is not

A little bit, i still prefer Fleet Space Zombies were cool tho...

That stuff hasn't re-appeared yet, though there are some indications it might in book 6. I'll be disappointed if the show tries to make them into actual zombies instead of organic matter with a new purpose.