We were talking about great books and book series in TS today and someone asked me to post my favourite books - so I'm posting some of my recommendations for great book series. Saxon Series by Bernard Cornwell https://www.goodreads.com/series/43581-the-warrior-chronicles-saxon-stories - By far my favourite series to date. The books are quick reads. Historical fiction. Cornwell does an amazing job of tying in real life history with the tale of Uhtred, the main character. Uhtred is not always a nice guy, which makes the books a delightful read. So far there are 7 books and it looks like the 8th will be the last. (but I could be wrong). This series is fun because you get a look at viking/Dane culture and England during the invasion of the vikings. There's also a fantastic google maps site that highlights the real locations for many of the actual historical events that the books include in the telling of Uhtred's tale. I'll edit this later and include that link... it's on my other computer. Crystal Cave/Merlin/King Arthur series... Mary Stewart. Fantasy/historical fiction https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27689.Merlin_Trilogy - Mary Stewart is a highly regarded novellist who only just recently passed away (in her 90's). These books are older, but really well written tales of Merlin and King Arthur. The nice thing about this is that the first 3 books are more about Merlin than King Arthur, so it's a view that nobody has ever really written about. Mary Stewart was a diligent researcher and her notes at the end are fascinating for those who like to follow the breadcrumbs to see how and where reality and fantasy collide. Oathsworn Series - Robert Low - Historical fiction - I am currently reading the latest book (book 6) of this series. Some of the books are better than others, but I'm into vikings, so I have enjoyed these books. He can be a bit wordy and the books are a trudge in the early chapters, but I'd still recommend them. Sigma Series - James Rollins - Science Fiction... in the true sense of the word. https://www.goodreads.com/series/49378-sigma-force - This is indiana jones meets real life science. These fascinating books weave real life scientific discoveries/science with mythology and religions of the world and espionage/who dunnit type tales. It's hard to describe these books, but don't let me poor communication skills dissuade you. These books are fun to read, action packed and interesting as hell. If Big Bang Theory was an action adventure story... they would be these books. Tying together dark matter with queen sheba and hebrew culture is no small feat and this author does that sort of story weaving in these books. On the downside, the books are a bit formulaic and some of the things they manage to escape are a bit unbelievable - but the fun of the books overcomes any that small issue. Outlander Series - Diana Galbaldon - Historical Fiction/fantasy. http://www.dianagabaldon.com/books/outlander-series/ - There is a TV series being made of this. You can see a trailer here: http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsideth...r-claire-randall-has-fallen-through-time.html A woman visits a stone henge type spot in Scotland and falls through time. She ends up in Scotland during a time when there are rebellions against England. The series is bit of a romance, combined with much war and strife. It covers Scotland, England, France and even early periods of the USA when they were still a colony (albeit not a happy one)... up to and including the wars surrounding 1776. If you don't like this series - i guarantee your girlfriend will. Also - Starz has a channel on Youtube for the series, so you can see some of the cast now... for those of you who prefer TV. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYg6DkgTt8JC6s2FHqTZI55kJm61w7TbE I'll add more to this later... but that's my initial contribution
Those all sound interesting! My problem with book is that i'm like reading A.D.D. lol I'll start a book, then get distracted by something, then find another book that sounds good a few weeks latter and start reading that one, and so on and so fourth... lol
You would probably do well with the Bernard Cornwell series and the Sigma series... the Cornwell books are fairly short and the Sigma books are very fast paced... both have a lot of action that keep you reading. The Oathsworn books require more effort to stay engaged. And the Outlander series will be on TV next summer - so you can watch the show
Hmm, for fantasy & like, my fav books are (so far) : - The ultra hype George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. This really got everything you want in fantasy / medieval, and more. - The black company by Glen Cook : this is quite an awesome series in many ways, as the company is mostly aligned with "evil" people and the whole series is written as the company logbook, the style and point of view really changing depending on what character is holding the pen. For other genres, i highly recommend "the electric sky" from Donald Scott, a NASA engineer who is part of the rapidly growing (inside and outside of NASA) electric universe approach, explaining how our current theories for astrophysics, based solely on gravity are most definitely wrong and that electricity and plasma physics explain very simply everything we observe in the universe without having to add esoteric things like dark matter, dark energy and black holes... Unlike our current astronomy model which tells u that everything we observe represents only 4% of the "mass" of the universe and that 94% is "hidden"... The speed at which this approach is growing, with more proofs being provided every month will lead to a situation like centuries ago where helocientrism, considered an heresy, finally, prevailed.
Monster Hunter International - Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a fourteenth story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer. It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit. It's actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way. With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves. Business is good . . . Written by a gun nut who loves B-Movies, it's a blast! By the same author: Hard Magic: Book 1 of the Grimnoir Chronicles - Jake Sullivan is a war hero, a private eye-and an ex-con. He's free because he has a magical talent, being able to alter the force of gravity in himself and objects in his vicinity, and the Bureau of Investigation calls on him when they need his help in apprehending criminals with their own magical talents. But the last operation he was sent along to help with went completely wrong, and Delilah Jones, the woman the G-men were after, who just happened to be an old friend of Jake's in happier times, had a lot of magical muscle with her, too much muscle for the cops to handle, even with Jake's help. It got worse. Jake found out that the Feds had lied to him about Delilah being a murderer as well as a bank robber, and they had lied about this being his last job for them-he was too valuable for them to let him go. And things were even worse than Jake imagined. There was a secret war being waged by opposing forces of magic-users, and Jake had no idea that he had just attracted the attention of one side, whose ruthless leaders were of the opinion that Jake was far too dangerous to be permitted to live... I'll start you guys with those two....
Everything by Heinlein, Everything by Asimov, Dune Series, Everything by Phillip K Dick, Everything by Garth Nix, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (All the books), Sword of Truth Series, First Three Books of the Wayfarer Redemption series by Sara Douglas, Everything by Jim Butcher, Wheel of Time Series.
Here is the link to the google map for the Cornwell series: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=...d=209484870686648628257.000494a84553bf0484941
The Long Earth vN Dune Foundation Neuromancer The Mote In God's Eye Gateway The Best of All Possible Worlds Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep Slaughterhouse Five Stranger In A Strange Land A Clockwork Orange The Windup Girl The Martian Chronicles The End Of Eternity The Fall Of Hyperion A Scanner Darkly The Daedulus Incident Ringworld (and the series) The Demolished Man Something Wicked This Way Comes Abaddon’s Gate (need to catch a plane so what would be an uber longlist is cut short)
We are listing all the books in the world Robin Hobb serie was very nice too (royal assassin). The Hiram key is quite an interesting read as well.
From the Memory of Sekhayet: Long Novels (1000+ pages) Peter F Hamilton: Sci-fi The Commonwealth Saga is published in two-halves, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. Set approximately 300 years later in the same universe as Misspent Youth, it explores the social effects of the almost complete elimination of the experience of death following widespread use of the rejuvenation technique described in Misspent Youth. In somewhat similar style to Night's Dawn, Hamilton also outlines, in detail, a universe with a small number of distinct alien species interacting essentially peacefully and who suddenly become faced with an increasingly ominous external threat. Pandora's Star Judas Unchained The Dreaming Void James A Michener: Historical Fiction The book, written in an episodic format, tells the story of three families and the many generations of each family throughout the history of Poland. The three families (Buk, Bukowski and Lubonski) are fictional as are the other characters in the book. The plot, however, takes place throughout the history of Poland and contains many historic people. The events are largely real events in which the fictional characters interact. The book spans over seven hundred years. The book starts with an acknowledgements section, maps of the location of the plot, an explanation of which characters are fictional as opposed to which ones are historical, and a description of the hierarchy of Polish society. Poland (Let the Flames begin) Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged The book explores a dystopian United States where many of society's wealthiest citizens refuse to pay increasingly high taxes, reject government regulations and disappear, shutting down their vital industries. The disappearances evoke the imagery of what would happen if the mythological Atlas refused to continue to hold up the sky. They are led by John Galt. Galt describes the disappearances as "stopping the motor of the world" by withdrawing the people that drive society's productivity. In their efforts, these characters hope to demonstrate that the destruction of the profit motive leads to the collapse of society. The Fountainhead The Fountainhead's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an individualistic young architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision. The book follows his battle to practice what the public sees as modern architecture, which he believes to be superior, despite an establishment centered on tradition-worship. How others in the novel relate to Roark demonstrates Rand's various archetypes of human character, all of which are variants between Roark, the author's ideal man of independent-mindedness and integrity, and what she described as the "second-handers". The complex relationships between Roark and the various kinds of individuals who assist or hinder his progress, or both, allow the novel to be at once a romantic drama and a philosophical work. Roark is Rand's embodiment of what she believes should be the human spirit, and his struggle reflects Rand's personal belief that individualism should trump collectivism. Medium Novels (300-1000 pages) James Butcher: Fantasy The Dresden Files Series In the world of The Dresden Files, magic is real, along with ghouls, vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves, zombies and other mythical monsters. Harry Dresden works to protect the general public, who are ignorant of magic and the dark forces conspiring against them. This makes it difficult for Harry to get by as a working wizard and private eye. The Chicago PD's Special Investigation unit, when led by Karrin Murphy, regularly employs Dresden as a consultant to help solve cases of a supernatural nature. The White Council, the recognized governing body of Wizards, has decreed the Seven Laws of Magic, which all magic users are expected to follow. Breaking any of the laws, even without knowing of them, carries a death sentence except under very rare and special circumstances. Johnathan Stroud: Modern Fantasy The Bartimaeus Sequence The Bartimaeus Sequence is a fantasy series by Jonathan Stroud consisting of a trilogy published from 2003 to 2005 and a prequel novel published in 2010. The eponymous character, Bartimaeus, is a five-thousand-year-old djinni, a spirit of approximately mid-level power (fourth). The story follows the career of a teenage magician Nathaniel (later known as John Mandrake), and the alternative history of the peak of London's power as a magical oligarchy, through the eyes of the djinni Nathaniel first summons. The series is mostly told from the perspective of Bartimaeus, although the Bartimaeus Trilogy also makes use of the perspectives of the magician Nathaniel and the commoner Kitty Jones. There is also one short chapter featuring the viewpoint of a foliot called Simpkin. S.M. Stirling: Modern Apocalyptic Fiction The Emberverse Series Emberverse, or Change World, is a series of post-apocalyptic alternate history novels written by S. M. Stirling. The novels depict the events following "The Change", which caused electricity, guns, explosives, internal combustion engines, and steam power to stop working, closely paralleling the initial impetus of Steve Boyett's 1983 novel Ariel and the BBC series The Changes. Most of the action in the series takes place in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in the United States. The series primarily focuses on how the characters survive the loss of 600 years of technological progress. The original trilogy, Dies the Fire, concerns the conflicts between a Portland-based neo-feudal dictatorship and the free communities of the Willamette Valley, primarily the Wiccan Clan Mackenzie and the Bearkillers. The later series, The Change, now scheduled to be completed in 2013 after seven novels, focuses on the now-adult children of the original trilogy's major characters. Dean Koontz: Spiritual/Religious/Supernatural Fiction Odd Thomas Forever Odd Brother Odd Odd Hours In Odd We Trust Dean Koontz: Horror The Key to Midnight Elizabeth Knox: Fantasy The Dreamhunter Duet Southland is an alternate universe Edwardian version of a New Zealand, one without any indigenous inhabitants. Instead, Southland boasts an other-dimensional realm entitled "the Place," in which those able to do so can 'capture' dreams that are bound to particular areas of Place geography, which exist within specific bands. As a result of the discovery of guided dreaming, a dreamhunter industry has been created. Professional dreamhunters occupy a social niche comparable to artists and authors in our own world, and one of the most imposing structures in Founderston, Southland's capital, is the "Rainbow Opera," in which virtuoso dreamhunters perform before the nation's elite. Grace Tiebold and Tziga Hame are sister and brother in law by marriage, and are particularly potent dreamhunters.While Grace's daughter Rose lacks the talent, Tziga's daughter Laura possesses it. Each year, scores of teenagers attempt to become dreamhunters in a rite of passage, but few achieve interdimensional transit to the Place. Tziga and Laura Hame are able to create golems using an ancestral power called "The Measures." In the second novel, it transpires that these golems have an unheralded but ingenious relationship to the Place's very existence. Southland was settled by the British, later than America but earlier than Australia. People from Elprus, an Aegean island obliterated by volcanic activity, arrived in the eighteenth century. Southland's official church is a "Southern Orthodox Church" which regards the practice of dreamhunting as immoral and unethical. Southland's republican government begs to differ, as its unscrupulous Minister of the Interior, Cas Doran, was the architect of the Intangible Resources Act 1896, and is planning a coup d'etat which will exploit dreamhunter capabilities to provide manipulated consent to his anticipated authoritarian rule. Timothy Zahn: Sci-fi In a space opera setting, human Frank Compton is hired by the Spider, servant beings who operate the intergalactic Quadrail network, and their enigmatic masters the Chawyn, to investigate a group-mind, the Modhri, which infiltrates other sentient beings and controls them either directly, or by subconscious suggestion. Together with Bayta, an enigmatic woman the Spider have assigned to help him, he researches and combats the Modhri and later its controller, the Shonkla’raa. Night Train to Rigel The Third Lynx Odd Girl Out The Domino Pattern Judgment at Proteus Outbound Flight (Star Wars) The book, which is set five years after Star Wars—Episode I: The Phantom Menace, tells the story of the mysterious Outbound Flight Project mentioned in Heir to the Empire, Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future, and Survivor's Quest. Anything Star Wars or Star Trek Laura Anne Gilman: Fantasy The Vineart War/Flesh and Fire "Wine. A world with a source of magic that is grapes, in the vintages made with each different strain of grapes. Wait, before you wander off, think about that a minute. Think of how much goes into a bottle of wine, from how the grapes are grown to how each harvest is gathered and pressed and bottled. Then add in a touch of magic along with the flavor, binding an intent with each batch. It made for a phenomenal structure to build on. Each geographical area in the Lands Vin has its own particular vintage, its own magical specialty. The Vinearts, those responsible for crafting each vintage, are a solitary caste, tending their vines and wines and rarely communicating with each other. The creation myth of the vines themselves is based on this structure of each tending to their own specialty. But as the book progresses, it becomes apparent to one Master that this solitude cannot continue as it is. Something is going very wrong in the vineyards, from pests to plagues out of season, and it drives that Master Vineart to break that solitude and try to gather information before the vines are lost. Raymond E. Feist: Fantasy The RiftWar Saga The Empire Trilogy The SerpentWar Saga Chaim Potok: Historical Fiction The Chosen The Chosen is set in the mid-Twentieth Century, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City. The story takes place over a period of six years, beginning in 1944 when the protagonists are fifteen years old. It is set against the backdrop of the historical events of the time: the death of President Roosevelt, the end of World War II, the revelation of the Holocaust in Europe, and the struggle for the creation of the state of Israel.