Recommend me a book

Benedict

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Following on from my other thread, it seems that there's loads of decent books I haven't read or even heard of (as before I blame waterstones and the tediously bland selection they offer).

So, recommend me good stuff to read, given the nature of the forum probably with a fantasy / sci-fi tip, but I'm open to all suggestions.

My current favourites have been things like Dune or any of China Mieville's work or Neil Gaiman or Clive Barker etc (plus a lot of other New Weird authors), can't stand David Eddings or Stephen Donaldson or Terry Brooks or people like that, but other than that am generally open to most fantasy stuff.

Book me up people, book me the heck up.

I'm already going to check out the COmpany of Glass trilogy & the Book of Swords based on some other recommendations, but would welcome any further suggestions :)
 
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Iain M. Banks.

Start either with Consider Phlebas or any of his non-Culture novels. Of these, I particularly liked The Algebraist, although Against A Dark Background wasn't bad either.

If you like it, read the rest of the Culture novels in any order -- it doesn't really matter. I liked Use of Weapons the best, although it's structurally so complicated I had to read it three times before I fully understood what the hell was going on; i.e. that one may not be for everybody.)

As an aside, Banks also got me to read T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land; that you can find on the Internet, and it's one hell of a piece of poetry.

"April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."

That's me in April, to a T. :)
 
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Good recommendation on Iain M Banks, I've already read them all though :( Player of games was my favourite by far.
 
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One of my all-time favourites is A Canticle For Leibowitz. It's set in a "post-apocalyptic" period, in which the things from our world are considered religious relics. A fragment of a piece of writing from a man named Leibowitz whom is considered a saint and has an abbey founded on his name, is discovered and the story goes from there. Like a lot of mid 20th century sci-fi it's social and political commentary in the guise of a fictional story. And it's very good.

Benedict, you mention the "new weird" but do you know the, well, "old weird", the authors and stories from which people like Gaiman take inspiration? Lovecraft is the big name there, but Algernon Blackwood, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Robert E. Howard and so forth are all excellent.

And I can never avoid recomending the stories by M.R. James, they are what good ghost stories and "horror" stories should be.
 
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Well, based on what you don't like, it sounds like you're looking for more high-brow stuff. Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy might be of interest. George LL Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books might be sufficiently complex to do the trick as well. Perhaps the Fafrd and the Grey Mouser series from Fritz Leiber?
 
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One of my all-time favourites is A Canticle For Leibowitz. It's set in a "post-apocalyptic" period, in which the things from our world are considered religious relics. A fragment of a piece of writing from a man named Leibowitz whom is considered a saint and has an abbey founded on his name, is discovered and the story goes from there. Like a lot of mid 20th century sci-fi it's social and political commentary in the guise of a fictional story. And it's very good.

Benedict, you mention the "new weird" but do you know the, well, "old weird", the authors and stories from which people like Gaiman take inspiration? Lovecraft is the big name there, but Algernon Blackwood, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Robert E. Howard and so forth are all excellent.

And I can never avoid recomending the stories by M.R. James, they are what good ghost stories and "horror" stories should be.

Sounds interesting, and it's only £4 on Amazon so it's easily worth a look :)

I'm a big fan of the old weird as well, although I've never tried algernon blackwood or August Derleth, I shall investigate further. Any stand out novels from either of them worth trying?
 
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Duh! What am I talking about, I've read some august derleth, but generally only as a co author with lovecraft.

What's he like on his own?
 
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Derleth is better on his own as opposed to doing Lovecraft pastiches. Not all his stuff can be categorised as weird fiction, as he's written some more adventure/detective style stories (with his character Solar Pons) as well as a fair number of non-fiction essays on his home state of Wisconsin.

You should definitely check out Blackwood though. He was a master of atmosphere and invoking the strange and unknown (his story The Willows is chilling).
 
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Good recommendation on Iain M Banks, I've already read them all though :( Player of games was my favourite by far.

Dang.

(Yeah, Player of Games was a good one too.)

Sounds like your taste in books is pretty similar to mine. Here are a few more I've really liked over the years:

* Amin Maalouf. _Samarkand_ is my favorite, but _Leo Africanus_ and _Balthasar's Odyssey_ are really good too. His nonfiction _The Crusades through Arab Eyes_ is also most definitely worth a read.

* Mikhail Bulgakov's _Master and Margarita_. (You didn't say "no classics," did you?)

* Marguerite Yourcenar's _Memoirs of Hadrian_.

* Speaking of nonfiction, do you know Karen Armstrong? Her _A History of God_ is great, as are her biographies of Muhammad and Buddha.
 
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I've strayed from fiction of any sort for several years now, preferring non-fiction. But the last fiction book I read was absolutely fantastic. A great character portrait of a family that hits very few false notes. Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections". Not sci-fi or fantasy, but a great, great book.
 
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Horror: dean R koontz.
Fantasy: Weiss & Hickmann
 
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As an aside, Banks also got me to read T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land; that you can find on the Internet, and it's one hell of a piece of poetry.
I love that ... of course now that you can bury people any time of year the impact is less connected to reality ...
 
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Dang.

* Mikhail Bulgakov's _Master and Margarita_. (You didn't say "no classics," did you?)
.

A 4.5 average rating from 69 amazon reviews and an evil cat holding a globe on the front cover, sounds like a winner :)
 
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Yeah, you can't help but love Begemot. Any cat that drinks lamp oil and is a mean shot with a Browning can't be all bad, even if he is really a demon.

begemot3.jpg
 
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Sounds promising, I'm a sucker for cats of any description, even demon entities masquerading as cats. I've ordered a load of stuff anyway, thanks to all for their suggestions :)
 
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Three Bags Full.
A Sheep Murder Mystery.

The end left me a bit unsatisfied, but as a whole, the book was quite funny for my own taste. :)
 
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can't stand David Eddings or Stephen Donaldson or Terry Brooks or people like that, but other than that am generally open to most fantasy stuff.



You don't mean Stephen R Donaldson do you? His "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" series is my all time favorite fantasy work behind Tolkien. It rivals LOTR in both scope and imagination.

Have you ever actually read any of his work?
 
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Donaldson's later stuff is terrible!! He lacks 'style' as an author and pads his work WAY too much. Still, I did enjoy his first series and Mordant's Need!!
 
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Well he certainly didn't lack any style with the Thomas Covenant series, it's one of the best fantasy reads out there.
 
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