Good Books to read (or series if you prefer)

[Insane.Pringle]

was just wondering what books my fellow PCS forums members like to read? for myself i will admit i am very picky about the type of books ill read. i prefer scifi/fantasy tho i will read thriller/crime books if i like the author/blurb on the back on said books..
Currently reading Litrpg books from Amazon kindle.

Dr Who, Star Trek SCE, general space scifi. also trying to get hold of books that are now out of print by authors like E.E. "Doc" Smith, The Lost Regiment series by William R. Forstchen.

 

[barlew]

It's a cop out but I am absolutely obsessed with the Lee Child Jack Reacher series.

 

[Tron1982]

*crack knuckle*

So, i'll sort it with author first

Brandon sanderson - be careful with him, he write as he breath XD
Fantasy books :
* the mistborn series (if you like it, i recommend to read elantris and warbreaker then : )
* the roshar archive serie (but be careful, it's heavy, read one volume at time)
-why this advice for the order ? because thoses books are all part of the same universe, the cosmere, and they all appear in the roshar archives, so, to fully enjoy how sanderson wreck your head, it's better to read it that way
-if you only want to read one for start, i recommand you warbreaker
SF books :
*the reckoners serie
*the skyward serie
*the Legion serie (3 novella)

Scott Lynch
*the gentlemen bastards

Frank Herbert
*the dune serie

William Gibson - the neuromancer

Haruki Murakami
*Kafka on the shore
*1q84 serie

Liu Cixin
*the three body triology

Dan Simmons
*Hyperion cantos series
*Ilium and Olympos duology
*Carrion confort (this one was hard to read but it's really nice)

Ursula k. LeGuin
*the tales of Earthsea serie

Mary Gentle
*Ash : a secret history
*Golden witchbreed


I wish you a good reading

 

[Insane.Pringle]

*crack knuckle*

So, i'll sort it with author first

Brandon sanderson - be careful with him, he write as he breath XD
Fantasy books :
* the mistborn series (if you like it, i recommend to read elantris and warbreaker then : )
* the roshar archive serie (but be careful, it's heavy, read one volume at time)
-why this advice for the order ? because thoses books are all part of the same universe, the cosmere, and they all appear in the roshar archives, so, to fully enjoy how sanderson wreck your head, it's better to read it that way
-if you only want to read one for start, i recommand you warbreaker
SF books :
*the reckoners serie
*the skyward serie
*the Legion serie (3 novella)

Scott Lynch
*the gentlemen bastards

Frank Herbert
*the dune serie

William Gibson - the neuromancer

Haruki Murakami
*Kafka on the shore
*1q84 serie

Liu Cixin
*the three body triology

Dan Simmons
*Hyperion cantos series
*Ilium and Olympos duology
*Carrion confort (this one was hard to read but it's really nice)

Ursula k. LeGuin
*the tales of Earthsea serie

Mary Gentle
*Ash : a secret history
*Golden witchbreed


I wish you a good reading

oh so its knuckle cracking time is it?? give me a few minutes to try and sort my list out..... back soon!! i'll edit this post once i'm done..

Edited:

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton

Dune Series by Frank Herbert

Dark Tower series by Stephen King

Any of Terry Pratchetts books

Honor Harrington series by David Weber

Troy Rising series
Legacy of the Aldenata series -John Ringo
Black Tide Rising Series
Looking Glass Series (the last book in the series seemed a little off tho)

Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith

The Lost Regiment by William R. Forstchen

LITRPG books off Amazon kindle (if you are OCD about spelling, grammer etc.. id suggest caution.. they are self published essentially)
these books are basically when the MC generally gets chucked/thrown/moved (of their own will or not)to either a parallel universe that operates by MMORPG rules or to a MMORPG universe online

The Titan series by Seth King

Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko

Viridian Gate Online by James Hunter

Mayor of Noobtown by Ryan Rimmel


i gave up trying to list all my favourite authors/books. i have far too many like @TonyCarter

 

[Steveyg]

Gentleman Bastards series is excellent. The Lies of Locke Lamora in particular is a fantastic read

 

[TonyCarter]

I'll not repeat any that I've seen above (Frank Herbert, William Gibson, Liu Cixin), so:

• Isaac Asimov (everything, but duh...Foundation and Robot series)
• Arthur C. Clarke (anything, but the Rama series is a good slow burner)
• Neal Stephenson (cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, some displaced future/history mash-ups)
• Neal Asher (space opera, sci-fi - Polity, Owner, Jain or Spatterjay series)
• Alastair Reynolds (space opera, hard sci-fi, alien threats to the whole galaxy, human colonisation of space)
• Gregory Benford (did the authorised follow-up to Asimov's Foundation series; plus some space opera and alternate histories/futures stuff)
• Stephen Baxter (twisted/displaced histories/futures, Xeelee space opera, future human expansion/development)
• Peter F Hamilton (space opera with never ending threats to humanity's expansion/colonisation; plus near future 'enhanced' detective series)
• Brian Lumley (modern-ish day vampire stuff with psi-enhanced secret service agents who can teleport, speak to the dead, etc. - also did a fair amount of Lovecraftian mythos material)
• Ian Whates (space opera, steam punk and military SF genres)
• Iain M Banks (one of my favourite authors who we lost in 2013...space opera and post-scarcity anarchist utopia that is the Culture series)
• Iain Banks (same guy as above, but uses this name for his dark non-SF materials which could be semi-autobiographical...TV adaptations have been made of The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road).

I'm stopping there for now, as I didn't realise how much I had in my physical and digital book libraries (this is less than a tenth of the physical stuff)

 

[Insane.Pringle]

I'll not repeat any that I've seen above (Frank Herbert, William Gibson, Liu Cixin), so:

• Isaac Asimov (everything, but duh...Foundation and Robot series)
• Arthur C. Clarke (anything, but the Rama series is a good slow burner)
• Neal Stephenson (cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, some displaced future/history mash-ups)
• Neal Asher (space opera, sci-fi - Polity, Owner, Jain or Spatterjay series)
• Alastair Reynolds (space opera, hard sci-fi, alien threats to the whole galaxy, human colonisation of space)
• Gregory Benford (did the authorised follow-up to Asimov's Foundation series; plus some space opera and alternate histories/futures stuff)
• Stephen Baxter (twisted/displaced histories/futures, Xeelee space opera, future human expansion/development)
• Peter F Hamilton (space opera with never ending threats to humanity's expansion/colonisation; plus near future 'enhanced' detective series)
• Brian Lumley (modern-ish day vampire stuff with psi-enhanced secret service agents who can teleport, speak to the dead, etc. - also did a fair amount of Lovecraftian mythos material)
• Ian Whates (space opera, steam punk and military SF genres)
• Iain M Banks (one of my favourite authors who we lost in 2013...space opera and post-scarcity anarchist utopia that is the Culture series)
• Iain Banks (same guy as above, but uses this name for his dark non-SF materials which could be semi-autobiographical...TV adaptations have been made of The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road).

I'm stopping there for now, as I didn't realise how much I had in my physical and digital book libraries

Doh!.. forgot about Issac Asimov in my list..

 

[Bhuna50]

I got into John Grisham's books.

 

[Insane.Pringle]

He's not bad.. but for me he would be down the bottom of the list


To me a good book/series has to immerse you in that 'universe' in which the book is set so when you are reading it, you are there. all other distractions like noisy kids/pets etc fade away..
i'll admit being deaf does help quite abit in that regard! lol

 

[polycrac]

LITRPG books off Amazon kindle (if you are OCD about spelling, grammer etc.. id suggest caution.. they are self published essentially)
these books are basically when the MC generally gets chucked/thrown/moved (of their own will or not)to either a parallel universe that operates by MMORPG rules or to a MMORPG universe online

I've fallen down the same rabbit-hole, which leads into some warrens of Wuxia and Xianxia novels too.
I'd add:

'Mother of Learning' by Nobody103
'I shall seal the Heavens', by Er Gen
The cradle series by Will Wight

All as something worth looking into, I think the first two are available free online, but I bought them on Kindle for easier reading and to support the authors.

In terms of some of the old stuff, often forgotten, The saga of the Pliocene exiles, by Julian May is an awesome series.
In terms of Urban fantasy, I've enjoyed the Rivers of London series, by Ben Aaranovitch and the Mathew Swift series by Kate Griffin

The all time best fantasy series I think I've ever read was the 'Malazan Book of the Fallen' series, by Steven Erikson

 

[Bigfoot]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson was one of my favourite series when they came out, although that is more than 40 years ago.

 

[Martinr36]

I enjoyed all the John Le Carre books, read The spy who came in from the cold for my English CSE

 

[Tron1982]

I'll not repeat any that I've seen above (Frank Herbert, William Gibson, Liu Cixin), so:

• Isaac Asimov (everything, but duh...Foundation and Robot series)
• Arthur C. Clarke (anything, but the Rama series is a good slow burner)
• Neal Stephenson (cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, some displaced future/history mash-ups)
• Neal Asher (space opera, sci-fi - Polity, Owner, Jain or Spatterjay series)
• Alastair Reynolds (space opera, hard sci-fi, alien threats to the whole galaxy, human colonisation of space)
• Gregory Benford (did the authorised follow-up to Asimov's Foundation series; plus some space opera and alternate histories/futures stuff)
• Stephen Baxter (twisted/displaced histories/futures, Xeelee space opera, future human expansion/development)
• Peter F Hamilton (space opera with never ending threats to humanity's expansion/colonisation; plus near future 'enhanced' detective series)
• Brian Lumley (modern-ish day vampire stuff with psi-enhanced secret service agents who can teleport, speak to the dead, etc. - also did a fair amount of Lovecraftian mythos material)
• Ian Whates (space opera, steam punk and military SF genres)
• Iain M Banks (one of my favourite authors who we lost in 2013...space opera and post-scarcity anarchist utopia that is the Culture series)
• Iain Banks (same guy as above, but uses this name for his dark non-SF materials which could be semi-autobiographical...TV adaptations have been made of The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road).

I'm stopping there for now, as I didn't realise how much I had in my physical and digital book libraries

DAMN ! i forgot about Stephenson (i loved snowcrash) or Asimov ^^"
Shame on me

i'll not sharing picture of my shelf, but it's the 2.24 ikea one, full from the bottom to the top, twice XD

Anyway, we also forgot about Douglas Adams and H2G2 (at least the 3 first books)

We can add
David Gemmel, at least Legend and Waylander)
Tierry Brook : the first shannara trilogy
Robert Holdstock : the mythagos forest series and the merlin codex trilogy
Roger Zelazny : lord of light and jack of shadows (and other )
Raymond Feist : the whole magician serie (or, at least, the first trilogy)

 

[AgentCooper]

So many books I haven’t read on this thread!

@TonyCarter - I’ve never indulged in any of Iain Banks’ sci-fi work but I loved the horror show that was The Wasp Factory. That book made my brain itch. What would you recommend to start me off?

Although as fatherhood looms ever closer, I fear indulging in a good book may be something I have precious little time for. I’ll probably be reading this…

 

[TonyCarter]

Well, I read them in the order they came…when they came out. So if you’re wanting the full Culture experience, you have to start at the beginning with Consider Phlebas and go from there.

The books do jump a little in the chronology of the Culture, but it’s usually to fill out background to something in a previous book.

Reviewing that wiki link, you could probably read the short story compilation State of the Art as an introduction without spoiling any of the full novels.


However, if you’d rather start with a stand-alone novel, set in a different universe/chronology, then maybe one of these will may pique your interest?

• Against a Dark Background (a galactic hide & seek for exotic weapons and those seeking to use them)
• Feersum Endjinn (far future Earth, remaining humans live in a ‘fortress/castle’ and can resurrect a few times, but know the planet will be destroyed as it gets pulled towards the sun)
• The Algebraist (humanoids living in a far-flung system trying to communicate/work with aliens who inhabit their local gas giant planet, but live/thnk at a completely different pace)
• Transition (more dystopian capitalism than sci-fi)

But as you’ll know from his non-SF novels, it’s not easy to produce a short abstract of the whole novel as there’s so much going on.

 

[AgentCooper]

Well, I read them in the order they came…when they came out. So if you’re wanting the full Culture experience, you have to start at the beginning with Consider Phlebas and go from there.

The books do jump a little in the chronology of the Culture, but it’s usually to fill out background to something in a previous book.

Reviewing that wiki link, you could probably read the short story compilation State of the Art as an introduction without spoiling any of the full novels.

Cheers for the info, tres helpful for a novice 👍

 

[sck451]

Not fiction, but I'm a little obsessed at the moment by Ben MacIntyre's series of books about military intelligence. The Spy and the Traitor (my favourite), Agent Zigzag, Double Cross, Operation Mincemeat. Also John le Carre, absolutely.

I also really like classical literature (think Homer/Virgil, etc) and I really like Natalie Haynes's stuff (The Children of Jocasta and A Thousand Ships are my favourites).

As a recently-diagnosed autistic person, I also really valued a book called Drama Queen by Sara Gibbs and would recommend it to anyone who thinks they might be autistic or who has austistic friends/family.

I realise from this that I read essentially no modern fiction. I should probably fix this...

 

[Martinr36]

So many books I haven’t read on this thread!

@TonyCarter - I’ve never indulged in any of Iain Banks’ sci-fi work but I loved the horror show that was The Wasp Factory. That book made my brain itch. What would you recommend to start me off?

Although as fatherhood looms ever closer, I fear indulging in a good book may be something I have precious little time for. I’ll probably be reading this…

View attachment 31320

That's a classic

 

[TonyCarter]

The Crow Road and The Bridge have the same effect (in different ways, and different levels of unease)…but to be fair most of them have something which gradually gets into your head subconsciously and you suddenly go WTF and have to re-read a few pages or chapters to see where that realisation came from.

He does the same trick with the sci-fi side of things, where you realise you’ve been told something critical/important earlier but it just didn’t register until later in the book, and you get a felling like of deja vu.

With the amount of space opera style books I’ve read, I have a problem that they’re all in my head and I find it difficult to separate one book/author from another…and will link a specific sequence from one author/book to a different author/book…until I re-read it and wonder where the missing section is

 

[TonyCarter]

Doh!.. forgot about Issac Asimov in my list..

If you like ‘vintage’ SF, then give A.E. van Vogt a try.

He was a contemporary of Clarke, Heinlein and Asimov, and although there is a bit of influence from L. Ron Hubbard’s diabetics/Scientology thinking…it’s mainly space opera, A.I. and the bettering of human thinking/mind. They are a bit ’drier’ than some of his contemporaries and the more modern SF.

One of his short stories - Black Destroyer (which was later fixed up to form part of the novel Voyage of the Space Beagle) - was supposed to be the inspiration for ALIEN.

Philip K. Dick is another I forgot, and has said van Vogt was one of his inspirations.