Good Books to read (or series if you prefer)

[Insane.Pringle]

you can add za

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.

i think i may have read a couple of his books..

by the age of 12 i'd already read most of the scifi/fantasy section in my local library(that i was willing to read) and started ordering books from other libraries in the county. as soon as i got my car i actually started driving to these other libraries just to get my hand on these unread books..

oh.. add Piers Anthony for his Xanth series of novels to the list..

 

[Insane.Pringle]

so far the list of good books/authors to read are:

1. Terry Goodkind - The Sword of Truth series
2. Stephen King - Dark Tower series
3. Terry Pratchett - Any of his books
4. David Weber - Honor Harrington series
5. John Ringo - any books from the Paladin series
6. E.E. 'Doc' Smith - Lensman series
7. William R. Forstchen - The Lost Regiment series
8. Stephen Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
9. David Gemmel - Legend, Waylander
10. Terry Brooks - Shannara Trilogy
11. Robert Holdstock - Mythagos Forest series, Merlin Codex trilogy
12. Raymond E. Feist - Magician series
13. Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light, Jack of Shadows and others
14. Frank Herbert - Dune series
15. Isaac Asimov - (everything, but duh...Foundation and Robot series)
16. Arthur C. Clarke (anything, but the Rama series is a good slow burner)
17. Neal Stephenson (cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, some displaced future/history mash-ups)
18. Neal Asher (space opera, sci-fi - Polity, Owner, Jain or Spatterjay series)
19. Alastair Reynolds (space opera, hard sci-fi, alien threats to the whole galaxy, human colonisation of space)
20. Gregory Benford (did the authorised follow-up to Asimov's Foundation series; plus some space opera and alternate histories/futures stuff)
21. Stephen Baxter (twisted/displaced histories/futures, Xeelee space opera, future human expansion/development)
22. Peter F Hamilton (space opera with never ending threats to humanity's expansion/colonisation; plus near future 'enhanced' detective series)
23. 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)
24. Ian Whates (space opera, steam punk and military SF genres)
25. 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)
26. 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).
27. Brandon Sanderson - Fantasy: The Mistborn series, The Roshar Archive series
28. Brandon Sanderson - Scifi: The Reckoners series, The Skyward series, The Legion series (3 novella)
29. William Gibson - The Neuromancer
30. Scott Lynch - The Gentlemen Bastards
31. Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the shore, 1q84 series
32. Liu Cixin - The Three Body Trilogy
33. Dan Simmons - Hyperion cantos series, Ilium and Olympos duology, Carrion confort (this one was hard to read but it's really nice)
34. Mary Gentle - Ash : a secret history, Golden witchbreed
35. John Le Carre - Any of his books
36. Piers Anthony - Xanth series
37. Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon series

mods are welcome to edit/add books to the list if the forum allows them to

 

[Tron1982]

so far the list of good books/authors to read are:

1. Terry Goodkind - The Sword of Truth series
2. Stephen King - Dark Tower series
3. Terry Pratchett - Any of his books
4. David Weber - Honor Harrington series
5. John Ringo - any books from the Paladin series
6. E.E. 'Doc' Smith - Lensman series
7. William R. Forstchen - The Lost Regiment series
8. Stephen Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
9. David Gemmel - Legend, Waylander
10. Terry Brooks - Shannara Trilogy
11. Robert Holdstock - Mythagos Forest series, Merlin Codex trilogy
12. Raymond E. Feist - Magician series
13. Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light, Jack of Shadows and others
14. Frank Herbert - Dune series
15. Isaac Asimov - (everything, but duh...Foundation and Robot series)
16. Arthur C. Clarke (anything, but the Rama series is a good slow burner)
17. Neal Stephenson (cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, some displaced future/history mash-ups)
18. Neal Asher (space opera, sci-fi - Polity, Owner, Jain or Spatterjay series)
19. Alastair Reynolds (space opera, hard sci-fi, alien threats to the whole galaxy, human colonisation of space)
20. Gregory Benford (did the authorised follow-up to Asimov's Foundation series; plus some space opera and alternate histories/futures stuff)
21. Stephen Baxter (twisted/displaced histories/futures, Xeelee space opera, future human expansion/development)
22. Peter F Hamilton (space opera with never ending threats to humanity's expansion/colonisation; plus near future 'enhanced' detective series)
23. 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)
24. Ian Whates (space opera, steam punk and military SF genres)
25. 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)
26. 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).
27. Brandon Sanderson - Fantasy: The Mistborn series, The Roshar Archive series
28. Brandon Sanderson - Scifi: The Reckoners series, The Skyward series, The Legion series (3 novella)
29. William Gibson - The Neuromancer
30. Scott Lynch - The Gentlemen Bastards
31. Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the shore, 1q84 series
32. Liu Cixin - The Three Body Trilogy
33. Dan Simmons - Hyperion cantos series, Ilium and Olympos duology, Carrion confort (this one was hard to read but it's really nice)
34. Mary Gentle - Ash : a secret history, Golden witchbreed
35. John Le Carre - Any of his books
36. Piers Anthony - Xanth series

mods are welcome to edit/add books to the list if the forum allows them to

To be fair, I didn't like the sword of truth
But I loved the aaronovich serie, it's really nice !

I think we can add
Richard Morgan: the 3 Altered Carbon (the books were awesome, but note that I didn't see the serie)

 

[Insane.Pringle]

To be fair, I didn't like the sword of truth
But I loved the aaronovich serie, it's really nice !

I think we can add
Richard Morgan: the 3 Altered Carbon (the books were awesome, but note that I didn't see the serie)

added

i'll admit the altered carbon books were better than the Netflix movies, but that's nearly always the case when they take a book and turn it into a movies/tv series

as for Sword of Truth series. i found the first few books were good but towards the end of the series it got a little tedious

 

[KriSta]

I`ll add a few of my own favourites

Tom Clancy ( when he wrote the books himself ) For instance , Hunt for Red October , Debt of Honor , Excecutive Orders , Cardinal in Kremlin , Rainbow Six are but a few of his excellent books in the Jack Ryan Universe .

Alistair MacLean - Guns at Navarone , Where Eagles Dare and a few others ... very good books .

David Baldacci - The Winner - Memory man , Last Man Standing ... and a few others .

Thomas Harris - Hannibal and Silence of The Lambs .. awesome books , not to mention Red Dragon

Robert Ludlum - Jason Bourne series , very , very good books .

Lee Child - Jack Reacher books , milage can vary but often very good .

W.E Johns - Biggles series books . Very entertaining books .

Stieg Larsson - Milennium series books about hacker Lisbeth Salander , very very good books .

Ian Rankin - His early books about Police Inspector John Rebus

Jan Guillou - Arn- The Knight Templar very good books .

Michael Chrichton - Jurassic Park and others .... very understated writer .

 

[Bigfoot]

A few more from me that haven’t already been mentioned. A couple may be less well known generall.

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
Jo Nesbo
Henning Mankell
Stuart MacBride
Robert Harris
Frederick Forsyth
Charles Dickens
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Peter May

 

[KippleKat]

If you like Sci-Fi then I'd highly recommend any books by Philip K. Dick.

Others I can think of that are good to suggest:

Mockingbird - Walter Tevis
Vurt - Jeff Noon
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin

 

[barlew]

So an update to my recommendations. Last year I believe it was @SpyderTracks who recommended the Night Watch Trilogy. I bought it at the time and tried to read it but didn't get on with the first chapter.

Any way i tried again on boxing day and i am now absolutely hooked.

I love Eastern bloc translated novels and short stories e.g. Metro 2033 and the Witcher novels.

So yeh, give the Night Watch Triology a go.

 

[Insane.Pringle]

So an update to my recommendations. Last year I believe it was @SpyderTracks who recommended the Night Watch Trilogy. I bought it at the time and tried to read it but didn't get on with the first chapter.

Any way i tried again on boxing day and i am now absolutely hooked.

I love Eastern bloc translated novels and short stories e.g. Metro 2033 and the Witcher novels.

So yeh, give the Night Watch Triology a go.

Hmm.. I remember trying to read the first book in the series quite awhile ago.. I gave it up as I couldn't get my head around the story line.. might have to retry the book again once I locate it in the local library. (I only buy the books(paperback or ebook) if I can get into the frame of mind the author is in when writing the book)

 

[SiAdams]

I have just started reading the warhammer books from the very beginning.

there are 53 books in total.

I'm not a big reader but i want to try improve my vocabulary and grammar, so what a way to do this other than reading.

I recently purchased Chaos Gate (i once was a big warhammer fan) and it got me hooked immediately. It brought me back to the days of games workshop where i would build my own army of 40k space marines and battle with other armies in the workshop.

Anyways, the first book is gruesome but exciting. I haven't read through the first book yet but to give you an idea... The Luna Wolves have been instructed to help a distress signal from the Blood Angels on a world called murder. Upon landing on the world, they are greeted by giant spider aliens with razor blades as legs. They fight, some marines get decapitated with one slice. Blood and guts flying. It's awesome.

A good recommendation for any sci-fi lovers out there.

 

[adamsafe]

For someone looking to boost vocabulary and grammar, diving into such a rich series is a fantastic idea. It's like leveling up your language skills while immersing yourself in epic battles.
And speaking of book recommendations, I recently stumbled upon Colleen Hoover's books online at https://bookwormera.com/colleen-hoover-books-in-order/. They've got this magnetic pull that draws you into the characters' lives. So, if you ever want a break from sci-fi and crave some intense emotional storytelling, definitely give them a shot!

 

[ingridguerci94]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Fantasy) - Childhood, loss, love, heartbreak, death, life, growing up; this is the book that you grow up with

Meditations (Self Reflection) - Very philosophical, thoughtful, insightful and extremely spiritual; a challenging read for self discovery

Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Business) : How every business can practice entrepreneurship, innovate and grow; a timeless classic

Capital (Society) : A very powerful and descriptive book on how socioeconomic structures have evolved and will evolve; an opus

Kite Runner (Life) : Haunting, moving and an unforgettable story that will give you a gamut of emotions; a painting of the human condition

The Moral Animal (Psychology) : A detailed and very engrossing description of why we are the way we are; provocative book on behavior