OT - I know we've discussed this before...

[dogscoff]

But I'm after your book recommndations. I was given some book vouchers recently, and I may even get a chance to go to the shop soon.

Will consider anything, fiction / non-fiction, modern/ classic... just as long as it's a good read.

------------------
SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M>M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Go to my meagre SEIV pages (http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/se4main.htm) to generate your own code.

[Dracus]

I personally like most Steven King books.

[dogscoff]

I've read quote a bit of Stephn King, and quite enjoyd it. Read "The Stand", "The Dead Zone", some medieval / fantasy SK book I can't remember the name of, and I've watched Carrie... Looking for something different though.

Here are some ideas I'm playing with:
Foundation series: Worth the effort?
Dune: Read the first one, is it worth reading the rest?
Iain M Banks: Don't know anything about the books but I like the covers=-)
That new Tad Williams one: Liked his previous books. Is the latest (forget name) more sci-fi?
Stphen Hawking: I'm interested, but I might not be clever enough=-)
Philosophy: Complete newbie to this field, but I'm tempted to get into it.
Something by Aasimov that I haven't read yet: Love his stuff, recommendations please. (Anyone ever read his non-scifi book about a "pocket demon" called Arizaphael? That was brilliant. What was it called? Would like to own it.)


Or something else entirely new and different to me.

------------------
SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M>M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Go to my meagre SEIV pages (http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/se4main.htm) to generate your own code.

[Aristoi]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dogscoff:

Iain M Banks: Don't know anything about the books but I like the covers=-)
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Banks I do know. If you're looking for great Sci-fi novel with compelling characters, go with Excession.

However, I loved The Bridge as well, which is more of a psychological mystery with certain science fiction overtones.

Other authors that I like:
Ken Macleod, The Cassini Division- Takes a little work, but I enjoyed it and the ideas are cool.

Dennis L. McKiernan, Anything he has in the Mithgar cycle - He writes high fantasy with realism, the way that Tolkien could never get. When his characters talk they actually sound natural. He's great.

Jack Whyte, The Eagle's Brood and others - A new take on the Authur legends set in Post Roman times. Very interesting and well written.

Just my thoughts on them.

[tesco samoa]

The Harry Turtledove series The great war.

Start with how few remain and then the great war series.

Alt history. Very good.

And John Keegan has just came out with a new book on the eastern front.

Or the David Wingrove series.



------------------
Inter arma silent leges

[mac5732]

Dave Weber's In Death's Ground, others in series, Insurrection, Crusader, excellent series, new one in series due out in Feb 2002, When you read them you'll think of SE4.
Sci-fi,, action packed, good plots, Lost Regiment Series by Fouchsin (I know its not spelled right) another excellen series.

just some ideas mac

[Puke]

I have been thumbing through some David Weber and some David Drake over on Baen, and I am enjoying both authors. we could begin to discuss classic sci fi novels again, but you might as well dig up the old thread for that.

if philosophy is an interest, there is a brand new translation of Sun Tzu out. Also, I think some publishing house has been working on a compiled and newly commentated set of Nietzsche's stuff.

im not a big S.King fan, but a book containing the complete works of Poe probably would not set you back more than 30-40 bucks or so, and its not like hes going to pull a 'Douglas Adams' and write one more book on you, invalidating your compendium. you can also sample most of Lovecraft's stuff for free at http://www.gizmology.net/lovecraft/index.htm


------------------
"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

[Dragonlord]

If you like fantasy, the best I read in years is the Last trilogy by George Martin, and he is working on book 4. Start with "a game of thrones"

As for Sc fi, I just finished the 4-book series called Otherland by Tad Williams, pretty good stuff, especially the Last 3 books.

[Taqwus]

I recently read a translation of Camus's short psychological novel, "The Stranger". Similar genre to Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", or perhaps (more distantly) to various bits of Kafka ("The Trial" and "The Castle" being interesting reads).

Hrmmm. Time to toss out some highly random items from a variety of genres.

War (theory): Clausewitz's _On War_. Clavell's translation of _The Art of War_ is good.

War/Conflict (novels/serials): Tolstoy's _War and Peace_ (Napoleon's 1812 campaign); Pasternaks' _Dr. Zhivago_ (Russian Revolution), Luo Guanzhong's _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_ (warring states in China, ca. 170 AD. OK, so you're probably NOT going to find this one lying around your bookstore, unless it's damn big or a speciality store).

Fantasy: Haven't read much for a LONG while, but concur on Martin's "Game of Thrones" series. Although the reliance on slightly modified Medieval Europe Fantasy staples e.g. knighthood, "Ser" instead of "sir", and so forth, annoys me a touch. At least it's not plagued with too much Tolkien-derived material; he has the decency to make up *his own* fairly refreshing world.

Morgan Llelywnn (sp?)'s "Finn mac Cool" is a nice retelling of a Celtic legend. So is Nikolai Tolstoy's "The Coming of the King", which IMHO is far more impressive than T.H. White's "The Once and Future King", at least for adults.

Sci-Fi: Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy is darn good "hard" science fiction, IMHO. I'm also partial to John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar", "The Shockwave Rider" (pref. read Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock" before reading TSR), and Orson Scott Card's Ender books are also quite thoughtful.

History of espionage: "The Puzzle Palace", "The Man Called Intrepid", and "The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive" are interesting to varying degrees.

Thrillers: Frederick Forsyth wrote pretty good works ("Day of the Jackal", for instance). Others? Perhaps works by Eric Ambler ("A Coffin for Dmitrios"), or John le Carre (quite a few Cold War spy novels).

------------------
-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[dogscoff]

Hmm, looks like otherland, Banks or Weber. I was tempted by Nietzsche but I think I need some sci-fi.
I'll go down to the shop soon and see which one I see first=-) (Unless anyone has a better suggestion?)

------------------
SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M&gt;M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Go to my meagre SEIV pages (http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/se4main.htm) to generate your own code.

[Askan Nightbringer]

For a different sort of sci-fi -
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. (As Taqwus suggested)
Excellent story that, pity about the follow up books http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon9.gif

And if Steven Hawkins is a bit much there's this other physics author called Paul Davies who seems a bit more dumbed down for guys like me http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Cheers,
Askan


[This message has been edited by askan (edited 27 September 2001).]

[dmm]

If you want to learn how the Middle Ages REALLY were, read "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" by Pulitzer prize winner Barbara Tuchman. I loved that book. Unless you automatically detest history, you will find it fascinating. (She won the Pulitzer for "The Guns of August," which is about the start of WWI.)

[capnq]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Here are some ideas I'm playing with:
Foundation series: Worth the effort?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Mixed feelings; when I was a teen, the original Trilogy was my favorite novel. (I had a single volume paperback of all three books.) Rereading it as a post-college adult, it hadn't aged well. I thought the 4th and especially the 5th went downhill, but liked the 6th, which was a prequel. Haven't read any of the prequels by other authors yet. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Dune: Read the first one, is it worth reading the rest?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I thought the first four were awesome, and the fifth and sixth much weaker; but a lot of other people hate the 4th and like 5&6. Haven't read his son's prequels yet. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
That new Tad Williams one: Liked his previous books. Is the latest (forget name) more sci-fi?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>William's very latest is epic fantasy, published Online in bi-monthly installments at:
http://www.shadowmarch.com/main.asp

First five "Episodes" are free, the rest available by subscription only. Episode 9 is due on September 1. I like it enough that I got a Paypal account in order to Subscribe; I haven't read any of his other works.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Something by Aasimov that I haven't read yet: Love his stuff, recommendations please.
(Anyone ever read his non-scifi book about a "pocket demon" called Arizaphael? That was
brilliant. What was it called? Would like to own it.)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I think you mean the collection _Azazel Fantasy Stories_. I've read a few of the stories in magazines, but not the whole book.

I really enjoyed Timothy Zahn's _Conqueror's_ trilogy, which is fairly hard SF with larger-than-life characters.


------------------
Cap'n Q
My first mod! Hypermaze quadrant (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000018.html)
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[Deathstalker]

You want some REALLY good sci-fi?? Go try the 'Seafort' books by David Feintuch (sp?), incredible..All done from a 'first person' perspective..all about mans first voyage into the stars, colonization and the first contact of an alien species....loved it!


If you want really good fantasy, go try any book by Michelle West (or Melanie Rawn, or Matt. WoodRing-Stover, damn good reads)....

(or of course you could find the Deathstalker series by Simon Green, for a mixture of incredible sci-fi and fantasy!)

------------------
"We are all...the sum of our scars"....(paraphrased) Matt. R. Stover-'Blade of Tyshalle'.

"Human existance is all imagination...Reality is no more than a simple agreement among its participants that this is where we shall meet, and these are the rules that we shall abide by."- Kevin McCarthy/David Silva "The Family:Special Effects"..

[Dragonlord]

Bit late, but I concur that the Ender books by Orson Scott Card are very enjoyable.

Also, for some interesting sci-fi / cyberpunk try Neil Stephenson.

Some oldies but goodies in fantasy: Feist's first book "Magician" , and Robert Heinlein's "A stranger in a strange world".

Best historical fiction books: all books by James Clavell.

[mac5732]

I also forgot, The Lensman Series, if you can find it, by Doc Smith. Another excellent series the "Fleet" series, The fleet was good but they quit making sequals, shame, excellent reading

just some ideas mac

[Cyrien]

I enjoyed the Otherland series greatly. I reccomend it.

[Coal]

I would recomend Weber's Crusade, In Death Ground and Insurrection. Make sure you read them in the righ order, it'l be better that way.

Also Weber's Honor Harrington series. Im not even finished with the first, but I like it already.

The Area 51 series by Robert Doherty. Good aliens visting and affecting earth and it's history.

STARFIST series by Sherman and Cragg. About Marines in the 26th century. Lots of battle, some sex, little comedy.

Rama and 2000 series by Arthur C. Clarke. Rama deals alittle with explaining god. The 2001 book and it's sequels goes a long way to explaneing the movies.

If you're a Wing Commander fan, there are several books in that universe that I would recomend.

------------------
'Evacuate? In our moment of triumph?'
Grand Moff Tarkin, just before the Death Star blew.

We are Dyslexia of Borg, futility is resistant, your *** will be laminated.

[Taqwus]

S'more sci-fi:

Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep", and perhaps somewhat less well-done, "A Deepness in the Sky".

On _Dune_ -- first book is pretty good, but I know of people who've referred to one of the later ones as "Crackhouse: Dune", and I'm inclined to agree. Serious weirdness occurs later.

Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye" (or is it "The Mote in the Eye of God"?), which deals with contact with an... interesting alien race.

------------------
-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Kadste]

Already enough said about Weber, but you might want to read In Death Ground Last. In my opinion, by far the best.

Anyone read the Area 51 Series by Robert Doherty?

------------------
Never Give up, Never Surrender!

[capnq]

Forgot about this one in the other post: for fantasy, Elizabeth Forward's _Villains by Necessity_ was fun. Turns a lot of genre conventions upside down; frex, the protagonists are a band of Evil characters in a world where Good has triumphed.

------------------
Cap'n Q
My first mod! Hypermaze quadrant (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/Forum25/HTML/000018.html)
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[dogscoff]

Thanks for the responses. I spent the voucher yesterday. Went for:

"Colony" by Rob Grant (One of the Red Dwarf writers.) Very funny so far.
"Otherland" (first book) by Tad Williams.
A book by Iain M Banks. Coz I liked the cover=-)

I looked at a Nietzche book but it was expensive. Maybe next time. Was also tempted several times on the "Graphic Novel" aisle (transmetropolitan compilation, and it's about time I owned my own copy of "Watchmen"). I wanted to try the Honor Harrington series but couldn't find one on the shelves. Again, mayb next time.

Oh, and I was also intigued by the Time series by someoneorother Baxter. That looked good, but tthey only had books 2 and 3, and obviously I'd rather start at #1...

In other news... I might have a little sci-fi project of my own in the pipeline. I ought to finish the Viking shipset graphics first though...

------------------
SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M&gt;M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Go to my meagre SEIV pages (http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/se4main.htm) to generate your own code.

[dogscoff]

OK... just finished reading "Look to Windward" by Iain M Banks yesterday, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's great, and it has a quite a strong SEIV feel to it.

Some of the features that will appeal instantly to SEIV fans...
Ringworlds
Cool alien races,
Inter-imperial politics & intel operations,
Ships with comical / ironic names=-)
Lots of stellar manipulation,
Keen sense of humour=-)
I think there was some iced tea in there somewhere as well...

It's just a brilliant sci-fi book. Someone please go read it so I'll have someone about it to.

Oh, and did I mention that the cover looks really cool=-)


take a look (http://www.alphabetstreet.infront.co.uk/Show.jhtml?prod_id=15961053)

------------------
SE4 Code:
L GdY $ Fr- C- Sd T!+ Sf-- Tcp-- A% M&gt;M+ MpD! RV Pw Fq+ Nd- Rp+ G-
/SE4 Code
Go to my meagre SEIV pages (http://www.sandman43.fsnet.co.uk/se4main.htm) to generate your own code.

[This message has been edited by dogscoff (edited 15 October 2001).]

[Cheeze]

I'd recommend David Brin's trilogies of the Uplift War. I enjoyed the first trilogy more than the second, but really the only disappointment of the second one was aspects of the ending of the story.

[Taqwus]

Oh, a comment about George Martin's "Song of Fire and Ice" series (just finished #3, "A Storm of Swords") -- don't get attached to the characters, heh. And the plots and sub-plots involve an awful, awful lot of, er, plots. It may be fantasy, but that world's no Wonderland.

------------------
-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[tesco samoa]

Some classic H.P. Lovecraft.
or

On the Road. Kerouac Great book

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . H.S.Thompson

[Phoenix-D]

"I'd recommend David Brin's trilogies of the Uplift War. I enjoyed the first trilogy more than the second, but really the only disappointment of the second one was aspects of the ending of the story."

Second that, though Heaven's Reach got kind of..odd.. and Sundiver is nothing impressive IMO.

Phoenix-D

[Atrocities]

The Brothehood Of War series by W.E.B. Griffin is one of the best book series I have read in a long time. Gripping and involved it takes you from the middle of WWII to present day following the careers of several key individuals. A very nicely written series.

The Dirk Pitt series by Clive Custler are amoung the best books ever written in my honest opinion. I first read Inca Gold, and was hooked from there. Very good books.

Stainless Steel Rat series is a great read, but Harry Harrisons lates Rat books leave something to be desired.

------------------
New Age Ship Yards (http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/NewAgeShipyards/index.html)

"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Captain Picard STNG

Borg (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Borg.zip) Breen (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Breen.zip) Species 8472 (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/8472.zip) Cardassian (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Card.zip) Dominion (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Dominion.zip) STNG (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Fed.zip) Ferengi (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Ferg.zip) Klingon (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Klingon.zip) Romulan (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Romulan.zip)
Trek Movie era (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Tos.zip) TOS (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Trekos.zip) Illuminati (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Illuminati.zip) Starwolf (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/ubbuploads/Atrocities/Starwolf.zip)

[This message has been edited by Atrocities (edited 17 October 2001).]

[tesco samoa]

Griffen eh ?

I will put that on my list.

the turtledove ww1 series it amazing.

anyone ever read the one tree series or the one with the UofT students?

------------------
Inter arma silent leges

[tesco samoa]

i just finished Barry Longyear's Enemy Mine series. Fantastic

I picked up the enemy papers (white wolf publishing ) which has all 3 stories. &lt;--"The Enemy Papers" contains a newly edited and expanded-by-the-author Version of "Enemy Mine" and its two sequels, "The Last Enemy" and "The Tomorrow Testament"--&gt;

I Recommend it.

[tesco samoa]

http://freespace.virgin.net/johna.fairhurst/Books/Masterworks/

is a nice list of books.

Millennium Fantasy Masterworks.

[MikeRMcCartney]

I love all of Jack Chalker's Well of Souls books. Also the Shanara series by Brooks.

[tesco samoa]

I made a decision to read every book on the list.

I received 5 books for christmas.

Just finished I am Legend.

That was a good story

[dogscoff]

I'm now into the third book of the Otherland series (4 books). After a slow start I'm really enjoying it - Williams ( http://www.tadwilliams.com ) has a really good grasp on internet (sub)culture(s) and has extrapolated them convincingly into the future.

If anyone hasn't read his stuff but wants a free taster, there's a few chapters of text free at http://www.shadowmarch.com - also a good read. I might Subscribe soon...

[tesco samoa]

Question for Puke or anyone else.

Unification of Germany.
Have you read any books on the subject ???

If so what were the titles or authors names

[tesco samoa]

Sorry.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

[jaylord]

I'm sort of surprised that no one has mentioned any books by Robert Heinlein. I think two of his books (at least) are must reads: 'Starship Troopers' (forget what you saw in the movie) and 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress' (strange title for one of the best books ever written!)

Other sci-fi books I could recommend (not mentioned already) are W. Michael Gear's Spider trilogy, Larry Niven's Known Space books which include the Ringworld novels, and Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League and Dominic Flandery books. The later have a definate SEIV feel to them.

[tesco samoa]

http://www.civilwartraveler.com

a nice link for .... as the link suggests.(Edit add: American Civil war)

I have read a few Heinlein books. A Stranger in a Strange land was good.

[ 21 January 2002: Message edited by: tesco samoa ]</p>