The Book Discussion/Recommendation Topic

[NastyNate]

What is the cheepest and best website to buy gundam mangas. Manly Astray and wing

[UrbanSniper]

I'd have to recommend The Slayers novel series by Hajime Kanzaka. Very entertaining reads, and very interesting to see how they differ from the three TV series.

Also, if you're into really dark and twisted horror, The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum is a good read. It's really disturbing to say the least, and what's worse is that it was based on a true story. For a less disturbing read (at least less so in that it wasn't based on a true story), try Mistress of the Dark by Sephera Giron; a very good decent into insanity in this one.

[His Divine Shadow]

The Engineer trilogy by KJ Parker. Devices and Desires is the first one. Just read them.

Whomever it was who mentioned Imajica earlier: you rock.

Altered Carbon, Broken Angel, and Woken Furies by Richard K Morgan. Hell, anything by Richard K Morgan.

The Time Traveller's Wife. Amazingly good, often misplaced in general fiction and not SF where it really belongs. Don't let the sissy cover fool you.

Armor by John Steakley. Beats even Ender's Game in my Top Ten.

[teslashark]

Reading ender's game now, really interesting.

[<chronicler>]

I read Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg a while back... A major head trip that's all about human nature, psychology, and how we react when everything goes wrong. An amazing book to say the least!

[yinle]

I would like to recommend "The Five People You Meet In The Heaven",which is written by Mitch Albom.

The books tells about the meaning of life,which a fictional character named Eddie.

The story starts when Eddie dies on his 83th birthday.
Then he meets 5 people in the heaven whom he knows or he doesn't know.
They all somehow appear in Eddie's life,and altered his life.

These 5 people have told Eddie about his life,and the meaning of his existence.

Eddie,who often thinks that his life is pointless,meaningless and yet wasted,finally realized that how he saved uncountable life.

Nice book,highly recommended.

[wraith1701]

BUMP.

Armor by John Steakley. Beats even Ender's Game in my Top Ten.

I agree. This book is an amazingly well-constructed depiction of Combat Armor warfare, and does a great job giving the reader a peak into the psyche of the protagonist. Fans of Starship Troopers and The Forever War will most likely enjoy Armor.

I'm surprised that Yoshiyuki Tomino's Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy hasn't been mentioned yet.

The three books (Awakening, Escalation, and Confrontation) are readily available in an English language compilation. This is the original Gundam story, straight from the director's pen (translated by Frederik L. Schodt). While it often strays from what was depicted in the TV series, the compilation holds true to the spirit of the TV show, and provides a lot of insight and revelation on the UC Gundam universe. Worth checking out.

[Brave Fencer Kirby]

Ugh. I read Armor on the recommendation that it was similar to Starship Troopers. With the exception of the basic premise (guys in powered armor killing alien bugs) it's completely, utterly different. Starship Troopers is largely political commentary on why we fight, and how that affects the way we fight. It also explores the consequences of those philosophies when applied to government policy and its effect on civilian life. Armor focuses on the psychological rather than philosophical -- particularly, on the idea that you have to be an emotionless killing machine (the main character even describes this part of himself as "the Engine") in order to survive. Its plot can be described as "nihilistic", though "pointless" would be a less diplomatic phrasing.

As for recommendations:

I quite enjoy the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. It's a very dark fantasy series. Lots of sex, blood, and guts, so if that puts you off it probably isn't for you -- but it's not just about the porn and gore. The characters are interesting and constantly developing, the plotline is pleasantly unpredictable but never so much that it seems entirely random. Both the immediate action and the long-term plot is handled well. Books are A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows. Book five, A Dance with Dragons should be coming out soon-ish... but they've been saying that for three years now.

[G.Squirrel]

I just finished reading Palestine by Joe Sacco and it is one of the best comic compilations I have ever read. Around 1996, Sacco, an American journalist, took a trip to Palestine to write the Palestinian side to the tensions that exist between Israel and Palestine. He encountered many sad stories, some heartbreaking, frustration at the Israeli government, and many different viewpoints about a potential peace between the two. The book is a definite eye-opener to a side that, at least in America, usually never gets to print. An amazingly fantastic read, pick yourself up a copy the next time your in a book store.

[FEMC_Mirage_Corp]

BUMP.

Armor by John Steakley. Beats even Ender's Game in my Top Ten.

I agree. This book is an amazingly well-constructed depiction of Combat Armor warfare, and does a great job giving the reader a peak into the psyche of the protagonist. Fans of Starship Troopers and The Forever War will most likely enjoy Armor.

If you enjoy hard core military fiction, the best IMHO is David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series. He gives a very vivid portrayal of what combat is like and what it can do to you. It's not the sanitized view of war you get in most stories. His books are somewhat hit or miss though. His books/stories that are good, are really good and the ones that aren't good tend to suck.

For the good ones, there's the original collected volume of short stories "Hammers Slammers". I can also recommend of his other novels in the series "The Warrior", "Rolling Hot" and "Counting the Costs". They are all well worth a read. It's not clear if "The Forlorn Hope" is in the same universe, but it's probably his best book. There are 3 omnibus books available covering all the stories in the series.

[GM ace]

I'll second BFK's recommendation of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. New readers be warned though, nobody has character or plot armor. Many a fan has begged Martin to stop killing the people they love, and he's answered with more brutal realism. A fantasy with ponies and pixie dust, it ain't.

For something new, I'll throw David Weber's Honor Harrington series into the ring. Starting with On Basilisk Station, the Harrington series follows the character of the same name through an interplanetary war of the space opera style. Aside from well-developed characters and fantastic space naval battles, one of the endearing traits of the series is that almost every side in the fighting has both good and bad people, even Harrington's own allies. Besides the main series there are a few anthologies and side series written by Weber and other authors that take place in the rest of the 'Honorverse', and some of those are even better than the main story.

[Areku]

For something new, I'll throw David Weber's Honor Harrington series into the ring. Starting with On Basilisk Station, the Harrington series follows the character of the same name through an interplanetary war of the space opera style. Aside from well-developed characters and fantastic space naval battles, one of the endearing traits of the series is that almost every side in the fighting has both good and bad people, even Harrington's own allies. Besides the main series there are a few anthologies and side series written by Weber and other authors that take place in the rest of the 'Honorverse', and some of those are even better than the main story.

This. For most of high school, I grew distant from leisurely reading. But one day my senior year, my friend handed me Weber's Insurrection, and I loved it. He mentioned he'd heard good things about the Harrington series, so I picked up On Basilisk Station and loved it. Proceeded to finish the entire series. Overall, I'd recommend a newcomer to this author start with Insurrection or Apocalypse Troll, if only because those will feel like a more complete story; but at $4 for a paperback, On Basilisk Station is also a great choice.

[DAG101]

I wouldn't say that Time Traveller's wife is SF, but whatever, you should read it. now.

Anyway: Phantoms by Dean Koontz. It's amazing (Anyone who has read Desperation by Stephen King will note that the two are very similar)
-Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King. It's an anthology, and it's amazing.
-A Brief History of Nearly Everything I forget the author's name, but this book is very well-written.

[Battosai28]

I just finished Watchmen a few days ago, and all I have to ask is Why did I not know about this graphic novel until the trailer for the movie came out? It was absolutely amazing and I recomend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in graphic novels or science fiction.

In terms of regular novels, I have just finished Planet of Twilight which I was VERY disapointed with (undoubtedly the worst Star Wars books I have ever read). I am going to skip The Crystal Star and probably read the black fleet crisis trilogy. If not then I'll go back and read the x-wing novels.

If I want to take a break from the realm of SW, then I am going to finally read Shogun. The problem is that its nearly 1200 pages long, which is a prety big commitment for me. I guess we'll see...

[UrbanSniper]

I just finished Watchmen a few days ago, and all I have to ask is Why did I not know about this graphic novel until the trailer for the movie came out? It was absolutely amazing and I recomend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in graphic novels or science fiction.

In terms of regular novels, I have just finished Planet of Twilight which I was VERY disapointed with (undoubtedly the worst Star Wars books I have ever read). I am going to skip The Crystal Star and probably read the black fleet crisis trilogy. If not then I'll go back and read the x-wing novels.

Deffinately go for the X-Wing novels; they're infinitely better than either Planet of Twilight or The Crystal Star; I've only read each of those once for reason. I think Children of the Jedi was also on the really bad SW books list, so be careful around that one too. Black Fleet Crisis wasn't too bad, best I can recall.

[DougCos]

I recommend any books by Michael Crichton. All are very good and cover a very wide range of topics.

For a good techno-thriller I would go with Dale Brown's books.
For action you can not beat Matt Reilly. He has to be my favorite author and the only way to describe his works are as a roller coaster ride of non stop action.

[Battosai28]

I just finished Watchmen a few days ago, and all I have to ask is Why did I not know about this graphic novel until the trailer for the movie came out? It was absolutely amazing and I recomend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in graphic novels or science fiction.

In terms of regular novels, I have just finished Planet of Twilight which I was VERY disapointed with (undoubtedly the worst Star Wars books I have ever read). I am going to skip The Crystal Star and probably read the black fleet crisis trilogy. If not then I'll go back and read the x-wing novels.

Deffinately go for the X-Wing novels; they're infinitely better than either Planet of Twilight or The Crystal Star; I've only read each of those once for reason. I think Children of the Jedi was also on the really bad SW books list, so be careful around that one too. Black Fleet Crisis wasn't too bad, best I can recall.

Yes, I agree that Children of the Jedi was a prety bad book. It could have been fourty pages shorter if Luke hadn't continuously complained about his leg. In my opinion, Barbara Hambly has no business writing Star Wars novels. I read Planet of Twilight just to see Luke and Calista meet again after what happend is Darksaber, only to find out that THEY DONT SAY A SINGLE WORD TO EACH OTHER IN THE ENTIRE BOOK. To top it alll off, I really don't like Hambly's writing style in the slightest bit.

While I can't judge a book before reading it, The Crystal Star has a prety infamous reputation for being bad. I read the summary in the back of another book and almost started laughing. I remember thinking, "what the hell is this, Star Trek?" Now you know why I wasn't surprised to find out that Vonda McKintyre is a noted author of Star Trek books. I'm not attacking Star Trek here, but they are two very different franchises and should be treated as such.

For those interested in Star Wars novels, I have to recomend the Trawn trilogy by the legendary Timmothy Zahn, which starts with Heir to the Empire. Heir is the first novel released that take place after the movies. Even though novels were writen later on that take place before it(i.e. the first part of the X-wing series), you do not need to read those to know what is going on (I didn't). In short, it is the best place to start. I know some will recomend The Truce at Bakura as a first read, because it takes place the day after Return of the Jedi ends. IMO it is infereor to to the thrawn trilogy in every way. It has one of my favorite battles in all of star wars, but that doesn't account for the other 300 pages of slowness.

[DAG101]

I recommend any books by Michael Crichton. All are very good and cover a very wide range of topics.

He's the guy who wrote Andromeda Strain, right?

[DougCos]

yeah and Jurassic Park and TimeLine, and State of Fear, and. . .
those are probably he best know works. One of my favorites is Prey.

[CHASER]

I would recommend the Culture books from Iain M. Banks (he also wrote other, non-science fiction novels under the name Iain Banks). They generally revolve around 'The Culture' or members of it, be it mechanical or any variety of alien races.

The novels are;
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art (mostly a collection of Short Stories, some involving the Culture, and a Culture Novella)
Excession (re-reading this one at the moment myself)
Inversions
Look to Windward (sort of sequel to Consider Phlebas)
Matter

The Culture novels also served as a point of inspiration for some parts of the Halo series, namely those large ring habitats.