The Book Discussion/Recommendation Topic

[Antares]

A few here:
The Prince of Nothing -trilogy by Scott R. Bakker (I think I suggested this one in the summer as well). It's a good fantasy novel which has a lot of substance. Not light fantasy.
Basically anything by Terry Pratchett, maybe Jingo or Mort. Not necessary to read in order unless you really want to get into it.
For the romantic, Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. This is one of the more powerful books I've read.
If you want school-stuff and are into such academic masochism, I'm about to finish Robert Irwin's For Lust of Knowing, which is a book to debunk much of Said's fabled Orientalism.
And finally, if you want to learn without pain, I suggest QI - The Book of General Ignorance (based on the British game show QI). Funny and informative.

[DAG101]

I think everyone should read Brian Lumley's Necroscope series. It has ESPers, espionage, ESPionage, vampires, and some really good heroes, fight scenes, etc. the first book, Necroscope, is basically James Bond with vampires and a guy who can talk to dead people (the title, of the books and main characters, Necroscope, is basically anyone who can talk to dead people (Necro=Dead, Scope=sight-someone who sees into the minds of the dead)), and the books also has some amazing villains, anti-heroes, and is aproxx. fifteen books long, give or take. of course, two of them are more sidestory than main storyline.

Also, Erich von Daniken's "Possible non-fiction" books are pretty intersting. and metally stimulating.

And, last but not least, though I haven't read them yet, the comics Second Stage Turbine Blade: Vol. I and II, and Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness, all three written by Claudio Sanchez, published by Evil Ink Comics, look pretty good

[Lans]

Hey, nobody read Frank Herbet's Dune anymore? It's a classic sci-fi, IMO everyone should get a taste of it. At least the first book when the young Paul Atreides leave his home planet only to found brutality in the dessert planet of Arrakis.

At young age he losted his Duke father due to political strive who centered on Spice, the ingredients to mind awareness, prophecy and space travel. The Spice can only be found on Arrakis and thus the phrase "who control Dune control the Spice, and who control Spice control the universe". The young prince and now Duke of his ruined Noble House, must escapes into the unforgiving dessert where he seeks refuge from the native Fremen who adapted to this hell-planet. If not for their misuse of the Fremen religion and believe, they would die in their first encounter with the Fremen. Their misuse a certain Fremen's prophecy about a coming messiah that comes not from this world who features fit perfectly into the young Prince and his mother. It's their fights and vendetta against the whole galactic empire, councils of houses, and the space guild.

Interested? Probably not, oh well I'm not a good synopsis writer lolz. You could buy the DVD for the old movie or the new series one.

[MrMarch]

Of course we do. I adore Frank Herbert's Dune and have read it twice myself. It's a good suggestion. Easily one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written.

[Hyakushiki]

I read Dune back in High School if only to see how David Lynch's adaptation differed from it. It was a good read took me a while to get through the narrative was a little too dense for my taste which made reading it slow going.

[Antares]

To digress slightly from the topic further, I personally like the three first Dune books plus Dune Messiah the most. Some people have expressed a liking for the later (Brian Herbert) versions as well, but many a time, the blurb has been quite enough to put me off, considering how bad even Herbert Sr. started to stray in the later books. And regarding the movie adaption, I always thought it was rather horrib. On the other hand, the Sci-Fi Channel version was actually fairly good. They didn't shoot in the Sahara and they didn't have Patrick Stewart, but at least the general plotline was right this time. I own both on DVD and was this close (*shows with fingers*) to writing my MA on a topic closely related to Dune. Anyways, sorry about that, this is a book-topic after all.

[Dark Duel]

I'd strongly recommend Blind Man's Bluff by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew. Excellent book.

[Lans]

Just remembered that I also read Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi. The novel originated from Japan. I heard it was already translated into English some years ago.

Well, it was more than just a pretty good novel. I want to add some synopses but well... I'm not really into the mood for now. But if you like the story about self awareness, samurai way of life, or just old Japanese medieval then I really recommend Musashi.

[Sanjiro]

The Hunt for Red October, Red Rabbit, and The Teeth of the Tiger are all good Tom Clancy books also.

I don't know if anyone here has read any Patrick Robinson books, but he has a lot of good military thrillers such as:

U.S.S. Seawolf
Nimitz Class
Kilo Class
H.M.S Unseen
The Shark Mutiny

[Nitramy]

My reading experience isn't as wide as I'd like it to be, considering my appetite for good books is even greater now than when I was a kid, but here are my recommendations:

The Eiger Sanction by Trevanian - Although a self-confessed spoof of the secret-agent genre of books, it's still a sardonic, cynical, funny, and balls-to-the-wall action extravaganza.

The Testament by John Grisham - I've always loved books revolving around the judiciary ever since I watched an episode of Ally McBeal, and this is no exception. Imagine "Anaconda" and "The Firm" getting into a head-on collision, and this is what you get.

[Saikuba]

I honestly think that A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller may be the best book to come out of the 20th century.

Other books that pleasantly surprised me include The Difference Engine which is a take on what would have happened if mechanical computers had been viable and caught on in the nineteenth century, and Steven Brust's Taltos series of books, which feel almost exactly like the fantasy series that I've always wanted to write.

[CarbonStereoxide]

I really recommend to all an epic graphic novel called The Sandman by Neil Gaiman from Book I: Preludes and Nocturnes up to Book XI: Endless Nights and also its side stories such as the dream hunters and many more. Neil Gaiman is a great story writer and he really know how to mix mythology and modern times.

Synopsis of The Sandman:
The King of Dreams finally know that one must either change or die and makes his decision.

Read the sandman series, I bet you're going to enjoy it.

[Reven]

I'm hooked on several books myself right now.

Typhoon by Mark Joseph, it is quite similar to Hunt for Red October, and is a good read for any submarine fan. It does take creative liberties with some stuff, such as the names of the submarines, but overall its an entertaining read.

Jurassic Park and The Lost World. I know these are somewhat of a different nature, but it is a good read for those who enjoy somewhat scifi action mixed with different ideals.

And Finally,

Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz. This is the first part in a three-book series, but in my opinion the best out of them. (The other two sorta drag on...). It's got a nice mix of action, mystery and humor thrown in.

[Ghostgundam]

I'm going to have to reccomend Dale Brown's books. In his stories, which you could classify as techno thrillers are generally about the use of highly advanced bombers going out on spec ops style missions for the US. The action is really great in them and it's really interesting how he implements technology under development onto current generation bombers.

I agree with previous posts on Dune, Tom Clancy novels, Ender's Game (The Shadow series, in the same universe but focusing on another character is good to), The John Birmingham ones, and To Kill a Mockingbird are all good novels.

[Quiddity]

Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show and Imajica. Those who have read the first will know the obvious way in which I express my enjoyment of it.

[South Burning]

Since Dune was mentioned, I would like to say that I couldn't put the original down I enjoyed it so much, but each successive volume was more difficult to endure, so I had to stop at number 3. With that experience in memory, I expected the Brian Herbert pre-quels to be as monotonous. (The Butlerian Jihad, The Battle of Corrin, The Machine Crusade I think are the titles.) But they weren't. They moved along at a good clip, the chapters were short (which I like), and the action was easy to visualize because of young Herbert's writing style. And the storylines present mechas in a completely different way than in any Gundam story. There are also 2 post-quels, Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, which are equally good and which have some good twists in the plots. If you read any of Brian's books, you should also read Dune or watch the SciFi channel mini-series, but he does such a good job of weaving past facts into the prose that you don't need to read any other of the original books. And, by the way, my favorite serious book is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Read it if you dare.

[teslashark]

the 60s classic uncle written by J.P.Martin and illustrated byQintin Blake is really good,suits 9-99.you may think it is a simple fantasy/nonsense tale with billonaire elephants/sack suited bandits/silly badger/penny-pinching wizards,but it's actually
more like a social novel with billonaire elephants/sack suited bandits/silly badgers/penny-pinching wizards.
site:http://www.uncle-tv.com/
also:http://talesfromhomeward.blogspot.com/

[yukikaze]

anyone else read the Halo books?
Fall of Reach
The Flood
First Strike
Ghosts of Onyx
Contact Harvest

great sci-fi books, and by far the best books ever based upon a video game. Eric Nylund in a genius.

for modern sci-fi stuff, i recomend Dale Browns Dreamland series.

for slightly futuristic/time travel goodness, try John Birmingham's Axis of Time triligy. think a modern look at the Final Countdown.

[Renegade334]

I have a few, too...

Timeline and State of Fear - both techno-thrillers by Michael Crichton, the former using time travel and the second being quite controversial as it depicts the exaggerations behind the theory of global warming. But overall great reads.

The Hunt for Red October, Red Storm Rising and Executive Orders by Tom Clancy. I liked the first for the amount of details behind, the second because of its fantastic simulation of a World War III conflict (from a dozen standpoints) and the third as it echoed quite grimly with the September 11 events, down to the biological warfare and plane crash plot points. Besides, Jack Ryan being completely clueless as to how to govern a beheaded country is a must...and while some readily laugh at George W. for being plain stupid, you will actually feel compassionate towards Jack and his many woes.

The Bone Collector and The Blue Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver. All those who like the CSI series on CBS and whatnot will love this, although I suggest you forget all about the movie adaptation before reading the first. After all, it's a very nice twist to see a crippled CSI officer solve mysteries from his bed rather than going onsite. The second book will claim your interest if you like the idea of a hacker stealing private information to impersonate people ('to social engineer') and commit murders. In both cases, be prepared for a lot of turnabouts and plot reversals. Deaver is particularly fond of leading you by the tip of your nose and fool you till the very end (although he tends to overdo it in later volumes).

The Swarm by Frank Schätzing. Okay, this one is a huge block of paper on your lap, packed with mounds of information on endangered sealife and our preconceptions of life in the abysses. It's techno-thriller/suspense at first but turns slightly fantastic/horrific in the latter part. Those who like mysterious, goo-like creatures hell-bent on destroying humankind from beneath the surface and artificial tsunamis, go get it.

The Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille; if you like a sarcastic cop trying to catch a Lybian terrorist after he gassed a planeful of passengers, this will be your next stop. I just love the way the main character behaves, although you have to be into this genre to fully appreciate it.

Labyrinth by Kate Moss. A few months ago I was still in the 'blast to the past' genre with old enigmas. Ties in nicely with the aforementioned 'Timeline'...and those who liked Dan Brown's books might dig this one, too. Although Labyrinth easily gives DB the finger when it comes to historical accuracy and depth.

[DAG101]

Well...

Anything by Arthur C Clarke is good, especially Rendavouz with Rama, and the Space oddysey and Time oddysey series.
Anything by Isaac Asimov (Especcially I, Robot. Except they now sell it with a cover depicting Will Smith, due to the 99.999 % unrelated movie I, Robot.)