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Thanks Arsheesh! There are a couple on your list that I'd always meant to pick up but never seem to remember to.
Neverwhere is actually one I had put on the maybe list before I posted, along with the first of Butcher's Dresden books. Earthsea I've read, but it was lmany many moons ago, so perhaps I should revisit it. I'll put that one by Banks on the pick it up if I see it at the bookstore list.
I knew I'd come to the right place :) Keep em coming!
I'll throw in the Rama trilogy by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee: Rama II, Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed.
Clarke's original Rendezvous with Rama can be a tough read (I recommend skipping it actually), but working with Lee on the trilogy paid off. It's far more readable, but still maintains the ambitious scope typical of Clarke's work. The end of the last book tackles some seriously epic questions about the universe, and the last line is one of my favorites:
"And understanding is happiness."
Military Sci-Fi: Armor by John Steakley <-- been years since I read it but everyone I've told about it has enjoyed it.
If you like Jim Butcher his Dresden series is pretty fun as well and way way way better than the TV show they made based on it. I think he started this series in College and his writing gets better and better and you can see how he was able to do the Alera books so well. Codex Alera has to be one of the best set of Novels I have read.
Military Fantasy - The Black Company by Glen Cook <-- gritty and dark
Fantasy - The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizebeth Moon - Read this years ago but enjoyed it a lot at the time.
I don't really have favorites these are just some worthy reads. I can spit out lots more but just depends on what genre you are most interested in.
A lot have talked about the Black Company, gotta read that sometimes.. .just have to finish Malazan (everything after book 1 and book 1), and Wheel of Time 11+ (where Brandon Sanderson have taken over after Robert Jordan passed away).. oh and Time Travellers Wife, which I heard was a really great story so I picked it up in one of my shopping sprees on Amazon *lol*
Concerning sci-fi - I haven't read that much but a few titles I can recommend.
Neuromancer by Gibson, a bit old but cool
Star Wars (the stories after movie VI) by Zahn, good action in a know universe... I'd just wish that Lucas had hired Zahn to write the 3 "new" movies instead of screwing them up himself.
Hyperion - fantatastic sci-fi story, really cool ... I know Diamond is with me on that - he's mapping it for the Lite challenge :)
@Natai: Oooh, hadn't thought about ACC's stuff, you're right, should definitely pick those up.
@Jax: Paks is great. A reviewer said it well somewhere when they said "you can almost hear the dice rolling sometimes" but nevertheless a great read. I've actually read the Black Company books twice, but one good thing about usually reading a book in one sitting: no retention = you can reread! About all I can remember about those is the fact that it's first person about a guy named ... Croaker, isn't it? And, I have to agree. The Codex Alera was a clearly superior set of fantasy novels. I was incredibly impressed ... enough so that I'm thinking about picking up those Dresden books, even though I usually really don't do urban fantasy.
@tilt: Neuromancer! That's always been on the "hmm, I should pick that up someday" fringe of my notice. It's going on the list too. And I can't say enough how well of a job Mr. Sanderson did on book 12. I was extremely happy with it. Gogogo!
Yay, I'm getting a quite respectable to-read list started here :D Especially on the sci-fi side, where I'm considerably less well-read than in the fantasy end of things.
OK, here is a FANTASTIC READ! This is by far one of the most fascinating novel series I have read.
WORLD WAR & COLONIZATION SERIES (link is for Book One)
This is an alternate history of HARD SCIENCE, i.e. the Science Fiction is ALL plausible, no Laser Guns (though they have lasers in DVD players), or anything of that sort, where an alien race's fleet of Conquest ships have arrived on earth.
To give the basic plot here, Fleetlord Atvar of the Race (a race of Lizard like creatures), arrives with his conquest fleet approximately 30 years ahead of the Race's Colonization fleet at Earth. Their Probes sent earlier revealed a world in which Humans we in the midst of the Dark Ages, but when their fleet arrives, we are at the height of World War II, a fact the upsets them quite a lot and is one the major underlying themes of the series, the fact that Humans advance technologically faster then them because of our reckless nature.
The novel series spans all of World War complete with characters like Roosevelt, Churchill, Mordecai (jewish freedom fighter) and many other characters from our real history to many imaginary characters as well.
Again, a great read.
That sounds really interesting, Neon, thanks!
check out the Temeraire Series by Naomi Novic. Its sort of an alternate history/ fantasy hybrid. A great read imo.
Just thought of another good series and you can get some of them via E-books from baen I think and the first few are free -
David Weber's Honor Harrington series - if you like tactical space battles and political idiocy
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series is the best.
The series isn't finished though and if you start it now you will be waiting impatiently for the rest of the series like the rest of us lol