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Post by stoneheartsrevenge on Apr 10, 2015 19:50:04 GMT
Since many of us are fans of the books, I thought we could do with somewhere to post about our favourite authors/books, to give others suggestions of what to read during the long wait for the next ASOIaF book.
I'll list a few of my favourites:
Discworld books by Terry Pratchett: I'm listing these partly because of his recent death, but also because I think they are brilliant. They aren't to everyone's taste; they are a mix of satire, comedy, drama and action, I feel, which is not for everyone. That said, there are several different 'series' of books among them: 'Rincewind' 'The Witches' 'The City Watch' 'Death' 'The Witches' etc. as well as many solo books. Great reads and highly entertaining.
Robin Hobb, The Realm of the Elderlings: This is actually several trilogies (or longer) all set in the same world, and three of these trilogies follow the same set of characters. All of the books are inter-connected though. The first in the series is the Farseer Trilogy, which follows young FitzChivalry, a royal bastard raised by his father's stabemaster after his father abdicates in disgrace. It's written in first person POV, and follows Fitz as he grows, and develops his abilities, whilst raiders threaten the Kingdom from without and a petty young Prince threatens them from within. It's a fantastic start to the Fitz series. The next trilogy In this world doesn't follow Fitz, though it does feature a character out of the first trilogy. This is the Liveships Traders, a nautical fantasy with some absolutely fantastic characters; in particular, it's great for strong female characters. This is written from 3rd person POV. It's in a different part of the world to Farseer (Bingtown, Jamailia and the Pirate Isles this time) but still links in to that series. The third trilogy is The Tawny Man, which returns to an adult Fitz, some years after the first trilogy. A little slow paced for much of the first book, but some brilliant writing from Hobb, and some absolutely chilling stuff in the last book of this trilogy. The following quadrilogy is the Rain Wild Chronicles, another 3rd person POV book that doesn't follow Fitz. This one is very much a character based book, with more time spent on character building than actual plot. It's the weakest of her Realm of the Elderlings work, but I still enjoyed it a lot. The final(?) trilogy is ongoing, so I shall keep quiet on that in case I spoil anyone!
Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy: the jokingly styled "Lord Grimdark" has here a wonderfully bleak and cynical take on fantasy. You have your standard elements; wizards, barbarian north men, informers/spies, magic, badass female, daring quest across the world after an ancient object...but everything is so cynical and seems to be just turned on its head. A wonderful trilogy, with three standalones which follow (and are on my to-read list!)
Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings: These should be of particular interest...as they were a great inspiration for GRRM's work that we all know and love. Historical fiction which begins durin the reign of Phillip the Fair in France, these are fantastic books, well written and great for any history enthusiast. Indeed, they had me researching French history well beyond anything I ever did in school.
Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy: Moving away from fantasy for the moment, I have to mention this wonderful trilogy that begins with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Following our heroine Lisbeth Salander, a flawed but brilliant character, the series is full of twists, turns and shocks enough to keep any reader interested.
Ken Follet's Fall of Giants: this is actually the first in a trilogy, but I've not yet read the following books. It's historical fiction set before and during the First World War, following the lives of several characters as war conditions ravage Britain. It deals with a number of issues, from the Bolsheviks in Russia, to the rise of feminists in Britain, to employment troubles/strikes, the division of upper and lower class, immigration woes for those fleeing desperate circumstances. A fascinating read.
Okay, I've written enough for now. Please share some of your own favourite works!
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2015 20:07:36 GMT
Well I'm about come off as a hick but I really don't read that much - my job is basically just reading and typing and then I come home and I study by reading legal acts and then I do more reading on blogs and boards and websites.
The way I get to read anything that I actually may enjoy is that I hear they are doing a movie adaptation and I go 'oh that sounds cool' and I read the book.
So the last two I found like that and I enjoyed were Under the Skin - MUCH better than the movie and Gone Girl - also better than the movie, but at least it was a faithful adaptation.
In fact I liked GG so much I read Flynn's other two books - love her style dark, creepy, dusty Americana, strong fucked up female characters and gruesome crimes. Dark Places has disappointing third act but Sharp Objects is a revelation and I hope they adapt it properly
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Post by stoneheartsrevenge on Apr 10, 2015 20:19:08 GMT
Good call on Gillian Flynn, can't believe I missed her out! I've only read Gone Girl so far, but that was really great. I'll probably read her other stuff some time. I thought the film adaptation was good, very faithful (wasn't GF a screenwriter?) and I liked that we actually SAW Amy killing El Creepizoid. I can very much understand you not reading a lot, with a day like that. Let's hope there are some good adaptations coming up soon, eh?  |
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Post by Admin on Apr 10, 2015 20:45:26 GMT
Good call on Gillian Flynn, can't believe I missed her out! I've only read Gone Girl so far, but that was really great. I'll probably read her other stuff some time. I thought the film adaptation was good, very faithful (wasn't GF a screenwriter?) and I liked that we actually SAW Amy killing El Creepizoid. I can very much understand you not reading a lot, with a day like that. Let's hope there are some good adaptations coming up soon, eh? Yep, Flynn was a writer of the film too. I was quite shocked how much they made Nick look more sympathetic than in the book and they did what they could to make Amy look evil. I side with Amy, which is controversial, but I really loathed Nick when I read the book. I highly recommend Sharp Objects, it's her debut but it's really amazing, almost as good as Gone Girl and the writing is great there. There is something I read about today about Luckiest Girl Alive or something, they are making it into a movie and if I track it down, I'll read it. |
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Post by stoneheartsrevenge on Apr 10, 2015 20:54:39 GMT
Good call on Gillian Flynn, can't believe I missed her out! I've only read Gone Girl so far, but that was really great. I'll probably read her other stuff some time. I thought the film adaptation was good, very faithful (wasn't GF a screenwriter?) and I liked that we actually SAW Amy killing El Creepizoid. I can very much understand you not reading a lot, with a day like that. Let's hope there are some good adaptations coming up soon, eh? Yep, Flynn was a writer of the film too. I was quite shocked how much they made Nick look more sympathetic than in the book and they did what they could to make Amy look evil. I side with Amy, which is controversial, but I really loathed Nick when I read the book. I highly recommend Sharp Objects, it's her debut but it's really amazing, almost as good as Gone Girl and the writing is great there. There is something I read about today about Luckiest Girl Alive or something, they are making it into a movie and if I track it down, I'll read it. Yeah, Nick was definitely the more sympathetic of the two in the film. In the book I didn't side with either of them, I thought they were both awful people. Though Amy was the more entertaining to read. I'll definitely have to read more stuff by her. I know I read a short story she wrote for the Rogues anthology, which I enjoyed too |
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Post by day dreamer on Apr 12, 2015 2:08:30 GMT
I'm obsessed with Harry Potter.
My other favorite books are:
All of Gillian Flynn's novels
We Need To Talk About Kevin
The Lovely Bones
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
ASOIAF (Obviously)
To Kill A Mockingbird
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metopheles
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Post by metopheles on Apr 20, 2015 18:11:08 GMT
David Mitchell is a current favourite of mine. At least from the authors of our time.
Reading Bone Clocks at the moment.
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Post by freypies on May 18, 2015 6:48:51 GMT
I really like Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. His world-building is second to none.
Slaughterhouse 5 was another book that stayed with me, for some reason.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2015 0:39:42 GMT
It's only been in the last two years that I've really had a chance to read much outside of books picked from the book club I've been in for 10 years (one of which was Gone Girl, and ditto to sati and stoneheartsrevenge).
Some of my favorite authors are:
*Louise Erdrich
*Wally Lamb
*Barbara Kingsolver
*And all the ones the majority of you like, I think - Tolkien, et. al.
Then there are some individual books that I have especially loved:
*A Fine Balance
*The Art of Racing in the Rain
*Time and Again
*The Alienist
*The Secret History
*Expecting Adam
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
*The Blackhouse (the one by Peter May - there are several other books with same title)
*The Night Circus
*The Thirteenth Tale
Then the classics: To Kill A Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Crime and Punishment...
Oh, shit - what a great thread, stoneheartsrevenge!! I could go on forever.
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Post by Zadeth on Jun 6, 2015 17:00:08 GMT
I really love the Harry Potter series, A Song of Ice and Fire series. I have the Lord of the Rings and Eragon series but I have not read them as of yet, hoping to get through them in the next year or so, not much pleasure reading time with Law.  Off the top of my head, some great classics I've read include: - The Great Gatsby
- The Scarlet Letter
- The Catcher in the Rye
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2015 15:51:48 GMT
How did I forget Harry Potter? You will love Lord of the Rings. Do you have a break between semesters? Catcher in the Rye was my favorite book in high school (when I first read it). I saw a FB post by a friend one time that listed 100 books and you wrote the ones you'd read. that's what it takes to list favorite books - a list of at least 100!
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Post by Zadeth on Jun 7, 2015 16:07:20 GMT
How did I forget Harry Potter? You will love Lord of the Rings. Do you have a break between semesters? Catcher in the Rye was my favorite book in high school (when I first read it). I saw a FB post by a friend one time that listed 100 books and you wrote the ones you'd read. that's what it takes to list favorite books - a list of at least 100! Yeah - I have a four month break from Tuesday. Going to re-read ASOIAF first, then LOTR after. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2015 16:42:50 GMT
How did I forget Harry Potter? You will love Lord of the Rings. Do you have a break between semesters? Catcher in the Rye was my favorite book in high school (when I first read it). I saw a FB post by a friend one time that listed 100 books and you wrote the ones you'd read. that's what it takes to list favorite books - a list of at least 100! Yeah - I have a four month break from Tuesday. Going to re-read ASOIAF first, then LOTR after. Good Plan! And LOTR will be a great trilogy to keep you occupied while we wait for TWOW and HBO Season 6. That will be a long, hard wait. (And if you're an absolute ASOIAF fanatic, like me, it'll go quickly. I finished all 5 books in about 2-1/2 months, and I was working at the time!) |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2015 12:44:27 GMT
Some favorites in no particular order:
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
In the Lake of the Woods - Tim O'Brien
The American Woman in the Chinese Hat - Carole Maso
Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
I Was Amelia Earhart - Jane Mendelsohn
The Incantation of Frida K - Kate Braverman
White Noise - Don DeLillo
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Almanac of the Dead - Leslie Marmon Silko (edited to add this...it's that good)
The Hobbit and ASOIAF
I also love a lot of short stories, but I can never remember collection titles.
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Post by stoneheartsrevenge on Feb 23, 2017 15:15:27 GMT
How did I forget Harry Potter? You will love Lord of the Rings. Do you have a break between semesters? Catcher in the Rye was my favorite book in high school (when I first read it). I saw a FB post by a friend one time that listed 100 books and you wrote the ones you'd read. that's what it takes to list favorite books - a list of at least 100! Yeah - I have a four month break from Tuesday. Going to re-read ASOIAF first, then LOTR after. Did you ever read LOTR? I'm surprised I didn't comment on this at the time, it's so beautifully written and such a wonderful story. The extended history/creation of Arda elaborated in The Silmarillion is even better. It's very dark, brutal and full of treachery, with very few people who can be considered unambiguously good. It has all of the darker elements that attract people to modern fantasy but is much better written - Tolkien was a far superior writer to most fantasy authors these days, imo. |
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Post by Zadeth on Feb 23, 2017 16:28:21 GMT
Yeah - I have a four month break from Tuesday. Going to re-read ASOIAF first, then LOTR after. Did you ever read LOTR? I'm surprised I didn't comment on this at the time, it's so beautifully written and such a wonderful story. The extended history/creation of Arda elaborated in The Silmarillion is even better. It's very dark, brutal and full of treachery, with very few people who can be considered unambiguously good. It has all of the darker elements that attract people to modern fantasy but is much better written - Tolkien was a far superior writer to most fantasy authors these days, imo. No I did not. Funnily enough, I left The Hobbit by my bed to read but I'm too sleepy these days. I mean I could read it when I'm not in bed but I like reading in bed. |
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Post by MarcusAntonius on Feb 23, 2017 16:45:49 GMT
Bernard Cornwell is my shit. He writes the best battle scenes ive ever read. Warlord Chronicles is his best work imo. A trilogy retelling the stories of King Arthur told in a way where it actually seems plausible he existed. Cant recommend it enough. Cornwells Merlin is one of my favorite charcters. His Saxon Tales books are also fucking badass.
Sharon Kay Penman- Her historical fiction brings characters to life like none ive read except for McCulloughs Masters of Rome series which I also heavily recommend. Sunne in Splendour is a classic about Richard III and both her Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitane series and her Welsh Princes trilogy are just as good.
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Post by Basil on Apr 3, 2017 23:58:34 GMT
These are some of my favourite books in no particular order. Antoine de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist Mary Shelley - Frankenstein Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera Susan Kay - Phantom Stephen King - Misery J. K. Rowling - The Harry Potter Series George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire I decided that I should do more reading.  |
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Post by stoneheartsrevenge on Apr 4, 2017 0:31:50 GMT
E.M Forster is a very good author. Maurice and A Passage to India are his best works, imo.
I'm a big fan of Charles Dickens. I try and read A Christmas Carol around the holidays if I can. Bleak House is a daunting book, but intentionally so and it completely encapsulates the tone implied by the title throughout. I love how Dickens contrasts his sunny, almost too perfect characters with such dire situations as existed in Victorian London. I think Oliver Twist does this best, placing the ideal Oliver in the orphanage and a gang of pickpockets but having him come through alright in the end.
I mentioned in Confessions before, but The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is a must read for fans of the traditional fucked up Fairy tales. One of the is only like a page long I think, but no less twisted for it brevity.
Neil Gaiman is also very good. Neverwhere is a brilliant urban fantasy set in London (and there's going to be a sequel!) American Gods is like a Grand American Tour with deities and the supernatural thrown in. Stardust is an incredibly beautifully crafted fairytale. Slightly different from the film adaptation but equally as good imo (and I'm a filthy book purist!) Ocean at the End of the Lane is charmingly written in its childish simplicity but still manages to be very harrowing at the same time. Deserved it's award, no doubt. The you have Good Omens, his collaboration with Pratchett which is uproariously funny and everyone should read it before the adaptation next year.
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Post by kingeomer on Apr 4, 2017 12:55:18 GMT
Some of my favorite books:
Stephen King: The Stand, It, and Cujo
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Bram Stoker: Dracula
JRR Tolkien: LOTR and The Hobbit
JK Rowling: Harry Potter series
Of course, GRRM with A Song of Ice and Fire
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
I'm also a big fan of biographies and recommend Walter Issacson's biographies of Benjamin Franklin & Steve Jobs, David Mc Cullough's John Adams, Ron Chernow's Hamilton and George Washington.
And anything written by Mary Roach: Stiff, Spook, etc.
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