View Full Version : Reccommend me a book
Long train journey tomorrow & there may be down time on hols due to being knackered snow boarding all the time so I need a new book to read.
Probably hard-sci-fi or similar. Fave authors at the mo are:
Peter F Hamilton,
Richard Morgan
China Mieville
I've sort of gone off Alastair Reynolds. & I can't stand Iain M Banks (he just doesn't flow for me).
So any decent books out there? Just finished Evolution by Stephen Baxter. Not bad. Dodgy in parts.
...and if anyone recommends that Dan Brown rubbish I'll hunt you down & feed you to the pigs!
Thanks in advance
Dirk
Neal Stephenson: Snowcrash or Diamond Age. Great sci-fi.
Anything by Christopher Brookmyre. Excelletnt scottish crime black humour.
Anything by Carl Hiassen. Similar to Brookmyre but Florida crime and usually with an enviromental twist.
Neal Stephenson: Snowcrash or Diamond Age. Great sci-fi.
Anything by Christopher Brookmyre. Excelletnt scottish crime black humour.
Anything by Carl Hiassen. Similar to Brookmyre but Florida crime and usually with an enviromental twist.
Yeah - read Stephensons' stuff - really good! Quicksilver was long, but worth it.
Will pop down to Border to see this Brookmyre character...!
rpwoodman
01-02-07, 12:36 PM
Clockwork orange
Tiger 55
01-02-07, 12:53 PM
Brookmyre rocks! Start off with Quite Ugly One Morning, it was the first one he had published and hooked me straight away. Exciting plots in glamorous locations and always a dig at Celtic and Rangers...
Alternatively how about Ian Banks without the M? Very exciting to buy because they are a total lucky dip, varying from brilliant (Complicity) to ****e (A Song of Stone) and sometimes both in the same book (The Bridge).
Or, um, maybe something by a non Scottish author...
furrybean
01-02-07, 01:14 PM
Viz?
Mr Toad
01-02-07, 01:23 PM
David Brinn - Earth is a good one off, or try the Uplift series - start with Sundiver - I really enjoyed it - very different from your normal sci-fi (if there is normal sci-fi :? )
Or try Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
Clockwork orange
One of my faves, very clever the way that Burgess makes you like (or at least empathise with) Alex, even though he is an evil little scumbag.
robaker
01-02-07, 01:28 PM
I also vote for Neal Stephenson. I liked Snowcrash more than Diamond Age. Cryptonomicon was also good - fiction rather than Sci Fi, but I still liked it.
I'm working my way through Stephenson's Baroque cycle trilogy at the moment, they are brilliant books but very demanding, there's so much going on that if you leave it alone for a few weeks its hard to get back in to. After a year or so I've made it to book three now...
I'm working my way through Stephenson's Baroque cycle trilogy at the moment, they are brilliant books but very demanding, there's so much going on that if you leave it alone for a few weeks its hard to get back in to. After a year or so I've made it to book three now...
Wasn't so keen on the ending of book 2. After the leisurely pace of book 1 & most of book 2, the end of book 2 was really sudden!
Half-cocked Jack is a legend.
Have you got to the duel at dawn in Book 3 yet. I could have wet myself reading that - it was well funny!
PsychoCannon
01-02-07, 02:29 PM
Heh I love Ian M Banks Culture novles but I agree that they certainly have a different....flow...to the likes of Hamilton so I suppose you have to like that style =p
I'd love to live in the Culture =p
Altered Carbon is a great read, similar to some of Hamiltons stuff I think in terms of feel and some of the ideas.
wyrdness
01-02-07, 02:29 PM
"Reccommend me a book"
I would recommend this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Concise-Oxford-English-Dictionary/dp/0199296340/sr=8-3/qid=1170340086/ref=pd_ka_3/203-8989472-1940766?ie=UTF8&s=books) to you. :twisted:
New Leaf
01-02-07, 07:14 PM
Rendezvous with rama
by
Arther c clarke.
when u've finished that there are 3 more in the series and 2 more by gentry lee that a kinds related. best set of books i ever read.
Quiff Wichard
01-02-07, 07:20 PM
get either of the jeremy clarkson ones...
they are funny and interesting- and u can read them in one go or just each section at a time if u have spare half hour ...
I reccomend them- as long as you dont take it too seriously.
Luke Rhinehart - The Dice Man.
fizzwheel
01-02-07, 08:10 PM
If you like Sci-Fi try this.
"Altered Carbon" by Richard Morgan. I've read and re-read it loads of times, bl**dy brilliant read IMHO.
Sid Squid
01-02-07, 08:18 PM
"Reccommend me a book"
I would recommend this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Concise-Oxford-English-Dictionary/dp/0199296340/sr=8-3/qid=1170340086/ref=pd_ka_3/203-8989472-1940766?ie=UTF8&s=books) to you. :twisted:
Hahahahahahaahahahahahahaha! I like that smartarse.
Anyway, as for books don't waste your time reading sci-fi crap, it's all ****, all of it. Read something real and great, start with this. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth/dp/0747563691/sr=8-1/qid=1170360881/ref=pd_ka_1/202-6316602-3158251?ie=UTF8&s=books)
rpwoodman
01-02-07, 08:18 PM
Luke Rhinehart - The Dice Man.
Don't bother - great concept - ideas dry up at the end. Sorry Razor... :-)
rictus01
01-02-07, 08:19 PM
Kevin J Anderson "Saga of the Seven Suns" on book three myself, hard work (but that's the medication), and got the last two sitting here, great read galactic battles, space war fleets and everything.
Cheers Mark.
Luke Rhinehart - The Dice Man.
Don't bother - great concept - ideas dry up at the end. Sorry Razor... :-)
Why you apologising, I didn't write it... :lol:
Dark Sun - Richard Rhodes
The Bomb - Gerard Degaroot
War of the world - Niall Fergusan
If your feeling geeky the cuckoo's egg is a good read.
Dan
So what did you read and was it any good?
(I had a long train journey too and read Brookmyre's "Big boy did it and ran away" for the second time. Great book).
rpwoodman
06-02-07, 09:11 AM
If your feeling geeky the cuckoo's egg is a good read.
That is certainly true!
Dysparunia
06-02-07, 11:08 AM
Recently re-read most of Asimov's.
Short stories are superb if you like short stories (I robot & co-don't worry, nothing like the film...which I happen to like as well, but don't think would make a good book).
His foundation series is a wonderfull idea.
2nd Kevin J. Anderson's series-though the good/bad thing I find a little bit childish, the prose is good.
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is very good. I'm reading it at the mo. Takes a little getting into, but wonderfull mix of sci-fi & fantasy thats works so much better than it reads here.
I really like Herbert's "Dune" series. Heavy going and a bit trancy in places, many don't get on with it, others absolutley love it. Make sure to start with "Dune" by Frank Herbert and continue with his before reading anything by his son Brian (and then only continue if you really like the stuff).
Or if you can put up with the funny looks, get Judge Dread (recently re-printed as "graphic novells"-still say they're comics) for a bit of really light entertainment.
northwind
06-02-07, 12:37 PM
Peter F Hamilton,
Richard Morgan
China Mieville
I've sort of gone off Alastair Reynolds. & I can't stand Iain M Banks (he just doesn't flow for me).
Have you only read rubbish Iain M Banks? :) The more recent stuff's pretty poor...
Ken MacLeod... The Star Fraction first, then follow that series through if you like it. Vernor Vinge, for sure, and definately Heinlein, starting with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar" And Daniel Keyes "Flowers For Algernon". Neal Stevenson's just superb, Snow Crash as an introduction but it's not his best. "After that, it's just a chase scene" :) Ian Macleod? Not sure on him, it's quite good but not quite there. Similiar in content to Mieville, if not really in style.
Have you tried the other earlier Hamilton ones, the Greg Mandel ones? Very good, better than Reality Dysfunction etc if you ask me. Definately better than everything he's done since!
Lots of people seem to like Charlie Stross, I think he's rubbish but then I like Iain Banks :) And maybe John M Marrison- I don't like him either, but he comes highly recommended.
And definately Heinlein, starting with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. And John Brunner's "Stand on Zanzibar"
Not sci-fi, but George RR Martin's song of ice and fire is very dark fantasy, could appeal to a Mieville fan. Quite hard work though. Likewise maybe His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. It's for kids, but it's ace :)
Forget all that stuff
how about a bit of real, hard core life from the frontier where evrything out there is out to get you , at best, if the Commanches or Mexican bandits get you its choose your torture time, the pit of snakes and spiders (replenished each day by the old hags), or hung off the cliff in a cage to live off birds before the vultures get you...
whose read it ? 8)
'Bury my heart at wounded knee'.....s'very good. 8)
Slapstick
06-02-07, 11:48 PM
Found this site and thought it may help:
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/topscifi/lists_books_rank1.html
Fantasy one too:
http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/fantasy100/lists_books.html
enjoy :)
You cant go wrong with the Saga of Seven Suns... I've just finished the latest book. The only problem is Kevin J Anderson writes them too slowly... have to wait nearly a year between them.
Still at least the kids know what to buy me for xmas each year, it beats a pair of socks.
northwind
08-02-07, 09:37 PM
Hmm, I didn't rate that one... Got the first 2, couldn't get the motivation to go any further with it. I got the distinct feeling he'd read The Reality Dysfunction and Fire Upon The Deep and thought "I can do that"
They are fine if you just want to drift off without having to concentrate too much but you can tell he's starting to get a bored by the time you get to book 5. You feel like telling him to stop repeating where we are up to & just put something new on the pages.
Overall though they are entertaining when compared to sitting there watching coronation street as an alternative.
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