Book recommendations

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Kumar

Forerunner
Hi!

Have a bit of time to read a book or two.

Can you please suggest a good fantasy/science fiction book (preferably a series).

Ive read the following (off the top of my head, all mainstream stuff))

LOTR, SOT, WOT, Earth Sea series, Harry Potter series, Riftwar Series (All of them), Malazan Series and an assortment of SF stuff from Asimov, Douglas Adams, Arthur C. Clarke, the dune series.

This will give you a general idea of the kind of works i like...

thanks!
 
Read any book by an author called Iain M Banks. Any books from the culture series would do. Brillaint Sci-Fi.

(Note the M. He writes a few boooks without the M but they are not Sci-Fi.)

I would suggest

Iain M Banks - Player of Games
Iain M Banks - Use of Weapons
Iain Banks - The Bridge

Another fantasy series you could try is The Belgariad - David Eddings. Five books, series is complete. A pretty quick read. Good fun. (Should warn you though, it's standard/generic fantasy fare. A couple of decent new concepts, but nothing path-breaking)
 
For some excellent timepass, read Craig Shaw Gardner's Ebenezum Trilogy. Its fantasy, not sci-fi, but total fun. Its about a wizard who is allergic to magic :rofl:
 
1st is ender's game, followed by the ender trilogy(more of philosophical scifi) followed by ender's background&side stories by orson scott card

next is song of fire and ice - excellent series by r r martin

another seires that i have to read is mistborn by brandon sanderson (he's writing WOT last book)

excellent smaller scifi/fantasy would be coraline by gaiman and 'have spacesuit,will travel' by heinlein

another good source of great scifi is take the hugo award winner list and google out novella's and short stories...about half of them are in public domain...(start of with 'singing my sister down' and 'inconstant moon' by niven)

Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven

hmm...margo lanagan's online version seems to have been taken down
 
hmasalia said:
did Kumar tell anyone that he reads the boooks using his goddam cell phone??
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Heh heh, any way that works for him is fine I guess.

I read a lot on my PSP nowadays. Simple white text on black screen, backlit and I can carry a huge number of books on the move. [And the processor gets underclocked while reading, so get a good battery life too. ]

Also, @nukeu666. Did you like the Ender series after Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow? I think the other 6 were too long drawn out and got very vague. Also included some silly stunts like spoiler*Bean solves the India-Pakistan issue in five minutes*End Spoiler.

Also, I thought Bean was much cooler character than Ender.
 
ender's trilogy was a very different kind of story about philosophy+empathy for other sentient beings (even if they look like giant bugs)....i liked it a lot...depends on mood also (xenocide/speaker for the dead/children for the dead)

havent read the rest like shadow/hedgemon etc

currently reading song of fire and ice to be followed by neverwhere
 
nukeu666 said:
ender's trilogy was a very different kind of story about philosophy+empathy for other sentient beings (even if they look like giant bugs)....i liked it a lot...depends on mood also (xenocide/speaker for the dead/children for the dead)
havent read the rest like shadow/hedgemon etc

currently reading song of fire and ice to be followed by neverwhere
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I read the first book of GRRM's series. I stopped after that. I could not take waiting for each book to come out. I'll read them all if and when he finishes the series. :D

Also, read Ender's Shadow. IMHO, it's the best book in the series.

Haven't gotten around to Neverwhere yet. I did see the origninal six episode BBC miniseries though. It was really good. Though I do want to see how the book/comic adaption turned out.
(His Crossovers have in general been good though. Mirror Mask and Stardust I liked a lot.) I do hope they make an American Gods/Anansi Boys movie/series.
 
If you want to do some serious reading of Sci-Fi, make sure you read the following epics by Sci-Fi's Dad, Jules Verne. The books are written in the 1800s but they don't really seem dated and are really interesting.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)

Also just saw this Sci-Fi movie called The Man from Earth (2007) and it is one of the most brilliant and thought-provoking movies ever. Its well-seeded on most bittorrent sites coz the makers approved of their small indie movie getting publicity from file-sharing. Download it if you like intelligent Sci-Fi.
 
cybertragic said:
If you want to do some serious reading of Sci-Fi, make sure you read the following epics by Sci-Fi's Dad, Jules Verne. The books are written in the 1800s but they don't really seem dated and are really interesting.
Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)
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Those were the books which started me into the sci-fi genere :ohyeah:
 
cybertragic said:
Also just saw this Sci-Fi movie called The Man from Earth (2007) and it is one of the most brilliant and thought-provoking movies ever. Its well-seeded on most bittorrent sites coz the makers approved of their small indie movie getting publicity from file-sharing. Download it if you like intelligent Sci-Fi.
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Oh yes. Abother thumbs up for this movie from my side. Downloaded, watched, donated on the movie official website. :hap2:
 
nukeu666 said:
20k leagues under the sea was sooo frigging boring, i had to skip pages at a time
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I agree. Even I started getting bored in many parts and had to skip pages. The sea and all its creatures are described in such great detail that its difficult to read all of it. It requires you to have a very vivid imagination and to be able to visualize all the sights and sounds.

Guess it wasn't written with our youtube ADD generation in mind. :ashamed:
 
nukeu666 said:
i like reading stuff with extreme detail but who the F cares about what a fish looks like :p
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Curious people in the 1800s and early-mid 1900s who did not have magazines, TV, internet etc.
 
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