[Coco with marshmallows]

Yep, as with title, want suggestions for things to put onto Kindle and read while on holiday.

Looking for Fantasy/sci-fi/historical fiction/history type suggestions.

Stuff i've read recently(ish):
Malaz (obviously)
GoT
All Abercrombie
All Lawrence
All Butcher
Most Sanderson
All Cornwell
All Gemmel
All Pratchett

Stuff i won't touch:
WoT - read the first nine, can't be arsed finishing
SoT - really, do i NEED to explain why?


So, oh great and wise members of the Empire (and Brood):

Give me some ideas!

[Gorefest]

Hobb? Feist? Or Dune. Guy Gavriel Kay is good too.

[polishgenius]

Have you read Stover's Acts of Caine? If not, do.

Also, in completely the opposite direction (but still being awesome fantasy), Daniel Abraham.

Mary Gentle's Ash handily mixes historical fiction and fantasy into one book, and it's fucking awesome, and also fucking huge.

Sci-fi wise, the final book in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy comes out this week, so now is a good time to pick that series up if you haven't. The first two books are excellent.

[Tsundoku]

polishgenius, on 06 October 2015 - 08:05 PM, said:

Fuckitty-fuck. Have you fucking read Matthew Fucking Stover's Acts of fucking Caine? If fuckng not, fucking do. Fuck.

...

Mary Gentle's Ash handily mixes historical fiction and fantasy into one book, and it's fucking awesome, and also fucking huge.

Fixed the first fucking line for you.

I can't fucking believe you didn't fucking swear in the Stover line, but did for Mary fucking Gentle? Fuck!

On topic: add anything by Paul Kearney or CS (Celia) Friedman.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 06 October 2015 - 08:21 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

Gorefest, on 06 October 2015 - 08:02 PM, said:

Hobb? Feist? Or Dune. Guy Gavriel Kay is good too.

Read, read, read, and read.

polishgenius, on 06 October 2015 - 08:05 PM, said:

Have you read Stover's Acts of Caine? If not, do.

Also, in completely the opposite direction (but still being awesome fantasy), Daniel Abraham.

Mary Gentle's Ash handily mixes historical fiction and fantasy into one book, and it's fucking awesome, and also fucking huge.

Sci-fi wise, the final book in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy comes out this week, so now is a good time to pick that series up if you haven't. The first two books are excellent.

Read them all - only read the first of Leckie's though.

Tsundoku, on 06 October 2015 - 08:19 PM, said:

I can't fucking believe you didn't fucking swear in the Stover line, but did for Mary fucking Gentle? Fuck!

On topic: add anything by Paul Kearney or CS (Celia) Friedman.

And again.... read

Sorry guys (and possibly gals?), appreciate the thoughts so far though.

Keep 'em coming.

[polishgenius]

Tsundoku, on 06 October 2015 - 08:19 PM, said:

I can't fucking believe you didn't fucking swear in the Stover line, but did for Mary fucking Gentle? Fuck!

To be fair, Mary Gentle is pretty fucking sweary, though perhaps not as imaginative with it as Stover.

edit to add:

Alright, on a bit of a different tack, some of my regular recs of less-common-type fantasy and the like, maybe you've not read one or two of these :

Nick Harkaway's Gone-Away World. One of my favourite books ever. Read it if you love martial arts movies, post-apocalyptic tales, war stories and angry anti-corporate satire all rolled up into one. An outrageous amount of fun.

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series- fiction-diving, wordplay loving, all-round weird magic. The first five books especially (they essentially form a complete series).

Max Gladstone's Craft series- it's about magical lawyers. It's very, very good.

Felix Gilman's Thunderer/Gears of the City duology. If you like a big-ass fantasy city setting, you can't miss this. Everything of Gilman's is worth reading really.

Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought. The first two books are great, huge-scale space operas (I haven't read the third). The second in particular, A Fire Upon the Deep (actually a prequel), is one of the better space operas I can think of having read.

Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death. Not a traditional fantasy, it's an African post-apocalyptic fairytale of rage. Maybe not holiday material, it gets pretty heavy in some of the material it covers? But it really depends on your taste so I'll throw it in.




Plus the two best new books I've read so far this year, which you may have noticed me mention once or twice: Uprooted by Naomi Novik and The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 06 October 2015 - 08:46 PM

[Mezla PigDog]

Can't ask for recommendations and then not reciprocate! Not sure if it fits your criteria but I recently read the first 2 New Crobuzon books by China Meiville and really enjoyed them. Fantasy with a steam punky angle and the first book also feels a bit noir. It's not a series, they are loosely linked so you could read the first only and drop if you don't like.

[Coco with marshmallows]

polishgenius, on 06 October 2015 - 08:28 PM, said:

Tsundoku, on 06 October 2015 - 08:19 PM, said:

I can't fucking believe you didn't fucking swear in the Stover line, but did for Mary fucking Gentle? Fuck!

To be fair, Mary Gentle is pretty fucking sweary, though perhaps not as imaginative with it as Stover.

edit to add:

Alright, on a bit of a different tack, some of my regular recs of less-common-type fantasy and the like, maybe you've not read one or two of these :

Nick Harkaway's Gone-Away World. One of my favourite books ever. Read it if you love martial arts movies, post-apocalyptic tales, war stories and angry anti-corporate satire all rolled up into one. An outrageous amount of fun. - READ IT

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series- fiction-diving, wordplay loving, all-round weird magic. The first five books especially (they essentially form a complete series). - READ IT

Max Gladstone's Craft series- it's about magical lawyers. It's very, very good. - OOOOHHHH - will try

Felix Gilman's Thunderer/Gears of the City duology. If you like a big-ass fantasy city setting, you can't miss this. Everything of Gilman's is worth reading really. - Will try

Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought. The first two books are great, huge-scale space operas (I haven't read the third). The second in particular, A Fire Upon the Deep (actually a prequel), is one of the better space operas I can think of having read.

Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death. Not a traditional fantasy, it's an African post-apocalyptic fairytale of rage. Maybe not holiday material, it gets pretty heavy in some of the material it covers? But it really depends on your taste so I'll throw it in. - Sounds interesting tbh, may well try also

Plus the two best new books I've read so far this year, which you may have noticed me mention once or twice: Uprooted by Naomi Novik and The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin. - have read most Temeraire books, and seen some chat for Uprooted. Jemisin was Hundred Thousand kingdoms author? didn't really enjoy that.

See comments, thanks for the ideas!

Mezla PigDog, on 06 October 2015 - 08:59 PM, said:

Can't ask for recommendations and then not reciprocate! Not sure if it fits your criteria but I recently read the first 2 New Crobuzon books by China Meiville and really enjoyed them. Fantasy with a steam punky angle and the first book also feels a bit noir. It's not a series, they are loosely linked so you could read the first only and drop if you don't like.

Thanks, may try Mieville again. attempted Perdido Street years ago and got distracted..

[Binder of Demons]

I'm assuming you'll have read RICHARD MORGAN's stuff, both fantasy and sci-fi? I love the Kovacs Trilogy (starting with Altered Carbon).

For more sci-fi, you could try NEAL ASHER. He has several different series, some set in the same universe, but all good action packed sci-fi. The OWNER trilogy is the most recent completed one.

I assume you've read Hyperion. If not, rectify that if you want to call yourself a sci-fi fan. Equally, if you haven't devoured Iain M. Banks' stuff, do so.

For a good older (modern) sci-fi read, how about some early GREG BEAR. I loved EON, and ETERNITY, and also enjoyed MOVING MARS (but i know that's not nearly as good. He had a good fantasy duology called SONGS OF EARTH AND POWER as well from that time. I gave up on his stuff when he turned more towards biology.

If you liked Butcher's DRESDEN FILES, then you could try Benedict Jacka's ALEX VERUS series, or Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series. Both have wizards in modern urban settings, but have very different styles. The Peter Grant series is the better written of the two.

For a strange kind of sci-fi, you could get some stuff by MICHAEL SWANWICK. He's not very prolific, but i've enjoyed the stuff of his that I've found so far. I loved Stations of The Tide, and The Iron Dragon's Daughter.

For more recent stuff, I just saw THE THREE BODY PROBLEM by Cixin Liu in my bookstore and I've heard very good things about it (chinese sci-fi translated to english by Ken Liu).

[Andorion]

Django Wexlers Shadow Campaigns, Sebastien de Castells Greatcoats. Wexler is very good, de Castell is awesome

[acesn8s]

The Great Coats series by Sebastien de Castell

The Cardinals Blades by Pierre Pevel

The Khaavren Romances by Steven Brust

The Taltos novels by Steven Brust

Jack of Kinrowan or the Newford books by Charles deLint

Tad Williams:
Bobby Dollar series
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series
Shadowmarch series

Fred Saberhagen's Books of Swords series

Anything by Neil Gaiman

Michael Moorcock's Elric series.

Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles

Larry Niven's Dreampark series

David Edding's Belgariad

[Vengeance]

Any of the Garrett P.I novels by Glen Cook. Think Dresdin but not a wizard just vanilla.

Any of Iain M. Banks Culture novels

Brent Weeks - Night Angle Trilogy

Scott Lynch if you haven't already.

[Abyss]

Reiterating Stover's CAINE series from upthread because fuck.


But if you're feeling a little more frivolous, I got you covered....

Peter Clines' EX-HEROES series. Four books out, nicely self-contained, SUPERHEROES PUNCHING ZOMBIES IN THE FACEPARTS. So SO MUCH fun.

Patrick Lee's BREACH sf actioner series. Three books, moves so fucking fast you can't catch your breath for the the first two, and book three will dissolve your brain. I read 1-2 on vacation and they were perfect.

Mike Carey's FELIX CASTOR series. Urban fantasy, very much a slow-burn style of writing but his payoffs are HUGE. Exorcism and sex demons and dead people and harmonicas. Done in five. And yes, he's THAT Mike Carey.

RM Meluch's TOUR OF THE MERRIMACK. The original four book series is glorious, sf with mil/sf tendencies, reads like a massive space opera film. Swords and bugs and spaceships and the Roman Empire clash, hilarity ensues. Bks 5-6 weren't as impressive, but 1-4 are complete and worth your $.

[Tsundoku]

I've been enjoying John Birmingham's Dave vs the Monsters series, consisting so far of Emergence, Resistance and Ascendance. Good fun, with a definite anti-hero you probably won't relate to. Or at least shouldn't. Because he's a bit of a dick.

Best character: one of the baddies called "Threshie". Especially after he has a few ... meals.

[Salt-Man Z]

Read Stephen R. Donaldson? His 5-book sci-fi GAP Cycle is fantastic. His Mordant's Need duology is a blast. (His Thomas Covenant serieses--10 books in all--are really good, too, but they're admittedly not for everyone.)

[polishgenius]

Coco with marshmallows, on 06 October 2015 - 11:22 PM, said:

Jemisin was Hundred Thousand kingdoms author? didn't really enjoy that.

She was, but Fifth Season is a very very different book (and a better one).

[Coco with marshmallows]

Binder of Demons, on 07 October 2015 - 12:48 AM, said:

I'm assuming you'll have read RICHARD MORGAN's stuff, both fantasy and sci-fi? I love the Kovacs Trilogy (starting with Altered Carbon).

For more sci-fi, you could try NEAL ASHER. He has several different series, some set in the same universe, but all good action packed sci-fi. The OWNER trilogy is the most recent completed one.

I assume you've read Hyperion. If not, rectify that if you want to call yourself a sci-fi fan. Equally, if you haven't devoured Iain M. Banks' stuff, do so.

For a good older (modern) sci-fi read, how about some early GREG BEAR. I loved EON, and ETERNITY, and also enjoyed MOVING MARS (but i know that's not nearly as good. He had a good fantasy duology called SONGS OF EARTH AND POWER as well from that time. I gave up on his stuff when he turned more towards biology.

If you liked Butcher's DRESDEN FILES, then you could try Benedict Jacka's ALEX VERUS series, or Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series. Both have wizards in modern urban settings, but have very different styles. The Peter Grant series is the better written of the two.

For a strange kind of sci-fi, you could get some stuff by MICHAEL SWANWICK. He's not very prolific, but i've enjoyed the stuff of his that I've found so far. I loved Stations of The Tide, and The Iron Dragon's Daughter.

For more recent stuff, I just saw THE THREE BODY PROBLEM by Cixin Liu in my bookstore and I've heard very good things about it (chinese sci-fi translated to english by Ken Liu).

All read, or in the dead tree TRP, so not dropping more cash for Kindle

Andorion, on 07 October 2015 - 12:53 AM, said:

Django Wexlers Shadow Campaigns, Sebastien de Castells Greatcoats. Wexler is very good, de Castell is awesome

acesn8s, on 07 October 2015 - 12:58 AM, said:

The Great Coats series by Sebastien de Castell

The Cardinals Blades by Pierre Pevel

The Khaavren Romances by Steven Brust

The Taltos novels by Steven Brust

Jack of Kinrowan or the Newford books by Charles deLint

Tad Williams:
Bobby Dollar series
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series
Shadowmarch series

Fred Saberhagen's Books of Swords series

Anything by Neil Gaiman

Michael Moorcock's Elric series.

Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles

Larry Niven's Dreampark series

David Edding's Belgariad

Read all bar Charles De Lint, thanks!

Vengeance, on 07 October 2015 - 12:59 PM, said:

Any of the Garrett P.I novels by Glen Cook. Think Dresdin but not a wizard just vanilla.

Any of Iain M. Banks Culture novels

Brent Weeks - Night Angle Trilogy

Scott Lynch if you haven't already.

Read all

Abyss, on 07 October 2015 - 02:33 PM, said:

Reiterating Stover's CAINE series from upthread because fuck.


But if you're feeling a little more frivolous, I got you covered....

Peter Clines' EX-HEROES series. Four books out, nicely self-contained, SUPERHEROES PUNCHING ZOMBIES IN THE FACEPARTS. So SO MUCH fun.

Patrick Lee's BREACH sf actioner series. Three books, moves so fucking fast you can't catch your breath for the the first two, and book three will dissolve your brain. I read 1-2 on vacation and they were perfect.

Mike Carey's FELIX CASTOR series. Urban fantasy, very much a slow-burn style of writing but his payoffs are HUGE. Exorcism and sex demons and dead people and harmonicas. Done in five. And yes, he's THAT Mike Carey.

RM Meluch's TOUR OF THE MERRIMACK. The original four book series is glorious, sf with mil/sf tendencies, reads like a massive space opera film. Swords and bugs and spaceships and the Roman Empire clash, hilarity ensues. Bks 5-6 weren't as impressive, but 1-4 are complete and worth your $.

Read them all

Thanks for all the suggestions though folks, repping accordingly

[Itwæs Nom]

can someone calculate the time he must've spent reading?

Im not sure about fitting it all in one human life

this is serious, someone call Mulder

This post has been edited by Charlie Nom: 08 October 2015 - 05:54 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

Dude, just tell us what you haven't read, and we'll tell you which of those to get on.

(This is why everyone on this forum needs to maintain a Goodreads/LibraryThing/Google Books account.)

[QuickTidal]

Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series beginning with MAGIC BITES.

These are the closest to the complexities and enjoyment, and basic badassery of Dresden I've found in the entire Urban Fantasy library.