The last book you read that was truly fantastic

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The last book you read that was truly fantastic

#1 RodeoRanch

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Posted 20 March 2013 - 11:14 PM

Hey boys and girls. I'm in a book rut. Been reading stuff that is mildly entertaining but instantly forgettable the moment I'm done. Now I'm looking for something that will blow my mind. Rock my world. Rodeo my Ranch.

Fill my brain with your book knowledge goo.

#2 worry

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Posted 20 March 2013 - 11:54 PM

The last book I read that I'd give an A+ was Forge of Darkness. The most recent I'd give an A is the Black Company finale. Pretty helpful huh?

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#3 polishgenius

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Posted 20 March 2013 - 11:55 PM

I dunno about the last one, I can't say I've read any so far this year (good and very good ones, sure), so I'm just going to name my go-to rec: The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway. Kung-Fu epic, Post-apocalyptic road movie, Middle East war satire, mockery of rampant corporate capitalism, and so much more. It shouldn't work but it does. So, so much.

Also, two I did read last year:

Faith, by John Love - my favourite SFF book released last year. Bizarre but brilliant space opera. Hard to describe it more than that, really...

Deathless, by Catherynne Valente - a tale about Koschei the Deathless, set against a backdrop of St. Petersburg/Stalingrad in the early 20th Century. If you like Neil Gaiman, this is definitely one to try. Valente's prose and style is stunning. I actually liked Palimpsest more, but since that one is about a fantasy city that is an STD, Deathless is probably more likely for wide recommendation.

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#4 amphibian

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 01:47 AM

A+ books I've read this year: Godsdoom, by Nick Perumov and The Dervish House by Ian McDonald.

A+ books that are somewhat unknown: A Fire in the Sun, by George Alec Effinger (a substance abusing detective in a far future Muslim dominated North Africa has a murder mystery and weird extended family situation to deal with); Sex and Danger in Buenos Aires, by Donna Guy (it is the best written in terms of prose book on sociological research that I've ever read and really gets into some strange human behaviors); The Art Forger's Handbook, by Eric Hebborn (very cool book on how to carefully manufacture/create art that closely resembles very valuable artists' work, cool to read even if no interest in actually making art as Hebborn is quite a good author).

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#5 Abyss

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 04:08 AM

ONCE CROWDED SKY by Tom King.
Totally worth your time and money.

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#6 D'rek

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 04:13 AM

Codex Alera books 3 and 4 came pretty close, but I wouldn't say the series as a whole Rodeo'd my Ranch...

I'm not sure about the last book I read that did this, but have you read GGK's Sailing to Sarantium + Lord of Emperors duology?

Perhaps you'd care to try Romance of the Three Kingdoms? It absolutely Rodeos my (and many other peoples') Ranch, but I guess it is not everybody's cup of tea.

edit: thought more, I think I would put Hyperion as the last book that truly made a great big memorable impression on me

This post has been edited by D'rek: 21 March 2013 - 04:17 AM

worrywort, on 14 September 2012 - 08:07 PM, said:

I kinda love it when D'rek unleashes her nerd wrath, as I knew she would here. Sorry innocent bystanders, but someone's gotta be the kindling.

#7 Hinter

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 08:38 AM

This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson. It's a fictionalised biography of Captain Robert Fitzroy, commander of HMS Beagle (which took Darwin on his voyage of discovery) and inventor of the weather forecast. Best book I've ever read.

#8 Tapper

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 09:09 AM

Most that I'd qualify as A+ has been named already. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon was fairly frickin' awesome. As is mostly anything by Iain M. Banks.

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#9 Mezla PigDog

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 10:03 AM

I've been stuck into the Hyperion series and the Wolf Hall series and have mightily enjoyed them. You might want to try Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies - fictional account of the life and times of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII, I couldn't put them down even though I know what's going to happen since it's all historical and what not. I can't quite put my finger on why they are so enjoyable to read but they have won lots of awards in the UK.

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#10 Baco Xtath

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 01:42 PM

I'm going to second A Once Crowded Sky and the Gone-Away World and toss in some Gears of the City by Felix Gilman; the prose is fantastic and the setting is so unique and well written that this book will always be a top book for me.

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#11 Gothos

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 01:48 PM

RED COUNTRY by Joe Abercrombie... fantastic. Amazing how he pulled off giving a more or less late-medieval/reneissance setting the tint of a western. Bloody genius.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

#12 polishgenius

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 02:05 PM

Baco Xtath, on 21 March 2013 - 01:42 PM, said:

and toss in some Gears of the City by Felix Gilman; the prose is fantastic and the setting is so unique and well written that this book will always be a top book for me.

While I second the Gilman recommendation, I should note that Gears of the City is the second in a duology and should be read after Thunderer. Not that this is a chore, Thunderer is awesome (I liked it more, personally).

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#13 Orlion

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 02:15 PM

The Neverending Story- Michael Ende
The Storyteller- Mario Vargas Llosa
Go Tell it on the Mountain- James Baldwin
Just about everything I've read by John Crowley (Lord Byron's Novel and his short story collection Novelties & Souvenirs for most recent)
Julian May's Pliocene Exile Saga was fantastic
Returning back to old Mario, The War of the End of the World was probably the best book I've read in the past couple years.

I left off Hemingway and Faulkner because... well, you gotta be in a certain state of mind.

Ford Maddox Ford's Parade's End was fantastic and is the reason why I say The War of the End of the World was 'probably' the best book I've read the past couple years.

For fantasy: The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany and Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake.

Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons are a must, Endymion and Rise of Endymion not so much.

Little, Big by John Crowley. Joins Parade's End and The War of the End of the World as the Holy Literature Trinity for best books I've read in the past couple years.

This post has been edited by Orlion: 21 March 2013 - 02:21 PM

#14 Mezla PigDog

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 02:17 PM

polishgenius, on 21 March 2013 - 02:05 PM, said:

.... Thunderer.

Doesn't the Eye of which give "Sight beyond sight" and be from whence the Thundercats came?

Burn rubber =/= warp speed

#15 Chance

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 03:05 PM

Gothos, on 21 March 2013 - 01:48 PM, said:

RED COUNTRY by Joe Abercrombie... fantastic. Amazing how he pulled off giving a more or less late-medieval/reneissance setting the tint of a western. Bloody genius.

Easily my best book so far this year...thought I know some liked it less then other stuff he's written.

Going back to last year the Quantum Thief is simply stunning and my best read for a good while back.

#16 Baco Xtath

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 03:08 PM

polishgenius, on 21 March 2013 - 02:05 PM, said:

Baco Xtath, on 21 March 2013 - 01:42 PM, said:

and toss in some Gears of the City by Felix Gilman; the prose is fantastic and the setting is so unique and well written that this book will always be a top book for me.

I definitely can't argue that; I loved Thunderer. I just felt Gears's feel and prose went to the next level.

And yes Mezla, Ararat and its inhabitants are really Thundera and the Thundercats.

#17 Salt-Man Z

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 03:38 PM

When I read Robert Jackson Bennett's American Elsewhere earlier this year, I didn't think anything I read this year could top it. Then over the weekend I finished up Robert Silverberg's Lord of Darkness. Turns out I was wrong. You can't go wrong with either one, though.

"Here is light. You will say that it is not a living entity, but you miss the point that it is more, not less. Without occupying space, it fills the universe. It nourishes everything, yet itself feeds upon destruction. We claim to control it, but does it not perhaps cultivate us as a source of food? May it not be that all wood grows so that it can be set ablaze, and that men and women are born to kindle fires?"
―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch

#18 Gnaw

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Posted 21 March 2013 - 05:42 PM

i thought I had posted this last night. I recently re-read Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination". I'd definitely rate it A+.

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