[caladanbrood]

Right, I'm off the aus in nine days now, so I have to start finalising a few things. Like, for instance, which books to take with me. Now, hardbacks are out of the question, obviously, so I have a choice of several paperbacks to take. I was thinking I would take 3, probably.

So, please help me choose between:

Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson - The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Ian R. McLeod - The Light Ages
Iain McLeod (different author, not sure about the spelling) - Cosmonaut Keep
Paul Cornell - British Summertime
M. John Harrison - Light
Vernor Vinge - A Fire Upon the Deep
Al Reynolds - Century Rain
Nancy Farmer - The House of the Scorpion
Gene Wolfe - The 5th Head of Cerberus
Bakker - Warrior Prophet
Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves
Clive Barker - Imajica
Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors
Kate Elliott - King's Dragon
John Courtney Grimwood - Stamping Butterflies
Martin Sketchley - The Affinity Trap
Jeff Vandermeer - City of Saints and Madmen
Nick Sagan - Idlewild
Jonathan Stroud - The Amulet of Samarkand
Robert Harris - Pompeii
Bill Bryson - Down Under
Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything

Pick three, good peoples of the board!!!

[Brys]

What - only 3?

I'll try:
1) City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer - excellent collection of novellas and short stories, by one of the best, most imaginative writers in the genre. His style varies from M John Harrison-style to Franz Kafka to a more literary Terry Pratchett through the book.
2) The Warrior Prophet by R Scott Bakker - IMO this was an improvement on the already very good Darkness that Comes Before. Has a much greater focus on Kellhus and the Holy War, which has a few surprises and some very interesting developments. As always with Bakker, very intelligent, well written and entertaining.

I actually haven't read any of the others, but I think I'd say:
3) Light by M John Harrison - he's one of the best writers in speculative fiction, so you can't go wrong with him. His worst novel IMO (Centauri Device) is still excellent, and some of his best (eg Viriconium) is truly exceptional.

[Murrin]

Brys said:

What - only 3?

I'll try:
1) City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer - excellent collection of novellas and short stories, by one of the best, most imaginative writers in the genre. His style varies from M John Harrison-style to Franz Kafka to a more literary Terry Pratchett through the book.
2) The Warrior Prophet by R Scott Bakker - IMO this was an improvement on the already very good Darkness that Comes Before. Has a much greater focus on Kellhus and the Holy War, which has a few surprises and some very interesting developments. As always with Bakker, very intelligent, well written and entertaining.

I actually haven't read any of the others, but I think I'd say:
3) Light by M John Harrison - he's one of the best writers in speculative fiction, so you can't go wrong with him. His worst novel IMO (Centauri Device) is still excellent, and some of his best (eg Viriconium) is truly exceptional.

Took the damn words out of my mouth. Those three, yes.

[caladanbrood]

Fool said:

Right, dont get the warrior prohpet unless you really loved the first. You may be disappointed.

Also KJ Parker's Devices and Desires is out in parperback and its pretty good.

Well, that list is of the paperback I already own. I'm hoping not to have to buy more yet. Though I might be prepared to get the paperback of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell...

[No-God]

The Warrior-Prophet, for sure. If you liked the first, you will love that one. So amazing.

[Werthead]

Both the Kate Elliott and the Robert Harris books are good. Relaxing, entertaining reads. The Harris is self-contained, though, so might be more of an enjoyable summer read. King's Dragon is the first in a 7-volume series (which could easily have been told in 4-5 volumes with a decent editor) which is solid and entertaining with some great characters, but also rather unremarkable overall. Good if you like JV Jones.

Century Rain is a good read with a somewhat preposterous finale, but that's Reynolds for you.

Paul Cornell is a seriously good writer who has slowly been building up his writing credentials for some 15 years before embarking on his solo novel career. But I haven't read this book and it did get mixed print reviews, so even stevens on this one.

[Abyss]

Reading Bryson down under while in australia was one of the most amusing items of my relatively entertaining life. It's also a guaranteed opener to meet people, because so many other travellers and locals have read, or are reading it.

Imagica is a great read, long, and changes pace often enough that it holds your attention. Worth bringing.


Smoke and Mirrors is fairly short. Pompeii is very historically based and if you're immersing yourself in Oz, I don't think you want to be exploring ancient Rome at the same time.

Bakker is a brilliant read, and the third novel just came out/any second now.


- Abyss, doesn't mix pasta with kangaroo.

[Werthead]

No worse than a lot of writers and better than most Roman Empire books I've come across. Having just resisted the urge to hurl Iggulden's novels across the room and repeatedly lost the will to live whilst ploughing through McCullogh's turgid prose, Harris was very good by comparison. Maybe a bit too obviously written with a Hollywood adaption in mind, but still good for that. And you'll end up appreciating Roman engineering a hell of a lot more.

[Morgoth]

I truly enjoyed Smoke and Mirrors. Some of it can e fairly macabre and slightly disturbing, but all in all it's great!

'Mrs Whitacker found the Holy Grail, it was under a furr coat'

[Blind]

The only two books I have read in that list are Light and Smoke and Mirrors. I can certainly recommend Smoke and Mirrors - there are good stories in there, fun, dark or bizarre . I enjoyed Light, but I was sometimes put off by the scientific language used in it.

[Werthead]

bluesman said:

Iggulden is simply awesome. None of the others comes close. Which probably explains why his books are selling in droves at the moment.
bm

His books are selling in droves at the moment (although his sales are not as impressive as either McCullogh's or Harris by a long way) because they are a very light and easy read with virtually no depth to them. Historically his books are garbage and filled with changes that make no sense. Cleverly he points these changes out and says "Well it made more sense dramatically to do this...", but it's basically because he lacks the talent to draw out the Sulla/Marius conflict and fill it with the bloody intrigue and betrayals needed to fully it. In this regard McCullogh, as much as I dislike her prose, totally wipes the floor with him. And Caesar and Brutus being step-brothers when in real life Caesar was a good 20 years older with there being a good chance that Caesar was actually Brutus' father? WTF was the point of that?

Iggulden had some good ideas and some of the devices and characters used in the first book to illustrate Caesar's childhood (an area which is not very well detailed historically) was interesting, which made me buy the second book. The fact that he couldn't be bothered to actually follow historical events made the book extremely irritating to read. If you are unfamiliar with Roman history, than I can see how the book could be enjoyed. But for me the story just became more and more preposterous the further away it stretched from historical truth.

In summary, you'd be better off watching the HBO series Rome, playing the PC game Rome: Total War, or reading Harris, McCullogh (she gets the history spot on but not the prose) or, of course, Robert Graves' series I, Claudius and Claudius the God.

Apologies for threadjacking. Back to the original point, I'd go with both the McLeods, Cornell, Harrison, Vinge, Reynolds, Gaiman, Harris, Elliott or Bryson. Barker is good but Imajica isn't his best work. I'd go for Weaveworld if you haven't already read it.

[caladanbrood]

Well, it's ended up being MMPBs only, which rules of House of Leaves, unfortunately:(
I'm taking Kate Elliot, Bill Bryson (Down Under), Bakker, and Richard Morgan's "Woken Furirs", which is cheating, but I only just bought it;)
Oh, and Vandermeer If I can fit it in...