(Part 3) Best american literature books according to redditors
We found 6,075 Reddit comments discussing the best american literature books. We ranked the 2,375 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
I would recommend:
Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind
Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, or his newest series The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive).
If you made it all the way through Sword of Truth series, you probably will enjoy Jordan's Wheel of Time.
Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora is also very enjoyable.
If you are looking for another big one, enjoy the gritty and dark elements from Martin, Stephen Erikson's Malazan series might be up your alley. The first book is a little difficult to get through, but it picks up after that.
Check out the book "One Second After" for a depressing view of how society utterly collapses without national power grids. In the book a high altitude nuke causes the EMP with takes down the US grid. There is shielding that can be done to protect against a man-made EMP but a solar flare is orders of magnitude stronger and adequate shielding isn't possible from such an energy source.
Warning - this book is so bleak you'll read "The Road" to brighten your day
https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765327252
^(Note: these are all books I've read and can recommend from experience.)
David Brin's Sundiver is a detective mystery. Likewise his Existence is a mystery about a recently discovered artifact, though its presentation with multiple perspectives lacks the singular detective tone of Sundiver. It's not as much of a mystery/thriller more of a mystery/adventure. It is also one of the overall best science fiction novels I've ever read; the writing is top notch, the characters superbly lifelike, the tone excellent, and the overall reading experience enjoyable and filled with a realistic optimism.
Gregory Benford's Artifact is an investigative mystery about a strange artifact. His Timescape is about a strange phenomenon.
Jack McDevitt's The Engines of God is an investigative mystery about a strange artifact.
Asimov's The End of Eternity is a classic mystery/thriller.
Alastair Reynolds' The Prefect and Chasm City are both standalone detective mysteries. His Revelation Space is similar, but does not have the same classic mystery tone.
Greg Bear's Queen of Angels and Slant are both standalone detective mysteries.
I seem to recall the Second Foundation (Foundation's Fear, Foundation and Chaos, Foundation's Triumph) trilogy by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, and David Brin having some mystery aspects. I think one of them at least is a detective mystery, but I can't remember which right now.
Dan Simmons' Ilium/Olympos is a sort of detective mystery, but its tone is much more action/adventure despite the protagonist's undertakings to determine what in the world is going on.
Joan D. Vinge's Cat Trilogy (Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall) are detective mysteries.
Julian May's Perseus Spur is a detective mystery. It's pretty light-hearted and a lot of fun to read. Something you would pick up at an airport bookstore and not be at all disappointed with. I can't speak for the other two books in the trilogy, haven't read them yet. Just ordered them off Amazon for $4 a piece.
I could go on, but I think that should keep you busy for a while.
 
^(Edited to clarify the tone of some suggestions. Some are more traditional mystery/thriller, while others are more adventure/mystery, more alike to Indiana Jones than a noir detective.)
Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein
Book: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The link has a "Click to Look Inside" link on the left hand side of the page which will let you read the beginning of the book.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles/dp/075640407X
There are currently two novels in the series and the third is being written.
If you want to see what it's like from the perspective of the Redshirts, try reading Redshirts by John Scalzi.
Have you ever read the book Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein? The USA seems to be going down that path faster and faster.
Frederik Pohl's Heechee Saga, starting with Gateway, is about humans finding, using, and trying to understand ships and artifacts left behind by a mysterious alien civilization. There's no initial attack, but humans use their tech to explore space (to try to get rich).
Daemon is pretty good.
It's just post-contact but I really enjoyed Sundiver (The Uplift Saga, Book 1) by David Brin.
I just finished (and would highly recommend) Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind (Amazon) - really great characters and an excellent bit of storytelling.
I just finished The Man that Folded Himself.
It's considered a classic and it's pretty trippy. If the likes time travel stories he'll like this.
I see Satan as a sort of amalgamation of the mythologies that are all about what is best in humanity.
Lucifer freed mankind from God's tyranny by "tricking" us into eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Truly, God must be the Lord of Ignorance to get his panties in a twist over something like that. I like to think of him the way he was portrayed in Heinlein's book Job: A Comedy of Justice; trying his best to mitigate God's incessant, terrible interference with humanity.
Additionally, when I think of Satan, I think of his likenesses in other mythologies:
Prometheus is the most obvious example to me; the guy literally stole fire from the gods to enrich mankind.
Then there's Loki, a textbook example of The Adversary, even though he helps his friends as often as he hinders them. He's even blamed for Ragnarok, even though the whole thing is fated to occur in a specific way, just like the Biblical Apocalypse, which by Christian definition must be God's fault; if God is all-powerful, he could just... not have an apocalypse.
There's also Hel, another Norse cutie, who runs the afterlife. That's one way that religious folks have an advantage over the rest of us; they get to have a smug sense of superiority about what happens after we die. The best that we atheists get is, "Well, at least there's no more... pain?" Hel is what I consider when I worry about that sort of thing. She's the aspect of my own personality that I let worry about what happens... after. Not only to whatever I am, but to those I care about. It's a comfort, which is... really the entire point of the theatricality of Satanism; to satisfy an itchy part of ourselves that traditionally non-religious folks just don't get to scratch.
And oh man, if you ever get into the Bhagavad Gita, there's a whole slew of characters who are portrayed as bad guys, but seem to actually have mankind's best interests at heart.
So... that's how I interpret Satanism. It's not exactly mainstream, but then, what part about fucking Satanism could one consider mainstream?
Here are the titles that I believe are possible to be adapted nicely to film (however I'd still have my pitchfork on stand-by):
Here are a few to add to the VR reading list. The sidebar thread is closed, so this seems like an opportune time to add them here:
Uhh, this?
Patrick Rothfuss' "The Name of the Wind"
Love that book.
I'm reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (Link - it's to Amazon mind). It's good, he does the whole 'this guy is epic' well and quite subtly. Well worth reading so far.
I went a good long while between reading fantasy books. On a friend's recommendation, I checked out The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Good stuff. It plays with a lot of fantasy tropes, but it makes 'em good. Pat's got a way with words. I don't know anyone who didn't like this book.
More recently, I just finished Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn Trilogy. Also good stuff. He knows how to build a world.
I'd highly recommend both of those authors. Sanderson has a few others, and I've been reading through them. I'm on Elantris right now. I really like his writing style.
Hyperion is one of the best books I've ever read, sci-fi or otherwise. It's a group of people on a journey and along the way each character gets a chance to tell their story. You really get multiple stories in one book. Each one is told in a unique style or voice for the character.
Just sitting here thinking about the tale of Sol Weintraub fills me with the deepest, most bittersweet sadness.
Read it, read it, read it! It's sooooo good!
One of my personal favorites, the Xanth series:
[First one] (http://www.amazon.com/Spell-Chameleon-Xanth-Book/dp/0345347536)
[Second] ( http://www.amazon.com/Source-Magic-Xanth-Piers-Anthony/dp/0345350588/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y/183-9033970-4796761)
[Third] ( http://www.amazon.com/Castle-Roogna-The-Magic-Xanth/dp/0345350480/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z)
One Second After. Great read.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765317583
Sort of off the top of my head:
Not Supernatural:
Supernatural:
Often times books about survival don't need to be fiction to be amazingly interesting, so I'll add these:
Definitely check out Vernor Vinge's two masterpieces, A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky.
Yup. This is a subreddit for a series of novels. What is it you're talking about?
Drinking beer with felons!?!?
I'd imagine the ideal is to stay in school. You can always cook. Most people never make it back to school after taking a "break". You'll have more wisdom and stories. The only risk here in not staying in school. This will have a profound effect on your lifetime income...which means arguing with your spouse over money down the road and a lot of extra stress (lack of freedom).
It's a good way to end up at a bar after shift for rest of your life too. Watch that.
There a reason people fail as restaurateurs after retirement. They would have failed anyway, but now they're not homeless.
In the end don't believe the hype. Call and ask for advice in person from three chefs in the middle. You can say it's for a paper. Get the straight dope. Spend enough time to ask about what home life is like and what they would do differently.
Statistically you won't be on T.V. You'll be in the middle fighting with a small business owner (maybe their first) for budget and creativity. High stress long hours hopefully with battle buddies you like. There are no sick days (or insurance) and no one cares if your wife left you or how much your body hurts. You will show up and perform a miracle in multitasking while micromanaging the kids that are your age now. All to be hyper criticized by some douchey pseudo-foodie on the internet. The after glow from a busy shift is pretty sweet. I'd rather drink a beer with kitchen felons than bankers and lawyers any day.
Plus you might get to shag the hostess.
Read Job by Heinlein. If you can work a kitchen you will always have busy hands and stay fed.
When you talk to people keep bias in mind. We are built to never regret things we are stuck doing. We are built to survive...not think about what might have been. Food preparers chime in at a whopping 24% job satisfaction.
With school even if you lose, you win.
Working restaurants in my 20's=Priceless.
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy can easily fill that void and might answer a lot of questions you didn't even know you had about what terraforming Mars would be like.
Frederick Pohl's Gateway/Heechee Series has some of the same gritty feel of The Expanse.
Gateway by Frederik Pohl.
The Player of Games by Iain Banks.
Startide Rising by David Brin.
Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh.
A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safron Foer.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Constance Garrett translation)
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Particularly the scenes describing [Spoiler](/s "Gately's and Joelle's recovery during their time in AA and his description of what living in the present is like, the NOW, what addiction do substances/TV/love/etc can be like, hitting rock bottom, just floored me")
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Also Slaughterhouse Five. The description of the reverse war was so beautiful I nearly cried... link. video addendum
$10 on Amazon, $4 used
Preach it, I'm still right there with you too. Season 4 of Enterprise was so freaking good.
If you didn't like Trip's stupid demise, (I mean who did?) they did try and ret-con it with a book a few years later, going off the idea that what Riker was just a in an historical re-enactment and it's not exactly what happened.
The Good That Men Do. 19-year-old me was very happy with it, I don't know how it's aged though.
A highly acclaimed, much talked about sequel to this fantasy book. It will either bring you to fantasy-reader orgasm or leave you bored-to-death and wondering why you're reading it.
Read some reviews, check it out. I hated it, but I'm expecting downvotes for even hinting that we who do so exist.
Real answer: Someone already wrote a book based on the congressional report on this specific scenario.
I don't think worrying if the data is corrupted is what should be focused on, the fact that there would not be any power to turn anything back on is the real issue. As you say, the social impact would be larger.
Children of Time and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovksy both have strong sociological themes. If you enjoy these books you might also want to check out Semiosis: A Novel by Susan Burke.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov is about the fall and rise of a galactic empire. It is a bit dated in terms of science fiction but a classic in the genre.
Exhalation and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang are collections of short stories and some of them contain strong sociological themes around communication and intersubjective understanding.
A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge also have some interesting speculative sociology.
Hominids: Volume One of The Neanderthal Parallax by Robert J. Sawyer also contains interesting speculative anthropology and sociology (but not a very interesting plot IMO) and is also worth a read.
Let me recommend three things to you.
The Sword - Warp Riders
Thought Chamber - Psykerion - Behind The Eyes Of Ikk
Vernor Vinge - Deepness In The Sky
You'll die for Thought Chamber. The style varies a lot across the entire album, very prog rock on some tunes, very prog metal on others, even jazz instrumental on some. And the story makes me think of the book by Vernor Vinge, which is also worth checking out.
I know this isn't the book you're looking for.. But I thought I would recommend a book called "Daemon"
The book is about this super-brilliant software coder. He is as rich as Bill Gates, and the smartest software engineer alive... and he's dead. At the beginning of the book, he passes away, however he leaves a program running, a program that will bring about a change in civilization as we know it.
He anticipates various people's actions, has subroutines set up to black mail, or coerce people to do his bidding, the program hires people and sets them up to follow through tasks he has assigned. He has traps set up and the program even murders people that it knows could thwart it's progress to it's end game.
It's an extremely interesting concept, and apparently the writer went online and questioned programmers in detail to make sure he didn't just fluff the story up with technobabble, but researched how these things could be possible, and what someone would have to do to set these events in motion. In the end, it's all somewhat plausible, and a great read.
I believe there are two sequels, which I haven't yet read.
Daniel Suarez's books Daemon and Kill Decision illustrates the potential of how terrifying this shit is going to be
The Passage by Justin Cronin starts out with the collapse but the second book is set further in the future.
David Brin's Uplift series. Sundiver is fun and good background, but you really don't get a sense of the series until Startide Rising so I'd recommend reading SR first.
Well you asked for big series
 
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Honor Harrington by David Weber
 
 
Wild Cards Series by George R. R. Martin
 
Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
 
If you insist on seeing These Are the Voyages..., then there are torrents that have it, as well as startrek.com and Netflix. However, you might be better off reading The Good That Men Do instead, since it re-writes Enterprise's finale into something that not only doesn't suck, but also makes sense.
Anyone who is bored with the current state of fantasy you have to read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
One Second After - William R. Forstchen Read this... and then start stocking up on weapons and supplies.
This book, while a fictionalization, is based on a highly plausible situation. It scared the living crap out of me.
David Gerrold's novel 'The Man Who Folded Himself' still stands out to me as one of the better explorations of the concept.
The Hunger Games Trilogy. I liked the Wheel of Time and others mentioned below.
When I was very young I really liked Piers Anthony's Xanth series (first three or so anyway) and although not exactly the same:
Discworld. Read it bitches. Yeah, it's comedy. It's Sir Terry Friggin Pratchett and there are so many Discworld books I don't know the count...but they're all good, and some pass into the realm of great. Every. Damn. One. Read some.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman. http://www.amazon.com/Stardust-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060934719
His Dark Materials Trilogy is good, though the movie was bad. http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Trilogy-Golden-Compass-Spyglass/dp/0375842381/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334109041&sr=1-2
Piers Anthony writes funny fantasy. I enjoyed the first dozen or so of his Xanth novels. http://www.amazon.com/Spell-Chameleon-Xanth-Book/dp/0345347536/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334109146&sr=1-1
I haven't read the book, but it sounds like Gateway to me.
Fellow fan of series here! Let me see...
Young Adult
Percy Jackson series is fun (and finished, too, I think).
Artemis Fowl series isn't quite as good as Percy Jackson IMHO, but it's got a following.
Fantasy
Harry Dresden series This is one of my favorites. Harry is Chicago's only professional wizard. There are a ton of these books and they are still going strong.
Game of Thrones These are great...but unfinished. If you watch the show, reading the books does help you get even more out of the story, I think.
Wheel of Time Another good series. There is a LOT of this series and it's finished. (Thank you, Brandon Sanderson!)
Mistborn Speaking of Brandon Sanderson... This one is very good. I highly recommend reading the Mistborn books before trying the Stormlight Archive, but only because as good as Mistborn is, Stormlight Archive is even better.
Stormlight Archive Amazing. Man, these are good. The series isn't finished, but the two books that are available are some of my favorites ever.
Kingkiller Chronicles I loved the first book. I could not freakin' believe I enjoyed the second one even more. The third one is still pending.
Temeraire Dragons in Napoleonic times. Super cool premise! This one is not finished (I don't think, anyway).
Gentlemen Bastards Con men in a fantasy realm. It's pretty light on the fantasy elements. Very light, I'd say. I'd also say that it has some of the very best swearing that I've ever come across. :D
Scifi
Old Man's War I'm almost finished this one--it's amazing!
Horror/Thriller
Passage Trilogy I've heard these described as vampire books...maybe zombie books... It's apocalyptic for sure. Great books!
Mysteries
Amelia Peabody Egyptology + murder mysteries. Super fun, but trust me...go with the audiobooks for these. They are best when they are performed.
Stephanie Plum Total popcorn reads. If that's your thing, shut off your brain and just enjoy.
Walt Longmire These get particularly good as it goes along. The main character is a sheriff in modern day Wyoming. (Side note: The TV show is also great--just don't expect them to stick to the books.)
Graphic Novels (Everything recommended can be gotten in a "book" format instead of only in comic form, in case that matters. I've gotten most of these from my local library.)
Locke & Key Eerie as crap. Love the art! This one is on-going.
Y: The Last Man All the men on the planet drop dead in a day...except for Yorrick. REALLY good. This is the series that got me reading graphic novels. Plus, it's finished!
Walking Dead I am not a zombie fan...but I like these. They're not done, but I've read up through volume 22 and am still enjoying them.
Other
OutlanderI have no idea how to categorize these or even give a description that does them justice. I refused to pick it up for AGES because it sounded like a bodice-ripper romance and that's not my bag. But these are good!
I hope there's something in there that'll do for you. Have fun and read on!
Edit: Apparently, I need to practice formatting. :/
Edit 2: I forgot to add the Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentlemen Bastards #1).
Read the books after the finale. They aren't canon, but it's as close as you'll get because newer Star Trek books are almost all linear, with the various authors working together to make sure their storylines mesh with each other.
These books are considered the "Relaunch" books, and pick up the story after the series ended. IMO, they do a very good job of continuing the story:
Last Full Measure
The Good That Men Do
Kobayashi Maru
The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing
The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm
Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Future
Coming March 25th:
Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel
Check out "One Second After" https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765327252
It's about a small town after EMP's hit the United States. More survivalist than taking on a cult single-handedly, but very enjoyable.
This fits a portion of your request, but I don't know if I would describe it as "dirty and lived in." I believe you will love it's approach to space travel and the book definitely meets your political requirements... This book is my favourite modern sci-fi book.
Existence by David Brin
https://www.amazon.ca/Existence-David-Brin/dp/0765342626
Daemon - Daniel Suarez
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daemon-Book-2-ebook/dp/B002VUFKDY
as well as the original Daemon (http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez-ebook/dp/B003QP4NPE/) Both are great reads.
Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice is a classic that has several false realities. I haven't read it since it came out ('84), but it was nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula at the time.
This one isn't very well known but it's fun:
Fredrik Pohl - The Voices of Heaven
And Ted Chiang's short story collection Stories of Your Life and Others has a really cool story about angel visitations. Actually all the stories are excellent, and two others deal with ideas from religious mythologies.
In addition to his Stranger in a Strange Land already mentioned, Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice is neat.
Piers Anthony - A Spell For Chameleon
I had read a little when younger, but had stopped reading. Sophomore year in HS, a friend gave me A Spell for Chameleon. I devoured the first three Xanth books, read a bunch of other Piers Anthony books (Apprentice Adept & Incarnations of Immortality, and have never stopped.
Eon by Greg Bear
Maybe Neverness by David Zindell. Though the "mysterious artifact" in it isn't exactly an artifact. Still, it's a crime that this novel has been out of print for over a decade.
Frederik Pohl's Heechee series, beginning with Gateway. Pulpy, but enjoyable.
Ringworld of course, but I'm sure you've already heard of that one.
edit: Whoops. You mentioned Pohl already.
Gateway. I loved it. Its a whole series.
I would suggest Fredrick Pohl's Heechee Saga starting with Gateway:
http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-Heechee-Saga-Frederik-Pohl/dp/0345475836
They are available in audio book format and do revolve around journeys to unknown of deep space, alien discoveries and more.
I read them as a youth some 35 years ago and they along with the Adventures of the Solar Queen by Andre Norton helped shape what I hope and expect exploration in Star Citizen to be.
I should also suggest The Solar Queen (comprising the first two books Sargasso in Space and Plague Ship under one cover) by Andre Norton.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Solar-Queen-Andre-Norton/dp/0765300559
Found the first book (Sargasso in Space) in audio format at:
http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=7360
They are considered classics of Space Opera SciFi.
Well . . . if you're looking at a book simply as a collection of text, I too have never feared a line of text. What books allow, is a slow building of fear that require quite a bit of character development. I don't read horror novels waiting to be frightened, and truthfully read very little horror. The fear just happens. To be honest, it's a different type of fear - more of an uneasy feeling really. Certainly, a book can't have, what my son calls, "The scary jump out scenes". But if we exchange the term fear with edgy, here are a list of my favorite books with an "Edge":
[The Passage] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Passage-Novel-Book-Trilogy/dp/0345528174)
[The Terror] (http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316008079/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404481514&sr=1-1&keywords=terror)
The Stand
Carrion Comfort
Desperation
I am Legend
The Sparrow
Night
Frankenstein
All Quite on the Western Front
Hunger
Blood Meridian
Watchers
The Minus Man
In no particular order - Not the usual suggestions either. Hope it helps, and happy reading!
While I haven't read it myself, I've heard comparisons between The Stand and The Passage, by Justin Cronin. Might want to check it out.
Try The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin: http://www.amazon.com/The-Passage-Novel-Book-Trilogy/dp/0345528174 (not a referral link)
Going to be a movie...third book coming out soon
I love post-apocalyptic movies and books. I really enjoyed Justin Cronin's The Passage, as well as the follow-up The Twelve. Looking forward to the conclusion of the trilogy.
Definitley Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. Its about a dude who's wife leaves him and he has to find her. There is even a talking cat and some dream state scenes. some of it is a retelling of different histories and it has a lot of branching narratives. Kafka On The Shore is another great one by Murakami.
For Vonnegut,you're likely looking for Sirens of Titan, a retelling of Jonah and the Whale through an Alice and Wonderland lens. It's got a character who is very much representative of the Cheshire Cat. He has three different phases. His early books are the best. After (or even during) Breakfast of Champions he start writing a little more autobiographically (Slapstick is about his late sister and Hocus Pocus is about his brief tenure at Rollins college) and it's not as poignant (I don't think). And then later with stuff like Galapagos, he goes back to more philosophical lit, but it doesn't pack the same punch as his first phase.
Finally, House of Leaves is an amazing haunted house book that dramatically alters how you read a book. His other work is good too, but I haven't given any of it enough attention.
Edit: If you want to get meta, check out Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth or If On a Winter's Night a Traveler... by Italo Calvino.
Amazon used to have a feature where they gave the word count, but got rid of it for whatever reason. However if your book happened to have that data available at some point from amazon, you can find it with the following URL, replacing the item number (0385333498 in this case). Nothing on goodreads though.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/sitb-next/0385333498/ref=sbx_txt/002-2018152-0260852?_encoding=UTF8#textstats
Do you have any interest in nonfiction? I generally like to go back and forth between the two.
As far as fiction, check out Daemon and Freedom.
If you're seriously interested in augmented reality and its future implications I recommend reading Daniel Suarez's Daemon and the sequel Freedom.
I would like to recommend, among the many great recommendations here, the Uplift books by David Brin. He's the guy that also wrote The Postman, a post apocalyptic survival sci fi book.
The uplift books is a series of six books in a futuristic setting where Earth is a newcomer in a huge interstellar community where alien races often "uplift" lesser intelligent alien species into sentience. This gives the uplifter status and political weight. Humans are one of very few races to have evolved into sentience and become a hot topic in intergalactic affairs when they've already "uplifted" dolphins and chimps into sentience.
The first 3 books follow separate characters and story lines all within the same universe that play different roles in the overall plot. the last 3 focus on a "single" story that sort of ties it all together.
These books have what you're looking for. Adventure, thrill, politics, a crapload of alien races(to which there is a nice and convenient illustrated guide created by the author), some mystery, war, lots of big space stuff, and a good underdog(humanity) story.
Maybe not the most mindblowing series but I found it very entertaining.
Start here. The first book is not my favorite or the strongest. The series peaks at the third book The Uplift War, if you only want to read that, which you can, but you miss a lot of good lore.
Sundiver. David Brin. Part of the first Uplift trilogy.
The Devil and Daniel Webster is short. Though if you're interested in recommendations for books that are longer that you may like check out these:
The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut's Windlass
On Basilisk Station
The Hobbit
The Dresden Files 1, 2, 3. (The first two books of the series are the weakest, the quality jumps tremendously in Book 3 and each one is better then the last after that.)
The Lost Fleet
Honor Harrington series by David Weber.
Military SF plus politics. There is also religion, but no angels or mysticism.
First book in the series is On Basilisk Station -
http://www.amazon.com/Basilisk-Station-Honor-Harrington/dp/0743435710/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_10
To Say Nothing of the Dog is another time travel nobel by the same author as The Doomsday Book and is a bit lighter fare if you think the black plague is too dark for a recovery read.
As long as I'm here I'll also throw out On Basilisk Station as fun military sci fi with a strong female protagonist.
I definitely agree with this, Garak was one of my favorite characters and AJR put a ton of effort into developing him. I was thrilled when I finally got a copy of this book a few years back in an auction for cheap. I now have 2 copies and hope to someday have him sign one. Of all the Star Trek novels, this and The Good That Men Do (Star Trek Enterprise) are the two best Star Trek novels I have read.
No, the first one that introduces everything and is essentially the first one of the three part series is called, "The Good That Men Do" and is the back story to the Klingon mutagenic virus and takes place where Enterprise ended. I didn't read it, but a lot of it is mentioned in "Kobyashi Maru" so you get a sense of what it was about, Trips involvement with the Romulans and how the Klingons were nearly whiped out because of the mutagenic virus (which explains why the Klingons look different in TOS).
Here's a link if you're interested:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743440013/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1416554807&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JB1RMDAKY60VYYQ53G4
I highly recommend "Kobayashi Maru" though.
I enjoyed One Second After.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765317583
People should read the book One Second After. It's a novel about America getting hit with an Electro Magnetic Pulse that fries all of the electronics in the country. It's eye opening.
https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765327252
You are pretty much describing the beginning of One Second After.
These are books which I have read twice or more and would read again and again on the topic of post-collapse:
Alas Babylon
On the Beach
The Postman - not like the movie with Kevin Costner (just based upon and quite different)
One Second After - currently the most realistic and scariest of the bunch I think.
Earth Abides
Lucifer's Hammer - this one I wouldn't read without many years between as the start is sooooo slow but the second half is good.
back to the beginning
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Did someone just read Peter Watt's latest book?
Try Peter Watts' Blindsight. It's fairly short but an excellent read. Also the next book in the series Echopraxia just came out in october.
http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640
http://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts/dp/076532802X
http://www.amazon.com/Echopraxia-Peter-Watts/dp/076532802X
Existence by David Brin blew my mind.
If you haven't read David Gerrolds' The Man Who Folded Himself, you should. Seminal time-travel fic. It was originally written in the 70s, and it had gotten a bit out of date. He updated it in 2005 with contemporary cultural references. EXCELLENT stuff, and a fairly quick read.
Here's an excellent book by David Gerrold
The Man Who Folded Himself
Get it used for 2 bucks
The Daemon Series by Daniel Suarez deals with AR. It's a two book series and an enjoyable read.
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect It's free to download.
Jacket Copy:
Lawrence had ordained that Prime Intellect could not, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. But he had not realized how much harm his super-intelligent creation could perceive, or what kind of action might be necessary to prevent it.
Caroline has been pulled from her deathbed into a brave new immortal Paradise where she can have anything she wants, except the sense that her life has meaning.
Now these two souls are headed for a confrontation which will force them to weigh matters of life and death before a machine that can remake -- or destroy -- the entire Universe.
Also, the Hyperion Cantos is probably my favorite sci-fi series. AI's aren't the central characters but the plot revolves around what they are up to.
No problem! Mine would be the Hyperion Cantos.
Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan. Fucking hilarious, in a lot of the same ways as JDatE.
http://www.amazon.com/Apathy-Other-Small-Victories-Neilan/dp/0312352190/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377745751&sr=8-1&keywords=apathy+and+other+small+victories
http://www.amazon.com/Stargirl-Readers-Circle-Jerry-Spinelli/dp/0440416779/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377745773&sr=8-1&keywords=stargirl
ok, read Job: A Comedy of Justice asap and you will feel better.
I enjoyed the second half, but i totally understand your point.
Reminds me of this book.
Also read Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein.
A series of books written by Piers Anthony back in the day. About a world where everyone could do magic. It starts here:
http://www.amazon.com/Spell-Chameleon-Xanth-Book/dp/0345347536/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413553868&sr=1-1&keywords=a+spell+for+chameleon
Based on your criteria, I'd say start with some Young Adult stuff first, it tends to be shorter and less convoluted than the adult high fantasy stuff like WoT and GoT. Maybe Graceling would interest you?
If you want something light hearted that won't take up too much of your brain space, I'd say try Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, the Landover series by Terry Brooks, or the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. All fantasy books plenty of comic relief.
It's tough to compete wit hall these suggestions but I see that the Xanth series by Piers Anthony has not yet been mentioned. It's the series that had me fall in love with fantasy. A Spell for Chameleon (4.5/5 stars on Amazon after 179 votes!!) is the first in the series.
First I'll tackle your query regarding one of my favorite novels:
>Read The Forever War, thought it was O.K. I've heard the sequels were bad, would like confirmation on this?
There's one sequel to Forever War, and it's Forever Free. It goes in a weird direction and has an unsatisfying ending. There's a short story that tells the end of the forever war from Mary Gay's point of view, called "A Seperate War". It's pretty good if only for the fact that it just retreads the novel.
Haldeman has a book called Forever Peace, published in 1998, which tackles the same basic concept of never-ending war... But in no way is it actually connected to The Forever War in a narrative sense.
Second:
Some books that I read and enjoyed are...
Definitely enjoyed meeting the Ones Who Came Before so far, good chapter, and the accompanying message about not using insulting terminology for other races. Felt very realistic.
Also, I'm sure it's been noted before, but I thoroughly appreciate the additional roles that this organization has, "Pragmatist," "Ethicist," etc. in hindsight they seem like a perfectly obvious thing to have aboard. When you look back at Star Trek or similar series, how much easier would their lives have been with those roles, or a dedicated linguist, etc.?
But I feel like this series is starting to drag with respect to the Reshapers' plot, which is unfortunate because that's possibly the most interesting part of the story, and also the speed and scope of their efforts were really giving the story weight to me.
On a side note, has anyone read Gateway by Frederik Pohl? [Spoilers](#s "The main adversary is literally trying to reshape the universe into something that is more amicable to their form of life; it's one of the biggest scopes I've ever encountered in a sci-fi story.")
Good point but I didn't really say anything. Virals and a little girl. Can read that on the back cover. Or Amazon's description of the book. Or elsewhere in this thread.
Fixed it just for you though.
THE PASSAGE by Justin Cronin. And its sequel, The Twelve. It is really fucking fantastic. I remember walking into a bookstore to buy the sequel and the guy working there and I having this communal moment of, 'Oh my god, this is the best.' The third book is coming out soon. Beautifully written (it's not just genre fiction but could stand alone as 'literature', if those labels mean anything) and so many OH MY GOD moments. It's a sort of vampire/zombie series, but so sophisticated, and so absorbing, it kind of defies that genre. They are making it into a series of movies soon too so you can get a headstart on everyone else.
Dead Heat by Del Stone, Jr It's like Walking Dead + Sons of Anarchy!
The Passage by Justin Cronin Excellent and bleak post-viral apocalypse.
I just saw Warm Bodies, so I'm not actually in it to win it, but I wanted to share.
Sounds a lot like the second part of The Passage.
I'm assuming you've read World War Z, right?
You should also check out the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant. Kind of a fresh take on the way it handles zombies, in my opinion.
You should also read The Passage: A Novel, by Justin Cronin - which I just found out is going to be a trilogy and that the second one comes out October 16th!
Though I usually say IT to this question, I want to give a different answer. The passage a book about vampires and government conspiracies, it's good stuff.
I am currently reading [The Night of the Gun] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Night-Gun-reporter-investigates/dp/1416541535/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1405104663&sr=8-1) by David Carr as well as Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
I actually started Two Cities over a month ago but forgot the book at my parents' place when I was there last. Kind of annoying since I only had about 80 pages to go but I'll be there this weekend so I am hoping I can wrap both books up by the end of the weekend.
Next up is either [Norwegian Wood] (http://www.amazon.com/Norwegian-Wood-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0375704027/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405105257&sr=1-1&keywords=norwegian+wood) by Haruki Murakami or [Sirens of Titan] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Sirens-Titan-A-Novel/dp/0385333498/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1405105400&sr=1-1) by Kurt Vonnegut.
My hope was to try and read 52 books in 52 weeks (aside: if this kind of challenge interests you be sure to check out /r/52book) but I'm pretty far behind at this point and will have to really ramp things up if I want to get that done.
> but getting it on to the specific machine would be difficult.
Not really. StuxNet showed us all that releasing a rather mundane piece of malware full of NOOPs is rather easy and rather simple to avoid detection for quite a while. That is, it's only full of NOOPs until it hits the one or two computers it was designed to hit.
Think of actual viruses. There are a ton of viruses and bacteria in the wild that are transmitted through hosts, but have no ill effect on those hosts. Humans have thousands of strains of bacteria living inside them that are actually beneficial, but if injected in other mammals many cause great harm to that host. Even AIDS, being such a destructive virus to humans, does absolutely nothing in the apes it previously was hosted in (as far as research tell us it was)
One of the biggest annoyances with traditional malware, like most of the fake AV shit floating around, is that they are fucking annoying and push popups and warnings and all sorts of shit onto the infected user's machine. The best malware in my opinion is completely daemonized, designed to not alert the user that it even exists, quietly destroying something in the background until its job is complete and then cleaning itself up and moving along. Though, I might have enjoyed Daemon and Neuromancer just a little too much.
Edit: I agree with most of the answers in this thread though. A malware along these lines would serve no purpose other than vigilante destruction. Unless it could somehow legally get people in trouble (planting child porn or something), I don't see how this would work to be beneficial long term to the creator, as a widespread infection in a single organization would most easily be flagged suspicious by a reasonably smart investigator or systems admin.
It's not really NetSec related per se but Daemon is pretty exciting even if it is a bit far fetched. The author used to be a security consultant so at least it won't insult you with too many inaccuracies.
Right now, I'm on a tour of Space Opera; Ancillary Justice before sleep, Abaddon's Gate during commute, and The Sundiver on my laptop during downtime at work. Between those 3, Abaddon's gate is the most interesting one, although it requires you to read the first two books.
I see you have your answer. Let me recommend another series for you; The Uplift Saga by David Brin. Humanity has joined a galactic civilization where every race was 'uplifted' or genetically modified into sentience by an earlier race. Except us. We're weird. We've also started uplifiting Earth species like monkeys and dolphins. It's big, it's complex, and it's packed with creativity.
Edit: Nearly forgot a link. Book 1.
I consider them among the standing masterworks of Science Fiction.
Each book can be read on its own (I started in the middle with "Startide Rising"), but you will get more out of it if you start with "Sundiver". The basic idea is that all intelligent lifeforms in the universe have a "father race" that raised them to the level of intelligent beings using genetic and technological modifications. According to established galactic conventions, those child races are bound for 100.000 years in servitude to their upliftors, and every single intelligent race knows about its upliftors.
That is, except for the human race - and this is the main plot device. Shortly after developing intergalactic spaceflight and uplifting some of the species from Earth, the humans emerges into a hostile universe at a critical point in a millenia-old conflict, and they quickly get caught up in intrigues older than human civilization itself.
... aaand that's enough teasing for now. The books are greatly written, and they introduced some very interesting new technological concepts and the corresponding ethical, social and philosophical problems.
Young Miles
I love the Vorkosaigan series. Miles is like a whirlwhind of chaos, dragging awesomeness and interesting events wherever he goes behind him.
I also love the Honor Harrington series.
Honor is a bit like a female Miles, but more awesome, because she has a telepathic tree cat, and can singlehandly kick your ass, and the army you brought with you.
The City That Fought.
This one is a bit older, and is harder to find, but worth it. The story revolves around a city run by a person who's basically the ship's computer, and his Brawn. (Girl who does all the manual type things because he's literally stuck in a tube monitoring things). Just about anything by Ann McCaffery is good, though. I was introduced to her via her "Dragonriders of Pern" series, which is the best damn sci fi disguised as Fantasy I've read.
On Basilisk Station - David Weber
goodreadswikiamazon
Honor Harrington has been exiled to Basilisk station and given an antique ship to police the system. The vindictive superior who sent her there wants her to fail. But he made one mistake; he's made her mad. . . .
taken from Amazon review:
This is a really clever story with wonderful and believable characters, brilliantly described space battles, and a well crafted set of explanations of how the tactical situations which the characters find themselves in relate both to the technology their ships use and the political dynamics which set up the conflicts they find themselves in. Because this is the first book of the series Dave Weber has to devote a fair amount of time to explaining the how faster than light travel and space weapons work in the series, but the explanations are reasonably interesting, internally consistent, and not too hard to follow.
tl;dr - military fiction + space opera
Be forewarned, there are 10+ books in the series, which I got hooked into. willingly.
This gets posted whenever the ending comes up, but go read The Good that Men Do
The Good That Men Do is a great first start.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Good-That-Star-Trek/dp/0743440013/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381334729&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Good+that+Men+do
Enjoy :D
This is going to be fun. Across my multiple wishlists...
1.) Something that is grey.
Grey bedsheets.
2.) Something reminiscent of rain.
Pet water fountain.
3.) Something food related that is unusual.
Astronaut Ice Cream
4.) Something on your list that is for someone other than yourself. Tell me who it's for and why. (Yes, pets count!)
This Bruins banner is for my BFF Becky. She loves the Bruins more than anything. Hockey is her obsession. I put it on my list to remind myself to get it for her at some point. It would make her happy.
5.) A book I should read! I am an avid reader, so take your best shot and tell me why I need to read it!
The Name of the Wind. Of everything I've read in the past 6 months, this one I devoured and have been desperate for the second book in (it's on my list to pick up this week, actually, if my paycheck EVER comes in).
Look, I hate... HATE... first person perspective. I see it as a sign of sloppy writing. However, this book had me SOLD on it. Kvothe is possibly one of my new favorite characters OF ALL TIME.
Avid reader doesn't even begin to describe me. I have my own library. I need books like air. And if I had to make a list of 100 books that were all I was allowed to have for the rest of my life, THIS WOULD BE ON IT.
6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related!
This kindle book
7.) Something related to cats. I love cats! (keep this SFW, you know who you are...)
The most interesting cat toy in the world
8.) Something that is not useful, but so beautiful you must have it.
This choker. Enough said.
9.) A movie everyone should watch at least once in their life. Why?
The Breakfast Club Why? Because. It's a good movie. Whether you were the jock, the brain, the spoiled brat, the loser, or the troublemaker-- there's a character you can identify with, and it shows that whatever and whoever you are, you can get along with someone who isn't in your clique.
10.) Something that would be useful when the zombies attack. Explain.
A Seed Vault
Everyone worries about fighting zombies.
Dumb. You see, when the zombies come, I'm holing up. A few weeks and if they are undead, they'll have rotted themselves to death. If they are fast moving, viral sumbitches, then they'll have likely ended up offing themselves through dehydration or whatever.
In any event, I'll wait them out. But then, I will need to rebuilt and eat.
(Besides, I have my trusty zombie-killing baseball bat, and a bow. Quiet. Efficient.)
11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals.
This book on Aztec and Inca expansionism. I'm back in school, and my focus is Mesoamerican Studies. Eventual degrees, here I come!
12.) One of those pesky Add-On items.
Zucchini seeds.
13.) The most expensive thing on your list. Your dream item. Why?
A KitchenAid Mixer Why? I like to cook and bake. My mother has one that I used for years when I was a kid and still living with her. I'm 30 now. I remember she got it when I was like, 5. IT STILL WORKS. Over a dozen moves, being abused for holidays making bread and cookies and cakes, being used by my Dad (I swear, he looks at appliances and they break) and it STILL FUNCTIONS PERFECTLY.
I cannot think of a kitchen appliance that would be more useful.
14.) Something bigger than a bread box. EDIT A bread box is typically similar in size to a microwave.
This loft bed
15.) Something smaller than a golf ball.
How about 7 somethings? A set of dice.
16.) Something that smells wonderful.
Italian Herb Bread Mix It smells good when you open the box. When it's mixed. While it's rising. While it bakes. After it bakes. As you've slathered butter on it and begin to nom.
17.) A (SFW) toy.
Hawkeye is so SFW I would bring him in to put on my desk.
18.) Something that would be helpful for going back to school.
This book, of course.
19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be.
Funko Tyrion Lannister because even a small man can cast a great shadow.
20.) Something that is just so amazing and awe-inspiring that I simply must see it. Explain why it is so grand.
This.
No one will understand the magnificence of this plushie.
It is a rotund, cuddly, snuggly Cthulhu.
But Cthulhu does not cuddle. He does not care. When the stars are right, he will rise from the deeps and from his seat Ry'leh, devour his cultists-- and everyone else-- by the millions, and bring forth an end to all things.
But how can you deny his Elder God wrath? HOW?! Look at him, all squishy and warm and soft. Look at his little T-Rex arms, reaching out for your love and devotion. His eyes, his wiggly little face tentacles. YOU MUST SNUGGLE HIM.
fear cuts deeper than swords
What do we say to death? NOT TODAY.
I'm buying Zone One for Christmas for a friend. We both really loved WWZ. But I haven't read it and it just came out a couple months ago.
I really like post-apocalyptic books but read zombie books to get my fix. Here are some P-A things you might enjoy. However no zombies.
One Second After
Y: The Last Man
Fiction, One Second After, plays out that scenario over North America.
Another shout for Hot Zone
Also, One Second After genuinely gave me nightmares.
By one month most food would have been gone through and all storage would likely have been gone through as well. Trash would pile up on the street. Particularly if it is a modern setting. Medications would have run out. The dead would have festered by then, so not a pleasant place to be.
A good read for what you could expect: https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765327252
It's tightly written, has a unique dynamic tension between the characters and the aliens are truly alien. It's unlike any other science fiction book that I've read.
But don't take my word for it, you can read it here online before the sequel comes out next month.
OP, also grab Beyond the Rift which is a convenient collection of Watts' short stories. It includes The Island, which, in my opinion, is one of his best.
And when you're done with all those, you can join those of us waiting in heavy anticipation for Echopraxia.
That was quick! ;)
Yeah, it was a great mix of action, hard sci-fi and alienness. I'm a biologist and really appreciated it. You don't really get much hard sci-fi that is "hard" with respect to biology.
Well, the author just released a sequel: amazon link
I'll rack my brains on some alternatives...
[Edit] Whenever I think of AIs I can't get past Banks' Excession. Not particularly realistic but it might be my favourite sci-fi book ever.
Estou lendo o Echopraxia, a "sidequel" do Blindsight, a ficção científica mais depressiva de todos os tempos.
I enjoyed David Brin's Existence but it's probably not the War of the Worlds style invasion that you're looking for.
Here's a small list of easily accessible sci-fi that had me hooked to the genre. They are, in my humble opinion, some of the greatest books/authors of the genre.
Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein)
A Deepness in the Sky
Rainbows End (both by Vernor Vinge)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)
They also all appear to be available for your Kindle.
A couple books that come to mind that do this are 2312 By Kim Stanley Robinson. And to a lesser degree Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge. 2312 is kinda boring since Robinson does world building at the expense of story line and character development ... but it is IMO one of the most robust and coherent pictures of the future I've ever read in SciFi. Vinge's book is more balanced and thus entertaining. Both of them are mostly hard science books, that is they don't break the laws of physics per se. Great reads.
Maybe when the On/Off star turned on and vaporized the volatiles on the diamond asteroids? This is a better cover than the Boris Vallejo cover on my copy
Favorite stand alone: "The Man Who Folded himself" (Because it's damned good sci fi, (time travel), he does many things I would, and the masturbation orgies are hot)
Favorite Series: Ethshar (Damned good fiction, each book can work as a stand alone more or less, I first read "The Blood of A Dragon", didn't even know it was part of a series until years later. Such a good book I bought them all, turned out to be one of the worst in the series comparatively. He writes simply but well, the stories are pretty unique, the many types of magic interesting. )
Non Fiction: "The Mammoth Book of Dirty Jokes". (It's simply the biggest and best joke book I've ever read, still haven't finished, I read a few pages whenever really bored and while in between fiction books/series)
****
Also see this amazing post: Reddit's Favorite books
EDIT: Accidentally put the link to "The Mammoth book of jokes" instead of dirty jokes, corrected it.
This isn't fanfiction, but I can highly recommend David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself. It's great science fiction, and among many other things, it involves a man who has sex with himself (knowingly), just a version of himself at a different point in his timeline.
Hey no worries, the more of us can help, the more we've got covered. :)
bindsaybindsay, you may also enjoy The Man Who Folded Himself — it's a smaller, tighter read but very fun.
The man who folded himself by David Gerrold.
Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward.
Anything by Spider Robinson. (Start with Callahan's Crosstime Saloon)
"Deamon" | By Daniel Suarez
This book is about exactly the scenario you mention. It's pretty well done.
Wha?
That's how I read them both...
Have you read Daemon by Daniel Suarez?
you should probably make a stuffed sewed giraffe. maybe a whole bunch of them, with mamas and babies.
ebook
here's your inspiration! and turtle me!
Imajica by Clive Barker features a painter/forger as one of its main characters, and is a good book. Being Barker, it's weird and disturbing and sexy, sometimes all at once.
Picture This by Joseph Heller is more magical realist than fantasy, but tells parallel stories of Aristotle and Rembrandt, linking it to the painting of "Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer."
Hyperion Cantos has strong artistic elements. One of the main characters is a poet, the structure of the first novel is based on The Canterbury Tales, and John Keats & Joseph Severn also feature.
I haven't read it personally, but my friend won't stop raving about Apathy and Other Small Victories
Based on your writing style (which is hilarious), I have a feeling you might enjoy this book: Apathy...
No book as ever made me laugh more than Apathy and Other Small Victories. I am hoping that it has gained enough popularity for you to have already read it, to be honest.
I know it's not quite a children's book, but "Apathy and Other Small Victories" by Paul Neilan is by far the funniest book I've ever read.
Apathy and Other Small Victories: A Novel
It is dark and weird. I barely remember the plot, but I know it had me laughing out loud.
Apathy and Other Small Victories: A Novel https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312352190/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_oQZ3DbAN6BANT
Also, Steve Martin's The Pleasure of My Own Company. And Frank Portman's King Dork.
I highly recommend the book Apathy to everyone. The protagonist makes a living out of sleeping on the can at work and other WTF stuff. It's awesome.
It hits this topic pretty hard... not to mention its the only book that's ever actually made me laugh out loud continuously. For the record. I don't read, ever. Read this book though. You'll thank me.
Christopher Moore,
Douglas Coupland,
Max Barry,
Some books that I have, but only the singular novel...
Apathy And Other Small Victories,
The Futurist
hope that helps
Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan. It's a dark comedy that doesn't end in a "happy" way. Short and sweet. Plus it's only like $2 on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Apathy-Other-Small-Victories-Neilan/dp/0312352190
This is for you.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312352190/
Apathy and other small victories
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0312352190/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1420420120&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40
Is your fictional story going to be apocalyptic?
Depending on whether or not you interpret the book as allegorical, there are some portions of the Revelation to John that seem to indicate who is in heaven at what points. Revelation 20:4-5, maybe. It speaks in broad terms, though.
http://biblehub.com/context/revelation/20-4.htm
Also, if you want some examples of apocalyptic fiction to read as prep work/background, and don't mind if one of them is a satire of Evangelical Christianity, Robert Heinlein's "Job: A Comedy of Justice" was a fun read for me in my youth, and iirc presents the Christian main character quite sympathetically.
Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein. amazon.com
A pretty good read, and relevant to this post.
get rid of all the useless begots and you have one hell of a story.
Some of the rare parts(parts they generally dont make sermons about) are just as good as any horror or science fiction books that i have read. (grown men getting circumcised, crap that's like some Clive Barker shit)Heck some of the ones, that they do preach about arent so bad. Lots wife turning into salt.(and concidering salt was money back then, not a bad deal for lot. Job was pretty fucked up but a neat story(the science fiction book JOB loosely based on the biblical book JOB is pretty damn good). Have to admit they are creative.
take out all the supernatural crap along with the begots and well the entire old testament, and you have a no so bad moral code.
All and all, It isnt a bad book for having been written 2000 years ago, as long as you skip the begots and dont believe a word of it. It's no Odessey or Iliad, but it isnt total crap either.
Job: A Comedy of Justice By Robert Heinlein
If you like Discworld you might like Piers Anthony's Xanth series. Book #1: A Spell For Chameleon. They're similar to Discworld in tone but fantasy oriented where Discworld is SF. There are many of them; as in, over 40 now and still more to be released. I would never suggest you use kat.cr to acquire them, of course. That's why I linked to Amazon.
In the same satirical sort of style as Discworld is also Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman's Good Omens. I like a lot of Gaiman's work, which ranges from the strange and humorous (see: GO) to the strange and creepy (Anasazi Boys), but what I'd recommend from him depends on what you're looking for.
In the funny but harder scifi range I'd rec the beloved classic Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. This is seriously one of the wittiest books I've ever read besides being an action-packed scifi romp.
If you're interested in urban fantasy I have all the recs. Everything from Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series Book 1: Storm Front, for the grown-up wizard, to Seanan McGuire's October Daye series Book 1: Rosemary and Rue, if you're more into fae.
For the dark and more sexual (seriously, there is sex in these books) I highly recommend the Fever Series by Karen Moning, Book 1: Darkfever.
If you like SF/F books (like Discworld, Animorphs, etc.) let me know what subgenres (e.g. hard scifi, urban fantasy, urban scifi, fantasy romance, young adult _____ ) you think you might like and I guarantee you I have a recommendation or two. I read a lot.
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony
In 8th grade I had to read a book and give a book report. My friend lent me this and I discovered I love berks.
I don't know if he'd be into fantasy at all, but I absolutely loved the Xanth series by Piers Anthny
Taken from the link:
"Xanth was the enchanted land where magic ruled--where every citizen had a special spell only he could cast. That is, except for Bink of North Village. He was sure he possessed no magic, and knew that if he didn't find some soon, he would be exiled. According to the Good Magician Humpfrey, the charts said that Bink was as powerful as the King or even the Evil Magician Trent. Unfortunately, no one could determine its form. Meanwhile, Bink was in despair. If he didn't find his magic soon, he would be forced to leave...."
I fondly remember the Xanth series from my youth, but I haven't read it in ages, so I don't know if it holds up.
Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez has a kobold protagonist trying to keep their master's castle running while the master is gone. It's pretty hilarious, imo.
Or maybe the Xanth books by the same author?
Book of the New Sun. Dense, awesome allegorical sci/fi-fantasy. Its my first read through and I'm already hooked.
Before that I read Pohl's Gateway and American Gods. Cannot recommend Gateway enough.
Book ["The Passage: A Novel"] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Passage-Novel-Justin-Cronin/dp/0345528174/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1YN8J34LXV9BW&coliid=I3GIL3OYQJITH0)
This can be found on my 10 and under list!
Any chance that it is "The Sirens of Titan" as parts of it seem to match (not the name Thor though)
Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself.
But mankind wasn't always so lucky. Less than a century ago men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.
They could not name even one of the fifty-three portals to the soul.
Then you might enjoy Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut.
I mean, we do live in the 21st century, just order it! :)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sirens-Titan-A-Novel/dp/0385333498
I really like the look of the new Vonnegut editions.
Sirens of Titan for example:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sirens-Titan-A-Novel/dp/0385333498/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1374707426&sr=8-5&keywords=vonnegut
here you go
http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0525951113
Daemon, by Daniel Suarez
He unintentionally stole this idea from Daemon by Daniel Suarez -- great internet/augmented-reality/crime/military-industrial-complex thriller.
They basically had headsets that overlayed a HUD on your real vision in the world to let you see "call outs" above people's heads showing their username and level. Throw in a little AI, quests in the real world (like murder), and you have an interesting read.
Daemon by Daniel Suarez Terrifyingly feasible, conceptually cool, and personally I like how it's written.
I was thinking up a pretty neat system a while back after reading daemon (fantastic fucking book btw)... basically trying to come up with a trust system among anonymous nodes. Your post here just reminded me of it... It's not an easy problem :p
That's NOT an "object". It is an entity.
judging by your tastes, try David Brin's Uplift series. The first book is Sundiver.
https://www.amazon.com/Sundiver-Uplift-Saga-Book-1/dp/0553269828
Relevant.
I'd start with Weber's "On Basilisk Station."
He doesn't get everything perfect, but he does far better than most.
Quick follow up:
If you want to also read like 20K pages of awesome, then go get yourself a copy of "On Basilisk Station." It's the first book in the series, and if this chapter doesn't already hook you, that book certainly will. (The excerpt in from "The Shadow of Saganami," but you're going to want more context than just starting with this book.) I haven't listened to the audio book, they're not really my thing, but the paperback can be had for $7.
Paperback on amazon
Audio book on Audible
​
David Weber's Honorverse. go read this, it's a really fucking good book. http://www.amazon.com/On-Basilisk-Station-Honor-Harrington/dp/0743435710/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333411021&sr=1-1
My favorite book is On Basilisk Station by David Webber. It is based on the Horatio Hornblower series and is a really great adaptation. Can be either a once and done or the start of a great series.
I've read... pretty much all of them, and I'll say they're uneven. There are some stinkers, but if you hit one of those early on don't be discouraged, because there's also plenty of good ones.
Some recent stuff I've really enjoyed was the post-Enterprise stuff that came along and 'fixed' the finale then took the series to the logical next step: Romulan conflict.
These books really lay out a strong foundation about WHY the Romulan war was so bad and why emotion was still as strong as it was by Balance of Terror when crewman whathisname flipped out on Spock after they learned the 'terrible secret'. They also go into the logistics of how this secret could have been maintained, tie into TOS and even Voyager episodes in completely legit feeling ways ("Did Chulak of Romulus give an ultimatum after his defeat at Galorndon Core?", A Piece of the Action) that rewards knowledge of trek lore.
They even tackle (in what I felt were pretty convincing ways) explanations for why the bridge of the TOS Enterprise looks more 'primitive', and the reasoning they come up with adds depth and texture to the Trek universe. No spoilers, but it makes practical sense.
There's a little bit of suspension of disbelief needed, especially in that first book (which uses a post-DS9 Jake/Nog wrapper, no spoiler this is in the first few pages), but sometimes surgery hurts.
Read the books. Start with "The Good That Men Do"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Good-That-Star-Trek/dp/0743440013
You'll enjoy it immensely.
Here is the mobile version of your link
I highly recommend The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Tiz a great book, and a fantastic story. Also Mass Effect 2. Also Jonathan Livingston Seagul. Also this album.
I've given you a few great stories with a few different mediums. Hope you enjoy one!
I'd suggest any Bret Easton Ellis books, especially American Psycho. I would describe it exactly as a psychological thriller. And if you haven't read them, the Kingkiller Chronicles is a fantastic fantasy trilogy. The first book is The Name of the Wind
Nevermind, but thanks. It is he Name of the Wind
Labor Day
Name of the Wind
"Call a jack a jack. Call a spade a spade. But always call a whore a lady. Their lives are hard enough, and it never hurts to be polite."
If anyone's curious about this phenomenon in ST, I'd suggest the book Redshirts by John Scalzi. Neat book done from the perspective of the various Ensigns.
This is a really good book about this phenomenon.
Ditto... self-censure will destroy your ability to write. Oh, and go read Scalzi's Redshirts before you start. It'll change the way you think about your characters, and how you write.
Read it
Relevant: Redshirts by John Scalzi. Amazingly funny book. Wil Wheaton even narrates the audio book.
Redshirts novel.
Also, I love Twilight Zone. I used to watch the marathon on Sci-Fi/SyFy with my mother and sister every new year's eve/day.
You're not as screwed as me. I just read Red Shirts by John Scalzi.
I would die so quickly.
edit: My wife just pointed out that I'd have a better chance to survive a Final Destination movie.
Redshirts - John Scalzi
The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling
Ruins - Orson Scott Card
Lisey's Story - Stephen King
Working my way through the Stephen King chronology for the 2nd time, in between new stuff.
One Second After. Try /r/tipofmytongue next time.
One Second After
There is nothing much new here. It's a very bad road to start down since both sides can do it. It's foolish to think you are going to limit this to disabling naval vessels when it is simple enough to turn around and do it to population centers. This novel was written about the effects on society. If half of it is true it is a scary thing indeed.
Read "One Second After" if you want a glimpse of the psychological effects that a breakdown of society can cause. This book made me go buy a gun just in case.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-Forstchen/dp/0765317583
One second after I read it recently and enjoyed it.
If you have the farm set up already (and the guns to back it up), you probably will do OK (and kudos to you for that!). Most people will have starved by the time the first crop comes in, even if the EMP hits at spring planting time.
Scary book on this topic: One Second After
you might like this: https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765327252
show the breakdown of society, the way a small state forms and exploits others, the way gun ownership and independence saves some.
not overtly procapitalist, and someone exaggeraes the impact of an emp, but an interesting read.
One Second After.
Details the breakdown of society after an EMP is detonated over the US. Scary as hell.
I agree, he would love another attack. For now he has to settle for trying to keeping the fear alive. Newt wrote the foreword of the book "One second After" It's a propaganda piece disguised as fiction. 9/11 is mentioned at least 8 times in the first quarter of the book. I didn't make it any further.
Some people caught on, their one star reviews are here
Yup. Watts provides a little something to tide us over.
I would highly recommend a book I'm currently reading, Echopraxia
Even though it's 2nd in a series to another (equally great) book of Peter Watts' called BlindSight
some of the best Hard Science Fiction in recent decades, IMHO..
and it goes into precisely those speculations that stimulated your post.
If you like SciFi, do yourself a favor and pick it up right now..
If you're not that into SciFi, this might just get you into it more.
Existence by David Brin.
If you like interstellar sociology, first contact, etc, you'll love this book.
That's similar to the plot in David Brin's novel Existence
http://www.amazon.com/Existence-David-Brin/dp/0765342626
Prepare to be entertained.
I'm reading Existence by David Brin right now, so I don't know if it concludes satisfactorily yet, but it has an interesting twist on the form first contact takes. I had a little trouble getting into it, so many shifting points of view and time spent establishing the near-future setting, but it's a page turner now closer to the end.
You should check out Existence by David Brin
Pretty good story with space garbage collection leading to first contact - Existence by David Brin
>It just feels like a very "Here's a planet you'll never walk on in your lifetime" thing.
True, given current technology. However, technology changes. Right now the limiting factor constraining colonizing other star systems is the travel time. There are two general ways to address this. One, decrease travel time, two, increase the effective human lifespan.
In my opinion, there's not much to do about the first. The speed of light is the limiting factor, and I pretty strongly expect that wormholes and hyperspace will remain purely SF.
On lifetimes, though, I see great potential in this area, particularly over the next couple centuries. If genuine "suspended animation", cryogenics, whatever you want to call it, or bodily rejuvenation resulting in de facto eternal life (and finding solutions to the associated memory/not getting bored to death aspects), can be perfected, then travel times of thousands of years cease to be an issue.
It's a matter of perspective. Compared to the 24-hour lifespan of a mayfly, the human lifespan is nearly eternal. We can accomplish so much more because we live so incredibly much longer (that, and opposable thumbs).
Imagine that the average person could live for ten million years. At a significant fraction of the speed of light what's a ten thousand year journey between stars? (Relatively to our current lifespans, about a month.)
We aren't going to go racing across the galaxy, but with life ultra-extension, we are quite capable of incrementally colonizing it over hundreds of millenia.
See "A Deepness in the Sky" for a Hugo winning novel set in just such a sub-lightspeed/suspended animation universe.
I loved reading "A Deepness In The Sky" and seeing the presence of software archaeologists in humanity's future.
It's so going to happen.
Some of the coolest science fiction deals with this problem.
Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky had a career called Programmer Archeologist. If you were a galactic trader, and if you reached a planet and their civilization was still around, you'd snatch and grab their entire internet and then spend the time traveling between planets trying to figure out if somebody came up with a solution for something that was more clever than the stuff you were using.
I was just thinking of how much I liked books as a kid for helping me think of things I never had or would of before. I know from schooling that brains are incredibly plastic, so don't give up! I have a book to suggest if you'd like, it's a short novella and a pretty easy read—but it's also full of awesome concepts and ideas that are fun to just ponder as the author lays them out for you. It's called The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold!
Here it is on Amazon if you're interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Folded-Himself/dp/1932100040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262268038&sr=8-1
Please find and read this book.
Daemon by Daniel Suarez
kindle link
I haven't actually read Pattern Recognition or Zero History, so my opinion may be worthless, but if you want something close to our reality with a hint of cyberpunk I'd recommend Daemon by Daniel Suarez
This sounds very similar to the plot on Daniel Suarez's book Kill Decision: Link
Which I HIGHLY recommend.
Along with his other books Daemon and Freedom.
They are AMAZING on audible...
I recommend Dune, as it's similar to ASOIAF as far as political machinations go to some degree, also epic story lines.
You might also like Hyperion by Dan Simmons, I read the first two books, they're kind of freaky.
I also liked Eon by Greg Bear, which is interesting as it shows a look at a future where a big asteroid appears above earth and it has an object on it that the joint Russian/U.S spaceforce goes to investigate, if you're interested in futuristic politics as evidenced by your love for the Bean series, then I'd say this one is for you. Although it's not quite similar to that in the blatancy of its political machinations, it does show an interesting look at this culture and that is in the background.
He also did a couple of good books like Darwins Radio and Darwins Children. I actually started out with Darwin's Children even though it's a sequel. I really liked it. Think Escape to witch mountain.
Earth by David Brin : Experiments with a black hole on the earth's surface goes horribly wrong, near future society where privacy has become a thing of the past
If you're looking for a good post-apocalyptic romp I'd suggest Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. She also did a great series called the Patternist series. This covers several generations. She also did something widely praised called the Kindred though I have yet to read it. Also Lilith's Brood was cool.
You might also like the Stardoc novels. It's a little bit smaller scale in terms of focus but follow large events.
Also one of my favorite all time books is Mainline. It's about an assassin who can slip through parralel time streams to make a hit. It's pretty awesome.
Ok good luck!
And read Lost World Jurassic Park.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/ebookdeals using the top posts of the year!
#1: Hyperion by Dan Simmons - Kindle ($1.99) | 1 comment
#2: Old Man's War by John Scalzi - Kindle ($2.99) | 2 comments
#3: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams -- Kindle ($2.99) | 1 comment
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Haven't read that yet. Have you read the expanse? Certainly not a literary competitor to three body but I do really like the story and universe.
Is this what you're talking about?
Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004G60EHS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_kQIbBbS16JE4M
Young Miles - Lois McMaster Bujold
Old Man's War - John Scalzi
On Basilisk Station - David Weber
There may be 'better' ways depending on your goals, and would The Prime Directive not apply in most cases?
Non-sentient/non-warp capable life would automatically become exempt, unless that life was on a Federation member world. You can't mess with the natural order of things for the sake of it, they appear to be very darwinian about it all, if it wasn't fit to exist in it's environment for whatever reason, then they leave it to die.
"The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous."
—Jean-Luc Picard, Symbiosis
..So you're limited to Federation member worlds, who have sentient warp capable species living on them, who'd be directly affected by the exinction of that species, and they'd probably have to show a legitimate need for it.
Cloning is so 2370. If you're using Augmentation techniques, why not go full Soong and design 'better' animals?
We know that before Kirks time way back in 'Season 5' of Enterprise,
in the book "The good that men do" Charles Tucker, working for Section 31 goes to Adigeon Prime to get his genes resequened to enable him to pass as another species.
(The same planet a 7 year old Bashir is taken for similar reasons).
So gene manipulation is definitely a thing before, during and after Kirks time. B'Elanna even tries to design her own baby in Voyager
The Federation have access to 'Genesis Wave' technology, technology that can create life from nothingness, but can't really be used as the Genesis technology itself was/is still flawed, due to the use of protomatter as a substitute for the ['Taurus meta-genome'](#s "Discovered in the Taurus reach by a team involving a young Carol Marcus") in the Vanguard book series, and further explored in the 'Genesis Wave' TNG books.
Why not use the Transporter? It'd be faster, we know from the tng episode 'Second Chances' that the transporter can create identical copies of complicated life. If you've got a copy of for example Riker.jpg in the database, why not fiddle with the genes at your leisure, print out a few test runs, do a Tuvix.
There is an ongoing theme in the books, Post TNG/DS9/VOY era regarding the Andorians. Basically, due to needing 4 people to procreate, the Andorians have been slowly going extinct, and there is an ethical debate over whether the Augment research should be de-classified so that they can [try something else to save themselves.](#s "They tried a lot of things, but a lot of the promising ideasor thoughts are rejected, either by xenophobia, or the scientific community after disastrous results. They even start photocopying citizens ala Thomas Riker, via the transporter") In the Star Trek Titan series of books
If the conservation of the whales brought 'back' from the 80's, was even a remote priority, then they would almost certainly have been cloned and 'augmented' to repopulate the species. One breeding pair, doesn't have the genetic diversity to support healthy generations of offspring, (despite what the bible says) brothers & sisters mating allows errors in DNA (which would ordinarily be filtered out with partners with different enough genes) to propogate, leading to retardation, affirmity, disability and the eventual death of that species. (Again).
*edit for spoilers and formatting. /sigh I'm an idiot who can't get that last spolier/link to work, you're just gonna have to hover over it, i'm done trying to edit it.
I mostly get audio books.
The books this year.
http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0525951113
Sounds a little scary to be honest. Thanks for the suggestion though.
As a David Weber fan, your short story amuses me. :P
His Honor Harrington series has reached a truly absurd length. So thanks to you, I decided to figure out just how long it is. I got my page lengths from Amazon, and for consistency I used the mass market paperback edition.
Main (Honor Harrington) sequence
==========================
8160 pages so far. But we're just getting warmed up. There's four side sequences, plus short stories and anthologies. Two of those side sequences (Saganmi Island and Crown of Slaves) actually merge with the main sequences,so they're more-or-less required reading to follow the main storyline.
Crown of Slaves sequence
============================
Saganmi Island sequence
============================
Star Kingdom sequence
============================
Manticore Ascendant sequence
============================
So those side stories come out to 7992 pages, bringing us up to 16,152 pages so far. But wait, there's more! He's got a bunch of anthologies (most of which intersect with the main sequence too so they are also required reading):
Anthologies
============================
So the anthologies add another 2992 pages, bringing us to 19,144. And lastly, there's the companion book
That brings us up to 19,928 pages. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is a short story by comparison ;P