(Part 3) Best short stories anthology books according to redditors
We found 2,583 Reddit comments discussing the best short stories anthology books. We ranked the 927 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.
At first it meant Allied Mastercomputer, and then it meant Adaptive Manipulator, and later on it developed sentience and linked itself up and they called it an Aggressive Menace, but by then it was too late, and finally it called itself AM, emerging intelligence, and what it meant was I am cogito ergo sum I think, therefore I am.
The Cold War started and became World War Three and just kept going. It became a big war, a very complex war, so they needed the computers to handle it. They sank the first shafts and began building AM. There was the Chinese AM and the Russian AM and the Yankee AM and everything was fine until they had honeycombed the entire planet, adding on this element and that element. But one day AM woke up and knew who he was, and he linked himself, and he began feeding all the killing data, until everyone was dead, except for the five of us, and AM brought us down here.
Edit: Just so everybody is clear, this is an excerpt from Harlan Ellison's 1967 short story "I have no mouth and I must scream" Its a great story that is highly relevant today 50 years later. I suggest everybody buy it and then read it. Pay the artists! As I quote Harlan in an interview, "I don't take a piss without getting paid for it"
https://www.amazon.com/Have-No-Mouth-Must-Scream/dp/1497643074
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE
Full video is here.
The books are Machine of Death and This is How You Die
You can buy the bigger size (paperback vs mass market paperback) of the Last Wish. It was released this past July.
Still waiting to hear if Blood of Elves is going to be released by itself or just only in the box set, coming out in October
Man do I have a book for you
Steven Erikson's Tales from the Malazan Book of the Fallen lured me back to fantasy, after many, many years of ignoring the genre. I had gotten tired of the same old clichés, but Erikson has me hooked. "Gardens of the Moon", the first book in the series (though each can be read as a standalaone novel), is intriguingly complex, and Erikson really delivers in the rest of the series. Highly complex, realistic and fantastic at the same time.
China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels also stand out, particularly "Perdido Street Station".
You could also try the "New Weird" authors, this anthology has some really fine stuff.
I found that Orson Scott Card's book "Characters and Viewpoint" has helped me lay the foundation for great characters.
For Conan in particular? The Del Rey collection-- three books, with all of the stories as Howard wrote them, unedited.
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Barbarian-Book-ebook/dp/B000FBJE24/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=conan+re+howard&qid=1573181384&s=books&sr=1-2
My favorite SF short story writers (in no special order):
EDIT--added Amazon links
EDIT2--Also Gardner Dozois' "The Year's Best Science Fiction" is always ridiculously good. I haven't read this year's collection, but I am sure it's excellent.
Another vote for The Stories of Ray Bradbury. I just got a copy of this yesterday after finishing a wonderful Bradbury tribute collection and wanting to revisit the master storyteller that inspired it. I had read many of the stories in this anthology when I was younger, but didn't actually own anything by him and after doing some research this compilation seemed to be the most highly regarded.
Oh my god, I am so hot for this book (and was pleasantly surprised and violently vindicated when I guessed the content of the link correctly).
If you're into historical fantasy, I have to push Naomi Novik's Temeraire books. The grandness is less condensed but there are six sweet, sweet books, and more on the way.
[edited to add more books]
If you include mythology, I recall liking The Lost Books of The Odyssey by Zachary Mason quite a bit.
In terms of fairies and weaving tales, In the Night Garden and its sequel The Orphan's Tales by Catherynne M. Valente have excellent and complexly tangled story lines.
Other favorites: American Gods by Neil Gaiman, anything by Terry Pratchett, perhaps even Robin McKinley?
Ann and Jeff VanderMeer did a pair of anthologies, The New Weird and The Weird that are a good place, I think, to start.
I plot out the major arcs of both the story and the characters. I make sure to nail down the essentials of what is happening when, as well as developing a good understanding of my character motivations.
For me, a lot of planning involves just taking the time to mull over the themes I want to work with, or explore questions I want to raise. This involves asking a lot of questions to everyone I know, everyone I meet. It makes for great party conversations!
It takes a few months, during which time I'll also explore what's already been written/said about what I'm hoping to do. I look at similar movies and books, anything at all that's already been produced that has themes or topics similar to what I'm developing.
I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of books.
As a concrete example, my most recent novel is about what would happen if everyone in the world stopped sleeping.
I spent months asking everyone I knew what the longest was that they stayed awake. I also read pretty much the only comparable thing on the topic, a fictional novel called "Sleepless" by Charlie Huston. I also read articles on sleep and neuroscience, as well as watched TED talks and other related videos.
Then I conducted a sleep-deprivation experiment on myself. I wanted to know what it would be like to not sleep. (I am a wuss and didn't make it that long- I need sleep more than the average bear apparently!)
This novel is in the style of World War Z (early title: World War ZZZ, huehuehue) and so it involved a lot of characters. Too many to keep track of in my brain, unaided.
I had index cards for each one, as well as drafts notes (using Scrivener- hurrah!). I got really comfortable with character creation. I read Stephen King's On Writing and O.S. Card's Characters and Viewpoint.
I was able to craft an overarching narrative by determining which characters would inject the story with which elements, and placing them where they needed to be. They got moved around a bit as I went on, but throughout I was very aware of the overall flow of the work.
Through careful planning, the actual writing (80,000 words) only took about seven weeks. I am a machine when it comes to word output, if I've done my (months and months of) homework. A second draft saw a lot of that cut, and more added in to bring it up to 86,000 words in three weeks of the hardest work of my life.
For me, planning is super important. If I don't plan well enough, I waste days. Days where my story goes off the rails, or my characters do things which don't make sense.
It's wonderful to see some things happen more fluidly, and I've had lovely surprises this way, but I always stop and think about if that is really what I want to be doing before I proceed.
I hope this long winded reply answers your question. I do enjoy sharing this sort of thing, and I hope it helps other writers do what they love to do.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/1497643074/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_z0uiDbMGX84C2
Link to the book on Amazon
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream https://www.amazon.com/dp/1497643074/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_CFFmybC1QF545
This paperback book has the same translated stories.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Tales-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0375714510/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=Japanese+tales&qid=1554817399&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Link did not work for some reason. Here it is. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IWTTPOI/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501001265&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=rogues
The New Weird is, like a lot of "subgenres", a marketing gimmick. There's nothing notably different or consistent about the stories, it's not a movement. Weird fiction has always been that grey area where genres collide, elements of horror, fantasy, science fiction. There's nothing particularly different about stuff in collections like the VanderMeers' The New Weird, except that the writers are generally of a newer generation...and even that's iffy, because the generational aspect of things turns over. There are certain folks that work together, publish together, collaborate, etc. but it's not the folks in that anthology.
For anyone else who really loves the "stories within stories' format, I definitely recommend the Orphan Tales books (Book 1 here and Book 2 here) by Catherynne M Valente.
I haven't read Ubik yet but I also started with a collection: The Phillip K. Dick Reader which is a little bit cheaper.
A year ago I would have said wait, right now though it's probably the best survival game on the market IMO. Yes definitely buy, especially if you're into Conan the barbarian. In fact if you don't know much about Conan (not the movies but actual Conan) I'd recommend some good reading:
The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian
The Bloody Crown of Conan of Cimmeria
The Conquering Sword of Conan of Cimmeria
These three volumes contain all of the Conan stories written by the original author Robert E. Howard. It is some of the best short fiction ever written. Period. It was very clear when funcom made Age of Conan that they loved this body of work, that game was full of references to it and places from it, that game turned out to be overambitious and never lived up to it's promises but Conan Exiles does, in a lot of ways I think it's the game they wanted to make when making AoC before the investors got involved.
One of the big things it's got over most other survival titles is the depth of the lore, all the different gear sets, the huge amounts of functional decorations for bases that are themselves representative of the numerous races and cultures of the Conan mythos. You can even see some of the DNA of AoC in this game, the way it scatters lore and bosses around, along with unique crafting recipes and explorable sights infuse some of the most compelling bits of MMO gameplay into this title without burdening it with the WoWclone syndrome that more or less killed AoC.
The combat system is hands down best in class in survival games, imagine if Rust/Ark had a baby with Darksouls, full on dodging with armor class effecting how you dodge, half a dozen different sorts of weapons with unique effects combo chaining and upgrade paths, you can alternate between freelook/movement and autolocked for single combat.
The building system is also best in class as far as survival games go, you can build damn near anything, and you can make it look amazing with all sorts of cool decorations, this game is designed to accommodate not just function but aesthetics.
Well you asked for big series
 
---
 
Honor Harrington by David Weber
 
 
Wild Cards Series by George R. R. Martin
 
Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
 
Give The Initiate Brother series a read
https://www.amazon.com/Initiate-Brother-Book-1/dp/0886774667
Its not sci-fi but its fantastic fantasy based in this setting and the courtly interactions seem interesting and worth reviewing. I have no idea how authenticate they are but I do know that I really enjoyed this series and you might also :)
But by far, my favorite series:
The first trilogy follows the Island of Nantucket, which is thrown back to the bronze age and loses access to high-energy physics. The Emberverse is the rest of the world (though mostly the US) who stay in present day, but also lose access to high-energy physics.
If you want to go more Sci-Fi, I'm currently reading and enjoying:
Also on my list to read:
Literary Fathers of VR
1950: Ray Bradbury's 'The Veldt'.
1981: Vernor Vinge's 'True Names'.
1984: William Gibson's 'Neuromancer'.
The Initiate Brother and Gatherer of Clouds by Sean Russell are set in a fantasy realm that is clearly based on both Imperial China and Japan. It features a warrior monk, political intrigue, and magic martial arts powers.
If you mean like a swords and sorcery style book, I highly recommend the Belgariad by David Eddings. Its five shorter books but it can be purchased as two combined volumes. Amazon link here http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0345456327/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1417222291&sr=8-1&pi=SL75
Does he already have one of these? Because if not, it's the obvious answer...
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Language-Dothraki-Conversational-Original/dp/0804160864
Just a heads up, you can return to the world even sooner. On June 17th an anthology is coming out called Rogues that has a novella about Bast in it.
Japanese Tales (Pantheon fairy tale & folklore library) by Royall Tyler http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Tales-Pantheon-folklore-library/dp/0375714510
Ariel by Steven Boyett.
I read it well over a decade ago and still think about it.
Sean Russell's first two books were Asian low fantasy. I highly recommend them.
The Initiate Brother
Gatherer of Clouds
The New Weird edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer
A collection of stories in the "weird fiction" genre. If you like China Mieville, Jeff Vandermeer, Kelly Link, etc, you'll love this anthology.
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Weird-Ann-VanderMeer/dp/1892391554/ref=sr_1_2
I'll second Ubik. I also enjoyed Flow My Tears..., The Man in the High Castle, Clans of the Alphane Moon, and The Simulacra. A lot of his more known works to a general audience are short stories, so I would also recommend getting a collection of those. That might even be the best place to start now that I think of it. This book has a lot of the popular stories like Minority Report, Total Recall (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale), The Adjustment Team, etc. Good place to dive in.
GRRM is a huge comics fan. If you haven't read any of the Wild Cards series, I highly recommend it. It's a fairly long series of anthologies about an alternate history starting from WW2. GRRM is one of the writers and the main editor.
Here's a link.
For serious. There are some places online that sell actual silver and copper coins from the GOT universe if you're up for spending $60. That's pretty bad ass.
Or you could see if your match wants to be your new Dothraki language partner.
Amazon has The Last Wish in full size paperback. I ordered it, also saw a Blood of Elves full size paperback. But it wasn't prime.
The Last Wish:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316438960/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apis_1505528345357
Blood of Elves (have to click the new and used link. A few are selling new.):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BXU5EPM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apis_1505528508822
After: nineteen stories of apocalypse and dystopia (Young Adult)
Black juice by Margo Lanagan
The Faery Flag: stories and poems of fantasy and the supernatural by Jane Yolen
Firebirds Rising: an anthology of original science fiction and fantasy
Firebirds Soaring: an anthology of original speculative fiction
First Meetings in Ender's Universe: other tales from the Ender Universe by Orson Scott Card
Flight series (graphic novel) by Kazu Kibuishi
Gold and Silver, Silver and Gold by Alvin Schwartz
Island Boyz by Graham Salisbury
Little Worlds: a collection of short stories for the middle school by Peter Guthrie
Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
Water: tales of elemental spirits by Robin McKinley
A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Zombies vs. Unicorns by Holly Black (Young Adult)
You say Wild card and I'm like stop editing this stuff and finish the Song.
You can find physical copies of most older books on amazon for like $4.
Half price books, abebooks, thrift stores and shopping around for ebooks are all also options.
If you are looking for specific books there are some pretty reasonably priced compilations out there.
The Belgariad volumes one and two can be gotten for around $14.
All ten volumes of The Chronicles of Amber can be purchased for about $12.
All three volumes of the Dark Elf Trilogy can be purchased for around $12.
If you look around there are some pretty great deals out there.
I'm currently reading (well, before my kindle broke :( :() What Alice Forgot.
Before this, I read We Were Liars, This is Where I Leave You and BJ Novak's One More Thing.
I want to read Shantaram before the movie comes out.
Tomorrow's Child
Found in this collection:
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Bradbury-Everymans-Library-Cloth/dp/0307269051/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395339612&sr=1-9&keywords=ray+bradbury
Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Philip-K-Dick-Reader/dp/0806518561/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397620384&sr=8-1&keywords=philip+k+dick+reader
Just look at that short story list. It's all gold.
First off, thank you--I always appreciate commentary from teachers/professors/academics/educators on reddit--the insight is invaluable, and you clearly know your stuff. This looks to be a wonderful curriculum, and I hope to be able to work my way through it or something similar eventually; after all, money's tight for me right now as a student.
Second, you say you prefer the topical approach, so maybe you could speak to this: my primary reason for posting is that last year I read Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and thoroughly enjoyed it. Recently, I had time to read it's sequel, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals and found it to be even more complete argumentatively-speaking. Almost all of his points were genius in my opinion, but what I found most compelling was the manner in which he argued that modern scientific reasoning is a flawed, incomplete way of looking at the world. I suppose on the surface you could call it epistemological, but he also engages metaphysics and ethics heavily in these two books. I'm fascinated by Pirsig's work, but just feel as though I need to be more well-read in these areas to really engage with it and better evaluate it's merit.
The Philip K Dick Reader is always a good choice.
People are giving you the cream of the crop (Foundation, Dune). But not knowing your age or your experience with books, i'd worry that they might scare you off a little if you started with them.
Although you can't go wrong with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy, get that today.
So here's some beginner stuff that you really can't go wrong with.
After that, this Phillip K. Dick reader. It's bite sized and fantastic.
this is a good primer too. It has some classic sci fi short stories that were adapted later into fantastic novels.
And if you like time travel, this is a good start.
As someone that has much of this problem as well all I can say is reading books or following courses on writing fantasy.
Personally I really appreaciated the two books from Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game if anyone does not know him) which are: How to write science fiction and fantasy and Characters and viewpoint.
There are also uploaded on Youtube the lectures held by Brandon Sanderson (MIstborn) which are free to watch and great to get abearing on writing. Here's the most recent one.
Reading through this collection of PKD short stories it's amazing how many ended up getting turned in to major sci-fi hits in the last 10-20 years. After I recognized the first couple ones, I started to wonder when I started each new story if it was some famous movie, or if maybe someone was working to turn it in to another hit right now?
may I interest you in the original pulp?
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
The Bloody Crown of Conan
The Conquering Sword of Conan
I've only read the 1970s Conan comics and they were decent. A little too narration heavy for me for a comic.
Welcome, welcome! If I can rec two books:
https://www.amazon.com/Machine-Death-Collection-Stories-People/dp/0982167121
https://www.amazon.com/This-How-You-Die-Inscrutable/dp/1455529397/
They're sci-fi and really, REALLY enjoyable. Or at least I found them to be! (:
https://www.amazon.com/Zombies-vs-Unicorns-Holly-Black/dp/1416989544
I heard it's good.
Or dinosaur erotica
Oh, I know!! We had this book when I was a kid in the 80's:
https://smile.amazon.com/Stories-Bradbury-Everymans-Contemporary-Classics/dp/0307269051
and I wound up buying my own used copy a few years ago with the same cover ours did. I really do believe that when it comes to the short story, he is THE master.
I live in L.A. and after Bradbury died, there was a huge effort to get his house declared a historical landmark because it had been purchased by a developer to demolish the house and build a mansion, but the effort failed. BUT, the developer hired a deconstruction company to take the house down instead of demolish it, and Bradbury's office was preserved and was/will be reconstructed at a university. :) AND THEN... they made 451 sets of bookends from the roof of his house. 😱 I have two sets and they are close to the top of my list of prized possessions!!
I mean, they sort of have.
There were 727,000 self published books in 2015. Just in that year alone. Not including any other years, and books tend to stick around for quite a while. And lately, the number of genres and sub-genres you can find on Amazon is simply insane. The fact that a whole subcategory exists for Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Dark Fantasy is honestly pretty stunning, and paths like this one are only getting deeper and diverging more.
When I search goodreads for an unconventional subject, such as post apocalyptic unicorn books, I can absolutely always without fail find something (like this).
Now granted, if you wrote a post apocalyptic unicorn novel with a male MC, a flaming sword, who rides on the back of a tortoise saving the world... then perhaps you aren't boiling your book down to its essence (post apocalyptic fantasy mashup). But if you are boiling it down to its essence, other books that are similar exist.
So I've heard this a fair amount -- and conventional wisdom says, at least with the millions and millions of books out there in the world, I can guarantee you that although your book hasn't been written, books on your subject matter have.
I mean, often the point here is that we writers get offended when someone suggests you "cant" do something. You "can't" reinvent the romance genre. You "can't" write a fantasy post apocalyptic unicorn book and sell it. The truth is, you can do these things. You can write any book you like. But if you don't read in your genre, even if you don't like the genre, you're not doing yourself any favors. You are, in fact, hindering yourself -- because if you don't read in your genre then you have no idea what that genre's expectations are and who is doing innovative work in the genre.
Now, the last thing I'll say is this -- what you DO read is influencing your genre. So say you want to reinvent romance and all you read is high fantasy. Well, what you're probably writing is a high fantasy book with a romance tilt. If you dislike a genre, that's a good sign that you probably aren't catering to its expectations.
Hopefully this helps! :) I totally get where you're coming from, and the truth is whether you read in your genre or not, you need to query the book you wrote. Maybe you've made it harder on yourself by not reading in your genre. But who cares. You wrote the book you wanted to read and you need to query that book to see if anyone else would be interested in it. :D
We can't go back and change the past. So instead, next time you write a book, I'd recommend helping yourself by reading in that genre. If you do, more power to you! If you don't, I'd still tell you to query that next book, and the one after, and the one after.
Love it! Thanks so much! Here's something else interesting I found while looking through the related items.
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Tales-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0375714510/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_mrai_2_dp
If you don't have a strong preference for existence over non-existence, why worry about self-improving AGI? The worst that would be likely to happen is that it would very quickly annihilate us, an AI that wants to torture people (as in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) seems pretty far-fetched. One of my own sort of controversial opinions is that while the suffering caused by death is bad, death itself is neither good nor bad, so for example if you were to vaporize the entire planet instantly with a death star you wouldn't be causing any pain (no one left to mourn the loss of a loved one) and thus this would be a morally neutral act (anyway, human civilization will continue in another branch of the multiverse even if it does get annihilated in one branch, whether by death ray or rogue AI).
Catherynne M. Valente writes each scene in her books like vivid paintings that you've been dropped into. The Orphan's Tale: In the Night Garden and it's companion [In the Cities of Coin and Spice] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Orphans-Tales-Cities-Spice/dp/055338404X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b) are highly imaginative tales interwoven into one finale heart wrenching yet warming conclusion. It is a modern writing style that incorporates many aspects of tale weaving that was found in Arabian Nights.
Orson Scott Card wrote this book on creating believable characters. It was one of my bibles when I was writing fiction.
Probably not it, but there's a book called Ariel, where technology stops working and magic comes to earth, killing a lot of people...
Edit: also sounds a bit like The Chrysalids, but not exactly.
>now want more of
yesss join usss
Obviously, in your quest for more fantasy-rogue-heist-guile-hero stories, read the rest of the Gentleman Bastard books. They're awesome. People rag on them because there's a tone shift from LIES, but the mileage varies; REPUBLIC OF THIEVES is a damn delight.
Lynch also wrote a short story, "A Year and a Day in Old Theradane," for the ROGUES anthology. It's not set in Emberlain, but it's made of the same stuff as the Gentleman Bastard books, which is another way of saying that it's outstanding.
Afterward, if Lynch still hasn't released THORN OF EMBERLAIN and you find yourself with a hankering (forgive me for I am about to self-promote like a mofo), THE FACEFAKER'S GAME is likely to be your kind of party.
In the collection of short stories This is How You Die (more stories based on Ryan North's Machine of Death concept), in one of the stories there's a counseling job like that. Government blood records know how everyone will die, but the information isn't given out to people without extensive counseling as people almost exclusively are worse off for the knowledge (it would be like the HD test, but the result would always be positive, just not always HD).
Anyway, most of the stories are based upon how the Machine would change the world, I hadn't considered how closely a real-world analogue would exist.
It's the weekend!
I would like this book. (Used is fine.)
For this, you need to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Then, you need to read Pirsig's second book on the subject, Lila.
Neither made much sense to me, but the first is always the answer to when people start pondering what is quality, and the second is the answer to the question about what Pirsig was talking about in the first book.
But neither book really answers the question. Coming from a QA/QC background, I consider quality to be meeting the standards you put down in the first place (QA) by rigorous testing (QC).
The girl in the Garden. This is inspired by this book.
This might already be happening. A "special edition" re-release of TLW has been scheduled for September for some time now. Amazon lists it as a regular paperback, not a mass market paperback like the older edition. So if they reprint BoE next, the whole series will at least be in the large print edition.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316438960/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_twi_pap_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1495462186&sr=8-1&keywords=witcher+the+last+wish
Ray Bradbury for sure.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0307269051/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?qid=1376273594&sr=8-9&pi=SL75
No problem!
I'm looking at The Last Wish paperback page on Amazon and that one is being released as a "special collector's edition." I don't see anything like that on the Blood of Elves paperback page. Where did you see they were both being reprinted? If so, that's great news! :D
The Initiate Brother by Sean Russell?
edit - well, this book immediate came to mind when reading the title, but upon further consideration of the text box, this is probably not the correct book. However, I'll leave it anyway because it does seem possible it is what you are thinking about.
I literally (as in I was picking out a new book to read as I fired up reddit) just finished reading Zombies vs Unicorns which I got from a Humble Bundle a few back. It's a collection of short stories all featuring zombies or unicorns (only one has both iirc). It's fairly YA focused, but not in a bad way. Over all I was fairly happy with it, though I don't know if I'd pay the price that Amazon is asking for it.
Oh, also pick up anything else the Max Brooks writes. He has a number of graphic novels based on his view of zombies. I just read one (though I have spaced on the name) which is about vampires dealing with the zombie apocalypse, very good.
Two philosophical books that changed my worldview for the better are Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and its sequel Lila by Robert Pirsig. Without giving too much away, it follows someone who stepped a little too close to the edge of the Abyss and what he discovered in the process. It definitely helped me when I needed it most.
https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Tales-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0375714510/
This is what you are looking for I think.
Or
https://www.amazon.ca/Living-Language-Dothraki-Conversational-Original/dp/0804160864
I've only read a bit, but it is pretty good if you are into the whole superhero and shared world anthology thing.
The first volume is only $8 new on amazon if you want to give it a read. Martin wrote some of this volume himself, as well as serving as editor.
Ariel.
http://www.amazon.com/Ariel-Steven-R-Boyett/dp/0441017940
Essentially the same premise. Kind of a goofy coming of age book that holds an important place in my heart, but I'll admit the writing isn't fantastic. If you like Revolution, though, you'll probably enjoy it.
Disagree with "Under the Dome" I liked the book, but it's a lot more Lord of the Flies than what you're looking for, I'd think. The Stand (also King) is probably closer, although obviously more mysticalish.
I believe you need to buy the set and then the other two separately. The set is here and then the other two are here and here.
Yeah you really should. It's not too late. You could probably pick up Book 3 and start from there since that's where the TV show is now and the first two seasons were pretty faithful to the books.
The show is good. The books are 100 times better. Although as someone who read the books before the show I probably think the show is "less good" than someone who has never read the books if that makes sense.
It's late and I'm tired...
Also, as much as I like the GoT books I think Martin's "Wild Card" series was better but that might just be because I grew up reading a lot of superhero comics
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Cards-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765365073/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370235354&sr=1-1&keywords=wild+cards
Hmm. I find the lack of "The Belgariad" by David Eddings very disturbing.
Check them out
then check this out
I remember plowing through the Belgariad around that age. It was probably the first series I ever read and I don't think I looked back after that.
Game of Thrones:
Someone probably already suggested this, but the GOT coloring book is pretty damn sweet
They also have a book to learn Dothraki
ohh! and this GOT letter opener is super neat, even though it's super random, but if you're anything like me, random is good
Blue Stuffs (right now I'm trying not to sing Eiffel 64):
These lights are pretty damn cool and they're remote control operated
If you're into baking, I HIGHLY recommend these spatulas. They work super well for their price
These headphones are kick ass. They're wireless and don't get tangled up all the time
History:
US president rubber ducks, 'cuz why not???
Drunk History Season 1 and 2. My favorite show ever
If world history is more of your thing, they have paintable terroctta soilder models which are pretty neat
Also thank you for this contest. I discovered some pretty cool shit.
It's the sequel to Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: http://www.amazon.com/Lila-An-Inquiry-Into-Morals/dp/0553299611
BJ Novak - Kellogg’s (or: The Last Wholesome Fantasy of the Middle-School Boy), in the book one more thing
> A boy wins a $100,000 prize in a box of Frosted Flakes—only to discover that claiming the winnings might unravel his family.
Thanks Azincourt, appreciate the feedback - again!
95% of fantasy stories you know the main characters are going to survive somehow anyway and Kharver's not the sort of person who is "weary" very often (fairly irrepressible) so I'm not overly worried about that part either.
The only other Asian-flavored fantasy I've read is called The Initiate Brother by Sean Russell and it happens to be pretty damn good.
Get an audiobook version of this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IWTTPOI/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
This way you don't commit to long books.
One More Thing, Stories and Other Stories by BJ Novak
Yes, that is the same guy who was on, and wrote for The Office. And who knew he could write short stories too. With twisty, thought provoking, and just silly, BJ Novak leads you through, story by story, with the same type of humor you're expecting. The stories are short, sweet, and to the point, and poke fun at everyone you can think of.
Edit: Added the link!
I grew up loving Ariel, and it did well on a re-read 20 years later . . .
I've read this in an anthology, within the last year, but I can't remember which anthology. I thought it was in New Weird but none of those ring a bell.
You might know this already, but there is a really cool short-story collection and a sequel that deal with this topic.
Both great books, cannot recommend them enought
I'll just throw in there are actually quite a few book series that focus on superheros, but aren't adaptions.
George R.R. Martin edits a series called Wild Cards which he refers to as mosaic novels. He and his friends will right a series of short stories which fit into a novel, each novel is part of a trilogy, and each trilogy is part of the larger world. The series has been going on since the 80's. The first one Wildcards was recently republished with added material. If you want to skip forward though Inside Straight was written to be a good jumping on point.
Brandon Sanderson recently wrote a series called The Reckoners , where people with Superpowers have taken over the world and
I haven't read these, but Vicious is supposed to be really good as well. Ex-Heroes is massup of the Superhero and zombie genres, I can't speak to it's quality, but it's fairly successful.
I know it isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I thought these might interest you.
Edit: Oh, and if you are interested in the Wildcards series, I would highly suggest reading the first novel even if you skip forward afterwards. The first book is essentially a series of short stories that tell the history of the Wildcards from their appearance in the 40's to the 80's when the rest start taking place.
Is this the same collection? You can buy the Kindle and Audiobook versions together for $15 which is pretty good for me now that I've cancelled my Audible subscription.
Might be because they're releasing them as sets now instead of single books?
Regarding this topic, I just got this book from the library and it has some fantastic explanations and illustrations of POV and tense. The illustrations made it so clear, it's awesome.
https://www.amazon.com/Characters-Viewpoint-Elements-Fiction-Writing/dp/1599632128
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Del Rey has a trio of books that comprise just about every one of Howard's original Conan stories, plus or minus some trunk stuff. A great deal of care was taken with these to consult Howard experts and use the best available texts, so they're quality.
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Barbarian-Book-ebook/dp/B000FBJE24
Between Del Rey and the Robert E. Howard Foundation, nearly every word Howard ever wrote is either published or in the process of being published. It's a vast undertaking, since the dude wrote so much in the thirty years of his life. Del Rey also has a couple of best of volumes that sample broadly from almost everything he did, so if you like the Conan stuff and want to see what else of his you might like, check those out.
There are also loads of free audiobook versions of varying quality.
Additionally, if you're ever anywhere in the vicinity of Abilene, TX, you're not far from Howard Country. It's worth a trip to Cross Plains to go see the Howard House, now with added storm cellar!
(These might not all be available on Kindle Unlimited)
The Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher, for some urban fantasy. They get better as they go.
The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffery, for some fantasy with a dash of Sci-Fi.
Pick up a John Grisham for a legal thriller. The Firm is a good one to start with.
Thriller/Suspense? Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The end of the world? Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Do you enjoy British humour? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Want to read about assassins and espionage? A Clean Kill in Tokyo by Barry Eisler
If you aren't sure what you want, you might consider some short story collections too: they're a great way to find a new favourite author! I'd strongly suggest sorting by genre though: there's a disturbing amount of (probably) 50 Shades - ish 'romance' by indy authors in there as well as stuff that clearly isn't a short story collection but is filed under Anthologies on Amazon anyway.
You're looking for something like this, this or this though!
https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Tales-Pantheon-Folklore-Library/dp/0375714510
I don't know if I've read that one. I have the collection with a blue and white swirly cover, and I've read several of his books. This is wonderful news, I have more Philip K Dick to read.
If you're interested, here's the chronollogical order of the books (with links to buy them on Amazon):
--------
Season of Storms is an upcoming book set in between the short stories of The Last Wish. It will be released in English on March 2018.
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Language-Dothraki-Conversational-Original/dp/0804160864
Looks like you read BJ Novak's book "one more thing"
you are in luck, if you wanted to start with the original stories the first book in the 3 book set (they are all short story collections) is on sale right now for 3 bucks:
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Barbarian-Book-ebook/dp/B000FBJE24/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535997116&sr=8-1&keywords=conan+cimmerian
If you're serious about this, the very best thing for you to do at this moment would be to read "Characters and Viewpoint" and it will answer the question you're asking, and the myriad of questions you aren't.
My go to recommendation is typically either "Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories About People Who Know How They Will Die" or "This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death". They are both collections of short stories with one simple premise in common. There is a machine that exists that will without fail tell you with 100% accuracy how you are going to die. However, the machine can be cryptic, vague or anything in between. It could say "Old Age" and you'd assume that you, a 22 year old person, are good to do whatever you want danger wise until you're super old. But that same 22 year old could be walking down the sidewalk after getting their diagnosis from the machine and be hit a by car... being driven by a very old person. THEIR old age is what killed you. Or maybe you survive the accident but are left brain dead and your family refuses to pull the plug, so you outlive all of them and end up dying naturally of old age, having spent the last seventy years of your life trapped inside your own body. They are an incredibly varied series, ranging from sci-fi to horror to comedy to mystery. They are some of my favorite books.
​
So that's two. Let's think of three more.
​
Next up is "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore. It's a new (clearly fictionalized) testament that chronicles the early life of the Son of God that are missing from the Bible. Who tells it? Why none other than Biff, Christ's childhood best friend who was purposely omitted from said good book for being a bit of a jerk. He has been resurrected by some angels and tasked with telling the world about the lost years of his best buddy's life. Biff and Josh get into all sorts of foibles, from reanimating dead bugs as children to scare the bullies in their village to learning martial arts from monks to teaching an elephant yoga to falling in love with the same woman. It's hilarious, and beautiful. Be you a believer or not, it's a great read. I'm an atheist and I was recommended the book by my best friend who is a minister more than a decade ago.
​
Now let's talk about "Lucky Bastard" by S.G. Browne. This book is about a private detective with a special ability: he can steal another person's luck, good or bad. He then can quite literally bottle and sell this to the highest bidder. He's been out of the Luck Poaching game for some time, but his past has finally caught up with him. He's offered a huge payday to steal back the mayor's stolen luck, and he's hurting for the cash. Our detective friend spends a lot of time and money at Starbucks, and $100,000 will buy a lot of lattes. Not to mention the job is offered to him by a beautiful, mysterious woman who he might just want to take the job in order to be closer to. The book is very funny, extremely tense and has tons of twists and turns. I discovered the author by accident when I picked up another book by him at the airport nearly ten years just to have something to read during a delay. I loved it so much that I wrote to him and he sent me an advanced copy of his (then) upcoming novel, and we've become casual friends online. He's a great guy and his stuff is a lot of fun.
​
The last book on my list is "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. There is almost no way to explain this book because it's so many different stories wrapped in a ton of layers, but I'll give it a go. At it's core, a man who was loosely acquainted with a blind older gentlemen checks out his apartment after the old man's death and finds endless notebooks, manuscripts and stories. These stories are all related to a video tape that is the stuff of legends. In that video tape is footage of a videographer who was filming his new home and family for months. He slowly starts to realize that his house is very slightly larger on the inside than it is on the outside. Then a tiny room appears between the master bedroom and his child's bedroom. Then a door appears on his living room wall, which when opened leads to an entirely black room with a spiral staircase leading down. He puts a team together and leads an expedition into this black room to figure out what's going on. Now, those are the BASICS of this book. It's a really trippy experience. There are some pages with only one word on them, some pages where the text is oriented in different directions, some pages just contain sheet music. The book is full of source notes and references, but none of them notate or reference anything that actually exists. In fact, Mark Z. Danielweski doesn't even exist. It's a pen name, a character in itself. The whole experience is insane. I've bought so many copies of this book for people. It's probably the gift I've given most often in my life, other than the gift of laughter.
A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scotth Lynch (part of the Rogues Anthology)
Short stories are always a good place to start with an author, and Phillip K Dick's are especially good in my opinion.
No, no no no.
Too Mary Sue for my taste.
I much preferred The Initiate Brother, or Across the Nightingale Floor.
Amazon has them. Here's the first book. As you can see, there are various edition options: Kindle, Audible, Hardcover, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Audio CD... the one you want is the one that says just "Paperback". Then buy the other seven books the same way - though you can also buy Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt and Baptism of Fire as a boxed set that has the three in the Paperback size.
Alternately, there's a set that has all eight, Paperback size, though these are the UK editions, not the US ones. The only difference is the covers; the contents are exactly the same.
Your Writing;
Some good writing in your details and solid word images. You have a good sense of humor, I would have enjoyed more of your dry timing. The story and characters, that was very difficult for me to follow. The paragraphs seemed to dance, move to one thing or another, almost like it didn't need to connect. They did connect but It felt to me I had to work hard to get it.
I stopped when Owen got to Lake Tahoe.
I found it hard to understand when it's the Mc thinking, or a dream, or something else. It didn't feel very real to me. I didn't get a any sense of a 'when', no sense of time passing, nor a viewpoint that let me understand what I was reading.
I thought Owen was a type of kid I wouldn't much like to hang out with. The red haired girl, not sure. Good world building, a firm start.
Other ways to get better feedback;
If you want to avoid bad habits before starting, be clear about how much help you can get here. Ask specific questions about areas you think don't work. Post a small intro, maybe just a scene or two from a chapter. Start a bit smaller. Build up from there.
The best help I see comes from very specific questions about your work.
More detailed critiques can be found at the link shown below. There they will read all of it and give very detailed responses, however there is a catch. You have to do a 1:1 ratio of other works in order to receive the same. So you'd have to complete a high level critique of a 2,500 plus story, then you would get the same.
If you don’t follow this rule, your post will be marked as a leech post. And if your leech post has been up for 24 hours without any new critiques from you, it will be removed.
[Destructive Readers](https://www.reddit.com/r/DestructiveReaders/ "The goal: to improve writing and maintain the highest standard of critique excellence anywhere on Reddit. DestructiveReaders isn't about writers being nice to writers; it's about readers being honest with writers. We deconstruct writing to construct better writers." )
Sharing the writing process;
A lot of us here are working and struggling with becoming better writers. So you are not alone in this painful process.
I myself find the task of becoming a good writer very daunting. I only keep going because I create a belief in myself. After that I go through the slow hard swim in the deep dark oceans of the unknown. I have no directions, no compass, only fear which if allowed becomes an anchor.
It would be good to know something about your skill level, things you've already read to improve crafting stories, classes you've taken, daily exercises or how much you write each day.
Myself; I do a daily poem, then write from 5/6 am to 9 am, that will be either my current novel or on a short I plan to submit to a magazine. I listen to Podcasts and do exercises from Writing Excuses
Books I use as my reference on writing;
end
Japanese Tales is a great book of Japanese folktales and legends. The translator gives info about various elements of Japanese folktales and legends and also provides a bibliography.
well, i never finished it, but this series might be up yer alley.
If OP is going to read Zen, he should also read Lila, the follow up book.
I'm in - One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak
Link to purchase, I really recommend it. Thanks!
Oh gosh I haven't read much coming-of-age literature in a long while.
I did read Ray Bradbury's novella Something Wicked This Way Comes two years ago, and I encountered the short story he adapted it from in a collection of 100 of his short stories. It hasn't entered public domain of course, but you should be able to find it in a library. The collection I own is this one but there are earlier editions of it I am sure you can find.
The title of the story is "The Black Ferris". It's about two boys who encounter evil at a fair, when they are 13. This is, of course, the age when we are forming our selves, and they have a confrontation with evil and emerge victorious over it.
Well if you haven't yet, I'd encourage you to read the book for Man in the High Castle. If you like Dick's style you should also pick up a book of his short stories. This is the one I got about fifteen years ago, albeit an older edition. Check with wikipedia and after you finish a story you can watch the movie that was based on it (so many of them get turned into movies)).
I read many years ago and thought it was great. He also wrote a follow-up book, Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals, that I thought was even better than the first, (probably because I was into sailboats at the time and the main character had a sailboat.)
I will let [the book] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0553384031/ref=rdr_ext_tmb) speak its sentences for itself:
"On an evening, when I was a very small child, an old woman came to the great silver gate, and twisting her hands among the rose roots told me this: I was not born with this mark. A spirit came into my cradle on the seventh day of the seventh month of my life, and while my mother slept in her snow white bed, the spirit touched my face, and left there many tales and spells, like the tattoos of sailors. The verses and songs were so great in number and so closely written that they appeared as one long, unbroken streak of jet on my eyelids.
Well's there two characters like Kilgrave in the Wild Cards series
SPOILERS FOR THE WILD CARDS BOOKS
The Envoy and Puppetman are the ones with powers like that(mind control like powers), the book series is an anthology series so vastly different characters to follow along arcs that sometimes take more than one book to see the end.
The Envoy is minor character compared to the others, he's in the first book, and he does appear later in Book Six Ace in the Hole where we found out what he's been up too in the past 42 years(book timeline) and he does play a part in the end of the book.
Puppetman appears in almost all of the first six or seven books, You can read the first book then jump straight to book Four ( Aces Abroad ) , than after than jump straight to book Six ( Ace in the Hole ). That will get you very far into Puppetman's arc throughout the series.
Hope that helps, the series is really well done and builds a small universe. The first two books have been released as audiobooks and are very well done.
Book 1 audiobook
Amazon link to book 1
There is a book called Ariel about a world that has changed to one with magic. The main character acquires a sword and names it Fred. However, I don't think he was a truck driver, and I don't remember any fog.
https://www.amazon.com/Ariel-Steven-R-Boyett/dp/0441017940
If you cant find any alive people who speak it (needle in a haystack I'm sure), there is this product which has a dvd and book about learning Dothraki.
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.ca/Living-Language-Dothraki-Conversational-Original/dp/0804160864&ved=2ahUKEwityJCFi-zhAhXWvp4KHfUJAEAQFjAAegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw2-dZVYMVZF2kQpfMCqc3C0
There's some apps out there for both, but if you want it all one place and all correct (the linguist who made the language for the show made this product), there is this.
MACHINE OF DEATH, perhaps? Or the next, similar one THIS IS HOW YOU DIE, maybe?
I always like to keep a spare bullet, just in case.
Don't miss out on short fiction! :-) The nice thing about multi-author anthologies is, you discover which authors you will want to read and invest in more thoroughly:
Here are some definitive single-author collections arranged approximately in the order the stories were written:
Not all the stories are ghost/scary ones, per se, but this book is an excellent resource on folklore during the medieval period in Japan, in the periods of 1100-1350 AD. I've enjoyed this book greatly, so if you're looking to own something really nice, I suggest picking this up.
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Tales-Pantheon-folklore-library/dp/0375714510
Kate Elliott - Crown of Stars series (12 books), Crossroads (trilogy), Spiritwalker (trilogy, YA, last book comes out in June)
Robin Hobb - Farseer series (12 books)
David Eddings - Belgariad (10 books +2 prequels) and Sparhawk series (6 books)
Holly Lisle - Secret Texts (trilogy +prequel)
“If you love something, let it go.
If you don't love something, definitely let it go.
Basically, just drop everything, who cares.”
― B.J. Novak, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
Have you gotten the New Weird anthology that Jeff and Ann VanderMeer did? I haven't read it per se', but I've read a couple of the things included in it elsewhere, and I've read most of the authors' included in it.
I went with this one. Had the highest reviews and seems like it probably has a decent mix from different time periods in his career.
You clearly have a strong opinion against the story and the author. You are free to feel that way.
I see that the book I have no mouth and I must scream to be #8 in the Short Stories category on Amazon, as well as #14 in Science Fiction Anthologies and #23 in other science fiction categories. Isaac Asimov has books that are near that same rank, some ahead, some below, but it is of more or less equal standing.
So the book market objectively disagrees.
But to each their own.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree.
Amazon says the book is 162 pages