Best short stories & anthology books according to redditors
We found 4,620 Reddit comments discussing the best short stories & anthology books. We ranked the 1,519 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 4,620 Reddit comments discussing the best short stories & anthology books. We ranked the 1,519 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
This is from a short video that is based on a collection of short stories.
The title of every chapter is the cause of death (ex: Suicide, Almond, Starvation, Friendly Fire, Nothing, Killed by Daniel) and they're always accompanied with a little illustration.
This is one chapter, in its entirety.
EDIT: Whoops, BadgerCourtJudge beat me to it.
Post Genki II Stuff
Congratulations on finishing ADWD, AKA the best novel of the five novels so far (totally not controversial). But wait, there's so much more out there!
A few months ago, I, along with lots of people who pointed lots more stuff out to me than I knew, created a ASOIAF Resource post where you can find all there is to know about ASOIAF.
Some highlights for you:
You finished the 5 ASOIAF books. Great! But there's more ASOIAF-universe material out there. Have you read Dunk & Egg, The Princess and the Queen or the Rogue Prince? And do you know about The World of Ice and Fire: GRRM's History of Planetos? Furthermore, it's a universally accepted fact that your re-read will be much, much better than your first read. Here's some links!
***
The Winds of Winter
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ASOIAF News, Forums & Information
Have at it!
Full video is here.
The books are Machine of Death and This is How You Die
Obligatory The Churn recommendation. It's a novella focused on this character's backstory. It's all set well before the TV series and the full-length novels, so you can go into it having read nothing else.
The anthology is The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 1: 1929-1964 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765305372
A wonderful introduction to sci-fi.
It includes all of the Dunk and Egg stories, but there are a couple more about the Targaryens that were published in anthologies. The Rogue Prince is included in Rogues, and The Princess and the Queen is included in Dangerous Women.
The story is called "Story of Your Life" and it is in a semi-eponymous collection titled "Stories of Your Life and Others". The book is fantastic; there a couple other stories within ("Hell is the Absence of God" and "Tower of Babylon") that would also make for great movies.
You can get all three stories collected in one volume entitled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms for less than $20 on Amazon.
This edition contains exclusive new artwork but has the original three stories in their original form.
As far as I know, there is no way to buy digital copies of these yet. The only way I was able to find them was via the fantasy compilations:
Legends I,
Legends II,
Warriors I
Btw, I have no affiliation with Amazon, it was just easy to find on their site.
I almost enjoyed them more than asoiaf because there's there's no shifting POV characters for all 3 "novellas." Everything is always from the POV of Ser Duncan the Tall.
Yep. The Churn will help you understand Amos.
The first story is The Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon, and the third is A Martian Odyssey by Stanley Weinbaum.
I haven't read the 2nd one, but the collection is very likely to be The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol 1.
Library Links
>Dunk & Egg 1 (Hedge Knight)
>Legends Anthology: http://www.worldcat.org/title/legends-short-novels-by-the-masters-of-modern-fantasy/oclc/39013842
>Hedge Knight Only: http://www.worldcat.org/title/hedge-knight/oclc/56053466&referer=brief_results
>
>
> Dunk & Egg 2 (Hedge Knight II: Sworn Sword)
> Legends Anthology II: http://www.worldcat.org/title/legends-ii-dragon-sword-and-king/oclc/630937186
> Sworn Sword Only: http://www.worldcat.org/title/hedge-knight-ii-sworn-sword/oclc/269578007
> Dunk & Egg 3 (Mystery Knight)
> Warriors Anthology: http://www.worldcat.org/title/warriors/oclc/428026868
Amazon (from /r/asoiaf wiki)
>1.
> http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Dreamsongs-Volume-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0553385690
>
>2.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Masters-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FC0Y0Y/
> 3.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765320487/
>
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765360268/
You could read novels, but I personally think you're going to get a better intro to SF and more enjoyment, and a better chance of finding "your thing" if you read short stories. You can then read the novels you know you'll enjoy. I love SF anthologies, not only because you get a collection of pre-selected awesome pieces, but also you get to sample a ton of different authors with different styles in the same number of pages as reading a novel would get you just a single story and a single author. Also, many consider the short story the ultimate and best form for science fiction.
I suggest anthologies that collect stories over multiple years instead of just "best of the year" collection. For obvious reasons, you get better stories. Here are the best I know of:
So you could go historically starting with old stories and working your way more contemporary, in which case you'd start with SF Hall of Fame. But it might be a better idea to start with the most contemporary stuff and go backwards. In that case, you'd start with Locus Awards and start in the back of the book.
In terms of specific authors, I would be amiss not to encourage you to read Ted Chiang. He has written only 13 short stories between 1992 and now, but he's won more awards for them than most SF authors do in their lifetime including the prestigious Nebula, Locus and Hugo awards, among others! READ. HIS. STORIES. He has an awesome anthology Stories of Your Life and Others plus you can buy his more recent stories on amazon.
You should also read Greg Egan. And Enders Game if you somehow missed it. There's also the classic Arthur C. Clarke, either his short stories, or a novel like City and the Stars.
> Also of course the language I'm most interested in is literally the most difficult one categorised, lol; looks like you're currently studying it (Japanese), how have you found it so far?
So it took me about 2 years to get to N3 in Japanese, entirely self-studying, and I've been studying it for about 2 and a half years now. I honestly don't find it too bad. Obviously learning all of the kanji takes time. I've chosen to learn them as I go along rather than memorise them all at the start and I know and can write about 600 but I can probably recognise and read ~800. The grammar is very different from English but it's difficult in a different way to some other languages. When I studied Russian that was difficult because you're trying to internalise all these case endings and perfective and imperfective forms of verbs and it just felt like a slog to me, whereas in Japanese most grammatical constructions are simple to construct, no complex conjugation rules or anything, but there are a lot of subtleties to meanings and usages that take time to really get familiar with.
I am a big fan of textbooks, so I did Genki I, then Genki II, then studied for N4 using textbook specifically geared for that, then Tobira, then textbooks specifically for N3. Now I'm using a combination of Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course (KKLC) for Kanji, Authentic Japanese: Progressing From Intermediate to Advanced, various materials that I'm reading (some native like manga, online news and a high school history textbook, and some geared for learners like this, this and NHK Easy News) and various stuff I'm watching/listening to.
Obviously the ability to actually speak is what gets neglected the most in self-study. I was pretty religiously having Skype lessons through iTalki for a while and that helped enormously but I have let that slip a bit. I went to Japan shortly after passing N4 and I was really surprised with how well I was able to communicate. My partner is a wheelchair user so we did have to communicate with Japanese people way more than the average tourist and it all went really smoothly.
What I'd say about Japanese is less that it's super super hard, but more that it's going to take a long time, especially if you don't already know how language-learning works best for you. If it's something you want to do, you probably can, but you have to know that it is a marathon, not a sprint. Going in, my idea was that if I'm not competent in Japanese until a decade into studying, that was OK. It was a long-term hobby I was taking up.
> How long did it take you to get to B2 in French?
That's a more complicated story. Technically I started studying French in 2006 but that was some really terrible teaching in a UK secondary school and I didn't put much effort in and dropped it after the first year with very little ability. I started seriously studying French at school in 2009 when I did a GCSE in it in one year (they're usually 2 years but they teach very little). I'd say I was a solid A1 after that. Then I did an A Level over 2 years finishing in 2012. After that I'd say I was probably a solid B1 or a weak B2. Then I was at university for 4 years and completely dropped all language study. After that my reading was probably at a B1 level but everything else had suffered a lot from lack of use. Then in 2016 I picked it back up again, got it back up to standard (it came back really quickly) and passed the actual B2 exam in December 2016. I've been intending to take C1 for ages and I'm fairly confident I'd pass it right now, but at this point I think I'll hold out for C2 which I'm debating taking later in the year. So I expect I was at B2 after 3 serious years in the British schooling system. I actually passed B2 after that plus 4 years of nothing plus about 6 months of self-study. It can be done way quicker than that if you self-study from the start though.
> Do you have time for other hobbies?
Language learning is definitely my primary hobby, but I do really enjoy it and it's not like I come home from work every day and do nothing else. I'm not a big gamer but when something comes out that catches my fancy I'll play it. I live with my partner so I spend time with him every day just watching TV and movies, spending time together, going out at the weekends etc. I cook every day and occasionally dedicate a whole day to cooking something special or baking. I do a lot of coding (which is also my job, but I do my own personal projects for fun). I read a lot. I am going back to university to get another Master's next year so that will definitely test out my time management.
For me, I think the best thing is to think of language study as a lifestyle change. If you want to get strong and fit, you make the change to go to the gym every day or 4 times a week or whatever, and if you keep on track and don't miss days too often, you'll eventually get there. And then once you're where you want to be, you keep going to maintain it. That's how I see language learning. It's something you'll have to find time for and incorporate into your lifestyle.
Phew, sorry about that essay.
The Churn is a short novella that was released between the third and fourth books.
I've bought a fair amount of ebooks on Amazon recently and I think most of them are books that a lot of people here would enjoy (heck I heard about most of them through here!).
The Preorders:
Underlord - The sixth book in the Cradle series which is described as a Western Xianxia series. A lot of people here don't really like the Xianxia genre and I agree with their criticisms of how many main characters are very villainous, under-developed enemies and female characters, the economies of cultivation aren't logical, poor scaling in conflict as you go from one city to interstellar in scope, and awkward prose. But I bring up all of these flaws to say that the Cradle series completely avoids all of the typical flaws in Xianxia and has a very smart character who sets out to cultivate smartly instead of bullheadedly.
And the sixth book is coming out in March! (Get the box set. It has the first three books and is cheaper!)
Exhalation - Who here hasn't heard of Ted Chiang, the master of short stories that perfectly appeal to the r/rational crowd? The same guy that we literally use as an introduction to rational fiction. Well, if you enjoyed his first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, you'll love hearing that the second collection is coming out in....May! (Ugh....really May? I don't think I can wait that long!)
The books you can read right now!:
The Beginner's Guide to Magical Licensing - Has a similar start to Unsong where a magical college-graduate, minimum-wage, sweat-shop worker stumbles on a powerful spell and sets out to start his own business competing with the powerful. The parts of the story that follows afterward makes a whole lot more logical sense than Unsong however. (Used to be online for free, but now you'll have to pay the price for your ignorance if you want to read it! (Nah, I lied.))
Six Sacred Swords - If you liked the Arcane Ascension series, but wished there was more dungeonnering and less of school shenanigans, then look no further! In some ways it's a lot like reading a very good DnD session played by really savvy players who never follow the 'standard' way to solve problems.
The author of Six Sacred Swords made a recommendation for The Ruin of Kings. He said that it reads like a Locke Lamora-esque rogue protagonist, telling the story in a style similar to Kvothe, in a setting similar to Game of Thrones. I haven't bought the book yet, but the review was interesting enough that I wanted to include it in my list of recommendations.
Senlin Ascends - I haven't read this yet either, but skimming through it, I see some fair bit of social manipulation/combat that I think people here would like. Plus the Tower of Babel setting is something that appeals very strongly to me.
Polyglot: NPC REVOLUTION - A lot of people here seem to really like LitRPG and Artificial Intelligence, but almost no one seem to ever question the implications of the NPCs in LitRPG stories having human-level intelligence.
Small Medium: Big Trouble - It's by the same author who wrote Threadbare that people here really liked. Similar to Polygot where the NPC is the main character who needs to deal with players, but smaller scale in scope. There's a lot of fast-talking to convince selfish sociopaths to do what you say.
Q is for Quantum - I was going through my older ebook orders when I found this one. It's the single best introduction for quantum mechanics that I have ever read (not that I've read too many of those). It focuses on building an intuition for the subject and once you've read through the book, you will understand on a gut level what superposition means. Note that it's meant as an introduction for the subject, so don't expect it to cover everything, just what's need to get started learning about quantum mechanics. But I'd still recommend it to experts if only for a better way to explain their subject to their peers and laypeople.
If you like The Orville, you might like The Expanse (Formerly a ScyFy Show, now being produced by Amazon, also a series of books).
The character Amos is originally from Baltimore, there's a novella that dives into his past in a dystopian Baltimore. The Churn.
Yes all of them are available as e-books on the Kindle. They are all linked in our FAQ and our sidebar.
You can buy the collections they're in. Not separately, unfortunately.
EDIT: Links for the lazy.
"Legends" has "The Hedge Knight." $8 on Kindle.
"Legends II" has "The Sworn Sword." $6 on Kindle.
"Warriors" has "The Mystery Knight." $9 on Kindle.
I have three to recommend.
First is a pocket sized [Enchiridion and Meditations book.](https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Handbook-Pocket-Marc-Libre/dp/1329257359/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481901672&sr=1-3&keywords=meditations+and+handbook"Amazon Page"). It's not my favorite translation, but it is pocket-sized.
Second is [On the Shortness of Life](https://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481902012&sr=1-1&keywords=on+the+shortness+of+life"Amazon Link") which is about the same size (11x18 cm) and fits in your back or coat pocket. It contains [On the Shortness of Life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Brevitate_Vitae_(Seneca), Consolation to Helvia, and On Tranquility of Mind.
The third isn't a physical book. A [Practical Stocism Book](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/4bz797/practical_stoicism/"Reddit Page"), compiled and written by u/GreyFreeman, has been a very handy book to peruse whether you've got a few minutes or an hour.
Take care and enjoy.
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Blood-Thrones-Targaryen-History/dp/152479628X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=fire+and+blood&qid=1557611644&s=gateway&sprefix=fire+and+blood&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/World-Ice-Fire-History-Westeros/dp/0553805444/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=grr+martin&qid=1557611679&s=gateway&sr=8-2
https://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=grr+martin&qid=1557611730&s=gateway&sr=8-5
It's a totally cheesy revenge plot, but the original Arena makes me smile every time and includes a fun, ground-level view of how magic warps a society. Completely standalone; quick read.
https://www.amazon.com/Arena-Magic-Gathering-No-1/dp/0061054240
It's the graphic novel of The Hedge Knight that sells for stupid prices.
The actual novella is available in this book or this one. (Kindle edition).
The Sworn Sword is in Legends II. Alternatively, it's in this book which only contains part of the original Legends II anthology.
The Mystery Knight is in Warriors, or in paperback, this volume.
This is discussed pretty much weekly in this subreddit and really ought to be in the sidebar. For anyone from the future who is reading this thread, all the deleted comments are below were links to pirated versions of the books.
They haven't been released individually but rather as parts of short story collections that Martin edits or has some other part in.
Currently reading "The Story of Your Life and Others", and enjoying every page. Each short story is beautifully written and reads like a Black Mirror episode. One of the best books I've read this year.
No, you're probably seeing the out-of-print graphic novels (EDIT: Which I might add are going to be coming back into print along with a new graphic novel of The Mystery Knight in the near future).
The three novellas can be found in the Legends (contains the first story, The Hedge Knight), Legends II (contains the second story, The Sworn Sword), and Warriors I (contains the third story, The Mystery Knight) anthologies for pretty cheap - I got all three brand new for around thirty bucks.
There's a book series that really helped me called Read Real Japanese.
The format of the books is - right side page, tateyomi Japanese passage. Left side page, English explanation of hard grammar, expressions and colloqual/idiomatic elements of each passage.
Ted Chiang and his book of shorts - Stories of your Life, and others was simply fantastic. The story is much better than the movie, Arrival.
Short story by Ted Chiang - story of your life.
You can find it here. The whole collection is worth a read. It's the best short stories collection I've read, maybe ever.
All of his Dunk & Egg short stories are published as part of a set of short stories by several fantasy writers combined into one book. The one you linked is so expensive because the stories were never officially published as standalone books. I wouldn't pay more than a couple bucks for each (book 3 is new so it's a little more expensive). Here they are on amazon:
Book 1 - The Hedge Knight
Book 2 - The Sworn Sword
Book 3 - The Mystery Knight
it's still listed on amazon, and available for pre-order.. so hopefully it's just some error that will be fixed soon?
You'll thank me later
The best MTG novel by a lot in my opinion is "Arena", by William R. Forstchen
https://www.amazon.com/Arena-Magic-Gathering-No-1/dp/0061054240
It's not about any Magic set, but it's set in the MTG World. It's one of my favorite books, I must've read it over ten times.
If you're looking specifically for the set novels, I haven't read a whole lot of them but of the ones I did read my favorite was the Ravnica cycle.
Seneca : On the Shortness of Life
The Stoic writings of the philosopher Seneca offer powerful insights into the art of living, the importance of reason and morality, and continue to provide profound guidance to many through their eloquence, lucidity and timeless wisdom.
http://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97412.On_the_Shortness_of_Life
on the side bar, or for the lazy:
for some reason the link thing isnt working?
On the UK site it's listed as no longer available. I hope it's just an error!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0345533488
Check out the Rogues anthology. Short stories (quicker to digest than full novels) with a variety of different types of rogues. A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scott Lynch is a personal favorite, and a good showcase of his style since you haven't yet read Locke Lamora. Tough Times All Over by Joe Abercrombie is really fun as well.
edit: names
Unless it's some sort of silly loophole to it. For example, get "in your sleep", go skydiving, but then you get hit by the wing on your way out, go unconscious, and then hit the ground w/o a parachute while asleep.
There's actually a really nifty book about it that I'd recommend
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. Really interesting short stories with a heady sci-fi bend. The movie Arrival was based on one of them.
As far as I can tell, she borrows a lot of inspiration from this really fantastic book which I would recommend everyone to read as well. It's available online if you know where to look.
Hedge Knight
Sworn Sword
Mystery Knight
Not D&E but related
Princess & Queen
They can also be bought here, here, aaanndd here.
Great advice. This is from a book called Story Engineering by Larry Brooks (link below). The Harry Potter image comes directly from chp 3 I think. Best book on writing I ever read.
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987
The anthologies aren't random - he edited them.
The anthologies aren't expensive:
Also, they're full of short stories from other great authors.
If you're willing to pay $7.00 for the graphic novel, why would you complain about shelling out an extra $0.99 for text with bonus stories? Digital piracy is not paying the iron price. It's more like the Sorefoot King price - stumbling along whining about what you're entitled to but haven't earned.
Edit - Corrected "Heroes" to "Warriors", "print" to "text", and added links to Amazon for the Kindle versions
I recommend buying Ted Chiang's anthology
or the movie tie-in edition
Fantastic book!
I think everyone should start with Arena. It is one of my favorite books of all time. A very good read. And if I am not mistaken, it is the first magic book. It really captures how someone goes from being a simple wizard to becoming a planeswalker. It is really a story about how it all starts. Also, it captures the true feel of how playing magic in the early days felt. When things were as simple as summoning a Giant Spider and having is Fireballed, or using a psyonic blast to finish off an opponents drudge skeleton because you know he is out of mana. Mana is limited and the battles are very exciting because they are simple, but chaotic, and the story is very Monte Cristo.
http://www.amazon.com/Arena-Magic-The-Gathering-No/dp/0061054240/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1345667581&sr=8-9&keywords=arena
I've been a Robert E. Howard fan for over a decade now and I would have to say the trilogy published by Del Ray is the definitive collection of work. It collects all of the Conan short stories and includes extras such as art from Frank Frazetta, poems, draft stories, and a few other things. So you'll want The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, The Bloody Crown of Conan, and The Conquering Sword of Conan.
Amazon link for all three of the anthologies the stories are contained within. Just scroll down to the "frequently bought together" section.
Here you go, the first three D&E novels in print. :)
http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488
They are cheap to buy online.
Sword Sword
Mystery Knight
And it's cool because they are only part of the bigger anthology, so if you buy these, you get a whole bunch of cool stories!
They're each in a different anthology.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
Mystery Knight
Although, they seem to have gone up a considerable amount in price since I bought them.
They don't print any new stand alone copies of the novellas, but they are available in different compilations. Who knows, maybe you'll be turned onto other authors/series.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
They are not, though there are graphic novel versions. The stories were initially published in three different short-story anthologies, but were recently republished together in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Dunk & Egg were written novellas before they were graphic novels. There's 2 versions. You want this one. And yes, they're amazing and I'd recommend reading them ASAP.
Here is the collection of them. As the other commenter said they are some stories that take place about 100 years before the ASOIAF novels.
I found them to be awesome. I highly recommend them for any fan of ASOIAF.
Hi! Congratulations and welcome to the Watch!
You might be wondering right now about what to do next while waiting for the 6th book to come out, so here are some suggestions.
GRRM already published some sample chapters from TWOW over the years. Here's some information about them and links to most chapters.
There are additional novellas that take place in this world. The Dunk & Egg stories take place about 100 years before the main series and are about a hedge knight and his companion. The Princess and the Queen and The Rogue Prince are historical retellings of the Dance of the Dragons event. They're somewhat drier reads than D&E because they're from the POV of a Maester chronicling these events but I really liked them personally.
My favorites, on the other hand, are the amazing analyses and essays being written about these characters and their stories:
There are many, many more of these if you liked them. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Have fun!
Just in case someone is unaware, the Dance of Dragons is detailed in Rogues
The aspects of Clarke's style that you seem to enjoy really shine in the short story format. You said you've read everything, does that include his short fiction? There's a great anthology which collects them all.
Asimov was also great at writing short fiction, and I like this collection of his works.
Many of the stories curated in those anthologies were published 50 or so years ago in weekly/monthly science fiction magazines, you might see if any one has created 'best of science fiction weekly' collections.
Tor publishes short fiction for free on its website regularly. It's fairly hit or miss, but it's a good way to window shop authors.
A novel you might enjoy is Leviathan Wakes. It's a hard sci-fi novel in which humanity has colonized Mars and the Asteroid Belt. At this point all have their own unique cultures because it takes so long to travel between them. Not a lot of character development, which you don't seem to be into anyway, just fun ride in a cool setting. First in a series, but I haven't read the sequels yet so I can't comment on those.
You also might like The Martian, by Andy Weir. An astronaut is stranded by himself on Mars and has to survive. Weir wrote a short story called "The Egg" which gets posted to reddit on a regular basis.
Yes, you have to get the books containing all these short stories (these books are called Anthologies). For the Hedge Knight, you can get it in an anthology called Legends I - this has a bunch of stories from a bunch of authors you've never heard of. Kindle version is $8, and hardcover is $16. OR you can get the Dreamsongs Volume 2 anthology for $11 kindle or $15 paperback. This is full of George R R Martin short stories that you'll probably really like.
For Sworn Sword, your only choice, unfortunately, is Legends 2. It's $6 for a digital version, and $7 for a paperback at Barnes and Noble.
The third story is only in Warriors which is unfortunately another nobody-anthology. $10 for kindle, $13 for paperback.
These are the ones I bought. They are all paperback not hardcover. Legends is the most expensive since its a bigger book than the rest of them and the other two are mass produced paperback. I don't know if there is a mass produced paperback version of Legends 1 or not.
Legends 1: ~$15
Legends 2: ~$7
Warriors 1: ~$7
Total: ~$30 plus shipping on amazon
The stories are in separate Anthologies, search for "Legends Anthology" which contains "The Hedge Knight".. "Legends II" which contains "The Sworn Sword", and finally "Warriors Anthology" which has "The Mystery Knight"
additionally the "Dangerous Women" anthology contains "The Princess and the Queen".. not part of Dunk and Egg, but another novella taking place in the World of Ice and Fire.
I can't think of any reasons you shouldn't be able to get these in the UK.
EDIT: Logged onto the U.K amazon... here are the links to purchase...., The links will show the anthology the novellas are in, they are not available individually.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
The Princess and the Queen
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.
Oh cool, second collection! Didn't know that was coming out.
No though, that collection is just named for one of the stories in it, "Exhalation." Legit copy here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/
His first collection was "Stories of Your Life And Others":
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang-ebook/dp/B0048EKOP0
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. Short fiction collection.
Ilium by Dan Simmons.
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel Delany.
The Islanders by Christopher Priest.
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson.
On My Way to Paradise by David Farland.
[Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang]
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0048EKOP0/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title)
Tower of Babylon is a good one. It was featured in Omni magazine back in the early 90's.
And don't forget " THE PRINCESS AND THE QUEEN, OR, THE BLACKS AND THE GREENS: Being A History of the Causes, Origins, Battles, and Betrayals of that Most Tragic Bloodletting Known as the Dance of the Dragons, as set down by Archmaester Gyldayn of the Citadel of Oldtown".
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Women-George-R-R-Martin/dp/076533206X
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
For those that are interested or having trouble finding them, these are the anthologies where each individual story is contained.
They're kind of hard to come across because well, they're always included in collections. The Mystery Knight is in a collection called Warriors. I've read all the Novellas since the Hedge Knight was originally published in the first Legends collection. Luckily there is a paperback available for Legends 1 but I think it's out of print. Also to be more confusing, the paperback it's contained in is called Legends 2 because it's the second part of the hardcover or something? But Legends II collection is where you get the Sworn Sword. Well here's a handy list though some might not be in stock (PB = Paperback/HC = Hardcover):
Dude if you're going to link related literature, at least include "Understand" which to me, must've been the inspiration for the screenplay (unfortunately I could only find an audio version, cheesily read.) "Understanding" can also be found in the collection "Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.
Aye, mastering keigo is like learning a secret hand-shake. It's really amazing the kinds of reactions you can get to utterly ridiculous requests if you just ask politely.
Reminds me of part of Jay Rubin's book Making Sense of Japanese (which I highly recommend and have read several times): he talks about a sign he purchased at a department store that says "本日お休みさせていただきます". This sentence is amazing. It's subjectless, is in polite-form, and has a causative. It's literally something like, "Today I am humbly receiving the favor of resting/taking off".
Point being, that's such common grammar but very complicated and essential to master.
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Japanese-Diversity-Lifestyles-Conversations/dp/030010958X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162331&sr=8-2&keywords=living+japanese
I think that is an amazing recourse. Natural, REAL conversations with people of all ages and topics. Its really good for getting exposure you can learn from easily to native speaking that isn't "dramatized" or too over the top like most anime and Japanese TV acting in general.
LingQ.com (is also a great recourse. and its free if you don't use the in site word marking tools)
https://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-1&keywords=read+real+japanese
https://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-2&keywords=read+real+japanese
https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568364156/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1469162459&sr=8-3&keywords=read+real+japanese
the last three are good for written japanese, which is more polished and different than real "spoken" japanese (like any language). But they all 3 come with audio, grammar and vocab explanations and are an amazing recourse IMO.
I passed N2 last year. Copying my comment from the last time I saw this question.
> 1) The 新完全マスター I recognized a few things on the test that I had picked up from these books. They've also been highly recommended by basically all my Japanese teachers, and everybody I know who has taken the test. In my opinion they are as close to accurately reflecting the test as you can get.
2) This Japanese app, which is simply called "Japanese." (App Store, Google Play). This app has been incredible for me. It's free, offline, very comprehensive, and allows you to make vocab lists and gives you the option to study them in order or through SRS (Spaced Repetition System). I used it together with the 新完全マスター books. At the beginning of each chapter of 漢字, 文法, or 語彙, I'd scan for any word I wasn't familiar with, and create a vocab list of them. Then I'd use the app's SRS function to familiarize myself with all the words from the chapter. Once I'd completed it, I'd tackle the chapter, rinse, and repeat. This method was very effective for me.
3) Japanese news podcasts. This one features commentary and some back and forth between the announcers, and this one is just straight up news. Both are updated daily. I know these aren't made for the N2, but for me, I listen to them whenever I go out for walks, or am commuting somewhere. I find myself surprised, and a little satisfied, that words I have recently studied seem to pop up, and that feeling really helps to motivate me to continue to study.
4) I didn't use this quite as much, but I've seen this YouTube series posted here before. I think it's helpful for a lot of people, so I'm including it here
One thing I hadn’t mentioned last time is reading. My boss got me this book recently, which I think would have further improved my score had I incorporated it into my study before the test. It has short stories and essays from some of Japan’s most famous authors. All kanji has furigana, and as you look at the book you have Japanese on the right page with English definitions or colloquial explanations on the right. It also comes with a cd on which a professional voice actor reads the stories at native speed, which can further help with listening. I’ve heard people say “furigana won’t help you learn kanji,” but I’d say this book is not for kanji practice. It’s for reading practice, which is another important part of the test. You can practice kanji separately, using items 1 and 2 in this comment. be sure to read the “How to use this book” bit at the beginning so you can understand how to take full advantage of it.
Also just wanna say: Fuck anybody who laughs at you for expressing your ambitions. You sound like you’re committed to working hard to achieve your goal. If you do, even if you fail, I’m sure you’ll have improved your ability a great deal, and that’s the most important thing. Don’t let others tell you that the finish line is too far away, Just keep moving in the same direction and you’ll get to where you’ll want to be.
Other make sure you get lots of quality sleep for at least a few days leading up to the test. Stay hydrated, but don’t drink too much beforehand. It’s a long test, and you don’t want to be thinking about how much you want to piss while you’re taking it. Eat a good breakfast that won’t give you gas. Bring extra pencils and a high-quality eraser. Dress comfortably, knowing that even if the weather is hot, the test room air conditioning could make the room chilly. Bring a snack in case you get hungry between the kanji/vocab/grammar/reading portion and the listening portion. Stay relaxed, and understand that regardless of the outcome, you’ve worked hard to get to where you are, which is something you deserve to be proud of.
Good luck!
The Churn: An Expanse Novella (The Expanse) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I82884W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_NVZrDbDR1342E
If this gets blocked or deleted I'll pm you.
I got my kids an Xbox about 3 years ago. I found myself playing Halo for 3-4 hours a few times per week. I thought about what I could accomplish if I had actually used the time for something productive.
Now I'm half way through a master degree in a top 5 program and am in the best shape of my life.
But this is nothing new
I'd start with: http://www.amazon.com/The-Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377629128&sr=8-1&keywords=the+coming+of+conan , they're in order of when they were written. And for Solomon Kane: http://www.amazon.com/The-Savage-Tales-Solomon-Kane/dp/0345461509/ref=pd_sim_b_3 , which I think has just about every Kane story.
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
Not a list of incorrect facts in textbooks, but a look into how & why history is taught like it is in America. I'm not involved in education in any way, yet I found this book fascinating. How history is taught vs how it occured.
Shogun by James Clavell
Conan by Robert E Howard
REH was a great writer. Not necessarily in content, but the poetry of his prose. When he's 'on' he's unmatched. Especially stories like The Frost Giant's Daughter & Beyond the Black River. Everyone's heard of Conan The Barbarian, but if you haven't read the original books, you're missing out.
edit: how do you get a 'return' to show up in your post...so the lines don't run together?
As others have said, I would advise against that. Only watching say KL & the North in the show & skipping the others until you have watched all of those would be extremely difficult enough; doing so in the books would be a whole other world of pain.
I don't really have a tips for getting through them sorry (I'm something of an avid reader & absolutely devoured them first time & many subsequent re-reads, but not everyone is like that & that's fine), though I would suggest reading A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms after A Storm of Swords as bit of a breather after the first three books & before you launch into the behemoths that are A Feast for Crows & A Dance with Dragons. AKot7K is set decades before the main series (so you will probably pick up on a few historical references made in the main series), has a lighter tone, only a single PoV, many great illustrations & is only three short stories (the whole thing is only about half the length of the first book, A Game of Thrones, if that).
Once you get to AFfC & ADwD, you may be best to read them together as GRRM originally intended for them to be the one book but he expanded on them to maintain such. They mostly happen concurrently with a few PoVs starting towards the end of ASoS in terms of actual in-universe timeline & then the last part of Dance happens after Feast (with some of the Feast PoVs appearing once or twice in that part of Dance & some were pushed back to The Winds of Winter, the upcoming 6th book).
Just not to overload you with information now, once you finish ASoS make a post (or just do a search) asking about the combined reading orders & you will get detailed suggestions for such. Then once you make it through the main series, you can make another post/search about what other books within the ASoIaF universe you can also check out between re-reads ;)
Good luck!
I bought an illustrated copy of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R R Martin. The illustrations in it were really lovely, and I thought it added to the story.
However, I was never a fan of the illustrations in Roald Dahl's books. I hated Quentin Blake's art style, even as a kid.
I believe that this is what you're looking for: Isaac Asimov's Complete Stories Vol 1
Hours of amazing short stories including The Last Question, Nightfall, The Last Trump, The Dead Past, etc.
Sooooo amazing.
I think a great introduction into stoicism is On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. Really just the first half of it. It's a very short read, but I return to it often.
Here Is a collection. You can get all three, which is every Conan short story, and the novel, by Robert E. Howard.
The Hedge Knight
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
The Sworn Sword
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X
The Mystery Knight
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-Martin/dp/1469259338
Why are you reading Spoiler All threads!!!???!!! :-)
Yeah, there are four prequel novellas right now. Unfortunately, they aren't available together - you have to buy them in anthologies that include a bunch of other stuff (although some have standalone graphic novel adaptations). It's enough of a hassle that a lot of people don't bother. Hopefully eventually at least the Tales of Runk & Egg will be published in one volume.
Their titles are:
The Hedge Knight, published in the Legends anthology
The Sworn Sword, published in the Legends II anthology
The Mystery Knight, published in the Warriors anthology
The Princess and the Queen, published in the Dangerous Women anthology
It's a short story in the Rogues anthology.
As far as his novels go, my opinion has been that The Gods Themselves is the peak of his career. Asimov himself described it as his favorite novel.
While I absolutely love that book, I think I like his short stories a little bit better -- I basically grew up with my dad's copy of Asimov's Complete Stories Vol. 1. I can go through the list and pick out my favorites (as the collection is pretty large) if you want.
The story of it is in this anthology:
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Women-George-R-R-Martin/dp/076533206X
One thing that grinds my gears about this whole thread is that just because an idea is similar doesn't mean its plagiarism.
I'm a writer myself, and one book that really helped me when I was in college is called "Steal Like An Artist" which essentially explains how nothing is original, so whatever you think you're crazy cool idea is, it's probably been done before. So with that in mind, it asks you to explore the idea of taking what you love and enjoy, and using that as inspiration for your own work to make it unique.
I would actually not be surprised if Charlie Brooker read this story at some point in his life and thought "Wow! What a cool story! This would make a great screenplay!" And kept that in mind when digging for ideas. That's just how artists work, and so rather than criticize it for plagiarism, looking at it as inspired by the original material and it's own, unique, modern take on it.
As a sort of side example-- one of my favorite movies of all time is Arrival, which is based on a short story from 2002 called "The Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang (which I actually only just realized was published in 1998 and that kinda blows my mind). The short story is way different than the movie, yet it still executes the same idea. I'd check out the short story collection by him if you get a chance cause there's a lot of really neat stories (I've got some basic scripts written for "Hell is the Abscence if God" and "Liking What You See: A Documentary", the latter of which could totally be a Black Mirror episode)
Stories of Your Life is the original title before the film.
Really good! For me it was like discovering Arthur C Clarke all over again.
If you really want to understand it, this is the book to get:
Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You - Jay Rubin
Been away for my girlfriends graduation this weekend so I'm about to catch up to a huge load of anki reviews, which I can hopefully get done before tomorrow.
This week was really good. I didn't do any Tobira work outside of what was needed for class, but it was a good thing. I took the plunge for native material and found myself understanding a ton of youtube videos from LPers or bloggers. I watched a lot of videos from this channel. She makes some interesting videos along with longer lessons I have yet to check out. I also read up on some stuff on famitsu because that's close to my interests and it was no problem at all using a vocab helping extension. Every night before bed I would read more of this book which has been fun.
I have recently developed an awful habit because my classes start late. I grab my phone and scroll facebook mindlessly for about 20 minutes. I decided to substitute it with random Japanese LP videos which has been a nice little help and better start to my day.
I will continue to weave native material into my daily schedule more!
trying not to repeat from earlier mentions (sorry if I do)... some good authors already mentioned!
Yoko Ogawa
Hiromi Kawakami
Ryu Murakami
Mitsuyo Kakuta
Since you are learning you may also want to check out Read Real Japanese
That's a deep rabbit hole, if you allow it.
There are different books for different parts of writing. Some focus on plot [Story Engineering], others talk you out of blocks [Bird by Bird]. Some deal with immersion [Wired for Story], others warn you of newbie errors [edit yourself]. Some only talk about the first page. [Hooked]
If you specify what you want the most, I can probably get more specific. The best way to deal with grammar, other than the dry "Elements of Style", is to take a free Cousera course, or OWLs online and test yourself. I also love this blog for crazy awesome advice both current and in her backlog.
Edit: Also too: Might as well hang out at /r/writing and pop in from time to time at /r/grammar
You should check out this book http://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987 it helped me a lot. I was the same way I had a story I wanted to write and this book helped me figure out what to do with all my ideas.
Warriors I is the anthology that has the story. The link is for Amazon. If you're outside the U.S., I can't really help you.
They're not currently released as stand-alones, apart from an illustrated edition, IIRC.
Your best bet to find them is in the collections they were published in:
Here, here, and here (Links taken from the sidebar).
You can actually buy Legends 1, Legends 2, and Warriors 1 on Amazon which contain the Dunk and Egg stories :) For reference the titles are The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight.
Both Legends have Kindle versions. Hope this helps!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765300354
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034547578X
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765360268
These are what I just bought. The later two are the cheap smaller paperback, but they work.
It's "Machine of Death." COME ON!
Can't wait for Volume 2 to come out!
Though it's not strictly about time travel, I loved reading Machine of Death.
here you go...apologize for U.S. link if not in the states
There's three great books out there that I can think of off the top of my head.
[Read Real Japanese: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292)
and
[Read Real Japanese Essays: Contemporary Writings by Popular Authors] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148)
and
[Breaking into Japanese literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text] (http://www.amazon.co.jp/Breaking-into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568364156)
PS: if you are "fresh out of Genki 2" level, I'd say these books may be fairly advanced for you, but to each their own. Some people don't mind. There are english translations after all.
I don't know the one you're thinking of, but I'm reading this right now, and I really enjoy it. It's a little compilation of short stories. It also has useful translations if you're having a hard time reading.
Edit: autocorrect error.
Two things: one is pantsing it, and the other is planning the hell out of it. You can do both. You can start doing one, get stuck, and switch to the other. Whenever you feel like it. You can plan just a little, then pants your way to the next point where you need to plan a little more, until you've finally connected the dots to your ending.
The pantsing thing is: follow the characters. So they're trapped in a cave. Sit in there with them and listen to what they say. If they've got light, watch what they do. If they don't have light, well, that's a whole new interesting set of problems and fears and psychologies. What do they find in the world around them? How do they find it? What do they argue about? What do they mutter to themselves? What do they identify as the next problem they need to solve? Do they brainstorm solutions, or does one of them just plow ahead without getting input from the other, and does it cause new problems? Also, don't assume that the endpoint of their relationship is that they haven't fixed the issues between them. Maybe going through this harrowing adventure together will do wonders for their relationship. Or maybe their relationship will be much worse off by the time they finally escape. Follow their lead!
The planning thing is: go buy yourself a copy of Larry Brooks's excellent Story Engineering and lay out a plot structure based on the one he lays out in his book. It's a near-universal storytelling structure that's a great place to start if you need to build a scaffolding for a story that you just can't wrap your head around. That'll give you tried-and-true narrative/emotional waypoints to aim for, which can guide your inspiration and help you with the ordering of events in your plot. It has helped me more than once. Highly recommended!
—
P.S. - /u/OfficerGenious's comment below is referring to that storytelling structure. Brooks's book will help make sense of what a good "midpoint" is, for example.
I don't know if you want basic structure stuff or more advanced things, but here are a bunch (only one of which is a book, sorry).
The most basic you can get is three act structure. This and this summarize it fairly well.
The Snowflake Method is a good method for developing plot.
Story Engineering is a book that does a fairly good job at explaining the elements of plot structure.
The lectures from Brandon Sanderson's class at BYU are online, and two of them (2012 #7 and 2013 #8) focus specifically on plot structure.
Writing Excuses has a good episode about the Hollywood Formula (here's a TV Tropes page that basically summarizes it). Writing Excuses has a bunch of other episodes on plot structure as well.
This is a good presentation about basic story structure, and here you can download the actual powerpoint.
This is going to sound like really flippant advice, but I swear it's not: buy this book. There is a lot of basic stuff you need to know - how to build character and setting and plot, how to outline, and yes, how to market and publish - and this will spell it all out a lot better than any of us could do in a short post on Reddit. It is definitely an intro book, so it's not like this is all you'll ever need, but it's a good place to start, get your bearings, and figure out what you need to focus on next.
When you do figure that out, there are tons of books dedicated to everything from plot structure and scene structure to dialogue and character arcs; buy those too. Use them to improve your craft and fill in your gaps.
Also, read! Read a lot. Pay attention to how the authors you love set a scene, how they describe things (and to what extent), how they structure their chapters and scenes, how they write dialogue. All books contain real, solid examples for you to study and learn from. Figure out what you admire, and mimic it. Figure out what you hate, and avoid it.
And last, keep in mind that your writing probably won't be amazing right away, and you might have to rethink and rewrite your book a few times as you're learning (or maybe even start a new one) before you really feel like you've gotten the hang of it. Don't give up, just keep learning and keep working.
If you have some kind of eReader, then the Kindle editions of the anthologies are reasonably priced.
Legends (The Hedge Knight, D&E 1) $12.43
Legends II (The Sworn Sword, D&E 2) $8.88
Warriors (The Mystery Knight, D&E 3) $12.47
My favorite short story collection ever!
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang-ebook/dp/B0048EKOP0
"Liking What You See" is the particular story.
Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others comes to mind for some reason.
Stories of Your Life and Others https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048EKOP0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Oug4CbR6ZBMYY
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.
Stories of Your Life and Others
Specifically, inside this compilation of short stories, you will find the (almost) eponymous title, Story of Your Life. That short story is the basis for the movie Arrival
I recommend both reading the story and watching the movie. They are similar, but they are both phenomenally done.
Great article! I can't stand having to wait until the summer for the next book so learning they were releasing another novella is good news.
The next novella is released on April 15th:
The Churn: An Expanse Novella by James S.A. Corey
It did. It's quick read too (couple hours) and I think I only paid like $6 for it on Kindle. Actually, now only $2.99
You should definitely read "The Churn."
The Churn: An Expanse Novella (The Expanse)
http://www.amazon.com/Arena-Magic-The-Gathering-No/dp/0061054240
This is the first Magic the Gathering book. Published in 1994. It contains planeswalkers.
The first Magic set not set on Dominaria was Arabian Nights which was set on the plane of Rabiah. It was the games first expansion ever - printed in 1993 a mere 4 months after Alpha was released (and the same month Unlimited was released). It didn't even contain any of the traditional Dominarian characters.
They neither needed planeswalkers to tell stories on other worlds nor did they invent planeswalkers to do that.
So, I'm going to how deep do you want to go into the lore?
​
If you want to go from the beginning, this is the first book. Note that the formatting of the books changes drastically around Time Spiral, and after that , most of the lore isn't in actual book format anymore.
​
If you have a question about something in particular, you might even be better looking at the wiki stuff for a summary, and then it'z easier to really dig into it from there. That's usually enough for getting a quick idea of what's going on, especially from like Invasion forward.
​
Additionally, if you go to the wizards website, they have some good stuff. I'm not up to date on it anymore, but they used to host comics about the new walkers. They regularly post things (is it still weekly? I couldn't keep up between school and the website format changing a couple times) and keep a loose archive. I think you have to follow this more aggressively, but some of them are absolute gems.
​
It's not everything, but should be enough to get started.
The best motivation I found was a book by Seneca, if you read it and do nothing then really there is no help!
https://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468273956&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=seneca+shortness+of+lide
Otherwise, nootropics won't do much imho, Amphetamine, Ritalin, Adderall should have biggest motivation/focus effect.
this is a 3-book set, the coming of conan, bloody crown of conan, and conquering sword of conan. it is the complete conan series as written by howard in the form they were originally published. these have not been messed with by howard "experts" who later tampered with his work. these books also contain short stories, poetry, and unfinished manuscripts written by howard pertaining to conan and cimmeria. it stinks that it's 3 books, but if you want pure conan, unedited howard written in chronological order (edit: by publishing date), this is the series you're looking for https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517
http://pulpcrazy.com/podcast/137.mp3
In honor of Robert E. Howard's 110th Anniversary (Howard was born on January 22, 1906) I will be discussing "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" starring Conan the Cimmerian.
It was originally published in the November 1935 issue of Weird Tales as "Shadows in Zamboula." It is currently available in The Conquering Sword of Conan collection from Del Rey. It tells of Conan's chaotic stay in the desert city of Zamboula.
Links:
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (Conan Book 1): http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/
The Bloody Crown of Conan (Conan Book 2): http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Crown-Conan-Cimmeria-Book/dp/0345461525/
The Conquering Sword of Conan (Conan Book 3): http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Sword-Conan-Cimmeria-Book/dp/0345461533/
The Robert E. Howard Foundation: http://www.rehfoundation.org/
Robert E. Howard @ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard
Though they're not encyclopedia-type books, there are a couple of books that have collections of all the original Conan the Barbarian stories written by Robert E. Howard. They have the original stories along with notes and and other annotations, drawings, and rough drafts from Howard. There's also some cool fantasy art illustrations. Here's a link to the first one:
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478270314&sr=1-1&keywords=the+coming+of+conan+the+cimmerian
While these aren't encyclopedias that cover the entire breadth of the fantasy genre, I do think they are important.
First of all, the world of Conan was created in the 1930's, roughly two decades before LotR. We constantly jerk off to Tolkien on this sub as the creator of modern fantasy, but Howard was doing his thing before that. Not saying that Tolkien and LotR were't revolutionary, but I am saying that looking at fantasy before he came along can be very helpful.
Second, Howard wrote short stories. He gives an excellent demonstration of how to worldbuild in under 50 pages. I find that the modern worldbuilders focus on quantity. 800 page books, 3 hour movies, etc. But he shows that that is not always necessary. Howard could write a rich Conan story without using a ton of words.
Third, Howard did not write high fantasy. He wrote sword and sorcery. Some might argue he wrote low fantasy. I think a lot of the books about the fantasy genre focus on high fantasy and the works that exist there: LotR, The Wheel of Time, etc. The Conan stories are a more down to earth, dirty stories. I don't want to say that they are more mature, but they are certainly less innocent. They follow a big dude with a sword, not a hobbit or farm boy.
I think it's important that these stories stay in the minds of worldbuilders and fans of sci-fi/fantasy. I think when most people think of Conan, they think of the Schwarzenegger movies or maybe the comics. I don't know how many people realize that he has been around for what's now close to a century. Yes, Tolkien, Martin, Jordan, Pratchett, Sanderson, etc. are all important, but I also think it's good to remember there was a guy out in the American West writing this stuff in the 1930's.
Fair warning though to anyone interested in these books. They are a product of the 1930's and these are the original works. They still still feature the racism and misogyny of that era. While I have not noticed anything too bad (there are certainly some lines that made me raise my eyebrows) I just wanted to forewarn anyone who may be sensitive to those things.
Some of it depends on what flavor you like in your games, but IMO the adventure pacing of the original Conan stories has completely transformed my DMing.
I'd recommend every Conan story, though there are some weaker ones. Del Rey put out a fantastic three-volume set a few years ago. This is the first one: http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517
If you're more interested in a good mix of some of Howard's best stuff, check out this best-of anthology: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Robert-E-Howard-Crimson/dp/0345490185/
I've mentioned some good stories above; I'd also recommend "Pigeons from Hell" (don't judge it on the title!), a chilling story about voodoo and hate in the Deep South. If you're interested in Conan, check out "The Tower of the Elephant" and "Queen of the Black Coast." If you enjoy those, also have a look at the Kull stories, such as "The Shadow Kingdom" and "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune."
The state of Conan ebooks is REALLY iffy. Anyone can rip the text from Project Gutenberg, run it through Calibri and add it to Amazon. (Well, not exactly--but you get the idea.)
Compounding the problem is that these things get pulled all the time, usually for formatting issues. I have two different versions of the same Conan collection in my Kindle library, neither of which is for sale anymore.
My advice is: Either stick with free resources like Project Gutenberg, or shell out for the superb three-volume Del Rey Conan collection. These are the primo, A#1, fully guaranteed versions. The price is steep, but it brings a certain peace of mind that you're getting the real thing edited by actual humans, and not some machine generated nightmare riddled with mistakes. If you like turning pages, used physical copies are considerably less.
They also come packed with cool artwork.
But yeah, either go big, or go free (so you have nothing to lose). Anything in between is probably a cash grab.
If they end up making a series out of 'Knight of the Seven Kingdoms', I would be so happy
Those are the three currently published, yes. Gurm has stated there will be (if my memory serves) 12 altogether. I highly recommend the edition of TKOTSK illustrated by Gary Gianni, it's beautiful.
Get A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
This series follows the story of Duncan the Tall (of the Kingsguard) and his squire called Egg.
GRRM wrote the stories in between writing the main ASOIAF story.
Trust me, they're absolutely fantastic. You'll fall in love the with the characters in no time and you'll get to see GRRM's legendary world-building writing skills.
Here's a link to the book since I had no idea what OP was talking about at first.
Based on her liking the Auel books, I'd bet she'd dig the trilogy: Namaah's Kiss, Namaah's Curse, Namaah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey. They're all pretty thick and interesing in world-building, female-centered fantasy type.
Has she read the Dunk & Egg stories (a.k.a. The Hedge Knight series) and other prequel stories to ASOIAF? That would be a nice treat for a big fan of the series, if she doesn't have them all yet. It's tricky, because the stories are currently broken up and scattered across a few books, haven't been compiled into one (yet). And, bonus, she'd get a bunch of other stories by other great sci-fi/fantasy writers in those, that may make her discover and fall in love with another series.
Legends I
Legends II
Warriors
...and not directly the 3 main Dunk and Egg stories, but other ASOIAF prequels in these:
Dangerous Women
Rogues
Beware: with the "Legends" ones, if you get PBs instead of the HC edition, the first "Legends I" was broken into three books for PB release, Legends 1, Legends 2, etc., which can get confusing considering they later put out a "Legends II". So, if you get the mass market PBs on those, you could wind up with a shorter version that doesn't include the right stories ASOIAF fan is looking for.
There's a short story about Bast in the "Rogues" anthology edited/released by George RR Martin. I think it's called "The Lightning Tree" but it's written more like KKC is. Slow Regard is a totally different writing style, but also great.
Go with short story anthologies for a while. Here are a couple you might like:
You might also find the Years Best series to your liking:
There are three volumes in Issac Asimov The complete stories
While Heinlein excelled in the novel, Asimov did better in short stories in my opinion. Also I recommend the Azazel stories.
[Legends / Dunk & Egg I for $18 on Amazon] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373049726&sr=1-1&keywords=Legends)
which are found in the anthologies Legends, Legends II, and Warriors. in that order. here's the first one.
The Hedge Knight is also a short story. Originally printed in a Fantasy Anthology called Legends. It's got a bunch of really great authors and stories in it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765300354?pc_redir=1396635801&robot_redir=1
This the Legends anthology which it was originally published in. Would that work or did you want the stand alone? I believe the stand alone is so expensive because of GoT and it originally not having a huge printing. I believe that they are spose to be reprinting but can't remember if that was for the novella or graphic novel.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame will introduce you to a butt-ton of excellent sci-fi authors, as well as re-affirm your respect for those already know. If you're looking for something newer, look up who/what has won the Nebula/Hugo awards.
Yes, it is a book. Just about 400 pages in hardback. I've read so much science fiction that at this point it's become about finding newness despite the oldness of it all - sorry if that comes off sounding superior, or trite; I could never write a book!
I'm just a third of the way through, but I do recommend it. If you've ever read this collection: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Hall-Fame-Vol/dp/0765305372 it's got a quality to it that reminds me somehow of some of these short stories. And fwiw that's truly an excellent anthology.
For example (not a spoiler), there's a scene that takes place during Mao's Cultural Revolution where a Physics professor is being forcefully, and publicly, interrogated by his students. It seems some of the theories he taught didn't match doctrine... But there's a point where the scenario is likened to parallel processing in a computer; that the same events are taking place across the city at the same time. It's quite effective the way he simply uses the term "parallel processing", and how it reflects the societal implications of how policy was (or is) implemented.
The style, backdrop, personalities, and overall care with the way the book was written are refreshing to say the least. You know how much of a standout Scalzi is in his writing? From this book I'd say Liu is just as distinctive.
The standalone versions are expensive because they're rare / collector items.
The stories pretty affordable when you get them in the anthologies they originally were published in. The Hedge Knight is in Legends and also Dreamsongs Volume II. The Sworn Sword is in Legends II. The Mystery Knight is in Warriors.
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765320487/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333422507&sr=8-1
Hey OP - the magic the gathering book caught my eye. That must be from the very beginning. Reminded me of when I played and one of my favorite used bookstore finds, one of my fave books all time: Arena
I've not read any of the recent stuff, but I remember Arena fondly https://www.amazon.com/Arena-Magic-Gathering-No-1/dp/0061054240
Letters from a Stoic
On the shortness of life
I think On the Shortness of Life is pretty accessible.
You can read the first paragraph of the Basore public domain translation here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_shortness_of_life/Chapter_I
and compare it to a more modern translation like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327#reader_0143036327
You can judge yourself if you think the older translation is clear enough or if you'd prefer the modern one.
If you have any slight interest in philosophy I would recommend On The Shortness of Life
On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. It's a Stoic philosophical essay about investing your time wisely, which I think had a profound impact on me. Penguin sell a short book comprised of it and two other essays of his.
I would recommend reading the book "On the shortness of life" by Roman stoic philosopher Seneca.
http://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327
In this short book, Seneca shows us that if we take a step back and look at how we live our lives, we will see that we waste A LOT of it doing useless activities. By the end of our lives, we are saddened by the fact that we have little time left to live, and are regretful of things that we chose not to do. The point of the book, in my opinion, is to wake up the reader and to show him/her that they should live everyday like it's their last because we are never 100% certain that we will be alive the next day! Having this knowledge about the fickleness of our lives gives many of us MOTIVATION to get up and do something! It's kinda like when people say YOLO (or at least, used to say :D) You will be more motivated to do something if you know that the clock is ticking and that your time on this planet is quickly coming to an end. Think about the potential uses of this knowledge: Afraid of taking to that cute boy or girl? If you know that you're time is limited on this planet, this might give you a bit more of a reason to talk to that person, right?
In regards to your recent case of loneliness and boredom, I would recommend that you improve yourself (your character) by reading as much helpful information as you can about how to live the best life possible. I think a great place to start is to read some Stoic philosophers and understand their ideas (go to the subreddit /r/stoicism for more info). Self-help books are always nice too.
Hope this helps, message me if you ever need someone to talk to, i'd be glad to do so!
Yeah there's a pretty recent trilogy which compiles all the REH Conan stories in the order they were written (and featuring some beautiful interior art too).
http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371861991&sr=1-1&keywords=coming+of+conan+the+cimmerian
The same publisher also compiled the Kull of Atlantis stories and Brak Mak Morn if you're interested in those too.
Very cool. Sounds like my kind of reader. You should get him some Robert E. Howard I bet he would love him.
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517
I started with the coming of Conan the cimmerian. I recommend reading them in the order in which they were written.
https://smile.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_2609328962?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0&ie=UTF8
Crom's devils! You're in for a treat! This is the best place to start if you're interested in seeing how wrong the movies get the character :)
The Bloody Crown of Conan and The Conquering Sword of Conan round out the collection.
Yes the 3 Del Rey books are the only complete texts of his stories.
The only Conan you'll ever need.
The Hedge Knight in Legends 1 paperback - 13.59 and less
The Sworn Sword in Legends 2 paperback - 7.99
The Mystery Knight in Warriors 1 paperback - 7.99
I have posted these before. Can we get a mod to add these to the sidebar so we can end these questions and people's links to torrents and PDFs. Also, these are available as graphic novels/comics as well, but I think they are pretty limited in quantity and quite expensive.
This may seem unreasonable for a couple of novellas, but they are actually good collections. Some of the stories are really good. If its really too much, they are generally available at your local library.
EDIT: If you really love ASOIAF, please buy these. More money will hopefully encourage GRRM to keep writing!
Some of them were re-released individually as graphic novels, but other than that they're only available as part of collections:
The Hedge Knight - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765300354/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
The Sworn Sword - http://www.amazon.com/dp/034547578X/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
The Mystery Knight - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765360268/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
The UK paperback is already out, but it was split into two volumes. The US paperback was due out in August, but it was delayed until early next year. The only US release so far is the hardcover. I feel like I've seen pics of a one volume paperback ADWD though...
tl;dr - The $35 hardcover that both Amazon and Barnes & Noble have for $21 or the eBook version that both have for $15.
> I'm supposed to wait some 3-4 years after ADWD for the next book? Rough, since I started the series this June.
Yes :( You can try to find the Tales of Dunk & Egg in the anthologies each one comes in (Legends, Legends II, and Warriors). A fourth Dunk & Egg novella is coming out soon, and all four will be released in one volume afterwards.
Here's the bad news about D&E.. Each book of D&E is in a separate anthology, so you need to buy 3 different books to read them. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most of us download the PDFs with the intention on buying the D&Es when they get released as a single book (which will happen after the 4th story is released).
Here's the books you'd need to buy to read the three released D&E stories:
Legends, Legends 2, and Warriors.
I couldn't find the first one...I think that's the first one.more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Dunk_and_Egg
Paperback editions.
the hedge knight for $13.59
The sworn sword for $7.99
the mystery knight for $7.99
There is both a comic/graphic novel and short stories.
This is it
https://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488
I'll just drop this here ;)
https://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488
Should be recognisable, it's a bestselling collection of the Dunk and Egg books:
https://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488
Comes with awesome illustrations every couple of pages too
It's just the audiobook version of one of GRRM's supplemental novellas, titled The Princess and the Queen. The Rogue Prince is the companion novella which should be read first of the two. There's another trio of novellas, collectively called Tales of Dunk and Egg. There are audiobook recordings available on youtube, but with a not-so-great narrator. There's another audiobook version, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, narrated by Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen) which is awesome, but not available as a freebie on youtube, unfortunately.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345533488/ Four versions for your consideration.
Boom
http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Adventures-Duncan/dp/0345533488
That's okay I get that way about stuff to, we all do.
I wonder if you were thinking of the interview where he said he thought it was a mistake to bring Gandalf back from the dead in Two Towers, because it robs the reader of the emotional weight of losing such a powerful character. Reading into that a certain way you could definitely see that as a critique on Tolkien. To me I think it's more his way of explaining why characters like Ned won't be coming back.
There's lots of great fantasy out there so if ASOIAF isn't your thing that's okay too. For example I love sci-fi, but Dr. Who and Firefly for some reason just don't work for me. Luckily we have tons of options!
If you don't like Game of Thrones, but maybe want to read some Martin to get a feel for his style that isn't as dark, I recommend his Dunk and Egg shorter stories. They take place before the events in the books/TV series in the same world and they're much lighter and about a wandering hedge knight.
They were compiled into a nice book A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Well, not so much a fan, but recently discovered him. I picked up this:
http://www.amazon.com/Rogues-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0345537262
which includes a short story by him, and having lived in the Longview/Marshall area from 2002 through 2010, I had to get more of his books. Didn't even know Bubba Hotep was by him also, which I watched because Bruce Campbell, and then liked for the same reasons, hey, something local!
Short story about Bast in Newarre. It's part of the Rogues Anthology. So you not only get an awesome look at what Bast does in his spare time when he's not at the Inn, but you also get a lot of other really great short stories from other authors as well. :)
Rogues https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345537262/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_nKKCzbJGVVY08
They are such short novellas (I think the Rogue Prince is like 30 pages?) that I just took them from my school's inter-library loan system. You probably know this already, but for anyone else, The Rogue Prince is printed in Rogues and the Princess and the Queen is published in Dangerous Women.
Both are good, but only if you're a die-hard asoiaf fan. The P&Q especially gets confusing despite its very short length.
http://www.amazon.com/Isaac-Asimov-Complete-Stories-Vol/dp/038541627X
I read that in there! I enjoyed every story and poem in that book. I need to get the other volume(s).
Treat yourself to a book you'll always treasure.
Here's a collection of his short stories including Nightfall.
http://www.amazon.com/Isaac-Asimov-Complete-Stories-Vol/dp/038541627X
I have this collection and it is very good, I don't think they have an electronic version though.
Had the same question. Found them, I think. Wanted to pass it on to you:
[Legends] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/)-Featuring The Hedge Knight-$18.20
[Legends II] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/)-Featuring The Sworn Sword-$
Warriors-Featuring The Mystery Knight-$11.17
Dangerous Women-Featuring The Princess and the Queen-$21.52
Just so you know, the last one is not a Tale of Dunk and Egg, but a story about the Dance of the Dragons. The next one is The She-Wolves of Winterfell, which has been delayed. Also, Legends II doesn't seem to be available new, so I didn't include a price. Finally, the graphic novels have been announced for a re-release, so the price for those should go down soon, as new copies are printed.
I also just want to say, it's really insane how far Martin has come. A decade ago, no one would have thought that he would be the selling point of those books. Now, his stories are the most popular of the anthologies.
Yeah I noticed that too :/ You can get them cheaper though
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_5 Contains The first story.
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/ref=pd_sim_b_5 Has the second story
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765334771
has the last story.
It can be a bit tricky to find them. The stand alone books are absurd expensive. The full anthologies are the cheaper option.
For The Hedge Knight
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382118790&sr=1-2&keywords=legends
Sworn Sword http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy/dp/0345456440/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382118960&sr=1-1&keywords=legends+II
Mystery Knight http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765334771/ref=pd_sim_b_5
Hope this helps.
https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
This?
...
In fact, Just buy this book.
"The Most Dangerous Game," Richard Connell
"By the Waters of Babylon," Stephen Vincent Benet
"A Sound of Thunder," Ray Bradbury
My favorite collection is the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. It contains many of the best authors' best works from the formative years, and shows you what and who to look for. If you want weird, see "Mimsy were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett.
Seems pretty off. He already has chapters written for the sixth book. He is working on another anthology like the successful Warriors.
Here's a blog post by GRRM talking about what he's up to...
The Mystery Knight.
Edit: in this anthology.
This is the first I'm hearing of that book, but from what I can tell they split the anthology into 3 paperbacks but originally it was one hardcover, which you can buy here:
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Women-George-R-Martin/dp/076533206X
Honestly I'm surprised with how much you keep up with Brandon's work that you didn't grab this one up when it first came out. =)
I'm excited for the 35k words by GRRM. Here's a link for Americans. http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Women-George-R-R-Martin/dp/076533206X
Just so you know, the Dunk and Egg stories are available really cheap online in various anthologies; the latest one I bought at Barnes and Noble.
EDIT: Here are amazon links to the said anthologies
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
Dunno if you can buy the individually as an e-book, but I read 'em in different anthologies.
The Hedge Knight was in Legends.
The Sworn Sword was in Legends II.
The Mystery Knight was in Warriors
The first three are contained in separate collections of short stories, and there are also the graphic novels, which are expensive. I got books on Amazon for around $30 total US.
Warriors I
Legends
Legends II
Heat-death of the universe.
(One of my favourite chapter titles from This)
Machine of Death: A collection of stories about people who know how they will die by Ryan North and others.
Here’s the Amazon link. As the title says, it’s all short stories from different authors about people knowing how they will die, but not the when or the circumstances surrounding it. Some are funny, many are twisty. You can read it in bits.
A quote: “The problem with the machine is that nobody really knew how it worked, which wouldn't actually have been that much of a problem if the machine worked as well as we wished it would. But the machine was frustratingly vague in its predictions: dark, and seemingly delighting in the ambiguities of language. "OLD AGE," it had already turned out, could mean either dying of natural causes, or being shot by a bedridden man in a botched home invasion.”
But yeah, it’s not for giving to everyone, “Hey, here’s this entertaining book about death.”
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! (:
this thread seems like a good place to namedrop this book:
Machine of Death
http://machineofdeath.net/about/books
https://www.amazon.com/Machine-Death-Collection-Stories-People/dp/0982167121
You're doing this wrong. If you approach books as a task for self-edification that you view as a duty, you're going to hate it. Read whatever you want, for entertainment. Read funnystuff. Read thrillers. Read fantasy. Read weird science fiction. Heck, read history, economics, and science.
TL;DR: Read whatever the hell you feel like, and I guarantee you you will feel better about yourself than you would have by forcing yourself through Ulysses or War and Peace.
Songs:
Movies:
Books:
Shows:
Based on the collaborative novel 'Machine of Death'
Don't let this spoil the read though, amazing book and I completely recommend it! Starting from the premise that we have a Machine that tells you when you will die, different authors submitted short stories about it. This collaborative novel has the selected best.
Not really fantasy, but the Machine of Death book is really excellent.
Machine of Death?
Stories of Your Life and Others
Really amazing collection of sci-fi short stories. Thought-provoking and intelligent, but also entertaining and easy to read. Ted Chiang writes female characters really well
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/
I really loved those newer ones you mentioned too! It Comes at Night was an especially fun approach to a zombie movie. The Sicario director, Denis Villeneuve, did a great job adapting the short story by Ted Chiang called Story of your Life into his movie Arrival.
The last movie that really gripped me as something different and interesting was the new South Korean movie Parasite. The director is always really interesting in the way he weaves horror, comedy, and drama together. The Host was another one of his that really got me hooked on his films. The VVitch was another recent scary movie that my partner and I really like for how heavy and dark its atmosphere is.
the book describes it as "when you go to a wedding, you already know whats going to happen, but there is value in going through the process". So it was mentioned that the aliens perhaps lack free will, but that it doesn't take away from the experience of actually experiencing those things. Her ability to change course or not wasn't specifically addressed i think. The short story is only like 20 pages, you should read it. The other stories in the book are equally as interesting, read them all!
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486663622&sr=8-1&keywords=story+of+your+life
Is included in the collection [Stories of Your Life and Others]
(https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0/131-9278839-0652413?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9HN4HP0T37EJBMAEMEHW)
A shame [the novelette] (https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Alchemists-Gate-Ted-Chiang/dp/1596061006) is not longer available.
I've read https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X 2 times now. Will read it again when my level increases :)
Try satori reader, from the guys who made human japanese.
If you really need a textbook you should probably go with Tobira, it covers more advanced stuff than genki but you can probably handle it since you finished Human Japanese.
I can also recommend ["Making Sense of Japanese"] (https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X) by Jay Rubin, it's a short read but gives you a deeper understanding of a few different topics.
Imabi is probably the most complete japanese resource in english and it's free, definitely give it a try.
I know you are joking but if anyone is curious where I got this from it's this book: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493839717&sr=8-1&keywords=jay+rubin
It's written by Haruki Murakami's English translator and is a great read if you are learning Japanese.
Hmm, I’ve never read that, but I would assume it’s easier than one would probably think. After all, the Japanese have been navigating this ambiguous terrain of zero pronouns and particle confusion their whole lives. If they can understand it, then it has to be possible.
If you think about it, we do really weird stuff like that, as well. For example, in the sentence “He gave him his keys,” we technically could have three different people here. Perhaps Tom grabbed his dad’s keys from the dresser and gave them to his brother, Mike—in which case Tom=he; Dad=his; Mike=him. If we know that beforehand, then the sentence makes perfect sense. Yes, it’s a bit odd, but it’s not like we’d really have any trouble understanding it at that point. I can only imagine how difficult that is for Japanese learners of English, though.
Since you’ve given me a book recommendation, I’ll give you mine. It’s Jay Rubin’s “Making Sense of Japanese.” It’s a series of short essays that demystify some of the toughest-to-grasp concepts for English learners of Japanese. He covers the type of scenario which you mentioned having trouble with (don’t we all?) extensively and intuitively, and I think it’d help anyone at any level of fluency. It’s pretty short, pretty cheap, and immensely enlightening. I read it again at least once a year. I truly cannot recommend anything better to a fellow 日本語の学生!
Here’s the Amazon (US) link, if you wanted to check it out:
Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You https://www.amazon.com/dp/156836492X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_A3IQDb6Y5TTXV
I would like to provide some input here regarding JpPlayer. I have been subscribed to the service for 3 years now and it is hands down one of the best study tools I have at my disposal. It does have one major flaw however so I want to make sure people are aware of it before they purchase it, or at least to make sure they try the 3 day trial to make sure they won't have any issues.
The video stream itself is in high-definition. Unlike normal HD streaming services however it doesn't do well scaling quality to accommodate for hardware and connection issues. This means if you have a laptop with a low-grade video card using shared VRAM with the system memory you can run into all sorts of frustrating problems. I've only seen this problem with integrated cards like this though and have never had issues on any system running a stand-alone dedicated card.
The other problem is one that most people will never have to worry about but it is still worth mentioning. JPPlayer will not run properly on an accessory monitor. This means if you run a multi-monitor gaming system with an additional display for watching TV or surfing the net for example, the player has problems for some reason playing anything if it's moved to the accessory screen. It will run just fine on the main monitors however. This is a very minor bug and affects a very small percentage of possible users, but better to know it exists than to pull your hair out like I did trying to find the reason.
Finally I will say that the guy that distributes and cares for the program is absolutely amazing. He has always answered any technical questions I have had on the program and has worked with me on trying to fix that accessory bug from time to time when I try new fixes. When the satellite provider stopped broadcasting the stream a few years back he actually sent me a refund for my remaining time as I'd paid for a year in advance. They have of course long since reintroduced the feed and it's been running strong since. He is a very trustworthy and honest businessman so rest assured your money will be well spent.
JPPlayer aside I would like to also concur with OP regarding the Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar. I dropped traditional grammar methods and started just using those books to look up grammar when I came across it and found it a far more efficient method. They are a bit expensive but again the are worth every penny.
I would only add one thing to the original list. There is a book out there written entirely in English called "Making Sense of Japanese". It's an absolutely amazing short little piece that covers some of the most confusing topics that most learners struggle with and explains them using clear, concise English. It's fairly inexpensive and as with the rest completely worth it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156836492X/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The Read Real Japanese series might be a good bridge into native material. The particular editions I linked have furigana and English translations on opposing pages. It should be intelligible if you've finished Tobira. Shounen and Shoujo manga should also be a good next step.
Honestly I'm surprised you got as far as Tobira without going outside of a textbook. You should be able to digest some native material by now.
While I personally do not know any, as I am a beginner (for like, 4 or six years due to my lack of studying :D )
u/overactive-bladder had shown me some.
https://www.amazon.fr/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=pd_sim_14_1/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568364148&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
exploring japanese literature: https://www.amazon.fr/Exploring-Japanese-Literature-Tanizaki-Kawabata/dp/1568365411/ref=pd_sim_14_5/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365411&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
Not like this, no. Still, you can put in the work, build your own, and share it with others if you're feeling generous.
The closest example would be to get some of the Japanese readers out there like "Read Real Japanese", "Breaking Into Japanese Literature", and "Exploring Japanese Literature". These are aimed at people still learning so they're chosen to be notable, but still easy to read. More relevantly they typically have vocabulary at the bottom of each page to help you. Admittedly, there are other features present (full parallel text in English, Japanese audio for each, etc.), but that's why they're specifically sold as teaching tools.
I have the Momotaro book, and also Read Real Japanese - Fiction which would be a little more advanced. Comes with translations, grammatical notes, and a dictionary of the words used.
These might be too difficult still for you, but it is something I tried to do when I was actually trying to study. I am just too lazy for it, but maybe these kind of books would help: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292
Just wanted to make sure you saw this because I didn't reply to your OP: u/Lakaturbo
You could try something like books that have Japanese on one side and English on the other. I found those sorts of texts pretty helpful. And because it's literature it might be more interesting to you than manga.
Another option is to get a text online, so that when you run across an unknown word it's just a mouseover away with rikaichan/kun.
This doesn't answer your question regarding Murakami, but if you're interested in contemporary writers as well then maybe check out this book? I just bought it last week and it's actually really cool because of how thorough it is.
The book's got the original prose on one page, a line by line translation on the opposite page, a J-E dictionary of every word in every story in the back and a section for culture/grammar notes sorted by story as well.
It also comes with readings by a native speaker. I've been slowly working through 川上弘美's 神様 and it's been a lot of fun so far. Highly recommend it for anyone who's completed Genki 1+2 and some Tobira like myself.
i really like Story Engineering by Larry Brooks.
Really interesting and informative ideas about the structure for a mainstream/commercial novel: http://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987
Here it is!!
Honestly, it's the best book I've read on structuring a story/novel, and I've read a LOT of books on the subject.
i read these two books, hugely helpful:
link 1
link 2
i know everyone has their opinions about the best books but i really enjoyed both and they're very motivating
It's from the short story colletionThe Story of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. I highly recommend it. You can listen to some of his stories online here too.
Are you in Canada? I see it on Amazon.com at [this link.] (https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang-ebook/dp/B0048EKOP0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502076009&sr=8-1&keywords=the+story+of+your+life+and+others)
play books, overdrive, kobo books, amazon...
The short stories are all amazing, and a couple bucks each on Amazon. The Churn tell Amos's backstory. Wes Chatham read that book with a therapist to talk about what that sort of childhood would do to an adult to prepare to play Amos. The Butcher of Anderson Station reads like the attack on Thoth station, but way harsher. Much more details than the show portrayed. The Vital Abyss shows what happened to the surviving scientists from Thoth.
There are three novellas by J.S.A. Corey, set in the world of The Expanse: 1) Gods of Risk, 2) The Churn and The Vital Abyss
Perhaps if you consider reading the synopsis on Amazon a spoiler. But I tagged it anyway.
https://www.amazon.com/Churn-Expanse-Novella-ebook/dp/B00I82884W
On a cool note, GRRM is releasing a 35,000 word novella focusing on the Blackfyre Rebellion in a compilation book due out in December. As well if you haven't read the The Hedge Knight series of Novellas (Super good, so check them out if you haven't) they explain it in that a little.
http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Women-George-R-R-Martin/dp/076533206X
Until the next season? Oh you sweet summer child, you will give no fucks about the next season of Game Of Thrones once you discover what it is to wait for The Winds of Winter. I suggest you pace yourself - TWOW looks like coming out late 2014, although there are also the three Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas and the soon-to-be-released The Princess And The Queen novella.
If she's not terribly bothered by spoilers, having her read Aftermath (the last entry in Side Jobs) might be a good "it's worth it" way.
Another non-book entry that may be useful if she's spoiler-averse would be Bombshells (from Dangerous Women) - Tells the story of how Molly got her killer bachelorette-pad.
(both of these stories are obviously post-changes - so there is an element of spoiler - but Bombshells is much less overt about it)
That said, it's certainly possible that Butcher's style just isn't for her - I wouldn't pressure her too hard.
And those are adaptations actually. The original novellas were in anthology collections.
[Hedge] (http://www.amazon.com/Dreamsongs-Volume-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0553385690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406332567&sr=8-1&keywords=dreamsongs+vol+ii)
[Sword] (http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FC0Y0Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406332645&sr=8-2&keywords=legends+ii)
[Mystery] (http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-1-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765360268/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406333756&sr=8-1&keywords=warriors+1)
This question is ask a lot but I'll answer it anyway, the Dunk & Eggs novella are available in 3 different anthologies: The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight
What are you talking about? The current Amazon prices are $13.59, $7.99, and $7.99, with free shipping if you buy them together. Used is even cheaper.
Dunk & Egg is entirely told from the point of view of Ser Duncan the Tall, a young knight out for adventure in Westeros, and since they're short stories they're far more action packed than any book of ASoIaF.
The first three Dunk & Egg tales are only available in anthologies.
The Hedge Knight
The Sworn Sword
The Mystery Knight
Combined they would cost more than ADwD, regardless of what format you buy it in. I would definitely recommend reading them at some point (and they provide at least 2 big reveals in ASoIaF), they are not necessary to read before Dance. There will be a second Warriors anthology coming out in the fall/winter I believe, containing the fourth Dunk & Egg story. Shortly after that release all 4 stories will be released in a volume together. That said, there are other great short stories in these anthologies, so you may find it worth it to get them.
you might be looking at the graphic novel version of the hedgeknight and thats why its so expensive look them up in the anthology forms and you might have more success:
Legends 1 (contains the Hedgeknight) Legends 2 (contains The Sworn Sword), and Warriors 1 (Contains the Mystery Knight)
When you searched for the novellas did you happen to search by the specific titles (The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight? If you did then I can see why you would think they'd be too expensive. The stories are part of three separate collections of short stories that are pretty cheap. They are Legends, Legends II, and Warriors. You can pick up all three on Amazon for like $30 total.
I have to comment on this, just to stress it further.
I know reading is difficult, so I'll go ahead and relink them here here and here
TL;DR: LINK 1... LINK 2... LINK 3
still TL;DR?! 1... 2... 3
there is a compilation being released with the next tale though, soon (it was sent to the publisher a few months ago) so I'd wait.
2.The Sworn Sword http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368313751&sr=8-2&keywords=legends+anthology
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369360965&sr=1-1&keywords=legends+ii+anthology
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-1-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765360268/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369361010&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=Warriorsi+anthology
You can buy them as a part of compendiums
The Hedge Night can be ound here - http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347277911&sr=8-1&keywords=legends
The Sworn Sword can be found here - http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Dragon-Sword-King/dp/034547578X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y
And The Mystery Night can be found here -
http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-1-George-R-R-Martin/dp/0765360268/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z
You can get all 3 for about $30 and free shipping. You can also check your local library since each is only about 100 or so pages.
Warriors 1 : Mystery Knight
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765360268/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Legends II : The Sworn Sword
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034547578X/ref=gno_cart_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Annnnd here we go again. I'm doing this with all books, just because.
Allegiant
Berenstain Bears
Calvin and Hobbes
Dune
Edgar Allen Poe collection
Fahrenheit 451
Gulliver's Travels
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
Julie of the Wolves
Kite Runner
Little House on the Prairie
Machine of Death
Neverending Story
Omnitopia Dawn (The book I'm reading now, actually!)
Pilgrim's Progress
Quarter Share (Also available free as a podiobook!)
Room
Snow Crash
[Tell-Tale Brain](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=tell-tale brain&sprefix=tell-tale%2Cstripbooks%2C222&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Atell-tale brain&ajr=2)
Uglies
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Watership Down
Xenocide
Year Zero
Zen and the Art of Knitting
http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Death-Collection-Stories-People/dp/0982167121
Read it.
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 have a book for you
If you spend time in the webcomics part of the internet you probably heard of Machine of Death when it was published a couple years back. If you don't, you probably never heard of it, unless you heard Glenn Beck complaining that this book kept one of his books from debuting at #1.
The book is a collection of short stories that were inspired by a Dinosaur Comics webcomic that fans wanted the author to make happen. Notable figures from across the internet, as well as some random authors, each wrote a short story based only on that comic (essentially, that a machine somehow existed that would tell you in very few words how you would die, but not when or where). Every story is accompanied by a single amazing illustration from a different artist.
What is so cool about the book is that every author worked from the same original but with no communication, so you get these amazingly unique interpretations. Many are sad, but some are happy and a few are laugh out loud funny. I read it during a cross country trip and absolutely lost myself in it for the better part of the trip.
(On a side note, a few people are recommending Chuck Pahalniuk. His style will engross you, hold you tight, and then hold your head underwater until you can't breath. He regularly has people pass out at the line "corn and peanuts" when he reads a particular short story to groups. If you pick one of his books, go with one where the characters do a lot of the story telling, it adds so many layers of depth and gives you some needed diversity in prose. Rant or Haunted I would say are hands down his best books, despite the fact that Fightclub and Choke were made into movies.)
I'm reading Machine of Death right now and I'm really enjoying it. I'd say I'm about 1/3 of the way through it.
MACHINE OF DEATH, perhaps? Or the next, similar one THIS IS HOW YOU DIE, maybe?
There's a compilation of short stories that run along a similar technology:
http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Death-Collection-Stories-People/dp/0982167121/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373396000&sr=1-2&keywords=machine+of+death
http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Death-Collection-Stories-People/dp/0982167121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349001983&sr=8-1&keywords=machine+of+death
I got this book of short stories for my kindle. Similar vain to your question, and I think you'd enjoy it.
Also need "Best of" so that we can re-hash new ideas on old prompts. We can have recurring competitions like the Machine of Death prompt. [edited link]
Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others is great and includes the short story that The Arrival was based off of.
I keep seeing Ken Liu's name pop up everywhere and I've read The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. I didn't like all of the short stories but The Paper Menagerie was definitely the best.
I also think Greg Egan's Axiomatic is worth reading too.
All of these books are categorized under science fiction.
It's entitled: "Story of Your Life"
If any one is wondering.
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487778369&sr=8-1&keywords=story+of+your+life
Well so much depends on everything. Some basic suggestions:.
Contemporary Science Fiction:
Ted Chaing, Stories of Your Life and Others his short stories are science fiction gems. https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122.
Classical: Vladimir Nabokov Short Stories, amazing prose. Though English was his second language he wrote a good number, especially the later half, in English, often challenging themes from dubious narrators.
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0679729976.
International Fiction: Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore, reductionist, clean prose, with symbolic/metaphorical imagery that blends hard-boiled noir, Japanese animism, and surrealism. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400079276/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_RxntybB7PYK93
Post Modern: Roberto Bolano, 2666: A Novel, perhaps the odd relative of Murakami in structure if not style. Sometimes rambling, though powerful prose with surrealist moments within graphic and "visceral" scenes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312429215/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ZAntybTW2XXJX.
Deconstructionism: Mark Danieleski, House of Leaves, carefully crafted entangled adventure horror of a story, explained in the footnotes of an essay, edited by a tattoo artist, written by a blind man of a homemade video of a house gone awry. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375703764/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_XMntyb3RT3RKQ
A start
The stories of you life and others https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1101972122/
Well even though he's just saying it, I'd suggest the book, it is good to read.
Also you can find it right here.
By far the best explanation of this topic I've seen is in the book Making Sense of Japanese by Jay Rubin. It also discusses some other tricky aspects of Japanese grammar, and is fun to read as well. The succinct tip from /u/EvanGRogers is consistent with the book, but the book obviously goes into much greater depth.
Japansepod101 is great! But they are super spammers its true. Great product made to look terrible. Why???? Not as good as JFZ though.
George, I guess the reason people want you to recommend books is they trust you. You should be proud of that.
Books I'd recommend (even in you won't!) are:
Making Sense of Japanese by Jay Rubin (very funny and lots on interesting bits even if some of it was beyond me)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486317692&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=don%27t+tell+you+about+japanese
Japanese the Manga Way by Wayne Lammers (Really terrific and great practice on your kanji too.)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Japanese-Manga-Way-Illustrated-Guide-Grammar-Structure/1880656906/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486317895&sr=1-1&keywords=japanese+the+manga+way
Actually I don't think these books compete with your ones in any case.
And finally I recommend this explanation of when to use wa and ga. Its a video thing and you can throw away all textbooks after watching this. (I suppose it is just barely possible there is more to it than this guy says but surely not).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU9rjYZe2P4
Oh, just realised George did a video on this subject I haven't seen. Well, I am sure they are both equally good . . .
In terms of books in Japanese, probably not at your level.
If you're willing to expand to books about Japanese (written in English or another language you're fluent in), you can probably find some stuff that isn't too dry. Something like this book: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X which is a collection of essays about Japanese by a well known translator.
There are also some bilingual books which contain Japanese and English (sometimes with a dictionary), but I think they'll still be too complex at your level of grammar to get the most out of, and you'll just end up reading the English. And honestly, by the time I felt comfortable getting through those, I could just read stuff in pure Japanese anyway.
There is a chapter on this in https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X
Basically Japanese sentences are inverted, in the sense that increasingly important information is found at the end of the sentence instead of the beginning. This means that a listener or reader can be led on by a long sentence before discovering that the entire scenario was a hypothetical or negation. (This is commonly used in drama/comedy.)
Japanese has several "indicators" that don't really change the meaning of a sentence but are placed at the start to give the reader/listener a warning of what is to come. In this case もし marks the sentence as a hypothetical, instead of leaving it as a surprise.
Honestly, in my opinion, unless it's a very specialised language institution, don't even bother with traditional classes. The majority of them will do little more than go through the beginner textbooks at a pace 10x slower than you could on your own. All the information you need to learn the language is freely available as long as you have the discipline to go through it without being forced to.
The first step will be to learn hiragana, then katakana. After that you'll want to tackle grammar basics, beginner vocabulary and kanji, and then begin getting exposure to simple native content while exploring the more intermediate and advanced material.
---
For kana:
Use mnemonics to familiarise yourself with hiragana and katakana.
Then drill yourself with a tool like DJT Kana until they are burned into your brain.
-
For grammar:
The single free resource I most recommend in the beginning would be Wasabi's online reference, but there are plenty of other resources out there, including Tae Kim, Imabi, Maggie Sensei, Cure Dolly, etc...
For paid resources the most commonly recommended beginner textbook would be Genki. And then Tobira for more intermediate material. My most recommended resources to purchase would be a book called Making Sense of Japanese and the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series, with emphasis placed on the first volume.
-
For kanji and vocab:
Wanikani will automate the process for you if you have the cash to pay for a yearly subscription.
If not you can use Anki with either Kodansha's Kanji Learner's Course or with Remembering The Kanji.
---
All my Japanese knowledge was acquired through self-study, starting with resources similar to these. After I had sufficient experience with the basics I went on to learn primarily through reading native material and using native linguistic resources.
It took around 3 years before I was able to begin reading light novels.
As expected, my N5 didn't go well for me, as I only seriously started practicing like a few days ago. Although, listening part went well (or so I think) for me, as I'm watching Japanese stuff on a regular basis for ~7 years now.
In any case, I'm more determined now. I'm following KLC book, KLC Anki deck, JLPT N5 Vocabulary Anki deck, and An Introduction to Japanese - Syntax, Grammar, & Language. Also, I have Making Sense of Japanese but haven't started reading it yet.
I tried Memrise too but didn't go well for me. I found Anki better. Now just have to devote some time off Anki to study grammar too.
Hope this helps, and all the best!
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X
This book helped me a lot when I first started worrying over the は vs が issue. I'm by no means advanced but it's worth looking at imo.
This book explains the difference between を and が.
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X
You can probably find a free copy floating around on the Internet too.
If you don't have it already, I HIGHLY recommend getting https://www.amazon.com/Making-Sense-Japanese-What-Textbooks/dp/156836492X/ . I studied Japanese in college. That book was invaluable for me.
there are many graded readers out there with exactly what you're describing though.
https://www.amazon.fr/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=pd_sim_14_1/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568364148&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
exploring japanese literature: https://www.amazon.fr/Exploring-Japanese-Literature-Tanizaki-Kawabata/dp/1568365411/ref=pd_sim_14_5/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365411&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
also, i am a native middle eastern and i studied arabic there. now that i moved away (thank god) i am anxious of losing my dialect and the written language. i have been looking into getting back into kawa3ed for the harakat part. even natives mess up a LOT. i still remember my arabic teacher saying "i always cringe when i hear a news reporter screw up the kawa3ed lmfao.
This book and the other one in the pair (essays rather than fiction) feature Banana Yoshitomo and Murakami shorts: https://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292
Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers 1 Free CD Included https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1568365292/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Iu4PDb241E1RH
Syntax as Style by Tufte is the best for sentence level mechanics. By far.
On Writing Well by Zinsser is the best for non-fiction.
If you're interested in fiction, Story Engineering by Brooks is the one I usually recommend for structure. But you might use Knight's Creating Short Fiction for that purpose. Or Save the Cat by Snyder.
People often recommend Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It has the benefit of being very short and direct. It will make your writing better, if you're a beginner. Your essays will read more smoothly. But I don't like recommending this book because it lacks nuance and is sometimes wrong. If you just want to improve your writing as quickly as possible, get this book. If you actually care about language, get Virginia Tufte's book instead.
I'm going to recommend this book to you: Self-Editing For Fiction Writers Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
You may also want to check out: Dynamic Characters and Story Engineering
Two great books I recommend:
Story Engineering by Larry Brooks and Book Architecture by Stuart Horwitz.
You'll find that writing a story isn't too different from what you're used to in journalism. These two books offer the knowledge and skills to build a strong backbone. Once you understand how a story works, the rest is all you. If you have the basics down, you can focus on the art much more easily. And when you're done, a) you won't need to do nearly as many edits/rewrites, b) you'll have a damn fine story, and c) you have a better shot at getting published.
You'll probably get a lot of people saying 'On Writing', but for me that was too abstract for what I wanted. The best thing I've read has to be, hands down, 'Story Engineering' by Larry Brooks.
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987
It was my birthday last week! Happy IRL cakeday!
I've been doing so much writing lately that I think this book would probably send me right into orbit. Or surprises, I like surprises.
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-II-Novels-Masters-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B000FC0Y0Y/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=
$5.99
The Dunk & Egg novellas aren't available for sale anywhere individually or as a collection (yet). They are available only in anthologies combined with the work of other authors, as they were originally published. These anthologies are available for kindle:
GRRM plans on publishing a collection of all the Dunk & Egg stories eventually (after he has published the 4th story IIRC), but no word on when that will be.
You can find them in the FAQ.
Dunk & Egg:
Histories of Westeros:
Great - I'm really glad to hear that when you bought the books on Amazon yesterday morning, you paid $28. Can you please check your Amazon order history and give us the link to the listing for how you bought Sworn Sword?
All I could find is this one which is only Kindle and marketplace, and this one which is only Kindle, and this one which again is only Kindle and marketplace. Is there another one I'm not seeing?
For Legends II? Here's another listing for it which works for me, at least.
I loved Arrival and I've been meaning to read the short story it's based on (as well as the others in the collection, obviously)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048EKOP0/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_img?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2N41JHWV5GDQ1&coliid=I39WE33O5CM301
Ninja edit: thanks for the contest :)
https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang-ebook/dp/B0048EKOP0
Ted Chiang is mind blowingly amazing.
http://www.freesfonline.de/authors/Ted_Chiang.html
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang-ebook/dp/B0048EKOP0/ref=asap_B001HCZ6OA_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417029984&sr=1-1
I recommend, if I may, Ted Chiang's novella Seventy-Two Letters. It deals with the old hypothesis of the homunculus, which argued that inside each spermatozoa there exists a tiny human being, fully formed and only needing the ovum to develop. And that inside the testicles of that homunculus, there were spermatozoa containing an even smaller fully formed human being, and so on all the way... where? Where does it stops? That's one of the plot points. In the style of Ted Chiang, he fully develops the idea and creates a scientific framework (that's one of the things he does in some of his stories, he takes a ridiculous idea, a superstition, a myth, a debunked pre-scientific notion, and posits how things would be if they where real). It's a very fascinating novella, also dealing in jewish mysticism and the concept of the Golem, and framed as a mystery story.
You can find it in his collection "Stories of your Life and Others", which also contains the novella on which Arrial was based, and the breathtaking Tower of Babylon (which in my opinion has stronger cinematic bones). Or you can read it here.
According to Amazon: 77 pages
Did you read The Churn? It's about Amos' past growing up in Baltimore and talks about a food-stamp/credit chit like program for basic IIRC.
Arena. Basiaclly Yojimbo told in a setting of wizardry and combat.
http://www.amazon.com/Arena-Magic-The-Gathering-No/dp/0061054240
i recommend this one; the rest of the series not as good but this one is great.
I do this but it's a product of reading the early MTG books like Arena and the greensleeves trilogy
The very first Magic novel had some very nicely-detailed descriptions of two mages locked in combat.
The brother's war, Chainer's torment, and Nemesis are the 3 best standalone novels. IE, if you look at the novel alone, not in context of the cycle it's in.
http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-War-Artifacts-Cycle-Book/dp/0786911700/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345670302&sr=1-1&keywords=the+brother%27s+war
http://www.amazon.com/Chainers-Torment-Magic-Gathering--Odyssey-Cycle/dp/0786926961/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345670284&sr=1-1&keywords=chainer%27s+torment
http://www.amazon.com/Nemesis-Magic-Gathering-Masquerade-Cycle/dp/0786915595/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345670264&sr=1-1&keywords=magic+nemesis
Edit * Forgot Arena : http://www.amazon.com/Arena-Magic-The-Gathering-No/dp/0061054240/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header
I have a couple of books on my wishlist that I would love!!! Specifically this one.
YES. for solo series read Arena https://www.amazon.com/Arena-Magic-Gathering-No-1/dp/0061054240
For a epic storyline like whats currently happening (but WAY better) start with the brothers war and work your way throught the artifact cycle.
https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-War-Artifacts-Cycle-ebook/dp/B07C91KLV8/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+brothers+war&qid=1554126310&s=books&sr=1-2
my personal favorite set was the kamigawa set but its not as .. well liked by all as the other two. i just REALLY liked Toshi.
My wife prefers the Lorwyn cycle.
that may be a lot. I say start with either arena if you just want a single story, and artifacts cycle if you want a reaching storyline.
Edit if you like epic fights, Arenas got you covered. Half the story is about a wizards tournament in Dominaria with mages beating the shit out of each other and killing each other.
Edit x2: everyone who plays magic should know the basics behind Urza Planeswalker from the artifacts cycle. And how much of an annoying punk his lab assistant teferi is. :p
The one I have is smaller. And it's actually called On the Shortness of Life. https://www.amazon.com/Shortness-Life-Penguin-Great-Ideas/dp/0143036327/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499645356&sr=8-1&keywords=on+the+shortness+of+life
>It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it. - Seneca, On The Shortness of Life
Seneca - On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How To Use It
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143036327/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_GAOVzbJFY0TJC
Not sure if it applies to this situation but "On the shortness of Life - Seneca" helps me get a grip and focus on what I have to do
[Translation Source] (https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0143036327/braipick-20)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143036327/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I had a friend once who wasnt exceptionally bright but he was tall and handsome. Dude kept track of everything he wanted to do and goals. Even if it was just to buy a cd he wrote it on a dry erase board. Despite not being incredibly bright he's successful and gets shit done.
Well, this is the one my buddies and I passed around when we were younger. I am not sure how diffinitive it is. I also downloaded this one a few years ago and enjoyed it. This one appears to be $1 if you have a kindle. I think they are all original Robert E. Howard works. Expect excellently written combat, some racism and sexism, and overall just fun reading. Enjoy!
If you do, I highly suggest picking up the recent Del Rey collections. You can find them on Amazon for cheap.
I bought these a while back, and I absolutely love them because they're the original and unedited texts. After Howard died, his stories were frequently re-written and republished by other authors for various reasons (such as to make them fit into a specific chronology or to remove Cthulhu references).
Also, you should totally re-read the Kull collection. I personally think the writing is better than Conan (which can be a bit formulaic) since it was the first stuff Howard wrote. Also, his version of the Serpent People is pretty much 100% identical to how Serpent People are depicted in Pathfinder. And Aroden is basically a more sophisticated version of Kull.
Spider Robinson's excellent Callahan series has the first 3 books (Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Time Travelers Strictly Cash, and Callahan's Secret; it's NOT a trilogy) in omnibus format: The Callahan Chronicals. Well worth the read, especially if you're a fan of humor and/or Heinlein. His Lifehouse trilogy, a slightly more serious set of works, and the Stardance trilogy that he and his wife wrote together made an appearance in omnibus formats awhile back.
Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series has been done in omnibus numerous times. If you like the dark anti-hero Black Company you may enjoy the tales of Elric, Corum, et al.
Plenty of the classic/golden age/proto/what have you authors have omnibus editions of their works. H.G. Wells and Jules Verne both have numerous partial and complete anthologies. I grabbed the Leather Bound Classics editions at the warehouse store awhile back but you can find cheaper editions and free or cheap ebook editions as well. Knowing the classics makes reading the following generations works a bit more interesting, imo, but the writing styles and primitive technological knowledge/guess work of the authors can be off putting to some. The three book set of Robert E. Howard's collected Conan of Cimmeria were excellent reads, you have to have a taste for pulp though. Asimov's Robot Trilogy (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn) is really, really, good. That Del Rey omnibus edition is excellent by the by. You can also find the Foundation trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation) in one of several omnibus forms.
There's plenty more out there. I tend to find a lot of omnibus editions at used bookstores.
If you have never read Conan, I highly recommend it. They were a surprising amount of fun for me. Just...try to ignore the blatant racism and sexism when it pops up.
My favorite editions are the Del Rey series, which starts with The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. It has the original unedited text, whereas "Chronicals of Conan" has the published text which was altered by the editors of "Weird Tales".
Alright, it's like this: books are like food. Start with something addictive, and probably bad for you (Conan The Barbarian for instance). Eventually you'll go looking for something more, but still delicious (the Harry Potter books are notorious for this). Eventually you'll order something heavier (For Whom the Bell Tolls is a good one), knowing that it's going to take a long time to digest.
TR;DR: Don't eat Thanksgiving dinner without an appetizer.
You can get short story collections that contain them through Amazon (Here, here, and here), but that'll add up price wise. I think GRRM is putting together an anthology of the Dunk and Egg novels, so you may want to hold off until then.
Edit: I see you may want just the one hedge knight book? Sorry if this was extraneous. :(
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765300354/ref=mp_s_a_31?pi=49x75&qid=1345532540&sr=8-31
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/034547578X/ref=mp_bxgy_p_dp_y?qid=1345532540&sr=8-31
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004F9OV7U/ref=mp_s_a_22?pi=49x75&qid=1345533235&sr=8-22
> but it also means that you can't read for long periods of time without your eyes hurting.
Strongly disagree. I use a black background and white text, and never have issues with eye pain and am prone to frequent 2~3 hour reading sessions before bed, with the occasional 5~6 hour overnighter when the book is really good - which is what I did about a week ago two nights in a row when I read the entire Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is a collection of 3 short stories about Sir Duncan the Tall. Its a good quick read, even though it only has Sir Duncan's POV. https://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501465671&sr=8-1&keywords=a+knight+of+the+seven+kingdoms
the world of ice and fire
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (A Song of Ice and Fire)
There is a trilogy of short stories called "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms". It's very good.
Bloodraven is actually a character introduced in the prequels. Are you aware of the Dunk and Egg stories now collected in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
They are well worth reading. The first story was published before A Clash of Kings so they are really integral to the series I believe.
You can buy the prequel trilogy here. Plus the artwork is great.
http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488
If you have a bookstore nearby, I would recommend looking for the new edition of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin. It's the psuedo-prequel to ASOIAF and this edition has beautiful illustrations and a heartwarming story.
> then I remembered he doesn't have any new books to initiate a signing :/
Did you miss this when it was published in October?
https://www.amazon.com/Thrones-Clash-Kings-Swords-Dragons/dp/0345535529
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Blood-Thrones-Targaryen-History/dp/152479628X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2DQWE4ERVXNM2&keywords=dunk+and+egg&qid=1556622006&s=books&sprefix=dunk+%2Cstripbooks%2C126&sr=1-3
https://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2DQWE4ERVXNM2&keywords=dunk+and+egg&qid=1556622024&s=books&sprefix=dunk+%2Cstripbooks%2C126&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/World-Ice-Fire-History-Westeros/dp/0553805444/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2DQWE4ERVXNM2&keywords=dunk+and+egg&qid=1556622024&s=books&sprefix=dunk+%2Cstripbooks%2C126&sr=1-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0DhLQqsZQw&list=PLCsx_OFEYH6uDx4PBx6uAH_Pbfc5Sg1EQ
Not so much an if...
http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488
It's not the graphic novels I'm talking about. It's a book regrouping the three novellas in one book and it has a lot of sketches representing some scenes and characters. It's not the graphic novel, although I've seen it and it looks great.
This is what I read (the cover is different in Europe, it's white) :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345533488/ref=s9_simh_gw_g14_i1_r?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=05K601XAQJFJVZCGSZB1&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop
You're welcome, it's juust too bad that it's such a short book. I would also love to read the short story about Bast that's in Rouges, But I can't spend that much on a book in which I only want to read 50 or so pages.
It's in the Rogues anthology along with new stories by GRRM, Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, Scott Lynch and many more.
There is also a side story published in Rogues about Bast, but I haven't read it yet.
Its called The Lightening Tree and its published in the Rogues anthology. http://www.amazon.com/Rogues-George-R-Martin/dp/0345537262
I believe the two I can think of off the top of my head take place within the Four Corners world. One is in the excellent anthology Unfettered and the other is in Martin's anthology Rogues.
Was about to post the following, then I decided to see if anyone had already mentioned them. Posting for the links in case they help out:
I'm going through my second read now, and after this I plan to gather all miscellaneous stories. First, the Dunk and Egg stories in Legends I Volume 2, Legends II, and Warriors. Then the Princess and the Queen from Dangerous Women, and Everybody Loves a Rogue from Rogues. I'm hoping this will last me until World of Ice and Fire in October (I'll read the entire anthologies, not just the ASOIAF material). I also have other things to read in the meantime, Peter Watts has a new one coming out, and I want to check out some of the other stuff mentioned here, like the Abercrombie books, Rothfuss, and Sanderson.
Umm...Hold up. I know this...
Ah yes, here we go. Dangerous Women and Rogues .
It's in Rogues, an anthology.
I like this. Make sure you're aware of the short story "Tawny Petticoats" in the Rogues anthology though. It's about a loan shark and security auditor in post-apocalyptic New Orleans... With zombies.
The complete Isaac Asimov collection.
It's great if you have a short attention span because they are short stories, and they're fantastic. He was a visionary writer.
I think your best bet is to pick up the collections of his short stories that have been released, and then start picking up his books from there.
There is Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories which is a three volume set. Vol 1. Vol 2. But I haven't been able to find Vol 3 anywhere yet.
Do you like science fiction? I recently reread Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1. It's great, especially if you are commuting since you can dip in out and very easily on account of them being short stories.
Also go and get yourself The Earthsea Quartet and Uncle Stories.
You can buy it Here it's really long, but you can read some stories and leave others, personally, I think the whole book is worth it, one of my favorites of all time
I'm 90% sure I found this story in a collection of Asimov short stories. I don't have a copy of the book in front of me, but I think it's under a different title here.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/038541627X/ref=rdr_ext_tmb
http://www.amazon.com/Legends-Stories-Masters-Modern-Fantasy/dp/0765300354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404660782&sr=8-1&keywords=legends+I
Scroll down a little ways and there should be a link to buy all 3.
You can buy it in print right now as part of this anthology: Legends: Stories By The Masters of Modern Fantasy. Used copies are as cheap as $4....
Or you can wait for the upcoming 4-story Dunk and Egg collection due in 2013.
Posting links to illegal downloads does not follow the posting policy, which is quite clear on that.
All that said, the original Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov and Dune by Frank Herbert are absolute must-reads. So is The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. I, Theodore Sturgeon's More Than Human, A. E. Van Vogt's The Weapon Shops of Isher, and Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves. Pebble in the Sky and The Stars, Like Dust by Asimov are also compelling reads.
Then there's Robert A. Heinlein: The Door into Summer; The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress; Revolt in 2100; The Past Through Tomorrow and its sequel, Time Enough for Love; all excellent reading.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, edited by Robert Silverberg
Before the Golden Age, edited by Isaac Asimov
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
If you like The Twilight Zone you'll like Robert Sheckley
A Canticle For Leibowitz is remarkably deep, more in the spec-fic vein than sci-fi, but an undeniable classic nonetheless.
I've also really enjoyed the "Hall of Fame" short story collections. You really get a sense of the inspirations behind the genre.
Excellent! It's in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame collection of short stories. I highly recommend this collection.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One
Science Fiction Hall of Fame is a great read.
http://www.amazon.com/Knight-Seven-Kingdoms-Song-Fire/dp/0345533488
I believe the interview was done in November of 2014