(Part 2) Best coming of age fiction books according to redditors
We found 1,433 Reddit comments discussing the best coming of age fiction books. We ranked the 408 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Here's the deal: you can read it online here. http://www.scribd.com/doc/3319195/gstepl
You can download it as a PDF from there, also.
But because you love me, you can buy it here, too: http://www.amazon.com/gstepl-Rory-Marinich/dp/1438233817/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213572953&sr=8-1
I figured I'd give this away like musicians are giving away free music. I wrote this because I thought senior year in high school would be dreadfully boring otherwise, and that's all there is to it.
So, yeah. Tell me what you think? Or, if that's boring, give me a subject and I will write you a haiku about it. Or something.
Enjoy.
Some of my favorite books available on Kindle Unlimited:
They Mostly Come Out At Night and Where the Waters Turn Black by Benedict Patrick
Paternus by Dyrk Ashton
Danse Macabre by Laura M. Hughes
The Half Killed by Quenby Olson
A Star Reckoners Lot by Darrell Drake
Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe
Jaeth's Eye by K. S. Villoso
Here are some that I haven't read, but have heard mostly positive things about:
The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes
Revenant Winds by Mitchell Hogan
Ghosts of Tomorrow by Michael R Fletcher
A Warrior's Path by Davis Ashura
Valley of Embers by Steven Kelliher
Faithless by Graham Austin-King. He also has another series, The Riven Wyrde Saga, beginning with Fae - The Wild Hunt
Ours is the Storm by D. Thourson Palmer
Path of Man by Matt Moss
Threat of Madness by D.K. Holmberg
To Whatever End by Claire Frank
House of Blades by Will Wight
Path of Flames by Phil Tucker
The Woven Ring by M. D. Presley
Awaken Online: Catharsis by Travis Bagwell
Wolf of the North by Duncan M. Hamilton
Free the Darkness by Kel Kade
The Cycle of Arawn Trilogy by Edward W. Robinson
Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw
Benjamim Ashwood by AC Cobble
The Crimson Queen by Alec Hutson
The Queens Poinsoner by Jeff Wheeler
Stiger's Tigers by Marc Alan Edelheit
Rise of the Ranger by Philip C. Quaintrell
Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron
Devil's Night Dawning by Damien Black
Here are some older fantasy and sci-fi books that I enjoyed:
Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany - African inspired S&S by an extremely talented writer.
Witch World as well as other good books by Andre Norton
Swords and Deviltry The first volume of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser by Fritz Leiber - Many of the tropes of the rogue/thief came from this legendary duo created by Leiber. And it's worth noting that Leiber actually coined the term Sword & Sorcery. This collection contains 3 stories, two average origin stories for each character and the final story is the Hugo and Nebula winning novella "Ill Met in Lankhmar" detailing the first meeting of Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser.
Swords Against Darkness - A '70s S&S anthology. It has few stinkers, a few mediocre stories, and a some really good ones. Poul Anderson and Ramsey Campbell both have awesome stories in this anthology that are well worth checking out. For some reason, there were quite a few typos in this book, it was slightly distracting, but may have been fixed since I read it.
The Best of C. L. Moore by C. L. Moore. I read this earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. The collection is all sci-fi and one Jirel of Joiry story, which is her famous female Sword & Sorcery character. I was suprised by how well her sci-fi stories held up, often times pulp sci-fi doesn't age well, but this collection was great. Moore was married to the writer Henry Kuttner, and up until his death they wrote a bunch of great stories together. Both of their collections are basically collaborations, although I'm sure a few stories were done solo. His collection The Best of Henry Kuttner features the short story that the movie The Last Mimzy was based on. And, if you are into the original Twilight Zone TV series there is a story that was adapted into a memorable season 1 episode entitled "What You Need". Kuttner and Moore are two of my favorite pulp authors and I'm not even that into science fiction, but I really enjoy their work.
What do you think of the rise of self-published authors via Amazon? Wouldn't you make a lot more money if you self-published? What do you need a publishing house for other than physical distribution?
Oh, and would you review my novel, heh. People say it reminds them of your books. http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Failures--Memoirs-Pickup-Artist-ebook/dp/B00F225ZTM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379017038&sr=8-1&keywords=a+thousand+tiny+failures
> God of Small Things
Wikipedia
Good Reads
Abe Books
Amazon
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh
A future where China is the dominant global power. A main character who is a gay communist Chinese man. Very character-driven and told through many perspectives, this is supposed to be one of the better written SF novels of the past quarter century.
Try Fallen Dragon by Hamilton..
Also Snow Crash, which does have another book in it's universe but is stand alone, the other book is Diamond Age Which I also recommend. If you end up liking Stephenson then try Anathem.
I too am a fan of stand alone novels, I wish author weren't pressured to turn everything into a saga.
If you feel so sorry for him, buy some t-shirts/prints/merchandise or his $5 e-book.
The dude makes me laugh a few times a week, which is more than I can say for the cable that I paid $60/month for.
Lots of people are asking the question "Are you ready for mass unemployment?" But how does someone "get ready?" My solution was to move into software development and hopefully into running my own business on the web some day; but developing software is not for everyone.
This reminds me of "The Diamond Age." http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Age-Bantam-Spectra-Book-ebook/dp/B000FBJCKI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449699124&sr=1-1&keywords=stephenson+diamond+age
Here's a full list:
Let’s not forget author too
Sheree writing a novel is something I never knew I needed.
[Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage](http://www.amazon.com/Colorless-Tsukuru-Tazaki-Years-Pilgrimage/dp/0385352107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408401087&sr=8-1&keywords=colorless+tsukuru+tazaki+and+his+years+of+pilgrimage) was released in English last week.
Toothpaste For Dinner
By Drew, who has a couple fantastic web comics.
And his book, Veins is a riot.
They're taking that silly feminist book "The Power" by Naomi Alderman too seriously, and literally. But I guess this is the 'equality' that can be expected from feminists
Here's the Amazon link and yeah, it is. It's funny and heartwarming and heartbreaking and scary, all at the same time and it's just #$#@#@. I highly recommend it.
It takes time to get your brain tuned in. Some suggestions:
​
If you can, try and track down the audiobook or "lydbok" version to listen to along with it. Reading novels along with the accompanying audiobook can help you get used to parsing the sounds of Norwegian, The nels version has translations for more difficult words and idiomatic language in the margins, along with help with some prepositional phrases. I am finding it to be excellent, but the translations are very much based on the context of the line. Sometimes you might want to look up a word on ordnett to get more synonyms.
I have found listening to as much Norwegian as possible while learning vocabulary in context very valuable. And with a novel like Niav. Super. which has quite simple sentences, it is easy to memorise some sentences to help nail down a certain word or phrase and you get to see it in a greater context. Hope this helps and gives you some ideas.
Edit: Tidied up a couple of things.
The new Murakami, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage", is a great follow-up to Norwegian Wood. It's a great read, pretty straight-forward and follows characters similar to those in Norwegian Wood. Very popular at the moment so lots of discussion too.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008OIRMXI this is the US link
also also also also: Veins
Popular music from Vittula
The Dwarf
You should also do a book. Like this one.
Mention not getting Luanns linen from Ross and Gorga pasta sauce😷.
If you like the style of writing on these posts check out his book Veins. Very similar humor/writing style.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004W8D8JQ/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1334082279&sr=8-1
Readers' reviews here: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Naomi-Alderman/dp/0316547611
There's a twist, as written by a commenter: "Alderman frames her novel with a satirical device. We are now in a future where women have been in charge for thousands of years, and one Neil Adam Armon, a member of The Men Writers Association (male novelists being so rare and unexpected a breed that they have to be labeled as such), is showing an historical novel to his mentor, an eminent author by the name of “Naomi Alderman.” Neil’s manuscript, The Power, purports to trace the origins of the matriarchy, positing an earlier age in which men were the ruling gender."
However, it's hard to understand that if women have been in power for thousands of years (and a male sets out to inform people that patriarchy once ruled), a young woman would have been sexually abused by her own father in the current scenario. Also, the fact that the author uses her own name in a work of fiction as a famous author mentoring a male is a bit over the top, as is "the power" which appears "all of a sudden" in young women.
It seems that under female rule, people still are living as they always have, except doing the same things men always have done, with crime, dissension, abuse, etc, which is disturbing that nothing changed for thousands of years of female rule. Is she saying that women and men think alike? That both sexes come from the same place?
I'll have to see if my local library has a copy.
Just another recommendation for China Mountain Zhang. It's seriously an excellent novel.
Moving Mars by Greg Bear. Similar to Red Mars in a lot of ways, but with a focus on one narrator.
Edited to add China Mountain Zhang by Marueen McHugh. Different glimpses of life after humans have colonised Mars, both on Mars and Earth.
It really depends on what you are interested in. There is quite a lot to choose from, even in English.
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder is a great novel, especially if you're interested in philosophy. Although I first read it as a teenager; so it could be I remember it with rose tinted glasses.
Popular Music from Vittula Is a really funny coming-of-age story set in rural Sweden in the 1960s.
You could try Hunger by Knut Hamsun if you want a classic.
Naiv Super - Erlend Loe
This version has some of the vocab translated into English on the sides which makes it perfect for a beginner.
Edit: Erland > Erlend
Here's a link for us Merkins: www.amazon.com/Elpis-Aaron-McGowan-ebook/dp/B008OIRMXI
These 3 books are about societies in transition to a post-human society, a post-scarcity society, or something unfathomable:
Blood Music by Greg Bear.
Nexus by Ramez Naam.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
This book is about designing and training an intelligent machine:
When HARLIE was One by David Gerrold.
Does anyone know what the downside of converting Amazon.com to Amazon.com.au is? When I went to check out this book from OP's link, it asked me to convert my Amazon.com to Amazon.com.au (for eBooks only, I believe). I'm sure there's a downside to this, and I noticed I can still get this book for $0 on Amazon.com, so it seems like there would be no point converting?
I'm pretty sure Jeff Wheeler's entire catalog is available in KU. Love him. I especially enjoy the Kingfountain series, which starts out heavily inspired by Richard III, except he wins at Bosworth.
This book looks really good, and ive read others by this author and really enjoyed them!
(not an ebook but is less than $10)
Gstepl by Rory Marinich?
I loved that book! You should try reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Submarine.
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly is excellent.
The Book of Flying by Keith Miller
Railsea by China Miéville http://www.amazon.com/Railsea-China-Mieville/dp/0345524535
As a random aside, Quill have you read or heard of Railsea by China Mieville? The use of weird/peculiar "oceans" reminds me of that novel.
Nicole Krauss - The History of Love
I hardly ever cry during a book, but this one had me tearing up on the subway.
Amazon pay Jerron right meow!
A used hardcover copy of this book is less than $5!
If anyone's wondering, the book this assignment is on is John Connolly's "The Book of Lost Things" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Lost-Things-Novel/dp/0743298853)
A story of a young boy who loses his mother, and in an ill fated attempt to be reunited with her, is transported to a magical parallel world populated with creatures and characters that are twisted facsimiles of those in the fables and fairies tales his mother read to him.
Not at all a bad book, but I preferred Stephen King's "The Talisman" and Neil Gaiman's "Stardust" which both share similar themes, but are (in my opinion at least) better written.
Does she have a kindle, or other e-reader? If so Jeff Wheeler has a couple of really entertaining series Legends of Miurwood and The Kingfountain Series that are free on Kindle Unlimited.
related sci-fi reading - "The Diamond Age"
This is a great book from the author of Snowcrash. If you haven't read either, do yourself a favor and pick it up.
Snowcrash was written in 1992 and predicated so much how the Internet works and how it affects our world that it seems more like near-term cyberpunk entertainment written around the early 2000s
I can only imagine that Diamond Age holds similar promise regarding a "replicator's" effect on economy, government, education, and class.
Hit up Benedict Patrick's Where the Waters Turn Black. If the cover isn't enough to sell you on it, its a standalone in a world steeped in fokelore/ magic where everyone has a magical gift they dedicate themselves to. Throw in a troupe of traveling performers, a plucky heroine, and maybe a monster, and you've got yourself an amazing book.
That was a great book! I can't wait for the sequel. Are you looking for those sort of 'young boy coming of age' type of stories? What else have you read?
I really enjoyed The Queen's Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler (the first in a new series). It's central character is a young boy who has to go live at the King's castle as a hostage to ensure his parents don't turn traitor. Like anything I've read by Jeff Wheeler, it's well written and I enjoyed it a lot.
Another suggestion would be the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. I loved this series and I wish Butcher would write more high fantasy instead of just urban fantasy.
It's all about the karma!
Aw, well I'm glad to hear you're experiencing the awesomeness and generosity of this sub first-hand! That makes me happy to hear. =)
If I win, I'd really like this book! Thanks for hosting this contest! =D
Bas Lag is awesome but I'd rather see him move on than run it into the ground. It doesn't look like he's going to run out of ideas anytime soon, he's been publishing regularly. I think I'm going to hit Railsea next.
This one just blew my mind. Sort of a Catcher in the Rye meets Bukowski type story. Very much like an r rated Zen and the art of.
27 here, and have been an avid reader since the age of 5. I probably read at least an average of 60 a year.
Currently reading (and loving): Elegance of the Hedgehog
http://www.amazon.ca/Elegance-Hedgehog-Muriel-Barbery/dp/1933372605
I just read Where the Waters Turn Black (I'm sick at home, no regrets) and it fits this category, as well as self-published, musician protagonist, fewer than 2500 ratings, and god as a character.
Hey all! Got a few projects on the go at the moment. Here are the dirty details:
The Yarnsworld is a place where folktales and fantasy meet. It is a place where monsters from stories are real.
There are currently three Yarnsworld standalone novels:
In They Mostly Come Out At Night a young man called Lonan, living in the mysterious forest of the Magpie King, dreams of his ruler's defeat at the hands of inhuman invaders, and must do what he can to protect his village.
In Where the Waters Turn Black a musician befriends a colossal beast, and the pair must learn to trust each other if they are to survive when the god of war pursues them across the chain of tropical islands they live on.
Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords is set in a city of morally conflicted masked swordfighters, and follows Arturo, a newcomer to the city who hopes to join their ranks.
Finally, myself and a few author buddies have recently begun a Dungeons & Dragons playthrough Podcast, Crit Faced. Feel free to check us out!
I read the first books of both the Murderbot and the We Are Bob series last week. Both are great, and there are piles of sequels as well.
Over break: The Power by Naomi Alderman. Fabulously thought provoking, so I'm going to assign it to my incoming first year students next fall.
Even though it is considered Young Adult, my vote goes for the KingFountain series. It is free on Kindle Unlimited (including audio). There are 6 books in the series. It is entertaining and well done. Narrator does a great job w/ the voices and it's a fun listen.
https://www.amazon.com/Kingfountain-6-Book/dp/B01MU2DVWN
The History Of Love
I just bought Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrammage on Kindle, plus I got A Tale for the Time Being and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena on Audible for long runs and entertainment while doing Christmas food prep :)
What to Eat looks interesting - would love to hear if you find it useful!
I feel cold on the outside but good on the inside. Had another amazing plate of the Gordon Ramsey scrambled eggs for breaky and I'm currently enjoying a cup of tea.
This weekend my SO is working nights, so I imagine I'll do some catching up on some Netflix I've been neglecting, maybe pop over to see a friend who didn't see over the holidays, and I'm definitely going to be up to my elbows in books. I've got 2 books (Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything and Haruki Murakimi's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage) on the go. I want to finish them both this weekend so I can start another (Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential). PLUS I'm starting a course on Tuesday so I'm trying to get a head start on that reading.
Since the weather is COLD COLD COLD it should make for nice, toasty, relaxing weekend :)
Thanks for this, I'd never heard of the Anki software before so will be checking it out for sure. Pity about the verb conjugation deck, but I'm sure the other you linked will be a great help.
I started off using BYKI; it's free on the web, or a paid desktop app. http://www.byki.com/category/norwegian
Naiv. Super - En Norsk-engelsk Lesebok, was pretty good, once you have some understanding of Norwegian. It has some of the more difficult words/phases translated in the margin. http://www.amazon.com/Naiv-Super-En-Norsk-engelsk-Lesebok/dp/0976307200
Alexander Beliaev - Amphibian man
Nicole krauss - Man walks into a room
Keith Miller - The book of flying
Percival Everett - Glyph: a novel
EDIT - links
Naiv Super
This version is made for Norwegian language learners. There is a glossary in the margins with the most difficult words.
https://www.amazon.com/Naiv-Super-Nelsbok-1-Norwegian/dp/0976307200/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1481048839&sr=8-4&keywords=erlend+loe
Amazon it, then click Surprise Me.
OMG BOOOOOOKS!
Books books books, and not a bookmark in sight!
Thanks! <3
First, you start her off with the obvious connection, White Tiger, then you delve a little deeper with The God of Small Things, then a triple KO punch of Sleeping in Flame, Bel Canto, and The Blind Assassin.
That reminds me of the joke in gstepl.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Power by Naomi Alderman (bonus for girl power!)
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (mutation theme comes later in the book, but worth it)
Poapulärmusik från Vittula has been translated to English tho. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1583226591?pc_redir=1411731629&amp;robot_redir=1
I'd like to point out that as a woman, I'm as likely to be alienated by a male protagonist. If I let that stop me, I'd miss out on a lot of great books.
As far as gay protagonists go... I don't remember reading a large number of books with gay protagonists. The one the really sticks out in my mind is China Mountain Zhang and it was fantastic. I certainly did not feel alienated or have trouble relating to the protagonist. I wish I could think of some others I've read... Now I'm thinking that I'm lacking in a category of literature!
This guy. You wouldn't expect it but he's a great writer that nobody knows about from Vancouver or Montreal