(Part 2) Best mystery & suspense books according to redditors
We found 10,006 Reddit comments discussing the best mystery & suspense books. We ranked the 1,773 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.
My name is Stephen Leeds, and I am perfectly sane. My hallucinations, however, are all quite mad..
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I just started the third book in the series, they're great if you want a novella length story along the lines of these two sentences.
One of my absolute favorite novels is Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost, wherein the narrators of the second, third, and fourth sections each begin by essentially saying, 'the previous speaker lied to you, but now I will tell you the truth...'
"In 1663 Oxford, a servant girl confesses to a murder. But four witnesses--a medical student, the son of a traitor, a cryptographer, and an archivist--each finger a different culprit..." https://www.amazon.com/Instance-Fingerpost-Iain-Pears/dp/0425167720
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.
Sleepless by Charlie Huston.
I liked Snow Crash a lot, but I never thought that any of his other stuff was as good. Not to say I don't like other Stephenson, just not crazy good like Snow Crash.
Daemon was awesome, IMHO. You have my upvote for mentioning it.
I haven't seen anyone mention Halting State by Charles Stross. Once I got over the Scottishness of the writer's voice, I thoroughly enjoyed that one.
If you liked Hunger Games, try Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. It's a trilogy, the third one isn't out yet. This series has similar themes and a very similar tone to Hunger Games.
The City and the City by China Mieville. Link.
Detective story set in a fictional Eastern European city. More than that I don't know beyond having enjoyed the first two chapters when I read them in the bookstore and having had it recommended over and over again to me.
My recommendations from books I read in the last year or so (yes, these are all VERY STRONG recommends curated from ~100 books in the last year) -
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Science fiction-
Derek Kunsken's The Quantum Magician (I would describe it as a cross between Oceans Eleven with some not-too-Hard Science Fiction. Apparently will be a series, but is perfectly fine as a standalone novel).
Cixin Lu's very popular Three Body Problem series (Mixes cleverly politics, sociology, psychology and science fiction)
James A Corey's The Expanse Series (which has been made into the best sci fi tv series ever!)
Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief series (Hard science fiction. WARNING - A lot of the early stuff is intentionally mystifying with endless terminology that’s only slowly explained since the main character himself has lost his memories. Put piecing it all together is part of the charm.)
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Fantasy-
James Islington's Shadow of What was Lost series (a deep series which makes you think - deep magic, politics, religion all intertwined)
Will Wight's Cradle series (has my vote for one of the best fantasy series ever written)
Brandon Sanderson Legion series (Brandon Sanderson. Nuff said. Creative as always)
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Manga -
Yukito Kishiro's Alita, Battle Angel series (the manga on what the movie was based)
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Non-Fiction-
Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind - Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (and how we are not as rational as we believe we are, and how passion works in tandem with rationality in decision making and is actually required for good decisionmaking)
Rothery's Geology - A Complete Introduction (as per title)
Joseph Krauskopf's A Rabbi's Impressions of the Oberammergau Passion Play, available to read online for free, including a fabulous supplementary of Talmud Parallels to the NT (a Rabbi in 1901 explains why he is not a Christian)
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Audiobooks -
Bob Brier's The History of Ancient Egypt (as per title - 25 hrs of the best audiobook lectures. Incredible)
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Academic biblical studies-
Richard Elliot Friedman's Who Wrote The Bible and The Exodus (best academic biblical introductory books into the Documentary Hypothesis and Qenite/Midian hypothesis)
Israel Finkelstein's The Bible Unearthed (how archaelogy relates to the bible)
E.P. Sander's Judaism: Practice and Belief, 63BCE-66CE (most detailed book of what Judaism is and their beliefs, and one can see from this balanced [Christian] scholar how Christianity has colored our perspectives of what Jews and Pharisees were really like)
Avigdor Shinan's From gods to God (how Israel transitioned from polytheism to monotheism)
Mark S Smith's The Early History of God (early history of Israel, Canaanites, and YHWH)
James D Tabor's Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity (as per title)
Tom Dykstra's Mark Canonizer of Paul (engrossing - will make you view the gospel of Mark with new eyes)
Jacob L Wright's King David and His Reign Revisited (enhanced ibook - most readable book ever on King David)
Jacob Dunn's thesis on the Midianite/Kenite hypothesis (free pdf download - warning - highly technical but also extremely well referenced)
I'm assuming that you're looking for stories set in a recognisable, modern or near-future setting, in that case:
You will love anything by Jack McDevitt. Especially http://www.amazon.com/Seeker-Jack-McDevitt/dp/0441013759
I plot out the major arcs of both the story and the characters. I make sure to nail down the essentials of what is happening when, as well as developing a good understanding of my character motivations.
For me, a lot of planning involves just taking the time to mull over the themes I want to work with, or explore questions I want to raise. This involves asking a lot of questions to everyone I know, everyone I meet. It makes for great party conversations!
It takes a few months, during which time I'll also explore what's already been written/said about what I'm hoping to do. I look at similar movies and books, anything at all that's already been produced that has themes or topics similar to what I'm developing.
I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of books.
As a concrete example, my most recent novel is about what would happen if everyone in the world stopped sleeping.
I spent months asking everyone I knew what the longest was that they stayed awake. I also read pretty much the only comparable thing on the topic, a fictional novel called "Sleepless" by Charlie Huston. I also read articles on sleep and neuroscience, as well as watched TED talks and other related videos.
Then I conducted a sleep-deprivation experiment on myself. I wanted to know what it would be like to not sleep. (I am a wuss and didn't make it that long- I need sleep more than the average bear apparently!)
This novel is in the style of World War Z (early title: World War ZZZ, huehuehue) and so it involved a lot of characters. Too many to keep track of in my brain, unaided.
I had index cards for each one, as well as drafts notes (using Scrivener- hurrah!). I got really comfortable with character creation. I read Stephen King's On Writing and O.S. Card's Characters and Viewpoint.
I was able to craft an overarching narrative by determining which characters would inject the story with which elements, and placing them where they needed to be. They got moved around a bit as I went on, but throughout I was very aware of the overall flow of the work.
Through careful planning, the actual writing (80,000 words) only took about seven weeks. I am a machine when it comes to word output, if I've done my (months and months of) homework. A second draft saw a lot of that cut, and more added in to bring it up to 86,000 words in three weeks of the hardest work of my life.
For me, planning is super important. If I don't plan well enough, I waste days. Days where my story goes off the rails, or my characters do things which don't make sense.
It's wonderful to see some things happen more fluidly, and I've had lovely surprises this way, but I always stop and think about if that is really what I want to be doing before I proceed.
I hope this long winded reply answers your question. I do enjoy sharing this sort of thing, and I hope it helps other writers do what they love to do.
oh man this is bringing back memories...
I forgot he also wrote (illustrated?) those books on castles and underground too
I haven't read it, but it sounds like you're looking for Quenby Olson's The Half Killed. I believe she also has a sequel (with an AWESOME cover) coming out soon if it's not already out.
Halting State by Charles Stross.
The best SF books I read published in 2014 were:
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.
The Peripheral by William Gibson.
Echopraxia, sequel to Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Lines of Departure, sequel to Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos.
Ancillary Sword, sequel to Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.
Cibola Burn, 4th in a series that starts with Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey.
A Darkling Sea by James Cambias.
China Mieville's The City and The City.
Once I managed to wrap my head around the concept, I couldn't put it down.
Oldie but goodie!
https://www.amazon.com/Underground-David-Macaulay/dp/0395340659
Rex Electi is a book she wrote based on a prompt here on reddit. There's also Prompt Me which is a collection of short stories from writing prompts. Here's her author page on Amazon.
Gillian Flynn is one of my favorites, and I group her with Denise Mina, Tana French, Sara Gran, and Elizabeth Hand. These are the books that I recommend to start each writer:
I HIGHLY recommend all of these -- they're all biting and well written and thrilling in different ways.
Interesting, I'm reading Cory Doctorow's latest novel, which comes from a (very) roughly similar moral perspective as well. It's pretty weird. Although in the fictional universe (medium-term future) cheap 3D printing supposedly makes possible the post-scarcity conditions necessarily for "decommodifying labor and offering every human the resources to flourish". But so far the book reads a lot like a communist Atlas Shrugged, up to and including the long-winded philosophical monologues. Maybe it will get better though; the story itself has some interesting sci-fi elements, so I haven't given up yet.
Never been to a reading, date or otherwise. Are they any good? I tend to like just reading my books, you know.
I have no OKC dating-related reading stories. I saw a girl on tram reading 'Infinite Jest' once and I wanted to ask her out so bad. But rude, so I didn't.
Some girl came to me at the bookshop and started talking to me once. I think she was flirting, but honestly, I was too engrossed in my book so I blew her off. Reading is serious business.
Right now I'm reading 'The Blockade Breakers: The Berlin Airlift' by Helena P. Schrader and re-reading Charles Stross's 'Halting State'.
I love Tana French! She writes a good, complex mystery that really sucks you in. She started with In the Woods. This is also the start of her Dublin Murder Squad books - all of them great.
Gillian Flynn, who wrote Gone Girl, also has another book out - Dark Places.
Also some of my favorites are Nicholas Evans (Horse Whisperer, among others). I've read most of Jodi Picoult's books (Leaving Time is pretty recent, and one of my favorites).
I find many of my books by keying in favorites on Amazon, and seeing what other people also buy. If you are a Prime member, you also get 2 free advanced books every month, and with a Kindle, you have the lending library as well. My Kindle library is out of control - I've been using Kindle Unlimited to keep that more manageable & it's easy for me.
The Hunger Games / Divergent / Ender's Game / Maze Runner series are great also, are fun reads, and give you a bit more time with the characters as part of a series.
I'd recommend Halting State and Rule 34 by Charles Stross. In form they are near-future poilce procedurals, in a world where virtual reality increasing impinges on the real world. "Halting State" involves a robbery in an MMORG that has real-world consequences. "Rule 34" involves a series of murders in Edinburgh, Scotland, that lead to a deep conspiracy rooted in a former Russian republic. The stories use the implications of virtual reaiity and online communications jumped up well beyond what we have now, and their representation of how virtual reality will affect everyday lives and police work will have you thinking.
If you want to a book by Stross that's just pure, balls-to-the-wall ideas, try "Accelerando" available for free, here. It's not representative of his later work, but if you want something to get you mind working ... it'll do.
My highest priority item is Insurgent because I got Divergent for Christmas and just read it last week and now I am dying to read the next book in the series!
If you like Name of the Rose, you should read An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears. In fact, I'm going to make that my suggestion, since it's in ebook form.
Like /u/caffarelli, I have several suggestions that would be great, but they're not in ebook format. A lot of academic presses seem to be really averse to putting their books out that way.
Oh hello, may I interest you in The Half Killed by u/QuenbyOlsen
It has all those things! Strong female lead in a Victorian paranormal fantasy with romance elements! It's a very atmospheric book, in this alternate London there's an unprecedented heat wave and I could almost feel the heat while reading. Very beautiful prose, really unique story - one of the only Victorian books I've liked!
Goodreads
Amazon
I spent the flight from London to the US reading Macauly's Underground.
Who knew sewers could be so fascinating?
If you're seriously interested in augmented reality and its future implications I recommend reading Daniel Suarez's Daemon and the sequel Freedom.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Its true crime. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can be considered a crime novel though it is more suspense. I can't really think of anything else to add.
Just to inform you and all german redditors:
Amazon DE has your physical copy IN STOCK: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1540338371/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1479481605&sr=8-2&keywords=rex+electi
Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.de/Rex-Electi-English-W-P-Kimball-ebook/dp/B01N03B1AJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479481605&sr=8-1&keywords=rex+electi
Your book will be on my wishlist for xmas ;)
Bought! Here is that Amazon UK link.
I highly recommend this book (and the two that follow in the series):
https://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010
There’s a great book called Split Second that deals with this and how sending something back in time for even a fraction of a second results in teleportation
4.Hey Bean! My mom makes an awesome gumbo! I wish you could try it.
http://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010
And stop making up fly fishers look like crazy assholes.
Meh. Only if they are troublesome. If they aren't a problem, why bother? If you disagree with me, read Legion by Brandon Sanderson.
Sorry it's actually, "The City and The City". The author is China Mieville.
http://www.amazon.com/City-China-Mieville/dp/0345497511
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_%26_the_City
Perhaps Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn would be something for your Grandmother.
As to Murder Mystery's I can recommen Scandinavian crime literature(I'm Scandinavian myself, so I might be a little biased). First I can recommend a series by Jo Nesbø, it's a link to the first book in his series about inspector Harry Hole.
I can also recommend Jussi Alder-Olsens series about Department Q It's also a link to the first book in the series. It's about a cop, who is not following the rules of the murder department and as a result gets put in the basement and have to work on old cases. It's quite good and surprisingly funny.
Somwhat of a classic series in Scandinavian Crime literature is The Millennium by Steig Larsson Series Series, which has a pretty damm good story. The first book is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
As to Horror The Shining by Stephen King is always a good read, maybe not gory, but it freaked me out, when I read the first time.
You can check them out and see if anything would fit to what your Grandmother enjoys. I hope you find something good.
You need to read Micheal Swanwick - Bones of the Earth. It is an awesome short sci-fi novel. The amazon description doesn't do it justice. Let's just call it paleontologist-time-travel-porn. You'll love it.
IF men call you cute and adorable, it means they're NICE guys, not crude gross pigs. But never, never, never never think that doesn't secretly include "extremely fuckable" and "sexy" too. They are just smart enough not to blurt out their very real pervy thoughts of you because any guy who really shares what a lusting horndog he is inside his own head that to a modern, intelligent woman such as yourself figures he will probably get tasered and maced.
Being around N's your whole life has left deep scars about your beauty, your confidence, even just making a single mistake in you. Does your university have a counseling office? go talk to them about finding a good therapist you can work with while you are getting your PhD. Being 5'1, looking young, AND having this headtrip from your N's means that part of your preparation for your CAREER you need to battle these demons asap. When you get out into your field, you are going to need to have the self confidence to be assertive and to function as the well educated, competent professional you will be.... you will need to command respect. The good news is a PhD takes years, so you have the time and space to do this as a "personal learning and growth project" before you are out there in the workforce. But you can do this.
Tell me how you like Mama Gena once you read her. :)
Edited to add: Oh, and if you like reading fiction... The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson... Lisabeth Salander is the heroine of this trilogy, and she is magnificent... and she has exactly your build.
I found China Mieville's "The City & The City" to be quite an interesting book.
That was the plot of a book I read. Someone discovered how to time travel. Problem is the time being traveled is very short, 45 microseconds, iirc. What's the usefulness of that? The object being sent back in time 45 microseconds, merely appears in our universe. Since the earth is constantly moving, it appears 58 feet from the original location. The original object being sent back in time remains, so it was actually used as a matter duplication device.
EDIT: The book is Split Second by Douglas E Richards.
In the Woods by Tana French maybe? The main character, Rob, becomes a homicide detective as an adult after having two of his friends murdered when they were kids (he was with them but lived and has no memory of the events). There is something with a shovel later on. It doesn't exactly fit, but it was a pretty popular book a few years back and I thought it was worth a try.
I'll add this thematically similar recommendation: Sleepless, by Charlie Huston.
It takes place in LA instead of New York, but it's about what happens when the city falls apart due to an incurable plague. In the novel, it's insomnia. The story bounces between a detective and an assassin. I love the book for its atmosphere and world-building, as well as for the way it answers the question of what systems and power structures emerge when urban civilization collapses.
You should really read "Split Second" by Doug Richards. It deals with this very subject, in a very very interesting way.
Chris Weatherman, the author, is a good guy too. I agree with /u/TheGreyWatcher that the first book in the series was the best but they're easy reads.
While less about the prepper's mindset or the journey you encounter in "Going Home," you may also enjoy Matthew Bracken's series, beginning with "Enemies, Foreign and Domestic" -
https://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010.
This is not exactly what you're looking for but may be close enough.
Jack McDevitt has a series of novels about 2 antiquities dealers in future. Typically they come across an unusual artifact or story. They then have to work out the truth in a similar fashion to the detective mysteries you mention.
They are called the Alex Benedict novels. They are an easy read but raise interesting questions IMHO. All but the first are told from the PoV of Chase Kolpath, Alex Benedict's pilot and partner.
I started with the third novel, Seeker, which won the Nebula award.
I've read them all and found them entertaining, though somewhat repetitive in some plot devices. You don't have to start at the beginning of the series.
FWIW Jack McDevitt has a second group of books called The Academy series. I've read a few of them and liked them but prefer the Alex Benedict novels.
Hope this helps. You might also ask for help in /r/printsf - a sub dedicated to written scifi.
Edit: I also thought of another story that contains an pretty good mystery. It's called Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future. It has a great ending.
Well, the gaslamp chart on Amazon is here.
Mine is The Half Killed, which is [here.] (https://www.amazon.com/Half-Killed-Quenby-Olson-ebook/dp/B00YWLVX4K)
Split Second
Technically it's time travel but it's used more as duplication - it's all explained in the book - great read.
I have an unrelated recommendation, William Gibson's newish book "The Peripheral". It makes no sense and I had to read the first seven or so chapters twice (they are short). But once it took hold and I understood it-wow. Its science fiction/cyberpunk. Amazing book. You have to be smart to get it. Its probably even a rung too high on the ladder for me, but I was able to power through with help from wikipedia and a slow pace. Its fantastic. Gibson once again reinvents science fiction. Check it out!
You sound like you know a bit about this stuff. You might like this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Sleepless-Novel-Charlie-Huston/dp/0345501144/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372710495&sr=1-13
I'm not very far yet but I've heard such great things about 'Sleepless' by Charlie Huston. Everyone has told me it's hard to put down.
A zombie-ish disease is widespread, but nothing like the normal kind. This disease makes it so that people cannot sleep. Without sleep your brain cannot function and you basically turn zombie-ish. There's also some kind of drug element that makes it so you shouldn't sleep, or something. So if you read this book at night you just want to stay up reading, but you're also terrified to fall asleep in case shit goes down.
It gives me some Philip K Dick vibes, too, which is always a good thing.
EDIT: Here's a link to the amazon descriptions, because I'm pretty sure I butchered my own description. Hopefully this interests you more!
Reminded me of the book Underground by David Macaulay. It has some really neat drawings of what city infrastructure would look like if we had X-ray vision.
http://www.amazon.com/Bones-Earth-Michael-Swanwick/dp/0380812894
Please Please read this one! It makes you feel as if you are placed among the Dinosaurs, you can smell the smells, feel the dew on your skin. It's a time travel book that places you back with these prehistoric creatures.
Hell Yes!
Unbuilding
City
Underground
Castle
Pyramid
Mill
Cathedral
Mosque
David Macaulay is the MAN. I
loved these books when I was a kidlove these books!Reminds me of a short e-book by Brandon Sanderson. Legion.
Scavenger hunts are too much fun! I should be working! RAWR! Thanks for the fun break =]
1.) Something that is grey. My name is makeup and I am grey! WL
2.) Something reminiscent of rain. This color is called "Naughty Nautical". Nautical = water, water = rain. =D?? WL
3.) Something food related that is unusual. Pretty sure most people don't have teeney shaped veggie cutters. WL
4.) Something on your list that is for someone other than yourself. Tell me who it's for and why. (Yes, pets count!) This is for my two parrots! My quaker especially loves dried papaya. I'm teaching her how to fly right now and have been using food as a reward, but we ran out of papaya a couple of weeks ago, and our local bird store has been out of stock for a long time. Turns out that Whole Foods doesn't carry dried papaya either. Rawr! WL
5.) A book I should read! I am an avid reader, so take your best shot and tell me why I need to read it! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I had heard about this when the movie came out in English. I liked the movie and then moved on with my life. Come this spring, I found myself facing a LOT LOT LOT of driving by myself, so I started borrowing audiobooks from the library. I borrowed all three of these books and REALLY enjoyed them. It wasn't at all what I expected. They're murder mysteries with a lot of themes about violence against women. When I learned about the author, it became that much more interesting. The author wrote these books with the intention of making 10, but died after the third one. They found them after he died. The themes about sexual violence stem from a gang rape he witnessed as a teenager. He never forgave himself for not being able to help her, so he channeled all those emotions into his writing later in life. Anyway.....interesting stuff. Good books. I recommend them :)
6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related! Pfft.
7.) Something related to cats. I love cats! (keep this SFW, you know who you are...) If I was a cat, this would be my JAM!
8.) Something that is not useful, but so beautiful you must have it. Dresses are admittedly useful for avoiding public indecency charges, but not really useful beyond that. BUT LOOK AT THE RAINBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WL
9.) A movie everyone should watch at least once in their life. Why? Not on my wishlist (it's on American Netflix though!), but everyone should be aware of the impact of plastic on the environment and our bodies. Education is everything. Plus, there's a newborn baby at the end.
10.) Something that would be useful when the zombies attack. Explain. 1. Stab zombie in the skull. 2. ??? 3. Profit. The reviews rave that it's super sharp and doesn't stick so it probably wouldn't get stuck in their skull like other knives. WL
11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals. I don't know if I'd use the word profound, but it would sure help me out. A big passion of mine is learning to ID birds. I'm pretty good at most birds, but finding information on juveniles is VERY difficult sometimes. I've used this book before to help identify birds in hand, but I think the information regarding juvenile plumage would help me identify young birds from afar. It's even part of my job to identify birds! WL
12.) One of those pesky Add-On items. This is an Add-On item, but it's also a hair addon =P Not on my WL, but I'm losing my hair like crazy so I might have to look into these >.>
13.) The most expensive thing on your list. Your dream item. Why? This isn't the most expensive item on my list (that was #8), but it's the one that would help me the most! When I do field work, I tend to have a lot of gear on me at once, and the extra strain of binoculars around my neck tends to give me some really freaking sore muscles. A harness would be MUCH easier on my shoulders/neck/back. I start field work again in October, so I plan on buying it for myself by then anyway =] WL
14.) Something bigger than a bread box. EDIT A bread box is typically similar in size to a microwave. This is larger than the average bread box.
15.) Something smaller than a golf ball. I am smaller than a golf ball! WL
16.) Something that smells wonderful. This smells amazing!!! I'm infatuated with cinnamon, but had to stop using cinnamon Crest YEARS ago because I developed a bad reaction to it. This stuff is expensive, but the company is very environmentally responsible and I feel good giving my business to them. WL
17.) A (SFW) toy. This seems pretty SFW unless you're playing Cards Against Humanity. evil grin WL
18.) Something that would be helpful for going back to school. I used sticky notes all the time in school! WL
19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be. I've obsessed with birds since I was 11. I've been obsessed with rainbows forever. I'm currently obsessed with sushi. THIS IS ALL THREE! WL
20.) Something that is just so amazing and awe-inspiring that I simply must see it. Explain why it is so grand. Hear me out! This baby can keep ice for DAYS. Sitting out in the sun for hours on end? NO PROBLEM! YOU'LL HAVE ICE AT THE END OF THE DAY!! Seriously, Thermos needs to pay me for how much I rave about their stuff. My water bottle has still had ice in it after three days AND being refilled twice. No joke.
BONUS
This beauty was made in OR.
fear cuts deeper than swords. She is my favorite character by far :)
Here it is on Amazon.de. I'm not sure what issue you are having.
Kong Reborn by Russell Blackford starts out as SF about cloning King Kong, then turns into jungle thriller with dinosaurs.
Thunder of Time by James F. David is a dopey thriller about "time quilts" bringing dinosaurs to the present. I understand it's the sequel to his Footprints of Thunder.
Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick is a story of really cool dinosaur time travel adventure.
You might try The Jaguar Hunter collection of stories by Lucius Shepard, although I wouldn't call these thrillers. They're psychological and social. The title story is sort of magical, and a couple others are about future soldiers in Latin America. I'm just trying to think of jungle stories, but I don't suppose these are up your alley.
I take it you've already read Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" and L. Sprague de Camp's "A Gun for Dinosaur."
I'm Horrible, but this book is not. Definitely has a touch of the military scifi/psych in it. I thought it was a very cool book!
Thanks so much for the contest!
Okay - then to start, I will recommend Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood, both by Margaret Atwood. They're part of a trilogy, the third book is due out this fall. Atwood defines them as speculative fiction; they're set in the not-to-distant future, and follow the downfall of civilization. I like Year of the Flood better, but both are pretty awesome.
For fantasy, I really like The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's a blend of celtic mythology, fantasy, and arthurian legend. Some people don't like that it's basically an homage to LOTR, but it's one of my absolutely alll-time favourites.
For YA dystopian fiction, I'd suggest Divergent and Insurgent - also a trilogy, not sure when the third one is due out, off-hand.
One of my favourite sci-fi series is Phule's Company and the following books, by Robert Asprin. I also love Time Scout by him and Linda Evans. His writing is ridiculously clever and witty, and he's one of last century's greatest writers, in my opinion.
And finally, I love anything by Terry Pratchett - his Discworld series is amazing. So very very British and hilarious.
The Peripheral comes out on the 28th here in the U.S. Gibson's return to hard sci fi/cyberpunk. A few people I know had ARCs and have said it's triumphantly Gibsonian.
If you like this kinds of stuff, check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0395340659/ref=wms_ohs_product
Tana French is excellent.
I would fully recommend any of her Dublin Murder Squad series. My personal favourites are In The Woods and Broken Harbour.
My first thought was this but the cover isn't similar. I'll keep thinking on it.
Sounds awesome, can't wait to check it out.
Have you read the book Split Second? It's really refreshing. I find a lot of time travel movies happen at the time of time travel maturity, but this book starts from the time of discovery. What kind of things can you do when you can only go back millionths of a second?
You were created from stardust that fell to Earth from two planets colliding millions of lightyears away. As your dusty parts drifted through space, you passed many obstacles that made you the being you are now. You passed a mirror, which reflected yourself in a way you wanted to see. You passed emotions; clouds of thick feeling. Through sadness and anger, resentment and love, humility and courage, empathy and passion- those particles infused into you. Your being emerged sporadically, through bends of time and space you envisioned your future life full of love and equality. Somewhere around Jupiter, you felt your journey coming close. As you slid along the rings, contemplating your readiness, you felt a lump. Something wasn't right. Something was missing. The mirror you passed earlier swept by you with a gust of wind and sparkles. You pushed out from the spirals on which you stood and lept for the mirror. As you caught it, you turned it to see yourself. In it, you only saw a unicorn. A majestic creature of fairy tales. You didn't understand at first, but as you stared into it’s eyes, you saw yourself. Just like a unicorn, your beauty and grace swept through you. Like electricity in your body, like lightning rushing from your heart to your fingertips. Just like a unicorn, there is no one else like you. Just like a unicorn, you can bring happiness to those around you. As you looked into the mirror again, the unicorn had disappeared and once again you saw yourself, but still you saw the unicorn beside you. You glanced to your side and pet it's head gently. Anyone could've been chosen for this life. But it was you. You vowed to stand for equality and love. Those emotions that enveloped your soul as you passed them, you felt them now like a tornado surging through your blood. You climbed atop your unicorn, ready for the adventures in store for you. As you galloped along, rainbows lit up a path toward Earth. As you landed you found everything you'd ever dreamed of- but it wouldn't be easy. You had to put the pieces together, like a second-hand puzzle missing a few pieces.
Now, you're working on that puzzle. You’ve got the edge pieces lined up. You've got a lovely SO. 3 cats. A community of online strangers to support you. It's up to you to finish that puzzle. Fill the empty slots with whatever you choose, because it's your puzzle anyway.
TL;DR You're an alien-unicorn made from planets colliding.
Item
Sprawl Trilogy, if you've been living under a rock.
Halting state (http://www.amazon.com/Halting-State-Ace-Science-Fiction/dp/0441016073)vis apparantly good.
See Daemon and more importantly Freedom tm for how the world works with game theory. Read them before they become movies.
Have you ever read the WWW Series? It asks and trys to answer these questions with a cool sci-fi AI twist. Gave me all the chills.
http://www.amazon.com/WWW-Trilogy-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/044101853X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1409325998&sr=8-4&keywords=www
Try the Audiobook if you're into that, it's excellent, multiple readers, etc.
I read Seeker which is part of the Alex Benedict Series in Spring 2011. Changed my life forever.
Read it apart of a science fiction English class and despite that I read it out of order from the series, it was fantastic.
The vision of the future portrayed in this novel is what I'd like our future to be.
Books! Yeah, baby! Here are three:
Daemon and
Freedom
by Daniel Suarez. The first was self-published, became a hit, and the second is the recently-released sequel. Excellent near-future SciFi about a tech billionaire who sets up an internet daemon to take over the world, basically, after he dies of cancer. Violent, thought-provoking, and absolutely worth reading. My wife liked them also.
The Unincorporated Man by the Kollin brothers -- also new authors; also very talented. The chapter on the "virtual reality plague" alone is worth the time and price of the book, but the whole thing is very compelling.
[Edit because I can't type more than a sentence w/o a typo]
The WWW series by Robert J Sawyer. 3 books, I couldn't stop. It's amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/WWW-Trilogy-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/044101853X
I've read something similar by a well known submitter on /r/WritingPrompts.
Here's a link! Your idea seems sufficiently different, just thought i'd show you for inspiration if you need it :) good luck
Cory Doctorow wrote a book about that recently, "Walkaway"
https://www.amazon.com/WWW-Trilogy-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/044101853X
'17
800 3.75 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40604388-walkaway
200 3.8 https://www.amazon.com/Walkaway-Novel-Cory-Doctorow-ebook/dp/B01FQQ47OC
> set in early days of a better world. /u/finfinfin /u/Ungreat
A lot of Cory Doctorow’s stuff deals with these themes. Check out Walkaway
I see you like Dinosaur Fiction, if you haven't go get a copy of "Bones of the Earth" by Michael Swanwick
Bones of the Earth https://www.amazon.com/dp/0380812894/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Wge4ybDEBYZW4
Gibson's new book The Peripheral is amazing. It's set in both the future and the future's future which is no longer the future's future once contact is made with the future's future's past. The two futures are connected by a murder mystery with interweaving plots in both times.
just finished the bitterbynde trilogy, lovely high fantasy novel based on the folklore of the british isles.
currently in the middle of cory doctorow's new novel, walkaway, which is shaping up nicely
Sometimes Stross is so accurate it hurts.
http://www.amazon.com/Halting-State-Ace-Science-Fiction/dp/0441016073
For a negative view of this future, trying reading Avogadro Corp.
For a positive view of this future, try reading WWW: Wake
I haven't read anything good in years and the things I have read are usually due to finding new books for my kids or reading the books that have been adapted to tv/film.
One of my all time favorite series was from Robin Hobb. Starting with Assassin's Apprentice. This was a difficult read for me at the time, but I loved the story behind the characters.
I started reading less fantasy after reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Millennial Series. I read these after watching the original films. It is fantastic. Just don't buy the fourth book, it wasn't even written by him as he has been dead for a while now.
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I didn't start reading those until Game of Thrones premiered on HBO.
Now for some really old school, Dragonlance by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The fourth book came out years later and was fantastic. I have read more than a few of the side stories, but the main books are the best in my opinion, probably would not hold up well today.
Currently, I have The Martian by Andy Weir and Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan waiting for me to read.
The Five People You meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom is a book that I consider a must read. I don't consider it a spiritual book, but it did change my perspective on how I view my life in this world.
I have read both, and count them among my favorite books. In the real world today governments already exercise control over us in ways that even Orwell could never have imagined. These novels, however are works of fiction that necessarily predict a dystopian future for dramatic effect.
Since we're recommending books now, I would suggest you read the works of Robert J. Sawyer specifically the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, and the WWW trilogy to see how 100% surveillance society may not be a bad thing.
To be honest, these are just some dystopia themed books I recommended because of Hunger Games. However, I could give better recommendations if you tell me more of what she wants. Young adult? Fantasy? Romantic aspect?
One of the biggest reasons I loved the Millennium trilogy was Larsson's use of Sweden itself as a character. Everything from the weather to Scandinavian minimalism helped make the story so much more real.
Following those, I ended up reading and loving Tana French's trilogy. The stories follow three Irish police officers (though the stories are more loosely connected than Millennium) and her use of Ireland itself is absolutely brilliant. Give the first one In the Woods a shot and see what you think.
Edit: My mistake. It looks like a fourth book was just published in July.
It's pretty light reading, but if you like the idea of an Indiana Jones style adventure in space (but with a bit more science), I would check out 'Seeker' by Jack McDevitt.
It's a pretty fun and engaging read.
Lnk: http://www.amazon.com/Seeker-Jack-McDevitt/dp/0441013759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291709470&sr=8-1
A Song Called Youth by John Shirley
Halting State by Charles Stross
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
Have fun!
>It's a little below my level
Lol, sorry but that is super hipster sounding. =P
Awe, now you edited it. =P
It's a decent series, not amazing like the Enemies Trilogy. However the Divided we Fall series brings up a LOT of what you guys are talking about.
http://www.amazon.com/Enemies-Foreign-Domestic-Matthew-Bracken/dp/0972831010/ref=la_B00350B7EU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453305557&sr=1-1
I for one welcome our (hopefully) benevolent AI overlords.
There is a series of books I read that deal with the coming of age of an AI. The WWW series. It is interesting, if not a little poorly written.
Read Halting State by Charles Stross for a really believable look into how this sort of technology could be utilised in the very near future.
https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Dragon-Tattoo-Millennium/dp/0307949486/ref=nodl_
Rex Electi
> Your last point is interesting, and I do like the idea of using someone's reputation as a gauge for future interaction and trustworthiness. Cory Doctorow's novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom takes place in a society in which one's reputation level is used as both a currency and an indicator of character.
You can thank the original cypherpunks with coming up with the notion. Another useful novels playing with the idea are Daemon/Freedom by Suarez
http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/B003L1ZXCU/
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0525951571/
> albeit not tamper-proof, that you mentioned without being overtly totalitarian.
It is in principle possible to store information in a distributed cryptographic filesystem in a tamper-proof fashion. A precursor to such practical systems is e.g. Tahoe http://tahoe-lafs.org/~warner/tahoe.html
StarRisk is good fun as long as you arn't looking for deep hidden meanings in your writing, because other than a few story twists it's fairly straightforward. That doesn't make it any less entertaining thou.
The Evergence series is a considerably more sophisticated read and you'll likely get some good milage out of the story on that one. Everything from ascended beings to cyborgs and super soldiers.
The two I was trying to remember are
Seeker: It's an exploration and discovery novel, so not particularly military in approach but interesting.
The Faded Sun Trilogy: This one is a retired military character that ends up in a fish out of water situation. It's admittedly very long and was a tougher read than I had anticipated when I picked it up but I enjoyed it even if I felt a bit burnt out at the end because there's so much going on and the pacing isn't that great since it's actually 3 books in one cover.
If you want to get absolutely insane milage out of a book series try the Otherland series. It's not a space opera but it's a heavy duty sci-fi regardless. For hard space sci-fi the Culture series is also really incredible and should probably be at the top of this list not the bottom.
There's actually a book with this very concept. Halting State by Charles Stross isn't exactly a good read (I'd put it in the 'bad' column, actually), but the idea behind it is very interesting. It brings up a rather compelling scenario with the government fronting role playing games as a spy operative.
edit: also I'm 'privileged' enough to live in the town that gave him the key to the city. It's a horrible thing.
That's part of the title
The Peripheral by Gibson.