Recommend a Book to Read

[The 12th Commandment]

KAO,

 

Have you tried Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett? If not, its a great mix of Gaiman's imagination and Pratchett's humor applied to the Bible's take on the end of the world. Five words: "Four Bikers of the Apocalypse."

 

That was a great read, Crowley was the sort of demon I could see myself having a drink with.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Anansi Boys are both well worth reading too, I could have just recommended anything Gaiman and it would be safe.   

 

Have to say, no offense ladyskinzfan, that the Pattison/Cross books just don't do it for me.  I love that sort of the novel usually, anything John Sanford, Kay Scarpetta is great, the Bones books, but Cross just irritates me to no end.  Course the master of those sort of books is Robert B. Parker/Spenser (with an s like the poet:P).  I wish there was a source for those old tv shows I'd like to watch them again.

[visionary]

Something I've been going through lately that's pretty good is Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series. 

It's sort of a cross between Star Wars and Game Of Thrones. 

 

(I've been listening to the Graphic Audio version on mp3)

 

 

I recommend Brandon Sanderson's stuff as well, but I'll give a shout out to a couple of his young adult books too, The Rithmatist and Steelheart, both of which are excellent.  The Mistborn sequel Alloy of Law is really good too. 

[Larry]

Now, if you like mysteries (they're more mysteries than crime novels) I've never read one of Greggory MacDonald's Fletch novels that wasn't fantastically good.

And Donald Westlake has authored a lot of comedy crime stories. Many of them based around a regular character, Dortmunder. (Several of them have been made into movies.) I would think that The Hot Rock would be a good place to start.

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

Now, if you like mysteries (they're more mysteries than crime novels) I've never read one of Greggory MacDonald's Fletch novels that wasn't fantastically good.

And Donald Westlake has authored a lot of comedy crime stories. Many of them based around a regular character, Dortmunder. (Several of them have been made into movies.) I would think that The Hot Rock would be a good place to start.

Is the old movie Fletch with Chevy Chase based on those novels?

[Larry]

Is the old movie Fletch with Chevy Chase based on those novels?

 

The first novel, yes.  And it kinda follows the plot of the book, too.  About as well as it could, in the limited time allowed in the movie.  Yeah, they overdid things with the "Fletch imagines he's an NBA player" things.  but the plot of the movie (Fletch, while undercover as an unemployed beach bum, working on a story, gets hired by Some Rich Guy, to kill the person who's hiring him.) is pretty close to the book. 

 

 

The movie kinda distorted the "feel" of things, though.  In the movie, Fletch is this weirdo.  In the books, he's much more the straight man, and weird things happen to him. 

[The Sisko]

Warm Bodies. It's a different take on the zombie genre. I didn't see the movie but the book was pretty good.

The Poisonwood Bible. Not exactly in your list of list of genres but a damn good book nonetheless

The Returned. I think this one is being made into a series.

[sherrardsd]

The Returned is already a series(TV series I mean, maybe you meant books?)

But also I just wanted to third (or second?) 11/22/63. I loved it.

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

Wow, so many good recommendations!  Great thread, thanks for starting it, Dont Taze Me Bro!

No problem.  I actually had the idea to start it a while back after the battle royal broke out in the thread about JK Rowlings lol.  Everyone was dropping books, slamming this/that.  At that point I realized that I have been so consumed with TV, movies, video games, etc. that it had been close to 5 years since I read a book.  

 

I thought it would be nice to have a thread with recommendations on good reads.  I'm going to check out and read a lot of books based on the recommendations y'all have posted on here.  I'm going to start with 11/22/63, I've always been intrigued by the Kennedy assassination and conspiracy/cover-up stories, I'm also a firm believer that you cannot go wrong when time travel is involved.

 

Then I'm gonna give Nowhere to Run a read.

[Thekyle1591]

Along came a spider by James Patterson is good. Same with Subterranean by James Rollins.

[Larry]

I'm also a firm believer that you cannot go wrong when time travel is involved.

Actually, I'm rather convinced that it's almost impossible to create a good time travel story, unless the author can impose enough restrictions on the time travel machine.

Now, I thought John Varley's Millennium (which was turned into a pretty horrible movie) was a really good time travel story. Precisely because of all the limitations he put on time travel. (I'll explain the rules he created, because they really don't take anything away from the story.)

Time travel is accomplished by two devices: "The Gate" is capable of sending objects into the past. "The tank" is capable of looking into the past, but not sending any objects back.

Limitation 1: The gate can only exist one place, at any given time. So, for example, if they send the gate back to Pearl Harbor 8:00AM on 12/7/1941, then they can't, later, send it to Washington, DC at the same time.

Limitation 2: "Temporal Censorship": Whenever the gate exists at any time, then the tank cannot view anywhere on Earth, at that time. If they send The Gate back to 8:00AM on 12/7/1941, then the Tank cannot view anything that took place, anywhere on Earth, at that time.

(One side effect of this: There are numerous times, throughout history, that the Tank cannot view, but they haven't sent the gate there. This means that they are going to send the gate there, some day. But they don't know why or where.)

 

And there's a smaller form of temporal censorship.  Whenever an object from the future is in the past, then the tank cannot view the vicinity of that object.  If they send a person back to the battle of Pearl Harbor, then the tank pretty much cannot view the battle.  But it can view San Francisco. 

 

----------

 

If you like time travel, I will also highly recommend a movie.  Somewhere In Time features Christopher Reeve traveling back to 1912, so he can romance an actress (Jane Seymore) whose portrait he fell in love with. 

 

It's not so much sci-fi as a gushy romance.  But I think it's a really well done gushy romance. 

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

Actually, I'm rather convinced that it's almost impossible to create a good time travel story, unless the author can impose enough restrictions on the time travel machine.

Now, I thought John Varley's Millennium (which was turned into a pretty horrible movie) was a really good time travel story. Precisely because of all the limitations he put on time travel. (I'll explain the rules he created, because they really don't take anything away from the story.)

Time travel is accomplished by two devices: "The Gate" is capable of sending objects into the past. "The tank" is capable of looking into the past, but not sending any objects back.

Limitation 1: The gate can only exist one place, at any given time. So, for example, if they send the gate back to Pearl Harbor 8:00AM on 12/7/1941, then they can't, later, send it to Washington, DC at the same time.

Limitation 2: "Temporal Censorship": Whenever the gate exists at any time, then the tank cannot view anywhere on Earth, at that time. If they send The Gate back to 8:00AM on 12/7/1941, then the Tank cannot view anything that took place, anywhere on Earth, at that time.

(One side effect of this: There are numerous times, throughout history, that the Tank cannot view, but they haven't sent the gate there. This means that they are going to send the gate there, some day. But they don't know why or where.)

 

And there's a smaller form of temporal censorship.  Whenever an object from the future is in the past, then the tank cannot view the vicinity of that object.  If they send a person back to the battle of Pearl Harbor, then the tank pretty much cannot view the battle.  But it can view San Francisco. 

 

----------

 

If you like time travel, I will also highly recommend a movie.  Somewhere In Time features Christopher Reeve traveling back to 1912, so he can romance an actress (Jane Seymore) whose portrait he fell in love with. 

 

It's not so much sci-fi as a gushy romance.  But I think it's a really well done gushy romance. 

That's an interesting take on time-travel.  Definitely unique and well thought out.  

[DCSaints_fan]

Agree with Larry on time travel...  I have yet to read a time travel story that didn't have serious plot holes.

 

I prefer interdimensional travel   Less inconsistencies that way

 

I used to like that show Sliders ... they would go to alternate realities ... I remember one episode where I think in the beginning of the episode they briefly go to an alternate Earth everything was the same, except the Golden Gate Bridge was blue 

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

Agree with Larry on time travel...  I have yet to read a time travel story that didn't have serious plot holes.

 

I prefer interdimensional travel   Less inconsistencies that way

 

I used to like that show Sliders ... they would go to alternate realities ... I remember one episode where I think in the beginning of the episode they briefly go to an alternate Earth everything was the same, except the Golden Gate Bridge was blue 

LOL, I remember that, me and the wife loved that show.  Until the last season, when the main character left and his chars cousin took over, that's when it jumped the shark.

[Larry]

My favorite time travel plot hole is "we have to hurry and get to the time machine, before it's too late".

It's a TIME MACHINE, people.

[LadySkinsFan]

To go with the Somewhere in Time movie, read the book Bid Time Return (or Somewhere in Time) by Richard Matheson.  Personally I like the movie better, so romantic, great scenery and of course acting.  It's actually my favorite movie.

[mistertim]

The Pattern Scars by Caitlin Sweet, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Triptree Jr (pen name for Alice Sheldon), Blindsight by Peter Watts, and A Grey Moon Over China by Thomas A. Day.

[The Sisko]

The Returned is already a series(TV series I mean, maybe you meant books?)

But also I just wanted to third (or second?) 11/22/63. I loved it.

Yeah, I meant TV series. In book form it was just a single novel.

[Destino]

If you like fantasy type stuff you can't go wrong with the Mistborn Trilogy by Branden Sanderson.

http://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Trilogy-Boxed-Hero-Ascension/dp/076536543X

I loved that series. Have you read Sanderson's two Stormlight Archive novels?

Read a few different Neil Gaiman novels after checking out the Stardust movie. It's excellent, American Gods and Neverwhere are also very entertaining. He's a good writer and his take on fantasy is different.

Rereading Dune right now after 35 years (yikes!) Just started but it's as well done as I remember.

Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane is short and totally worth reading if you haven't already.

If you like a dark fantasy, the kind without shiny heroes, Joe Abercrombie's The First Law. First book is The Blade Itself. Logen Ninefingers is as memorable a character as there has ever been in the fantasy genre.

[sherrardsd]

Yeah, I meant TV series. In book form it was just a single novel.

I mentioned it in the TV thread but the first season of French series is on Netflix and it's great. I'd definitely recommend it

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

So I got on Amazon last night to track my package of the books I ordered, it said delivery by Sat. at 8:00pm.  I just got on to see if it was in transit and it said "Delivered", I open the door and there is the package.  Great way to start off a Saturday morning.  Time to start 11/22/63.

[HogNose]

I'll recommend  The Yellow Birds,   It's a novel written by an American soldier and his experiences in Iraq.  It's a great read!

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Yellow-Birds-A-Novel/dp/0316219347

 

 

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, Debut Spotlight, September 2012: With The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers introduces himself as a writer of prodigious talent and ambition. The novel opens in 2004, when two soldiers, 21-year-old Bartle and the teenaged Murphy, meet in boot camp on the eve of their deployment to Iraq. Bartle, bound by a promise to Murphy's mother to guide him home safely, takes the young private under his wing as they move through the bloody conflict that "rubbed its thousand ribs against the ground in prayer." Powers, an Iraq veteran, eyes the casual violence of war with a poet's precision but without romanticism, moving confidently between scenes of blunt atrocity and almost hallucinatory detachment with Hemingway-like economy and prose that shimmers like desert heat. Compact and emotionally intense, The Yellow Birds joins a maturing and impressive collection of Iraq War literature--both memoir and fiction--that includes Brian Castner's The Long Walk and Ben Fountain's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. --Jon Foro --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

 

Review

"The All Quiet on the Western Front of America's Arab wars."—Tom Wolfe

 

 

[Gamebreaker]

Good Horror Novel

the Terror

http://www.amazon.com/The-Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316008079

 

About a pair of ships looking for the northwest passage in the Arctic that become ice-locked and lost. Cannibalism ensues, etc. 

That;'s the true story this is written around.

In the book however, there's something else out there.

 

Michael Connely writes good crime fiction..  he wrote "the Lincoln Lawyer" which Matthew McCaughnahey made into a movie thatI haven't seen.

the book is a terrific read, though.

 

Jack Reacher books are good, quick action packed reads. "Gone tomorrow" is a good one.

 

~Bang

I cosign this suggestion. The Terror is one of the best books I've ever read.

[Gamebreaker]

Here are some books I have on my Nook that I've thoroughly enjoyed, :

 

Illium by Dan Simmons - concerning the re-creation of the events in the Iliad on an alternate Earth and Mars. These events are set in motion by beings who have taken on the roles of the Greek gods. 

 

The Terror by Dan Simmons -  a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to the Arctic to force the Northwest Passage in 1845–1848. In the novel, while Franklin and his crew are plagued by starvation and scurvy and forced to contend with mutiny and cannibalism, they are stalked across the bleak Arctic landscape by a monster.

 

John Dies at the End by David Wong - this one is hard to explain, but it's freakin' hilarious and a good read. 

 

A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin - these are the books that Game of Thrones is based off. They are amazing! 

 

Daemon by Daniel Suarez - a thriller where the killer is a deceased game designer who's used his wealthy and influence to create a real-life game, forces it's players to play the game or die. 

[HOF44]

AngelMass by Timothy Zahn.

[HogNose]

The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove

 

The Civil War meets science fiction.  An interesting book and a fun read.

 

The story deals with a group of time-travelling Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging members who supply Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia with AK-47s and small amounts of other supplies (including nitroglycerine tablets for treating Lee's heart condition), leading to a Southern victory in the war.