The Book Recommendations/Reviews Thread::

[DC Tom]

On 4/19/2018 at 6:37 AM, joesixpack said:

EThe ringworld series

 

the red/green/blue mars series

 

evolution

 

 

 

Never a big fan of Ringworld, or Kim Stanley Robinson's books.

 

Except for The Years of Rice and Salt.  That book was brilliant, and one of the few where KSR's Buddhism fetish actually works with the story.

[RFL]

On 4/18/2018 at 6:47 PM, ShadyBillsFan said:

If you don’t mind sharing books with your wife / girl friend.  

 

The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon 

currently 8 books the 9th is in the works.   

A woman time travels 200 years back in Scotland to the time of the Scottish uprising and then progresses to America and the Revolutionary War.  

 

It is also a series on Starz cable channel 

Outlander, a great series on tv......the read is tough if you dont do gaelic lol

[RaoulDuke79]

I used to read much more than I do now. There were some classic books that I heard about and read that I came away very disappointing wirh. I don't want to sound like a Debbie Downer here, but a few of these books are  Zen and the art of motorcycle Maintenance, The Slaughterhouse 5, and A Brave New World.

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

"The Night Market"

 

by Jonathan Moore

 

 

If you like genre-bending types of crime novels, then I highly recommend this whole series of trilogy books: "A Poison Artist", "The Dark Room", and "The Night Market", all set in San Francisco and loosely connected. Each book is a little different from the others in terms of what it leans toward (horror, classic hard-boiled, and sci-fi), but all are still crime/procedurals, very tightly written with well developed characters and a great sense of atmosphere.

Just now, RaoulDuke79 said:

I used to read much more than I do now. There were some classic books that I heard about and read that I came away very disappointing wirh. I don't want to sound like a Debbie Downer here, but a few of these books are  Zen and the art of motorcycle Maintenance, The Slaughterhouse 5, and A Brave New World.

 

Brother, with your name and avatar:  please tell us what books did not disappoint!

[RaoulDuke79]

9 minutes ago, {::'KayCeeS::} said:

"The Night Market"

 

by Jonathan Moore

 

 

If you like genre-bending types of crime novels, then I highly recommend this whole series of trilogy books: "A Poison Artist", "The Dark Room", and "The Night Market", all set in San Francisco and loosely connected. Each book is a little different from the others in terms of what it leans toward (horror, classic hard-boiled, and sci-fi), but all are still crime/procedurals, very tightly written with well developed characters and a great sense of atmosphere.

 

Brother, with your name and avatar:  please tell us what books did not disappoint!

Scroll back a few posts and to page 1.

Edited April 21, 2018 by RaoulDuke79
Page 1 is now page 2

[Max Fischer]

1 hour ago, {::'KayCeeS::} said:

 

Speaking of Dan Simmons, anyone watching "The Terror" on AMC?

 

 Dune is required reading for anybody, much like Moby Dick, or any classic novel you can name.

 

 

 

Fall of Hyperion is almost as good as Hyperion. The third book goes off the rails. I didn’t get the point. 

 

I read The Terror. Great writin* and atmosphere but I think it lacks substance. I think the TV show is well done but it seems to run out of steam when you realize there it isn’t much more than a creature killing everyone. 

 

I havent read any any other Simmons mostly because I feel I’ll be disappointed. 

 

Same with Dune. I was surprised how much I liked it but never took the leap to read the next book. 

 

The Fifth Season series’s is good. First two are great, with an OK third act. 

 

Same for the Passage. First two are excellent but third ran out of steam. 

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

1 minute ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

Scroll back a few posts and to page 1.

 

My bad!

[RaoulDuke79]

3 minutes ago, {::'KayCeeS::} said:

 

My bad!

Edited April 21, 2018 by RaoulDuke79

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

10 minutes ago, Max Fischer said:

 

Fall of Hyperion is almost as good as Hyperion. The third book goes off the rails. I didn’t get the point. 

 

I read The Terror. Great writin* and atmosphere but I think it lacks substance. I think the TV show is well done but it seems to run out of steam when you realize there it isn’t much more than a creature killing everyone. 

 

I havent read any any other Simmons mostly because I feel I’ll be disappointed. 

 

Same with Dune. I was surprised how much I liked it but never took the leap to read the next book. 

 

The Fifth Season series’s is good. First two are great, with an OK third act. 

 

Same for the Passage. First two are excellent but third ran out of steam. 

 

Yah, I haven't read the third Passage book yet... again, i fear that it won't live up to my expectations... and I think that's what you're saying?

 

Dan Simmons perplexes me.  On one hand, he's a great writer.  On the other hand, I think he's written a lot of mediocre stuff.  I've tried to read some of his other books, but the only one I've ever finished is "Hyperion".  So there's that.  And I've only watched the first episode of "The Terror", so...

 

Well, Dune.... I think you should give the Frank Herbert Sequels another shot.  They're all interesting, but his son's books that continue the series are CRAP.  Don't read those.

 

I read NK Jemison's first trilogy, "The Inheritance Trilogy", and I respect her chops, but I didn't really like it that much.  I try to differentiate: she's got the skills, just not my thing.

[RaoulDuke79]

One  of the first serious books I can remember is Where the Red Fern Grows. 

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

Just now, RaoulDuke79 said:

One  of the first serious books I can remember is Where the Red Fern Grows. 

 

Talk about a brutal book.  I have four dogs, and just thinking about it makes me see red.

 

What was my first serious book?  I don't know for sure: what I do remember is my freshman high school English teacher, Mr. Bazzett.  He was awesome, and i thank him for initiating me into the literary spectrum.  All of a sudden, I could have an OPINION!  That's a kind of transformative moment in a young teenager's life....

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

2 hours ago, DC Tom said:

 

Never a big fan of Ringworld, or Kim Stanley Robinson's books.

 

Except for The Years of Rice and Salt.  That book was brilliant, and one of the few where KSR's Buddhism fetish actually works with the story.

 

Have you read Baxter’s evolution? I’d be interested in your take.

39 minutes ago, {::'KayCeeS::} said:

 

Talk about a brutal book.  I have four dogs, and just thinking about it makes me see red.

 

What was my first serious book?  I don't know for sure: what I do remember is my freshman high school English teacher, Mr. Bazzett.  He was awesome, and i thank him for initiating me into the literary spectrum.  All of a sudden, I could have an OPINION!  That's a kind of transformative moment in a young teenager's life....

 

My mother was an English teacher. She taught me to read before I got to kindergarten, and introduced me to orwell at age 12. I read 1984 twice in the summer before 7th grade. It’s the greatest gift she gave to me, if I’m honest.

[LeGOATski]

7 hours ago, {::'KayCeeS::} said:

LOVE Hyperion.  Haven't read any of the other ones, I was kind of scared they wouldn't be as good (stupid, i know).

 

Speaking of Dan Simmons, anyone watching "The Terror" on AMC?

 

 

 

I'm currently reading The Terror. 

 

Have the show saved on DVR for after I finish. It's a looonnng book, but very good.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

11 hours ago, RFL said:

Outlander, a great series on tv......the read is tough if you dont do gaelic lol

Fortunately for me my wife was a born Scotswoman!!!!!

 

it took a while to be able to understand her parents so I learned a lot.  

 

So, now what I don’t get she translates. 

10 hours ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

One  of the first serious books I can remember is Where the Red Fern Grows. 

There is one book I remember from high school.   Watership Down.  

Watership Down is the compelling tale of a group of wild rabbits struggling to hold onto their place in the world—

 

 

A better life.  Very political in nature.  

Edited April 21, 2018 by ShadyBillsFan

[RFL]

12 minutes ago, ShadyBillsFan said:

Fortunately for me my wife was a born Scotswoman!!!!!

 

it took a while to be able to understand her parents so I learned a lot.  

 

So, now what I don’t get she translates. 

There is one book I remember from high school.   Watership Down.  

Watership Down is the compelling tale of a group of wild rabbits struggling to hold onto their place in the world—

 

 

A better life.  Very political in nature.  

She has your back then, good thing.  I remember years ago a good friend, a true scottie, introduced me to his parents after I dropped him off after work. We sat and my friend offers tea anyone?.......he then gets up and says, “I’ll be mum”, and proceeds to pour the tea for us. ‘Mum’ stuck with him for awhile on the job......

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

3 minutes ago, RFL said:

She has your back then, good thing.  I remember years ago a good friend, a true scottie, introduced me to his parents after I dropped him off after work. We sat and my friend offers tea anyone?.......he then gets up and says, “I’ll be mum”, and proceeds to pour the tea for us. ‘Mum’ stuck with him for awhile on the job......

Tea is usually the term for dinner.  

 

You have ro apecify a “cup” of tea 

[Greybeard]

20 minutes ago, ShadyBillsFan said:

Tea is usually the term for dinner.  

 

You have ro apecify a “cup” of tea 

       As a big Kinks fan, I could not resist.

 

      

 

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

12 hours ago, LeGOATski said:

I'm currently reading The Terror. 

 

Have the show saved on DVR for after I finish. It's a looonnng book, but very good.

 

Cool, let us know what you think at the end !  Like I said, I have mixed feelings about Dan Simmons, but when he's on, he's on!

[boyst]

17 hours ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

One  of the first serious books I can remember is Where the Red Fern Grows. 

#feels

#nostalgia

#takesmeback

Also Indian in the cupboard af

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

"Under the Skin"

 

by Michel Faber

 

 

First the obvious: it's nothing like the movie. almost literally nothing. But that's great, because i loved the movie and i loved the book: if one was like the other, I don't think I would have been so keen on either. The movie: more Kubrick/Lynch, the book: straight up Animal Farm Orwell. The book is almost exactly how I imagine great satire to be: less smug humor, and more direct gut-punch. But the beauty of this book is that it's so exquisitely crafted in style and structure and prose: the gut punches aren't gratuitous and obvious; they are expertly woven into the story and development of the situation, characters, and world. Little remarks, words, phrases that seem throw-away in that sentence become things of import later on, and everything proceeds in this fashion until the inevitable but not generically predictable end.

So: Brilliance, imo. A classic that people will still be reading many moons from now.

[RaoulDuke79]

44 minutes ago, Boyst62 said:

#feels

#nostalgia

#takesmeback

Also Indian in the cupboard af

Yep....I think Indian in the Cupboard was required reading.

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

"The Dead Lands"

 

by Benjamin Percy

 

 

I didn't really like "Red Moon" (Percy's last book), but I suspect if I reread it I might appreciate it more. Percy is kind of infuriating because he is completely resistant to writing a book any way but his own, but that's also his brilliance: he has a real voice that sings from the page, and when you couple this with the fact that he is, whether you like his books or not, a really elite writer, then it's hard to really rag on him for writing love/hate type of books. He pulls no punches and calls it as he sees it.

"The Dead Lands" is like a literary love-child of Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy, and Patrick Rothfuss: one part early Dark Tower novels for story gravitas, one part "The Road" for piquant emotional power, and one part "The Kingkiller Chronicles" for fantasy wherewithal. This novel is much more streamlined and focused than "Red Moon": the pages flow by very nicely, super-charged by his super-visual and oratory-like mode of description, which puts you into the scene-stew of the world in a way that very few writers can accomplish.

Recommended for fans of post-apocalyptic literature, unless you like your nuclear and viral holocaust homogenized and whitewashed like a valium-bestseller.

 

 

 

 

[gomper]

https://goo.gl/images/kF5Z66

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

4 minutes ago, gomper said:

https://goo.gl/images/kF5Z66

"The Last Campaign"

 

 

Edited April 21, 2018 by {::'KayCeeS::}

[gomper]

31 minutes ago, {::'KayCeeS::} said:

"The Last Campaign"

 

 

Thanks! 

[BeginnersMind]

This devolved into a mostly a sci fi and fantasy thread. The book that stunned me in the last year in that vein was Children of Time.

 

Three mind blowing comcepts in sci fi woven together for a great story. Maybe the best stand alone sci fi novel I ever read. 

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

2 hours ago, BeginnersMind said:

This devolved into a mostly a sci fi and fantasy thread. The book that stunned me in the last year in that vein was Children of Time.

 

Three mind blowing comcepts in sci fi woven together for a great story. Maybe the best stand alone sci fi novel I ever read. 

 

It did not devolve, thank you very much!!

 

Did you not see the last post before you?

 

And anyway, you're recommending a novel by a guy who wrote a fantasy series about bugs!  Yeah, I know him!  Adrian Tchaikovsky!

 

Not gonna lie, I've had "Children of Time" on my "to-read" list for a while now... 

 

We welcome all  here, but if you're gonna be a douche about it.... please don't.

Edited April 22, 2018 by {::'KayCeeS::}

[BeginnersMind]

4 hours ago, {::'KayCeeS::} said:

 

It did not devolve, thank you very much!!

 

Did you not see the last post before you?

 

And anyway, you're recommending a novel by a guy who wrote a fantasy series about bugs!  Yeah, I know him!  Adrian Tchaikovsky!

 

Not gonna lie, I've had "Children of Time" on my "to-read" list for a while now... 

 

We welcome all  here, but if you're gonna be a douche about it.... please don't.

 

Do you feel better for calling me a douche?

 

I have made two contributions in this thread, both in science fiction, because that's what the vast majority of this thread is focused on. It was an observation. 

 

Try being nice today. You can help make the world, and this board, a better place. 

[Dr. Who]

I'll recommend some older works.  Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy peters out towards the end (Peake was suffering from a degenerative disease.)  Nonetheless, it evokes a dark world of Gothic gloom and dead ritual, along with poignant, perhaps Dickensian sentiment that some may find bathetic.  I am a big fan of R.A. Lafferty.  Past Master, Fourth Mansions, and Arrive at Easterwine are three of his better sci-fi offerings.  His short story collection, Ninety-nine Grandmothers is also excellent.  Unfortunately, all these works are out of print.  The novels I mentioned are available at reasonable prices.  Lafferty's Okla Hannali is still in print;.  A tall tale history of a Choctaw Mingo (natural lord,) it is at times both hilarious and harrowing.

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

"Foucault's Pendulum"

 

by Umberto Eco

 

 

If you can relate to this novel, if it somewhat or somehow mirrors your own experience, then what may seem its opaqueness becomes lucid: a testament of a kind of inner transition from ego fever-dreaming to silent self-awareness. But even if you do not relate in this manner, it is still a fascinating literary quest-novel in itself, especially for occult history junkies or those who love grand, ambitious works written by genius-level intellects.

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

"The Third Bear"

 

by Jeff VanderMeer

 

 

"The Third Bear" is a collection of interconnected short stories: weird, to be sure, but perfectly so: clearly so and with astounding clarity-so. Horrific and uplifting and gorgeous and murky and sublime and brilliant and feelingful and astounding and grotesque and shining and murky and bright and glorious and sunk.

Jeff Vandermeer will still be read many years from now, imo. He is a master of his craft, completely original.  Also see his "Southern Reach Trilogy", the first book of which was recently made into a movie called "Annihilation" starring Natalie Portman.

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by {::'KayCeeS::}

[{::'KayCeeS::}]

 

 

Leland Crowe is a former lawyer turned PI, who got disbarred for punching a California Supreme Court Justice who happened to be having an affair with his wife.  Sounds like a bummer, and it was, but he's really more at home as a somewhat shady, gray area investigator, doing jobs for his former boss, the one that fired him after the brouhaha went down.  As our story begins, he's finishing up a case for said boss in a seedy area of town, and just happens to stumble upon a blond woman atop a car, fallen from the heights above.  He also sell pictures to the tabloids, and the picture that he takes of the mysterious blond lady ends up sending him down a rabbit hole of intrigue...

 

Jonathan Moore is one of <i>those</i> writers.  You know, the really unsung ones, the excellent writers who don't bank it commercially, but are lauded by their peers and their dedicated, albeit smaller, subset of fans.  He's known for writing sophisticated mysteries that bend the noir genre this way and that; his last three novels form a lose trilogy of stories set in San Francisco over the course of several years (with the last one being in the near future, with a sci-fi slant).  "Blood Relations" is a more commercial offering than any of these last three; first of all, it's in paperback, where the last three were hardbacks.  But second of all: it just has a more fluid thrillery pace and really sucks you into the story.  Which is great, but what sets Moore apart from others is the really adept block-stacking of his story-building.  Everything unfolds in as organic a way as possible.  The telling of a PI investigating a case could never really be realistic, but the way Moore leads you through the happenings and introduces the clues give the reader a very clear sense of the stakes at play.  There's never any point where something doesn't make sense, or seems unearned and shoehorned in.  Details that would be passed over by another writer are introduced and made relevant.  All this speaks to the technical strength of the writing, but Moore also has great style, atmospheric and tactile; I haven't read a lot of the classic noir novels, but Moore's style really feels like genuine noir, and not a facsimile.  

 

Like his previous novels, "Blood Relations" introduces some elements that are outside of the traditional crime scope, but in this case, they're not really genre elements as much as they are scientific ones, albeit perhaps stretched to give a plausibility that they might not realistically have.  The biggest criticism that you could have here is this kind of stretching: in doing so, Moore introduces elements and situations that teeter on the edge of being too convenient.  But that's okay in the end, because Moore is such a fine writer that the novel never suffers for this ambition.  Which is a hard act to pull off, as being a stickler for such things, I often find writers shoot themselves in the foot when their reach exceeds the story's grasp.

 

Recommended for neo-noir fans, especially those who like sophisticated, genre-bending type tales.  You really can't go wrong here.

 

[Augie]

OK, I usually read pretty mindless stuff. I love Grisham, but he can’t write fast enough. Patterson, Baldacchi, etc. fill the gap.  Got referred to “Where The Crawdads Sing” by a friend. TOTAL change of pace. About 2/3 through, and throughly enjoying it. It’s been a refreshing but emotional read so far. 

[EttaWilliams]

Finally, I found like-minded people and students. Thanks for all your recommendations. I will read it. Also, I found this great post to read and now, any book reports things to become easier. And my education too.

[LeviF]

Tampa by Alissa Nutting was a good piece of writing, and gave my soul the heebie-jeebies. I'm a sucker for debut novels generally.

[Dr. Who]

 

I like this one, but I'm biased because I wrote it. Give it a look on Amazon. Sci-fi fantasy retelling of the Noah story.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2019 by Dr. Who

[Benjamin Franklin]

This is mostly a sci fi thread so I’ll drop this in. This is one of the best books in the genre and fairly recent too. Its ideas and quality caught me off guard. 

 

Children of Time

 

It is about a human-terraformed planet where the terraforming didn’t go quite right. Earth evolution gone a little sideways. The sequel is just out and is also very good.