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Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

chitownjazz said:
Just finished up Moon Fetus. Looking forward to diving into Star Bracelets this weekend. Both by Ronald Chevalier
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You'll have to check out his new release, I think it's called Bronconius and Balzac.
 
gregbroncs said:
Thought I would revive this thread.

I have been reading Brandon Sanderson lately. (He's the guy completing the series for Robert Jordan)

I really like this author. Elantris was a really good read. I am now reading the mistborn trilogy and it's very entertaining. These books really move. Lots of action keep me interested throughout and very well written.

Unfortunately he does not have many books out yet. But I would highly recommend these books for anybody into this genre. For me they are right up there with Robin Hobb and Terry Brooks. Two of my favorite authors.
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Who the heck was it who recommended Hobb in the thread on the old board, anyway? Was that you? I don't remember. But I'm sure glad I picked those up. Right up there with my favorite fantasy ever.

Not so sure about Brooks. All I ever read was Sword of Shannara, and I just couldn't get over what a huge Tolkien ripoff it was. But I hear (possibly again from this board, I don't remember) that his books get better and more original after that first one.
 
AtheistPreacher said:
Who the heck was it who recommended Hobb in the thread on the old board, anyway? Was that you? I don't remember. But I'm sure glad I picked those up. Right up there with my favorite fantasy ever.

Not so sure about Brooks. All I ever read was Sword of Shannara, and I just couldn't get over what a huge Tolkien ripoff it was. But I hear (possibly again from this board, I don't remember) that his books get better and more original after that first one.
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Haha. I actually thought it was you who recommended her. She became one of my favorite authors because of that thread. Maybe it was Colton he had lots of recommendations in that thread as well.

Terry Brooks I read before that thread, I really like his books. And yes his books got better. Sword of Shannara was a complete LOR rip off. After than they get much more original and much better.
 
As a related note--I just recently purchased C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy and am looking forward to re-reading them. (They were a rec from AtheistPreacher in the original thread.)
 
Heh, I'm the one who gets credit for recommending Hobb. Glad so many of you liked her. I've been reading her Rain Wild Chronicles and waiting for book 3 to come out. Not as good as Fitz and Fool were, though.

Have you read anything by Barry Hughart, AP? He wrote Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. They're oldies but goodies and not very well known. I still think you'd enjoy his writing very much. It's kind of a cross between Chinese mythology, mystery and humor. Not a typical fantasy the way we think of fantasy now. It doesn't have a specific genre where it fits. But if you run across anything by him in a used bookstore give it a try.
 
colton said:
As a related note--I just recently purchased C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy and am looking forward to re-reading them. (They were a rec from AtheistPreacher in the original thread.)
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Looks like we're all misremembering. I've never read anything by C.S. Friedman! :)
 
Jazz Traveler said:
Heh, I'm the one who gets credit for recommending Hobb. Glad so many of you liked her. I've been reading her Rain Wild Chronicles and waiting for book 3 to come out. Not as good as Fitz and Fool were, though.

Have you read anything by Barry Hughart, AP? He wrote Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. They're oldies but goodies and not very well known. I still think you'd enjoy his writing very much. It's kind of a cross between Chinese mythology, mystery and humor. Not a typical fantasy the way we think of fantasy now. It doesn't have a specific genre where it fits. But if you run across anything by him in a used bookstore give it a try.
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Ah, yes, Jazz Traveler, of course of course. Now I remember. Thanks be to you. I actually haven't picked up Rain Wild Chronicles yet... I've been busy with grad school anyway, and thought I might wait until the series was finished. And honestly, I was a little disappointed by the Soldier Son Trilogy. It had its moments... but it was very experimental in some ways, and ultimately a lot of it didn't quite work like I think she wanted it to.

I've just now added Bridge of Birds to my Amazon cart (which is my way of remembering to buy things later). Looks like it won the World Fantasy Award in 1985... that's good enough for me. I'll probably buy it next time I've got $25 worth of random stuff in my Amazon cart, so I can get the free shipping and all. I'll get to it eventually.

I actually have some Dan Simmons stuff I want to get to as well... I've mentioned already that his Hyperion Cantos novels (there are four of them) are my favorite sci-fi, excepting maybe Ender's Game. Well, I've got three books by him on my shelf that I haven't read yet: Ilium, Olympos, and Black Hills. And then my roommate has some Sanderson stuff for me to borrow (Way of Kings, I think).

And realistically, I probably won't be able to read much fiction for a while, if any. I need to study for my German reading exam, and there are also some books I need to read by the professors I'm going to do my PhD with at Claremont School of Theology... just seems like a good idea to be able to discuss their work intelligently when I get there.
 
Jazz Traveler said:
Heh, I'm the one who gets credit for recommending Hobb. Glad so many of you liked her. I've been reading her Rain Wild Chronicles and waiting for book 3 to come out. Not as good as Fitz and Fool were, though.

Have you read anything by Barry Hughart, AP? He wrote Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. They're oldies but goodies and not very well known. I still think you'd enjoy his writing very much. It's kind of a cross between Chinese mythology, mystery and humor. Not a typical fantasy the way we think of fantasy now. It doesn't have a specific genre where it fits. But if you run across anything by him in a used bookstore give it a try.
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Thanks for recommending her. I also read the rain wild books. They are good, but not as good as the others like you said. Is their going to be a 3rd book? I was not sure after the 2nd book ended.
 
To chime in:

It's unbelievable that some knucklehead would make a list of fantasy books or authors and fail to mention R.E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft or Fritz Leiber. Ridiculous.

I didn't see CJ Cherryh mentioned either, her "Morgaine" series is very good aside from pirating the name Morgaine. An author that is not really fantasy but rather historical is James Clavell. SHOGUN is incredible. As long as I'm breaking the rules I'd also very highly recommend Herman Hesse's SIDDHARTHA.

Seriously, anybody that wants great fantasy/sci-fi should concentrate on books published before the '90s. There are exceptions, of course, but by and large you will find much better work from the old days. It's also pretty underrated how fun it is poking around looking for old novels in a used bookstore or library as opposed to shopping on Amazon.
 
I have most of Howard's stuff and wish I could find more. I have two 5-shelf bookshelfs stacked two deep but I am most proud of my Conan collection. Those books are tough to find though.

I tried CJ Cherryh but was just too slow for me. The one with the ninjas was ok.

I have the Chamberlain Shogun on VHS.
 
Well, it's been over 9 months. Time to give this thread a little bump and see if anyone else has read anything interesting.

For myself, I finally got around to reading The Dresden Files, and after a ho-hum first book, the second one hooked me and I blew through the rest in pretty short order (there are 13 books out at the moment). For anyone who hasn't tried these, do. They're really amazing. Up there with my favorite fantasy ever now. Hobb's Farseer and Tawny Man still edge them for me, but they're so different that it's really like comparing apples and oranges. Hobb's books are classic high fantasy, while Jim Butcher's Dresden Files are urban fantasy with the snarkiest and most sarcastic main character to ever appear in the genre. And Dresden only gets more and more sarcastic as the books progress. As a character in book 6 asks him, "Are you always a smartass?" To which he replies: "Nope. Sometimes I'm asleep." That pretty much sets the tone for the entire series. They're just damned fun to read.

Seriously, if you haven't read these, buy the first two books and thank me later.
 
Athiest I have to disagree on your synopsis of the "Wheel of Time" series. I think it is the best series I have ever read. Also it is not finished yet. They are writing the last book now. Should be out early 2013 (around March I believe).

Edit: I also really enjoyed "The Servants of Twilight" by Dean Koontz. Very creepy book. Finding it might be hard as it was written years ago and is no longer being printed.
 
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