Reaver Reading Party by EmmaRigby

TALK STORY

Reaver Reading Party

POSTED BY: EMMARIGBY
UPDATED: Sunday, June 1, 2008 22:24
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Sunday, June 1, 2008 4:18 AM

I am currently bummed as I just finished a book and have no idea what to read next and thought, hey I bet others out there are in a similar pickle.

I hate finding new authors in case I find they've been a waste of time and rely heavily on recommendations from friends.

I thought that any avid readers out there could list their top 10 authors and anyone has similar tastes they could recommend someone to try next.

I'll start with:

Terry Pratchett (all of his are my most well thumbed!)
J.R.R. Tolkien (classics that I go back to time and again)
Robert Heinlein (again, never get bored of these)
Jim Butcher (the Dresden Files are a work of genius)
Anne McAffrey (a hold over from my teenage years)
Harry Harrison (love the Stainless Steel Rat series)
J.K.Rowling (I found her before she was famous!)
Eoin Colfer (too good to be just for children!)
Philip Pullman (ditto)
Val McDermid (psychological thrillers, a bit different from my regular fare but I fell in love with the TV adaptation 'Wire in the Blood')

Hhhm, on reflection a worrying amount of 'teenage' fiction on my bookshelf!

So, any suggestions?

Who else wants to join in?

___________________

Hissssssssss!

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 5:51 AM

ALLIETHORN7

Brian Jacques- Redwall is just too good of a series, even if it is a bit more for the dibbuns
Kevin J. Anderson- He worked on Dune books, and he has his own series (Saga of the Seven Suns) which I found quite good
Frank Herbert-Dune. No other words needed.
Stephen King- Just 'cause. I still need to read Dark Tower, though

Just thought I'd add in my own hae-penny

-Danny

Late night, Brakes lock,
Hear the tires squeal,
Red light, can't stop, so I spin the wheel,
My world goes Black before I
Feel an Angel lift me up,
And I open Bloodshot eyes,
Into fluorescent White,
Flip the Siren, Hit the Lights,
Close the doors and I am Gone
The Band of the week is... Thrice

Gott weiß ich will kein Engel sein.
http://www.myspace.com/otherrandomdude

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 6:11 AM

PENGUIN

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 6:30 AM

SPACEANJL

C J Cherryh 'Foreigner' sequence

Neil Gaiman

Terry Pratchett (of course)

Laurie King 'Mary Russell' books

Neal Asher (start with 'The Skinner')

Caroline Graham - the 'Midsomer' books are SO MUCH better than the series.

Richard Morgan

William Gibson

Arturo Perez-Reverte - again, 'The Dumas Club' (book) way outclasses 'The Ninth Gate' (film of)

Lisa Jewell - sort-of chick-lit

'Dune' and 'LoTR' are givens. Plus I can give a lot more crime recommends, from ancient world through Golden Age to modern forensic...

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 6:57 AM

CHAPTERANDVERSE

Have you tried Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy?

Funny, smart fantasy that I loved.

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 8:40 AM

SISTER

Robert R. McCammon - "A Boy's Life" - "Stinger" - "They Thirst" - "Swan Song"
Robin McKinley - "The Blue Sword"
Roderick MacLeish - "Prince Ombra"
Wilbur Smith - "River God" - "The Seventh Scroll"
Gary Jennings - "The Journeyer"

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head - good luck!

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 11:51 AM

FLORALBUNNY

Quote:
Originally posted by Penguin:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is why I love me some Penguin...

bun
Frisky Browncoat
...and if you're lucky they'll do it in that order...

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 1:43 PM

NCBROWNCOAT

Quote:
Originally posted by FloralBunny:
Quote:
Originally posted by Penguin:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is why I love me some Penguin...

bun
Frisky Browncoat
...and if you're lucky they'll do it in that order...

I love Penguin too.

If you like sci fi/fantasy give The Virus on Orbis One by PJ Haarsma a look. It's intended for middle schoolers but is a fantastic read.

Full Disclosure: I'm a member of KidsNeedToRead, Nathan Fillion's and PJ Haarsma's effort to get books to under served libraries. Also, any book on the at the KidsNeedToRead donation list is very good. The list can be found at www.kidsneedtoread.org.

http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 1:58 PM

EMMARIGBY

Oooh, loads of options! Now I have too much choice! Okay, could someone pick a fovorite and tell me a little about it?

Thanks!

I could give a quick hard sell to Jim Butcher for anyone who's not discovered him yet and is interested in fantasy/ comedy! But y'all are probably die hard fans already!

___________________

Hissssssssss!

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 2:41 PM

SISTER

Okay - Robert R. McCammon's "A Boy's Life" - is exactly that - a boy growing up in a small southern town in the 40's - there is a magical bicycle - a witch - a river monster that must be appeased every year - a boy with power enough to raise a dead dog back to life and the strength to give it away when he had to -a mystery involving a murder and a tiny green feather - oh, yes and a stegasauras. It was so good I wept when it ended!
"Stinger" - a dried up and dying desert town - a being fleeing from her galactic enemies takes up residence in the young daughter of the town's veterinarian - THEN the bad guys show up - fantastic!
"Swan Song" - total apocalyptic 'end of the world' 'good against evil' battle - wonderful.
"They Thirst" - vampires take over L.A. (or did that happen for real? hmmmm)
Roderick MacLeish - "Prince Ombra" - is just magic. Again bottom line is good-v-evil but the Chicago Sun Times describes it as "a combination of Tolkien and Stephen King."
For a bit of history
Gary Jennings "The Journeyer" - is a masterfully done epic (1100 pages!!) about the adventures of Marco Polo on the silk road and it is enthralling!! Honestly - it will haunt you!
and for some ancient Egyptian stuff;
"The River God" by Wilbur Smith is a rip roarer of a read - THEN - "The Seventh Scroll" takes place in 'modern' times but follows all sorts of clues, etc. from "The River God" so the two are wonderful together (River God first, of course). It's like something that Spielberg could have done wonders with (The Seventh Scroll thing - very Indiana Jones/adventure stuff with lots of action!

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 3:01 PM

SISTER

Forgot the Robin McKinley "Blue Sword" - it's about "Harry" a young "English" girl staying with an uncle in what you 'think' is India during the 'colonial period' - but turns out not to be India at ALL - unless there was magic - monsters - beautiful horses and hunting cats - and people that can do incredible things with their golden eyes - enough! I have bored you all to tears - these are some of my favorites, though.

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 3:45 PM

STEAMER

As far as fiction, I'm extremely partial to Alistair MacLean. His style strongly influenced the fanfic series I'm currently working on. As has the adventurous spirit of Clive Cussler (who himself has ripped MacLean off on a couple of occasions).

I'm also big into Tolkien, Timothy Zahn, Patrick O'Brian, Alexander Kent, Nelson DeMille, C.S. Forester....can ya tell I likes me some adventure thriller? ;)

Non-fiction always gets me with Jeremy Clarkson (of Top Gear fame) and Clay Blair and E.B. White, both of whom, IMHO, set the standard for naval historians.

Serenity has
Grace and class
She also has
A shiny....engine.
FIREFLY

Captain of the New England Browncoats
http://www.myspace.com/nebrowncoats

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 5:33 PM

ZEROKIRYU

I don't know how you feel about foreign books, but I'm gonna throw these out there anyway.

Boogiepop and others: I just finished this one, it's the first in a series of light novels, I loved it and I just ordered the next two. "There is an urban legend that children tell one another about a shinigami that can release people from the pain they are suffering. This "Angel of Death" has a name: Boogiepop. And the legends are true. Boogiepop is real. When a rash of disappearances involving female students breaks out at Shinyo Academy, the police and faculty assume they just have a bunch of runaways on their hands. Yet Nagi Kirima knows better. Something mysterious and foul is afoot. Is it Boogiepop, or something more sinister...?"

Battle Royale: Thrownig this in here because it's one of my favorites. "Koshun Takami's notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing."

____________________________________________
"No one would ever try to die on such a beautiful day. I know, you were trying to make yoursel taller, right? My father would often try to make himself taller. Whenever the debt collectors called and when the company went out of business he tried to make himself taller. And my mother also tried to make herself taller that one time when..."
"Uh...I believe you're slightly mistaken..."

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Sunday, June 1, 2008 10:24 PM

SPACEANJL

How demented to do you want to get?

For a long read, I would recommend the 'Foreigner' sequence. (9 books to date)

At first glance, humans stranded on alien planet, and the story takes up a century on...but there's so much stuff about assumptions you make with language and culture. (Plus some sort-of parallels with the first contact of West with Japan and China - but it's the sort-of's that get you killed.) Literate, thinking sci-fi.

Or...

For bonkers trippy crack fiction, try Neal Asher. The Skinner - what it is, what it does. A world where a strange immortality is gained through leech bites, and can become something else quite quickly. Sentient sails on the ships, big pink sea-worms with rhino heads, robotic war-machines that make Jayne sound cultured, man-eating crab-aliens...I have no idea what this bloke is on, but his stuff is fantastic.

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