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JohnT
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Capitalist
Mar 1999
time: 00:20
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If you like Space Opera, you could do little better than Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn "trilogy" (3 books in Britain/US hardback, 6 novels in American paperback). Mr. Hamilton posits a universe with a sizable (800+ planets and thousands of asteroid settlements) human interstellar civilization, a couple of cool alien races, and a religious split amongst those who use nanotech enhancements (Adamists (Christians/Moslems)) and those who use genetic enhancements (Edenists (Buddhists, Rationalists, Greens)).
Into this mix there arises the dilemma that the dead are coming back to life by possessing the living... and not just the dead, but the damned. Even worse, you are possessed only upon by being tortured by the possessed, and the possessed have almost a compulsion to release more souls from Hell.
Pretty heady stuff.
If you're into more pain than that, go and check out the 5 volume Gap series by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is a series that I implore you to finish if you dare start, because it can be a painful and repetitive read. But the repetitive nature has it's purpose, and things will be revealed that makes you realize you're reading a totally different story. The Gap series is a bravura performance in plotting and pacing, though you will feel every damned bump and bruise that these people suffer.
But start the Gap series only if you're man enough to handle the challenge. I do not recommend it for the faint of heart. 
Otoh, if you're looking for some wimpy 400 page "novel" to read, go with Sherri Tepper's Grass. It is one of the few novels where the protagonist fails in the crucial deciding moment.
If you want something even shorter, I'd recommend Margaret Atwoods The Handmaid's Tale. OMG, is this a good book! 
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SuperSneak
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In the land of the one-eyed
Jun 2000
time: 21:20
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I second Atwood's Tale, a great "what if" (right-wing Christians take over) in its own right.
Sticking with the female, I'll also highly recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" a Hugo AND Nebula award winner.
Though you are averse to series', I would be remiss if I didn't turn you on to the Riverworld series by Philip Jose` Farmer. An excellent adventure full of historical characters (Twain is a major protagonist) who all wake up naked and shaved on a global riverfront and proceed to seek its source.
Kerouac's Desolation Angels is a great wilderness to city introspective.
I might also suggest absolutely anything by a little known but extremely excellent author named John Fante, who was a Hollywood screenwriter to pay the bills, but wrote some wonderful novels, namely Ask the Dust, one of my all time favorites.
KW Jeter's Noir is a really good futuristic pot-boiler, with people obsessed with "plugging in" to the neural Net, and doing anything to get the latest and greates hardware.
Though I didn't like it much initially, I really enjoyed the whole Ender's series.
And, if you can handle a gritty, ugly world of archaic fantasy sans fairies and dragons, I recall Gene Wolfe's Executioner series....excellent, two fisted tale.
No one is complete without having read "A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K. D*ck.
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Rex Little
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Eddie Kantar wrote several entertaining bridge books. Not sure where you'd find them, though; I never see them in bookstores.
Humorist Dave Barry has written more books than I can count, every one of them hilarious. He even wrote a novel, Big Trouble, which was also hilarious. They made it into a movie which was out recently, although if you blinked you would have missed it. It was supposed to come out last September, but it had to be pulled after 9-11. If you read it you won't have any trouble seeing why.
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Mihai
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Bucharest, Romania
Jan 2000
time: 07:20
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'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card is excelent.
Also, the other two in the trilogy ; 'Speaker for the Dead' and 'Xenocide' are pretty good.
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TCO
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Richmond, VA
Jan 1970
time: 00:20
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quote:
Originally posted by SuperSneak
I second Atwood's Tale, a great "what if" (right-wing Christians take over) in its own right.
Sticking with the female, I'll also highly recommend Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" a Hugo AND Nebula award winner.
Though you are averse to series', I would be remiss if I didn't turn you on to the Riverworld series by Philip Jose` Farmer. An excellent adventure full of historical characters (Twain is a major protagonist) who all wake up naked and shaved on a global riverfront and proceed to seek its source.
Kerouac's Desolation Angels is a great wilderness to city introspective.
I might also suggest absolutely anything by a little known but extremely excellent author named John Fante, who was a Hollywood screenwriter to pay the bills, but wrote some wonderful novels, namely Ask the Dust, one of my all time favorites.
KW Jeter's Noir is a really good futuristic pot-boiler, with people obsessed with "plugging in" to the neural Net, and doing anything to get the latest and greates hardware.
Though I didn't like it much initially, I really enjoyed the whole Ender's series.
And, if you can handle a gritty, ugly world of archaic fantasy sans fairies and dragons, I recall Gene Wolfe's Executioner series....excellent, two fisted tale.
No one is complete without having read "A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K. D*ck. |
1. I'll look at some of these books. (Several that I don't recognize.
2. I liked the story Ender's Game best. After that, I felt that Card was going to the well too much. diluting what had been a kick ass story with a tough decision. I also felt that the later stories allowed him to have his cake and eat it. Much better to end with him eradicating the bugs and just wondering if it was right or not. More powerful.
3. Sometimes series are ok. Usually when the author plans them as series, I don't like them. As they are too long. And the individual books not enjoyable. I especially don't like series where the story is more about evolution of a planet or a family or a society. I want books about characters that I care about. Sundiver and Uplift War were ok. The next trilogy was too dense. I bought it and never read it.
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23-06-2002 07:27
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