Recommendations (currently enjoying Old Mans War)

G

Gottaa

Full Member
Hi All,

With my new Kindle I find myself reading much more, taking it out at lunch (that sounds wierd), drinking a coffee and reading a book is a great way to break up the working day. Anyway I started on Old Man's War (John Scalzi) and really enjoyed it and now started on The Ghost Brigades which my kindle says will take me another 8 hours to finish. I think there is a third in the series (why doesn't Amazon tidy up the kindle store and make it easier to see a series of books and buy them in order) which I'll get but as I'm polishing off books quickly I'm after suggestions.

Happy to give any genre a go, or dive into some huge series

Thanks in advance
 
Cullhaven

Cullhaven

Hernes Son
Steven Frys autobiographies are very entertaining.

I really like Sarah Waters, Fingersmith being my favourite to date followed by Affinity then Tipping the Velvet (if you dont mind a bit of Lesbian porn). Her other two are a bit harder to get in to, The Little Stranger is a ghost story that dosen't seem to go anywhere and The Night Watch is a strange tale of different people caught up in the war.

I'd also reccomend anything and everything by Graham Greene,
The Comedians
The Quiet American
Stamboul Train
It's a Battlefield
England Made Me
A Gun for Sale
Brighton Rock
The Confidential Agent
The Power and the Glory
The Ministry of Fear
The Heart of the Matter
The Third Man
The End of the Affair
Loser Takes All
Our Man in Havana
A Burnt-Out case
Travels with My Aunt
The Honorary Consul
The Human Factor
Monsignor Quixote

are a few of his best. Cracking writer. Dont be put off if you have seen either version of Brighton Rock. The new one is an abomination of poor acting and nothing remotely like the book. The old one is quite rightly a classic, sticks to the book more, though not entirely and as good as Richard Atenborough is as Pinky, he is nowhere as evil as the written one.
 
Nightwing

Nightwing

Tenuous
Go to Project Gutenberg and pick up some classics for free. Tons of good stuff there in all sorts of genres, something is bound to take your fancy.
 
D

Dareos

The Bastard Thats Grinding You Down
Agreed Daery, you obviously have awesome taste in books, very similar to my own :)

Recently re-read those 2, no idea how long we will have to wait for the third.

Also read all the Jim Butcher stuff again, Dresden Files, really easy reading, working through the Codex Alera now, which is better than it sounds :)

I'm kind of at a loss myself now, read pretty much everything thats caught my fancy in recent years, am halfway through Stella Gemmells book The City and its not very good :( Really want to finish it as there are some great moments in it but cant say I feel anything for any of the characters at all.

So hanging on for Robin Hobb, George Martin, Pat Rothfuss, Jim Butcher et al to come out with some new stuff. Hopefully some of the serial writers will release some stuff to fill in the gap, such as Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Michael Connolly.

Oh, try Christopher Brookmyre too, amazing stuff, and he appears to be our generation, mentions a few computer games and so on during his books, and he is really really really sick and twisted, and funny :)
 
Swither

Swither

Full Member
I'm reading Scott R Bakker's The Darkness that Comes Before - finding it hard work though.

I think I'll avoid Rothfuss as he sounds too teen fiction and long winded descriptions for me. Does the main character excel at everything on the planet? Seems to be the gist from reviews.
 
Zeus

Zeus

Full Member
Janie said:
John dies at the end.
This book is full of spiders.
Click to expand...

read a bit of john dies at the end when it was a web serial, then lost track of it... so have bought it to read on holiday.
i assume this book is full of spiders is the sequel?


as for a recommendation...
first off, i second both jim butcher recommendations above (both dresden and codex alera) - both excellent series. ending of the 2nd to last book of codex alera is... 'unprecedented' is probably a fair description.

secondly, i've been really enjoying te Jack Reacher books recently, if you like fast paced thrillers. Dont judge them based on the terrible film with the terrible tom cruise - the books are much better. though right now i couldnt in good conscience recommend reading the most recent few as i found them a bit disapointing.
 
Catz

Catz

Catz is ebil *snigger*
Zeus said:
secondly, i've been really enjoying te Jack Reacher books recently, if you like fast paced thrillers. Dont judge them based on the terrible film with the terrible tom cruise - the books are much better. though right now i couldnt in good conscience recommend reading the most recent few as i found them a bit disapointing.
Click to expand...

I hate Tom Cruise as Reacher. He is not the character I built up in my head. For a start Reacher is no midget!!

Good books though :)
 
Zeus

Zeus

Full Member
Catz said:
I hate Tom Cruise as Reacher. He is not the character I built up in my head. For a start Reacher is no midget!!

Good books though :)
Click to expand...

given that Reacher is supposed to be 6'5" or so, and about 200-250lbs... :p
 
Janie

Janie

Full Member
Unlike the awful Reacher character from the books - Tom Cruise actually has charisma.

Steven Seagal would have made a perfect Reacher - infact I'm pretty sure his straight to DVD movie fodder are written by the same guy.

Tough guy with no personality - yet always gets the girl - check.
Never loses a fight, or gets beaten, ever - check.
Laughably all powerful, perfect in every combat skill required - check.
Stupid villains with stupid plans - check.

The one and a half reacher books I read are some of the worst writing I've ever endured! (And I've read Dan Browne!)
 
Corwin

Corwin

The Burninator
Halfway through book 3 of the Expanse at the minute, loved every second of it, awesome new sci fi by a James S A Corey

Leviathan Wakes
Caliban's War
Abaddon's Gate
 
Zeus

Zeus

Full Member
Janie said:
John dies at the end.
This book is full of spiders.
Click to expand...

have read these. very good. quite different to each other - the first really shows its roots as a web serial, feels very disjointed in places - but still an entertaining (and easy) read.
spiders, though, is excellent. deconstructs a lot of 'zombie apocalypse' ideas, as well being a very unusual take on such a thing anyway.
 
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