Sci-Fi/Fantasy Recs Needed: Help feed my habit...

[dolorous_ett]

... I've just finished reading The Dreaming Void, the new Peter F Hamilton book, and it was great, but now I've run out of books!

Well, not all books in the house, obviously... but I feel like I desperately need a fix of science fiction or fantasy books - the longer the better, a series if such a thing can be had. 

Of course, I could reread Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series or any of his others, but I'm scared of reading them to death. The same goes for the other two Peter F Hamilton series, A Song of Ice and Fire, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and the more thoughtful Terry Pratchett books... 

If I don't think of something soon, I'm going to have to reread the Wheel of Books Time series, and that would just be plain sad. 

Any recs? Please?

Comments

[prelud.livejournal.com]

Have you read The Faded Sun Trilogy by C.J.Cherryh? I love it.
Or John Varley`s short stories - Persistence of Vision, for example.

[aella_irene]

Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths- Melusine, The Virtu, and The Mirador.

Anything by Elizabeth Moon.

Firethorn, by Sarah Micklem.

Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S Wilce

And I will probably think of tons more as I post. Ah, well.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

You already know mine, if you've been keeping up with my LJ: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher and Northlander by Meg Burden.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books? The best place to start with them is probably The Warrior's Apprentice - or Shards of Honor, which is admittedly not her best and very romance-based, but then you get to read the awesome Barrayar. Let me know if you want more details (or, you know, if you've tried her and didn't like!).

[aella_irene]

Also, anything by K. J. Parker

[krisomniac.livejournal.com]

ohhh, I was thinking about rereading Strange and Norrell earlier this evening. Decided to read a Sandman volume instead...

[tree_and_leaf]

Mary Doria Russell's "The Sparrow" and its sequel (which I think is called "Children of God"). A bit bloody and harrowing in parts, but very good.

[white_hart]

Have you read Naomi Novik's Temeraire? I'm very much enjoying it at the moment, and a couple of my FL also read it recently and liked it.

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

Mary Gentle's "Ash: A Secret History". I got a bit tired of some of the technobabble but the basic story is fascinating and keeps you going. Ash herself is an incredible character.

Also, if you want something really weird and wonderful, try "The Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Every conspiracy theory you've ever come across wrapped up in one neat package and presented within the (very loose) framework of a detective story of sorts. Warning for lots of gratuitous sex but then it was written in the early seventies.

Definitely second "The Sparrow", though I found the second one a bit too neat and tidy for my liking. Also really enjoyed the first of the Temeraire books.

MM

[tree_and_leaf]

Definitely second "The Sparrow", though I found the second one a bit too neat and tidy for my liking.

Agreed. It's what you get for trying to solve irresolvable philosophical/ theological problems!

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

and you didn'teven ention rereadign harry potter. awwww ***hugs*
adn all thse you mention...are thigns on my toreadl ist. ha! well...yo udon't sound like afrank l. baum lover.
have you red the neverendignstory though *ducks* or t.h. white. the onceand future king (oh y ouwill love that if yo uahven't reda it yet it's wonderful!)

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

eek, can I jump in here? I have barrayar and the vor game on m ytoread list. I jsut keep gettign confused with this chronological-order-vs-publishing-order discussion. so evne if the hint wasnt' for e i still thank you.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I've read none of those - though I have read Cyteen

Most interesting - will definitely look into them!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Fascinating suggestions all - and I haven't read any of them! My next bookshop visit is going to be interesting...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

*looks up entries in question*

You're right - those really do sound like fun! Must get onto them...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

At last - a rec to something I've actually read!

Curiously, this one is what's temporarily solved my reading famine - found "Cordelia's Honour" in my box of books for Oxfam, having read 50 pages and decided it wasn't for me. This time, however, I am hooked, and have already read most of Shards of Honour, which I have been enjoying enormously, though it skirts rather over things in the vicinity of the romance which interest me personally a bit more... Never mind, looks like Barrayar is going to be even more fun!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Good, isn't it? I'm just a bit worried I'll end up reading the thing to death.

I've heard great things about the Sandman books... but they all seem a bit expensive here - just a bit too much for me to buy on spec, you know how it is...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

That sounds good news - though will remember the warnings about harrowing, and wait for a week when I'm feeling robust!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I haven't - but it's going on my list now - it sounds really interesting.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I think I have Ash in my "try again sometime" pile - good to know that it's worth persevering with, as some stories take a bit of time to get into...

And I might give the Illuminatus Trilogy a try - though I reserve to skip over the rude bits if they are too rude (or too unintentionally hilarious)!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I really should have said "Harry Potter", shouldn't I? How odd...

You have a good reading list, by the sound of it!

I've never read the neverending story, so I don't know what you're ducking from! But I have read some T.H. White - The Sword in the Stone, which I enjoyed a lot as a teenager.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Um - well - I second Catherine Fisher. Anything by her, really. But also Sherryl Jordan's "Time of the Eagle" - an amazing book, right up there with her "Winter of Fire" - and Ursula LeGuin's "Annals of the Western Shore". These are all YA books, but well worth the time and attention of adults. Ditto Hilari Bell's wonderful (and scarily relevant) "Farsala" trilogy, which begins with "Fall of a Kingdom". And, of course, anything by Megan Whalen Turner.

As to books you've probably already read - have you read Jonathan Stroud's "Bartimaeus" trilogy? Or any of Kate Thompson's books (If you are in England, you can get "The Fourth Horseman" which isn't available in the U.S.; it's also scarily relevant)? Or Michelle Paver's wonderful "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness"? And then, as far as classics go, I strongly recommend L.M. Boston to anyone who loves both fantasy and beautiful writing.

That's probably more than enough from me! (Though I haven't mentioned Nancy Farmer yet, nor Mary Renault, nor .. oh, well. I'll stop!)

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

well, noteverythign you mentioned .jstuthe stuff you named thta was the big stuff. lie kgeorge martin and s o forth. i never even heard ofreynolds. i might have one of his books here. same for peter f hamilton...
well, i' mduckgi nfor mtehfactthat the neverendign story is a famosu 80's movie and i aassuem everyone i nthe world has read the book too. i ahven't seen the film though. it was just one of those books where i wondered why the hell i didnt' discover it as a kid. it will definitly still read good to you if you'ren ot a kid though. ti's full of fantastic messages but not i na preachy way nad not one character is a real mouth piecel iek i nsome authors' works. anyways ,it's abouta boy who finds abook i nan antique shop and rusn off to school to hide there ad read it..until he falls literaly through the pages and into the book.
tell yo uwhat? go to www.hmslibris.com. it's a page of reviews for ya and kids books inthe fantasy/scifi kind of field. inthe ahrry potter kidn offield i would first say but tha makesi t soudns liek it'd al lbe books ala hp., which it isn't. anwyay it's themed like a ship with acrew of good-book hunters. and i'm the treasure hunter who goes forthe slightly older stories. anyways, i left a review there last year. it'll have more tips foryo utoo perhaps...
and there's' the little prince' by antoin de st-exupery.
which i had toread in r ench for school. we'd bee ntaugthfrench i naway that made it impossible for us to read whoel books on our own, or at least we all felt to oscared to read stuff on our own, so that-oen ws one our teacher jsut read andtranslatedwith us. it is the most fun though. it's about a pilot who has crash-landed in a desert adn the one person he meets there is this boy that appears out of nowher and asks him to draw a sheep for him. turns out it'sa tin yalien fro ma very smal lplanet hwo has traveleld seven othe planets adn had alt of adventures befre he fel lo nearth, adn so forth.
can you believi have a hard time findingthe right englis hwords? we've ben droned on this-oen for months to get a nice backup when we woudl go to our oral exams. so i still knwo theauthor died i n1944, and istill know all the themes. it' mostl ysort of plastic knowledge though. I need ot reread it.)
and t.h.white is fun. al thogu the sword and hte stone is the funniest, adn i coudl see how kids loved that and perhaps woudl get bored during parttwo (of which iforgot the exact title.) I read an eition with all four parts. i knwo the second is about guineverre adn the nthe third and forth, wel yo ugetthe drift. it's acutally a huuuge fanfic of thomas malory's work and it's great on it's own .ther'also apart five called the book of merlyn but i haven't read that-one.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

I almost gave up on Shards the first time I read it - I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. But I am a sucker for a good romance, it seems, so I stuck with it, and then I hit Barrayar and fell in love. Hope you enjoy!

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Glad to help! The reading order issue is further confused by the fact that all the books have recently been reprinted in compendiums. This page might help with titles and reading order: http://www.dendarii.com/biblio.html#timeline

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

oh wow thanks!

[prelud.livejournal.com]

The Faded Sun Trilogy in .rtf
www.mediafire.com/?43w1xb1flgd

[caulkhead.livejournal.com]

Another vote for Temeraire. And L M Bujold.

Have you read Garth Nix's 'Sabriel' trilogy? Very engaging - and supposed to be YA, but I had difficulty turning the light off at one point halfway through the first one.

Robin Hobb's well worth reading, too. I'm not so keen on the new series, but the first three (the Farseer set and the Liveship ones) are excellent.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

That's quite a list - and most of them (with the exception on L.M.Boston and Mary Renault) completely new territory to me.

Sounds truly intriguing - many thanks!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I've yet to read any Garth Nix, though I think I've heard extracts on the radio.

I've read the first three series of hers, and liked/admired them all (there were bits of the Liveship trilogy that I found rather hard to take, but I could see and admire the logic behind them). And I do intend to try the next series.