[Books] Recommend a book

[Gallahadd]

Of all The Sandman graphic novels, "A Game of You" is my fave. Again its a story close to my heart.

Oh god yeah my first ever Sandman was "Brief Lives" which I still love to this day and it's 90% of the reason I love Delirium, it also features my favourite line in the whole series.
"Touched by her fingers, the two surviving chocolate people copulate desperately, losing themselves in a melting frenzy of lust, spending the last of their brief borrowed lives in a spasm of raspberry cream and fear."

spasms of Raspberry cream and fear.. how can anyone NOT call this man a genius

After that I went back and read everything from the start, once I hit "A Game of you" oh WHAT a book! it very quickly became my favourite, loved everything about it, from the twisted fairytale nature of the story, to the characters(especially Barbie, she's 1000% my type .... I know, there's something wrong with me) and the artwork, I must have read it about five or six times, back to back.

But then I got to Kindly Ones.... gunna have to move to black text I just loved the artistry behind it all, the way you KNOW what's coming, but still to the very last second you hope he's going to survive, but then it all goes horribly wrong... Gah, while part of me really hopes that American Gods does well and they make a Sandman show.. I just KNOW that it could never live up to the comic, no actor could do justice to dream in that end. Niel Gaiman really is a god tier writer, I just wish he'd do more . The way he knits together seemingly disparate elements of all the novels that go before it into one grand climax... the only word is Art, in the same way that I show Madoka to people that say Anime can never rouse an emotion, I show Sandman to people that say Graphic novels aren't REAL novels.

btw, if you haven't got the hint so far OP, read the Sandman! There's a reason it's the only graphic novel to ever win a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction!

[obdigore]

Season of Mists was the first one I've read and still my favorite, you just can't beat greatest toast in the history of literature "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." Best issue for me was probably "Three Septembers and a January".

For OP, after Dune there isn't much literature (sci-fi or otherwise) that can compare with it in terms of complexity or issues it raises. You could try Gene Wolfe and his Solar Cycle (it starts with four books, The Book of the New Sun (first novel is The Shadow of the Torturer), Wolfe is probably one of best writers alive today, regardless of genre.
Maybe Theodore Sturgeon's "More Than Human" (Sturgeon is weird, you'll either love or hate him), Heinlein is one of genre's greatest for a reason, maybe a bit dated today because everyone imitates him but still great, LeGuin's "Left Hand of Darkness" is always good read, and Zelazny's "Lord of Light" is really unique. My favorite is still "Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester, I was young when I read it and it started my unquenchable love for sci-fi genre. For light reading with great characters, Vorkosigan Saga is awesome. Oh, and read Lord of the Flies by William Golding, it won Nobel Prize for a reason.

Wolfe, although an amazing author, isn't real huge into character development. Especially since every one of his books is from the recollections of the protagonist, you can't be sure of the 'truth' of what is happening. It is one reason why Wolfe is such a good author. Anyone interested in Fantasy should read Wolfe, although a better starting point is The Wizard Knight duo. I also liked Latro in the Mist better than the Books of the New Sun/Urth.

[BloodyAngel12]

Oh god yeah my first ever Sandman was "Brief Lives" which I still love to this day and it's 90% of the reason I love Delirium, it also features my favourite line in the whole series.
"Touched by her fingers, the two surviving chocolate people copulate desperately, losing themselves in a melting frenzy of lust, spending the last of their brief borrowed lives in a spasm of raspberry cream and fear."

spasms of Raspberry cream and fear.. how can anyone NOT call this man a genius

After that I went back and read everything from the start, once I hit "A Game of you" oh WHAT a book! it very quickly became my favourite, loved everything about it, from the twisted fairytale nature of the story, to the characters(especially Barbie, she's 1000% my type .... I know, there's something wrong with me) and the artwork, I must have read it about five or six times, back to back.

But then I got to Kindly Ones.... gunna have to move to black text I just loved the artistry behind it all, the way you KNOW what's coming, but still to the very last second you hope he's going to survive, but then it all goes horribly wrong... Gah, while part of me really hopes that American Gods does well and they make a Sandman show.. I just KNOW that it could never live up to the comic, no actor could do justice to dream in that end. Niel Gaiman really is a god tier writer, I just wish he'd do more . The way he knits together seemingly disparate elements of all the novels that go before it into one grand climax... the only word is Art, in the same way that I show Madoka to people that say Anime can never rouse an emotion, I show Sandman to people that say Graphic novels aren't REAL novels.

btw, if you haven't got the hint so far OP, read the Sandman! There's a reason it's the only graphic novel to ever win a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction!

For me the whole Wanda thing Seeing her with Death as she should of been has me in tears every dam time.

Your right no one can play Dream because hes just so other worldly.

It was my first graphic novel and i get as many people to read it. They are always saying i love his Dr Who episodes, i tell them go read The Sandman.

[Gallahadd]

For me the whole Wanda thing Seeing her with Death as she should of been has me in tears every dam time.

yeah that bit was freakin amazing I actually had a GF who looked not unlike post death Wanda, not sure why I let her go...

Your right no one can play Dream because hes just so other worldly.

Aye, there's a great prefix to Kindly Ones, talking about how Graphic Novels are the ONLY format that would work for Sandman, citing one of the last panels, where it's just a shot of Dream's face, looking folorn, worn out and generally as if he wants to give up. Saying how could ANY actor do it justice, how could any writer describe that mood more perfectly that it was shown in that picture... You really just have to agree with him.

It was my first graphic novel and i get as many people to read it. They are always saying i love his Dr Who episodes, i tell them go read The Sandman.

oh god yeah, I was SO nervous when I saw he was doing an episode of Dr Who :S, I love him, I love the show, but I just think back to William Gibson's episodes of the X files and shudder at the awfulness, but thankfully Niel Gaiman turned out to be the better script writer giving us one of the best episodes of the "Matt Smith" season by far.

Now I think about it, OP Check out some William Gibson, he basically created the "Cyber Punk" Subgenre, read Nueromancer and the followups, kinda Sci Fi/Fantasy blend, very cool with some great characters.