Books

[Monoxide]

Christmas is upon us, and my family was asking what I'd like. Although I've been having a ton of fun with League of Legends/Hearthstone/WoW, and I would enjoy getting some of the items they have for digital sale, I'd rather request some physical items. Given the fact that there isn't a new Game of Thrones novel out, and I'd like to get some new reading material, I'm not really sure what to look for.

I've always enjoyed reading quite a lot, but at the same time it's not something I regularly seek out. I'm not hip to what the great books are out there.

So that's why I'm posting here. I figured I'd give a list of my interests and stuff, TV shows, things like that, to give an idea of where my tastes are, and maybe someone on these boards could use that information to make some good book suggestions for me. So, here we go.


TV:
Vikings
Heroes
Oz (HBO show)
Buffy/Angel
Pretty much anything to do with history, I love things like the Hatfields/McCoy TV special, Bonnie & Clyde, etc.
I enjoy Greek/Roman mythology, as well as their history. Things like Spartacus, etc.
I really enjoyed the TV show The Tudors
De Vinci's Demons
The Walking Dead
Falling Skies
The Tomorrow People
Sleepy Hollow
The Blacklist
Breaking Bad

I love war films of all kinds, generally fact based, but fictionalized is good too (think Inglorious Bastards, historical plot setting with a fantasy outcome, since obviously Hitler didn't die in a theatre). I really enjoyed things like Saving Private Ryan, Windtalkers, The Patriot (such an amazing movie!), We Were Soldiers

As far as books themselves go, I've always enjoyed Dan Brown novels, but my all time favorite series is Game of Thrones.

I'm really into the type of setting of GoT, Houses, Lords, etc


I'm blanking and can't really think of what more to add. For anyone thinking of contributing some ideas, if there are any questions you have that might help you make suggestions for me just ask and I'll do my best to answer.


Also, for anyone who might give a book suggestion, if possible could you please give a *very* brief overview (spoiler free!) so I can get a general idea of what the book will be like? I'd really appreciate that. I don't want to look up the book on wikipedia because they generally don't have a spoiler free overview,instead having an entire plot summary, and I don't want it to be ruined for me! I just want to make sure I'll actually be interested.

One last thing, I really enjoy series of books, rather than stand alone novels. That's not to say I wouldn't read a single book, but I enjoy books more when I can get really invested in the characters over the course of multiple books, like in Game of Thrones.


Again, any suggestions are appreciated, and thanks for reading!

[Tradewind]

Not to be a dick but are you asking us to tell you what you want for Christmas? :P

[Monoxide]

I'm asking for book suggestions. Not to be a dick, but did you even read anything I said? I'm guessing you read the first two lines and then decided to chime in. Not helpful at all.

[Tradewind]

I'm asking for book suggestions. Not to be a dick, but did you even read anything I said? I'm guessing you read the first two lines and then decided to chime in. Not helpful at all.

Well no actually I did read it and that's what I got from it. Maybe try the actual forum to do with books and shit next time. There's my suggestion since you wanna get all shitty about it. Sorry if that doesn't help, or something...whatever...that's my help, try the right forum.

[Monoxide]

I honestly didn't know there was a sub-forum for books, which is why I posted in off-topic. You seem to be a snarky asshole though, who isn't interested in contributing anything of value to the topic at hand. Given your general shitty attitude I'm shocked you've managed 9400 posts without being banned. Go do something useful rather than trolling people on a message board, like maybe jumping off a cliff.

[Tradewind]

wow, even after pointing you in the right direction...nothing but attitude and personal attacks. Stay classy.

[Monoxide]

I didn't have any attitude at all until you decided to come in here, contribute nothing to the topic at hand, and think that being a smart-ass is ok as long as you preface it with "Not to be a dick but..."


I just don't get people like you. You literally contributed NOTHING, so why even post? Just to see your post count go up?


Thanks for your "help", but you can keep it yourself next time.

[Tradewind]

I didn't have any attitude at all until you decided to come in here, contribute nothing to the topic at hand, and think that being a smart-ass is ok as long as you preface it with "Not to be a dick but..."


I just don't get people like you. You literally contributed NOTHING, so why even post? Just to see your post count go up?


Thanks for your "help", but you can keep it yourself next time.

So pointing out a sub forum that would be more appropriate is contributing nothing? And really your post came off to me as just asking for people to tell you what to get for Christmas, which seemed weird...all you had to say was "no." But instead you took offense to it and proceeded to just be a shit about it. Maybe there'll be some post to help, but it was just a question.

Here's a book suggestion:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ange...ate/1114891863

Consider yourself helped.

[Jackmoves]

The Long Ships is a classic viking novel, 2 parts. Pretty much considered classic here, you know the kind of book that you have read in your "swedish class"... at least when I was in school... it's shit tbh lol.... but thats about vikings. ;P

The Long Ships or Red Orm (original Swedish: Röde Orm meaning Red Serpent or Red Dragon) is an adventure novel by the Swedish writer Frans G. Bengtsson. The novel is divided into two parts, published in 1941 and 1945, with two books each. It is one of the most widely read books in Sweden, topping the charts of most loaned books at Swedish libraries for many years. The first part was translated to English by Barrows Mussey as Red Orm in 1943, but later editions and newer translations by Michael Meyer use the title The Long Ships. The book has been translated into at least 23 languages.

The narrative is set in the late 10th century and follows the adventures of Orm ("serpent"), called "Red" for his hair and his temper, a native of Scania. The book portrays the political situation of Europe in the later Viking Age, Andalusia under Almanzor, Denmark under Harald Bluetooth, followed by the struggle between Eric the Victorious and Sweyn Forkbeard, Ireland under Brian Boru, England under Ethelred the Unready, and the Battle of Maldon, all before the backdrop of the gradual Christianisation of Scandinavia, contrasting the pragmatic Norse pagan outlook with the exclusiveness of Islam and Christianity.

The Road, post apocalyptic stuff, humans eat humans etc.

The Road is a 2006 novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed most of civilization and, in the intervening years, almost all life on Earth. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006.

The book was adapted to a film by the same name in 2009, directed by John Hillcoat, starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

I'm reading a book called "owned" now... but not sure thats available in english, written by a dude called Carl Johan De Geer. It's about power and power relations, from the small scale stuff to the international theatre.

[Radux]

Moved to the correct forum.

[Monoxide]

Thanks Jackmoves, I'm definitely interested in both of those, and thanks Radux as well, again sorry for not knowing books had their own sub-forum.

[AceofHarts]

try the "Wheel of Time" series if you like fantasy based stuff. also check "The Way of Kings" and the "Mistborn Trilogy".

Wheel of Time
The Way of Kings
Mistborn Trilogy

[obdigore]

try the "Wheel of Time" series if you like fantasy based stuff. also check "The Way of Kings" and the "Mistborn Trilogy".

Wheel of Time
The Way of Kings
Mistborn Trilogy

WoT is just the stereotypical farmer cum savior genre crap that gets bogged down in minutiae.
Way of Kings might very well be good or great, but is just one book so far.
Mistborn is good, but not great.

OP, you seem to like more 'realistic' than fantastical fantasy, so let me suggest that GoT is the 'best' long series for you (even f I personally disagree).

I would suggest you check out he following, they are mostly going to be shorter than GoT, but honestly the writing is probably better once you take away the 'death-shock' that GoT relies upon.

'The Troy Series' by David Gemmel. It is an adaptation of the original legend, as you might surmise, and done very well.

'The Broken Empire' Trilogy by Mark Lawrence. It is about an anti-hero in the 'future' of Europe after what is most likely nuclear war, but tech has regressed to middle-age levels. The places Jorg (the 'hero') goes are recognizable as places in Europe and how they might be twisted after such an event and then time to recover.

'The Instrumentalities of the Night' by Glen Cook is essentially about the struggles of the Roman Catholic church against both Islam and other Christian Faiths in the era of the rise of cannons, assuming that all deities and whatnot are real. Cook is a very good writer and the books great, and certainly don't make any organization look good.

'The Codex Alera' by Jim Butcher. As cheesy and horrible as it sounds, the description 'Roman Empire meets Pokemon' fits and works very well. It is entertaining and should get you the roman fix you seem to want.

The Lions of Al-Rassan(Struggle between the Jews, Muslims, and Christians) or Last Light of the Sun(Vikings!) by GGKay might be right up your alley.

Lastly, let me suggest that if you want the best, although probably more fantastical than you seem to enjoy, epic fantasy series, you should check out Malazan Books of the Fallen.

[Shockeye]

I highly recommend the I, Claudius and Claudius The God books by Robert Graves. Given your interest in historical fiction and Roman-era history, I think you'd really enjoy the books. They basically tell the story of (what came to be known as) the Julio-Claudian dynasty through the eyes of Claudius, an unassuming, seemingly "weak minded" (he stuttered and had a limp so his family hid him out of shame) member of the family who eventually became Emperor. So it follows beginnings of the Roman Empire, after the assassination of Julius Caesar when Augustus became the first Emperor of Rome.

The books are essentially an "autobiography" written by Claudius, but it is of course not, but rather an historical fiction, brilliantly written and imagined with a solid basis in factual history. I cannot recommend them enough. There BBC made them into a miniseries in the 70s with Brian Blessed, John Hurt and Derek Jacobi amongst others, and is equally worth watching.

A combo gift pack of the books and DVD would be an amazing gift!

I have also been told many times that the Dream of Eagles series by Jack Whyte is excellent for fans of historical fiction (many Roman history buffs have recommended them to me). They retell the King Arthur story against the backdrop of Roman Britain. Wikipedia's synopsis reads:

"This retelling of the popular legend eschews the use of magic (as in T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone) to explain Arthur’s ascent to power and instead relies on the historical condition (with some artistic licence) of post-Roman Britain to support the theory that Arthur was meant to counter the anarchy left by the Roman departure from Britain in 410 AD and the subsequent colonization and invasion of Britain by various peoples from Northwestern Europe, including the Saxons, Jutes, Franks, and Angles. Whyte incorporates both traditional Arthurian names, places and events (albeit in Gaelic or Latin form) as well as the names of various historical figures that have been suggested as being the possible basis for the original King Arthur legend. The tacit implication is that Whyte's version of history is the true story that has become distorted over time to become the legend and stories of magic that we know today."

- - - Updated - - -

For the sci fi side, and hard sci fi at that, check out the works of Charles Stross. His novel (sadly a stand-alone) Accelerando tells the story of three generations of one man's family as they approach, move through, and come out the other side of the Technological Singularity (the moment where artificial intelligence completely changes the course of human advancement). It's a riveting novel, bizarre, intelligent, prophetic, believeable.

Stross has a couple of series as well, The Merchant Princes ("An alternate-history series that comes on like high fantasy (a female investigative journalist from Boston discovers a locket that allows her to visit another time line where the eastern seaboard of North America is underdeveloped and occupied by a high mediaeval civilization) and goes out like a paranoid technothriller (what if the post-9/11 US government discovered that the main drug smuggling cartel shipping produce into the USA actually came from a parallel universe?") and The Laundry Files ("Good news: magic is real. Bad news: it's a branch of mathematics—prove the right theorems, and entities in other dimensions may hear and, sometimes, do what you tell them to do. Worse news: this means that magic is best practiced by computer geeks—"applied computational demonologist" is a job description. Worst news: the extradimensional entities are the horrors that haunted the dreams of H. P. Lovecraft, and the Stars are Coming Right ...
But don't worry. Her Majesty's Government has a secret agency tasked with defending the realm from the scum of the multiverse").

Also his Saturn's Children series (two novels so far, Saturn's Children and Neptune's Brood) take place after humanity has become extinct, but their AI robotic constructs remain. They're excellent too.

[AceofHarts]

WoT is just the stereotypical farmer cum savior genre crap that gets bogged down in minutiae.
Way of Kings might very well be good or great, but is just one book so far.
Mistborn is good, but not great.

OP, you seem to like more 'realistic' than fantastical fantasy, so let me suggest that GoT is the 'best' long series for you (even f I personally disagree).

I would suggest you check out he following, they are mostly going to be shorter than GoT, but honestly the writing is probably better once you take away the 'death-shock' that GoT relies upon.

'The Troy Series' by David Gemmel. It is an adaptation of the original legend, as you might surmise, and done very well.

'The Broken Empire' Trilogy by Mark Lawrence. It is about an anti-hero in the 'future' of Europe after what is most likely nuclear war, but tech has regressed to middle-age levels. The places Jorg (the 'hero') goes are recognizable as places in Europe and how they might be twisted after such an event and then time to recover.

'The Instrumentalities of the Night' by Glen Cook is essentially about the struggles of the Roman Catholic church against both Islam and other Christian Faiths in the era of the rise of cannons, assuming that all deities and whatnot are real. Cook is a very good writer and the books great, and certainly don't make any organization look good.

'The Codex Alera' by Jim Butcher. As cheesy and horrible as it sounds, the description 'Roman Empire meets Pokemon' fits and works very well. It is entertaining and should get you the roman fix you seem to want.

The Lions of Al-Rassan(Struggle between the Jews, Muslims, and Christians) or Last Light of the Sun(Vikings!) by GGKay might be right up your alley.

Lastly, let me suggest that if you want the best, although probably more fantastical than you seem to enjoy, epic fantasy series, you should check out Malazan Books of the Fallen.

just because he listed Game of Thrones does not mean hes against "normal fantasy". i have read both series and enjoyed both. and just because you don't like a series is no reason to belittle it. there is NUMEROUS people who enjoy Wheel of Time.

[obdigore]

just because he listed Game of Thrones does not mean hes against "normal fantasy". i have read both series and enjoyed both. and just because you don't like a series is no reason to belittle it. there is NUMEROUS people who enjoy Wheel of Time.

1) Try reading the entire OP. (S)he doesn't like stuff that is too far from reality. He likes alternate history or stuff close to it, which means not a lot of magic.
2) Calling something what it is (which I notice you couldn't refute) isn't belittling.
3) Here I would make a joke about how 'NUMEROUS' people liking something doesn't mean it is good, but I'm tired and I just don't care.

[Mike-n-Ike234]

I have and always will recommend the Pendragon series even if you're not too into fantasty and such. It's a great 10(?) book teenage focused series that (without giving spoilers) follows the point of view of a teenager named Bobby Pendragon through multiple different worlds, all time-line and multi-verse screwed lol, honestly, I can't give a good summary on it due to the fact that it's got a very awesome ending, and I just kind of want to spoil it

[Dasffion]

1) Try reading the entire OP. (S)he doesn't like stuff that is too far from reality. He likes alternate history or stuff close to it, which means not a lot of magic.

He said he likes war films that are mostly fact based but some fictionalization was ok. He didn't say he didn't like magic stuff and given some of the stuff in his TV likes I'd say he's ok with "magic". Heroes, Tomorrow People, Sleepy Hollow, Buffy, ect. these aren't even close to alternate history.

[Xenogeist]

A Trial of Blood and Steel by Joel Shepherd is a great fantasy series that is similar to A Game of Thrones in that it is 'magic lite' and has a lot of warfare and politics. Based on the list of things that you like I think you will enjoy it.

If you want a more detailed description I recommend you check out This Page for a good spoiler free review.

[Aphrel]

Id recommend this site if ur looking for recommendations on fantasybooks. http://bestfantasybooks.com/top25-fantasy-books.php
And if id reccomend a book from his list i whould recommend the 2nd one, The First Law triology by Joe abercrombie.

Taken from the site:
Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies. Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules. Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it. Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is noir fantasy with a real cutting edge.

The Blade Itself features reluctant heroes, black humor, and breathtaking action. Seemingly a novel of contrasts, The Blade Itself is defined by its cast: a philosophical Barbarian who hates to kill, a dashing hero afraid to fight, and a crippled torturer with a heart of gold. The twisted plot and cast of unforgettable characters makes The Blade Itself an absolute must read. The other two books are equally enthralling, and there is no dip in the "quality" of the series. This is one of the best trilogies in the fantasy genre.

In addition to the triology he have also released 3 standalone novels set in teh same world as his triology, and they are equally great and entertaining.