Light Reading, Anyone?
Posted by Max in Written Word on Jun 26th, 2007 | 1 commentFriend of mine sent a huge, well vetted list of books he recommends taking for a spin this summer. Some are deep, others are light, but most slant toward science fiction. These recommendations are from a guy I trust, and has pointed me to book after book which I’ve enjoyed to no end. He recommended George RR Martin’s ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ series about two years ago — one of the best series of books I’ve ever read, period. I still lament some of the great characters he’s killed off. Check out the list in the first comment from this post. Worth your time.
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Absolutely.
If this list doesn’t keep you reading for the next six months, nothing will! Oh, and I’m going to CC another friend on this too, since he also looks to me for book recommendations. These are in no particular order, just how they came out of my brain – this is a pretty good summary of my “entertainment” reading for the last year or so.
Four books by John Scalzi – Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony (sort of a trilogy, but all very readable as stand-alones, all three in paperback), The Android’s Dream (slightly humorous SF, really enjoyed it, in hardcover). Scalzi is arguably this generation’s Heinlein – the first three are more of a “hard SF” take than the last, but each book, while theoretically a trilogy, has a different feel, and all are really good. You won’t be disappointed.
Some Alternate History – All by Eric Flint (or edited by him) – the 1632 series. Basic premise is silly, but delves into some interesting subject matter. Essentially, an entire West Virginian town is transported back in time to 1632 Germany (smack in the middle of the Thirty Years War). Interesting characters, very interesting discussion on the impact of the modern group’s involvement in the period. Much interesting to say on theology, democracy, technology. Not heavy-handed and a lot of them to read. A couple of interesting notes about this – you can download the first two novels for free from the publisher – here’s the index to all of Baen’s freely downloadable books (either as pdfs, rich text format, or a couple of different e-book readers). 1632 and 1633 are the ones I talked about – http://www.baen.com/library/titles.htm
More of a Fantasy series, without hitting the usual formula – George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. Still waiting on the next book in the series, but man, this is some of the best Fantasy I’ve ever read. The first book is called Game of Thrones. The series revolves more around political intrigues and the characters. All his “heroes” are imperfect, his villains are not two dimensional – they’re complex and in some respects sympathetic. Martin is very brutal with his characters – he kills off main characters left and right – I LOVE that – every time it’s happened it took me completely by surprise. I love that he’s woven a complex, massively readable tale, where I don’t have a clue what’s going to happen – it’s honestly some of the best Fantasy I’ve ever read.
Kinda fun SF – Charles Stross – The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue. Seems to be an ongoing series. Sort of HP Lovecraft meets Terry Pratchett in a modern setting. The main character is a computer programmer/field operative for a British Agency that deals with other-dimensional creatures, “sorcery” that sort of thing. Entertaining stuff.
Series I’ve just started reading, along the same lines – Nightwatch, by Sergei Lukyanenko – translated from Russian – I should have the next two in the series by the time I get home. Nightwatch are the good guys, watching the Dark side, Daywatch watch the Light. Interesting thoughts on morality, since the two sides are basically in a truce, and things are not even remotely as black and white as it first appears. I enjoyed the first book enough to pick up the next two in the trilogy, and also the sub-titled Russian movie. The second movie, Daywatch is actually in the cinema right now, so if the first one turns out to be good, I might make a trip to see it.
Some of my all time favorites – ANYTHING written by Neal Stephenson – get Snow Crash and you’ll be hooked – it’s basically cyberpunk, but it’s the tip of the iceberg on Stephenson’s writing. Cryptonomicon is great too – it’s basically historical fiction with a modern element, half the story revolves around cryptology advances during WW2, the other half around that character’s descendant setting up a “data island” in modern times. Dense reading, but an awesome book. If you get through THAT – there’s always the Baroque Cycle, set during the Restoration (Early 1600′s) and epic in scope. I loved the series, but I will admit that it is really slow reading. I usually bang through a book in less than a week, and each of those took over a month to read. I loved every minute of it though – I can’t stress enough how great this author is.
Anything by Richard K. Morgan, with one exception – Market Forces was awful, but all his other books are great – kind of Raymond Chandler Meets Blade Runner. Good, good stuff. I’m really looking forward to his next one, called Thirteen. It should be out in the next couple of months.
One of my favorite genres is modern-day fantasy. I love the idea of a magical sub-text on a modern setting – it’s fascinating if written well – the best in that group has to be Tim Powers – pick up any of his books and you should like them.
Another favorite genre is post-apocalyptic fiction – the idea of every-day people dropped into a scenario where technology doesn’t work, or where civilization has broken down fascinates me. One of my favorites in this genre is S.M. Stirling – his work goes from Alternate History to Post-Apocalyptic stuff. His Islands in the Sea of Time series is fun – The island of Nantucket transported to about 3000 years ago. Conquistador – a portal to another world where Europeans never made it to North America. A guy discovers it and sets up his own little empire – really fun stuff. Peshawar Lancers – some interesting alternate history with the British Empire moved to India after a catastrophic meteor strike devastates Europe. Another trilogy (or series, not sure how many more are coming) – starts with Dies The Fire – basically all technology, including gunpowder stop working – really good series (Set in Oregon, Dave!). Ok, one proviso about Stirling’s work – there is a slightly uncomfortable racial thing in them – if taken out of context, they ALL sort of come across as white supremacist – I honestly don’t believe that’s the intent – if anything these are an argument AGAINST that attitude, but if the racial angle bothers you, he might be an author to skip.
Take care guys!