LRR Literature

[Dank360]

So I was listening to the end of the Lost LRRcast and I loved how into it everbody got when they were talking about anime and Terry Pratchett. Now before I get any further I am aware that there might be another topic like this already but five pages in I can't find it, so I thought I would post this real quick and draw attention to the question.

What sorts of good literature, manga, graphic novel, or fiction, does anyone suggest, specifically any of the cast? Stuff like Terry Pratchett would be cool.

Like for me, to get hyped up on the movie coming out in 2010, I am reading the Kickass (can I say that?) comic series, and right now I just picked up Thud! by Terry Pratchett and the new Ender novel, A War of Gifts. Any other good novels in that vein?

[Snowfire]

If you want good sci-fi, you can't really go wrong with Weber or Asimov. Then there's Clark, Ringo....the list goes on.

If you want some really kickass fantasy (at least IMHO) try Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth(Valdemar) books or the Pern novels. Both of those series are made of win.

Apart from that...Garth Nix does some pretty damn good fantasy novels and Anne McCaffery (who wrote the Pern books) did some awesome work with the Crystal Singer trilogy. Hmmm...let me go check my bookshelves for a moment.

Here we are. Philip Kerr's "The Second Angel" is a good read if you're into semi-surreal sci-fi. Ken Macleod's Engines of Light trilogy is also quite good. Ah! There's another jewel. Fantasy again here with Terry Brooks and all the books he's done in the world of Shanarra. They're very good books where each set fits together well but can also stand alone. All and all, an excellent collection.

There. That should keep you busy for a while

[steelfox]

I still stand by "The Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan. The first five books anyway. It's not comedic like most of Pratchett's work but still a good read.

[Mad Madam Mimm]

Of course, i have to say Douglas Adams, but if you do take me up on that, i'd actually recommend Dirk Gently over Hitchhiker's Guide. I don't know what it was about it, but I thought it was actually a fair bit better that the other series. I tried "Wheel of time" and Pratchett, and... I dunno, i found them a little inaccessable. they seemed to be relying on previous knowledge, which was odd as it was the first book of the series. I may try Pratchett again because I read it quite a while ago, but I really didn't warm to Wheel of Time.

[Intellectually funky]

I loved the sellswords trilogy by R.A. Salvatore, Star wars Yoda: Dark Rendezvous and The Darth Bane books looooooved them. Just getting into the wheel of time and it is really good you can give them a shot.

[DmitriW]

The Ender's Game series was pretty awesome. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are definitely worth a read through, if you haven't already. Speaker of the Dead and Xenocide are...inferior to Game, in my opinion. The sequels to Ender's Shadow are all fairly good.

[theDreamer]

I much preferred the Shadow series by Orson Scott Card than Ender's series...

[DmitriW]

I much preferred the Shadow series by Orson Scott Card than Ender's series...

Same. But the first book is one of my old favorites. No idea why, I've just always loved it.

Also: LRR Literature = LitLRRature?

[Snowfire]

Ender's Game is a classic and one of the best sci-fi books out there IMO. I'll admit, I haven't read the Shadow series (though this thread is starting to convince me to) so I don't know how good they are. But I just don't see how any of them can beat Ender's Game. Then again, these are the words of an eternal Ender patriot.

[DmitriW]

Ender's Game is a classic and one of the best sci-fi books out there IMO. I'll admit, I haven't read the Shadow series (though this thread is starting to convince me to) so I don't know how good they are. But I just don't see how any of them can beat Ender's Game. Then again, these are the words of an eternal Ender patriot.

The first book is literally the same story, told from Bean's viewpoint instead of Ender's. If you liked Ender's Game, you'll Like Ender's Shadow, for sure. The following books in the Shadow series have a very different feel to them, but don't go quite as....weird as Speaker/Xenocide did.

[theDreamer]

Ender's Shadow follows Bean, starting on the exact same date that Ender's Game begins (or really close to the same date).

And I think Bean is a more interesting person.

The rest of the Shadow series just...follows his life after the first one, like the Ender series.

[Shinoki]

I feel a little out of place here, seems like we have many people reading the same few series and I haven't read anything similar... well except for Hitchhiker's Guide, though I guess the majority of my reading is mostly academic literature. Never the less I have to recommend Neil Gaiman, pretty much anything by him is worth the read. I just got two short story anthologies (Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors) by him and will devour them both, cover to cover. Though for something completely different I recommend Voltaire (specifically Candide), and for something really old and different Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

[PenninInk]

Personally, I go on these YA kicks, and right now most of my fantasy quota is filled with Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small, but I'd be remiss if I didn't pimp my beloved Jim Butcher here. For the Urban Fantasy buffs, there are few things better than The Dresden Files but for the high fantasy, Tolkein fans, try Codex Alera, also known as "what happens when you combine the lost Roman legion with pokemon". Jim is a fantastic writer, and you can't go wrong with a book that begins with the line: "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." and involves a zombified T-Rex and the battle cry "POLKA WILL NEVER DIE!"

[Intellectually funky]

I much preferred the Shadow series by Orson Scott Card than Ender's series...

Same. But the first book is one of my old favorites. No idea why, I've just always loved it.

Also: LRR Literature = LitLRRature?

Ha I see what you did there! The night angel trilogy is also an amazing set of books.

[Tim]

I read Sword of Shannara and it made me sad. And not intentionally.


Try out CS Lewis's space trilogy, along with the Narnia series, of course.

[sdhonda]

For anyone looking for some really good, deep yet still very entertaining Science Fiction, I would suggest Alfred Besters dual masterpieces: The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demolished_Man

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination

Both of these will blow your mind.

[Nevrmore]

Catch-22

House of Leaves

A Confederacy of Dunces

Gravity's Rainbow

[JohnyMcmuffin]

I had a great time reading House of Leaves. I recommend it highly if you want a genuinely creepy book

[Murakami]

House of Leaves

Yes, yes, o, ever so yes.

I've yet to try the 'O Revolutions' novel, it looks very different from HoL. Anyone tried it?

If you can stand something enterly not sci-fi or fantasy, please try Jonathan Safran Foers novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Unbelievably Close, they are funny, readable, inventive and beautiful.

And, as mah name suggests, I like Haruki Murakami. If you're not scared of bigger books, try Kafka on the Shore, almost page-turner-ish surreal novel, with some of the most grabbing scenes I have ever read. No big books? Sputnik Sweetheart is the Murakami book everyone should have read to at least get an idea of his oeuvre.

I'll be back if I think of something else.

PS. Nevrmore, is Catch-22 anything like HoL?

[elvor]

I am unable to get through Only Revolutions. The ideas and format are very interesting, but the actual text is basically poetry which makes it very hard to figure out just what the hell is going on, so I normally get a bit into it and just give up. More patience is required than I have to read it.

That said, House of Leaves is pretty much my favourite book.

Also, if you're into horror, the obvious answer is Stephen King, particularly his earlier stuff.

[theDreamer]

Oh!

For Canadian Literature (a lot based in Vancouver [it's close]) Read Douglas Coupland. Anything really, though J-Pod is a great one.

Also, if you like Adams or Pratchett, look for a novelist by the name of "Tom Holt."

Same British humour, generally revolving around fairy tales and myths (one book is about how Osiris [the ancient {literally, like, in a wheel chair} Egyptian god] has to save the world, for example.)

[Chemistring]

I'm a huge Terry Pratchett fan, so I loved the LRRcast discussion.

For other recommendations, I would second Neil Gaiman, and Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books are a guilty pleasure, but I don't think Anne McCaffrey's Pern series has aged very well. Your mileage may vary, and all that.

Other than Pratchett, my personal favorites right now are David Drake, Glen Cook, Robin Hobb, and Steven Brust. Drake is better known for his military SF (Hammer's Slammers in particular), but his fantasy books are good, too, if a bit repetitive by the end of the Lord of the Isles series. The Black Company series by Glen Cook is amazing, and I need to catch up on the Instrumentalities of the Night series. I prefer the Farseer and Tawny Man series from Hobb, not as keen on the Liveship Traders and her newest series. Brust is...tricky. The Dragaera novels aren't published in chronological order, which is sort of the point, but the subtlety and detail makes them worth reading carefully. I may have an unreasonable love for Vlad and Loiosh...

I haven't been impressed with Terry Brooks at all, and haven't been able to finish any of his books, including the Phantom Menace novelization (which was WORSE than the movie, if you can believe it). I know I read the first two(?) books of the Wheel of Time, but they didn't strike me as particularly gripping.

Note: If you do read the Black Company books, read them in series order! I read them randomly the first time through (they were hard to find, read them as I bought them) and holy crap was it confusing! Also, be warned: Cook doesn't always treat main characters as invincible.

[Snowfire]

For other recommendations, I would second Neil Gaiman, and Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books are a guilty pleasure

THANK YOU GOD!!! There is someone else out there who reads Lackey!!!! THE WORLD IS NOW COMPLETE!

Sorry, I have never met anyone on the net - outside of forums like Queens Own - who has read the Velgarth/Valdemar novels (Velgarth being the name of the world) ever so this is kind of special for me

I have every Velgarth novel (and short story collection) that has been published. I think that might show how much of a huge fan of that series I am.

Other than Pratchett, my personal favorites right now are David Drake, Glen Cook, Robin Hobb, and Steven Brust. Drake is better known for his military SF (Hammer's Slammers in particular)

Why didn't I remember Drake! I've read the Slammer's series and it's one of the best pieces of ground-based military sci-fi I've ever read. One of the favourite parts of the book I read (it was a collection of Slammer's stories) was the interludes that explained the Slammer's universe/weapons etc. I haven't read any of Drake's fantasy, but my dad likes it so I might give it a try sometime.

I'm not sure how this will be received(I've seen some forums explode into full scale war over this), but I'm going to suggest His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman as I think it's a very well written trilogy.

[Murakami]

I am unable to get through Only Revolutions. The ideas and format are very interesting, but the actual text is basically poetry which makes it very hard to figure out just what the hell is going on, so I normally get a bit into it and just give up. More patience is required than I have to read it.

That said, House of Leaves is pretty much my favourite book.

Hmm.. if it's just the poetry that makes it harder to read, then I'll probably just try it. I read a lot of poetry, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I loved HoL, it has so much, things like Zeno's arrow and Minos, and the format. I loved it.

That said: read A fraction of the Whole by Toltz, an Australian writer. Loved it, very funny, original and philosophical.

[Master Gunner]

Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen. It's a Canadian experimental novel from the '60s, and will seriously fuck your mind up. Totally worth it though, I cannot recommend it enough, and shouldn't be too hard to find (if you look online, at least).