Been reading a lot, and thought we should make a list of recommended books since we don't have one here yet! (le gaspe!)
I guess I should start..
Whisperings of magic, There will be wolves - Karleen Bradford
The Ropemaker, Tears of the Salamandar - Peter Dickinson
Feed - MT Anderson
Circle of Magic quartet, Trickster's Choice, Trickster's Queen, and just about anything by - Tamora Pierce
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
Artemis Fowl Series, The Wishlist - Eoin Colfer
Two Princesses of Bamarre - Gail Carson Levine
Sunstorm - Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter
The Wind on Fire Trilogy - William Nicholson
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
Clever Lazy - Joan Bodger
The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Great Tree of Avalon - T.A. Barron
Sunlight and Shadow - Cameron Dokey
and I think that's all the books I've read this summer. I'll edit if I remember more ^_^
I'm confused, "His Dark Materials" is by Phillip Pullman. Is "The Wishlist" a new book by some other author in the same universe?
Oops, I confused authors... lemme fix that.
my bad :D
Right, well, I'm gonna start at the top of my bookshelf and go down. It's a lot, so I'll group stuff.
Michael Flynn: Firestar series (4)
Hard, epic, near-future sci-fi. Actually starts in the mid '90s and shows how a few simple changes could've had us exploring other worlds by 2020
Nancy Kress: Probability Moon series (3)
The first major science fiction series I've seen that manages to give equal importance and attention to quantum mathematics and sociology. Yet it's still highly enjoyable and accessable reading.
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash and The Diamond Age
Great satireacal science fiction. A mostly anarchist future america, where the mafia delivers pizza, and just commuting to work requires an armored car and three passports. Filled to the brim with social and technical speculation, and delievers some really great moral points as well. Very good reading.
David Brin: The Uplift Series (6 books)
Excellant (soft) space opera. Epic stories spanning galaxies and lots of fun and fanciful ideas. Genetically engineered dolphins and chimpanzes have been "Uplifted" to sapience. Furries, in a sense.
Alaistair Reynolds: Revelation Space series (3)
Really good, epic hard space-opera. Unlike Uplift, doesn't posit 'magic' alien tech, and has hard science solutions from humanity instead. "Hyperpigs" fill the furry slot in this one.
Lisanne Norman: Sholan Alliance series (7 and growing)
More epic space opera, even "softer" than Uplift... more like a fantasy story, but in the guise of science fiction. Magic, sword fights, gods, demons, dreams... but all set in a future with space ships and aliens. Also, the Sholans are "furries." Bipedial, sapient cats anyway. This is a series I really enjoy a lot, and I'd point it out to anyone who wants to know what my idea of a furry is.
S. Andrew Swann: Moreau series (4)
Hard-boiled, science fiction, detective noir... with furries. This time we're talking genetically engineered hybrid soliders, and the author handles the questions around that the way a lot of "robot-gains-citizenship" stories do. It's a rather dark, and mostly serious vision of a future with an overcrowded earth, where racism now focuses on the leftovers from the great genetic arms race.
Phillip Pullman: His Dark Materials (3)
Best Fantasy Ever. I've called it "Harry Potter done right." It's theoretically a young-adult fantasy story, but it's much more serious, and actions actually have consequences. There is no Deus Ex Machina (or dumbledore ex machina) to save the day. The sad parts are truely sad, the creepy parts are really frightening, and the ending left me thinking about little else for the next week. Oh, and it's got furries as well... a talking polar bear, and the various shape-shifting daemon-familars.
Robert T. Bakker: Raptor Red
Bakker is a world famous palentologist, and the guy who the Dr. Grant character from Jurrasic Park was based on. Amazingly, he's also an excellant writer. Raptor Red follows the story of a female Utah Raptor though a few years of her life. While that may sound like a dull nature documentary, I assure you, anyone who's interested in dinosaurs at all will find it a very enjoyable and amusing story. I'm not joking when I think Bakker made a better and more enjoyable character out of a raptor than most authors can do with people. While there's no "disneyfication" with talking dinos or anything, the character show great emotion, joy, sadness, anger, etc... There's actually a plot to be followed, and by the end, you find yourself really feeling for Red. This is science-fiction in it's truely hypenated form. Not fiction where science is an adjective. Yet I'd still consdier it "furry."
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
Dark, yet funny. What if gods are generated by belief? In ancient times you'd get a god of fire, or one of rain. In modern-day america though, the gods have names like "Media" (you have her alter in your home already) and "Tech" (you're at his alter now.) And what if the old gods didn't feel like being pushed aside any more? Also contains the best "Quoth The Raven" saying ever! (And yes, I'll argue the raven is a furry.)
Terry Pratchet: Discworld series (1.2 Hojillion)
If you haven't read discworld, there's something terribly wrong with you. The most fun you can have while reading. Includes furries as well. A talking dog, an intelligent cat, and an entire army of sentient rats. I highly recomend "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" for a first go. It's one of the "children's books" in discworld, but doesn't assume you've read previous stories as much, so it's easier to just jump into. It's basically a weird combination of Puss in Boots and The Pied Piper as only Pratchet can tell it. The cat can talk, and the rats can to. (One should never live near the trash heap from a magical university.) The part that makes it really good is the philophical questions it makes about what it means to be sentient. The cat, for instance, now has to ask any mouse he catches if it can talk before he's willing to eat it. And the rats... One of the young rats becomes afraid of the dark. "Whoever heard of a rat that was afraid of the dark?" But... well I don't want to give it away. Suffice to say that he touches on some of the very key points about what it means to be human.
Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchet: Good Omens
The funniest apocalypse ever. It is for fantasy what the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was for sci-fi. It's got all the humor of Discworld, and all the philosophical questions of American Gods. And still it's just the story of a boy and his dog... Except he's the anti-christ and the dog it's a hellhound. I was laughing out loud just reading the "Dramatis Personae." "Crowly (An angel who did not so much Fall as saunter vaguely downwards)" and "Dog (Satanical Hellhound and cat-worrier.)" (And furry.)
And, best for last...
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy trilogy (5 books.)
I can hardly think what to say here. If you haven't read it, I can't explain it. If you have, then no explanation is neccessary. I'm not exagerating when I say this book changed by life. From the advice on the cover (Don't Panic!) to The Answer (42) read this somehow gave me a new way of looking at life, and I have enjoyed it much more ever since. It was originally a radio drama, then all these books. Recently the made a movie out of it, and you find references to it everywhere. A few weeks ago at work I was given a password for the main router/gateway for major overhaul we were hired to do. The password was "hhg2tg." Just last week I got a fortune cookie that merely said "Don't Panic!" (in large, friendly letters, of course.) I guess what I'm saying is that "Cult Classic" just doesn't do it justice. Once you read it, and understand all the in-jokes, you'll start seeing references to it all over the place. Not reading it would be a grevious waste.
Now, in the interest of brevity, I've left out a lot of good books. Dune, Illumanti, Xanth, LotR, Harry Potter, Stephen Baxter, Greg Bear, etc... There's so much stuff out there, it's wonderful. God Bless Science Fiction! :-)
Also, a quick note. Save the Sholan Alliance and Moreau series, none of the other books are really furry books. I just like to point out that there's a lot of great, mainstream fiction out there with furries in it. More than most people realize. I mean, Harry Potter has several dozen. From animagi, to werewolves, to centaurs, to talking spiders... and I've only finished the first 3 books. Too many people have this wrong image of furries that's been perpetuated by all the talentless freaks and "furverts" you see online (or on MTV.) Though I realize I might be preaching to the choir here. Everyone on these forums seems pretty intelligent and open minded, so I apologize for the subtle crusading. :-)
Have been reading up a storm this summer. Hundreds of titles, most of which I've already forgotten. Here are a few that stuck:
Wen Spencer- Tinker. Unique fantasy novel, one of a kind. Pittsburg is scooped up and delivered to an alternate universe by a matter transmitter gone wrong; and returns to Earth once a month. Great characters, the heroine is a genius teen girl who owns and operates a junkyard. has elves, magis, etc.
Louis Bujold's Miles Vorksigan SF series. about 8 books, ostensibly military SF; really a victorian costume drama. Very funny (I think)
There were more, but my mind went blank. (Pretty sure I reread all Foster's "Flinx" SF novels, too :)
Wow I thought no one else in this world had read Raptor Red. I seriously loved that book and want to reread it now. Also, I agree with your thoughts on "His Dark Materials." It was truly an awesome series and kicks Harry Potter right off the shelf.
I am stripped for time so I wont list my favorites until later. I just felt I needed to add some input.
Harry Potter.. The bane of my existence XD It doesn't help that there are entire shelves dedicated to the new book in stores >_>
anywho, I wrote up descriptions of my books. the post is huge though so I posted it in my livejournal
http://www.livejournal.com/users/lei_xang/42837.html
Mmmm, I love Xepher's list. And working at a bookstore has it's advantages....the discount for one. But to add to the list, and I hope I'm adding instead of being redundant.....the new series out by that really young guy....the first book is called Eragon and the second just came out this week and is called Eldest. Those are very good, especially in how they treat magic.
Wow. Raptor Red. I also thought no one but Adam and I read that. That is so COOL.
And I'm working my way through Good Omens. My god that book is b-e-a-uuuutiful.
thefemnazi- oog I've been looking at thouse... waiting for them to show up at my library >_> looking into jobs at bookstores too :)
Quote from: thefemnaziMmmm, I love Xepher's list. And working at a bookstore has it's advantages....the discount for one. But to add to the list, and I hope I'm adding instead of being redundant.....the new series out by that really young guy....the first book is called Eragon and the second just came out this week and is called Eldest. Those are very good, especially in how they treat magic.
I loved the first book when I read it. I read it right when it came out. Now I have no money to buy the latest, but when I do... oh I shall read that book with no interruptions.
Yeah, I got to read the first few pages of Eldest in one of our promo bits....but now our bookstore is out of copies and we have to wait for more to show up. Grr.
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
Christopher Paolini - Eragon, Eldest
M I McAllister - Urchin of the Riding Stars
Brian Jacques - Every Redwall book lol
My personal reccomendation to everyone: Read what interests you.
Then spread out. It can't hurt and you might actually learn something.
(sorry for the doubling, there)
One series you shouldn't read unless you're hardcore Christian and you really liked being preached at:
the Left Behind Series.
I read most of them before I found my path....and I liked them alright then. I skipped large chunks that were preachy. but I tried to pick up the last one to read it a while ago. Nope, too much sermonizin' goin down.
However, if you like sermonizin and preachin and quotin of scripture, then you may like it. After all, I was interested enough to get through most of the series, back when.
Ugh, I grew up in a family where stuff like that was ALL there was around the place. My grandmother used to have nothing to read in her house but chick tracts and preachy publications. I got so sick of hearing that I was "privliged" to be living in the end times and that Armegeddon would be in my lifetime. The sick part is that my relatives really thought that the end of the world would be a blessing. That's all fine and good for them, as they're at the end of their lives, but me, I want to actually LIVE my life. They never got that.
Anyway, rant aside, the point is that I can't stand reading or hearing that sort of stuff any more.
oops, I think I broke the admin.
Then you are warned....Do not read this series.
However, informative book to read if you think you might have ADD or ADHD (which, let's face it, I'm pretty sure the majority of the population does) there is a book called the ADHD/Autism connection. All about how these two incredibly facsinating disorders are more related than we originally believed.
Ok, maybe I'm the only person here interested in this book. But, if for some reason someone out there besides me like educational theory, I've got a whole slew of good ones.
I'll keep to the Shannara series and Kingdom for Sale by Terry Brooks, not preachy but a lot of walking and expensive at
Funny, I just read Kingdom for Sale, and it only cost me about 4 bucks in paperback. I kinda liked it, but it wasn't that great to me. I plan to give Shannara a shot though.
More winter reading from me:
Unusual fantasy: Cecelia and Sorcery by Patricia Wrede (who wote all the 'talking to draons' books). Regency period (1817 London) costume piece, in an alternate universe where magic is somewhat common. Written entirely as letters exchanged between two cousins. No transformations besides one off-camera human->beech tree.
The Liaden SF series, by Miller and Lee. About 6 books, beginning with Local Custom. This is about my third time through these.
I also bought a box of the old yellow-cover DAW paperbacks cheap, lots of stuff there! Rediscovering Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce
3 books, but you can find it in a hardcover compilation. Has nothing to do with the tv series, or Buffy the Vampire slayer. But there are vampyres. Consider this a "girl's quest to save a fallen angel" kind of story, only with a futuristic setting, and a good use of landscaping on the Earth's moon. ;)
The Cycle of Fire by Janny Wurts
3 books (Stormwarden, Keeper of the Keys, and Shadowfane). I really liked this series the first time I accidentally picked up the second book (*blush*), and continue to like it even today. Another fantasy series with a sci-fi background.
The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, and The Tawny Man(?) Trilogy by Robin Hobb
I highly recommend this triple set of trilogies. All of them are tied together, but each trilogy can stand alone. You only get the whole picture when you read 'em all, though.
If you like cliched approaches to grand quests, and heroes who never have problems they can't live through, you won't like it. I spent most of the first two books in the Farseer Trilogy convinced that Ms. Hobb hated her main character. But it was FitzChivalry's sheer tenacity at wanting to live despite his problems, and in just the way he lives that kept me reading until the last book hit the stand. And I am so very glad I did. :D
Oath of Swords, by David Weber
(note: I'm pulling most of these titles and authors out of my head, so if I'm wrong, my apologies)
Funny book. Just, dang good fun!
Part of a "trilogy" of sorts, but I'm tempted to let it slide until he finishes it. This book and the subsequent "The War God's Own" are the best, so far.
La la, the new library just opened in town (which I've been waiting three years for!) so I'll be sure to check out some of the books on these lists :3 Though there seems to be a lot of fantasy, and I'm not much of a fan e.e; My brother is forcing me to read Eragon and it's not going very well xD Anyway. Here is Pidgie's obscenely short list:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Not fantasy at all, but it's a childhood favorite of mine; very heartwarming/wrenching.
The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw
It's fantasy... ish. I think. o.o; But it's my favorite book on this side of the universe and very easy to read; shouldn't take you more than an hour. The dedication gets me every time :'D
Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal by Thomas Harris
If you enjoyed the movies then the books are must-reads ;D
Oh dear. I can already see I'm not going to fit in here well. I'm far more of a slice-of-life/realism person than a fantasy person, I don't even like the I-don't-like-fantasy-except stuff, like Harry Potter or His Dark Materials.
Still, I might as well throw my two cents into the ring. My favorite kind of book is the kind that puts small amounts of magic into realist settings, where people react with irritation and denial, rather than acceptance and a-questing.
A Dream of Red Mansions, Cao Xueqin: It's my favorite book, if only because I see so much of myself in the main character. It's unbelievably long (2500pp) but every page sheds light on the lives of over 400 characters, most of them women. In the introduction, Cao Xueqin explains that late in life he realized that all of the women he had met had been far superior than the men, and he wanted to create a proper monument to all the girls he had ever known, of high or low birth, so that they would never be forgotten. Jia Baoyu is a beautiful realization of the "brilliant degenerate" archetype.
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami: Murakami is one of the most intense writers I have ever encountered. His words cut like a laser. I could never read his nonfiction book about the Tokyo Subway bombings, because he captures all of the emotions of the moment, all of the confusion and terror. Kafka on the Shore, instead, is a far more pleasant book, more about all of the good things in life. I could recount the plot, but that would be pointless because Murakami's power is in making you feel incredibly strongly about completely made up things.
Naked Lunch, William Burroughs: Please don't try to look for a story. Also, please don't blame me when you throw up. It's pretty much a chain of vignettes that all flow into eachother, all of them with amazingly sharp images and incredible writing, and most of them really sickeningly graphic.
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenger: It's just a really beautiful love story about two people dealing with their exceedingly strange circumstances as best they can. One of those I-don't-cry-at-books-and-I-cried books.
And the currently-reading list is "House of Leaves", by Mark Danielewski, and "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevski. Both of which are so far very well written, though "House of Leaves" is more to my liking so far.
I've read some Murakami, and frankly... I just don't think it's that impressive. It seems a lot like the nonsensical writings you get out of a high school poetry class (well, if you throw in more acid.) I mean, it's somewhat interesting, but for the most part, it just seems like modern art, translated to literature. I will grant that I've only read english translations, as my Japanese isn't nearly good enough, so maybe it's better in the original.
I suspected as much. Somehow, though, I'm repeatedly surprised by how subjective something that seems so clear in my head can reall be.
Sometimes it feels like there are two things that share the same name. Like, I've gone through some Peter Jackson movies and tried to figure out what is so appealing about them, and the only conclusion I can reach is that there must be two different Peter Jacksons, and I've just always come across the bad one. I really cannot imagine something in a Murakami novel being nonsensical and amaturish, it's really like we've seen different words on the page.
Those really sharply divergent spots in our worldviews are fascinating and frustrating, because I feel so strongly that there must be some way to reconcile them, even though I've seen no evidence that it's true. Can't argue with taste, after all.
True, taste is unique. Of course, I'm not a big fan of Peter Jackson movies either... I mean, they're okay sometimes, but nothing special at all.
They're making a Golden Compass (His Dark Materials book #1) movie! It comes out on pearl harbor day this year. Not sure if that's significant, but still... Whee!
Now I just hope they don't screw it up like they did with the H2G2 movie, or The Postman, or Narnia, or... pretty much every other good book turned into a movie. :-/
EDIT: Forgot the website... http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/ which does an okay job of explaining things.