The Book Recommendation Thread

The title really says it all.

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis.

This is my favorite book of all time. Seriously, this was Lewis at his best and mostly without allegory. I suggest those who enjoy Lewis' work to read it, and those who don't enjoy his work to perhaps give it a chance.

'The Guns of the South' by Turtledove.

'World War Z' By Max Brooks

As this is a book related thread, I feel obligated to shill for the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher yet again. A well thought-out urban fantasy series with great characters, a good sense of humor, and some fairly wonderful action sequences.

I'd also like to recommend Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. The author has done work for the European Space Agency, so it's about as hard as space opera can get. I haven't read the whole series, but the first two are excellent.

The Stainless Steel Rat is fun little series about the exploits of the galaxy's greatest thief and con-artist.

Finally, Old Man's War, by John Scalzi, is a masterfully done bit mixing military sci-fi with a hint of space opera.

The Codex Alera series, also by Jim Butcher. The author essentially wrote this on a dare that he couldn't write a compelling story involving Ancient Rome at the time of the Five Good Emperors, and Pokemon, and yet he did. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than an entertaining fantasy adventure, and for that, it works.

Also, if you haven't read this, go get the Children of Hurin. My personal opinion, it stands among Tolkien's best. Be warned, it is not a happy book.

Son of a bitch knew I couldn't stay out of this one.

Everybody needs to read American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's fantastic and not nearly so popular as it should be.

The Twilight War by David Crist is a solid look at US/Iranian relations since the Islamic Revolution, and anybody with an interest in international politics or modern Middle Eastern history should really take a look. If you're really interested in said topics, also consider The Oil Kings by Andrew Scott Cooper as a prequel, which deals with the relationship between the US, Iran, and Saudi Arabia until the Islamic Revolution.

I'm sure I'll have more recommendations on other topics later, given my line of work, but that's it for now.

Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, among the best I've ever read. And that includes George R.R. Martin.

On top of the AltHistory thing, the Axis of Time series (Weapons of Choice, Designated Targets, Final Impact), about a futuristic military coalition getting transported to WW2.

John Dies at the End is an amazingly, horrifically funny novel, about a slacker and his crazed friend taking on Eldritch demons from other worlds.

David Wong's new book, This Book is Full of Spiders, came out recently. It's the sequel to the excellent John Dies at the End, and I absolutely adore both. Spooky and funny and weird. It's exactly what you'd expect from the senior editor at Cracked.com (the "John" in the book is John Cheese,).

And if you want to be a super Mass Effect nerd, Patrick Weekes's book, The Palace Job is out. I haven't started it yet, but it's relevant to this conversation, so here you go.

For nonfiction, I recommend Charles C. Mann's 1491, which is a look at the pre-Columbian Americas. You will learn cool things, guaranteed. If you want economics and philosophy, Slavoj Zizek's First as Tragedy, Then as Farce has been good reading.

If you like design and vehicle art then look up Pulse by Harald Belker.

Belker is a car designer who works in film, and has made cars for Hollywood. He had the idea a few years back to make a futuristic racing movie, but after seeing how poorly Speed Racer did at the box office he decided against it. However, he decided he still wanted to tell the story he had in his mind, and so he collected all his designs and made a book-Pulse: The Complete Guide to Future Racing. He even has the complete story outline written in one of the late chapters.

It tells of the premier motorsport in the world at 2035, where racing is done flying over electromagnetic tracks with brutal G-forces, the world in which this sport takes place and one man's struggle to survive in this kind of glamorous but all-too-brief spotlight. The designs themselves are mostly 3D art with sketches, paintings and mixed media interspersed, and they're all really well-done.

Having read this, I can also vouch for how good it is. Works nicely as a companion piece to Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, which is popular enough (and rightfully so) that most people have probably heard of it, if not actually read it.

Do not confuse the excellent 1491 by Mann with the similarly-named 1421 by Gavin Menzies, which is absolute drivel and suitable for nothing more dignified than toilet paper. Even then, the claim that the Inca spoke a dialect of Chinese (which he actually makes in the book) is probably ridiculous enough to cause anal fissures just by proximity.

Let me give a triple recommendation on this one (especially since when I saw this thread this was the first thing I thought of...damn you Harrad for getting in first!)! It's mind blowing and awesome.

For other non-fiction, if you want to learn the basics of economics then perhaps the funnest way to do so is to read The Armchair Economist by Steven Landsburg. Fun, doesn't get into any math, and hits the basic concepts pretty well.

For fiction, I haven't read too much recently, so I'm going to recommend something I read when I was younger. The Moon is a Harsh Mistrees by Heinlein was really cool when I read it, and with fewer pro-fascist implications than his Starship Troopers! Also if you haven't read the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, what are you doing with your life?

Seconded. The Dresden Files is a brilliant series. Just starting to read Changes myself.


Holy shit yes. I love pretty much anything Alastair Reynolds does and the Revelation Space trilogy is excellent. I also suspect Bioware must have read it pre-Mass Effect, as the plot seems very similar.

I will always recommend the Altered Carbon trilogy by Richard Morgan. It's traditional cyberpunk blended with a little transhumanism and has been a heavy influence on my own writing style.

Thirded



WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!

Piece of advice for anyone getting into the series, the first books are the weakest mostly because nothing jaw droppingly insane happens at first. It's mostly character and setting development for the first book. Not to say that it's bad or boring, it just gets way better.

Yeah, yeah, Dresden Files, okay.

OTHER BOOKS YOU SHOULD BE READING

THE LAST AND FIRST MAN - OLAF STAPLEDON. It is a hard read, but it is rewarding. A look at human evolution from the 1940's to the end of time. A bit inaccurate, as it was written early in the 20th century, but still an excellent read.

A CANTICLE FOR LIEBOWITZ - If you love fallout, you should read this book. It's nothing like Fallout, but it's about a world rebuilding itself after an apocalypse, so it's kind of the same.

JOHN DIES AT THE END and THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS - See above posts.

OCCULTATION by Laird Barron - A collection of short stories by one of the most reclusive, crazy horror writers ever.

Anything by Raymond Chandler - If I have to explain this, then you don't deserve to read a decent detective story.

There's always The Black Company series, which always deserves another recommendation, and The Malazan Book of the Fallen, which is consistently great. High fantasy, awesome magic, warfare, kinda on the dark side.

Thank you, [Redacted]! Always nice to see someone else recommending those two - Malazan Book of the Fallen in particular is a very complex work but well worth the effort of figuring out. The author (Steven Erikson) published a book of three short stories about a couple of minor characters that gives you a taste of what he's capable of, which I would recommend without hesitation to anybody: The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach.

As for the Black Company, the first few books are more interesting than the last few, but there are great moments throughout.

I've read the first one of these, and I'll second the recommendation.

The Mote in God's Eye presents First Contact with a very alien race in a fairly realistic manner. It was written in the 70's, though, so you'll need to be able to get past the painfully traditional gender roles.

Oh, also, do not ever under any circumstances waste your time with Out of the Dark by David Weber.

In fact, I'm going to spoil it right now to prevent you from giving that hack any money.

Dracula saves us from the aliens.

I'm totally serious.

Fuck David Weber.

McMafia, Misha Glenny - Quasi-ethnographic study on transnational organized crime, particularly focused on trafficking contraband including drugs, slaves, and some things you might not expect, like cars and cigarettes. Very good about the human element of organized crime and the social factors surrounding it.

The Red Market, Scott Carney - Abad recommended this one to me. In-depth examination of the global organ trade, both as a business and as a symptom of socioeconomic conditions (there's a very good chapter on the socially-upward nature of the organ flow).

Pirates, Terrorists, and Warlords: The history, influence, and future of armed groups around the world, Jeffrey Norwitz (Ed) - Anthology on studies of insurgent armed groups and their influence on business, politics, and key issues of regional and national security. Includes pieces on domestic terrorism, child soldiers, religious terror groups, contraband smuggling, and the globalization of privatized military.

Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy - Lots of people suggest The Road. Ignore them. Skip The Road for now and pick up Blood Meridian. You will know the cellar of the human condition.

How to Stage a Military Coup: From Planning to Execution, Ken Connor and David Hebditch - Not actually an instructional manual, despite being framed as one. The author is a 23-year SAS man with a sort of jovial British cynicism that makes the (fairly light) reading easy. Examines the history of violent regime change in the developing world over the last century, including factors consistent in successful and failed coups, propaganda techniques, and the specific combinations of conditions that historically lead to revolution. A later section focuses on sponsored coups and war-by-proxy, including a reasonably good account of Reza Pahlavi's Excellent Adventure.

The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights, John Steinbeck - Steinbeck was heavily influenced by Arthurian literature as a young man (it shows, heavily, in Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row); this is his attempt at retranslating Le Morte D'Arthur. He uses the same chapter divisions and titling structure as Malory while making the dialogue more accessible and exploring more deeply into character psychology and motivation. The language is more stark, like in most of his more famous works, but the phrasing has an appropriately regal touch and the straightforwardness of the dialogue makes everyone more relatable. If you're determined to get into Arthurian stuff you should get this alongside TH White's The Once And Future King and you'll pretty much be set.