Book recommendations - I need something to read!

[Silverwind]

Hi folks

I read a lot, and I read pretty fast too. As such, I usually have a novel on the go, and a small stack piled up to take on after I've finished whatever I'm reading.

However, I've run out of books to read, and after I've finished re-reading Rainbow Six for the fourth or fifth time which is what I've got now, I'm going to need something else to read - so I was hoping someone on here might be able to recommend something for me.

For info, my tastes run to military sci-fi and space operas. I love the Known Space series by Larry Niven, I thoroughly enjoy anything and everything I've read by Peter F. Hamilton, and I like what I've read of other Military SF by David Weber (specifically the Bolo books) as well. I also have enjoyed the Battletech novels, and the Robotech adaptations by Jack Mckinney.

Anyone got anything they can throw my way?

DISCLAIMER: Please no 40k books...

[SliceOfDog]

Haha, until I saw your disclaimer I was going to recommend the Horus Heresy, but perhaps not...

I don't read too many military sci-fi books, because I have this probably false impression about them that they're just about action, which bores me sometimes. As such I can't recommend all too much. However, there is the Forever War by Joe Haldeman, which has been in my To-Read pile for a while now (In fact, it's one of the few fiction books I took to Uni with me, before realising I'd have enough reading to do on my course without supplements). Can't say whether or not it's good, but I enjoyed the few paragraphs I read before buying it, and it's certainly got a good reputation.

Only other thing I can think to recommend, which you may have read already, is Dune. Bought it for 20p from my library when they were having a clearing. Brilliant book.

[Dusty]

I would suggest the Halo novels written by Eric Nylund. Specifically The Fall Of Reach, First Strike, and Ghosts of Onyx. Most of the other novels are a little bit fan fictiony >_>

[Silverwind]

@ Slice - both The Forever War and Dune are on my list of things to get - perhaps now is the time! There's a few good second-hand bookshops in my area that I enjoy browsing through. I'm sure I can find one or the other in one of them, if not both. Otherwise, there's always Amazon.

@ Dusty - great suggestion, but I have sadly read all of them. They were quite excellent - I should have said that I'd read them. I will have to pick up the new Forerunner series when it comes out in small-size paperback (I dislike having large hardbacks!)

[Dusty]

If you can find it, Rebel Moon was a pretty good read.

[Daryn]

Well it seems like you're a Peter F Hamilton fan, so I suppose recommending the Commonwealth Saga or Void Trilogy would be kind of pointless. Here's a few books that I'd recommend you check out, since you've read some Tom Clancy books then these aren't too far off that genre.

Check out Daniel Suarez's Daemon and Freedom (TM). They are absolutely thrilling techno thrillers. Real page turners, that's for sure. There's also Zero-Day by Mark Russinovich. This one I haven't read yet since it's not available on Audible, but I have heard good thing and will definitely listen to it once it's available.

[Rys]

Well, it's neither military science fiction nor space opera, but if you want a science fiction book that's both long and (in my opinion, at least) good, you might want to look into Neal Stephenson's Anathem. Since you mentioned that you liked David Weber already, I assume that you're already familiar with the Honor Harrington series; if you somehow aren't, I recommend that too. You might also want to look into Peter Watts; I don't know if he'd be at all to your tastes, but he has the advantage that his Blindsight story has been released for free online, so you can try him ought without any commitment or expenditure beyond the time taken reading. I'm afraid that that's all I can think of at the moment.

[Wolfgang of Borg]

I was in a similar situation once, so started reading through the SF Masterworks list at the library... (The Forever War is indeed good, very Heinlein).

I don't read much military stuff, but if you were to check out Peter Watts i'd suggest starting with Starfish + its sequels which are quite actiony and feature soldiers.

As to space opera i think A Fire Upon the Deep rules. Also anything by Iain M. Banks.

[Wolfgang of Borg]

(Just wanted to add to my earlier comment that anyone who can reread a book repeatedly must have good Focus / Flow skills.. i saw this thing once about studies with kids (which were then followed up by tracking them down decades later to see how their lives went) which suggest that the ability to control your own attention is by far the biggest factor in determining potential ability.)

[macrorufus]

“坟”，陈楸帆
In English: 'The Grave' by Chen Quifan

[Wolfgang of Borg]

Oh fantastic i've never read any Chinese scifi! Googling gets me http://www.apexbookcompany.com/2010/...rld-sf-vol-ii/ which sounds like an interesting thing in general. Hope they sell it as an ebook.

[macrorufus]

Glad I could help suggest! There's not alot of chinese scifi unfortunately. Scifi was killed during the cultural revolution and the government still holds a ban on fiction that involves time-travel.
=(

[Wolfgang of Borg]

Thanks. Also wow, we hear a lot about Chinese government censorship but the idea of outright banning something like that seems really strange. I think Australia still tries it sometimes.

[macrorufus]

Well.... time-travel stories were banned by the government because of.. the story bends the truth of the past? Er... it makes a fiction out of history, which government doesn't like.

[Adonisus]

It's more fantasy, but I would heartily reccomend Richard Adams's Watership Down. It's a bonafide classic of both fantasy and children's literature. You will never love bunnies more than when you read this book. Trust me.

[Wolfgang of Borg]

@macrorufus: It's a stereotype that communist parties always try to control the present by controlling stories about the past, so the prohibition on time travel makes perfect sense. It just never would've occurred to me. Like, they want a monopoly on history fiction, or something, hoping that eliminating it as a type of story will prevent people noticing what they're doing in reality. (And wow they must just *hate* Alternate History.)

I love the photo in your sig, by the way. It looks just perfect, like what you'd get if America finally collapsed and the reds rebuilt the place and started putting up propaganda posters. Where's it from?

(i'm kinda in favour of propaganda posters only mine would all feature stuff from the hard sciences, like the Krebs cycle and the periodic table,.. the Geometer faction from Anathem had completely the right idea imho with their use of a graphical proof of Pythagoras' theorem as an insignia.)

@adonisus: Not that recommending Richard Adams is ever a bad idea, but OP is more wanting stories about spaceships and mecha combat (but not 40k).

[Silverwind]

It's mainly because I overdosed on 40k all at once when someone leant me the Horus Heresy (about eight books of it!) at once, and reading that much 40k in one continuous slog does get a bit much.
I'm also not that much of a fan of it in the first place - I prefer my sci-fi universes to have at least some hope in them, and some sympathetic or noble characters (who don't then die at the end). Not to mention I find the entire thing rediculously over the top too.
I used to be quite into the whole shebang when I was in my teens, but I think I grew out of it - no offence intended to those who like the 40k universe.

As for Watership Down - there's a copy of my shelf that I can see from where I'm sitting. I read it when I was in secondary school, and have had a copy of it ever since then, which has been well-thumbed. But thanks for the recommendation!

[Wolfgang of Borg]

> I prefer my sci-fi universes to have at least some hope in them, and some sympathetic or noble characters

You should probably steer clear of Blindsight then, although the start of the sequel is looking slightly cheerier

Spoiler

Doom doom doom doomy doomy DOOOOOOOOM!

. Rifters trilogy is probably still tolerable.

> Not to mention I find the entire thing ridiculously over the top too.

That was sorta what attracted me to it as a kid, but yeah i too grew out of it eventually (and starships in general tbh, except like generation- or seed-ships etc).

[Silverwind]

I'm sure there's plenty out there - I'll just have to have a look around and see what's there
I do loves me some spaceships though...

[Wolfgang of Borg]

Wow seeing that made me nostalgic, still can't believe they cancelled that show (or that it got made in the first place tbh. Jhonen Fucking Vasquez doing a children's show?).

Like i said, A Fire Upon the Deep totally rules.

Spaceships yes, it's the ones that travel between stars that i sometimes don't like so much.

[macrorufus]

@Borg: The signature-photo is all that's left of the re-do film that was planned for 2010 (Red Dawn). The original was Russia and Mexico invade US, story focuses on young teens that escaped and become terrorists (read: US freedom fighters =P ).

The 2010 was planned to have the PLA and China as the baddie. Hence the link to the poster having our 'Ba-Yi' (8-1) on the star.
http://flixcritc.files.wordpress.com...ser-poster.jpg
I believe the film has been cancelled at some point after it was decided to change the bad-guy to North Korea.

[Wolfgang of Borg]

Haha, yeah North Korea seems crazy but i don't think even they'd try that.
Currently the Asian plan seems to be to just *buy* North America, which is at least bloodless and kind of ironic so i guess i approve.

I've only vaguely heard of Red Dawn, mostly via The War Nerd (scroll down to the bottom of that page for the interesting stuff, his articles don't normally go on so long...) who writes a lot about guerrilla warfare.

Neat, wondered what that mark in the red star was,.. i had never even heard of 八一 before (the only history we learn in school here is local-ish events up to around 1950, kinda useless for understanding what's actually going on in the world). Talking to you i feel massively ignorant, even ignoring the language issue :[

[Adonisus]

八一 are the characters for 8-1, as in August 1st, the day of the Nanchang Uprising and the first major conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communists.

[Silverwind]

I have the original Red Dawn on DVD - but that's because I love action movies, and especially Alternate Cold War scenarios, where WW3 did take place.
I was quite interested in the re-make, if only to see what they were doing regarding it - but it seemed ridiculous, as there's not really much of a potential for a third world war in the same scale possible during the cold war.

Still - we're getting off point! That's another topic xD

[Silverwind]

I managed to get myself something to read - I got the Into The Looking Glass series of books by John Ringo off of Amazon for approximately £10.00 altogether for all four books. I love Amazon!

[Wolfgang of Borg]

For the 19th century American outlaw and gunslinger, see Johnny Ringo. For John, Ringo, Paul and George, see The Beatles.

I love wikipedia.

Also that bit about the magic box in the first book's plot synopsis, it reminded me of The Fifth Gift.