Author Topic: Please suggest what to read next  (Read 3514 times)

weaver315

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Please suggest what to read next
« on: March 23, 2011, 03:29:19 PM »
I'm about to finish Crossroads of Twilight and before moving on to the next WOT book, I like to read a quick, fun read in between.  A year ago, this detour took me thru ASOIAF, holy cow!  What a detour!  Loved it.

Matterhorn was a detour, didn't like it that much.

I read a Dresden File between the last two.  It was cool.  But I'm looking for something different.

Please suggest.

Bookstore Guy

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Re: Please suggest what to read next
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2011, 03:54:26 PM »
It really depends on what kind of stuff you are looking for, and where your tastes are.  The easy answer is to drop by my blog over at Elitist Book Reviews.  Go to our 2011 Hugo post, or to our best of 2010 post (they essentially have the same stuff on it).

Lately though I've had a real soft spot for stuff by Jonathan Maberry.  Either read Patient Zero (adult action/horror) or Rot & Ruin (YA horror).  He is freaking AWESOME!

Another good, fun read is Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International. 

Dan Well's I Am Not a Serial Killer.

These are the things I like to read in between big novels.

Or, I HIGHLY recommend the the Shadows of the Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky--start with Empire in Black and Gold.
Check out our blog, Elitist Book Reviews at:
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weaver315

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Re: Please suggest what to read next
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2011, 05:04:28 PM »
Here's what I've read lately and how I felt about them:

Boneshaker - good, fun easy read
Matterhorn - okay read, real war, real heroes, real military bs
Dresden files - okay, nice wizard noir
City and the City - I don't get why it's so well received
Kraken - ugh, struggled thru
Windup Girl - meh, was happy when I was done
WOT books - just reading to get thru to the end
Way of Kings - great, want more

I like fantasy and sf the best. 
I want to give China M another shot
ASOIAF ruined me, I want everything to be that good now.

WriterDan

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Re: Please suggest what to read next
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2011, 10:04:12 PM »
Try Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet.  They're all in the 300-350 page realm, but pack as much punch as most of the door-stopper fantasy that's out there.
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Juan Dolor

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Re: Please suggest what to read next
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2011, 02:25:43 PM »
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
The Breaking of Northwall, by Paul O. Williams
Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
Runelords, by Dave Farland
World War Z, by Max Brooks

And I agree about Dan Wells' I Am Not a Serial Killer.

guessingo

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Re: Please suggest what to read next
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2011, 03:00:48 PM »
I second World War Z. It is the Zombie book to end all Zombie books. I don't even like zombie books or movies. It was great. 

What kind of book do you want? you just mentioned "what should I read next" This is mainly a fantasy forum. Matterhorn is historical fiction (is that any good?)

If you like historical fiction, the bet historical fiction novel I ever read was The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough. Her research for that project is amazing. It takes a good 200 pages to get into it. She uses alot of latin terms so at first you will be constantly going to the glossary. She also has a massive number of characters. The romans were not too creative with their names so for a while you will be flipping to the pages about characters since they are hard to tell apart.

It is 1200 pages, but it is a remarkable book. That whole series is remarkable. She writes about the late republic and how it morphed into an empire. It actually starts with the famous Julius Caesars grandfather (he had the same name) and focused on 2 men who were Caesars uncles by Marriage (Gauis Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla).

The one thing she does remarkably well is she makes likeable characters without making them anacronistic. Historical fiction writers routinely make a likeable character think and act like a modern, western person so we can identify with him. Then he or she is put in a world foreign to us. She doesn't do this. They do not have modern, western values of freedom and democracy. They would not even grasp the concept. However, you can easily identify with them and understand where they are coming from.

One word of warning. She does not going into graphic detail on the violence but she does not gloss over just how brutal the Romans were.

weaver315

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Re: Please suggest what to read next
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2011, 07:07:33 PM »
Thanks for the suggestions!

I guess I like everything, just good solid books.  I tend to lean toward SF and Fantasy because that's where the magic and science are really appealing.  I read Matterhorn because I was lurking ASOIAF message board and a lot of people had that up on their best reads of 2010 thread.  Also lots of people mentioned Boneshaker.  I read the wrong Boneshaker tho, haha, I read the YA book, not the Hugo nominated book.  I'm gonna check that one out soon.

I went to the library and picked up Gaiman's The Graveyard Book yesterday and New Spring and Knife of Dreams.

About historical fiction, I have read a couple Mitchener books and really liked them a lot.  Space is great, not your typical Mitchener.  The Source, Alaska, Hawaii...

Here's my shelfari page http://www.shelfari.com/weaver315
« Last Edit: March 25, 2011, 07:09:58 PM by weaver315 »