Thread: OUTSTANDING sci-fi/fantasy books

Tweet

Vitamin C said:

If you really want to read some good books and you also like sci-fi, you should all check out John Ringo and pretty much any book he writes. I read A Hymn Before Battle in like 5 days, and it was 600 pages. I never read that fast. I also read a book from him called The Last Centurion, which is basically an alternate future story where a little ice age comes back and a deadly flu wipes out a huge chunk of the population. That stuff is just the back drop, the story is about a group of american soldiers stuck in Iran that are trying to make it home.

And Patrick said that the thread got WAY off topic, so, I decided to start a new thread. Here's where we can suggest books to read.

IMHO, Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash is the King Kong of all cyberpunk-esque books (Gibson is overrated!). That book is so good it defies human description. If you haven't read it, your life is not complete. Do yourself a favor, run out and buy it and read it today. You'll thank me later.

When it comes to fantasy, the best books are Glen Cook's Black Company novels. Again, thoroughly outstanding novels. I liked this series so much I bought the 3.5 D&D campaign setting book for it if for no other reason than to have reference material.

We all know I'm a critic and a cynic, but I have no complaints about these books. That should tell you something.

Originally Posted by Maltorus

IMHO, Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash is the King Kong of all cyberpunk-esque books

Absolutely. EVERYONE should read Snow Crash at least once. A story whose protaganist is a samurai-sword wielding pizza delivery man and that actually doesn't suck or come off seeming intellectually stunted?! HELL YES! I also recommend Cryptonomicon and his Baroque Cycle trilogy (amazing depth and characters)

Gibson isn't too overrated but Stephenson doesn't get enough credit for sure.

For the killer GM in you, I recommend the George R. R. Martin series "A Song of Ice and Fire". No character is sacred in a Martin book. No mercy, no escape!

I would recommend any thing by Jim Butcher (he writes the Harry Dresden Novels) they are always a great read.

What exactly is a cyberpunk-esque novel? It sounds intriguing but I want to hear a little more details. I love old 80's style cyber punk stuff.

Perhaps I should have used the term Cyberpunk for Snowcrash. While I don't remember people actually sticking jacks into their heads to connect to a computer system like they did in Gibson's novels, a computer virus does affect individuals' brains in that novel. There was lots of connecting to a world-wide computer system via hardware, but I remember it being worn, not implanted.

Other elements of "cyberpunk" are in Snowcrash like a fractured society, a greater disparity between the rich and poor, dystopia, advanced hardware, etc.

Don't just be intrigued, BUY IT...TODAY! I don't get any royalties or anything at all, but like I said before, you'll thank me later. It is one of the greatest fiction novels of all time. If you don't think it's an awesome novel by the end, then you're just inhuman.

I reading this one that takes place thosands of years ago about this poor jewsih carpenter's son who wields lot of magic, when he grows up, and ends up being descended from a diety, and even though he is killed by the evil empire of Augustus, he raises from the dead and save the whole planet and becomes a God.

its crazy, it has multiple authors, none of whom use thier real names, im reading the 2nd book in the series its called the new testament. Though, I hear the Old Testament is even crazier!?!

har har