Books??

[Twinky]

So no one has heard of Arthur C.Clarke?? 2001 a space odyssey? It's like being a Toyota fan and not knowing about corollas.

[Redwarf]

I must confess that I have never read anything of his. Which for a self confessed Sci-fi reader, is probably pretty poor. :(

 

One of the masters of the genre.

[towe001]

Prelude to Space, The Sands of Mars, Islands in the Sky, Childhood's End, Earthlight, The Deep Range, A Fall of Moondust, Dolphin Island (Haven't read), Glide Path

Imperial Earth, The Fountains of Paradise, The Songs of Distant Earth, Cradle, The Ghost from the Grand Banks, The Hammer of God, Richter 10

The Trigger, The Light of Other Days (with Stephen Baxter), The Last Theorem (Haven't read), Time's Eye, Sunstorm

 

Space Odyssey -

2001: A Space Odyssey (In the opening scene of the book AC Clarke wrote about the space ship being powered by nuclear blasts, he was the first person to adopt "The Orion Project" to a novel.)

2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, 3001: The Final Odyssey, The Lost Worlds of 2001 (Haven't read)

 

Rama series -

Rendezvous with Rama, Rama II, The Garden of Rama, Rama Revealed

 

Got bored with him, so i moved to Stephen Baxter and got bored as well, so i moved on again

 

Edit - must admit i used wiki for the novel names only cause i can't remember all the names.

Edited September 22, 2011 by towe001

[Twinky]

I wouldn't recommend reading everything of his. At least not all at once.

Edited September 23, 2011 by Twinky

[Hiro Protagonist]

Neal Stevenson is a favourite.

 

 

So you'd recognise where my name comes from then...

[Redwarf]

Yes, o great Deliverator. :D

[MYSTIK[RL]]

So no one has heard of Arthur C.Clarke?? 2001 a space odyssey? It's like being a Toyota fan and not knowing about corollas.

 

read 2001 and seen the movie, i have also seen the movie 2010, and i started reading 3001 but never finished it.

 

another series for the scifi freaks is red mars, green mars, blue mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

 

Clive Cussler, dirk pitt series which consists of 21 books I'm about 1/2 way through the series. He also has series call "from the files of numa" "files of the orgean" and "Issac bell series"

 

Wilbur Smith, my favorite series is about the courtneys, which starts in england, migrates to africa then to france during world war 1, back to africa. There are quite a few off shoot novels in the series that relate to different family members and what they are doing during particular time frames.

 

I have also enjoyed reading "river god" and its sqeuals "the seventh scroll","warlock", and "the quest" which I'm currently reading.

 

Read and enjoyed "hunger of the sea","Elephant song","the sunbird" as you can see I'm a wilbur smith fan and have read far to many to remember them all

 

Bryce Corutney, "the power of one: and its squeal "tandia"

 

plus a random selection of readers digest condensed novels which consist of 3 to 4 stories condensed into one book.

[greenmac80]

oh how could i forget David Eddings massive favourite.

[philbey]

Much prefer Raymond E Feist. I re-read Magician every couple of years.Tolkien: Loved the Hobbit, give or take LOTR. Haven't seen the movies, so that can't have swayed me...Parrot, I've only read Great Expectations of Dickens, and it didn't really do anything for me. Is Copperfield better....

 

.....Philby, I read my first Lovecraft about three months ago (Call of Cthulhu) and didn't mind it. Other stuff similar?

 

I don't recall enjoying Magician that much, read it years ago, I think I might have a revisit. But seriously, check out the Lyonesse series, I've never met anyone else who's read it.

 

Read Hard Times by dickens, that was quite good. Should read more.

 

I havent read Call of Cthluhu but I intend to. At the Mountains of Madness was amazing, as was The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath was too tripped out for me, as well as the Silver Key. I intend on reading much more of his work.

 

I also agree about Heinlein. My mates favorite read is Stranger in a Strange Land, one of his Hugo award books, but I found it a total bore getting to the end. the Star Beast is great though.

 

Also I enjoyed Herberts Dune, and the second one was good too.

 

Roger Zelazny I've read a fair chunk of the Amber stories, pretty cool. lords of light, also very good.

 

A bit of an 80s throwback, Martin Cruz Smith 'Gorky Park' was great. He wrote 4 books about the protagonist, Arkady Renko, the first two (polar star was second) were fantastic. Cold war Russian detective story. The 3rd was also quite good (red square?) but pass on the 4th book.

 

Three other books that I highly recommend:

Two Years before the Mast by RH Dana. Autobiographical about early pioneering days of a crewman on a sailing boat shipping goods from frontier California around to Boston. An amazing read made even more interesting because it's true.

 

Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood, a great piece of Australiana, not in the Kidman/jack man sense of the word. Basically a story about a bloke who gets caught up with a notorious bushranger. Top book, if you like the film The Proposition, you'll like this book.

 

For the Term of his Natural Life, another classic about an escaped convict.

 

And one more Author that springs to mind, one of my favourites is John Steinbeck.... Yeh mice and men is a classic, sure, but his really good stuff, Cannery Row, East of Eden and of course The Grapes of Wrath. For a guy who died 40 years ago, his writing style doesn't feel at all outdated.

 

 

So you'd recognise where my name comes from then...

 

Just googled it haha. I've always wondered about it.

[philbey]

Just watching the news reader about stock market crashes, and the presenter mentioned Tom Wolfes Bonfire of the Vanities, another very good read.

[nerfbat]

1.Anything by Eric Van Lustbader

 

2.Tales of the Otori

 

3.The Waylander series by David Gemmell

 

4.Wire in the Blood series by Val McDermidt

 

My favourite story of all time, and this may sound ghey, is First Blood written by David Morrell. truly shows the effec ts of P.T.S.D from a combat environment.

[philbey]

1.Anything by Eric Van Lustbader

 

Hahaha. You ever read the complete works of Sir Francis Bacon?

 

"Eric Van Lustbader? What's he got to do with food?"

 

"Van. Bread van, meat van, food!"

[nerfbat]

Hahaha. You ever read the complete works of Sir Francis Bacon?

 

"Eric Van Lustbader? What's he got to do with food?"

 

"Van. Bread van, meat van, food!"

 

lol, no mate.

I'll have to look into it :-)

 

and i just "wiki'ed" Eric, and he has dropped the 'van'.

He is now only Eric Lustbader' on his new Bourne series re imaginings

Edited September 30, 2011 by nerfbat

[philbey]

Thought I better point out that's a quote.... Rob might get the reference....?

[towe001]

It's French, you doink. Help me. Muh-aid-ay. Everywhere I look reminds me of food. Look at these books - Charles Lamb, Herman Wok, the complete works of Sir Francis Bacon, Eric Van Lustbader

"Eric Van Lustbader? What's he got to do with food?"

 

"Van. Bread van, meat van, food!"