Book Recommendations please!

[Blackmagic1515]

Basically I'm just asking for suggestions of what you guys think would be good books to read. Mainly I'm into fantasy books (David Eddings and Jim Butcher being my favourite authors) but I also love murder mystery books. I'm not too sure how to describe this genre but archaeological adventure books are another one, things such as Matthew Reilly.

Sorry if that's not much help but does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Tips_of_Fingers]

Basically I'm just asking for suggestions of what you guys think would be good books to read. Mainly I'm into fantasy books (David Eddings and Jim Butcher being my favourite authors) but I also love murder mystery books. I'm not too sure how to describe this genre but archaeological adventure books are another one, things such as Matthew Reilly.

Sorry if that's not much help but does anyone have any suggestions?

If you like Fantasy and you've never picked up The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan, I suggest doing that. They're massive - usually between 700 and 1000 pages per book - and there are 13 books so far in the series. Obviously you'd need a long time to get through those but it's worth it. The world he created is incredible, but unfortunately Robert Jordan is dead now so the last couple of books have been written by Brandon Sanderson using Jordan's notes.

Despite the typos increasing as the books go on, I cannot recommend this series enough and you shouldn't hesitate in going out and buying the first one. DO IT NOW.

Hope that helps = D

 

[Guffe]

Well "The Count of Monthe Cristo" is a good "book". (Don't know if "Monthe" is typed correctly)
It's actually 6 books (about 200 pages each) and freaking amazing.
It's mystery all over and brilliantly written.
Author is Alexander Dumas.

 

[greyghost81]

For fantasy you should read (if you haven't previously) Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books, or maybe start getting into George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (you know Game of Thrones and all that). Otherwise I'd recommend some heroic fantasy like Robert Howard's Conan stories and Michael Moorcock's books that follow Elric.

For your murder mystery fix, I'd always recommend Raymond Chandler's noir detective novels (particularly The Big Sleep, and Lady in the Lake), and at least two by Dashiell Hammett: Maltese Falcon and Red Harvest.

 

[theonlyblaze2]

Check out the Dark Tower Saga by Stephen King. There are seven books in all but it is well worth it. Kind of like Lord of the Rings, but with more of a Western-Fantasy theme. The first one is mostly a western for the fist half but quickly turns into a Fantasy story.

 

[Taisen]

Try American Gods by Neil Gaiman, not really fantasy but more mythology in a modern realistic setting. Also mystery and adventure wrapped in there too, had me hooked till the end.

 

[Calcium]

My recommendations are "The Night Watch" by Sergei Lukyanenko; set in present day Moscow where the world is policed by light and dark forces, following an agreement that no good will be done in the world without authorisation by the dark, and no bad shall be done without authorisation from the light. I love his series, but often they seem to end in a "Scooby Doo" way where eveything gets explained at the end, and the reader has no hope of guessing how.

"Myrren's Gift" by Fiona McIntosh is still my favourite of all time though. Basic fantasy mediaeval kingdoms with a nice little twist.

Spoiler

The series follows the idea that the protagonist - if killed and in contact with his killer, switches souls with them surviving in their body while they perish in his. It leads to some interesting ways for the story progressing.

 

[KorLeonis]

I gotta say, take a pass on the Wheel of Time books. The first 3 books are great, the next 3 are ok, after that they really start to drag. I couldn't keep reading, it was just too boring.

My suggestion would be the Sword of Truth series. Eleven books, most of them fantastic, book 6 "Faith of the Fallen" is one of my all-time favourite pieces of literature, read it over a dozen times.

Edit: I second "American Gods" and "Night Watch" as well. Good calls!

Edit 2: Anything by Neil Gaiman is good, Terry Pratchett is pretty damn good too

 

[Zorg Machine]

Everything ever written by Terry Pratchett.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

- Obligatory "You should read the Death Gate cycle (by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman)" recommendation goes here -

I've come to realize that I sound like a broken record, as I always recommend the Death Gate books when people create threads like this one, but that's because they are bloody excellent fantasy.

 

[wolf thing]

the chronicles of pern, starship troopers(which is si fi but still worth reading) metro 2023,

 

[DEAD34345]

Everything ever written by Terry Pratchett.

Damn, beat me to it!

Pretty much this, especially any Discworld books. Honestly though with Terry Pratchett you can't go wrong, even the books aimed at children are great.

 

[dududf]

Dresden files..(Fantasy) Avery Cates series(action)... Daemon, with its sequel Freedom(mystery, with a bit of action, it's mostly about society however)...

Please for the love of god though, get this book

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passage_%282010_novel%29
(dystopia society, vampires,and slight scifi)
It's my favorite book ever written :3


(Also, the Nights Dawn Trilogy is pretty good. Think Space Opera)

 

[busterkeatonrules]

Archaeological adventure? Try Clive Cussler! A lot of his work matches this description. As for fantasy, you NEED to check out the work of Terry Pratchett if you haven't already.

Now, if you want some good, old-fashioned murder and mystery, I recommend the work of Jacques Futrelle. (Despite the French name, he was actually American.)

He wrote a large amount of short stories, and a few novels, about a Sherlock Holmes - style detective genius nicknamed "The Thinking Machine". Not all the stories revolve around a murder, but surely a change of pace is welcome at times? One of the most acclaimed stories, "The Problem of Cell 13", has The Thinking Machine trying to prove his boast that he can escape from a prison cell using only whatever would normally be available to an actual convict.

One thing you should be aware of, though: The stories were written between 1905 and 1912 (at which point the author went down with the Titanic), so if you prefer a more modern style, it might be a good idea to look elsewhere.

 

[eggy32]

The Discowrld series is good if you like fantasy and comedy. I've only read the first but it was great and I'm told the other 40-something books in the series are too.

 

[Thaluikhain]

"Beasts in Velvet" by Kim Newman. Hands down, one of the very best books I've ever read. It's set in the Warhammer universe, but don't let that put you off, it was written some 20 odd years ago, before they dumbed it down and gave up on the setting.

 

[CactiComplex]

I'm gonna back those that recommended George R. R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, the Night Watch books, and the Dark Tower series. To add to that, Mark Chadbourn, particularly his Age of Misrule books. Maybe try Raymond E. Feist and Chris Bunch as well.

 

[Erana]

Stephanie Plum novels are a bunch of silly fun, but I don't think you'd really like them...

Odd Thomas? That's my favorite Dean Koontz series.
Its about this calm, reserved guy who sees ghosts and has a very weird life. Just very proud and content with his work as a short-order cook, happy with his simple home, etc.
And Elvis hangs out sometimes. >.>

 

[Syndron]

For fantasy i would recommend anything by R.A. Salvatore, especially the Drizzt series.
If your looking for a good mystery series i would recommend the Millennium trilogy by Steig Larson.

 

[Blitzwarp]

I'm not such a big help on the Fantasy genre, but I can recommend some Murder Mysteries =] (And chime in with the "Terry Pratchett!" crowd...)

Agatha Christie - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, Peril at End House, And Then There Were None, Nemesis, Sleeping Murder.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Sign of Four, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. (I love Hound of the Baskervilles but it's sort-of painfully obvious who the culprit is from the start, so it's better read as a Gothic novel than anything else IMO, and Study in Scarlet spends half the novel on events leading up to the crime.) There's also an anthology I'm reading at the moment called "The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which is penned by various science fiction and fantasy authors like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. Some of the stuff is fanboy dross, but there are stories in there that Conan Doyle would have been proud of (ahem, had he actually liked his creation, lol.)

P.D. James - The Murder Room, A Taste for Death, The Private Patient.

Stieg Larsson's "The Millennium Trilogy" are also brilliant, but the second and third are less murder novels and more an explanation of Lisbeth Salander's past. The first constitutes a good old-fashioned 'locked-room' mystery...spanning an entire island, though.