Favorite Books (excluding Rowlings and Tolkien works)

[Angie7F]

i would recommend for you to read classics from around the world.
I wouldnt say they are my most favorite as many require some effort to read, but it makes a huge difference in life later if you know "classics".
I recommend the different variations of "tales of the Genji" and also Osamu Dazai.

 

[Bob Thenecromancer]

I love The Thief lord by Cornelia Funke. It's amazing you guys should reed it.

Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thief_Lord

 

[hooblabla6262]

My favorite book would have to be The Catcher in the Rye.

I'm also a fan of Rant by Chuck P.

 

[nat_401]

Jingo by Terry Pratchett, in my opinion the most interesting book examining racial/cultural interaction and PC behavior. Also A Song of Ice and Fire is a great series as well as The Wheel Of Time series, both have entertained me greatly.

 

[Saladfork]

I'd recommend any one of Pratchett's novels, except for dark side of the sun. Apart from that, I'm a huge fan of R. A. Salvatore's Highwayman series, as well as most of Michael Crichton's novels (i.e. JurassicPark, The Andromeda Strain, etc.).

Also, since you bring it up, I don't actually like most of Tolkein's writing. He rambles on way too much; there are parts where someone randomly starts singing a pointless song or Tolkien feels the need to explain the history of some item the protagonists glance at once and then immediately forget about or he introduces some character with like four chapters dedicated to showing him off only to piss off and never see him again in the rest of the series. It's much the same problem I have with the Oddesey or the Iliad, really. After awhile of descriptions or characters that don't matter at all in the grande scheme of things, I forget what happened previous and have to go back to before all that nonsense started.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

Wild Cards edited by George RR Martin
I Will be Invincible by Austin Grossman
(If you like super hero stories)

Pretty much anything by Ray Bradbury

That's all I got at the moment...

 

[Gizmo1990]

Some of my favorites have already been listed (like the Foundation series), so I'll skip those, but to add some:

Dresden Files series
Miles Vorkosigan series
Kingslayer Chronicle series
The First Law series
Almost anything by Larry Niven
The Chronicles of Amber series

Also, for some reason I have a soft spot for Warhammer books (both fantasy and 40k), from which I can recommend:

Ciaphas Cain series
Eisenhorn series
Ravenor series
Malus Darkblade series

And yes, I happen to love long running book sagas (except Wheel of Time, that's just painful)...

I personally just finished my first dresden files book, Turn Coat, and it was the best book i have read in years.

I love Dresden, it is easily my favorite series along with Butchers other series, Codex Alera, but Turn Coat was a really bad place to start. As you enjoyed it I would go and start with Storm front (the first) as Turn coat is number 11. Half the stuff that happens only makes sense if you have read the others anyway.

I really like all the Skulduggery Pleasant books. They're like humour, crime and shooting fireballs at deranged magicians trying to destroy the universe all rolled up into one book series. I wish that last one was actually a genre.

I used to like the Artemis Fowl books too, but I went back to read them recently and couldn't even get halfway through the first one. Might be worth a look though.

I just got a kindle and got all of the Skulduggery Pleasant books and I have loved them all so far but I have not yet started Kingdom of the wicked. Is it still good or has it gone on for too long like Artemis Fowl?, as I found that after number 4 AF went down in quality.

And why exactly does this thred forbid Harry Potter and TLotR? I love TLofR but I have never considered it an all time favorite and I don't think I know anyone who has. The less I say about Harry Potter the better (to sum up, I think it is shit) but while I know a few who like it I know no one who would consider it better then most other books.

EDIT: Remembered 2 more. Nightside series and Secret Histories series by Simon.R Green. Also Night Angle trilogy by Brent Weeks.

 

[teh lurker]

Kethani, by Eric Brown, is one of my favorite books, but it's definitely not for everyone. It will leave you feeling very depressed by the end of it. Just to give the briefest of overviews, it's about a race of aliens that come to Earth and offer mankind the dubious gift of immortality.

I also like Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novels are good too, but if you're using a Kindle, you're better off getting the compendiums rather than the individual titles, as they are meant to be read in order and not all of them are numbered. Hard copy novels have the number on the spine if memory serves.

 

[MiskWisk]

The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne (and later Todd) McCaffrey is a good series. It focuses more on the people rather than the dragons although it handles that very well.

Another is Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series is another good set of books that focuses on a different interpretation of a Necromancer that is also quite good.

Finally, Andy McDermott's The Hunt for Atlantis and later books in the series are quite good for a more modern read although his last one sort drops a little.

 

[MorganL4]

Pick something by Bernard Cornwell.....

The Sharpe Series
The Starbuck Chronicles
The Grail Quest
Saxon Series

The man is prolific... And he is still alive, and writing.... always a plus reading a living author.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=bernard+cornwell&oq=berna&gs_l=hp.3.1.0l4.90196.94180.1.98167.5.5.0.0.0.0.71.289.5.5.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.4.psy-ab.g7xwNO7ooMM&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.42661473,d.cGE&fp=46c83184b0067790&biw=1280&bih=624

 

[SerithVC]

The Tears of Artamon trilogy by Sarah Ash. Really good books, i started reading it back in highschool and found it hard to stop reading. I'd be reading it during class, between classes, during lunch, waiting for the bus (almost missed the bus a few times because of it). I highly recommend these books.

 

[Darklord008]

Pretty much anything by Tom Clancy, but I especially recommend Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, and Without Remorse. Also, Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts and Day of the Cheetah by Dale Brown are excellent as well.

 

[Harlemura]

I really like all the Skulduggery Pleasant books. They're like humour, crime and shooting fireballs at deranged magicians trying to destroy the universe all rolled up into one book series. I wish that last one was actually a genre.

I used to like the Artemis Fowl books too, but I went back to read them recently and couldn't even get halfway through the first one. Might be worth a look though.

I just got a kindle and got all of the Skulduggery Pleasant books and I have loved them all so far but I have not yet started Kingdom of the wicked. Is it still good or has it gone on for too long like Artemis Fowl?, as I found that after number 4 AF went down in quality.

I think it's still going strong. It carries on adding more dark, gritty and gory parts that some of the later books have compared to the more consistent chuckles of the earlier ones, but it still feels like the same series.
At any rate, it's still not a bad book at all.

Also I think Rowling and Tolkien were banned choices because a lot of people like them. Be a pretty dull thread if every other person was recommending the same series.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The Sicilian by Mario Puzo. I've now read all his stuff and consider this one superior even to the Godfather, which it is connected to. The rest is decent at least, but I would not recommend The Last Don or The Godfather's Revenge.

Also a big Star Wars EU fan here, of all the books I've read I'd consider Star by Star or Destiny's Way to be my favourite (the former chronicling perhaps the greatest triumph of that series' crazy evil villains, and the latter showing them get what's coming to them). Even if Episodes VII through IX go absolutely perfectly I don't think they'll be able to tell a more epic story than the NJO or Timohy Zahn's books.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Oddly neither Tolkien or Rowling fall into my "favorites" list, I enjoyed those books... but they aren't favorites.

But if you wanted a list of little known genre fiction you have asked the right person!

The Adventures of Master Li and Number Ten Ox by Barry Hughart
The Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
The Khaavren Romances by Stephen Brust
The Gentlemen Bastards Series by Scott Lynch
The Hungry City Chronicles by Phillip Reeve
The Borribles by Michael D. Larabetti
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
The Belgariad and Mallorean Series's by David Eddings
The Ethan Gage Series by William Dietrich
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Old Mans War by John Scalzi
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, Pere
Scaramouche by Raphael Sabatini
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
The Thursday Next Series and Nursery Crimes Division by Jasper Fforde
The Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morell
Swords against Deviltry by Fritz Lieber
The El Borak Stories by Robert E. Howard
At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
Amazonia by James Rollins
Nightwatch by Terry Pratchett
Wolf in Shadow by David Gemell
The Etched City by K.J. Bishop
Nomad of the Time Streams by Michael Moorcock

Probably more if I really plumbed the depths of my memories or looked at my bookshelf but those are the ones that came to mind.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

The Jerusalem Man trilogy

I think you might be one of the only other people I've ever met who knows about the Jerusalem Man books! And I forgot to include Wolf in Shadow on my list! CURSES! Oh well, awesome series that.

 

[RonHiler]

If you like fantasy with deep world-building, I highly recommend Stephen R Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series (10 books, with the 10th and final book coming out this fall). Very good books, especially if you like anti-heroes at all (Covenant is the best anti-hero I've ever read in that he's very believable. He's not just an asshole for the sake of being one, you can identify with his reasons for what he does, even when you don't agree with him).

There was a time I would have recommended Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game Of Thrones). They are very good books. But I can no longer really do so given the author's lack of focus on finishing the series. At this point I think it's more likely the ending will be written by the producers of the HBO show than by the author, so just watch that instead.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Ugh why is everyone always hanging over the same teenage fantasy bestseller soon-to-be-movies franchises? They're all the same!

 

[Fwee]

John Steakley's two books, Armor and Vampire$ are ones I'll revisit. As well as Spares by Michael Marshall Smith.
I'm going through the Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan for the first time since I was fourteen and still enjoying it.
Also the Dune series by Frank Herbert.
Richard Bachman's The Long Walk and Running Man are two interesting books as well.

 

[ecoho]

The Wheel of Time. Seriously, read those books. The best series I know.

The world is just so massive, Robert Jordan really did a great job with the politics, the environments, the different characters and their stories.
It gets slow at time, but it's totally worth it to read to the end. A Memory of Light was a really satisfying book and I feel it got the ending it deserved.

i was a bit disapointed that it did end but as they say all things end as the wheel moves forward

OT: once again the Wheel of time series is just so massive and grand in scale but still manages to do great character development, word of cation though those books could take up many a sleepless night reading cause you dont want to stop.

Mistborn series by brandon sanderson, great writer and character development and just an amazing world. i havent read a book from him yet that dissapoints me

the rangers apprentice series, cant remember who writes it but its just a great read.