Recommend me some books

[Toaster Hunter]

The Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. A bit depressing at times (my advice, don't get attached to any character) but still one of the best written pieces of fiction available

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Why?
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1248964599329.jpg

Can you handle the Awesome?

 

[itsthesheppy]

anything by Terry Pratchett.

if you don't want to jump into the (39) Discworld books try Nation or Good Omens.

This man stole my post. Go to your local book store, and pick up the first book you see by Terry Pratchett. It almost doesn't matter where you begin, though starting towards the early books of the Discworld series is a good start.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

anything by Terry Pratchett.

if you don't want to jump into the (39) Discworld books try Nation or Good Omens.

This advice cannot be said enough times, I would recommend Guard! Guards! as an intro into the series authough you don't really need to start at the beginning with the Discworld series.

Ciaphas Cain is something else if you want something funny, it's pretty much a cross of Blackadder and Flashman in the Warhammer 40k universe.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I like science fiction so I recommend anything by Daniel H. Wilson.

Some of his recent works include Robopocalypse and AMPED.

 

[Susan Arendt]

The Dresden Files - meet Harry Dresden, wizard-slash-private-detective. Look him up, he's in the Chicago yellow pages. Under "wizard". The only entry there, too. Oh, and he's awesome, as well, over the course of the series, he has faced werewolves, zombies, evil wizards, demons, fae, ghosts and a bunch of other stuff. It's pretty good, in fact, I'm planning on rereading all of it pretty soon.

I've read all the Dresden books, and I concur. They're very easy, entertaining reads, and the core lore at their heart is solid and refreshing. I dig them.

I'm personally going to recommend Lamb, by Christopher Moore. Moore is a very funny, unusual writer, and Lamb is my personal favorite of his. Fool is a very, very close second. I highly recommend either book. Admittedly, neither is sci fi or fantasy, at least not fantasy in the traditional sense of the word. But they're not your typical storytelling, either, which is why I'm suggesting them.

 

[ShinobiJedi42]

Most of the books I would recommend have already been said (World War Z, A Song of Ice and Fire, Hitchhiker's Guide) and I cannot stress enough that the entire Ender Saga is the greatest work of fiction I have ever read.

But I haven't seen anyone mention Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy, so I suggest you read that. Lisbeth Salander is one of the greatest literary characters of this generation.

 

[Xelien]

Favorite Science Fiction series will always be Frank Hubert's Dune saga which includes:
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune

There are more books afterwards but there written by Frank Hubert's son and an other guy and were not as good as the original series.

 

[V TheSystem V]

- Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal (you don't really have to read Red Dragon to understand Silence of the Lambs)

- Game of Thrones series. Kinda hard-going, but once you're hooked, you're hooked

- Green Mile. Emotional book.

- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Don't feel you have to read its sequels, but just read this one. My God...the characters, the mystery, the book...just read it.

 

[Keal]

Well there are always the classics:

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - a mad dream

- Brave New World - a dystopian(?) vision of the future

- Moby-Dick - a book about everything and whaling

 

[JambalayaBob]

A good science fantasy series to read is the Heir to the Empire Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. It's a continuation of the story of the original trilogy of Star Wars, and it basically reads like Episodes 7, 8, and 9 would if they existed (in a good way).

Someone mentioned the Ender Saga, although personally I wouldn't read past Speaker for the Dead (the sequel to Ender's Game), because after that it gets a bit weird, and further after that it gets REALLY weird. Ender's Shadow is another good book in that universe though. Also, please don't pass up these books just because Orson Scott Card wrote them; that's just silly for a guy who won two Hugos and two Nebulas with two consecutive books.

Paulo Coehlo is another great author, although his stuff isn't for everyone.

 

[sant25]

Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy. Probably my favourite book.

Also, this days I´m reading all the books of Robert B. Barker. Try them too.

 

[Roggen Bread]

The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie. (ya know, the guy from House)

I enjoyed it a great deal, very nice writing, awesome word plays (I'm into this).

 

[Alex Baas]

Atlas Shrugged.

It will make you enjoy Bioshock more.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Seconding the Horus Heresy, throwing in additional 40k novels in the Ciaphas Cain, Eisenhorn, Ravennor and Gaunts Ghosts series, as well as Space Wolf, Grey Knights, Ultramarines and Word Bearers (if you want something REALLY grimdark).

Seconding The Dark Tower.

Seconding anything by Tolkien. Silmarillion can be a little hard to get into but it's well worth it if you can follow the hundreds of characters.

Seconding Game of Thrones.

About to read Dune next myself, so might as well second that too.

 

[Mister K]

anything by Terry Pratchett.

if you don't want to jump into the (39) Discworld books try Nation or Good Omens.

I second that. T.Pratchett is one of the most clever authors of our time.
I can also recommend S.Kings "It", "The stand" and/or "Green mile".
And you should probably try works of N.Geiman, A.Asimov and R.Bradbury.

 

[Kuranesno7]

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (Postmodern Horror, lots of footnotes, likes to fuck with your head at rgular intervals)

Heavy Liquid by Paul Pope (noir sci-fi comic trade paperback)

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (about a pizza delivery boy/ hacker/ swordfighter named Hiro Protagonist and his quest to make a buck in the Metaverse)

Neuromancer by William Gibson (postmodern noir science fiction)

Perdido Street Station by China Meiville (as fantasy as you can get. Scarab women, Libertarian Bird people, vampire junkies, folks that ritualistically cut themselve before battle so the blood will come out and harden into armor, convicts becoming steampunk monstrocieties called Remade, magic, all in one big corrupt city.)

 

[Crumpster]

Jo Nesbø - The snowman, it's a well written criminal novel.

 

[Brendan Stepladder]

The Lord of the RIngs- The movies just don't do it justice. You know it's bad when a multi-million dollar production still can't reach the level of action in some of the battles. Above all, the world it's set in become much more vivid. One of my favorite books ever.

The Fault in Our Stars- by John Green. While John Green has buckets of followers on his own site, it's evident that they don't visit the Escapist. Anyway, it's the story of these two teens who are both terminally ill who fall in love. Dear God, that summary is so cheesy it doesn't remotely do it justice. The characters are so amazingly deep it's just astounding.

Catcher in the Rye- If you don't know about this book I'm ashamed of you.

And what I dub my, "big 3" dystopia novels: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 1984 by Orwell, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

 

[SecondPrize]

Simon Green's Nightside series is pretty fun and might fall under those things you listed.