Your favorite book/book series?

[SckizoBoy]

Well, I admit, I haven't read too much historically accurate sources on Alexander's personal life, so I can't honourablly debate that.

Eh... some historical inaccuracies I usually forgive, so long as it's fair on both sides.

As for Pride of Carthage, I see what you mean. I did find the buildup of Zama and the confrontation between Hannibal and Scipio to be very rushed, and I was expecting to at least see some of the life after the war, as Hannibal remained in Carthage for several years as some kind of civilian officer (forgot what he was exactly), but after a hasty depiction of Zama, it just.. ends. In the non-historical side, some of the character arcs remain unfinished as well (what ever happened to Imco Vaca? Did he perish in Zama or did he re-unite with his love? What of Sapanibal and Hannibal's wife?). I understand the narrative decision to strip down the war to five years though, nothing breaks a story more than several "3 years later" jumps. This is an area where I think Tides of War suffered, it jumped ahead great deals of time too often.

What rankles me about Pride most is Durham's rather brash dismissal of Roman military prowess for most of the book, before just rolling over in defeat going into Zama. (FYI, 'the Battle of Zama' is one of historiography's biggest misnomers... EVER!) And I was a little disappointed with the plotholes that built up, as well, because I was curious as to Imilce's fate more than anything else... ah well...

Still, you're right, Hannibal retired briefly after the war, but shortly before Africanus' second consulship (or just after his censorship, not sure which), he (picture definition of irony) helped install Hannibal as suffete in Carthage (one of the most senior magisterial positions).

FYI... writing about this subject ATM (part one of three coming soon!)... keep eyes peeled on Amazon Kindle... ¬_¬ (yes, I'm sorry, shameless advertising, but it's relevant! >_< )

In any case, the author doesn't appear to have done any more historical novels, so I guess it was a one-time thing that didn't work out for him. Unfortunately.

Actually, half of Durham's books are historical fiction, though Pride was the first in an ancient setting.

I have not heard of Ross Leckie, though given your reaction, I'm not sure I really want to. Haha.

Well, this [http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/0862417252/ref=cm_cr_dp_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0] is my Amazon.co.uk review of it... (FYI, it's the long one!) and it rather lengthily sums up my opinion of it. The author was a classics grad from Oxford Uni, and judging from that piece of trash, it doesn't look as though even partially read either of the two great sources we still have for the subject material. My ire will never dampen against that 'book'... >_<

 

[Kiefer13]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, without a doubt.

If A Song of Ice and Fire is half as good as I keep hearing it is, I'm sure that will be right up there too when I finally get around to reading it this summer.

 

[theevilgenius60]

I've gotta go with L E Modesitt's Saga of Recluce. They're strange books for fantasy, but the magic is so well defined and I love how every character approaches it differently, depending on their life experiences.

 

[Poetic Nova]

The Hyperion books although I did forgot the autor sadly, everything by Tess Geritssen and the writers duo Preston&Child. Hard to pick one of them

 

[The Funslinger]

The Sword of Truth seres - can't really pick only one book out of it. A close second would be Sword Art Online, not the anime but the books, which are much better.

Would it be better to read the sword of truth series chronologically, or the order the books came out?

Do yourself a favor and don't read the Sword of Truth series at all. I've read the entire thing, and I can tell you it is the series I've most regretted reading. I continued to read it mostly because I kept getting them for my birthday from people who didn't know better, so I felt semi-obligated to continue.

If you must read it, read only the first 3 or 4 books. I'd hesitate at that, because the first few books might convince you that I'm wrong and that maybe the series is worth reading after all. After that, it turns into an extremely thinly veiled rant against socialism / communism, in which the socialists are an endless faceless army of serial rapists. Speaking of which, you'd better like reading rape and torture scenes, because rarely do a few chapters go by without some village or caravan being raped to death.

Anyway, the author's political motivations are ridiculously transparent. Just as an example, he has the main character drop what he's doing and get yanked, through plot construct, to the heart of the socialist empire, where he takes up a trade and then builds up an enormously successful business while showing everyone the limitless power of capitalism. This is an actual part of a book series that was previously all about beheading villains and using magic to fight satanists.

The last book of the series is literally just a bunch of pseudo discussions about socialism being a soul-crushing system, with the socialists essentially throwing up strawman arguments for the capitalists to demolish. The ending is a ridiculous hole to sweep the remainder of the plot into. At this point, it's not even offensive. Just lazy and uninspired.

Also, the socialists enslave and demonstratably out-evil the satanists.

Just WTF.

TL;DR Don't read it.

On topic, for fantasy, most recently I enjoyed Tigana, Way of Kings, and Book of the Long Sun. For more science-fiction stuff, I loved Neuromancer and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. These are just the books I've read most recently, I'm sure I could dredge up more favorites.

I get what you mean. I don't feel as strongly about it, and I might as well finish them at some point. But seeing the Socialist parallels come through was a worrying process. But yes, writing a convincing character holding a belief that runs against his own is a skill Terry Goodkind sorely lacks.

Shame. Those first few books were amazing, if grim.

OT: The Dark Tower series. Love me the genre hopping adventures of the Gunslingers.

I'm on the second book of Wheel of Time, too, but nothing will usurp Dark Tower.

 

[The Funslinger]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, without a doubt.

If A Song of Ice and Fire is half as good as I keep hearing it is, I'm sure that will be right up there too when I finally get around to reading it this summer.

Ironically, ASOIAF is big enough to carry you into next winter.

And yeah, it's a brilliant book series. One of my favorite. What it does is really focuses on the finer details of the plot. The result is something that is really taking ages to go anywhere, but I never once felt like it was a bad thing.

 

[Fijiman]

My favorite book series would have to be the Bartimaeus trilogy. It beats many of the other book series that I've read(or a least read most of) even if only by a small margin, though I'm currently reading the Ranger's Apprentice series and loving it so that may change. As for a favorite book, hmm...Blarg! Too many good ones to choose from.

 

[Croaker42]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Black Company series by Glen Cook. Its what I believe to be the perfect meshing of military and fantasy.

At this time, I am finally reading I Jedi and dig it for the most part.

I am also a huge fan and am eagerly waiting for the series release of Gladstones School for World Conquerors. Its the perfect blend of Hairy Potter and Teen Titans.

 

[TeapartyTokyo]

You must read Joe Abercrombie! Seriously, all of you, you are going to love his books. His best work, if you ask me, is "Best Served Cold" ~~ but that novel makes a bigger impact if you've already read his fantastic trilogy, "The Blade Itself". I can not recommend him enough

Also, two of my more recent favorites are "Ready Player One" and "World War Z"

 

[Nocenious]

I am really into the Horus heresy series at the moment. Something about reading about the most turbulent period in Warhammer 40k is appealing.
If you like history, the Penguin series does a good job at it. Been reading about British history, and does a good job at taking a balanced view of it.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I can't pick one for either category. How could I? There's so much. The best contenders though:

Favourite series:
- The Dresden Files. For pure fun and the fantastic character development.
- Terry Pratchett's Watch and Death sub-series. They have my favourite characters of all Discworld novels.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Though they go downhill I still love them.
- Song of Fire And Ice. Only been reading the first one but I already know I'm going to love it all.
- The Kingkiller Chronicles. They're just so damn atmospheric.

Favourite individual books:
- Dune. It's just so damn gorgeous.
- The Wayward Bus. Also gorgeous. So damn engaging.
- 1984 Just a fantastic story.
- Good Omens. Pratchett and Gaiman together, what's not to love.
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. It's just so beautiful.

I could honestly go on and on and on.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

snip

I can agree with what you say about the portrayal of the Roman military. But I can forgive him there, Pressfield is significantly better at writing battle scenes and describing the military. It's pretty difficult to do properly, in an accurate, informative yet exciting manner. I'm aspiring to become a fantasy/historical-fantasy author myself, and the fight scenes are some of the hardest things to put to paper. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to properly describe an entire battle with many individual fronts and all kinds of unit tactics going on.

I wasn't aware he had other historical fiction, though it could be his other historical fiction work is from times I'm not interesting in. I'm pretty shoehorned in when it comes to history. I'm only truly interested in periods encompassing the bronze age through to around the early middle ages (the Battle of Hastings is where I see my cut-off point). So that could be why.

I read your review of that, seems quite bad indeed. I do remember reading about one author who has a series of Roman Legion books, and he was widely panned as well. History seems to be a very hard thing to write about, especially since there are many passionate knowledgeable people of history who can jump on any inaccuracy. That's what is happening galore on forums about the upcoming Rome Total War game.

 

[TheRookie8]

The Dresden Files- if you like crime drama mixed with fantasy, this series will give you that and so much more. It truly is one of the best book series out there.

The First Law Trilogy- A very rare fantasy trilogy where nearly every character possesses a flaw that would normally make you hate them, yet strangely you want to see what happens to them next.

And if you enjoy the First Law, be sure to read "Best Served Cold", "The Heroes", and "Red Country", as they take place after the trilogy and add some perspective to events.

 

[synobal]

The Sword of Truth seres - can't really pick only one book out of it. A close second would be Sword Art Online, not the anime but the books, which are much better.

Would it be better to read the sword of truth series chronologically, or the order the books came out?

Better not to read them at all. The first book is good but better to stop there. Pretty soon the author well he starts using the storys as a mouth piece for his beliefs and it's just not enjoyable.

 

[Julius Terrell]

The Wheel of Time (Currently reading a memory of light)
The Cavern of black ice J.V. Jones (I don't know what the series is called)
Tales of the black company

Individual books
Anatheirm(sp?)
A enemy reborn

I've read other fantasy novels, but these really stood out for me.

Edit: I forgot about the Saga of Recluce! It's such an excellent series! I've reread "The Order War" and "The Fall of Angels" a few times. Will reread the series in the future.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Definitely The Beach by Alex Garland. Think Swiss Family Robinson with Vietnam and videogame references, and drugs. I love it for the way Richard is written, he's so easy to relate to because he's so well characterised. Unlike far too many fictional protagonists he has a whole heap of human flaws and doesn't always do the right thing, but he does the thing that you would probably end up doing.

And the film was shit.

 

[Worldbreaker]

Currently re-reading The Wheel of Time (favorite series), won't get Memory of Light translated here before October, so I'm taking the chance to remind myself of all the events and characters (I have bad memory which is great when I want to read a book again, not so good for my grades though...)

 

[Harley Q]

I had to think long and hard about this one. As a series, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series. They are consistently good, and are a worthwhile read. I considered Harry Potter, but then all I could think of was of how terrible Chamber of Secrets was.

I tried to read the chronicles of Narnia, but I got to the fifth book and just lost all interest. I'm on the penultimate Sookie Stackhouse book, I'm losing interest in it. I'm only continuing because I hate not finishing things.
I really want to get my hands on A Song of Ice and Fire though.

If you ever get the chance. the Lucifer Box novels are hilarious!