Favorite novels

[Brunhidden]

if you at all enjoy the works of Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett you should try the 'you've got peanut butter on my herring' thing and read 'good omens' which they did together

the cover of the book kind of says it all "the end of the world has never been funnier",  its essentially the story of the Antichrist gone wrong, the four horsemen (actually bikers, but one of them retired and has a replacement) of the apocalypse, the remnants of the very old, powerful, and prestigious witch hunters, and of course an angel and demon who could almost be called 'friends' in a very strange and professional way

in a weird way it explains quite a lot about religion and can aid people in finding a deeper understanding of the universe, and lets you laugh on the way

[thegayhare]

LOL
I've read Good Omens several times now

It's a great read just like you said

[Alondro]

I've never had to read fiction to understand religion.

I kinda avoid fiction that goes too much into being allegorical.  It tends to annoy me as I have no choice but to pick it apart and/or get furious at humanity for being full of fail all the time (And I am obviously the ultimate life-form, ever forced to bear witness to the scum-beings below the ivory tower upon which I stand!  ).  When I read fiction, I don't want to be reminded of how much the real world sucks because humans can't help but be stupid.

If I want analysis of socio-political-religious issues, I'll read something analytical and factual.  Fiction is imperfect at representing the dynamics as it presents a non-existant scenario imagined by the author. 

That's why I like "Lord of the Rings".  It's totally its own world, free from blatant allegory and strained symbolism.  It's what I term 'pure fiction'.

[Tapewolf]

llearch assures me that 18 days is not too late, so as promised, here is my overview of 'A Fire Upon The Deep' by Vernor Vinge (1992).

It's set about 32'000 years in the future, and it turns out that the galaxy is split into different layers, with different capabilities.  Towards the core, intelligence itself stops working.  Machinery does not work so well.  In the Slow Zone, where we are, intelligence cannot exceed roughly human level, and faster-than-light technology is impossible. 
Further out in the Beyond, intelligence (biological and artificial) can exceed human standards and FTL travel and communications become possible.  Much of the novel revolves around usenet groups consisting of members of many different races throughout the Beyond (FTL bandwidth is very expensive so text, not video, is the main mode of communication).
Finally, in the Transcend, software alone can be of superhuman complexity, and mind-machine integration works so well that it is possible for rogue data packets to infect someone's mind.  It is also possible for an entire civilisation to coalesce into a single, godlike entity referred to as a Transcendant Power.  (The study of these is referred to as 'Applied Theology')

There are two main threads to Fire, the catastrophic results when a colony of human programmer-archaeologists discover a 5-billion-year-old archive and unwittingly boot up a malign Power known as The Blight, and the plight of two children fleeing the disaster, who wind up stranded on a medieval-era planet populated solely by telepathic dog-like creatures who travel in packs and are only sentient in groups of four or more.

Vernor Vinge was a tenured professor of computer science and mathematics at San Diego University until he retired to focus entirely on writing.  One of his earlier (1981) works was True Names, a novella with an eerie resemblance to Second Life.  There is a prequel called A Deepness in the Sky which is not bad, although not quite on par with Fire in my opinion.  Apparently he is working on a sequel.

Now, it's hard to do this justice without including the entire prologue.  This is about a third of it.  The scenario is that the humans from Straumli Realm have discovered a lost archive in the low Transcend and are excavating it.  They have set up a base known as the 'High Lab' and took precautions to try and avoid triggering anything more complex than they could understand, but in vain:



...the local net at the High Lab had transcended -- almost without the humans realizing. The processes that circulated through its nodes were complex, beyond anything that could live on the computers the humans had brought. Those feeble devices were now simply front ends to the devices the recipes suggested.

Days passed. For the evil that was growing in the new machines, each hour was longer than all the time before. Now the newborn was less than an hour from its great flowering, its safe spread across interstellar spaces. The local humans could be dispensed with soon. Even now they were an inconvenience, though an amusing one. Some of them actually thought to escape.  For days, they had been refitting the frigate -- behind a a mask of transparent lies.  None of them guessed the honor that had fallen upon them, that they had changed the future of a thousand million star systems.

The hours came to minutes, the minutes to seconds. And now each second was as long as all the time before. The flowering was so close now, so close. The dominion of five billion years before would be regained, and this time held. Only one thing was missing. In the archive, deep in the recipes, there should have been a little bit more, something it had learned in its fall, or something left by its enemies.

Outside, the container ship and the frigate lifted from the landing field, rising on silent agravs above the plains of gray on gray, of ruins five billion years old. Almost half of the humans were aboard those craft. Their escape attempt had been humored till now: it was not quite time for the flowering, and the humans were still of some use.

Below the level of supreme consciousness, its paranoid inclinations rampaged through the humans' databases. Checking, just to be sure.  The humans' oldest local network used light speed connections. Thousands of microseconds were spent (wasted) bouncing around it, sorting the trivia, finally spotting one incredible item: Inventory: quantum data container, quantity (1) : loaded to the frigate one hundred hours before!  And all the newborn's attention turned upon the fleeing vessels.

An orderly flowering was out of the question now, and so there was no more need for the humans left in the Lab.  The change was small for all its cosmic significance. For the humans remaining aground, a moment of horror, staring at their displays, realizing that all their fears were true (not realizing how much worse than true).
Five seconds, ten seconds, more change than ten thousand years of a human civilization. A billion trillion constructions, mold curling out from every wall, rebuilding what had been merely superhuman. This was as powerful as a proper flowering, though not quite so finely tuned.

The frigate switched to rocket drive, blasting heedless away from the wallowing freighter. Somehow, these microbes knew they were rescuing more than themselves. The warship had the best navigation computers that little minds could make. But it would be another three seconds before it could make its first ultradrive hop.

The new Power had no weapons on the ground, nothing but a comm laser.
No acknowledgment. The humans knew what communication would bring. The laser light flickered here and there across the hull, searching, probing.  One more second and the frigate would attain interstellar safety.
The laser flickered on a failure sensor, a sensor that reported critical changes in one of the ultradrive spines. Its interrupts could not be ignored if the star jump were to succeed. Interrupt honored. Interrupt handler running, looking out, receiving more light from the laser far below.... a backdoor into the ship's code, installed when the newborn had subverted the humans' groundside equipment....
.... and the Power was aboard, with milliseconds to spare. Its agents -- not even human equivalent on this primitive hardware -- raced through the ship's automation, shutting down, aborting. There would be no jump.  Yet the ultradrive was already committed.  Cameras in the ship's bridge showed widening of eyes, the beginning of a scream. The humans knew, to the extent that horror can live in a fraction of a second.
So slow and so fast. A fraction of a second. The fire spread out from the heart of the frigate, taking both peril and possibility.   What was lost might have made the newborn still more powerful... but more likely was deadly poison.

Two hundred thousand kilometers away, the clumsy container vessel made its own ultradrive jump and vanished from sight. The newborn scarcely noticed. So a few humans had escaped; the universe was welcome to them. 

Suspicion. The newborn should not have been so fooled by mere humans. The newborn convulsed into self-inspection and panic. Yes, there were blindspots, carefully installed from the beginning, and not by the humans. Two had been born here. Itself ... and the poison, the reason for its fall of old. The newborn inspected itself as never before, knowing now just what to seek. Destroying, purifying, rechecking, searching for copies of the poison, and destroying again.  Relief. Defeat had been so close, but now ...
 
The newborn looked across the stars, planning.  This time things will be different.

[bill]

reading Henderson the Rain King and Darkness at Noon now, both are rly good

[Cogidubnus]

If the topic is revived, I highly recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. First novel, and doesn't really show it. Very simply an excellent book. Best 700 pages I've read in some time. Easily in my list of favorite books, up there with Lord of the Rings and The Secret History.

[Brunhidden]

I reccomend for anyone with a liking of zombies or end of the world scenerios the novel 'World War Z- the oral history of the zombie war'

Ever heard of the zombie survival handbook? same author, after the sucess of the handbook he wrote this novel as a kind of story about how the book came to be, although the handbook is almost never mentioned other then twice in passing.

What really gets me is the way its told, completely in first person. the 'author' is a survivor of the zombie war who was set the task of recording the data of survivors to make an accurate historical account of the war, and was told to remove the 'human element' in preference for hard facts and numbers. the 'author' then gets fed up and writes this book of all his interviews, to record that human element- as such the whole book is interviews with survivors, taken out of order so that the subject of each interview follows the chronological order of the war itself and occasionally goes back to the same person two or three times as their interview covers the portion of the war currently the focus of the book.

only rarely do you see anything that the 'author' himself said, so it mostly sounds like the monologue of each survivor as questions are asked.

the book is chilling, it sounds like it could happen next month or in three years- everything that happens you have the distinct feeling that its exactly how the world would react to what happens.



truly a must read, but a slight caution as most of the time ive read it i have about two weeks of paranoia whenever i drive at night and have a compulsion to carry a weapon in the trunk of my car.

[yakanaj]

I am a fan of John Grisham, I think I own all but four or five of his books. I am also really into the Fantasy Realms right now. I really like how R.A Salvatore writes - that and I like Drizzt. 

[bill]

finished Henderson the Rain King everyone please buy it it is awesome


thanks in advance

[Sufurin Scorda]

Hmm, I can't pick a favorite. Anything by Christopher Pike or R. L. Stine I guess. (Shut up, it's not scary, but it's interesting, and I used to read Goosebumps (By R. L. Stine) all the time when I was a youngin'.)

Right now I'm reading [Skulduggery Pleasant.] (Don't let Boog read my post. guys. Quick, Bill, ban him!) And earlier, I read [The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters] (They're in order on the page. Newer on top, the first book is on the bottom.)

finished Henderson the Rain King everyone please buy it it is awesome

Pfft. Bill, you can't read. Silly.

[bill]

fantasy isn't a real genre all of you should be ashamed

[Sunblink]

fantasy isn't a real genre all of you should be ashamed

I feel like such a fool.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[bill]

also if you said you read Finnigan's Wake you are lying


nobody has read Finnigan's Wake

[Sufurin Scorda]

I feel like such a fool.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

Don't listen to him, he thinks Nascar is cool.

also if you said you read Finnigan's Wake you are lying

nobody has read Finnigan's Wake

whats finnigans wake bill

i dont know what it is because ive never read it or heard of it

[yakanaj]

fantasy isn't a real genre all of you should be ashamed

Hmmm... Sorry, I stopped being ashamed of myself a long time ago. I figured that if no one was going to like me, then I would have to like me.

Oh ya. Nothing is wrong with fantasy. Just because I read fantasy doesn't mean I don't read other books too.

I also like to read art books and history books, but right now I'm enjoying fantasy.
Hey, Bill - anyone tell you that DMFA is fantasy?

[Sufurin Scorda]

He knows DMFA is fantasy. He doesn't read it. He only came here for friends because everyone he knows IRL (In real life) thinks he's dumb and ugly.

(He DOES read it. He is a furry in denial. Do not believe his lies.)

[Sunblink]

I feel like such a fool.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

Don't listen to him, he thinks Nascar is cool.

You're right; I feel much better now.

By the way, folks, Fahrenheit 451 is a bitchin' book. READ IT.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Tapewolf]

By the way, folks, Fahrenheit 451 is a bitchin' book. READ IT.

I found it rather depressing.  Memorable, and definitely worth reading, but depressing...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

By the way, folks, Fahrenheit 451 is a bitchin' book. READ IT.

I found it rather depressing.  Memorable, and definitely worth reading, but depressing...

I found Animal Farm and 1984 just as depressing - mostly because I could see so much of the world as it stands now using them as textbooks for how to deal with people...

[bill]

Animal Farm is the best Orwell book


Currently reading Darkness at Noonby Arthur Koestler, and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.

[LionHeart]

By the way, folks, Fahrenheit 451 is a bitchin' book. READ IT.

I found it rather depressing.  Memorable, and definitely worth reading, but depressing...

I found Animal Farm and 1984 just as depressing - mostly because I could see so much of the world as it stands now using them as textbooks for how to deal with people...

I read all three of those books in high school, and I agree - they are depressing.

On a more cheerful note: Anne McCaffrey, and Mercedes Lackey. Two very good authors in the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

Speaking of Mercedes Lackey: The Fairy Godmother. Set in a land that runs on narrative causality (sort of), a young girl has a life very much like that of Cinderella, until it turns out that the Prince is, as the blurb says, "completely inappropriate". Then she meets a Fairy Godmother, and what happens after that... read the book and find out.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Christopher Stasheff is amusing me at present.

Mind you, anyone looking at my reading list will have some idea of that. ;-]

[Tezkat]

llearch assures me that 18 days is not too late, so as promised, here is my overview of 'A Fire Upon The Deep' by Vernor Vinge (1992).

I'll put in another vote for A Fire Upon the Deep. It was high enough on my favourites list that one of my longtime forum nicks was taken from one of the characters in the novel. It's great space opera that also offers an interesting take on post-Singularity civilization.

I am also really into the Fantasy Realms right now. I really like how R.A Salvatore writes - that and I like Drizzt. 

If you're a Forgotten Realms fan, I'd recommend Elaine Cunningham's works. Her writing has a certain flare that stands out among the rest of the game fiction. I like Troy Denning as well, though he's already much better known.


One guy who doesn't seem to be on enough people's reading lists is Robert J Sawyer. Brilliant hard SF author. He weaves clever plots around issues that delve deep into human psychology and philosophy--a bit more cerebral read than Michael Crichton. He also likes to set his books in Canada, which I think is a nice touch. I find he doesn't get much shelf space in bookstores south of the border, though, despite a long string of Hugo/Nebula/etc. awards and nominations.

[Brunhidden]

Hmm, I can't pick a favorite. Anything by Christopher Pike or R. L. Stine I guess. (Shut up, it's not scary, but it's interesting, and I used to read Goosebumps (By R. L. Stine) all the time when I was a youngin'.)

Right now I'm reading [Skulduggery Pleasant.] (Don't let Boog read my post. guys. Quick, Bill, ban him!) And earlier, I read [The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters] (They're in order on the page. Newer on top, the first book is on the bottom.)

finished Henderson the Rain King everyone please buy it it is awesome

Pfft. Bill, you can't read. Silly.

if you like stein try reading bruce collieve, at least i think thats how his name goes.... did a lot of kids horror/scifi books like 'my teacher is an alien' and several collections like 'bruce collieves book of monsters' which i thoroughly enjoyed.

fantasy isn't a real genre all of you should be ashamed

I feel like such a fool.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

half the time i go into bookstores i fly into a rant at how they put 'star trek' books under fantasy and 'dragonlance' under science fiction and then put LOTR under childrens.

about half the time i do that the bookstore owner joins me.

[Sunblink]

By the way, folks, Fahrenheit 451 is a bitchin' book. READ IT.

I found it rather depressing.  Memorable, and definitely worth reading, but depressing...

Heh, true. It is somewhat depressing, but... Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors because of the book. My best friend in real life hated that book, though, after he read it for school, and he won't stop making fun of me for loving it.

Josh, if you're reading this right now, YOU'RE A BIG POOP-HEAD.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[bill]

Purchased Deliverance by James Dickey. I keep hearing how this is one of the best books of the 20th century, awesome, etc, so I'll check it out.

[Angel]

And earlier, I read [The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters] (They're in order on the page. Newer on top, the first book is on the bottom.)

OOH I've read those! I wanna read the third one, but I've been real busy and forgotten to buy it...

I also like the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. Yeah, the cat books. They're way better than you'd assume, though my little brother tells me the first series is better than the newer ones.