Book recommendations?

[pentapus]

Do you have a moment to recommend some books?

What is the single most memorable thing you liked about it? In other words, which button did it press? :D I am pretty sci-fi/fantasy oriented, though other genres can and have appealed. I'm a sap for a good romantic pairing set in a solid plot. Also world-building. Oh yes.


As for my favorites, these are the current top two winners for pushing all the right buttons:
The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (basically, historical fiction for nerds who like badasses. There is ALSO a super sweet, ridiculous--and badass, of course--love story in The Baroque Cycle. It hit all of my buttons so hard, oh my god.)

Everything by Patricia A. McKillip but especially In the Forests of Serre, Ombria in Shadow, and The Tower at Stony Wood, etc, etc. High fantasy here, without being inconveniently epic length. Love the way magic appears here -- there is no attempt to make it scientific or anything less than eerie. ♥


ETA: Also, everything by Ursula K. LeGuin (How did I forget her?!), especially The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness,, and all of the Earthsea books, including the new ones with Ged and Tenar.

Some other favorites are:
Ender's Game and Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
Last Call by Tim Powers (haven't read any others of his)
Matter by Ian M. Banks (and various culture novels)
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Alanna and Wild Magic (plus sequels) by Tamora Pierce
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery (Yes, I like Lessa. And F'lar. And Robinton.)
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (though apparently this is part of a giant book universe I have never read)
Wraeththu by Storm Constantine (which is an angst-heavy love story fantasy epic about gay metahuman sorcerers whose super powers include being really beautiful. Reading it feels sort of like being drugged.)
Archangel by Sharon Shinn (More people need to read this just because every fandom needs an Archangel AU. Pre-industrial society! Watched over by winged individuals who are gifted with heavenly voices and who ask the god for good weather or medicine or for some smiting by singing beautiful music beautifully. EVERYONE HAS A JEWEL IN THEIR ARM THAT LIGHTS UP WHEN THEIR TRUE LOVE IS NEAR--well except for the Edori, who are basically Native American Jewish Tinkers. COME ON, GUYS.)

Comments

[james]

Sandman Slim and sequel(s) by Richard Kadrey: urban fantasy, set in modern day Los Angeles but with magic, demons, angels, Heaven and Hell. What strikes me most about this story is that there is no black and white to what and who is good, or evil. The protagonist is a jerk, and a killer, but he's sympathetic and the reader can relate to him and root for him. While the "good guys" and "bad guys" vie for the protagonist to join their side and help in the Big Fight, the protagnist choses to do his own thing and, in so doing, ends up being the one to save the world.

It takes the usual tropes of urban fantasy and puts a dark, and realistic, spin on them. It's gritty and black humour and not at all fluffy, but the characters are driven by their passions and principles and the world built is so very detailed and real, yet there is a lot of world-building that has gone into it. The second book especially builds a world with rich backstory and intricacies that work to explain what's going on. There's no hand-waving or "then magic stuff happened here." Magic doesn't get them out of things with a handwave. It's still work and sometimes things explode and sometimes the magicians are the bad guys and sometimes they're victims and sometimes they're both.

The Inspector Chen series by Liz Williams - more urban fantasy, set in China (or another world China - hard to tell if it's future, alternate universe, or what.) Again, magic and angels and demons from Hell and Inspector Chen is a policeman just trying to do his job, and gets sucked into the goings-on between Heaven and Hell. His wife is a demon who has escaped from Hell and just wants to live her life (with a teapot-badger as her protector.)

The world-building is astounding, full of Chinese mythology and traditional magic, all in the setting of a cop-thriller mystery.

I love Cryptonomicon. I re-read it about every other year - sometimes I read just one character's chapters all the way through then go back and read another set.

[pentapus]

Oooh, both of those sound intriguing. I may have to try the second one first just for the use of the word "teapot-badger". Thank you for the recs!

When I started Quicksilver for the first time, I got a hundred pages in before I walked over to my friend asked him very seriously, "Where is the Shaftoe?" Oh, Jack. ♥

Bobby Shaftoe was my favorite character in Cryptonomicon, but my favorite scenes are probably the one with Laurence Waterhouse and the Marine band and his pipe organ computer. Oh, and the bits about Athena or the human race as descendants of stupendous badasses. XD

[james]

Shaftoe is awesome. I loved how NS used the fact that no one in the US back then knew about komodo dragons, so it was something real and yet no one believed him!

Mostly I just love the fact I can read the book for a nineteenth time and *still* discover something I'd missed!

[everbright]

I'm going to Double recommend the Inspector Chen series, it wallows in mythology without wallowing in angst!

[pentapus]

Haha, nice choice of phrasing! It had peaked my interesting, so thanks for seconding the rec.