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.

[monanotlisa]

The fantasy du jour is of course Game of Thrones -- greatly fleshed-out characters, women and men, sarcasm, and epic adventure of the dark and difficult kind: someone described it as realpolitik in a fictional world, and that captures it well. Very triggery, though -- basically, you name it, it's in there, and not once but about a hundred times. *Per installment*. Some parts drag, and some characters are a drag, although thankfully most of the ones I dislike die horrible gruesome deaths (which, I won't lie, is just awesome).

And oh, God, I spent my childhood and youth reading books, quite a bit of it fantasy. I'll go through it in my head and let you know. :)

[nellacitta]

new ones with Ged and Tenar

Whhhhhaaaaaaaaa?????????

(Will make some recs after I'm done DANCING WITH GLEE.)

[risha]

Just today I was thinking about Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami.

It's two stories told in alternating chapters - one a cyberpunk thriller/mystery about a man who's a human encryption machine; and the other a fantasy/magical realism about a man trapped in a walled town at the end of the world, with unicorns and mysterious libraries. The two stories eventually converge. It's one of the best books I've ever read, both in the sense of being amazing literature, and in being fucking awesome genre fiction. From the books you listed above, I think you'd like it.

[everbright]

Point of Hopes & Point of Dreams by Melissa Scott and Lise Barnett

They're humans-only fantasy set in a Renaissance level culture where the stars really DO influence your life, and magic is expensive and academic but by no means un-heard of. The stories are crime investigations that end in swords and sorcery in the first book, and an action denouement in the second.

Extra Bonus: The two male protagonists from the first book end up getting engaged in at the end of the second, and the authors made females the dominate gender without shoving it in your face or over-explaining (or voyeur lesbianism.) If you have social equality buttons, this will hit them like a hammer in the good way.

[cofax7]

You should probably read the other Bujolds. Well, the Miles Vorkosigan novels--starting with Cordelia's Honor. Those are SF, set in the same universe as Falling Free. And The Curse of Chalion, which is fantasy, pseudo-European, with a fully-thought-out and real pantheon of complicated deities. The hero of that is one of the truly nicest characters Bujold has ever created--a decent human being who is in no way boring.

I keep telling people to read Kate Elliott, but people fail to listen to me. The Crossroads trilogy starts with Spirit Gate and it has fabulous cultures, really interesting characters, adventures, neat world-building, and it's just cool. I also have great fondness for the Jaran novels, starting with Jaran, which is kind of a romance and also kind of a space opera--what do you do when a space traveling linguist accidentally lands in the middle of a nomadic tribe led by the local equivalent of Genghis Khan? The later novels are much more political and complicated but the first one hits the spot if you're in the mood for adventurous cross-cultural romance. Elliott's latest is Cold Magic, the first in a projected series--it's post-colonial icepunk with magic and romance as well.

If you're a big McKillip fan, you might enjoy Pamela Dean, whose magic also works mysteriously and unpredictably. I don't love her prose as much, but she's really creative. Tam Lin is considered a minor classic, although I might prefer Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary. And The Dubious Hills is just cool.

For a total change of pace, the Merrimack novels by R.M. Meluch are slashy classic old-school-type space opera, and she even manages to justify having her space-traveling marines use swords during battles. They're not great on gender issues, but they are quite entertaining.

[flamebyrd]

Archangel~! That book totally presses my buttons. They're soulbonded but they can't stand each other! He shelters her with his wings! There is a spaceship who pretends to be God!

I'll keep this tab open for a few days to see if I can think of any book recs I want to throw out there. (Have you read Stardust? The Last Unicorn?)