Just wondering if there were any books out there that people would like to recommend to read. I've got a trilogy that I really love, so I'm going to share them with you.
They are by Holly Lisle
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Diplomacy of Wolves
Kait Galweigh, a young diplomat cursed with a dark secret, must choose to save a world that shuns her and would destroy her if that secret were revealed. The epic search for the nature of good and evil, the definition of humanity, and the meaning of free will, duty, honor . . . and love.
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Vengeance of Dragons
Kait Galweigh must find a path to hope when a long-cherished prophecy shatters, leaving its believers, the only people who can battle an evil returned from centuries of hiding, crushed and despondent.
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Courage of Falcons
The Falcons, a band of fugitive wizards that includes skinshifters Kait Galweigh and Ry Sabir, struggle to wield ancient magics in their desperate battle against the immortal, soul-devouring necromancers called the Dragons.
At the same time, a thousand tribes of long-banished Scarred declare war on the civilized lands, with a prophesied messiah uniting them into an unstoppable army. Bent on conquest or revenge, the Scarred don't care that their new leader, Luercas, is a being so evil that even the Dragons fear him . . .
To defeat the Dragons, Kait and Ry must destroy the source of the sorcerers' power -- the Mirror of Souls. But if they succeed, they will lose the only weapon that can stop Luercas from becoming a demonic god who will enslave the entire world . . . forever.
:::>^..^<::: ~*~The Journey is more important than the end or the start~*~ :::>^..^<:::
Is there no one out of all the people on here that have a good book to offer up to all of us? I'm really interested in hearing about other books that people have read, and a little about them.
:::>^..^<::: ~*~The Journey is more important than the end or the start~*~ :::>^..^<:::
Wizard's first rule - Terry Goodkind
and Robert Jordan's series - Wheel of time or something like that.
Haven't read them in a long time so i cannot remember the name of it...just the author.
I dont know if you are looking for books more on the lines of Harry Potter, such as wizardry and stuff...I dont really read those, although my niece does, and she enjoys them. I have a few books that I really enjoyed: Many of them stem from WWII times, as I always enjoyed history
Herman Wouk: The Caine Mutiny ...its about mutiny aboard the U.S.S. Caine and Captain Queeg. Takes place in WWII. Fiction....its about a psychoneurotic captain.
Leon Uris: QB VII Its about a trial that takes place in Britain. Its about a libel case where a knighted doctor takes on an American author who defames him in a novel he wrote. They eventually go through this doctor's life, to see if such stories about him existed....its really good!!
Leon Uris: Mila 18 ...This is an awesome book...its about the uprising of the jews in the Warsaw Ghetto...based on a true story, but the characters are made up...the history though is accurate.....very compelling!!! I recommend it highly, although some parts can be boring at times....for the most part...its excellent!
Ann Rice: The Witching Hour and all the sequels to it, such as Taltos, and others .....great witch stories....this might be one that you might enjoy if you havent already read it! Definitely start with The Witching Hour...its over 1000 pages long but it is really good. It starts out in a time long ago and moves up to the present day...its about the history of a family of witches....really good!!!
Of course thats just my opinion....I could be wrong. (Dennis Miller)
"You might be the toughest little whacker. . .but in my world, you're about as worrisome as a cloudy day." (Dutch Dooley)
One of my favourite set of books is the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman -'The Northern Lights' 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass'. Although it attracts a large number of younger readers, this fantasy epic is delightfully twisted and is largely oriented around themes such as the nature of religion, death and love.
The story (as a trilogy) begins in a parellel universe not so different from our own. A young girl, hungry for adventure, ends up in a dangerous journey North where she encounters strange creatures, and learns of hideous experiments that are being performed on children of her age there. As the story progresses, she crosses the boundaries of the worlds, and is pursued by those who recognise her importance to the fate of everything.
The lead characters are young, and so the reader is taken on a journey through the beginning of adolescence. The books are filled with emotion, symbolism, and an atmosphere of harsh reality despite the book's genre. Such atmosphere rivals that which Rowling creates in her work, and for those who are as big a fans of Harry Potter as I am, that is saying alot.
Okay, I'll help out a bit. In the last couple years, some of the most compelling stories I've read are (forgive my long-winded synopses):
"Mipam" - This is the first novel ever to come out of Tibet (1938)from a Tibetan author. Its original intent was to cast a light on Eastern Tibetan ways of life for a Westerner's comprehenison. It's the tale of a young boy whose parents believed initially that he was the most recent reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. After a series of tests they find that in fact the child (named Mipam) is not the revered Dalai Lama. Yet something is not quite normal about our young Mipam. He sets out on an 18 year journey to discover the world about him and to understand his role in it to uncover a remarkable twist towards the end of the story.
"Into Thin Air", Jon Krakauer. This non-fiction piece is Jon's personal experience of the 1996 Mt Everest expedition disaster when several climbers perished in a violent storm almost 18,000ft above sea level. The event occurred at the same time that IMAX was on the mountain filming their "Everest" piece which also mentions the disaster but does not focus on it. This gripping story will leave you tense, shivering and short of breath. Interestingly, Everest is in Tibet on one of its sides - I didn't plan that, I swear.
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice which are:
*Interview with the Vampire
*The Vampire Lestat
*Queen of the Damned
*The Tale of the Body Theif
*Memnoch the Devil
* The Vampire Armand
*Blood and Gold
Anne Rice's Lives of the Mayfair witches are also amazing
*The Witching Hour
*Lasher
*Taltos
these three are chronicles on the lives of the Mayfair witches and are an excellent read
For anyone who likes satire and sarcasm I reccomend the 5 book trilogy of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, there are wonderfully hilarious, really dry sarcastic humor.
Thats all I have for now if I think of any others I will let you know.
Hi;
I don't have anything new to recommend but I have read a series know as the "Necroscope" its written by Brian Lumley, the series contains 8 Novels the first 5 deal with a child born with powers to speak to the dead and Vampires are a foot throught all the stories and involves time travel and the space continium.
let me give you a preview of the first novel know as the "NECROSCOPE" quote "THE OUTER LIMITS OF HORROR....
From the undead vampire in the Romanian mausoleum, Boris Dragosani tries to draw evil force so powerful he will gain supremacy in the ultra-secret paranormal agency he works for in Russia. His official job is as a NECROSCOPE -his speciality is tearing secrets from the souls of newly-dead traitors.
And England too has her necroscope-her communicator with the dead. When Harry Keogh is recruited by the British Secret Service to take on the paranormal menace from behind the iron curtain, the stage is set for the most horrifying, violent supernatural confrontation ever .
The second novel is Neroscope 2 -wamphyri
the third Novel is Necroscope 3 -The source
the fourth Novel is Necroscope 4 -Dead speak
the fifth Novel is Necroscope 5 -Dead spawn
Then Brian Lumley wrote 3 addition novel based on the Necroscope series two of the novels are like recaps of all five of the first except for new plots which both novels are called the "The Lost Years "volume 1 and 2 , both good reads.
Then comes the last novel Called Necroscope -Invaders a new necroscope. Its was to be continued but I haven't seen the next issue any where.
3 COOOOOOL BOOOOOKs:
1. Philip Pullman: His Dark Matter - brilliant.
2. Umberto Eco: Il nome della rosa/The Name of the Rose -- not sure if it's translated in English**
It's a philosophical crime story (I know it sounds impossible, but...) with a lot of humour and a tension through the whole 500 pages... It's about a series of murders in a 14th-century italian monastery. But there is more... a lot more... read it to find out.
3. Jean M. Auel: Earth's children
A Cro-Magnon 5 year old girl loses her parents in an earthquake some 25000 years ago and finds a new home with the Neanderthal people. She grows up with them, suffering prejudices because of being differnet, and then realizes she has to return to her race. Excellent.
1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Although this book is 1400 pages, I have read it every year since the first time. Edmund Dantes, a simple sailor who is about to be promoted and married, is framed by jealous men and thrown into prison supposedly never to be heard from again. While in prison he meets Abbe Faria who educates him on almost every subject, including the location of a treasure which is will make him richer than anyone has ever been. Edmund eventually escapes from prison and takes his revenge. We meet many interesting characters and learn all of their stories and how they are related to eachother and Edmund. Despite its length, it is an increadible book. So much better (and more detailed) than the movie.
2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Yossarian is a fighter pilot who is afraid to die. He wants to be grounded, but you cannot be grounded unless you are insane, and you have to ask. The catch, Catch-22, is that if you ask, then you are obviously sane. This and many other ironies will make you laugh out loud while you are reading this book - no matter where you are.
3. Earth's Children Series
1. Clan of the Cave Bear
2. Valley of the Horses
3. The Mammoth Hunters
4. Plains of Passage
5. Stones of Shelter
6. Not yet published
This series is kind of brain candy, but i really enjoy it anyway. Especially good if you enjoy learning about ancient cultures. (See Maja88's post)
Witchcraft, Theory and practice. by Ly DE Angeles. Its a good for Beginner's trying Spell casting. (Follow the instructions) All of the Spells are light weight..Nothing you can get hurt on.
One Man, One personallity.... and only using ONE screen name for this forum
often Miss -understood and falsely accused by Many
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (New Testament, King James version)
I'd given up on the entire fantasy genre for years because they tended to be predictable, derivative, and fluffy.
Then I found George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series, beginning with "A Game of Thrones".
Martin is a master at plotting, pacing, and cliffhanger adventure. He makes you care about all of his characters. Then he kills some of them, and warps other ones until you love the ones you hated and hate the ones you loved... Beautiful.
I must say that Gene Wolfe's idiotically named but extraordinarly written "Shadow & Claw" is amazing. He is a prose stylist the likes of which most (famous) fantasy writers could only dream.
Without intending to impugn certain previous posters, who may have a more sophisticated grasp on these works than I, I would avoid the following writers:
Robert Jordan. His ninth or tenth book -- and every one imbetween -- follows a mystical "cycle", which means that he recycles his plots over and over and over (in 900 page increments)
Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials". This series has been trendy as of late because Pullman's genius publicist linked it to Rowling by saying it was an "Adult Harry Potter". I got halfway through the first book and, when nothing had happened except a bunch of ordinary (i.e. unremarkable) prose, I put it down for good. I was expecting great things from this series and was dissappointed. Many people whose opinions I respect love this series, though, so don't just take my word for it.
C.S. Lewis. Unless you like Jesus allegories creeping into your fantasy.
*Definitely* avoid Terry Goodkind. Take a look at his frowning, pony-tailed, cross-armed, dressed-in-black countenance in his publicity picture. That says all you need to know about him. He's a wannabe ninja. Then pick a random paragraph from any one of his overwritten epics and prepare to gag. He's almost as bad as Weis and Hickman were. Goodkind makes Robert Jordan look like Graham Greene.
Non-Fantasy Reccomendations:
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is such a damn good western full of crusty, funny cowboys and heartbreaking adventures that you will never want to read another western again.
Shogun by James Clavell is an excellent adventure story about an Englishman stranded in mideavil Japan. Very good.
07-17-2003 03:37 AM
