Book recommendations

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I remember Sword of the Spirits being a pretty good one. It's been almost two decades since I read it, though, and it's a young adult series, so I'm not sure how well it holds up.
It's a post-apocalyptic setting, where society (in the UK, at least) has regressed to medieval levels. Given that technology is banned, it's likely that it had something to do with whatever catastrophe happened in the past. Whatever it was also caused a large number of birth defects, with people who have dwarfism literally fulfilling the role of fantasy dwarves, and other mutations making people into third-class citizens (dwarves are second-class) referred to as "polymufs."

There's another YA series that I read one or two books from when I was younger, and then finally finished a few years ago, called The Keys To The Kingdom. It's a very interesting setting, with a good story to go along with it.

The author, Garth Nix, has another series that I strongly recommend called the Abhorsen Series. I haven't read it in a few years, but I've reread this series two or three times. "Abhorsen" the title of a powerful and skilled necromancer who uses their magic to fight undead and lay them to rest.
 
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Actually read the book for fight club, it’s what the movie should have been, a deconstruction of traditional male culture
Slaughterhouse 5 is basically the sequel to catch 22 which you should also read if you haven’t
Anything by Neil Gaiman; American Gods(better the the show), stardust, ocean at the end of the lane, neverwhere, good omens (better then the show), anansi boys.
And no country for old men. Like the movie but still better.
 
One of the best audibooks I've seen of one of my favorite fantasy stories.
 
Banana Hammock said:
I remember Sword of the Spirits being a pretty good one. It's been almost two decades since I read it, though, and it's a young adult series, so I'm not sure how well it holds up.
It's a post-apocalyptic setting, where society (in the UK, at least) has regressed to medieval levels. Given that technology is banned, it's likely that it had something to do with whatever catastrophe happened in the past. Whatever it was also caused a large number of birth defects, with people who have dwarfism literally fulfilling the role of fantasy dwarves, and other mutations making people into third-class citizens (dwarves are second-class) referred to as "polymufs."

There's another YA series that I read one or two books from when I was younger, and then finally finished a few years ago, called The Keys To The Kingdom. It's a very interesting setting, with a good story to go along with it.

The author, Garth Nix, has another series that I strongly recommend called the Abhorsen Series. I haven't read it in a few years, but I've reread this series two or three times. "Abhorsen" the title of a powerful and skilled necromancer who uses their magic to fight undead and lay them to rest.
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Sword of the Spirits is a pretty interesting trilogy, I also read it I think a year ago
 
The concrete island by J.G Ballard.

Its such a simple premise, and a simple and small setting but he really does a lot with it. Its one of those books thats not about what happens but the way its written so you'd better off just reading it yourself.

its not a long book either, sinopsis is a man gets stranded in one of those islands in the middle of the higway and can't get out, the struggles he has in there, the stuff he reflects on and the weirdos who also inhabit that place.
 
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz, it's a shit post in book form. The last words should have been The Aristocrats.
 
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Fiction, non-fiction: We have movies instead for 100+ years
Technical manuals: Out of date by the time they are published, we have online tutorials instead for 20 years
 
TurdFondler said:
Is there a good translation for this? I tried reading the Penguin one and it was awful, just a literal 1:1 translation
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If you're able, buy the Dorothy L. Slayers translation also printed by Penguin. I don't think they print it anymore, but I found my copies at the thrift store for three dollars.

It is not a prose translation, so verbal recitation works well. The annotations, diagrams are informative and coherent. divinecomedy_sayers.jpg

I think you're talking about the modern Penguin translation with the parallel Italian verse which is only useful if you are fluent. I don't know why they thought it was a good choice for mass distribution.
 
Uriah said:
I think you're talking about the modern Penguin translation with the parallel Italian verse which is only useful if you are fluent. I don't know why they thought it was a good choice for mass distribution.
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That's the one. You can see the rhyme and meter in the Italian side but the English side is just transcripted, it's boring and dry and honestly a chore to read. I'll look into this version, thanks!
 
TurdFondler said:
That's the one. You can see the rhyme and meter in the Italian side but the English side is just transcripted, it's boring and dry and honestly a chore to read. I'll look into this version, thanks!
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Hey, just saw some modern, black-jacket reprints of the L. Sayers translation at my local bookstore. Hopefully you'll be able to find those editions for a good price, or the older prints for an even better price.
 
I just finished A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) by Vernor Vinge, and liked it.

a fire upon the deep.jpg

zones of thought.png Setting: Space opera set in he distant future - where human colonies exist (among millions of alien ones), but earth is a distant memory.
The setting's unique gimmick is that the galaxy is divided into "zones of thought" - from the inner "Unthinking Depths" (where no sentient species live and computer automation simply does not work), to outer rings of successively greater potential for both sentient minds and technology.

Plot synopsis: An ancient incorporeal power is awakened and goes postal on the galaxy, annihilating/enslaving more and more civilizations. The only surviving witnesses of its awakening, who might possibly (but unknowingly) hold the key to defeating it, are two human children stranded on a medieval-stage alien dog planet...

What I liked:
  • The high stakes and grand scales - fall of civilizations, alliances, war, genocide - while at the same time telling the personal stories of a few protagonists embroiled in those happenings.
    (PS: Please post recommendations for more books like that!)

  • The way the author manages to introduce new characters/species/places without up-front exposition dumps. For example, the narrator may switch to following around some new alien characters without any introduction, and simply narrate what they do/say/notice/feel... which gives you more and more subtle clues about how their species differs from humans, before switching back to narrating from the point of view of a human who meets them and actually describes them more fully.

  • No woke shit. (Duh, it was written in 1992.)
What was a bit weird:
  • The civilization of dog-like aliens with "pack sentience" (each sentient "individual" consists of 4 to 8 dogs who are mentally joined). An interesting concept, I suppose, but it went so deep into exploring their pack-nature and reproduction - eugenics, incest, etc... - that I though, damn, TMI, this is approaching something a furry might fap to. Still, it all somehow ended up contributing to the plot, so whatever.
 
Out of the Silent Planet [1938] by C. S. Lewis - the first entry in his "Space Trilogy".
Out of the Silent Planet.jpg

Plot synopsis:
A middle-aged British academic gets kidnapped and sent to the planet Malacandra, where he starts living in a multi-species society that somehow suffers none of the dysfunctions (hate, greed, unhealthy ambition, etc.) that plague humanity.

Comment:
Despite being classified as sci-fi, it's really more of a (neat little) adventure novel / fable / morality tale that just happens to be set in space. So like, at the opposite end of the genre from "hard sci-fi".

The moral of the story is basically C. S. Lewis, the Christian theologian, bemoaning the fall of man and resulting dysfunction on earth (the "silent planet", i.e. the one cut off from god's order and the divine), but expressed in a pretty subtle way through a well-told space adventure. It's certainly something different, and it makes 'ya think.
 
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