And The Road, but fair warning- I read it 4 years ago and am still depressedOriginally Posted by Chris_S
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And The Road, but fair warning- I read it 4 years ago and am still depressed
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figured I should add links
Dead Six http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1472-dead-six.aspx
Fearless http://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Undau...words=fearless
Five Years to Freedom: The True Story of a Vietnam POW http://www.amazon.com/Five-Years-Fre...ars+to+freedom
+1 on Nick Rowe.
"A Rifleman Went to War" by H.W. McBride is also among my favorites.
+1 on The Mission, The Men, and Me and House to House. Both excellent.
This thread has expanded my reading list by about a dozen books already. Going to start with Cooper's Principles of Personal Defense.
I recently wrote an email to an associate who was looking for good books, mostly sci-fi and fantasy, to read. Why waste all that effort when I can just copy/paste it here?
George RR Martin - The Song of Ice and Fire stuff is phenomenal, better than the Game of Thrones show. If you're into this kind of writing, and you haven't checked these out, they're worth your time.
Patrick Rothfuss - The Kingkiller Chronicles Great read.
Neil Gaiman - Anything cept the kid books. His short story compilations are his best work imo.
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
Frank Herbert - Dune
Richard K. Morgan - Altered Carbon
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
Hugh Howey - Wool Really cool, thoughtful post-apocalyptic sci-fi.
John Scalzi - Old Man's War
World War Z - Fun fact: written by Mel Brooks' son, Max Brooks.
Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files This is pretty much pulp, but it's fun, easy to read pulp with likeable characters. Set in the modern world.
Christopher Moore - He actually wrote a few pretty good books, Practical Demonkeeping, Blood Sucking Fiends: A Love Story, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. He's got a wonderfully juvenile sense of humor.
Haruki Murakami - Kafka On The Shore I can't exactly pin down what I like about Murakami, but I enjoy reading his books. You might too.
Charlie Huston - Caught Stealing This guy writes everything in kind of a hard-boiled classic noir pulp style I really like. He's got some contemporary crime fiction out, and every one would make a great movie. Weirdly, he also wrote some vampire books which aren't too bad. They're more interesting the usual vamp trash going around, anyway.
Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" is easily my favorite series. To me, it's finally eclipsed Tolkien as the premier fantasy saga of all time. The complexity of the characters, the endless shades of grey, and the all-too-familiar scenario of power-mad idiots squabbling over each other while the true enemy prepares to invade, all of these speak to me.
I read the first two of Rothfuss' books (is the third even out yet?), and I liken them to a high-end cheese pizza. There's nothing inventive or special about them, but they are the basic themes of the genre executed very very well. The writing is very good, and it kept my interest.
World War Z was surprisingly good. I liked the format, and the writing. I've read several other items from Brooks, and he needs to get his head on straight regarding some things (he says the M1 Carbine = best anti-zombie weapon ever, but the AR15 is a jam-o-matic with hard-to-find ammo? WTF?), but overall it's a fun read.
I'll play.
If you're a military buff, first and foremost comes Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. If you served and haven't read this book, you're wrong. (Unless you are/were and officer, then i might ruffle your fragile sensibilities.)
The Culture series by Iain M. Banks is some of the best Sci/Fantasy to date. Use of Weapons is a good starting point for the series.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman does fantastic things with space/time. Really neat writing in here.
The Hyperion Quintet by Dan Simmons, which starts with Hyperion, is incredibly engrossing. Each book's as thick as a bible, and impossible to put down.
And i'll throw out a +1 for Scalzi's Old Man's War. I'm about halfway through it, and it's very well written. Easy, you breeze through it, and highly entertaining. Scalzi's got a sense of humor that translates well over to type.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Shane
The Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors
The Last of The Mohicans
For Whom The Bell Tolls
The Book of Two Guns
And those darn subversive Matthew Bracken books, beginning with: Enemies: Foreign and Domestic
In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
Some Sci-Fi series with a bit of a hard edge that I've recently discovered:
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
The Expanse- Leviathan Wakes & Caliban's War by "James Corey" (Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck)
I've also finally read The Forever War and found it amazing.
Another good one by Dan Simmons is Illum/ Olympos. He has a way of writing a series where, by the time you get to the second book, you have a hard time answering when asked what it is about.
And one can get the complete works of HP Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard on Amazon for next to nothing.
I've hesitated to post in here because, I mean, where to begin? And everyone else has had great suggestions. Recently, though, I re-discovered a book I read as a kid - the book that got me started with science fiction (sneaked it out of the adult section of the library with the help of a rogue librarian.) So I just wanted to put out here some of the classics that I read early in life and that shaped much of my reading - and more of my thinking - for most of my life:
Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game - kids kicking ass
Isaac Asimov, Foundation - if you're going to play a game, play the biggest game you can envision
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye - Rise and Fall and Repeat
Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Founding Fathers... in spaaaaaace
Stephen R. Donaldson, The Gap Cycle - you can always push (or be pushed) further
Vernor Vinge, The Peace War - creative tinkering > centralized innovation
I only put sci fi in here, because I read a lot of it as a kid. I also read fantasy and historical non-fiction, but the best sci-fi is what shaped me most. I used to be a giant Heinlein fanboy. These days I fawn less over the author, and try harder to be like his best heros. Lots of good entry points to Heinlein, I choose Mistress here because it mirrors a lot of the patriotic themes we discuss on this board. Donaldson's Covenant series is more famous, but it's harder to get into. Niven and Pournelle are both prolific, with lots of good stuff, but IMO Mote is the best single example of sci fi ever. Ender's Game still makes me think we don't give kids nearly enough credit... and whether it isn't for the best that we don't. And Vinge is hardest to choose a book for. I picked the one with the most obvious libertarian overtones, but his real magic is in the depth of his thinking about the underlying cause-and-effect in his novels, especially around the idea of technological singularities.
And Asimov... I mean, what else is there to say? His writing looms over my early life like a father figure, even if it's been 20 years since I've read most of it. Of all his writing, Foundation made me think the biggest thoughts.
Enjoy, and thanks to everyone with recommendations here!
The answer, it seems to me, is wrath. The mind cannot foresee its own advance. --FA Hayek Specialization is for insects.
I just finished reading "The Degüello The A-Team that started a War" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...w_myk_ro_title
It's about the first group of Green Berets from the decorated 5th Special Forces Group to enter the GWOT shortly after 9/11. It doesn't read like your typical war novel and I really enjoyed it.
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