Book Recommendations

[LockedBreech]

I don't know if anyone else is into hard science fiction, but I might save someone a few wasted days here. I finally ran out of books by the astoundingly great Alastair Reynolds (one of my favorite authors of all time now), so I wanted more hard science fiction. A bunch of places online said Iain M. Banks 'Culture' series of novels are fantastic and genius and visionary.

Do not listen to those opinions. AVOID.

I read Consider Phlebas, the first novel, over the course of a few days. It was marvelous. Richly developed characters, exciting and unique story, just fantastic. Not quite as good as Reynolds, but a hoot. Until the last 10% of the book. I won't spoil, but it made the other 90% pointless. Dumbest, most pointless, most unfulfilling to a book I can remember. As an extra insult, I liked the first half of the book so much I bought Book 2 of the series before I finished. So now I am slogging through out of raw spite.

Anyway. I do highly recommend Alastair Reynold's superb books, most of all Chasm City, which is one of the best books I've read in 2-3 years.

[JSGlock34]

Just finished Richard K Morgan's Thin Air. It is set in the same universe as Thirteen, though the books are independent stories that take place on different planets with different characters, and during different time periods (it remains unclear to me whether these books are also set in the same universe as the Takeshi Kovacs novels, which would take place hundreds of years later). I generally like RKM's sci-fi stuff, but I wouldn't say he broke new ground here. His books are very similar to each other, and his protagonist is always the same guy, whether it is Takeshi Kovacs (Altered Carbon), Carl Marsalis (Thirteen) or Hakan Veil (Thin Air), with the same ex-elite killer background (whether Envoy, 13, or Overrider), and same Corporate Government vs. Colonial revolutionary conspiracy plot.

I probably wouldn't reach for Thin Air again - I think the height of RKM's game was the Kovacs series and would rather read those again - but if you like his brand of ultra-violent, hard sci-fi, well, here's some more.

[NEPAKevin]

13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi Kindle Edition
Amazon Kindle Daily Deal, Wed. 05-10-17

Back on Kindle daily deals $2.99 today(01-06-2019).

[Glenn E. Meyer]

The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
Andrew Delbanco

Great read if you are history buff. If you are a Southern mythology devotee, you won't like this. The book's description of the Fugitive Slave laws and state, Federal and individual actions pro and con are quite relevant to today's debates about how one should react to current social issues.

[Stephanie B]

Infantry Soldier by George W. Nell, about his experiences in the Battle of the Bulge. (2000). 55 years afterwards, the soldiers still hated the REMFs who helped themselves to the winter gear that didn’t make it to the front, and SHAEF for not making it a priority to get winter clothing to the front. Things were so bad that the medics were taking galoshes from GIs being sent to the rear.

The 99th Infantry Division had 30% casualties from frostbite and trench foot before the battle started.

[SeriousStudent]

Infantry Soldier by George W. Nell, about his experiences in the Battle of the Bulge. (2000). 55 years afterwards, the soldiers still hated the REMFs who helped themselves to the winter gear that didn’t make it to the front, and SHAEF for not making it a priority to get winter clothing to the front. Things were so bad that the medics were taking galoshes from GIs being sent to the rear.

The 99th Infantry Division had 30% casualties from frostbite and trench foot before the battle started.

I had an uncle who was a tanker in the Battle of the Bulge. He echoed those sentiments.

[NEPAKevin]

Sadly the problems fighting the cold were even worse during the Korean War.

Cold Injuries in Korea During Winter of 1950-1951 - DTIC

[Lester Polfus]

The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
Andrew Delbanco

Great read if you are history buff. If you are a Southern mythology devotee, you won't like this. The book's description of the Fugitive Slave laws and state, Federal and individual actions pro and con are quite relevant to today's debates about how one should react to current social issues.

Thank you. My Amazon wishlist just got +1'd.

[luckyman]

Infantry Soldier by George W. Nell, about his experiences in the Battle of the Bulge. (2000). 55 years afterwards, the soldiers still hated the REMFs who helped themselves to the winter gear that didn’t make it to the front, and SHAEF for not making it a priority to get winter clothing to the front. Things were so bad that the medics were taking galoshes from GIs being sent to the rear.

The 99th Infantry Division had 30% casualties from frostbite and trench foot before the battle started.

Ooh thanks for this; I haven’t heard of it before. My dad spent a year+ re-learning how to walk after getting shot in the leg during this battle; but of the million stories he and his VFW buddies had, not a single one was about the battle of the bulge. I figure it must have been pretty miserable.

[JDD]

I don't know if anyone else is into hard science fiction, but I might save someone a few wasted days here. I finally ran out of books by the astoundingly great Alastair Reynolds (one of my favorite authors of all time now), so I wanted more hard science fiction. A bunch of places online said Iain M. Banks 'Culture' series of novels are fantastic and genius and visionary.

Do not listen to those opinions. AVOID.

I read Consider Phlebas, the first novel, over the course of a few days. It was marvelous. Richly developed characters, exciting and unique story, just fantastic. Not quite as good as Reynolds, but a hoot. Until the last 10% of the book. I won't spoil, but it made the other 90% pointless. Dumbest, most pointless, most unfulfilling to a book I can remember. As an extra insult, I liked the first half of the book so much I bought Book 2 of the series before I finished. So now I am slogging through out of raw spite.

Anyway. I do highly recommend Alastair Reynold's superb books, most of all Chasm City, which is one of the best books I've read in 2-3 years.

I am sorry you did not enjoy Consider Phlebas, but I would strongly reccomend you give the other books a try. One thing that helped me with Ian M Banks (his Culture books, not the other ones) was to treat the entire series as stand-alone novels in the same universe.

In that light, "Player of Games" and "Excession" are my two favorites, and are both far better to start with than "Consider Phlebas."

WRT Reynolds; I am really looking forward to the sequel to "Revenger" that is dropping on January 15th. He consistently writes good SF, but Revenger was one of my favorites. He is also the author that I had to describe to my wife as: "like hard sci-fi, but more... gothic."