Good books needed. :)

[alva]

The annual bookfair is in town and I'm looking for a few good books.
It's a pretty big one, about 200.000 titles and you needn't worry about translations.
I don't mind reading books in a different language as long as it is English.

Books here aren't really cheap, so I do prefer soft-covers.
Hardcover often start at 25$/€ (and those aren't the expensive ones), while soft-covers usually are 10 to 15$/€ which is more acceptable to me.

What I'm especially looking for: (if you have a suggestion that doesn't fit into any category, please, post them anyway )

Science fiction:
But not the hardcore or punkfiction(?) a la Greg Bear.
I'm looking for more 'realistic' SF, Arthur C. Clark style.

Historic novels
I really like this genre, because as with the above books,
they often offer a good story and an easy involvement threshold while at the same time have good educational value.
The trouble is that they are often very innacurate and don't really deserve the historic part.
The good thing is that most of you here are history buffs, so that shouldn't really be much of a problem.
The topic isn't really important, I'm interested in most historical periods or figures.
Think the ' I, Claudius ' serie by R. Graves for example

Thriller
Not horror !!
What I'm looking for, I can probably best describe using an example:
Gorki park - Martin Cruz Smith
Great book especially since for some reason I like books about snow, don't know why, I just do.


War books
Need I say more.



BTW: Has anyone seen 'Hunting Chris Ryan' on the BBC? I quite enjoyed the two episodes so far and by accident,
I last week discovered, quite by accident, he has written a couple of books.
Has anyone here read any of them and more important, are they any good?

Thanks,

PS: Rereading my post, I can't but notice I just descibed Civ meets Alpha-Centauri, haven't I. Well, now I know Why I like the Civ-series, I guess.

[Combat Ingrid]

I have not read it, but it got excellent reviews: "Poltava" by Peter Englund.
It deals with how Russia beat the crap out of the Swedish army in Ukraine in 1709. Bastards.

[aneeshm]

Issac Asimov's Foundation novels (If you don;t have them already) .

Also "The third world war" , by Humphrey Hawksley .

Thrillers - Prey , by Michael Chricton .

Will add more if I can think of any . Please excuse my rather outdated reading habits (if they are outdated) , I live in India .

[alva]

Thrillers - Prey , by Michael Chricton .

Just started on 'thimeline', i do like his books.
-
I read one or two of the Foundation serie, but never really got into them.

"Poltava" by Peter Englund.

Sounds good.
All are added to my list.

[Spiffor]

Harry Potter

[Kuciwalker]

If Spiffor is recommending Harry Potter, I'll chip in and say read at least the first few books of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. First book is titled Eye of the World.

[alva]

@ Spiff : Et tu filii et tu..(sp?)

I'll read one of them eventually, but not right now, maybe in a couple of years when the hype has ( hopefully) gone down.

[aneeshm]

HP really has matured a LOT in the last two books , specially the last .

[FrustratedPoet]

I've enjoyed the first two books in Robert Holdstock's Merlin Codex series. The first one is called Celtika and the second is The Iron Grail.
They aren't exactly historical books, but are re-imagining of ancient mythology: it mixes celtic and arthurian myths with the greek classics (Jason is a major character). T
hey have very mixed reviews on Amazon, but I really liked them. The language might be quite difficult for a non-native speaker, but I'm sure a smart guy like you won't have any problems.

[aneeshm]

I highly recomment The third WW , it has a special appeal for us civers .

[self biased]

the mote in god's eye, by larry niven. also the sequel, the gripping hand.

i'm going to reccomend clive barker's the great and secret show and everville as a pseudoscience fiction. barker's most noted for his horror, but i think it's a more accurate description to say that he writes about the fantastic... things that seem supernatural at first glance, but really aren't.

akso, the galactic mileu trilogy, by julian may

[Kuciwalker]

I second the Larry Niven books.

EDIT: Also get his books The Smoke Ring and The Integral Trees.

[St Leo]

Alternatively, just get The Smoke Ring and The Integral Trees by Niven. Pournelle should stick to writing columns in Byte.

My personal Niven favs are Ringworld and Rainbow Mars.

[Verres]

As far as Historical Novels go, Benard Cornwell is meant to be a v good author. Never read any myself, but have heard many favourable reports.

I think they are set around the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

[FrustratedPoet]

Laz is writing a historical novel, which should be worth reading when it's done.