Good books needed. :)

[Stuie]

Originally posted by 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.

I just read his Warlord Chronicles and they were outstanding. They redo the Arthurian legend in a more realistic setting. Good, good stuff. The books are:

The Winter King
Enemy of God
Excalibur

Now, they don't really fit into any of Alva's categories, but they are really good reading none the less.

[cinch]

It's not technically a novel, but Simon Winchester's "The Professor & The Madman" is a great historical read, if you haven't already. I just roared through that one; it's quick, easy, & delightful.

Has anyone checked out Winchester's latest ("The Meaning Of Everything") yet? I found "Krakatoa" to be a bit of a misstep (but still good)... Never the less, I'll definitely be picking up "Meaning..." on my way home from uni next week.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by alva
@ Spiff : Et tu filii et tu..(sp?)

Nope. Never even opened a Harry Potter Book. It was just an immature post (I have thought of posting "whatever you read, do not read Harry Potter", but I thought it was an obvious troll )

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by 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.

That's his Sharpe series. I've read them all, and they are excellent

His Warlord triology about King Arthur is also great. As is his novel Redcoat, set in the American Revolutionary war.

His Starbuck series is set in the Amercan Civil War but I just couldn't get into it. Two medieval tales: Archer and Gallow's Thief I also couldn't get into.

Plus, he wrote some modern-day thrillers set in the Caribbean, which I haven't even looked at.

[self biased]

Footfall! larry niven and jerry pournell. niven always comes up with the neatest aliens. also flatlander and crashlander are good bets if you can find them.

[aneeshm]

And also in thrillers :-

"The Blue Nowhere"
byJeffery Deaver

[Ben Kenobi]

Bernard Cornwell is meant to be a v good author. Never read any myself, but have heard many favourable reports.

He's an excellent historical author.

[St Leo]

My recommendations:

-Roger Zelazny's original and second Amber series
(Nine Princes in Amber/The Guns of Avalon/Sign of the Unicorn/The Hand of Oberon/The Courts of Chaos and Trumps of Doom/Blood of Amber/Sign of Chaos/Knight of Shadows/Prince of Chaos)
-anything by Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Terry Pratchett (Colour of Magic), Robert Rankin (The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse), and "Grant Naylor" (Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers)
-Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
-Hyperion by Dan Simmons (I don't like it much, but it's classic sf)
-anything by China Mieville (The Scar; warning: "punk")
-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

[Kuciwalker]

Thimothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. And his Hand of Thrawn duology. Those are the best Star Wars books out there.

[St Leo]

I've reread the Thrawn trilogy about a year ago and it sucks now that I am not fifteen. It's just one meaningless coincidence after another.

[MrRanchito]

The Foundation Series is excellent SciFi.
The positronic man is also good.
Anything by Clark is worth reading.

George Orwell's lesser know books are really really good. I particularly recommend Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Others, Down and Out in Paris and London, Burmese days.

For something to make your head hurt,
The Illuminatus Trilogy or Schrödinger’s Cat Trilogy both by Robert Anton Wilson.

[molly bloom]

Alva:

Historical novels-

Alan Savage: 'Eight Banners' set during the Ming/Manchu dynasties.

Also his 'Ottoman' and 'Moghul' novels- the titles are self-explanatory.

Patricia Finney: 'Firedrake's Eye' and 'Unicorn's Blood'- set in England's Elizabethan golden age, and centring on a plot to assassinate the Queen. With lots of lovely historical detail on the Elizabethan criminal underworld, the Jewish diaspora following the Reconquista, and Sir Francis Walsingham's spy network.

Marguerite Yourcenar: 'Zeno of Bruges' and 'Anna, Soror...' and 'Two Lives and A Dream' (title?)- alchemy, science, the occult, the barrier between dream and reality, they're all interwoven in this novel and the two novellas.

Two alternate reality novels:

Keith Roberts: 'Pavane'- set in a world where the Armada succeeded, following the assassination of Elizabeth I. A resurgent Catholic England helped crush the Reformation in the Low Countries and Germany. How would science and knowledge have been affected by the triumph of the Church Militant? A wonderfully poetic evocation of a possible future.

David Downing: 'The Moscow Option'- what if the Germans had pressed on to Moscow, and had seized control of Egypt?

https://www.booktrail.com/Military_WWII/MoscowOption.asp

Science fiction:

Cecelia Holland: 'Floating Worlds'

Ben Bova: 'Colony'

David Brin: The Uplift sequence (six novels, several short stories)

Detective novels:

Alex Abella: 'The Killing of the Saints'- Santeria and a murder mystery.

Walter Mosley: All his Easy Rawins novels, from 'Devil in a Blue Dress' onwards.

Arturo Perez Reverte: 'The Flanders Panel'- art history, a pictorial conundrum, chess and murder.

Didier Daeninckx: 'Murder in Memoriam'- a story based around a shameful episode of post-WWII French history.

[Myrddin]

Try anything by Iain M Banks

[lord of the mark]

Paul Berman's "Terror and Liberalism"

[alva]

Thanks peeps , I'll see if I can find any tomorrow.
I'll check in again in the morning to see if more are added