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Official Recommendation Thread: Books

Discussion in 'Books and Anime Discussion' started by Marguerida, Apr 5, 2005.

  1. Erandil

    Erandil Minister of Magic

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    Yeah when it comes to prose I would either suggest something from Guy Gavriel Kay (my personal favourite is Under Heavens but I think most of his books should easily qualify for a recommendation) or indeed Name of the Wind, which I admittedly no longer view as positively as I once did but still think as one of the better books in the genre, especially in regards to its prose.

    Red Sister is in my opinion the best book of Mark Lawrence and it is one of my favourite books of last year but I am unsure if I would call its prose exceptional. Plus, I feel like the second book in the series, which came out this month, doesn't match up to its predecessor in most aspects so while it is something I would certainly suggest to any serious fantasy fan it might not be the best fit for you. Joe Abercombies work is definitely worth trying out, especially the First Law trilogy.

    Other suggestions I would have are The Tiger and the Wolf (Iron/Bronze Age shapeshifters) which surprised me with a very unique and interesting concept and of course something written by Christian Camero, also known as Miles Cameron who while maybe not having the most executional prose is in my opinion one of the best current authors in the field when it comes to world building and large scale "action"-scenes. He mostly writes some of the best historical fiction available (as Christian Cameron) but his five book fantasy series "The Traitor Son Saga" is in my opinion one of the better works produced in the genre in the last decade (and more importantly it is finished...) though in my opinion the later books are sadly unable to match the first two entries.

    Huh, I have to admit that I feel completely the opposite way. I found the first book to be best one in the bunch with every additional addition becoming successively worse ^^.
     
  2. Mutton

    Mutton Order Member

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    The first sequel book of solid, but the latter two are meh
     
  3. Lamora

    Lamora Definitely Not Batman ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    So, I searched DLP high and low and couldn't find any reference whatsoever to the awesomeness that is motherfucking Goblin Slayer.

    To give you a summary - imagine if Berserk were spliced with OD&D, and centered around a single munchkin-crazy murderhobo who really, really hates goblins.

    It's a light novel, and there's certainly anime themes and shit (tiddies), but the world has surprising depth besides that in that it actually examines the cultural consequences of a world where adventurers are a sort of society staple, and why people would hire them at all vs. keeping a guard force (having to pay death benefits, upkeep vs contract). It's dark as hell too - the first couple chapters goes extremely in depth into what happens when a group of well meaning freebooters runs into a group of rapacious, evil goblins.

    To give you a reference for how fucking good this is: I found it 12 hours or so ago. I have since bought and read all 4 of the current english-translated light novels, and the manga. It also has an anime coming out sometime this year.

    [​IMG]

    Do yourself a favor, DLP.
     
  4. BTT

    BTT Viol̀e͜n̛t͝ D̶e͡li͡g҉h̛t҉s̀ ~ Prestige ~

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    I dunno. I read a couple of chapters of the manga a while back and it seems like nothing more than a bad LN, except the protagonist isn't a weak-willed overpowered idiot but a Hard Man Making Hard Decisions While Hard. Edgy shlock, in other words. Very little changes, it seemed. I won't derec it but I definitely wouldn't rec it either.
     
  5. fire

    fire Order Member

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    I still have no idea how it got an anime tbh. Episode 1 will be a glorious grimdark orgy that's for sure.
     
  6. KHAAAAAAAN!!

    KHAAAAAAAN!! Troll in the Dungeon –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    Aye I got through the first two or three arcs of the manga and then promptly dropped it after seeing that the unchanging main selling point of each was "badass kills goblins in truly gruesome detail, occasionally rescuing helpless naked damsels people as a side effect." Maybe the LN was better I dunno.
     
  7. Otters

    Otters Groundskeeper ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Mark Lawrence's Grey Sister just dropped a few days ago, the sequel to Red Sister.

    Some of it is excellent and new, despite the somewhat stale setting of vaguely mystic combat school. At first it appears to be a fantasy novel, but as things go on it's revealed that the (square) moon is actually a satellite reflecting the sun to warm a band around the equator - the setting is a frozen ice ball with only this relatively narrow strip of habitable territory in the middle. We didn't see a huge amount yet, but the geography alone promises potential conflict in the future.

    The protagonist fits into the delightfully murderous child category which seems to have been getting popular recently. It's done fairly tastefully here, and only as a tool of necessity rather than the excessive wannabe grimdark of Lawrence's Prince of Thorns series.

    Will check back after reading, but the first is definitely worth a look.
     
  8. KHAAAAAAAN!!

    KHAAAAAAAN!! Troll in the Dungeon –§ Prestigious §– DLP Supporter

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    This is roughly third in my backlog. I'm excited though. I enjoyed Red Sister far more than Fools/Thorns.
     
  9. Erandil

    Erandil Minister of Magic

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    I really enjoyed Red Sister but found Grey Sister to be something of a let down that didn't match its predecessor, failing to really make use of the plotthreads and characters the first book introduced. It isn't a bad book, even if the whole "dystopia" approach is getting more than a little old in my opinion, and I would perhaps even go so far and say it is his best series yet but Grey Sister really reduced my expectations and hopes for the series. And I am really no fan of the central plotwist/character that dominated the early part of this book so heavily, in my opinion it really destroyed a lot of the tone/feeling that made the first one so special.
     
  10. Otters

    Otters Groundskeeper ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    Now that I've finished reading Grey Sister, I have to agree.

    In a lot of ways it's emblematic of the traditional pitfalls of the second book in a trilogy. There are no bones to the story, just cartilage. Weaker connecting tissue and gristle.

    Keot was a wholly unnecessary annoyance. Many of the vivid characters explored in the previous book existed primarily off-screen. A series of unrelated events happened, one after the other, with no connection to the plot, and then in the last quarter of the book some plot snapped back into being.

    For the most part, the first two-thirds of the book accomplished absolutely nothing. I did really like the disguise test with the puzzlebox hidden in the tree. That was an excellent moment with a clever solution.

    I haven't been this disappointed by a sequel since the follow-up to Anthony Ryan's Blood Song.
     
  11. Paladin

    Paladin Defender of the Faith

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    The Red Sparrow trilogy by Jason Matthews.

    I was first introduced to the books by virtue of the 2018 film starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton when I house-sat for my older brother last weekend. The film was good enough that I went and found the entire trilogy halfway through, and I started reading the first book, Red Sparrow, basically as soon as I finished the film.

    Jason Matthews spent 30 odd years as a CIA operative, some of which included the height of the Cold War, and he writes with a sheer fucking authenticity that I've only seen rivalled by memoirs. His descriptions of the places, foods, and locals that feature in the books (Helsinki, Hong Kong, Athens) were really good, and I'm pretty sure he'd visited most if not all of them. While the places and people and tradecraft are authentic as hell, I came for the tightly and intricately plotted spy thrillers.

    And that's what I got.

    Each book could technically stand alone, if they had to, and Matthews' plots are intricate and really well done. There are no loose end left hanging, every Chekov's gun has a purpose, and Red Sparrow really does not feel like a first novel, which I reckon is really high fucking praise.

    Now all that said, the end to the trilogy fucked me up and I'm still thinking about it, and I finished the series two days ago. I expect I'll still be thinking about it a week, probably a month, and maybe a year from now.
     
  12. cucio

    cucio Groundskeeper

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    Just finished Hyperion yesterday. I'll confess to feeling well and thoroughly rickrolled. Not by who recommended it here, there's no account for individual taste, but by the sci-fi trolldom at large, including the Hugo Award panel.

    So I'll state here the warning I'd have liked to read somewhere: if by the first tale your WTF sense is tingling and you're forcing yourself to soldier through to see if there's anything that justifies the hype, just save yourself a few hours and put it away with a clear conscience: if by that time it hasn't clicked for you, there isn't anything else that's worth the effort in the rest of the book.

    Perhaps other readers may be taken up with the references to English classical literature or the winks to pop culture. I found them clumsy and cringey, for the most part.

    Also read Seveneves by Stephenson lately, I liked the first part a lot and found the second one superfluous. Good hard sci-fi, mostly based on current space technology, with the exception of the Deus-ex device which sets the plot up and remains conspicuously unexplained and uninvestigated throughout the whole book. Good character building and hard moral dilemmas in extreme survival situations.
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2021
  13. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Someone recommend me a book to give to a 16 year old who is getting into "Mystery" books by her own account?

    Or more specifically, she says she wants to read more of them. I've given her Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie and she says she liked them but they felt too 'old.'

    In terms of her reading level she's like a lot of kids that age who are very smart but don't read a lot. I.e. she can keep up with the concepts but sometimes complex prose (like in Dune or LotR) feels boring and skimmable.

    She's tired of being fed obviously YA books though.

    So... I'm thinking something with simple prose but a decent story, like if Dan Brown's books weren't shit. Not targeted at kids, a mystery as the plot, and simple writing.

    Ideas with this criteria? Preferably something with minimal sex/cursing/religion!bashing (b/c parents, but some is fine as they are normal people).
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2021
  14. Donimo

    Donimo Auror

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    Give her Dan Brown. If she's not an experienced enough reader to be discerning, than they're plenty enjoyable. I liked them well enough when I was about her age.
     
  15. Anarchy

    Anarchy Half-Blood Prince DLP Supporter

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    Southern Vampire Mysteries. I don't remember if you've read it or not. It's more urban fantasy than mystery, despite the name but still has some. It's the series that True Blood is very, very loosely based off of. The books are miles better than the show (which is getting a remake lmao), though I don't want to oversell it. I think Dresden Files is a very honest comparison, as the series have their really good, and not so good books (though I guess my dislike of Dresden these days would actually make me rate SVM on average, higher, lmao). Less magic (though still some), and more focus on supernatural elements (werewolves, vampires, fae, etc). It's got world building, strong characters, some politics, no sparkly vampires. "some" sex. Each book tended to have slightly more than the previous as the series got more and more successful.
     
  16. cucio

    cucio Groundskeeper

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    Yup, why not Dan Brown, if it's about easing the unaware into the world of good literature, eventually? Or, in the same vein, things like The Eight by K. Neville (two female MCs, one a modern day computer programmer, the other a novice nun in the time of the French Revolution; the story jumps back and forth.) Bestsellers have the extra appeal of having a decent chance of making good ice-breaker topics when socializing.

    There's Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski books. However, she's a female counterpart of the archetypal noire P.I., so adult warnings apply. On the plus side, hard-ass female protagonist.

    I'd mention Eco's The Name of the Rose, but prose.

    Trying to refresh my memory I found this around, if it helps: https://parade.com/1285756/michael-giltz/best-mystery-books/
     
  17. Shinysavage

    Shinysavage Madman With A Box ~ Prestige ~

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    The Dry, by Jane Harper. A fraud detective returns to the drought stricken outback town he grew up in after his childhood friend commits a murder suicide, and tries to get to the bottom of what happened.

    I couldn't put it down, tearing through it in less than a day. Touches on some darker themes, but nothing explicit that I remember
    specifically incest and child abuse

    More generally, the Falco books by Lindsey Davis, basically a series of noir private eye books, but set in Ancient Rome.

    For a more fantastical element, Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant books, about the supernatural branch of the Metropolitan Police.
     
  18. haphnepls

    haphnepls Seventh Year

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    Gone Girl.
     
  19. Drachna

    Drachna Professor

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    The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.
     
  20. Mutton

    Mutton Order Member

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    The Amelia Peabody series is pretty well targeted there; mystery series with a female lead in late 1800s Egypt with plenty of adventure and romance as well.
     
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