Book Recommendations

Author	Book name	Recommended by	Comments	ISBN
A. Lee Martinez	The Automatic Detective	Sciscitor	hilarious spoof of more sf genres and tropes than I can count)	978-0765357946
A. Lee Martinez	In The Company of Ogres	Sciscitor	and his other various fantasy books (though not all are that good).	978-0765354570
Alastair Reynolds	Pushing Ice	Sciscitor	(a chamber play in comparison, but uniquely thought provoking)	978-0441015023
Alastair Reynolds	Revelation Space	Sciscitor		978-0441009428
Alastair Reynolds	Redemption Ark	Sciscitor		978-0441011735
Alastair Reynolds	Absolution Gap	Sciscitor		978-0441012916
Alastair Reynolds	Chasm City	Sciscitor		978-0441010646
Alastair Reynolds	Century Rain	Sciscitor		978-0441013074
Aldous Huxley	Brave New World	charlie_grumbles		978-0060850524
Anne McCaffrey	the Tower series	Ace	(basically about people with varying levels of telepath and teleport abilities, using these to facilitate travel between worlds)	978-0441735761
Anne McCaffrey	the Freedom series	Ace	(kidnapped people dropped on a planet to see if it's inhabitable, settling out of necessity.)	978-0441003389
Anne McCaffrey	The Crystal Singer series	Ace	might also be of interest, I dunno. (Does exactly what it says on the tin.. people who mine crystal by singing at it. It's a pretty interesting universe. Often some kind of political drama going down wherever the singers are, when they venture offworld.)	978-0345327864
Anne McCaffrey	ship who sang	Dracomax		978-0345334312
Anne McCaffrey	tower and the Hive	Dracomax		978-0441007202
Anne McCaffrey	Petaybee series	SBN		978-0345387790
Ayn Rand		charlie_grumbles	the anti Le Guin, I guess. She has caused a lot of trouble in the world, actually. Selfishness as a virtue. Sort of the anti-Christ kind of thing.
Brandon Sanderson		Earthling on Mars	I haven't read Mistborn, but have heard good things about it; I'm in the middle of reading Warbreaker (since that one is available to download for free on his website) and it's good. (I would have finished it by now, but was interrupted by a certain webcomic that was posted back in March.)	"
Brian Aldiss	The Helliconia Series	charlie_grumbles	Not entirely unrelated to some things said here (OTT) already.	978-1617567636
C J Cherry	The Chanur series	Angua		978-0886779306
C J Cherryh	Foreigner series	CasCat		978-0756402518
C J Cherryh		charlie_grumbles	Nearly anything by C. J. Cherryh. She does both fantasy and scifi, but doesn't herself think there is a difference. Her TrueName is Cherry, but her publisher made her change it, thinking no one would take her seriously. Take her seriously. I found Gate of Iverel (Morgaine Series) to be wonderful.
C J Cherryh	Foreigner series	Prosthetic_Lips	C J Cherryh's Foreigner series was a mixed bag for me -- the action was ok, but the intrigue / backstabbing / posturing was way more interesting than it has been in other books that tried to add ""court intrigue.	978-0756402518
C J Cherryh		ttscp	Anything by Cherryh
C. S. Forester	Captain Horatio Hornblower.	charlie_grumbles	One of my favorite series as a kid. Hornblower rises through the ranks during the Napoleonic wars.	978-0316289320
C.S. Friedman	Coldfire Trilogy	Valarya		978-0756403140
C.S. Friedman	Magister Trilogy	Valarya		978-0756404635
Chris Bunch and Allan Cole	The Sten Chronicles	charlie_grumbles	Military scify and a lot of fun. They will also help you work on perfecting your brogue. The Sten Chronicles are a series of eight military science fiction novels by Chris Bunch and Allan Cole published from 1982 to 1993.	978-1841490076
Connie Willis	To Say Nothing of the Dog	b2bomberkrh		978-0553575385
Dan Simmons	Hyperion	charlie_grumbles		978-0553283686
Daniel O'Malley	The Rook	Arky	I liked it very much and it has that sci-fi fantasy crossover feel that Pern does (although with more humour)	978-0316098809
David Brin	Startide Rising	b2bomberkrh	(there isn't much by him that I wouldn't recommend)	978-0553274189
David Eddings	The Belgariad	Ebonite	my favorite book series of all time. Fantasy series about a young boy growing up on a farm who discovers he and his aunt are actually a lot more important to the world than he thought. The books have a kind of ""Lord of the Rings"" feel to them in the sense where a group of people (of multiple ""D&D classes"") gradually assembles along the way to saving the world - but the books are lighter in tone and an easier read than LOTR. There are also 3-4 additional books (like LOTR's ""Silmarillion"") that tell additional background history when you're done.	978-0345456328
David Eddings	The Malloreon	Ebonite		978-0345483867
David Gerrold and Larry Niven	Flying Sorcerers	BlueCrab	http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Sorcerers	0-345-02331-5
David Weber	Safehold series	Eternal Density	Robot copy of long dead space Marine fights to drag the last remaining human colony out of a religous barbarism that has forced stagnation at rennaisance level or lower technology. I've read the first two Safehold books so far (well, listened to the audiobooks) and I enjoyed them a lot. Really interesting genre cross! (I also very much like Weber's Honorverse in general)	978-0765353979
Douglas Adams	Hitchhiker's Guide	charlie_grumbles		978-0330443616
Douglas R. Hofstadter	Le Ton beau de Marot	Angelastic		978-0465086450
Douglas R. Hofstadter	Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid	ChronosDragon		978-0465026562
Frank Herbert	Dune	charlie_grumbles	Dune (first couple of volumes anyway) by Herbert. When it gets boring, quit. It will get worse. For me it was an exponential fall-off. The first chapter better than the average of the first book. The first book better than anything that followed, etc. But it starts out HUGE.	978-0441172719
Fred Saberhagen	Berserker Series	charlie_grumbles	pace opera against the AI killer ships out to destroy all life. Great stuff.	978-0671878849
Gabriel García Márquez	One Hundred Years of Solitude	charlie_grumbles		978-0061120091
Gabriel García Márquez	Love in the Time of Cholera	charlie_grumbles		978-0307389732
Garth Nix	Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen	cari.j.elliot	Easy but engaging	978-0060734190
Gene Wolfe	The Knight Wizard pair	charlie_grumbles	In either order, but both. I started with The Knight, which was the first to be published.	978-0765347015
Gene Wolfe	The Torturer series	charlie_grumbles		978-0671463984
Gene Wolfe	The Long Sun	charlie_grumbles		978-0312872915
Gene Wolfe	the Short Sun series	charlie_grumbles		978-0312872571
George Orwell	1984	charlie_grumbles	I wrote a college paper once comparing these two. The original paper got an A. The follow up, an F. Go figure. I worked harder on the second, but lost insight.	978-0452262935
George R. R. Martin	A song of Ice and Fire series	Valarya	(Game of Thrones)	978-0345529053
The Great Courses	Understanding the Fundamentals of Music	Angelastic	It was actually the audio version of this course, which seems like the kind of thing you see advertised in Readers Digest that looks like a scam (and I suspect the list price is only there so people will think they're getting a good deal when it's on sale), but I found it quite useful at pulling my musical knowledge from kilometres below sea level to a shrinking island halfway to zero. The guy teaching the course is hilariously emphatic𝄇. I found that half the entertainment of the course was just this guy being so dramatic about everything, but also I learnt quite a lot of things. He doesn't actually mention group theory but by the time he got to the circle of fifths, I understood the words he was using to describe it, and I could see the connection easily.
Gregory Benford	Great Sky River	f0rmicUla		978-0553273182
H. G. Wells		Sciscitor
Iain M Banks	all of them	Exodies	I presume no one mentioned him because of course everyone's read them.
Isaac Asimov	Foundation	charlie_grumbles	Foundation, by Asimov, though it disappointed me. I actually had the opportunity to argue a bit of this with him once. Funny story. I didn't care for the ending of Foundation and Earth (I think it was) and told him why. His wife, who was sitting next to him, turned to him and said, ""I told you so!"". Made my day.	978-0553293357
Isaac Asimov	The Robot Series	charlie_grumbles	Is AI really life?	978-0553382563
Isaac Asimov	Foundation series	Valarya		978-0553293357
J. K. Rowling	Harry Potter	charlie_grumbles		978-0439362139
J. R. R. Tolkien	Lord of the Rings	charlie_grumbles		978-0544003415
Jack Chalker	the Soul Rider series	NetWeasel	I wanted to toss one recomendation into the mix -- the Soul Rider series by Jack Chalker. There is a HUGE spoiler involved, anyone who knows what it is, please don't tell.... I seem to prefer the stories that when the later revelations come out, you can read/view/listen to the story again with the new info, and it makes it a completely different story.	978-0345324450
Jasper Fforde	Nursery Crimes series	lmjb1964
Jasper Fforde	The Thursday Next series	lmjb1964
Jim Butcher	The Dresden Files	Dracomax	Wizard PI takes on threats to Chicago, and eventually the world	978-0451457813
Joe Haldeman		FullOfIt	His books are mostly rather short and standalone, which is nice since you don't have to invest so much time. He's got nice ideas, and writes quality stuff.
John McPhee	The Control of Nature	charlie_grumbles	Rivers do move, sometimes quite far. For the past century or so, the US Army Corps of Engineers (large, partly civil organization) has been trying to prevent the Mississippi River from being captured by the Atchafalaya. HUGE project. If it fails, New Orleans will be left pretty dry along with all of its commerce. The Atchafalaya mouth is about 300 miles west of the current Mississippi delta. John McPhee wrote a story about it. In fact, add McPhee to the list of book/author recommendations. It is all non-fiction, but wonderful stuff, including the geology of large parts of the American West. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1987/02/23/1987_02_23_039_TNY_CARDS_000347146  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchafalaya_River	978-0374522599
John Scalzi	Old Men's War	Sciscitor	(and most sequels)	978-0765348272
John Scalzi	Agent to The Stars	Sciscitor		978-0765357007
John Scalzi	The Androids Dream	Sciscitor		978-0765348289
John Scalzi.	Redshirts	nerdsniped	Fantastic parody/side-track or whatever you want to call it.	978-0765334794
Jonathan Allday	Quantum Reality	Angelastic		978-1584887034
Jorge Amado		charlie_grumbles	(historical stuff from Brazil)
Jules Vernes		Sciscitor
Julian May	Saga of Pliocene Exile	charlie_grumbles	Her Saga of Pliocene Exile (Saga of the Exiles in the UK) is very relevant here, of course. People present in 5my bc via one way time travel.	978-0345309891
Julian May	Pliocene Exile Saga	rvloon	also others	978-0345309891
Justina Robson	Natural History	charlie_grumbles	Funny too.	978-0553587418
Karl Schroeder		FullOfIt	SF unlike most other I've read. His Virga series combines low tech and ridiculously high tech.
Katherine Mansfield	short stories	Exodies	Katherine Mansfield's short stories. Extra chirping ordinary.||
Kim Stanley Robinson	Mars series	charlie_grumbles	Mars series (Red, Green, Blue) I didn't read this.	978-0553560732
Kurt Vonnegut		charlie_grumbles	Anything by Kurt Vonnegut, though not all scifi. I knew his illustrator, in fact. Made most of his covers.
Larry Niven	Protector	nerdsniped	if you like Niven, and you haven't read Protector, read Protector. It's one of my favorites by him, and lesser-known I think.	978-0345353122
Larry Niven	Ringworld	charlie_grumbles	Ringworld (Larry Niven) and its sequels (they fall off a bit as it goes on, though). Lots of other stuff by Niven.	978-0345333926
Larry Niven	the Man-Kzin wars books	charlie_grumbles	Larry Niven has been mentioned, of course, but the Man-Kzin wars books are xenophobia at its best.	978-1451639001
Larry Niven	Ringworld	Prosthetic_Lips		978-0345333926
Larry Niven	Integral Trees	Prosthetic_Lips		978-0345320650
Leon Harkleroad	The Math Behind the Music	Angelastic		978-0521009355
Leonie Swann	Glennkill	Sciscitor		978-0767927055
Leonie Swann	Garou	Sciscitor		978-3442312245
Lois McMaster Bujold		nerdsniped	The Miles Vorkosigan stories are awesome sci-fi; start with The Warrior's Apprentice. Her fantasy series are amazing as well. Most similar to the Pern books might be the Sharing Knife series (start with Beguilement), though my favorites are the series that begins with The Curse of Chalion. (And add my vote to the Diskworld series; it is simply essential. The first few books in the series are a bit rough so you might want to start somewhere around Guards! Guards! if you're not a completist, or at least book 3 Equal Rites.)
Lois McMaster Bujold		rvloon
Lois McMaster Bujold	the Vorkosigan series	Tatiana	Start with Cordelia's Honor and go from there. They're already grouped in omnibus editions so you get 2 or 3 novels for the price of one. All of them are excellent stand-alone books, so you can read just one, or several, or all of them. I think there are 12 or 15 by now, aren't there (combined into about five omnibus editions)? These are often laugh out loud funny as well as full of action and interest. Very page-turnery.I thought the first two about the parents were the best of the bunch. They are together in one volume called ""Cordelia's Honor"". After that, the others are meant to go in any order at all, but I think the next ones to read would be ""Young Miles"" which has 3 novels combined, then ""Miles Errant"". Next ""Miles, Mystery and Mayhem"" and ""Miles, Mutants, and Microbes"" either one first, which also have 3 novels or novellas each. Then ""Miles in Love"" next. That contains one of the funniest novels I've ever read, ""A Civil Campaign"". Then after that it's just snapping up the leftovers that aren't yet combined into an omnibus volume yet. ""Memory"", ""Cryoburn"", and the latest which is called ""Captain Vorpatril's Alliance"" starring not Miles but his cousin Ivan, who is taken more seriously in this one. Up to then he'd mostly been comic relief. This is from memory so I really ought to check it. Miles' stories are kind of fluffy and silly compared to his parents, I think, but the more I read Bujold the more I like her.	978-0671720872
Margaret Atwood		charlie_grumbles	Margaret Atwood has some chilling fantasy.
Marion Zimmer Bradley		charlie_grumbles	Marion Zimmer Bradley has written a lot of fantasy (Darkover...) and some scifi. My wife likes it a lot.
Naomi Novik	novels of Temeraire	ChronosDragon	http://www.temeraire.org - it's a series set in an alternate-history Napoleonic wars where one of the main forces in addition to the navy and army is the draconic air force - it's a really interesting read, both from a fantasy perspective and a historical fiction perspective, I've really been enjoying it (the series isn't done - apparently there's two more books to come, one of which is out this...August, I believe).	978-0345513540
Neil Gaiman	Neverwhere	cari.j.elliot	Just awesome	978-0060557812
Neil Gaiman		charlie_grumbles	Anything by Neil Gaiman
Octavia Butler	Fledgling	Tatiana	her take on vampires, and was meant to be the first of a series. Alas, she died before she could write more of them.	978-0446696166
Octavia Butler	Patternist Series	Tatiana	The Patternist Series which is also in one book now. The first of these, Wild Seed, should win a Nobel Prize or something. It's that good. She's amazing.	978-0446676977
Octavia Butler	Xenogenesis series	Tatiana	I love her Xenogenesis series which is published together in one book as ""Lilith's Brood"". It's wonderful and I've read it several times.	978-0446603775
Orson Scott Card	Ender's Game	charlie_grumbles	Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. Note that there is a boycott on Card's work due to some of his extremest statements about LGBT folk. Entirely too much of that going 'round. I prefer not to give him money, but your local library already has. His views don't show through much in these books. (I don't remember that they did at all, actually). Le Guin's views show through clearly, but they are better views. The reason I suggested the early stuff is that she gets a bit strident and less subtle as time goes on. The views are still good (in my view), but the books less interesting.	978-0812550702
Orson Scott Card	Ender's Game	Prosthetic_Lips		978-0812550702
Orson Scott Card	the Ender's Game series	taixzo		978-0812550702
Orson Scott Card	Ender's Game	Valarya		978-0812550702
Patricia Briggs	The Mercy Thomson series	Eternal Density	Seatlle based mechanic deals with being part of the supernatural world	978-0441013814
Patrick Rothfuss	A Wise Man's Fear	b2bomberkrh	The series isn't complete yet, but it's the best ongoing work of fantasy hands down, in my opinion.	978-0756407919
Patrick Rothfuss	In the Name of the Wind	b2bomberkrh		978-0756404741
Patrick Rothfuss	The Kingkiller Chronicles	Valarya	(Name of the Wind)	978-0756404741
Peter F. Hamilton	Pandoras Star	Sciscitor		978-0345479211
Peter F. Hamilton	Judas Unchained;	Sciscitor		978-0345461674
Peter F. Hamilton	The Reality Dysfunction	Sciscitor		978-0316021807
Peter F. Hamilton	The Neutronium Alchemist	Sciscitor		978-0316021814
Peter F. Hamilton	The Naked God	Sciscitor		978-0446608978
Piers Anthony	The Apprentice Adept	Ebonite	Fantasy/SF series about a man who discovers there are two worlds that occupy the same space - one based in science, one based in fantasy - and he alone can cross over between the two. In the ""science"" world, he is an insignificant worker who excels in playing a very interesting game; in the ""fantasy"" world, he is a very powerful wizard.	978-0345354914
Piers Anthony	Xanth	Prosthetic_Lips	If you like humorous, pun-filled, relatively shallow: Piers Anthony's Xanth series. He's passed a trilogy of trilogies of trilogies (3 ^ 3), and still writing. He writes them in 3's, so when you get tired of the puns, stop reading (much like the recommendation of Frank Herbert's Dune -- I would say read 2 of that series, and see if you want to keep going).	978-0345347534
Raymond E. Feist		SBN	FullOfIt says: Fantasy about the world of Midkemia. Starts with Magician (also published as two separate books: "Magician: Apprentice" and "Magician: Master") and continues over lots and lots of books. Skip the ones based on the games. Also read Faerie Tale.
Richard Morgan		FullOfIt	He writes mostly SF, but also some very hard-boiled (and innovative) fantasy. The worlds he creates in his Takeshi Kovacs novels is mindbogglingly detailed. Morgan literally (;)) covers his world with technological and other details making them ridiculously realistic. There's enough throwaway ideas in his books to fill a library. Almost. :)
Roald Dahl		Ace
Robert A. Heinlein		Prosthetic_Lips
Robin Hobb	Realm of the Elderlings	Valarya	(Farseer Trilogy)	978-0553573398
Roger Zelazny	Amber series	charlie_grumbles	(fantasy)	978-0380809066
Russell Hoban	Riddley Walker	charlie_grumbles		978-0253212344
Sara Douglass	the Axis series	Ace	Sara Douglass is another to check out. I quite liked the Axis series. There were some quite a few scenes that creeped me the chirp out though, so, be warned. (The Axis trilogy isn't so bad, but maybe I'm just saying that because the second trilogy is even worse.)	978-0765341303
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	Sherlock Holmes	Sciscitor		978-0553328257
Stephen Baxter		FullOfIt	SF, mostly "hard" (very hard) but lately more sociological. The book Flood deals with the world getting... flooded. His Xeelee sequence is mind-boggling. Alien species conducting wars by flinging planets at each other.
Susan Cain	Quiet	ryaaan	Delurking to recommend the book Quiet by Susan Cain. Went a long way to persuade me that there's nothing wrong with having an introverted temperament, that being introverted doesn't necessarily mean that you can't also still have confidence in yourself at the same time, and finally that there are often many positive traits that come bundled along with shyness. Recognising some of these traits in myself made me feel much more content with my introversion. It's also a helpful reminder (along with this thread) that there are millions more like us out there.
Terry Dowling	The Tom Rynosseros series	charlie_grumbles	Best read in order. They are hard to find, published in Australia. Lots of interleaving threads including AI, desert travel, alternate history... Marvelous.	978-0958658348
Terry Goodkind	Legend of the Seeker	Prosthetic_Lips	Terry Goodkind wrote 7 books about ""Legend of the Seeker"" (there was even a TV adaptation that was so-so), kind of ""high fantasy"" stuff. The middle books gave me the feeling he didn't want the series to end, so he started bringing in other ""villains"" to continue things, but that is just my opinion. FullOfIt's opinion: The first couple of books in the Seeker series are ridiculously good, and his climaxes are always engaging, but in later books he channels Ayn Rand too much (with chapter-long speeches) and becomes... Full of it. ;)	978-0812548051
Terry Pratchet	Discworld	cari.j.elliot	Hilarious and usually quick	978-0062225672
Terry Pratchet	Discworld	charlie_grumbles		978-0062225672
Terry Pratchet	Discworld books	ttscp	Also, although it is not a series, all the books are set in the same universe: the Discworld books by Prachett.	978-0062225672
Tim Etchell	The Broken World	Exodies	The Broken World takes the form of a guide to an imaginary computer game, crossed with a slacker love story. Comical and unsettling, with a gripping narrative and a twisted-Internet linguistic spin, the book interweaves the everyday and the fantastical, the actual and the virtual to create a unique portrait of our lives – lived both in the ‘real world’ and in alternate contexts via the computer screen.Day in and day out, the book’s narrator is preoccupied with The Broken World – an engrossing, genre-hopping and possibly addictive adventure that takes players from town to town as they fight zombies, agents, puzzles, robots and negotiate a veritable maze of puzzles and mysteries. As the walkthrough consumes more and more of the narrator’s time, his life is slowly coming apart at the seams: the pizza job is starting to get shaky, the best friend is acting weird and, the live-in girlfriend Tory – who happens to pay more than half the rent – is becoming increasingly restless. Meanwhile, deep in the alternate dimensions of The Broken World, in a landscape of deserts, sprawling cities, space stations and fragmented war zones, things are getting very, very strange indeed. I loved it.
Timothy Zahn	Conquerors trilogy	Arky	Book 1 comes across as an interesting ""first contact"" scenario between a ""United Federation of Planets"" type of humanity and a hostile alien race. Book 2 brilliantly switches POV to the aliens, one of the best bits of alien world-and-society building exercises I've ever read. Book 3? You'll just have to get there....	978-0553568929
Timothy Zahn		charlie_grumbles	writes a lot of Star Wars stuff. Haven't read.
Traci Harding	Ancient Future	Ace	I love it for the time travel, but there are many reasons. It does get a bit completely insane in the third book, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.	978-0732283742
Ursula K Le Guin	The Earthsea Cycle	charlie_grumbles	Almost anything by Ursula K Le Guin. Especially those from before 2000. For a series: The Earthsea Cycle. Note that pub dates are misleading, since most of her work has been republished.	978-0547773742
Ursula K Le Guin	Earthsea series	joselynmay		978-0547773742
Ursula K Le Guin	Annals of the Western Shore	Tatiana	The books are Gifts, Voices, Powers. Excellent, wonderful series that I can't say enough good things about. She's my favorite fantasy writer (after Tolkien, of course) because her stuff just feels so realistic.	978-0152051242
Ursula K Le Guin	The Left Hand of Darkness	Qalyar	Regarding UKL, I agree that The Left Hand of Darkness is an important work, and it is definitely something that should be on the reading list of anyone with a passing interest in speculative fiction. Or feminism. Or, frankly, books. On the other hand, I've always struggled quite a bit with The Dispossessed. But my favorite of her works is a short story, even though I don't usually like short stories. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" -- if you haven't read it, take the Time and do so.
Vernor Vinge	Zones of Thought series	charlie_grumbles	(and others)	978-0812515282
Vernor Vinge	A Fire upon the Deep	charlie_grumbles		978-0812515282
Vernor Vinge		nerdsniped
Walter M. Miller, Jr.	Canticle for Leibowitz	f0rmicUla		978-0553273816
	Iliad	charlie_grumbles	There is a new translation (in English) Iliad that is a marvelous read.	978-1439163382