Read any good books lately?

[athelind]

I'm making my Xmas list -- anybody have any good reading material to recommend?

The only book I've got on there so far is The Revolution Business, by Charlie Stross. It's volume 5 of a 6-volume "hard fantasy" series: the classic fantasy "modern-day person falls into a medieval world" trope, cleverly concealing a solid SF what-if premise and a decidedly unromantic view of kings and princesses and wizards.

Comments

[returntonull.livejournal.com]

Hrm... only recent series I've read that's been to my satisfaction is The Night Angel Trilogy bought the first as a speculative purchase and ended up going out a week later for the other two.

And to steal a bit from TV Tropes Page: "Lots of politics, war, and evil megalomaniacs. Major subjects include [The Main Character's] feelings about his job (is it something that's necessary, or is it an evil that he should walk away from?), his love triangle, and the fact that bad things happen to good people.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Dragons Wild and Dragons Luck by Robert Asprin are enjoyable books. I'm not sure how many manuscripts he got finished before he died however. So that might be the only two books of the series to come out.

The Quintaglio Ascension trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer is also a great set of books to read. Can't go wrong reading about a bunch of amusing evolved dinosaurs.

And if you can find them; Anonymous Rex, Casual Rex, & Hot and Sweaty Rex are funny reads from Eric Garcia. More amusing dinosaurs and whatnot, filled with witty humor and a very film-noir feel to the books.

Also, when in doubt, anything by Robert A. Heinlein. ^..^

[(Anonymous)]

Vacuum Diagrams, by Stephen Baxter

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

Dragons Wild and Dragons Luck by Robert Asprin are enjoyable books. I'm not sure how many manuscripts he got finished before he died however. So that might be the only two books of the series to come out.

Yes. THIS. Both titles are fantastic, though I prefer Dragons Luck. As I recall, however, Dragons Luck was the last one he had mostly finished. If the woman picking up his M.Y.T.H. Inc. series is going to continue this one, I'm pretty happy, since she definitely has his style incorporated in her own.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

Also, the first paragraph in my reply is the quote from Tomb's own reply, just to let you know. Yeah.

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

Handbook of Acrylics for Submersibles, Hyperbaric Chambers, and Aquaria

Fault Diagnosis of Analog Integrated Circuits
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For older SciFi, if you haven't read the Matador series by Steve Perry

Happy Kinetic has me going back to read Colossus - D F Jones
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Vacuum Diagrams? About the only place that phrase is used is on vacuum-powered accessories (aircraft & auto). Vacuum Systems however...
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How about a few essential refereces in your proffered profession?

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

Well that's good news at least. :3

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

Do you read much history? _The Wisconsin Death Trip_ is just creepy and strange, but enlightening. and _The World Rushed In_ by J. S. Holliday is fascinating. Not just because of its subject-- the California Gold Rush-- but by his means of telling the story.

Mr. Holliday started with a very good diary kept by one of the participants in the gold rush. He then padded it out to include things his primary writer didn't mention by adding excerpts from other diaries, letters, and printed accounts of the day. It really made me feel I was in touch with people who had Been There.

[rodant-kapoor.livejournal.com]

Jack McDevitt's Seeker was a nice bit of SF archaeological adventure. I loved the challenge of tracking down a lost colony that had become a future Atlantis legend.
Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn is the first of a trilogy, but also a good standalone. Sanderson is my favourite new fantasy author.
I'm a fan of Scottish author Iain Banks. I particularly recommend his first novel, The Wasp Factory. Among his SF novels my favorite is probably Use of Weapons.
In nonfiction, I recently read James Galbraith's The Predator State, which helped me understand how the Great Recession came about.

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

I'm currently reading a book called Orcs by Stan Nicholls. There are currently two followup books to it too (Orcs: Bad Blood and Orcs: Army of Shadows) that I intend to pick up after I'm done with this one. I've heard mixed reviews, but I am personally enjoying it.