The Sword and Laser discussion

I am seven books into my goal for the reading challenge and I already kind of hit a block.

I read both sword and laser, and I loved the Feb book of the month.

So recommend me something, if something gets more than one vote, its next to be read and all will considered

Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey

Quite simply the best book I've in years. Its set in the future and the only Survivors of some apocalypse live in an underground silo. No one alive remembers life outside and wondering about the outside is not only discouraged but punishable by death.

I have it! so its a contender lol

Abercrombie The Blade Itself
Rothfuss The Name of the Wind

thank you. great books. have read them both

I agree with Rik. It was great. Currently into Doomsday Book.

What do you like? I mean... there's a TON out there, but... guidance would help.

SF: Moxyland and Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

F: Servant of the Underworld and it's sequels by Aliette de Bodard - Aztec magical murder mystery. Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series (starting with that book). If you've read and liked the Dresden Files, try Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid stuff. If not, try the Dresden files, though I'd personally start around Summer Knight since the first couple are a bit slower going and were his first books ever.

Obviously the next Rothfuss if you've not read it.

Yeah, I could give more guidance. I read scifi and fantasy, I like history of all sorts. To give you better insight, everything you listed Rick I have read except for Zoo City.

Pretty much everything recommended so far is on my kindle or on my shelves, the whole reason I started this thread besides the conversation, is I had a reading plan for January and Feb. and I got ahead of myself. I am just looking for inspiration to continue on my reading goal :)

Sheesh... everything? Um... lemme think... Well, there's the sequel to Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince. If you've not read all of Iain M Banks there's that (though I didn't particularly like his latest, The Hydrogen Sonata). Jeff Noon has a new one out, Channel Sk1n and his Vurt is classic. Finch from Jeff Vandermeer is... wild.

I've seen you liked Loki, why not read Loki: Nine Naughty Tales of the Trickster?
or maybe from a different angle - Gears of Wonderland I enjoyed both of them a lot :)

The Lions of al-Rassan or just about anything by Guy Gavriel Kay. Fantasy with a historical setting.

Retribution Falls and the rest of that series by Chris Wooding. Steampunky scifi with some fantasy flare.

Dresden Files series, starting with Storm Front. Urban Fantasy set in modern day Chicago.

Not much on your shelf, have you read The Eyes of the Dragon?

The Atrocity Archives

Have you read all the classics. The Heinlein's, Asimov's, Niven's, Clarke's, Farmer's, McCaffrey's, Le Guin's, Ellison's, Card's, Sawyer's, Robinson's?

Rob wrote: "Not much on your shelf, have you read The Eyes of the Dragon?"

i need to update my shelf, thanks for reminding me

Phil wrote: "Have you read all the classics. The Heinlein's, Asimov's, Niven's, Clarke's, Farmer's, McCaffrey's, Le Guin's, Ellison's, Card's, Sawyer's, Robinson's?"

I have some, maybe I should add some classics.

Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust Jhereg was the first released and Taltos is the first in the timeline (I think). Kind of secondary world Urban Fantasy (if that makes any sense).

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, if you like Abercrombie chances are good you'll like this too.

Not SFF but short and sweet Silk by Alessandro Baricco. Kind of a palate cleanser after all the SFF.

Im reading Wool and I would recommend that, really enjoying it.

Also just started Dresden Files, they are quick reads and good. Apparently the series gets really good. It started to pick up for me around book 3 and if that's something to go by, it will be really good.

hi kdawg

the best genre books I've read recently are
The Quantum Thief - post-human hard SF, superb
Midnight Riot/Rivers of London - very well written urban fantasy/police procedural
The Gone Away World - possibly the best debut novel I've ever read; a post-apocalyptic, reality bending tale of love, friendship and ninjas
Lord Valentine's Castle - a classic, SF dressed as fantasy
Surface Detail - if you haven't read Iain Banks' culture novels, you should. Generally they don't interconnect much so you can jump in anywhere, and the last couple have been doozies.

im updating my books with the things Ive read pre goodreads.

I was blow away by Eden (link below) - short book by a new author. Starts out as a survival book (think Lost) and then turns into a thriller, paranormal, horror, sci-fi mashup. It's not traditional sci-fi or fantasy (my usual reading) but it's the best book I've read in a while. Have not read Wool but heard many many good things about it.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...

Currently reading The Novice by Trudi Canavan and enjoying it a great deal.

Brent Weeks? The night angel series was AMAZING, and his current series, Lightbringer, has been good also. If you like historical fiction Bernard Cornwell is fantastic, especially the Saxon Stories.

Oh another quick read that's bizarre but fun-John Dies at the End.

Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination

The Child Thief by Brom. Dark take on Peter Pan mixed with North Mythology. It's YA, so a realy quick read and it comes with artwork inside.

All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear. North Myth/Dystopia/Laser mashup.

The Silent Tower by Barbara Hambly. First in the Windrose Chronicles Trilogy. This is one of my comfort books, if I want to read something, but am to lazy to start anything new, this is one of the books I go to.

I went scrolling through my Nook library last night looking for things I might have missed above and came across a book that I very much like, Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon. First in a trilogy but self-contained it's very much like Neverwhere by Gaiman and compares favorably to that book. The second book is also quite good if you like this.

Rik wrote: "Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey

I second this. I intended just to read the first story - that didn't work, I read the whole thing in a few days. An incredibly thrilling book that took me by surprise. You'll definitely want the omnibus edition. ;)

I'm thinking wool will be the next book, I kind of started one after this thread LOL

Flip through award lists for best novels (and the other nominateds) for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards.

Check the top 10/best of the year lists from various established sites (locusmag.com, sfsite.com, etc ...)

That should keep you going ... for the next few years or so ;-)

Speaking of lists, the S&L lists for Fantasy and SF might be fun to look at for ideas too.

I've just picked it up, but I'm loving the "Wild Cards" series edited by George R.R. Martin. They're mostly a series of interconnected short stories, but there are several stand-alone novels as well. See here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Car...) for a description/the full list. They've all recently been re-released as E-Books, which I think is great. Wild Cards

Midnight at the Well of Souls

My favorite fantasy novels of recent years have been the novels that make up R. Scott Bakker's complex, ongoing series The Second Apocalypse. This series is broken up into three separate series, The Prince of Nothing trilogy, The Aspect-Emperor trilogy and a planned third series that will either be two parts (duology? - is that a word?) or another trilogy.

Prince of Nothing consists of:
The Darkness that Comes Before
The Warrior Prophet
The Thousandfold Thought

Aspect-Emperor consists of:
The Judging Eye
The White Luck Warrior
The Unholy Consult (should be released sometime in 2013)

The series contains some magnificient wolrd building, explores issues related to politics, warfare, religion, belief and philosophy. It also contains some very interesting and very flawed characters and some of my favorite depictions of sorcery I've encountered.

The books are on the "darker"/"mature" end of the epic fanatasy spectrum; the author doesn't shy away from depicting sex, the carnage of a battle or the actions of some very unsavory creatures/characters.

Style-wise, I would say the series is like a mixture of J.R.R. Tolkien, Frank Herbert and George R.R. Martin with maybe just a dash of Clive Barker.

Some other genere books I've read and enjoyed in the past few years are:

G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen this was probably my favorite book of 2012.

N.K. Jemisin's The Inheritance Trilogy and her two-partDreamblood series.

C.S. Friedman's Magister Trilogy

Catherynne M. Valente's The Habitation of the Blessed which is book one of her series A Dirge for Prester John

David Anthony Durham's Acacia which is the first book in a trilogy of the same name.

Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep

Dan Simmon's Ilium and Olympos

Christopher Priest's Inverted World

China Miéville's Embassytown

Can I suggest you need some more women on your shelves? I'll throw out Tamora Pierce, First Test as a fun YA book. Or Mira Grant, Feed for some well thought out zombies.

http://dennisauthor.com/featured_book I'd like to recommend a book I don't see here on Goodreads, Points of View by Tony Thorne MBE These artificial, intelligent, eyes have seen plenty of action. Drop by the site. All the best

Anyone know of any books in the same style as A Door Into Ocean ?

I absolutely loved this book. I read it in one day.

It's a werewolf tale that reads more like a movie. Pretty damn cheap too!

City Under the Moon

Mikael wrote: "Anyone know of any books in the same style as A Door Into Ocean ?"

What did you think of that? Think it would be a good S&L pick? She has a new one called The Highest Frontier.

I read The Highest Frontier and enjoyed it. College in space! Now I have to go back and read Door into Ocean.

Tamahome wrote: "Mikael wrote: "Anyone know of any books in the same style as A Door Into Ocean ?"

What did you think of that? Think it would be a good S&L pick? She has a ne..."

I thought it was a great book. I really liked the whole biology aspect as well as the interaction between totally different societies of the story.
I think it would be interesting to se what S&L have to say about it.

David Sven wrote: "Abercrombie The Blade Itself
Rothfuss The Name of the Wind"

I've loved everything Abercrombie has written and am now impatiently waiting for his next one.

Jim wrote: "David Sven wrote: "Abercrombie The Blade Itself
Rothfuss The Name of the Wind"

I've loved everything Abercrombie has written and am now impatiently waiting for his next one."

You have to be realistic about these things - Abercrombie's the best thing since Whirrun invented sliced bread and the cheese-trap

After you finish Wool, another good dystopian read is The Camellia Resistance by A.R.Williams. I just finished it and found it a good adult read.

The Belgariad

Peter V. Brett's The Warded Man is a fun first part of a planned 5. I'm reading the third now. Well worth checking out.
"As darkness falls, demon corelings rise — multitudes and giants, strong from fire, wood, and rock, hungry for human flesh. Centuries ago, humans knew magic wards to protect and attack, now human numbers dwindle."

The Black Company series by Glen Cook is AWESOME military fantasy

Anything K.J. Parker has written is great. Some interesting dark fantasy and mysteries.

Boneshaker and the following books are great YA Steampunk with Zombies.

The Road is a dark post-apocalyptic novel.

I'll second The Child Thief by Brom and the Wool Omnibus, they're both great quick reads.

I agree with Wool and The Road. I just started The Wool Omnibus and can't put it down. The Road is a classic, must-read.