Beyond Reality discussion

Recommend a favorite book to the rest of us! What do you love about it?

Most of my favorites will be reasonably well-known to this crew, but here are a few that I don't think have been discussed here at all:

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers: time travel, Egyptian mythology, fascinatingly weird characters, and brilliant plotting. I haven't read everything that he's wrote (yet) but I've loved all of the ones I have read. My other favorite of his is Last Call, which combines Tarot mysticism with Las Vegas gamblers.

Another old (and very, very weird) favorite is the Rings of the Master series by Jack L. Chalker (Lords of the Middle Dark, Pirates of the Thunder, Warriors of the Storm, and Masks of the Martyrs). It will read a bit dated these days, but I read the series a million times when I was younger and my copies are falling apart. I still have a strong nostalgic fondness for them.

Besides The Bees? :)

The Princess and the Goblin and The Phantom Tollbooth. Childhood favorites that I still enjoy every so often. Some adults haven't been able to appreciate them if they are reading them for the first time, but others have!

I certainly have some beloved books to recommend. Only I've recommended the same books so many times over the years, I feel I should mix things up a bit.

So books I really enjoyed that never quite made it to the "OMG I've got to get other people to read this book right now" list.

Fortress on the Sun by Paul Cook. Ran across this at a local used book store many years ago. Prison camp literally on a fortress in the sun. They're all there because they've done very bad things, their memories have been taken from them (sometimes so badly that their personalities have reverted to that of children), and something strange has started happening.

Its a fast read. Both my husband and I really enjoyed it.

The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
Well known for his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn and Otherland series. This one hasn't seem to have gotten as much attention but I really enjoyed it.

Nothing Human by Nancy Kress
Multi generational. I can't think of a way to describe it without giving too much away.

And a Bonus: My husband is making me include Broken Time by Emily Davenport - he's been trying to get me to read this for ages and I keep not getting around to it. I think its his attempt to put more pressure on me to do so. :)

And, on a plus side, all of these are stand alone books. :)

--edit--

ok, 1 series.
Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse by Him C Hines

Aliens have come to earth to invite humans to join a galactic society, only to find humanity has been devolved to near unstoppable animals from a mutated plague. So they tried to fix us.

I really enjoyed this series. Its a well balanced mix of humor along with some very serious subjects.

I always go back to 2 books, The Blue Castle and Murther and Walking Spirits. They are my all time favourites. Both Canadian authors and nothing what so ever to do with fantasy or SF.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, would be one of my favourite scince fiction books. It is just such an amazingly well written book and the story is great.

Angelmaker is the best steampunk book I've ever read. I love the concept of steampunk but feel it often gets bogged down in atmosphere rather than telling a really good story. This one is a good story.

I always marvel at people who can choose one or two favorite books. My favorites seem to change depending on my memory and mood. But 2 series I think exemplify what I love about SF and Fantasy would be The Expanse by James S.A. Corey and The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

They both have the elements that matter to me: fantastic & complete world-building, unique & unforgettable characters, and complex plots with many threads. In addition, they are so readable—Tolkien’s books seem like a gifted storyteller is relating the tale to a rapt audience around a campfire or over a few pints in a cozy pub, and The Expanse narrative expertly balances background info about the worlds & their histories, character development, and action.

Oops. Can't forget The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. If you love it, there are more, but I don't know that I'd really call it a series, as the connection between them is more loose.

One of my favorites is Dream Park by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. It’s the first of four novels featuring virtual reality gaming. I first read it back in 1981 when it was published. It seemed to me like a live version of Dungeons and Dragons which I was big into then. It’s interesting to think about the hologram technology used in the novel compared to the current virtual reality options available today.