Favorite Authors/Books

Whatever · Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:24 pm Post subject:

Deathlands series by James Axler
Outlanders series by James Axler
DemonTech series by David Sherman
Starfist series by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

The Deathlands and Outlanders are based in the same world. About a post-nuclear group surviving.

DemonTech is a unique series (only consists of 2 now). Marines get teleported to a world of magic and have to survive.

Starfist is about space marines, in the 25th century. I really enjoy these.

I was a big fan of Raymond Feist but I lost interest and I have missed the last few books.

I like Terry Brooks, and most of his Shannara books.

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Nyxtis · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2003 10:45 am Post subject:

William Gibson is really good. along the smae style of "Cyberpunk" is Pat Cadigan. Neal Stephenson is also very good, his last three books Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are his best.
For older fiction Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is really really good. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger if you didn't read it in school is also good.
I would also recomend Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting even though its sometimes hard to understand the vernacular used.

merf · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2003 3:27 pm Post subject:

Mr.Kason Allen · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 3:34 pm Post subject:

Did I mention something............WEEEEEEEEEE

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Ragnarok · Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2003 3:42 pm Post subject:

The Hobbit was great... the LOTR trilogy sucked ass....wasn't....gripping enough
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Kazebari · Official Mall Ninja Joined: 28 Apr 2002 Posts: 935

Paddyjack · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2003 7:38 am Post subject:

Mongoose_Slayer · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:04 pm Post subject:

Burgess and Tolkien, my two favorites

Mongoose_Slayer · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:50 pm Post subject:

FingerDemon · Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2003 4:47 pm Post subject:

I'm a big Sci-Fi fan myself and lately have been reading David Weber's Honor Harrington series. They're pretty cool for a series. I got tired of some other Sci-Fi series, cause the writers were just rehashing the same stuff over and over. That and really bad editing makes me nuts. I'd like to read the Star Wars books, but some of them are so bad I can't stand it. I'm really wary of paying money for anymore. How many people say everything through clenched teeth. I mean really... That and somehow, the Jedi based stories just don't have the feel of the old movies. Even the Jedi Knight game backstory is better than some of those books.

But for flat out favorite author, I definitely say Patrick O'Brian. His Aubrey/Maturin series is so terrific. I had never read historical fiction before this, but he does it really well. It's all set in the glory days of the British sailing navy in the early 1800's, so the dialogue and sailing terms can be hard to follow. But that stuff doesn't really matter to the story. If you figure out the dialogue or sailing terms, you just get a few more of the jokes. He does great battles and his characters are really well developed. There are a ton of books in that series, but you never stop learning new aspects to the two main characters or their friendship. I generally don't go in for highbrow what your college professors call "good writing" types. It is often really dry stuff in my opinion. But O'Brian's writing flies by and he really cuts out a lot of the crap that he doesn't need to cover. And to my surprise he gets a tremendous amount of highbrow critical acclaim. Some big literary critic was calling him the greatest author of the last century.

Who knew?

The first book in the series is "Master and Commander". It is a great stand alone read, by anybody's standard. My favorite is Desolation Island, the back jacket of the book hooked me on the whole series.

They are making a Russell Crowe movie based on one of the books, but I expect it to suck totally. I just don't see these books making great movies. The best parts are profound moments for the characters but not always visual. I'll go see it for the ship battles, anyway. But I'm not holding out any real hope of transcending the usual Hollywood crap.

FingerDemon

Oh and if you want waaay out wacky stuff, read Mark Leyner, either "Et Tu, Babe" or "My cousin, my gastroenterologist". There is no describing this guy. Pick up one of these in the bookstore and read a few pages, you'll see what I mean. You either love it or hate it.

My favorite bit of his is this:

Last words of dying man... "If you squander your precious, beautiful days on meaningless labor, whose ultimate purpose is to further enrich the ruling elite or solidify the hegemony of the state...(cough, cough) you're a sucker."