Fantasy/Sci-fi Books. Any Suggestions?

[sconstantin]

You could try Welcome to the Monkey House written by Kurt Vonnegut. It's a collection of short scifi stories. Some are very emotional and thought provoking. You could read a story each night before you go to sleep.
Also, I recommend The Weapon Shops of Isher by A.E. Van Vogt. It's a scifi novel that discusses the right to keep and bear arms. The motto of the novel is: "The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.". Being a scifi novel, the weapons are ideal as they can only be used in self-defence and they only incapacitate the attacker.
Finally, you could just take something written by Isaac Asimov. I recommend The Gods Themselves.

 

[Jake the Snake]

Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. Seriously on of the greatest fantasy series I've ever read.
Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin.
Ender's Game by Francis Scott Card.

 

[SiegeJack]

I recommend Ciaphas Cain, Gaunts' Ghosts, Blood Angels and Salamanders novels as well. All great 40K novels, especially Gaunt and Ciaphas.

 

[Gerhardt]

I'm looking for some new before-sleep reading material and was hoping you guys could give me some suggestions.
Now what I want is a grand sci-fi/fantasy saga, the likes of my three favourites which are:

-The Wheel of Time (my favourite, can't wait for the last part)
-Dune (the original six by Frank Herbert, his son and K. Anderson never got the 'tone' right imo)
-Prince of Nothing/Aspect-Emperor (can't really explain why, but this one is freakishly good, not just because it contains my all-time favourite character, Cnaïur-urs-Skiotha, breaker-of-horses-and-men)

I prefer something like the three above, but suggestions along the lines of The Dark Tower and Harry Potter are welcome as well.

Would be nice if you could elaborate on your pick, like a character you love (or love to hate), or a unique setting, etc...

Absolutely loved Dune, hands down my favorite series with God Emperor of Dune being my all-time favorite book evaaar.

I've got one that I don't think was mentioned yet: C.S. Friedman. Amazing writer. The Coldfire Trilogy (Black Sun Rising, When True Night Falls, Crown of Shadow) is pure awesome, and her new series, The Magister Trilogy, is also excellent. Only two books out for the latter (Feast of Souls, Wings of Wrath)

There is also a crazy-long series by Tad Williams called Otherland which is more of a near-future, virtual reality type Sci-fi.

 

[Ekonk]

Anything by Iain Banks.

Seriously, that guy is brilliant. Currently I'm reading Surface Detail. It's guuuud.

Also the spark that lighted the fire of cyberpunk, Neuromancer. It's a classic for a reason.

 

[Sammaul]

Really impressed with a LOT of these titles, escapists, found some more info on some of them and liking it a lot, only problem now is figuring where to start...

Steven Erikson, Malazan Tales of the Fallen. Best. Fantasy. Ever.

...and I´ve been reading Fantasy for about 25 years...

QFAT: Quote for absolute truth.

I have like 20 years, not 25, but I absolutely agree. Makes Robert Jordan seem an amateur (and I LOVE RJ). Some AMAZING characters, more original ideas than any series I have ever read, majorly chunky books which I love, and some really interesting ideas about humanity/minds etc.

Gardens of the Moon is the first book. Read that. Then read Deadhouse Gates. I promise you you won't regret it.

Tempted to try this one first though.

Thanks again for all of your suggestions ppl, I already have a LOT of new reading to look forward to.

 

[SadisticBrownie]

"A Song of Ice and Fire"

I also enjoyed "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" but others I've spoken to didn't seem to enjoy it quite as much as I did...

I read Strange and Norrell a few years back and it was bloody excellent. Felt totally unique, there's nothing quite like it.

 

[KanHanderan]

Sorry to be obsessed with 40k, but Gaunt's Ghosts are some of the best books ever. The second-best series is the Horus Heresy.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I can voice for quite a few of the books here, but I've got a contribution of my own:

The Kingkiller Chronicles from Patrick Rothfuss. Hands down the best character-driven, most believable work of fantasy literature I've read so far.

I'm also definitely going to bookmark this topic. There's a lot of titles in here that I'd love to read, judging by their description.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Fucking Starship Troopers, probably the best Sci-Fi book I have ever read.

 

[Jakub324]

Gaunt's Ghosts (the Saint onwards is especially good) Ciaphas Cain series and Forever War.

 

[GiglameshSoulEater]

All of you fail, for not having mentioned any of the books by Patrick Rossforth.
The Name of The Wind and The Wise Man's Fear should be required reading in how you write a book.

Get them. Now.

Incidently, Penny Arcade likes them, too: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/3/3/name-wind/
Not the comic about it, but couldn't find it.

Ok, nevermind. Someone had. I forgot it was the Kingkiller series...

That person (ansd I'm only gonna say this once) deserves a cookie.

 

[ecoho]

I'm looking for some new before-sleep reading material and was hoping you guys could give me some suggestions.
Now what I want is a grand sci-fi/fantasy saga, the likes of my three favourites which are:

-The Wheel of Time (my favourite, can't wait for the last part)
-Dune (the original six by Frank Herbert, his son and K. Anderson never got the 'tone' right imo)
-Prince of Nothing/Aspect-Emperor (can't really explain why, but this one is freakishly good, not just because it contains my all-time favourite character, Cnaïur-urs-Skiotha, breaker-of-horses-and-men)

I prefer something like the three above, but suggestions along the lines of The Dark Tower and Harry Potter are welcome as well.

Would be nice if you could elaborate on your pick, like a character you love (or love to hate), or a unique setting, etc...

mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson its his first series and was responsible for Mrs. Jordan asking him to finish WoT. (all his other books are realy good too

 

[Platypus540]

The Risen Empire series by Scott Westerfeld.

Also does anyone know if the third one is out yet?

Wait. There's more than one Risen Empire book? I thought it was a (brilliant) one off?! Could you chuck out a couple of the other titles for me (I've literally just read Risen Empire).

The second one was called The Killing of Worlds. It explains more of the plot, is equally if not even more epic, and ends on a note which extremely heavily implies a third book.

 

[schiz0phren1c]

[quote="Susurrus" It's not really fantasy, but the Flashman books are also absolutely brilliant, and I recommend you read at least the first one. They're historical novels, really, but so so funny, and absolutely one of the best reads I've ever had (and I had to read a lot of the classics for my degree...)[/quote]

Hory shet! A Flashman fan! we are WAY too thin on the ground!,
I must have read them all about twenty times and just finished Flash for Freedom again last week and am re-reading Flashy's lady at the moment,
honestly any of Flashman and the Dragon,In the great Game,At the Charge and The Redskins would be my "Desert Island Book" I love them all so much,and learned so much about history in reading them,and in turn "tricked" a lot of my friends into learning a load of excellent history by reading them,hands down funniest books I have ever read too.
I met GM Fraser in Sterling around the time Braveheart was out and he was a fucking gent,funny as hell too,
have you read the Mc Auslan books? based on his time in the army? very good stuff too,I was very lucky to get them both in hardback.

EDIT by the way I know I have posted a LOAD of books that I have just finished/am just starting guys... I'm NOT insane(well,not in that way I read about 5 at a time now that I have a Sony reader,and have always kept at least 2 or 3 books on the go at once and tend to "gobble" them first time around,then re-read at a slower pace.
The worst punishment I could ever conceive is to have books/reading taken away from me.

 

[Krinku]

Bartimaues trilogy.
Vaguely alternate-universal, if this universe had magicians that could summon genies. Well, djinn and other spirits.

It's really, really great, very funny, great gloomy atmosphere. A gloomy atmosphere that Bartimaeus laughs at.

Haha! Loved that series, the ending of the series was what I expected...I just didn't like it.

OT: I sugggest the Old Kingdom trilogy by Garth Nix.

 

[mcpop9]

Enders game series. The main character is a heavy presence in an room/space he in and has major impacts on the story and the reader. Amazing series.
Fantasy/steam punk behemoth and leviathan same series cant remember the author or series names sadly. (imagine ww1.5 mixed with steam punk.) loved the stories and detail to the creations.

 

[TheRocketeer]

The mention of Redwall always brings a smile to my face. I'll always cherish those books.

 

[Watchmacallit]

Look up Brent Weeks:
The Night Angel Trilogy and his new book 'The Black Prism'

Matthew Reilly's Books: All Great

Dragon Master Trilogy

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

Anything by Terry Pratchett.

The Dresden Files.

The Earthsea Trilogy, and much of Le Guin's work in general.

The Indigo series (up to Troika, that is; the last three left something to be desired).

Anything by Jo Clayton.

Anything by Zenna Henderson.

The Temeraire series.

Much of Mary Gentle's work. (Couldn't get into the Ash books, wasn't that impressed with The Architecture of Desire, and haven't been able to get my hands on the Ilario books...but Rats and Gargoyles, the Orthe books, Left To His Own Devices, and Grunts! were awesome.)

Anything by Vonda N. McIntyre (except maybe her tie-ins).

Eyas, by Crawford Killian.

The Children of the Changeling duology (The Waterborn and The Blackgod).

Anything by Charles de Lint.

Most of what I've read by Charles Saunders.

Most of what I've read by Mike Resnick.

Anything by Alan Dean Foster.

Anything by Meredith Ann Pierce.

Just about anything by Jack Vance.

Tales from the Flat Earth.