Favorite Books (excluding Rowlings and Tolkien works)

[DragonV2.0]

The Eragon books

Enders Game (really recommend this one)

The hitchhikes guide to the galaxy - you never know when earth will be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass so better read up on how to hitchhike, i always have my towel ready

 

[SckizoBoy]

For some reason Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman really gets to me, I just love that book and nearly everything about it.

Oooo... have you seen the TV series (with Laura Fraser)? It's pretty wacky, and the book was based on it (still written by Neil Gaiman) since the series didn't get any particularly good reviews. I like both, though.

The title says it all. Aside from the obvious Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings books, what are some of your favorite books and why?

Any particular reason for that exclusion/restriction? I only ask because I don't think that many people (by proportion, that is) in the Escapist actually consider those two series to be their favourite.

Anyway... OT:

Cornelius Ryan - A Bridge Too Far, way better than the film, but that's to be expected.
Alexandre Dumas pere - le Comte de Monte Cristo, can't describe how I feel about this book, so I won't bother.
Raymond E Feist - Magician, best high fantasy book I've read, and not much is going to change my opinion on that.
Titus Livius Patavinus - Ab Urbe Condita (aka Ad Urbano Conditae) Books XXI-XXX, uh... no comment!
Robin Hobb - the Tawny Man, the trilogy that wraps up the Six Duchies saga and finally, a happy ending.
& most stuff by David Gemmell (RIP)

James Patterson and John Sandford stuff. i'm getting a rather coffee-style aquired taste for their tropes.

Though like coffee, I think it's had longterm side effects. A couple of years of reading those and I now pretty much am convinced that I'm surrounded at all times by mastermind serial killers and that the modern police are the most helpless and bumbling institution in society.

LOL... I went through a phase of reading everything by James Paterson I could find... then went for about six months thinking 'how can I kill you? how can I kill you?!' ... -_-

 

[GamerAddict7796]

Discworld specifically the Vimes storyline.
The Jerusalem Man trilogy
The Hitchhiker's trilogy in 4 parts
Ben Elton books

 

[Beat14]

1984-The pivotal moment and the ending really got to me

A Crystal Age-I can't think how to explain without spoiling, I don't think this is a book for many though

Brave New World-

The Chrysalids-My kind of story, on the run.

 

[Jandau]

Some of my favorites have already been listed (like the Foundation series and the ASOIAF), so I'll skip those, but to add some:

Dresden Files series
Miles Vorkosigan series
Kingslayer Chronicle series
The First Law series
Almost anything by Larry Niven
The Chronicles of Amber series

Also, for some reason I have a soft spot for Warhammer books (both fantasy and 40k), from which I can recommend:

Ciaphas Cain series
Eisenhorn series
Ravenor series
Malus Darkblade series

And yes, I happen to love long running book sagas (except Wheel of Time, that's just painful)...

EDIT: I almost forgot - Book of the New Sun series, if one can get past all the mindfuckery...

 

[twaddle]

Some of my favorites have already been listed (like the Foundation series), so I'll skip those, but to add some:

Dresden Files series
Miles Vorkosigan series
Kingslayer Chronicle series
The First Law series
Almost anything by Larry Niven
The Chronicles of Amber series

Also, for some reason I have a soft spot for Warhammer books (both fantasy and 40k), from which I can recommend:

Ciaphas Cain series
Eisenhorn series
Ravenor series
Malus Darkblade series

And yes, I happen to love long running book sagas (except Wheel of Time, that's just painful)...

I personally just finished my first dresden files book, Turn Coat, and it was the best book i have read in years.

 

[knight steel]

Hmmm well twilight and fifty shades are decent reads if you can get past all the crap that surrounds the good stuff ^_^
captcha: downward slope, are trying to tell me something captcha?

 

[Jandau]

I personally just finished my first dresden files book, Turn Coat, and it was the best book i have read in years.

Not sure I would recommend starting that far into the series, but if you could keep up then I'm glad. I love Butcher's writing style, especially his excellent pacing. I suggest you look up the rest of the series, though the first two books are not quite so good as he was still finding his footing. Also, his Codex Alera series is not bad if you decide you'd like to see some of his non-Dresden work.

 

[Harlemura]

I really like all the Skulduggery Pleasant books. They're like humour, crime and shooting fireballs at deranged magicians trying to destroy the universe all rolled up into one book series. I wish that last one was actually a genre.

I used to like the Artemis Fowl books too, but I went back to read them recently and couldn't even get halfway through the first one. Might be worth a look though.

 

[Gabanuka]

One of the best young adult fantasies ever written.


By this I mean the whole series not just the first (5th books the best)

 

[putowtin]

The Princess Bride

what? it's a classic!

 

[Ryan Hughes]

I can't really say "favorite," but Georg Trakl's poetry is simply amazing, he was heavily influenced by E.A. Poe and Beaudelaire.

I have been reading The Known World by Edward P. Jones lately, a great read, but still not as good as his earlier Lost in the City. Also, George MacDonald's poetry has really been mesmerizing, he was probably the biggest single influence on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. His poem My Two Geniuses about his struggle with opium addiction that was prescribed for his tuberculosis is fantastic.

 

[ENCC1701c]

REMOVED /10char

 

[Yopaz]

The Wheel of Time. Seriously, read those books. The best series I know.

The world is just so massive, Robert Jordan really did a great job with the politics, the environments, the different characters and their stories.
It gets slow at time, but it's totally worth it to read to the end. A Memory of Light was a really satisfying book and I feel it got the ending it deserved.

 

[J Tyran]

A recommendation for my fellow 40k novel fans, Check out The Macharian Crusade trilogy. One of the great historical figures in the 40k universe Lord Commander Solar Macharius. The trilogy focuses on his Crusade, the largest since the founding of the Imperium which conquered a thousand new worlds in seven years. Its awesome stuff, shame its only a trilogy really.

 

[Random berk]

I quite enjoy Clive Cussler's novels. The NUMA and Oregon files stories. Kind of old school adventure stuff. They are all pretty much the same though, so you wouldn't want to overdo it.

Something that I would definitely recommend are the Emperor and Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden. Emperor is about the life of Julius Caesar, while Conqueror is about Genghis Khan and his dynasty. They can get a little dry in places but for the most part they make for fantastic reading.

 

[DelphiSantano]

Pretty much anything by Fiona McIntosh, I picked up one of her first books by sheer chance soon after it came out and have been hooked on everything she's written ever since.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I personally just finished my first dresden files book, Turn Coat, and it was the best book i have read in years.

What the what? You randomly decided to pick up Dresden Files and started on book eleven? Why on earth?

I'd tell you to start over at the beginning but you've gone and spoilered yourself senseless.

Does anyone really consider Tolkien's work to be their favorite? He did some amazing world building and indelibly left his mark on modern fantasy but a good writer he was not.

That's unnecessarily churlish. I don't personally consider myself a fan of his style, but the man was an accomplished writer.

Current favorite authors are Joe Abercrombie and Patrick Rothfuss, with the standard boring nod to George R.R. Martin if he can ever get his series out of the ditch he's driven it into.

 

[Shadowfaze]

Oh, so many choices! Discworld, obviously (Men at Arms remains my favourite) but also Tad Williams' novels, from The "Dragonbone Chair" and beyond. Also, you cant go wrong with Edgar Allen Poe, HP Lovecraft, or Ramsey Campbll if that genre floats your boat.

 

[Mayamellissa]

The Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun. Wonderful books.