A friend of mine was talking about the Bourne Identity, and he asked me if I read the book. I told him that I've read it several times, and "If you only ever read one book by Robert Ludlum, read The Bourne Identity."
On my way home from work, I started to think about that phrase, and how many times its been said for various authors. So, here is a short list of "must read" books by certain authors (in no particular order).
*Clears throat*
If you only ever read one book by ..., read ...:
Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity I enjoyed the movie, but the Jason Bourne in the movie is as different to the Jason Bourne in the book as Faramir is in The Two Towers.
Michael Crichton, Timeline Another book made into a movie that didn't match the story in the book. No "accidental wormholes" are discovered. Instead you get a truer sense of science meets fiction.
William Goldman, The Princess Bride Still another book made into a movie, yet I feel that the movie matched the wit of the book. Very fun. Make sure to write to the address in the author's comments to get the part of the story not allowed by "S. Morgenstern's lawers."
Larry Bond, Red Phoenix Fictional account of a possible Second Korean War. I like the way that Larry Bond follows the story around more than one person, and the war on air, land and sea.
Barbara Hambly, Those Who Hunt the Night You'll probably have to get a used copy of this (vampire) mystery, but you'll be glad you did. It's a nice mix of vampire myth and Sherlock Holmes-style of investigative mystery.
What's on your list?
Jim Butcher - The Harry Dresden Series - Possibly one of the best books I've read in my 28 years, and I read a heck of alot.
Raymond Feist - The Riftwar Saga - Begins with Magician:Apprentice
Laura K Hamilton - The Anita Blake Series - A fun Vampire Story
Terry Brooks - The Shannara Series - Interesting fantasy
Jean Auel - Clan of the Cave Bear - an excellent prehistoric series
Orson Scott Card - Enders Game
I'm sure I'll think of more.
R.A. Salvatore - The Crystal Shard
Robert Ludlum - The Bourne Identity
Terry Brooks - Sword of Shannara
Ed McBain - Lightening
Elmore Leonard - Pronto
Carl Hiasson - Stormy Weather
Weis and Hickman - Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Micheal Connolly - Darkness Take my Hand
Dennis Lehane - Mystic River
JC Pollack - Mission MIA
Ian Fleming - From Russia with Love
Stephen Hunter - Dirty White Boys
Robert E Howard - The Thing in the Crypt
Stephen King - The Girl who loved Tom Gordon
That's a pretty impressive list of books, Paul. How did you decide on The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon above all the other Stephen King books? I left King off my list simply because I couldn't pick the "one" that I'd suggest to others.
I picked it Big Jake because it differs from the rest of Stephen King's novels. Although he is a great horror writer(arguably the best) this book was uplifting and showed the triumph of human spirit. It kinda did to me what Braveheart(my fav movie)did, illustrating the fighter and survivor quality born from courage instilled in some people. Damn if you can't admire people like that.
Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana
Barry Hughart, Bridge of Birds
Michael Scott Rohan, The Anvil of Ice
1. Frank Frazetta/James Silke's "Death Dealer: Prisoner of the Horned Helmet". out of print, but worth looking for for fans of dark, gritty fantasy. There's also three sequels which are also very good.
2. Ignorant Armies, edited by Dave Pringle--an old Warhammer shortstory collection. Be sure to check out "Laughter of the Dark Gods," which shows one man's slippery-slope descent into becoming a Chaos Warrior and ultimately a daemon. I think its been reprinted...
3. Eiji Yoshikawa--Musashi. A semi-fictional account of the life of the legendary Japanese swordsman. If you're feeling really adventurous, try reading Yoshikawa's "Taiko"--but keep a scorecard handy, because the characters in the book change names frequently (as most everyone in Japan did at that point in history).
4. PJ O'Rourke--Parlaiment of Whores. A must read for anyone interested in humor and the US government. Famous for the line, "Giving money and power to the federal government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
5. Theodore Schick Jr.--Why People Believe Weird Things. How to be logical in an age of ignorance. Read up on the Forer effect (do a Google search for this one; its useful in games and in real life)
6. Koushun Takami--Battle Royale. The infamous book about a class of Japanese high-school students kidnapped, taken to an island, and forced to kill each other. There is a movie based on the book, but you won't find it in the US (it's not banned; the Japanese studio that owns it wants a big-marquee US release, which US distributors have thus far refused. Thus, no movie). It's easier to find in book format online on various book-shopping sites. This book is frickin' awesome; I read the whole thing in one sitting.
Robert Howard "Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors". Another out-of-printer, but worth finding. Forget Conan (though he does make an appearance in this tome), this collection of short stories is a dark fantasy approach to the Cthulhu Mythos. I loved it.
Raymond E Feist - Fairy Tale - Modern story with fairy tale elements, an excellent read for d20 modern players.
Orson Scott Card - Nor Crystal Tears - an alien race encounters humans.
R.A. Salvatore - The Crystal Shard
Robert Ludlum - The Bourne Identity
Terry Brooks - Sword of Shannara
Ed McBain - Lightening
Elmore Leonard - Pronto
Carl Hiasson - Stormy Weather
Weis and Hickman - Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Micheal Connolly - Darkness Take my Hand
Dennis Lehane - Mystic River
JC Pollack - Mission MIA
Ian Fleming - From Russia with Love
Stephen Hunter - Dirty White Boys
Robert E Howard - The Thing in the Crypt
Stephen King - The Girl who loved Tom Gordon
...and oh yeah,
Thomas Harris - Red Dragon
JD Salinger - Catcher in the Rye
Lorenzo Carcaterra - Sleepers
Nicholas Pileggi - Wiseguys
That's Mitch Pileggi, Vic.
My bad, sheesh, how in the world could I mistake Card for Foster. Must go and flog myself.
Card did do Homebody though right?...
And let's not exclude series...
Glen Cook - The Black Company series.
Barbra Hambly - The Darwath Trilogy.
Larel K. Hamilton - someone already mentioned the Anita Blake series.
Larry Niven - Known Space series (including the Ringworld books)
James Blish - Cities in Flight (might be out of print)
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neat topic! Hmmmm....
Terry Pratchett: Small Gods (there are better Diskworld books (like 'Reaper Man' or 'Feet Of Clay'), but this is the one I recommend to my friends to get them hooked on the series)
Carl Hiaason: Tourist Season
Harlan Ellison: I No Mouth and I Must Scream
Christopher Moore: Lamb; the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Bill Fitzhugh: Pest Control
Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere (although American Gods was beyond excellent, as well)
Douglas Adams: the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (almost goes without saying)
Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars
H. Rider Haggard: King Solomon's Mines
Paul Kidd: White Plume Mountain
Tony Hillerman: Dance Hall of the Dead
Sherman Alexi: Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven
Wow... nice to see this thread up again.
I gotta give my two cents in for the Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series. Those were the first Sci-fi books I ever read, and they really opened my mind to the genre.
Later, the Gor books by John Norman seemed to follow in the same direction... but not. I remember reading the first book in the Gor series, and thinking... this is just like John Carter of Mars... but longer... and not as good.
And another kudos to the Darwath trilogy. I love Barbara Hambly's fantasty books. Ever since I saw a mage with a can of beer, I was hooked on the "crossing worlds" thing, and I've put it in many of my D&D campaigns. It's even better now, mixing 3.5 with d20 Modern.
Just a few of my favorites ...
Niven-Pournelle -- The Mote In God's Eye
Marion Zimmer Bradley -- Lythande (anthology)
Robert Heinlein -- Stranger In A Strange Land
Michael Crichton -- Congo
Alan Dean Foster -- Splinter of the Mind's Eye (Star Wars as it should have been).
Isaac Asimov -- Foundation
Arthur Conan Doyle -- A Scandal In Bohemia
Dashielle Hammett -- The Maltese Falcon
Vonda N. McIntyre -- Dreamsnake
Fritz Leiber -- Swords of Lanhkmar
Mmm.... favorite books and authors:
Kurt Vonnegut - God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Herman Hesse - Siddhartha
George R.R. Martin - Storm of Swords (Song of Ice and Fire series)
Neil Gaiman - Sandman Vol. 7, "Brief Lives"
Albert Camus - The Stranger
Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves
MIchael Chabon - The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay
Richard Bach - Illusions
Isaac Asimov - Foundation (trilogy)
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
Brian Green - The Elegant Universe (nonfiction)
Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet
John Knowles - A Seperate Peace
Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan (Ghormengast trilogy)
Douglas Adams - The Hitckhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I could probably go on, but this is enough for now....
What a tragic idea, to only read one book by any of these people... but I'll weigh in, never the less:
Michael Chrichton - Jurassic Park
Larry Niven - Footfall (his best collaboration, absolutely IMHO)
Robert Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (I did love Stranger in a Strange Land, but it's not representative of his other work... so I went with the one I'd recommend to others)
Ann McAffrey - Dragonflight
Stephen R Donaldson - Lord Foul's Bane
Stephen King - the Stand
Great topic!
Michael Moorcock - Elric Series!
Douglas Adams - The Hitckhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit (although I take all of his books as a single, huge volume - which it is...)
Frank Herbert - Dune
Alan Dean Foster -- Splinter of the Mind's Eye
Piers Anthony - On A Pale Horse (all of the Incarnations of Immortality series, actually)
I wish I had the inclination and the schedule to read more of the gamer/fantasy/sci-fi classics (Moorcock, Salvatore, Niven, et.al)
Larry Niven - Footfall (his best collaboration, absolutely IMHO)
I'm a big fan of Footfall, too. Gotta love an invasion of Elephant people. In fact, techno-thriller writer Tom Clancy also counts it as one of his favorite sci-fi books.
But I'm sticking to my guns: The Mote in God's Eye was a landmark novel.
Zack Slone-"?????"
Not to self promote to much but hopefully my own books once I start to writting full-length novels.
I'm a big fan of Footfall, too. Gotta love an invasion of Elephant people. In fact, techno-thriller writer Tom Clancy also counts it as one of his favorite sci-fi books.
But I'm sticking to my guns: The Mote in God's Eye was a landmark novel.
Those little alien gremlins in "Mote" frightened the heck out of me! Sheesh! I didn't know Clancy read SciFi...
Did you ever read Frederik Pohl? The HeeChee books were excellent.
But I have even more:
Tim Powers - The Anubis Gates
Dean Koontz - The Watchers (great guy; does signings in Anaheim for almost every new book)
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Caleb Carr - The Alienist
Piers Anthony - Juxtaposition
Fritz Lieber - Ill Met in Lankhmar
By the way, I just discovered a Robert Heinlein book at the store which claims to be his 'long lost first novel': "For Us the Living". I've never heard of it, so I picked it up. Anybody read it?
Chief Technical Officer
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I just discovered a Robert Heinlein book at the store which claims to be his 'long lost first novel': "For Us the Living". I've never heard of it, so I picked it up. Anybody read it?
I haven't, but John Pelan reviewed it in Amazing 603. He gave it two stars out of five, and ultimately recommends it primarily as a "literary curiosity for the Heinlein fan."
-Vic.
.
Orson Scott Card - Enders Game
Man, I had to read that book in class! English ten for anyone who wants to know.
Neil Peart - Traveling Music - Good for anyone who likes music.
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life The Universe and Everything, So long and Thanks for the Fish - The trilogy of four, and has been a good read so far! (Okay, I'm only into the first one so far, but I have been told by countless people that it is an awesome book
J.R.R. Tolkein - The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. Probably the best books ever written.
I haven't, but John Pelan reviewed it in Amazing 603. He gave it two stars out of five, and ultimately recommends it primarily as a "literary curiosity for the Heinlein fan."
-Vic.
.
Vic,
I finally opened the book and read it over three days. I'd say 2 stars is pretty accurate. I do cut RAH some slack since it was his first book and all. But, I enjoyed it very much as a literary curiosity, and learned a lot, I think, about the author for having read it.If you were ever forced in philosophy class to read one of those stories in which the characters argue in order to prove the author's point, then you have a good idea what this book is like.
I think the most interesting parts were the Forward nad Afterword.
I don't see them anywhere in these posts, so:
The Stand by Stephen King (all time fav, there).
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.
The short story "Rite of Blood" by Ellaine Cunningham (actually, anything written by her).
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin.
Not the whole list, but a few that aren't here so far...
By the way, Red Phoenix is also on my list, Big Jake.
LG
The Stand by Stephen King (all time fav, there).
.....
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.
Hmmmmm, The Stand has its moments to be sure. The hungry Wolves on the abandoned mountain highway never failed to give me the shivers.
But when it comes to King, I'll stick with "The Gunslinger," the first in the Dark Tower series. Zombies in the basement and a weird rail ride in the dark. Creepy, creepy stufff.
My wife, who is a King fanatic, may well have other ideas.
"Ivanhoe" by Scott. Gotta agree. Gots lotsa yum.
I'll add my thoughts... why not? But I don't think I could ever pick just ONE book. So, "If you could only read one STACK of books, read..."
Lyonesse series (Suldrin's Garden, The Green Pearl, Madouc) by Raymond E. Feist.
Riftwar Saga also by Feist
The Wheel of Time series... ongoing... by Robert Jordan (I'm puzzled why nobody has mentioned him. Is it not cool to like Jordan's work or something?)
The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit by Tokien
Dragonlance series by Weis and Hickman
The Death Gate Cycle series again by Weis and Hickman (I think)
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
Anything by H.P. Lovecraft
Weaveworld and Imajica by Clive Barker
The Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks
Geez, so many more I'd throw onto this stack, but I think those are the best.
Hey guys, for those of you that have read the "Discworld" series by Terry Pratchett, can you please answer this question for me; If you have never read the Discworld series, can you read the Discworld stories first, (The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, and The Wee Free Men) and still have them make sense to you? Please, please tell me if you know, because I don't want to read all of the 25 plus books if I don't need too.
Lyonesse series (Suldrin's Garden, The Green Pearl, Madouc) by Raymond E. Feist.
Oops! This one is actually by Jack Vance. Must have been sleepy or something.
The Wheel of Time series... ongoing... by Robert Jordan (I'm puzzled why nobody has mentioned him. Is it not cool to like Jordan's work or something?)
The thing about Robert Jordan, IMHO, is he's created (as you know) this fabulously rich, engaging world filled with a compelling premise: the last battle between good and evil is just on the horizon and one young man with fantastic powers has been deemed to be the savior of the world.
Jordan goes a long way to reward careful readers, and he works hard at resolving continuity problems -- a daunting task considering the series is zeroing in on 12 books.
Yet, as much as I've enjoyed the series, I'm not sure I'd rank his writing in the same tier as those I've mentioned. The story is now moving at a glacial pace (probably deliberately so), and a lot of the characters with POV seem to be set pieces to move the plot, rather than be interesting in themselves.
Frankly, one of the reasons I like the series is because Randland makes a rich arena for roleplaying.
But I think I'll wait and see how the story resolves before I place in my favorites. The novels don't stand on their own very well. It's one long story, and until I know the end, it's hard to judge it.
The Wheel of Time series... ongoing... by Robert Jordan (I'm puzzled why nobody has mentioned him. Is it not cool to like Jordan's work or something?)
The thing about Robert Jordan, IMHO, is he's created (as you know) this fabulously rich, engaging world filled with a compelling premise: the last battle between good and evil is just on the horizon and one young man with fantastic powers has been deemed to be the savior of the world.
Jordan goes a long way to reward careful readers, and he works hard at resolving continuity problems -- a daunting task considering the series is zeroing in on 12 books.
Yet, as much as I've enjoyed the series, I'm not sure I'd rank his writing in the same tier as those I've mentioned. The story is now moving at a glacial pace (probably deliberately so), and a lot of the characters with POV seem to be set pieces to move the plot, rather than be interesting in themselves.
Frankly, one of the reasons I like the series is because Randland makes a rich arena for roleplaying.
But I think I'll wait and see how the story resolves before I place in my favorites. The novels don't stand on their own very well. It's one long story, and until I know the end, it's hard to judge it.
All of this is true. I hope he doesn't keel over and die before he finishes!
Hey guys, for those of you that have read the "Discworld" series by Terry Pratchett, can you please answer this question for me; If you have never read the Discworld series, can you read the Discworld stories first, (The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, and The Wee Free Men) and still have them make sense to you? Please, please tell me if you know, because I don't want to read all of the 25 plus books if I don't need too.
Maurice was the 1st TP book I ever read and I was completely hooked. (it's not a discworld book and aimed initially at children). I then decided to start more or less at the beginning of the series of the discworld books and work my way through them. I have a three foot pile (horizontal) now in the bathroom (is this in any way familiar to you?). small gods was recommended to me and I am presently enjoying soul music. although each book is entire in itself, the references make more sense when read in generally the correct order I would have thought.
funnily enough these books are greatly appreciated all over the world although to my mind there is a lot of humour that I would have thought would only be *got* by the british.
definitely read Maurice, I know you will enjoy!
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My 0.02
Tad Williams - The War of the Flowers
Stephen King - The Wastelands, Dark Tower III
Robert R McCammon - The Wolf's Hour
Brian Lumley - The Necroscope Series
Mark Scott Zicree - The Magic Time Series (think Urban Arcana origins)
Nancy A. Collins - Midnight Blue: The Sonja Blue Collection
Frank Herbert - Dune
Sherri S Tepper - A Plague of Angels
SP Somtow - The Riverrun Trilogy
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials Trilogy
Neil Gaiman - American Gods/Neverwhere
Dean Koontz - Frankenstein (interesting new take on the classic)
Clive Barker - Imajica
Dan Simmons - Summer of Night
Roald Dahl - James and the Giant Peach
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince
Peter S. Beagle - The Last Unicorn
Mark Helprin - Winter's Tale
Peter Straub - Ghost Story
That's a good start anyways!
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Frank Herbert - Destination Void, also his Dune books, and practically anything he wrote.
JRR Tolkien - Middle Earth books.
Brian Lumley - Necroscope series, Dreamlands series.
E.R.Burroughs - the Mars books.
Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Alexander Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo.
H.G. Wells - The War of the Worlds.
C.S. Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia.
Robert E. Howard - Conan stories.
Stephen King - The Dark Tower Series, also Salem's Lot has got to be one of the best vampire story I have ever read.
Bram Stoker - Dracula.
John Gardner - Grendel.
Piers Anthony - Incarnations of Immortality.
Neil Gaiman - American Gods, Anansi Boys (I just read this one).
Weis and Hickman - Original Dragonlance Trilogy.
Salvatore - Icewind Dale Trilogy.
Wilson Rawls - Where the Red Fern Grows.
Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye.
Anything by Poe or Lovecraft.
That's all I can think of for now.
A few of my favourite things...
Stephen King-Rose Madder
John Grisham-A Time to Kill
Terry Pratchett-Everything he has ever written
Lovecraft-Polaris
Greg Bear-Eon
There are many more, I just cant think of them all!
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Stephen King - The Dark Tower series, and also Insomnia and Dead Zone
Steven Erikson - The Malazan Book of the Fallen series: it's directly injecting happiness into your brain
JRR Tolkien-Silmarillion: yes, I know it's hard to follow if you don't read the others first, and just in general, but I really loved it
Lovecraft - The Colour Out of Space: It's just creepy fun
Eiji Yoshikawa - Musashi: Great samurai tale
Terry Goodkind - Temple of the Winds: Won't make much sense without reading the others first, but it would still be pretty good
George RR Martin - A Game of Thrones: I suggest this one mainly because it doesn't have the amount of bloody dismemberments as the others
Frank Herbert - Dune
RA Salvatore - Crystal Shard, Stream of Silver, Halfling's Gem, and the Sellswords trilogy
Terry Brooks - Everything
Timothy Zahn - Everything Star Wars
Sam Shepard - Everything
Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora
I'll put up more later, when I remember.
Haruki Murakami- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (A really long book that I never wanted to end)
H.P. Lovecraft- Shadow Over Innsmouth and Rats in the Walls (two because they're short stories; Shadow Over Innsmouth is the only horror story with a chase scene that got me excited)
Mike Mignola- Hellboy: Strange Places (Graphic novel, reveals where his Hand of Doom is from; some of the most beautiful comic art I've ever seen), alternate, The Amazing Screw-On Head
Jean Paul Sartre- No Exit (A play, but you can read it anyways)
Camus- The Plague (The Stranger changed my life, but The Plague is an allegory meant to encourage the French to resist the Nazi occupation, so it wins)
Chris Ware- Jimmy Corrigan (graphic novel; hard to read, but extremely beautiful)
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Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash.
While Cryptonomicon is actually my favorite novel, Snow Crash absolutely redefined the cyberpunk genre.
Like Gibson, but with the necessary sense of humor (very black), ridiculous violence and ancient Sumerian myth. Granted since it was written in 1992 some of the technology is beginning to show it's age but not nearly so much as others in the genre.
I can't claim to have read nearly as many sci-fi/fantasy books as many of the other posters, but I would recommend three less-well-known books by one absolutely FANTASTIC author from Arizona, titled: BRIDGE OF BIRDS, THE STORY OF THE STONE, & EIGHT SKILLED GENTLEMEN. Though probably now out of print, these books are set in a fictitious yet historically sound ancient China, and abound with action, adventure, mystery, and hillarity. Prepare for three incredible tales of a humble, naive, and extremely strong peasant as he travels the lengths of ancient China with a sage with a slight flaw in his character. Trust me. Read 'em!!!
I imagine it might help if I mentioned the author of the three books I've just praised to high heaven. The author's name is Barry Hughart.
