Joseph Campbell - The Power of Myth
Hell yeah. Awesome stuff. If you can find the PBS Bill Moyer interview, I'd recommend watching that too.
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So hard, only picking one book per author:
David Weber: Path of the Fury
Garth Nix: Sabriel
Elizabeth Moon: Deed of Paksenarrion
Robin McKinley: Sunshine
Barbara Hambley: Sorcerer's Ward (I think this was released as 'Stranger at the Wedding' in the USA)
Tanya Huff: Valor's Choice
Dave Duncan: Shadow
Sheri S Tepper: Blood Heritage
Timothy Zahn: Icarus Hunt (not a Star Wars novel)
Larry Niven - Footfall (his best collaboration, absolutely IMHO)
Better than Lucifer's Hammer?
Come, now...
I would argue The Mote In God's Eye beats them both.
I'm with Erik on this one.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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Stephen Lawhead - Byzantium
I haven't read any of his Historical Fiction, but Empyrion is one of my all time favourite books.
Is his Historical stuff better than his Sci-Fi stuff?Dream Thief was pretty good, but it was nowhere near the level of Empyrion (imho).
I have always thought about picking up either the Pendragon Cycle or The Dragon King Trilogy, but never got around to it.
Stephen Lawhead - ByzantiumI haven't read any of his Historical Fiction, but Empyrion is one of my all time favourite books.
Is his Historical stuff better than his Sci-Fi stuff?
Dream Thief was pretty good, but it was nowhere near the level of Empyrion (imho).
I have always thought about picking up either the Pendragon Cycle or The Dragon King Trilogy, but never got around to it.
Byzantium is fantastic, take my word for it..
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash.
One of the best first chapter's EVER. I remember reading the first chapter in an issue of Pyramid Magazine by Steve Jackson. They thought enough of it to publish it in it's entirety. I don't normally read fiction in game mags, but it looked mildly interesting so I read it and was so blown away I rushed out to buy the book.
The following was posted by Steve Greer (Contributor), Wed, Jun 8, 2005, 09:05 PM, talking about Robert Jordan.
All of this is true. I hope he doesn't keel over and die before he finishes!
Hmmm.
So hard, only picking one book per author:
David Weber: Path of the Fury
Garth Nix: Sabriel
Elizabeth Moon: Deed of Paksenarrion
Robin McKinley: Sunshine
Barbara Hambley: Sorcerer's Ward (I think this was released as 'Stranger at the Wedding' in the USA)
Tanya Huff: Valor's Choice
Dave Duncan: Shadow
Sheri S Tepper: Blood Heritage
Timothy Zahn: Icarus Hunt (not a Star Wars novel)
Cool... Garth Nix makes the list! I've been reading his Keys to the Kingdom series, which I thoroughly enjoy. I have heard good things about Sabriel, but I have not read it yet.
I like your Barabara Hambly pick, too. She was one of my favorite authors at one point, and highly influence my D&D games. I loved here Windrose novels and the other "cross-over" (as I call them) novels, the Darwath Trilogy.
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So hard, only picking one book per author:
David Weber: Path of the Fury
<snip>
I'll add David Weber in general. Path of the Fury was re-released as 'In Fury Born' with lots of extra material. However, the Honor Harrington series is probably top of my list. Start with "On Basilisk Station" and go from there. You won't be disappointed.
Cool... Garth Nix makes the list! I've been reading his Keys to the Kingdom series, which I thoroughly enjoy. I have heard good things about Sabriel, but I have not read it yet.
Sabriel is his best work IMO. Get it :)
To add one to the list:
DRAGONDOOM, Dennis McKiernan. Great story.
Robert E. Howard Conan the Bucaneer
That wasn't one of Howard's was it?
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Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana
Barry Hughart, Bridge of Birds
Michael Scott Rohan, The Anvil of Ice
Wow! Another Barry Hughart fan? I know BoB won an award, and is maybe more accessible for new readers, but I read Hughart's The Story of the Stone first and it blew me away. I was going through some serious depression at the time, and for some reason that was the only book that could cheer me up. It kind of shocked me back into myself while letting me forget my troubles. I also own Eight Skilled Gentlemen. That inspector Li series kept getting better and better. Too bad he never finished it. I see your point in picking Bridge of Birds, but for boldness and audacity I'd say Hughart's later books are better.
A contribution:
RAYMOND CHANDLER: Farewell, My Lovely
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Well here goes:
Lovecraft - Shadow Over Innsmouth (sorry IMO beats out Call and Dunwich)
Poe - Masque of the red Death
Guy Gavriel Kay - Lions of Al-Rassan
REH - The one with Bel and the pirates (I just can't remember the name of that one)
Douglas Adams - Hitchiker's Guide (that was a pretty obvious one)
Carl Sagan - Cosmos
Bernard Cornwell - The Last Kingdom
Asimov - Nightfall
Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle - Legacy of Hereot
Arthur C. Clarke - Six Billion Names of God
Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
LeGuin - The Lathe of Heaven
Neil Postman - Technopoly
Albert Camus - The Plague
Solshenitsyn - One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich
Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim
Arthur Miller - The Crucible
Dr. Seuss - The Loracs
I love the idea of this game!
Only one book can be quite difficult to pick, especially when trying to parse it out from a fabulous series. Well, I'll try my smegging darndest!
And I'll try to avoid the most obvious ones (yeah, everybody already knows that Frank Herbert's "Dune" is brilliant, but have you ever read "The Godmakers"?)
Roger Zelazny - "Lord of Light"
Ursula LeGuin - "Planet of Exile"
Clive Barker - "Abarat"
Fritz Leiber - "Swords and Deviltry"
Peter S. Beagle - "The Last Unicorn"
Julian May - "The Many-Colored Land"
Steven Brust - "Jhereg"
Emma Bull - "Bone Dance"
Neil Gaiman - "American Gods"
Brian Lumley - "Necroscope"
Kim Newman - "Anno Dracula"
Sergei Lukyanenko - "Nightwatch"
Michael Moorcock - "A Nomad of the Time Streams"
Bruce Sterling - "Holy Fire" (and follow it immediately by reading:
Tanith Lee - "Biting the Sun")
Matt Ruff - "Set This House in Order"
Neal Stephenson - "Snow Crash"
William Gibson - "Virtual Light"
Philip Kindred Dick - uh, all of them? oh, how about "Dr. Futurity"
William Browning Spencer - "Resume with Monsters" and finally
Howard Philip Lovecraft - "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"
Most of these are on my big list, of books that I will just purchase outright and give away to someone if I come across them cheap in a used bookstore. (I must have bought and given away "The Godmakers" like five times now) Even if I don't have a someone or a someday in mind, I'll just get it and give it away as a random gift i.e. just for the Hell of it.
Consider these now my gift to you...
A lot of great books and authors here. Stephenson, Rosenberg, May (and by the by, I'm with the earlier poster- Mote in God's Eye is a work of collaborative genius) are among my favorites, but I would have to add to the already prodigious list of lists:
Philip Jose Farmer- "to your scattered bodies go"
Somebody did mention Philip K Dick, right?
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H.P. Lovecraft - The Dunwich Horror
China Mieville - Perdido Street Station
Jon Krakauer - Into the Wild
Henry Rollins - Do I Come Here Often?
Douglas Preston / Lincoln Child - Riptide
Jack Vance - the original Dying Earth short stories
William Barton - Down to the Earth Below
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night
Chuck Palahniuk - Choke
Roger Zelazny - Night in the Lonesome October
Neil Stephenson - Zodiac (I know it's not one of his more popular books but it's the book that introduced me to his work and I love it)
Night in the Lonesome October! I absolutely adored that book. Didn't it have illustrations by Gahan Wilson?
Night in the Lonesome October! I absolutely adored that book. Didn't it have illustrations by Gahan Wilson?
Yep!
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Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night
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Oh, Hell Yes! This is most likely the most condensed form of Vonnegut there is. I won't pretend to have read all his books, but I've read most, and this is always the first I reccomend. or rather, depending on the type of person it's either this or Cat's Cradle, but usually this.
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Just in an attempt to contribute something, I'll try not to step on anyone's toes.
Austin Grossman - "Soon I Will be Invincible"
Orson Scott Card - "Maps in a Mirror"
H.P. Lovecraft - "Call of Cthulhu" (yes, you may disagree, but I still think it a good primer to the genre. Plus, Shadow over Innsmouth was already mentioned.)
David Eddings - "The Diamond Throne"
Stephen King - "Eyes of the Dragon"
Terry Pratchett - "Soul Music"
Terry Brooks - "Magic Kingdom For Sale -- SOLD!"
Isaac Asimov - "The Caves of Steel" (Tales of the Black Widowers is also fun, but a little harder to get into. though I do recommend it to my friends who like mysteries)
Piers Anthony - "Refugee" (Bio of a Space Tyrant volume 1. more serious and slightly harder to read then Incarnations of immortaility, but the better book I think.)
Theodore Geisel - The Butter Battle Book (The Lorax was a close second)
L. Ron Hubberd - "Battlefield Earth" (ok, sue me. I liked it.)
Jostein Gaarder - "The Orange Girl" (Sophie's World was better written and The Ringmaster's Daughter had a better story and character development, but this book gets the credit for making me cry every damn time I read it.)
Michael Crighton - "Sphere" (I didn't see it mentioned)
James Clavell - "Shogun" (still my favorite in the series, and what I use to get people hooked)
Margeret Weis and Tracy Hickman - "The Will of the Wanderer" (Rose of the Prophet book 1. still my favorite series by them.)
R.A. Salvatore - "Vector Prime" (yes, it's sad and controversial, but it's also an important milestone in the NJO series)
Marion Zimmer Bradley - "Sword and Sorceress Volume 1" (there are 21 volumes apparently, but I woulds tart with the first. it's a great repository for strong female NPCs)
Raymond E. Feist - "Daughter of the Empire"
Arthur C. Clarke - "Childhood's End"
Robert A. Heinlein - "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls"
It's not a complete list, I have just forgotten some of the more obscure authors I know...maybe I'll do a followup post at some point if I remember them.
Ha. board ate my post the first time. Thak you CTRL+C, CTRL+V!
This is such a great posting - it brings back many fond memories! I will add only a few:
David Weber: On Basilisk Station (because it will make you want to read all of the Honor Harrington Series)
Eric Flinit: 1632
and lastly, one of the greatest novels of all time:
Robert E Howard: The Hour of the Dragon (wherein Conan loses the throne of Aquilonia and must fight to get it back)
Another I forgot to mention.
Stephen King - "The Talisman."
It was written with Peter Straub, but I haven't read any of Straub's other work so I can't rightfully say this one should be chosen of all of them.