Favorite Books

[Talos]

I enjoyed it more than any other books set in actual renaissance Italy. The fantasy ersatz approximation was far more engaging, even more so than the Gentlemen Bastards setting, which is saying something.

[Korwin]

Some of my favorite books are the Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny.
World of Tiers by Philip Jose Farmer.
Various William S Burroughs books, The Place of Dead Roads being my favorite of his.

Stanislaw Lem is also great, I'd recommend reading " The Invincible"

[Xryon]

You might be my new favorite person... I've never had anyone know what the hell I was talking about, with regards to "Amber."

[Korwin]

Yes Xryon! The Amber series is quite a masterpiece of fantasy/sci-fi blended with excellent mechanics of parallel realities. A cutthroat family of nobles fighting each other in subtle sometimes -not so subtle- way for control over the "one true reality" which casts forth an infinite number of -shadows-(is what the nobles call them, to us they would seem as an infinite number of worlds). An interesting catch is that most whom travel between the infinite shadows are of the royal bloodline. Often using others realms with a total disregard for life.

Sprinkled in an very uniquely designed frame of reference also lands that appear such as; Earth, Camelot, lewis carrol's wonderland. But most of these play small roles in the greater sceme of things.
Highly recommended!

[Terageld]

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

I'm necroposting but I don't care. I picked up this book last week and it's way good.

[Yemin]

Recently finished "The shadow of what was lost" by James Islington and its a good throw back to Robert Jordan's Wheel of time for people that want to feel nostalgic but still want to read something new. Bonus points if you can spot the camio character from WoT in the book.

For audiobook people... I actually picked it up without reading the review purely because Michael Cramer was the narrator lol.

[Svenrick]

I'm no cleric, but I'll cast Raise Dead on this thread and say:

Thank you all for these contributions!

As someone who is somewhat of a tightwad on what they spend their limited funds on: It is always a bit of a gamble to buy new books for me because sometimes they're unacceptably expensive for something that has an interesting blurb, but once you take it home and push through it you discover mediocre plot or that the book doesn't click with you for a variety of other reason.

Luckily I'm quite loved by the old lady that runs the book store in our town so she always gives me discounts whenever I purchase something from there. Last time she needed a hand with some heavy lifting around the store I ended up being sent home with a bundle of Jack London books alongside some assorted Sci-Fi and Fantasy as per her insistence.

I'll pick up as many of these as I can, but I'm always looking for more reading material.

Its a bit off-topic, but as a special treat for those that enjoy fantasy metal and Robert Jordan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ts8cPScXM

Blind Guardian also has an album entitled Nightfall in Middle Earth that covers the events of The Silmarillion.

[Terageld]

We might as well continue this thread.
I recently finished the book The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. It's a science fiction tale about a Jesuit mission to another planet. This is a book that will leave you moved and scarred. I recommend it to everyone.

[Larethiel]

I once read the "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela. My god, it was such an intense and thoroughly educative read, fully recommendable.

[Ungtar]

Asking me to name my favorite books is like asking me to pick which one of my kids gets to eat.

Best I can do is tell what I'm reading right now, which is "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Love dead writers. The deader the better.

[Algon]

Love dead writers. The deader the better.

Ever read Twilight? A think a dead writer could have done a better job. XD

[Danik]

I really liked Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore, and I also waiting impatiently for the next book in Orson Scott Card's Gatemage trilogy.

[Ungtar]

Love dead writers. The deader the better.

Ever read Twilight? A think a dead writer could have done a better job. XD

Heh. I like dead writers because their work has stood the test of time, not just the New York Times bestseller list.

[Svenrick]

Ever read Twilight? A think a dead writer could have done a better job. XD

It took me longer to get this joke than I'd like to admit.

[Algon]

I have recently started dipping back into the horror genre. Usually happens every Halloween, I will pick a book or two and see if I can get a few good heart pumping moments out of them. I Just yesterday finished 'Hell House' by Richard Matheson. Really a wonderful book for just an over all creepy haunted house vibe.

I stared 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z. Danielewski today. Not really far into it yet, but its definitely strange enough to keep my attention.

Also, just a bag fan in general of just about anything Fantasy and Sci-fi. My son was recently assigned a book report on 'Ender's Game' and I got far too excited to have someone to talk to about the book afterwards lol.

[Yemin]

Book report on Ender's game? Yeesh... school wasn't nearly that fun for me

Just finished Dark lord of Dirkholm by Diana wynne Jones. It has a very silly Xanth fairly tale feel to it that if you liked reading Alice in wonderland you'll probably like this. Its ... not quite as Crystal meth fueled nuts but still good stuff.

[Aishe]

Just finished Dark lord of Dirkholm by Diana wynne Jones.

Love this. In this same vein of humor laced fantasy I highly reccomend Another Day Another Dungeon by Greg Costikyan and Split Heirs by Lawrence Watt-Evans and Esther Friesner.

[Eechi]

A series of books I've enjoyed the past couple of years is called Malazan Book of the Fallen. It's a huge world with many different story lines happening all at once. The writer does a good job at laying out the world but leaves you wondering about many things.

It's also a very dark epic fantasy type read. So if your into rainbows and puppies this is not the one for you!

[Lylena]

Dragonlance is very good as an introduction to fantasy before going into fr.

This sums up my introduction to reading. Despite playing a text based RPG for as long as I have, reading has always been one of those into it or not things, so I haven't exactly read much. I did read probably a quarter of what's been published for Dragonlance, though, and have the itch to pick up some of the ones I haven't gotten to yet for backstory, what have you. I'm pretty sure I read all of the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, but it was so long ago I don't remember. I remember Queen of the Damned being a far better read than it was a movie, but that can be said about most books turned movies? The Giver is my number one all time favorite book.

Its a bit off-topic, but as a special treat for those that enjoy fantasy metal and Robert Jordan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ts8cPScXM

Blind Guardian also has an album entitled Nightfall in Middle Earth that covers the events of The Silmarillion.

I couldn't get into Wheel of Time (FORGIVE ME), but Blind Guardian's whole At the Edge of Time is an amazing album. Nightfall in Middle Earth is also pretty amazing. The opening to the album gives me CHILLS each time. They also have And Then There Was Silence from their A Night at the Opera album which is a nod to the Iliad. They're overall an amazing power metal band and a good show, to boot. They're also currently touring in the states, which they haven't done in...oh man, since '08, '09? Worth it.

[Maetha]

My favorite book will always be Bram Stoker's Dracula. Beyond that, I have a love for vampires and the occult- save the horrifying abomination that is Twilight- I've read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles (up to the 7th book, which our school library didn't have- when I read them), And of course, I grew up with Harry Potter being released every other year, so I read all of it. Another series I enjoyed was the Stone of Light by Christian Jacq- a really awesome drama / softcore porn novella series set back in "Ancient Egypt." As a note, the softcore porn joke there is more of a warning than anything else- don't let your kids read them if you don't want them seeing some things.

Other than that, nowadays I prefer to read religious texts and indie stuff. My copy of the Tao-te Ching gets breezed through fairly often- but most of the reading I do nowadays is fanfiction because I've lost a lot of my interest in (loathing to sound like a hipster) mainstream things. People always recommend the Sword of Truth series to me, but the writing in it put me off- the same way I can't handle reading Tolkien or R.R. Martin's overly lengthy and lacking in action books.