Comments on: Galaxion reader-recommended books!

By: emilyrln

emilyrln — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:30:01 +0000

I would also recommend Terry Brooks’s Landover series, which recently got a sixth book, “A Princess of Landover,” which I have yet to read! Anything by Timothy Zahn is guaranteed to be thrilling, but my particular favorites are “Angel Mass” and “The Icarus Hunt.” I just reread Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series (eight books), which is fantastic—a nice blend of science and fantasy. Anything by Diana Wynne-Jones (favorites “Dark Lord of Derkholm”/”Year of the Griffin” and the Dalemark Quartet). Tamora Pierce’s various Tortall and Circle series are excellent. Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy is alternately dark and bright, and brilliantly scripted (as is Tim Curry’s reading from Audible; Nix’s Keys to the Kingdom books are very entertaining, if lighter fare; I haven’t finished the Dark Tower series). C J Cherryh writes excellent psychological science fiction and fantasy (my favorites are “Wave Without a Shore,” the Faded Sun Trilogy, and the Foreigner series, although it’s very hard to choose). Ursula LeGuin, of course! Larry Niven (“Mote in God’s Eye”/”Gripping Hand,” “Lucifer’s Hammer”), Jack L Chalker (the Well of Souls series is great), Arthur C Clarke. “Friday” is probably my favorite Heinlein book so far Neil Gaiman (“Good Omens,” with Terry Pratchett, is epically hysterical, and “Coraline” is wonderfully eerie), Terry Pratchett himself (Discworld, anyone?).
Nonfiction: Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel” (environmental factors in the success of certain populations throughout history); “Ecology of Fear,” by Mike Davis (the catastrophic impact of dangerous environmental policy in 90s Los Angeles); “Heat Wave” by Eric Klinenberg (investigating the underlying social causes and factors of the Chicago heat wave disaster of 1995); “Does God Play Dice?” by Ian Stewart (a straightforward explanation of the mathematics of chaos, chance, and determinism).

By: Andrew Crisp

Andrew Crisp — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:06:36 +0000

Allow me to submit “Permanence” by Karl Schroeder for your consideration. Not only is it by a fellow Canuck, but it was his attempt to, quote: “Drag the Space Opera kicking and screaming into the 21st Century” end quote. Very good reading!

Also: for nonfiction, I heartily recommend “A Short History of (Nearly) Everything” by Bill Bryson.

By: Prestwick

Prestwick — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 02:24:14 +0000

You didn’t include Flashman! *shakes fist*

By: TheDagda

TheDagda — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:01:22 +0000

I’m not sure how into AltHistory SF you might be, but Eric Flint has a wonderful selection of stuff

I particularly recommend everything starting with “1632″

Also I see the Dresden Files was already mentioned. You cannot go wrong with that series.

By: Prestwick

Prestwick — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 06:34:00 +0000

Anything by George Macdonald Fraser such as the Flashman series. Epic Victorian anti-hero Sir Harry Flashman VC telling it how it was back in the 19th century. Theres about 7 or 8 books but the first one “Flashman” where the young Flashman describes the British debacle in Afghanistan circa 1842.

The others “Royal Flash”, “Flash for Freedom” and so on are absolutely fantastic. The man appears in more or less every event in the Victorian era from the charge of the light brigade to Custer’s Last Stand to the Indian Mutiny. Its written like a first hand account and every book is so well researched its had many historians fooled.

They’re all a great read, seriously go check them out.

By: IllvilJa

IllvilJa — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:35:31 +0000

Among the Sci-Fi books I personally find H.G Wells ‘War of the Worlds’ to be one of the best. In spite of being written in the 19th century it has a remarkably modern feel to it in many ways.

Also, John Wyndham’s ‘The Kraken Wakes’ is also a good piece of apocalyptic Sci-Fi.

(Then tons of other books pop up in my head… )

By: James Smith

James Smith — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:20:59 +0000

I amazed that Children of Chaos was on the list. Somehow I felt it might be overlooked or ignored for some reason.

By: Tara

Tara — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 03:18:14 +0000

Thank you, Fabian! It’s been a looooong time since I read either The Little Prince or Momo, and I think you have inspired me to find my old copies and read them again. The Fania Fenelon book sounds seriously intense! And the Human Colonies in Space sounds very interesting indeed.

I also added Jaspe Fforde to the list, since I noticed I neglected to add him there before. I read Shades of Grey last month, loved it, and am now listening to an audiobook version with an excellent narrator.

By: Fabian

Fabian — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:18:53 +0000

The two most important books I ever read happens to be suitable also to children or youths.
The short one first;

The little prince / by Antoine de Saint Exupéry.

And the longer next;

Momo / by Michael Ende

also with the title “The grey gentlemen”, and in it’s original language “Momo oder Die seltsame Geschichte von den Zeit-Dieben und von dem Kind, das den Menschen die gestohlene Zeit zurückbrachte”.

And the most intense and vibrant part of prose I ever read is the first chapter of a book about the holocaust writhen by a survivor and a ghost writher, and with a title translated from swedish;

The woman’s orchestra / by Fénelon, Fania (and Routier, Marcelle)

The title in it’s original language “Sursis pour l’orchestre”

As for space exploration, I find this book intriguing;

O’Neill, Gerard K. (1977). The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. New York: William Morrow & Company. ISBN 0962237906.

By: NickPheas

NickPheas — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:02:51 +0000

I liked Nights Dawn a lot, though PFH’s latest series (The * Void) is dragging something rotten.