Book recommendations needed

[arwen_lune]

Ah, I just know I'm asking the right people here :-D

I haven't read a whole lot of new books of late, because when I'm busy or stressed familiar books are very comforting. But I'll have time and I'm going 2nd-hand bookshopping, so recommend me something! A few hints:

- I like Pratchett and Tom Holt
- I like Tolkien, but am wary of most of the rest of the genre - so much of 'em seem to be Tolkien lookalikes.
- I like O'Brian
- I don't like Harry Potter at all. The writing irritates me and I didn't care for the characters at all
- In general I have a low tolerance for crappy writing and whiny characters..
- Simon R Green's 'Blue Moon Rising' is one of my very favourite books.

Comments

[sessifet25.livejournal.com]

If you can get it second hand, go for Stroud's Amulet of Samarkand. It's humorous. Nothing mindblowing, but a fun read. The sequel's quite fun as well.

Otherwise I'm coming up with nothing as yet. I shall browse through my book cases and see if I can come up with some more ideas.

[bunnyk.livejournal.com]

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is rather good - a kiddy book, but I like it. Janet Evanovitch writes the Stephanie Plum novels, which are *fun* to read - lighthearted and amusing.

[torn-eledhwen.livejournal.com]

Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence - Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, Silver on the Tree. It's technically a children's fantasy sequence but it's very powerful, well written, and well worth reading.

I'd say any Pratchett you've not read is one to get! I particularly like Monstrous Regiment.

Diana Wynne Jones is another fantasy favourite of mine. Deep Secret is brilliant and funny, riffing cleverly on sci-fi conventions.

Try and get hold of a copy of Captain Johnson's a General History of the Pirates, which I think can also be found under the authorship of Daniel Defoe (though it's been proven fairly conclusively he didn't write it). Brilliant contemporary piratical tales.

[julesjones]

Just in case you don't know - there is a sequel to Blue Moon Rising...

I'm variable with Simon R Green. I love the books set in the Blue Moon universe, and I love the short novels set in what became the Deathstalker universe, but I ran out of patience with the actual Deathstalker books after about the third one. And it's not just the length, because I'm very fond of Shadows Fall, which is also a Big Fat Book.

[chris-lock.livejournal.com]

Clive Barker : Weaveworld
Clive Barker : Imagica

Both epic novels of fantasy and horror. Not in the ssick style of horror but in the mess with your head take you to a completely different universe style. If you read either let me know what you think.

[sessifet25.livejournal.com]

okay, just browsed through many many bookcases :) :

two Dutch authors: Ansen Dibell and Wim Gijssen. A bit of a cross between science fiction and fantasy. (I can really recommend Iskander de Dromendief and the Deirdre trilogy by Wim Gijssen). Chances are they're only available in Dutch though.

If you can find it, buy Hans Bemman's The Stone and the Flute. It's a fantasy tale, nearly fairytale like, but very good.