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Shaura wrote:And now I can't remember if this was mentioned, but the Swords of Truth series looks to be quite good. I've only read Wizard's First Rule so far, but it was VERY good. And the villain was sooooo creepy AND was blonde haired/blue-eyed. (striking, since I SWEAR that 99.9% of all villains are portrayed as having dark hair and eyes)

Does that make me the villianous type too?

Mark wrote:

Shaura wrote:And now I can't remember if this was mentioned, but the Swords of Truth series looks to be quite good. I've only read Wizard's First Rule so far, but it was VERY good. And the villain was sooooo creepy AND was blonde haired/blue-eyed. (striking, since I SWEAR that 99.9% of all villains are portrayed as having dark hair and eyes)

Does that make me the villianous type too?

You don't look evil in the admiral's uniform (that IS you in your av right?).

Anyway, I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I love Isaac Asimov's novels. Especially Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun. I had another favorite, but I can't remember the title. Or the author. I think Asimov wrote it.

Anyone mention The Caine Mutiny yet?

Anything H.P. Lovecraft, R.E. Howard, or Edgar R. Burroughs.
Dune
Das Boot
After I was finally able to break into it, Lord of the Rings.
Old Man and the Sea
Mysterious Island
Anything Louis L'amour
Anabasis
Iliad
Harold Lambs historical biographies.
A.D. Fosters Humanx Commonwealth (just gotta love Flinx)
The Wolfen (the only book to actually scare me)

Vic wrote:Anything H.P. Lovecraft, R.E. Howard, or Edgar R. Burroughs.

Dude, do you have a sister?

Vic wrote:Iliad

If you haven't read back to the first page or so, I highly recommend the late Sir Richmond Lattimore's English translation. He is able to translate into easily-read English without disturbing either the meter or the metaphor of Homer's Hellenic Greek - in part by using untranslated names (Achilleus rather than Achilles, Aias instead of Ajax, etc.) Plus, his analysis is very insightful.

Sorry Mike, only child. Those three authors will have a special place in my heart as they are the first to introduce me to fantasy as a genre. I do remember your reference to the Iliad and Lattimore's translation. I'll be damned if I can remember who translated the edition I read, of course it was the early 80's and High School for me.

Vic wrote:Those three authors will have a special place in my heart as they are the first to introduce me to fantasy as a genre.

Have you read any Lord Dunsany? He was a huge influence on Lovecraft's earlier "dream-cycle" stories.

If I remember correctly I tried to read one of his stories and didn't make it through to the end. Of course it could be just like my encounters with LotR, I finally read it through after the latest movie incarnation. Twenty-five or so years puts a different perspective on things, I may find Dunsany to my liking now.

I've recently been reading E.E. Knight's Dragon series. I'm on the second book now, Dragon Avenger. Truly the best Fantasy books I've ever read. I love how he writes the books from the dragon's point-of-view. And, he does some things that you would never expect to see--like having a dragon (a young dragon who does not yet have her wings) ride a horse.

Necroing an old thread...

I' just finished reading 7 out of the 11 books in Terry Goodkinds "sword of truth" series.

Very good read. Althouigh it does have a minor undercurrent of romance going through it which I think is not that well written the fantasticly involved plot, richly built world and amaying battle/war scenes more than make up for it.He portrays a world with typical pre gun powerder warfare (with minor magical influneces) is a very gory manner, battles of tens or hundreds of thousands, with massive casualties and wounds. Very gritty.

I've also just started reading Conn Igguldens Conqueror series about the rise of Gangus Chan. Its an interesting mix of history and fiction, the author is a historian who does a lot of reserch into his work and does his best a following history as it is laid out but writting in it in a story.But healso has no problems changing things that he thinks are not to important to help the flow of the story. Apparently he has an already finished series on Julius Ceasar which i wouldnt mind reading. But apparently that one isnt as good and stays from reality a lot more.

I have something which might interest you guys.
Justin Cronin, the passage.
Vampires in a revamped sense, they DON'T sparkle, no werewolves involved and so recently published even the New Orleans oil spill is referred to.

http://enterthepassage.com/

Well idk if these have been mentioned before but some of my favorite books:

Harry Potter series. My favorite of the 7 books would be The Order of the Phoenix (ironically OotP is my least favorite of the movies to date)

Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale is really good IMO. It's a fantasy adventure centered around Bobby Pendragon who can travel through space and time between 10 distinct Territories and he's fighting a demon-like adversary who is manipulating events on these territories to push it towards chaos and destruction. (i.e. on Earth he attempts to have the destruction of the Hindenburg which would have allowed more intelligence to fall into Nazi hands allowed them to develop the atomic bomb before the United States, according to the story) 10 books in total: the Merchant of Death, The Lost City of Faar, the Never War, The Reality Bug, Black Water, the Rivers of Zaada, The Quillian Games, the Pilgrims of Rayne, Raven Rise, and The Soldiers of Halla.

Inheritance Cycle series. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy the series and am eagerly anticipating the fourth and final book.

Physics of the Impossible by Machio Kaku is a really good read. It's a non-fiction book that examines the physics that could allow for various tech we see in Science Fiction to become a reality.

Okay, it's not a novel per se, but I'll suggest Dangerous Visions; it's an anthology book of some of the best sci-fi authors of the 50's and 60's, and I'm the proud owner of an original copy.

I just finished A Scanner Darkly (again,) and if you don't mind having your head f***ed with a bit I highly recommend it.

I liked the movie; was it anything like the book?