Looking for different books.

[Specterbane]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

OP answered, close thread.

Actually I can't see why no one put in Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo, and the entire Three Musketeers series are some of my favorite books and I've got a similar background to the OP. Come on people, enjoy some classics.

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by Specterbane

Actually I can't see why no one put in Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo, and the entire Three Musketeers series are some of my favorite books and I've got a similar background to the OP. Come on people, enjoy some classics.

Walker can enjoy your boring, dumb classics after he enjoys the perfect magic that is every Terry Pratchett book (except the Granny Weatherwax ones).

[Grimpond]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

Walker can enjoy your boring, dumb classics after he enjoys the perfect magic that is every Terry Pratchett book (except the Granny Weatherwax ones).

[Token]

Originally Posted by Grimpond

Why the hell isn't Terry Pratchett up there?! The man forged his own damn sword!!!!!

Out of a fucking meteor. That needs to be stated.

[Satan's Onion]

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

Walker can enjoy your boring, dumb classics after he enjoys the perfect magic that is every Terry Pratchett book (except the Granny Weatherwax ones), especially the Watch novels and Monstrous Regiment. (The Death novels aren't bad either.)

Just thought that needed a bit of fixing. You can thank me later.

Anyway, Pratchett and Vonnegut are more or less perfect--Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is considered a classic for a damn reason--but I notice a distinct lack of Douglas Adams in this thread, and I aim to correct that. Almost everything he's done is wonderful (in before Fifth's "except Mostly Harmless, fuck that book right in the ear, man". Not that Fifth's wrong about that; it's not Adams' best work.). I'm not all the way done with Dune, but so far Frank Herbert's done a hell of a job of world-building that I think is generally worth checking out. Also, if you're looking for something a bit less "genre", you could do worse than Sinclair Lewis; his Elmer Gantry in particular I found to be compelling work.

[mauve]

Walker can enjoy your boring, dumb classics after he enjoys the perfect magic that is every Terry Pratchett book (except the Granny Weatherwax ones).

The Count of Monte Cristo is wrongly persecuted as a spy, sent to prison for five years, escapes by faking death, then spends the rest of his life actively working to ruin the lives of those who sent him to prison in any way possible, through financial, psychological, emotional, and judicial means. He discovers a sizable fortune and uses it to befriend and influence those around his victims, inadvertently ruining the lives of the woman he loves and the man who should have been his son. After achieving vengeance, he feels slightly bad about it, then gives a bunch of money to some friends, thinks "welp, that's enough to counter my evil deeds!" and then sails away on a yacht with his hot new girlfriend. It's badass. The classics are generally badass (except Wuthering Heights. Screw Wuthering Heights). Hell, Jane Eyre ends with Jane's love interest having his hand burned off and his eyes singed into blindness by the psychopathic pyromaniac wife he's been hiding in the attic for years. They're not all tea parties and adorable orphans and dances with Mr. Darcy, you know.

[DarkDrgon]

Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar novels are awesome. you should go out and get Magician now. I think it's only available split into 2 volumes now, but he wrote so much that they still feel like whole books.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

You're also missing anything written by Dan Abnett, specifically the stuff he's written for the 40k verse, along with a host of other 40k titles.

You should look in to that.

[RickZarber]

Well, I know you're asking for new genres, buuuut... if you're big on fantasy, you should definitely check out the works of Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie. They're two of my favorite authors who've debuted this past decade.

In fact, both of them have short stories in a recent anthology: Swords and Dark Magic. I highly recommend it if you're looking for new stuff; I've found so many authors I've got to look into after reading it.

And Scott Lynch's story, In the Stacks, is worth the price of the book alone. It's about a living library, where the staff motto is RETRIEVE. RETURN. SURVIVE. And it's got monsters called vocabuvores!

Here's an exerpt the author put online."Aspirant d’Courin, what is a grimoire?”

“Well, she began, seemingly taken aback by the simplicity of the question. “As you said, a magician’s personal reference. Details of spells, and experiments—“

“A catalog of a magician’s private obsessions,” said Molnar.

“I suppose, sir.”

“More private than any diary, every page stained with a sorcerer’s hidden character, their inner demons, their wildest ambitions. Some magicians produce collections, others produce only a single book, but nearly all of them produce something before they die. Chances are the four of you will produce something, in your time. Some of you have certainly begun them by now.

“Grimoires,” continued Molnar, “are firsthand witnesses to every triumph and every shame of their creators. They are left in laboratories, stored haphazardly next to untold powers, exposed to magical materials and energies for years. Their pages are saturated with arcane dust and residue, as well as deliberate sorceries. They are magical artifacts, uniquely infused with what can only be called the divine madness of individuals such as yourselves. They evolve, as many magical artifacts do, a faint quasi-intelligence. A distinct sort of low cunning that your run-of-the mill chair or rock or library book does not possess.

“Individually, this characteristic is harmless. But when you take powerful grimoires, from the hands and minds of powerful magicians, and you store them together by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, by the millions…”

This last word was almost shouted, and Molnar’s arms were raised to the ceiling again, for dramatic effect. This speech had lost the dry tones of lecture and acquired the dark passion of theatrical oration. Whatever Master Molnar might have thought of the aspirants entrusted to his care, he was clearly a believer in his work.

“You need thick walls,” he said, slowly. “Thick walls, and rough Librarians to guard them."

[Arhra]

Originally Posted by Grimpond

Why the hell isn't Terry Pratchett up there?! The man forged his own damn sword!!!!!

You're all forgetting an important detail about Sir Terry Pratchett.

Y'see, the reason he forged a sword for himself (out of ore he refined himself, I should add!) is after getting knighted, he decided a knight needs a sword.

And now you have all of the story.

So go read all of his stories.