A Resolution and a Plea for Help

[ultranos]

One thing I'd like to do this year is get back to doing things I really enjoyed when I was younger. I started writing for pleasure beyond LARPs, and rediscovered how much I enjoy it and why I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning just typing away on Notepad on the old 1992 Dell machine in my room when I was in high school. (Which is why this journal now exists.)

One other trend I dislike is how much my reading novels has decreased. When I was younger, I'd take out 8 novels from the library and be begging my mother to take me back to get more by the middle of Week Two. Nowadays, I'm lucky if I finish one novel in a month. And I really hate that.

My brother must be psychic, because for Christmas, he got me a gift card to Barnes and Nobel (he's awesome like that). I also got a gift card to Borders, because I'm an equal-opportunity consumer whore in terms of bookstores. Alas, I cannot fling myself at the shelves, and thus must be a little more judicious in my choosing of how to use these gift cards.

So, Obi-wan Flist, you're my only hope. Are there any books out there that are OMG-get-thee-to-a-bookstore-you-must-read-this-RIGHT-NOW? I have to admit to a certain fondness right now for science-fiction and fantasy, specifically:

• post-apocalyptic
  
• urban fantasy (world of magic coinciding with Real World. Examples: Neverwhere and American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon R Green)
  
• "science fantasy" (magic and spaceships)
  
• near-future cybertech
  
• actually, anything cybertech, information tech, etc (from Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson to Matrix-esque type stories)
  

but, I'll take recommendations for almost anything. Really. I'm desperate.

Comments

[kihou.livejournal.com]

For near-future cybertechishness, Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge.

For urban fantasy, Charles de Lint, maybe Dreams Underfoot (which is a short story anthology) or Memory and Dream. Or, for more hardcore/less artsy, the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

[windstar127.livejournal.com]

well, i'm on a romantic fantasy kick myself right now, so that's not too helpful. the boy, on the other hand, has been reading the chauntur series by cherryh, about spacefaring cat people, which seems to be pretty cools. there's always the vatta's war series by elisabeth moon (military scifi, with a conspiracy plot attached). pattern recognition was also pretty good (by the guy who wrote neuromancer). my reading habits have gone down the drain since i found the new shiny crack, unfortunately.

[beanpot.livejournal.com]

JPOD and Microserfs by Douglas Coupland are both fantastic. Not what I tend to read but they were rather awesome.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Have you read Robin Hobb? (fantasy, not Sci-Fi, but some of the best IMO) (Farseer trilogy followed by the Liveship trilogy (my favorite. Awesome women! Pirates! Sea Serpents!) followed by, um, I think the last trilogy is the Fool trilogy or something like))

Otherwise, um, eh, I've been off Sci-Fi and Fantasy for a bit now. If you want to try regular fiction I HIGHLY recommend anything by Pat Barker - especially Regeneration/The Eye in the Door/The Ghost Road.

Have you read Jane Yolen? Robin McKinley? They both do fun, twisted things with Fairy Tales.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Hm. I read some de Lint BITD. I totally forgot about him.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Yes, I blame shiny crack on my deteriorating reading habits too. I think you mentioned Moon before to me, but with my leaky-sieve memory for some things, who knows?
Thanks.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'll have to check them both out. Thanks!

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

I used to love Yolen when I was a kid. I guess I loss track that she didn't just write young adults' fiction. *facepalm*

You know, I looked at the Farseer trilogy and thought "hmm...", but never actually picked it up. Plus, you said pirates, so I think I must check this author out. :)

Other fiction is good! It's just that I, um, well, get slightly intimidated looking at the regular fiction section because I don't know what I like and I'm afraid of picking up something that sucks.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

You know, I looked at the Farseer trilogy and thought "hmm...", but never actually picked it up. Plus, you said pirates, so I think I must check this author out. :)

I LOVE her writing and she creates a very vivid world with detailed characters.
There's three trilogies in the series and each trilogy can stand alone, technically, though the third one really does follow off the first. The second trilogy (the one with pirates) stands alone the best (and is my favorite), but I think you're slightly better off reading them in order. That said if you start with the first and don't like it, I'd recommend giving the second a try anyway.

(so start with the "Farseer" trilogy which all has "Assassin" in the title and then go to "Liveship" which is all "Ship" something and then Fool which is all titled "Fool" something).

It's just that I, um, well, get slightly intimidated looking at the regular fiction section because I don't know what I like and I'm afraid of picking up something that sucks.

*nods* That's why I go off recommendations and when I find an author I like, I binge.

[seborn.livejournal.com]

==kihou on Vinge.

Urban fantasy: War for the Oaks by Emma Bull. Anything by Bull, really.
Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch trilogy.
I'm not sure if Charlie Stross's Atrocity Archive counts as urban fantasy, but it's totally in eye-poking distance. I liked Toast (short stories) by him for cybertech etc. more, though.

Cybertech etc.: Axiomatic by Greg Egan, more short stories. Not his novels so much, but I hear his later ones are better.
When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger. It's not information tech, it's noir cyberpunk.

Almost anything: I am seriously digging the Ash four-book series by Mary Gentle right now, first book A Secret History. Yes, you must read them in order. 15th century female mercenary captain, interspersed with email between modern historians talking about her, starts off in the normal universe and then things start going weird about two-thirds through the first book.
Also Glen Cook's new series, first book Tyranny of the Night, politics, war, and spying in medieval Europe with the serial numbers filed off and more weirdshit. And if you haven't read any of his Black Company series you should.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Okay, you're the second person who has told me to read Ash, so I suppose I should, namespace collisions be damned. :)

Hm. That series by Cook sounds interesting. And, um, I don't recall if I've read anything by him before. *shame*

[seborn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I also forgot Revelation Space and the rest of the trilogy by Alastair Reynolds. Near-ubiquitous cyberware, dead alien civilizations, gothic horror, later books mucking about with physics and hive minds, good times. The first book does start off slow, but it picks up quickly.

[baniszew.livejournal.com]

You've probably already heard of most of the SF/fantasy I've read recently, but you may not have heard of Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. It's a fun book, and as a former Catholic school girl, you would probably appreciate it even more than I did.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

It's a fun book, and as a former Catholic school girl, you would probably appreciate it even more than I did.

*snicker*

I guess I'll have to check it out.