MatchBook: Paul Constant's Book Recommendations
Tell Paul what you feel like reading next, what books or authors you like/dislike and whether you want to stretch your horizons. He'll tell you what to read next. Paul will also have occasional special guests to take your questions about books, writing or whatever interests you. If you have recommendations, feel free to jump in and give them too.
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Good, smart Sci-Fi Fantasy summer read?I have the next month as summer vacation from grad school and I'm looking for some good quality escapism. I like sci-fi and fantasy stuff, and would love to discover a new author. In the past few years I have read and enjoyed Neal Stephenson (loved Anathem, was eh on Diamond Age), Sherri Tepper, David Brin (but didn't love), Kate Elliot (Jaran more than the endless epic fantasy), Dan Simmons (especially the Hyperion series), Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, I adore Ursula K Le Guin's entire bibliography, and Madeline L'Engle. Past guilty pleasures have included The Outlander series, Harry Potter, and the dragony stuff by Paolini. Would love your suggestions Paul! (and others!)
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21 Answers
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Anything by China Mieville! I just finished Kraken, and loved it. I also liked his trilogy that started with Perdido Street Station.
If you like Sherri Tepper, you might also like Connie Willis. Bellweather is funny and smart. The Doomsday Book was good, and Blackout is kind of a sequel to that, with All Clear due to come out this fall.
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Try Garth Nix's trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen)--it's one of my very favorite fantasy series. I second the vote for China Mieville, but his stuff is quite dark and he doesn't pull any punches on his characters, so it might not be the perfect light and summery reading material. I have also recently enjoyed In The Night Garden and In The Cities of Coin and Spice, by Catherine M. Valente. Charles de Lint is another fun fantasy author, but I would recommend his short story collections over his novels.
MLP, the Pullman trilogy is "His Dark Materials": The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.
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The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe. Not light, but some of the best writing in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
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You might check-out:
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Miller. I read it a few years ago and enjoyed it. It's a fun book about fairies fleeing to NY and messing the with lives of some troubled New Yorkers.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. If you enjoy Harry Potter you will love this. It is like a Dickensian novel with magic. Sort of an imagined history of England where magic, sprites and other creatures are a reality.
The Belgariad Series by David Eddings. An oldie but goodie. I read these when I was in high-school and re-read them a few years ago. They are great fantasy novels in the Lord of the Rings tradition.
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Have you read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead? Check those out.
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I mostly read science fiction, but recently was turned on to the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. It's great stuff - everyone that I know, even non-fantasy readers (like myself) - love it. Everyone in my house read all four books this spring! Do it. Do it now.
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I'll second "Hunger Games". Great books (2) and the 3rd comes out this fall. Easy to read.
You might also want to try Cherie Priest's "Boneshaker"
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Hunger Games! Pullman Trilogy, the name of which I can't remember for some reason.
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My latest foray is into Jacqueline Carey's work, starting with "Kushiel's Dart." Amazing fantasy mixed with an alternate history involving myth, religion, sexuality, and political intrigue that rivals anything I have ever read before. It seems to be set around the eleventh century in Europe but later novels include travels into Asia and Africa. There is enough magic to keep it interesting and nearly believable.
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if you havent already read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, do it now. do it yesterday. American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Mort by Terry Pratchett, Vurt by Jeff Noon ( PLEASE! its out of print, i'm campaigning for it to come back!
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I'm currently blowing through Naomi Novik's Temeraire series-- it's like if Jane Austen, Patrick O'Brian, and Anne McCaffrey wrote a series about dragons as part of the British naval forces in the Napoleonic wars.
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Dune and it's sequels by Frank Herbert
Anything by William Gibson, but especially Nueromancer and Iduru.
If you're in to steampunk, Boneshaker by Seattle author Cherie Priest is pretty great; it's set in an alt-history 1871 where the Civil War is still going on and Seattle is infested with zombies.
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Tad Williams! I don't think I've read anything of his that I didn't love. Some of it is slow to start, but holy crap, once you really get into it, he writes some good stuff. The Otherland series is a prime example - the first book starts slowly, but by the end of the series, you'll be very sorry it's over.
I loved The War of the Flowers, the Memory Sorrow and Thorn series, Tailchaser's Song. I'm withholding judgement on Shadowmarch just yet - again, I find that it starts slowly.
Greg Bear is one of my favorites, but that's definitely SF, not fantasy. Darwin's Radio is one of my all-time favorite books.
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I recently discovered Charles Stross and really enjoy his stuff. "Saturn's Children" and "Glasshouse" most of all. The Merchant Princes series is good but not really great.
Have you read Elizabeth Moon? She's done some really good scifi and her fantasy trilogy (The Deed of Paksenarrian) is one of the best ever.
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Can anyone suggest some lighter Sci-Fi for a teen to read? They have a week or two of summer left.
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The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi - Fantastic, disturbing near-future sci-fi. Gene mutations and spread of genetically modified food that bears diseases that taint 'natural' crops has left the world in a famine, while rising sea levels have destroyed most coastal cities. Bangkok, however, due to massive engineering and successful wars between Thailand and it's neighbors, survives in a surreal animal power driven nightmarish state, and the machinations and plottings of some expatriate corporate types with a need to get their hands on the imperial seed bank drive the plot for the most part. The windup girl of the title, Emiko, is a Japanese creation abandoned after her owner left her in the city, and her 'life' has become a nightmare. Questions of civil rights for artificial life are hard to look at in a novel where humans suffer this much, but miraculously, Emiko's struggles are as agonizing, if not more so, as the humans she was created to obey.
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I'll further endorse the suggestions for China Mieville, and also add the Age of Unreason series by J. Gregory Keyes, starting with Newton's Cannon. You might also give Vernor Vinge a whirl, particularly Rainbows End.
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I heartily second the Gene Wolfe recommendation. Phenomenal, original sci-fi. Also - Phillip Pullman is amazing and has drawn the ire of evangelicals and Catholics alike (plus his characters and stories are preternaturally engaging, despite being categorized as "young adult fiction")!
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Jack L. Chalker's "River of the Dancing Gods" series is light but thoughtful fantasy. His "Wonderland Gambit" trilogy is a fast read that provokes some existential debate and is more sci-fi.
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Agreed on Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, the footnotes especially were a nicely added touch.
Also, if you haven't read it yet, check out Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Not normally a sci-fi author, but the book is outstanding (I hear they're adapting it into a film now).
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Varley and Meluch
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