Just to let you guys know, I don’t own a TV. I never have. The computer I’m typing this on is an old Tandy 1000 in the office of the local vegan, low-emission co-op that I volunteer at. Don’t worry, we figured out how to power it via granola farts! — after a while, you don’t even feel the tube up your dumper! But I digress, of course you guys know then that I’m a HUGE reader. But I also don’t buy any books new. I barter them for a poem at the local vegan, low-emission used book store. It’s just so much better to pass around knowledge than to be part of the capitalist book publishing monolith, you know? Also, I read the book to a tree so I can feel better about the fact that so many of his brothers and sisters had to die to make said book.
That being said, welcome to the first meeting of SYWH Book Club: Gabbin’ Bout Books! I’ve just put another log in the fire, the chai is on the stove, and we’ve all got our cruelty-free alpaca wool sweaters on so let’s begin, shall we?! Feel free to try one of Sarge’s Famous Slam Scones and sample the ethnic-looking platter that one of our more ethnic members brought!
GPOY
Ok, my medication is wearing off… ‘Sup bros? If you’re like me, there are two kinds of literature: sci-fi and fantasy. Via poor life decisions, even a hobby where you could pull down some glasses-wearing, indie trim by being a “deep book reader,” you have to go and ruin it by only reading books that can use the phrase “…used the gravitational pull of the planet to slingshot into the darkened hemisphere to escape capture” and keep a straight face. But fuck it, right? YOLO n’ shit. So I want to talk to you about some authors/books that I’m crushing on but, more importantly, I want suggestions from you guys about what I can dive into next.
Robert Charles Wilson
If there is one thing that can win me over, it’s awesome premise/world building. You could have super generic characters and as long as you had some crazy shit going on around them, I wouldn’t care. Does not needing to identify with other humans make me a sociopath? That’s for my psychiatrist to figure out (read: throw pills at me until I leave his office). Anyway, Robert Charles Wilson, in my opinion, comes up with some of the coolest scenarios for his books.
Spin
Spin is probaly RCW’s most popular book (it won a Hugo). This book is the prefect example of what I was talking about earlier with the whole “awesome premise, serviceable characters.” Our solar system experiences a cataclysmic event that would have destroyed Earth if not for the appearance of a mysterious Dyson sphere that saves the planet and slows time within the sphere to a crawl. Thousands and thousands of years go by in the rest of the universe and Earth realizes that terraforming -and eventual colonization- of Mars could totally be a thing with the extreme time differential. So humanity starts the whole “let’s colonize Mars and then make them figure out what the fuck is encapsulating our planet and who the shit put it here” story line, ya know… that hackneyed gem.
There is much more to the book than just that but I think that the above paragraph is a pretty good sell for the book. I love settings, premises, scenarios that make my mind kind of run away with hypothetical (in-joke!) explanations for the mysteries laid before you by the author. Wilson does a great job of giving the reader answers to the initial questions without over-explaining it.
There are two sequels: Axis and Vortex (I’ve only read Axis. Vortex, the third book, is in my “to-do” pile). Axis is OK but not nearly as good as Spin. The general consensus seems to be that these two follow-ups are decent but ultimately unnecessary. Absolutely check out Spin, though.
Julian Comstock
Humanity is almost wiped out by something (probably God-damned Jewbama using drone-delivered nukes to try and take our guns away) and is knocked back technologically to about 1850; a dystopian future-past. The book follows the rise to power of a dude named…Julian Comstock who has to overcome an oppressive, corrupt government who keeps its citizens at proletariat Luddites levels of awesomness. Oh, also, what is now the the United States v2.0 is at war with a unified Europa.
Spoiler alert: this book is a liberal wank-fest. But since I’m a dirty liberal, it was right up my alley. The “President” might as well be Regan and Bush Jr.’s steampunk chud baby. Deviant texts from the Before People (like Darwin etc.) are kept locked up and hidden from the commoners lest they start thinking for themselves etc. I don’t know, it’s just kind refreshing to see a sci-fi writer be some normal, middle-to-left-leaning guy and not a crazy pill head, hyper libertarian, or Mormon.
The Expanse series
I like a balance between “hard” and “soft” sci-fi; I don’t really get down with Asimov too often and I also don’t want my sci-fi to be overly cheesy. Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War (the first and second books in The Expanse series) strike this balance perfectly. These books are the closest thing to “popcorn flicks in book form.” They’re just a good time. If your neckbeard doesn’t frazzle at the phrase “space opera,” then you should check these books out.
The books hit all the marks: fragmented, interplanetary civil war, malicious megacorporations, unspeakable horrors from beyond the stars, and unnecessary (but TOTALLY necessary) descriptions of hyperspace travel’s effects on the human body. I think it’s awesome to see a series that doesn’t shit the bed by being too far up its own ass, or going “too epic” via 15 books, or forgetting that you need to ENTERTAIN your reader. These books are one of those good “gateway drugs” for people looking to get into sci-fi, yet they have enough “describing the differences in physiology between people living in different planetary environments” for those of use who wear sweatpants out in public.
The third book is coming out in June so get in on the ground floor now cuz I wouldn’t be surprised if this shit gets optioned for a movie and then you can be all insufferable like the people who watched Firefly when it initially aired.
Lovecraft
I love Lovecraft. Eldritch terrors out of space and time. World-consuming elders oblivious to the trivial, pathetic existence of humanity. Ugh. I eat that. shit. up. There’s just something about the story of a hopelessly doomed human struggling against an indifferent (or not-so-indifferent), other-worldly abomination is relevant to my interests. It’s interesting to kind of look at Lovecraft’s work as if humanity is the antagonist; we’re just getting in the way of shoggoths tryin’ ta shoggoth. Like if every Lovecraft story went on for another page they’d all say something like: “And then humanity was exterminated. You’re nothing. Nihilism.jpg”
Here is where I’ll pose a question to you, dear reader: is there anyone out there who is essentially a modern-day Lovecraft? It would be nice to find a contemporary author who does the weird fiction/horror thing but who is: 1. a little less “hit or miss” with quality and 2. not racist. It’s kind of off-putting to read a passage like this:
“…and it spoke with the Elder Tongue that ushered in the demise of man. Syllables incomprehensible and maddening to the human ear, destroyed the psyche of all within the town …except for the blacks who were saved by their inferior, mongrel intellect.”
So yeah, is anyone hip to the existence of a modern spiritual successor to Lovecraft (minus Mike Mignola)? Also, my favs of his = At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Yours?
Fantasy
I’m leaving this section open to be discussed in the comments. I haven’t really read nearly as much fantasy as I have sci-fi/horror. I think I’m just kind of paralyzed by choice and I don’t really know where to start. I’ve read Tolkien and I’ve read up to what’s currently available for A Song of Ice and Fire, but that’s about the extent of the fantasy I’ve read. Is the Wheel of Time series worth reading? I’m hesitant to devote enough time to a tree trunk’s worth of paper. Are there any other one off’s or series that really stands out as being “grade-A super awesome?” Will any of you read my homoerotic Skyrim /fic?
GPOY
Ok. Well, that wraps up meeting #1 of SYWH’s Best Bros Book Club! I’m off to go copyright my “Shoggoth’s gonna shoggoth” tshirt before fucking Snorg steals it out from under me!
Further Book Club discussion here.
Derp.
Im not sure what any of this means, but i support books 100%.
BRONCONIUS
I recommend the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe. Four books (available as two in most places).
Gene Wolfe is quality writing. I got started on him with the New Sun series. I’m currently reading Soldier of the Mist which is also really good. I’ve found that it helps a lot to jot down some notes as you read Wolfe’s stuff, as it can get a bit confusing.
Noted. Added to list.
Cyclops there. Cyclops there. Turrets. Surveillance does. I hate those…
Wood recommend Wheel of Time/10, provided you have both a year’s free time, and the patience to sit through when Robert Jordan started to ramble in the latter few books. Brandon Sanderson’s big dick cola action sequences are worth the wait though. Like a Matthew Reilly book, but with magic and women.
I’d say Thomas Ligotti could be considered the modern-day Lovecraft because he captures the latter’s essence without being the least bit derivative. He also likes to add Kafka-esque weirdness and passive characters to the mix in order to create freaky and unpleasant narratives based on bizarre premises. English author Ramsey Campbell started out as a Lovecraft fan-boy but managed to develop a unique style that’s mostly about psychological mindfuckery albeit also true to the Lovecraftian notion of parallel realities and unspeakable horrors bubbling just beneath the surface of everyday life.
There’s also a ton of anthologies with authors contributing Lovecraftian short stories out there but I don’t know which ones are good. I remember that Stephen King contributed one of his best short stories titled Crouch End to one such volume. This tale is highly recommended if you haven’t read it already.
Will check out Ligotti.
Did read Crouch End(I think it was also included in Nightmares and Dreamscapes if I’m not mistaken?). Suuuuper creepy and super awesome.
Gonna check those out. Been looking for Lovecraftian stuff that’s not just fanboys.
Stephen King is heavily influenced by Lovecraft, but I could never get into him.
I’d recommend you two start out with Ligotti’s short story (he’s mostly just written short stories anyway) collection Teatro Grottesco, more precisely the three stories in the “Deformations” section – that shit is SICK!
We will never read
’cause books are for the gay
*BREAKDOWN*
can u mosh using BOOKS?
Yes, you can:
“The offing was barred
by a black bank of clouds,
and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth
flowed somber under an overcast sky—
seemed to lead into the
heart of an immense darkness.
BLERGH!!!”
In terms of Sci-Fi, I only ever read the Warhammer 40k ‘Space Wolves’ series. That shit was ignant.
Is that a legit a Lovecraft quote?
Can’t confirm or deny, but I can tell you that a lot of stories feature cults who worship the abominations featured and they are ALWAYS portrayed as savages and they are ALWAYS nonwhites. I can’t remember ever reading anything explicitly racist in his stories, but the dude def drops in hella subtle (and not-so-subtle) digs at other races.
p sure the dude was legitly racist, even if he didn’t mention it explicitly. Still, books smells good doe
as far as a successor, I think Mignola is about as close as it comes, I don’t know of anyone else who does that kind of thing anymore. Has Mignola written any books or short stories or anything or does he just do comics and shit?
He had this weird spin on racism, if i’m not mistaken, that was less of your “redneck style” of just “grrr I hate them lazy porch furbies!” and more along the lines of some fetishistic love of pure anglo saxon heritage a la “white people descended from the area of what became England have the best genes.” Haha still not cool by any means, I just try and do the mental gymnastics to where I can believe that he was just shitty/weird and not shitty/bigot.
That being said, I think that before a certain point in time, most writers, artists, historic figures, etc. if they where white and you asked them “what do you think about them black people?” you’d get a very worrisome answer. Basically, we just have to treat noteworthy people from bygone eras like our “racist grandmother who is bordering on dementia anyway.”
Saw a documentary on Lovecraft’s life a couple of years ago with a lot of focus on his racism. Maybe it was one of these http://www.yog-sothoth.com/threads/23706-Lovecraft-Documentaries-amp-Biopics
yeah, racism was really common then anyway, but his was all about how minorities and even some whites (Anglo-Saxons were the purest) were less pure; in one story there’s something about how the Negroes couldn’t feel the effects of some maddening sound because of their inferior mongrel minds, lol
“his racial attitude was seen as more cultural than biological, showing sympathy to others who assimilated into the western culture and even marrying a Jewish woman whom he viewed as ‘well assimilated’” = lol
Basically, we just have to treat noteworthy people from bygone eras like our “racist grandmother who is bordering on dementia anyway.
This times a million. Saw the gayest argument ever on instagram the other day about whether or not Walt Disney was racist (I’m sure he was), between lulzy followers of the recent disney fanatacism trend and the ever present PC police vegan SJW’s, and I pointed this out only to enrage both sides.
Should not have gotten involved/10
Came here to mention Mignola. He’s written a few books with Christopher Golden. “Baltimore, or the steadfast tin soldier and the vampire” is amazing.
And yeah I own a few lovecraft collections, he sprinkles the N word/Negro in there a couple times. My favorite from him is Either “Cool Air” or “Herbert West: Reanimator”
The Rats In The Walls is a great story and prominently features a cat named “N—– Man”. It’s like when everyone made a big deal about Rick Perry’s hunting camp. Before the ’60′s, the N word wasn’t a taboo and before WWII white supremacy wasn’t demonized. HPL is a product of his time and there are people who will be uncomfortable with that.
Haha it isn’t but it may as well be.
Seconded on the wheel of time. I’m on the 9th book now, and yeah sometimes that ol codger Jordan likes to take his time describing the ever living fuck out of something, but it’s not all the time, not even most of the time and he’s really good at it, so it’s easy to forgive him. If I may commit what some nerds would consider fantasy blasphemy, the guy makes LOTR look like Harry Potter. He’s got a lot of eastern mythology wrapped up in it along with all the classic fantasy elements, so that kind of saves it from being “been there, done that.” Honestly if you’re going to read one fantasy series this one is, in my opinion, the best. At book 9 now and I can’t think of one of them that was somehow sub par or lesser than the others.
Between what you and dudewat said (and from my friends unanimously giving it the seal of approval) I’ll check it out. Really the only deterrent was the sheer size. Not that I’m intimidated by multiple-book series, I just was like “fuck that’s going to be a big time commitment, could I be reading better with my time?”
I was actually pretty disappointed in the Wheel of Time series. I read the first three books and tried to get into the fourth, but couldn’t get past the first few hundred pages. Jordan seems to feel obligated to re-explain every single character at the beginning of each book which literally takes hundreds of pages. The characters themselves are mainly one-dimensional and the relationships/dialogue between male and female characters is juvenile and cringworthy.
There are some really cool ideas and lore in the books. He definitely has had more than one idea of his “borrowed” by other writers/video games. I can’t get past the simplified characters and predictable “twists” in the story. Just my opinion and perhaps it gets better later in the series or maybe I’m just not a fan of his style.
Although it doesn’t quite seem to fit in with the books discussed here, I feel like I should mention the original Dracula by Bram Stoker. I don’t really read books, and I hadn’t read a physical copy of a book out of my own volition outside of school for years before I read that book. It legitimately scared me really badly AND had a a really good story in my opinion. I’m sure this is totally entry level, but it’s worth checking out if you haven’t before.
TL;DR – Go read Dracula.
Haha Dracula seems like required reading. I was into horror way before being into scifi/fantasy via being a white teenage kid from the suburbs so I read it early on. It is a classic for sure. It’s a book that has become more a blueprint than a piece of art, kind of in the way that LOTR is; a foundation for authors to jump off from.
LOL I figured everyone had read Dracula. Guess this REALLY shows how few books I read!
I would suggest every dude find a Robert Howard anthology at his local Barnez and Noblez as his go to book for looking smert at da coffee shop where that ethnic looking girl who talks white and has a bangin’ ass works. Try to find one that doesn’t have an over the top picture of Conan and some hot piece of ass on the cover because then everyone will know you are reading shit-kicking pulp entertainment for men and they will roll their SWPL eyes.
My friend gave me his Savage Tales of Solomon Kane collection book to read and I was really captivated by it. I was never and still am not a fantasy book fan, but I totally got why his writing is still so revered to this day and why his characters are hero archetypes. The only thing that was hard to get over was the overwhelming racism. The part where Solomon and his retarded old Magical Negro are lost in some deep dark African jungle and encounter the Mandingo/Gorilla fight was almost physically painful to get through. Still fun as hell altogether.
“The part where Solomon and his retarded old Magical Negro are lost in some deep dark African jungle”
Late nineteenth/early twentieth century fiction has a lot of really weird underlying racist currents. It’s like Fox news, but for nerds and hipsters.
looool
Robert Howard was descended from Confederate veterans on both sides of his family, it was part and parcel with his background. Guys like him and Jack London were also the first to give credit individual blacks, Indians and Mexicans for achievements as well. It’s all that duality of man shit. His Steve Costigan character is actually my favorite. He’s basically a drunken racist Popeye fighting scrubs in the Far East.
My White Liberal Guilt gets pinged by these old dead mental-illness having dudes like you wouldn’t believe dude.
Dude in a Lovecraft story has a dog named Nigger Man. Upon reading that “I bit my lip, turned to the side, thought “really?” and then carried on.”
It’s a cat if that makes it any better. Lovecraft and Howard corresponded and there’s a Lovecraft story that mentions Conan.
Robert Howard called Lovecraft on his admiration of Mussollni and the fascists after Italy invaded Ethiopia. Underneath the race shit, Howard was fundamentally hated seeing the weak preyed upon by the strong.
dune, by frank herbert. chasin dat sandworm
back tard
Herbert’s always been on the list. I have a bro who is a super big fan. I’ve always just made excuses for whatever reason to find something else to read instead.
one of my fav things about dune is how many fucking hardcore bands are named after things in the book
like literally every good band name that is possible to extract from that book has already been taken
also if you read dune I would suggest avoiding the new books written by his son, they aren’t as good as the originals
IMO the original “Dune” is the only good one, couldn’t get into any of the sequels at all
Yeah, the thing with the sequels is that, if you’re only interested in action and violence, they’re not gonna really appeal to you. They’re much more in the vein of classic sci fi: philosophical and profound. They explore the big questions and ideas that humanity has always struggled with, which puts them right up my alley.
Basically what I’m trying to say is that they’re really gay. I love every one of them (minus the barely fan fic tier bs written by his son of course).
IDK man, I LOVED Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, which is pretty god tier “classic sci fi” as you described it, and like the original Dune, but I really don’t think the sequels live up to the original.
But , you know, thats just like, my opinion, man
Yeah i love the foundation books too, but not like dune. To each his own i suppose.
DUNE!!
I don’t really like sci-fi or fantasy because I just get lost in all the terminology and shit, and find it a bit hard to get over how cheesy a lot of it comes off (this is a problem with me, not the genres, I’m sure).
ADORE Douglas Adams doe, even the later Hitchhiker’s books that go down weird retconning rabbit holes full of Norse mythology.
Douglas Adams = back tard.
My favorite story by Lovecraft is The Rats in the Walls. Great read.
+1
Any books about Emmure?
If Emmure had a song with Lovecraft esque lyrics I could die happy.
“Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn bitch!”
I’M PROBABLY THE YOMAGN’THO YCNAGNNISSSZ
ded
steven baxter is really good if youre into hard sci fi with awesomely detailed happenings. my favorite book of his is the vacuum diagrams. of course its british sci fi so the world/universe ends and everyone dies
in all of his books pretty much
Added to list. Sounds rad.
Michael Moorcock’s Elric series is a must read. Lots of transcending space and time/delaying the inevitable destruction of an alternate earth as part of the eternal cycle that divides the Lords of Chaos and Order. Cool shit.
I’ve been eyeing the Elric series for a bit. I have a friend who has told me good things about it and it sounds awesome. I’ll probably be getting to it sooner rather than later.
ELRIC!!
i love the short stories where the heroes of his various series (multiverse) meet, beeing different incarnations of the ONE TRUE HERO…see u in Tanelorn
I don’t know, it’s just kind refreshing to see a sci-fi writer be some normal, middle-to-left-leaning guy and not a crazy pill head, hyper libertarian, or Mormon.
“According to Heinlein, his desire to write Starship Troopers was sparked by the publication of a newspaper advertisement placed by the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy on April 5, 1958 calling for a unilateral suspension of nuclear weapon testing by the United States.”
lololololol @ someone writing a NOVEL (literally) over being butthurt about his country NOT wanting to nuke all the others
Heinlein was a weird-ass dude. I can’t tell if he was a conservative who didn’t realize he was a hippie or vice versa. So many contradictory beliefs and actions from that dude.
Seriously. It’s like, if you read Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land back-to-back, you’d be like, “is this the same dude?”
I don’t really get down with Asimov too often
This is the most shockingly inconsistent thing I have read in a SYWH post since Sarge wrote his famous “regretcore” post and mentioned that he did not like Blood for Blood. It’s not like its “wrong” per say, and it does not make me mad, just very, very confused. As a SYWHer I completely recognize this is all subjective opinion but I have this irresistible urge to capture you and have a team of scientists study how this opinion came to be
Haha ok, you got me. I don’t really have a good reason to not like Asimov. I think its a (unfounded) conclusion for me that his stuff will just be “blueprint” stuff (like what I mentioned above about Bram Stoker) where their stuff has just been “improved” upon by successors.
Example: Night of the Living Dead: an indisputable classic that inspired generations of filmmakers…who then went on to make much better zombie/horror movies.
So I’m worried that Asimov might just be stuffy old stuff that was “good for its time” but other authors have evolved what he started to make much more entertaining works.
And the thing is I KNOW I’m wrong. I know that if I pick up something of his, I’ll like it. It’s just one of those things when a friend comes up to you and is like “dude you should check this out, you’ll love it” about a band, book, movie, or game or whatever and you’re just like “ok, I’ll get around to it” knowing full well that you won’t, and you just have no real good reason not to.
Tell you what, give me a recommendation for a good entry point and it’ll be my next book to read and I’ll get back on this comment section, or on my Facebook page and be like “I was an idiot.” Deal?
Dunno about the Living Dead example. The better movie(s) were created by Romero himself (Day of The Dead). Because no one realizes that Zombies are a metaphor first and foremost, most everything else since then is just gore porn. The only time it gets good is when movies defy the “standard mythology” and create a whole new set of rules, not just build on the old ones.
As I said in another comment, the Foundation trilogy is brilliant. The thing is, its all political and about ideas and shit, its not really an action sci fi series. But since you are smart and have an attention span I think you’d like it.
And oh god the plot twists = fucking awesome.
Foundation = back tard, get the fuck on it
lol never thought i’d see a book discussion on here. i’m into sci-fi myself, mainly Philip K. Dick books, and not tryin’ to be spammy, but I’ve also written some sci-fi short stories that I think sywh readers might like…
KID HITLER’s TERRORCIDE TEST: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7cXD0HcBVqtT2xWMzVIdVk1eEk
DICK & HEARL DO CAPITALISM: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7cXD0HcBVqtQ20wV0NuM0ZRaTA
and here’s a short story about not being a bitch when you get dumped
A TRAGEDY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7cXD0HcBVqtYm11OWlvNGNqVWc
I’ve also done an interview with sywh alum DEPRESSED TEENAGER if anyone’s interested… http://natefiala.blogspot.com/2013/01/interview-with-depressed-teenager.html
lemme kno wat u think
will check them out!
What I think? This is fucking awesome, good work
Your art has touched me.
like a friendly touch on the shoulder or an unwelcomed touch on the knee?
The Expanse series looks awesome, I’ll have to try that out! My fav sci fi is definitely Asimov, especially Foundation. Love anything sci fi or fantasy that’s well thought out, and especially well-written, since 70% of writers in those genres are complete cheese
Foundation trilogy is fucking brilliant (srs)
Other things that I wanted to talk about but didn’t make the cut cuz I didn’t want the article to go on too long:
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
I Am Legend by Will Smith…I mean Richard Matheson
John Dies at the End by David Wong
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Oh man I was gonna suggest JDATE. Have you read This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude Don’t Touch it? Its the sequel and fucking amazing.
Also would like to suggest my favorite book. House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. That book is a labyrinth. Still haven’t figured out all of its details.
Just started reading John Dies At The End and it is great!
It’s all about r. a. salvatore, favorite fantasy writer by far #defenddrizztdo’urden
I ctrl+f’ed his name before commenting. The Icewind Dale trilogy is fantastic, and all the Drizzt books are addicting as hell, and if you know the Forgotten Realms world it’s an even better read with context. Really all of his Forgotten Realms/Drow related stuff is fantastic. I also loved the Highwayman, never read the rest of that series. Maybe I’ll do that….
Lovecraft’s blatant polemicism on the subject of race 1) is hilarious 2) adds depth to his persona as an eccentric misanthrope. Also being offended by stuff is gay
Pretty sure every sci-fi fan has read this book, but Ender’s Game is fantastic.
I’ve never heard of any of these books, so I’ll be sure to check them out. Another great sci-fi series is The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.
As for Wheel of Time, you know my feelings. I’ve only read up to book 9 because I was waiting for the series to be finished. The last book came out last month, so I’ll begin the last book soon.
Other fantasy series I enjoy that haven’t been mentioned yet: The Dying Earth by Jack Vance and The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. Some single volume fantasy novels that are very good are American Gods by Neil Gaimen and Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.
As for Lovecraft-ian horror/fantasy/whatever, I highly recommend The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker.
“The last book came out last month, so I’ll begin the last book soon”
Ha! You have my thanks sir (and my GFs wrath)! I lost track after the Towers of Midnight came out, and after finishing this post, I’m off to amazon. Love WoT, and wonder if this really is the last book as was promised… So many story lines to finish!
A great series is GRR Martins Game of Thrones. I know it’s a bit hackneyed because of the (IMHO great) HBO series, but it’s well worth reading. The only problem is – like Wheel of Time – the looooong time between the sequels.
Many good books and authors mentioned here, I’ll just add Frederik Pohl’s Gateway series – a really nice mix of hard sci-fi/space opera.
Check out Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Lots of steampunk/fantasy shenanigans with some definite Lovecraftian influence.
not really a hard sci fi guy, but i like snow crash and neuromancer. big fan of phillip k. dick though , thoughts on a scanner darkly or do androids dream of atomic sleep?
Blade Runner is better than ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’ IMO. And the movie adaptation of ‘A Scanner Darkly’ has a slight tweek to the end that makes it a lot more coherent. I’m a huge fan of PKD, but he usually tried to cram too much into each book. For instance, Blade Runner was a lot more coherent without all the religion stuff. But, sometimes it does work out. Personal favorites / suggestions are: Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Elderitch, A Maze of Death, and three books known as the VALIS trillogy: VALIS, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer and The Divine Invasion. I would suggest books written later in his career, but that may just be me.
Do you mean later later? Cuz he has a couple books of realistic fiction taking place in San Francisco that I actually really like. I prefer his sci-fi stuff though, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, The Man in the High Castle, all super sick stuff back tard
Stephen King for candidate as next Lovecraft (as someone mentions about SK, cites Howard as one of his influences). Just like all Lovecraft tales bang the same drum of protagonist driven mad by the unknowable evils of unknowableness, Stephen King has a fetish for taking a group of friends… and just killing off a few of them.
Also, +1 for GRRM’s Song of Fire and Ice series (aka Game of Thronez). I’d like to try to argue that he writes engaging fiction that focuses on engaging characters with believable ambitions, wrapped in a fantasy mythos grounded heavily in historical fact for heightened believability, and a knack for plot twists that eschew traditional cliches to truly keep the reader on their toes.
The real of it is that he writes Twilight/50 Shades for dudes and describes food, clothing, and peasant murder. A LOT.
Backed on Stephen King. I think a lot of people ignore him because he’s become such a household name. Dude has been pumping out quality books for +30 years and is a fantastic writer. I also feel like he’s done some of his best work in the last ten (possibly by having more creative control now). ‘Duma Key’ is fucking amazing and the old classic ‘The Stand’ is one of the best books of any genre I have ever read.
Def a great writer and I dig just about everything he’s written, but I don’t know about “the next Lovecraft.” Seems his style/choice of monsters n shit is just a little different.
Also are there any Stephen King movies that aren’t complete shit? None come to mind at the moment, which is a real shame, his books could make great movies
and I have commented way too many times on this post. dammit jorbam, writing about things I like!
Carrie, The Shining, Stand By Me, Running Man, Misery, Shawshank Redemption. Compared to the number of overall adaptations, that’s a low batting average, but the ones that do hit are grand slams.
Forgetting to signed,
Scene Minister of Urban Youth and Film Historian
Ah, didn’t even think of those for whatever reason! I liked those except Stand by Me (not bad but I think it could have been much better) but there are so many others that are just absolutely terrible
A+ description of GRRM, except in my biased, male opinion his writing has more integrity than twilight/50 shades.
My favorite thing about him is that he is completely comfortable killing off major characters that could be interpreted as protagonists. The reality is that there are no good guys, all the characters are pieces of shit vying for power and their own interests A LA the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It’s just so much more captivating to be rooting for a character that you know very well could actually die in virtually any manner than it is to root for a clear cut protagonist that you know with absolute certainty will come out on top.
If you have even a slight bonner for Greek mythology you should for def check out Ilium and Olympos by Dan Simmons.
Good fucking post!!!
Only sci-fi books i read is enders game by orson scott card via schoolwork but dat whole enders saga n bean sequels/prequels kicked ass … Will read spin n expanse series once i have the time…. friend in hs recommended dat wheels of time series but goddamn number of books made me roll my eyes n think of it as LOTR-fantasy faggotry but now that im older i will give it a chance just for shits n gigz…
one of my fav books believe it or not is the original Rainbow Six by Tom “im rich as fuck via action bigdickkegcola movies n video games” Clancy… Only book from him worth reading via kickassness n shit
Other book i recommend is THE HOT ZONE via 90s michael crichton jockage of a disease originating in africa(where else?) n a smart ass cdc microbiologist/scientist investigating the origin of superkillerpolioAIDSx100000
No asimov or enders game? Not reel sci-fi
so many readers
I don’t know if anyone mentioned Ursula LeGuin already, but “The Dispossessed” is my all-time favorite dystopian sci-fi. Completely outclasses 1984 and Brave New World and all that high school reading list BS. It’s a total “book of ideas” though, RIYL anarchism and all that ghey no fun club kind of stuff. (In that ELF documentary a couple years ago, they used a library copy of The Dispossessed to pass messages to each other!)
For the discriminating nerd looking for something new, I highly recommend “The Windup Girl” by Bacigalupi and Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake” (there’s a sequel too, and a third is supposed to come out this year). They focus more on genetic engineering and synthetic biology; if you read up on synbio it’s pretty terrifying how quickly real life is catching up with some of the sci-fi books.
Good call on LeGuin and Atwood. It’s not really sci-fi, but The Handmaid’s Tale by Atwood is awesome.
LeGuin also wrote some fantasy called Earthsea that is decent.
The first four wheel of time books were the hardest for me to get through, in fact I read those 4 when I was 16, got busy with other stuff and just started coming back to them six years later. I re-read those because I couldn’t remember shit, but after that it just gets better and better. The main three characters really start coming into their own and things become a lot more intricate, but in a good way. You even kind of see the dialogue between characters mature as they mature. I’d say that’s one of the best parts- you see these simple country folk, especially in Rand’s case, harder and more unpredictable. You really watch them as they’re forced to lose their innocence and grow the fuck up. My biggest complaint(which is infitismal) is that there are so many characters that I loose track of who certain minor characters. I’d say the my favorite part is Rand’s madness and how you constantly see him struggling with just wanting to give in and fucking annihilate everyone.
Sorry nigga dawgs but there are only a few things I go full nerd on and they are sweet sweet grindcore, girl pop music, dredg, and the mother fucking wheel of god damn time.
Always enjoy Iain Banks, just read Transition, although never tried the Sci Fi stuff. Smart enough that you feel like an adult reading it, but entertaining enough to keep you from Fallout for an hour or 2.
Elmord Leonard is cool, very much pulp fiction, and you probably already like a bunch of his books as films/TV shows as he increasingly writes direct to cinema books now. What isn’t to like about Al Qaeda and Somali pirates mixing it up?
Read my first Bukowski book last week too. Heavy feels of disappoint that this supposed literary god just prempted hipster culture by 60 some years and given them literature to hide behind.
huge ‘hard scifi’ buff checking in on the reals.
My absolute superduper alltime face o da faves i Peter F. Hamilton. His ‘Nights Dawn trilogy‘ is by and far the best sci fi I have ever read. Insanely awesome large universe, GREAT tech, GREAT lore and completely one-sided characters you dont really care about. Dont sleep on it!
Peter Hamilton also wrote the Commonwealth Saga which is pretty good, although not Nights Dawn level intense space opera. He recently did another trilogy (the void trilogy) which is a distant continuation of Commonwealth saga. It spends a lot of time trying to combine sci fi and fantasy, but since i dont care for the latter, I didnt particularly like that.
Alastair Reynolds is also an intense dude. Slightly less epic-ish but intensely bleak and dark — his Revelation Space and all the books that followed in that series are AWESOME. Ridiculously hard recommended for fans of space opera / hard sci fi.
Even though he is a classic, I want to point it Iain M. Banks‘ book The Algebraist. Although its just one book, its pretty goddamn epic, and the story is very very good.
On the slightly more fantasy-ish note (although far from Wheels of Time fantasy) is Julian Mays The Saga of The Pliocene Exile. Really great series about a time machine that sends people back in time (to the plioecene era), which turns out to be a time with aliens on earth. Suprisingly not as stupid as it sounds (in any way).
I have never heard of Leviathan Wakes, but I will DEFINITELY check it out! Thanks for the heads up
No offense to WoT fans, but imo after reading GRRM, WoT is pretty whack. Boring characters, dull storyline, hackneyed concepts such as an omnipotent dark lord, dark riders, an item that a main character covets that simultaneously corrupts him, etc. If you like WoT then that’s cool, but for my tastes I couldn’t get into it and have found GRRM to be unmatched by contemporary authors as far as originality and great writing goes. Shit is just so REAL!!
Great article! Will definitely check out Leviathan Wakes. Looking forward to more like this!
David Gemmell is worth a look if you’re into heroic fantasy. Every one of his books follows essentially the same format of arrogant/brave/flawed-but-admirable young protagonist on his life’s journey to legendhood, but its entertaining as hell every single time. I remember reading 4 of his books within 4 days one time (each is like 500 or so pages) due to how addictive they can be. I suggest starting with Ravenheart. The Jon Shannow series is also a great time; it’s set in a world that has reverted to gunpowder tech due to an apocalypse, and this one gunslinger looking for Jerusalem (the world’s geography has been heavily altered).
Gemmell was also a history buff so most of his books take place in alternate histories of sorts. Few of his books have magic in them aside from some very limited usage.