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What else do you read besides scifi?

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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by Tenshinai   » Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:09 pm

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BrightSoul wrote:Pretty much Historical fiction and Fantasy in addition to my SciFi reading. In particular I've enjoyed Jack Whyte's A Dream of Eagles and its companion follow ups as well as his Knights Templar trilogy. Ages ago I found a couple entertaining series by Robert Shea I think but that was a long time ago.

Fantasy, I've really been enjoying Elizabeth Moon's return to the world of Paks and Gird, GRR Martin and Robert Jordan were old staples although I wasn't all that impressed by Sanderson's efforts to wrap up The Wheel of Time series.


Oh yeah, that´s definitely one of those really excellent series. The worldbuilding she´s done with it is just darned superb.
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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by Esox   » Sat Mar 02, 2013 1:21 pm

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Romance: Georgette Heyer and Nora Roberts.
Fantasy: C.J. Cherry's Rusalka and sequels. Lacky, Flint and Freer's Heirs of Alexandria books.
Mystery: Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, John D. McDonald's Travis McGee and Lindsay Davis's Marcus Didius Falco.
Suspense: Mary Stewart (early) and Helen MacInnes.
Navel Warfare: Douglas Reeman.
Adventure: Desmond Bagley, Ian McInnes.

Then there are writers such as Gwen Bristow and Diana Galabon who don't fit into tidy categories.
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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by Hutch   » Sat Mar 02, 2013 2:06 pm

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Pretty much history (in another time-space, I would have gone on and been the middle-school teacher I'd thought I would be after college). Working right now through a 700-page book on the campaign leading up to the Battle of Antietam (just the campaign, mind you, the battle itself will be another 700 pages...).

I have a two-cushioned couch full of books I have not read or am only partly through.

ETA--I am also now a confirmed Schlock Mercenary addict.
***********************************************
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.

What? Look, somebody's got to have some damn perspective around here! Boom. Sooner or later. BOOM! -LT. Cmdr. Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5
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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by kbus888   » Tue Mar 05, 2013 5:28 pm

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Hi guys

I greatly enjoyed reading stories by LUDLUM

Starting with the three Jason Bourne books - - -

R
..//* *\\
(/(..^..)\)
.._/'*'\_
.(,,,)^(,,,)

Love is a condition in which
the happiness of another
is essential to your own. - R Heinlein
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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by Northstar   » Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:28 pm

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kbus888 wrote:Hi guys

I greatly enjoyed reading stories by LUDLUM

Starting with the three Jason Bourne books - - -

R



Might try a movie, The Day of the Jackal. Excellent. Based on the also excellent Frederick Forsyth book of the same name. He's got some other good books also :-) One of my husband's favorite movies :-)

I also highly recommend Sloan Wilson's Ice Brothers. This is one of the best books I've ever read. Took me into its world. My husband's read and reread it also. Very very good. Set in the Coast Guard on the Greenland patrol in WWII.

Another extraordinary book is Kabloona, by Gontran de Poncins. Which is his experience among the Inuit back before it all changed. You want to visit an alien world? Full of strange to you customs and wonderful and extraordinary persons? Read it. Wonderful book.
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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by umbrarchist   » Mon Mar 11, 2013 8:49 pm

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Is there something else worth reading?

I decided to read a couple of fantasy stories by Lois McMaster Bujold since I like her Vorkosigan series. They were decent stories but they are just kind of pointless to me. So things can be done in fantasy that really can't apply to sci-fi, but they can't apply to reality either so what is the point.

I like the fanfiction derived from Bujold's Vor series more than her fantasies.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/402371/chapters/663226

http://archiveofourown.org/works/135363/chapters/193838
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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by rmsgrey   » Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:15 pm

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Tenshinai wrote:
BrightSoul wrote:Fantasy, I've really been enjoying Elizabeth Moon's return to the world of Paks and Gird, GRR Martin and Robert Jordan were old staples although I wasn't all that impressed by Sanderson's efforts to wrap up The Wheel of Time series.


Oh yeah, that´s definitely one of those really excellent series. The worldbuilding she´s done with it is just darned superb.


I've described Paks' world as post-D&D fantasy that's never heard of Tolkien. The paladins, particularly, are clearly the 2nd Ed (A)D&D class, and the non-humans are only related to Tolkien's non-humans insofar as they inherit from the same folk-lore...
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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by PeterZ   » Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:39 pm

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Northstar wrote:
Ooh some good stuff showing up in everyone's posts. I am, of course, fishing for author recommends, besides just chatting for fun. :-)

Has anyone read 'steampunk'? I've downloaded some freebies or cheapies to my kindle but have't read them yet.

Patricia McKillip's Forgotten Beasts of Eld was great, ditto her Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy. I like Jayne Ann Krentz and her akas, Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle. Loved R.A. MacAvoy's Tea with the Black Dragon. Like Tanya Huff and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's older work, Haven't read the more recent ones. Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy and others in that series. I enjoy Robin D. Owens.

For a trip into weird, John Keel's books. One got made into a movie. Mothman something or other.

I've read many sea story series; Dudley Pope, Alexander Kent, Forester. Dewey Lambdin, others I can't dredge up at the moment. Cannot stand Patrick O'Brian, though many adore him. bored me. shrug.

Julia Quinn regencies are fun, humorous and well-written. Some Jo Beverley and Stephanie Laurens but not the more recent ones so much.

History I have small collections on the civil war, WWI, WWII and various others and various eras. I tend to collect books about Churchill and ones about Eisenhower. Some Lincoln. Some Teddy Roosevelt. A couple on FDR. others. Some ancient civilizations stuff, Rome, Greece, Egypt, esp the Old Kingdom. Herodotus is a fun read. :-) Norse sagas etc. Snorri's books and others. Hilda Ellis.

Anne Perry wrote a wonderful series set in WWI that explained Tolkien to me far better than any book I ever read that was intended to explain him. Shoulder the Sky, No Graves Yet, At Some Disputed Barricade, We Shall Not Sleep, Angels in the Gloom. Wonderful novels.

My fave Tolkien book is The Silmarillion.

Richard Preston's medical thrillers, semi historical sort of some of them are a good creep out scare. The Hot Zone, The Cobra Event, The Demon in there Freezer. that led into a bunch of non-fiction plague books I still have around here. :roll:

I went through a spate on The Knights Templar. :-)

Have run down for the moment, there are scads of others.


Since you're fishing, have you read Kim Harrison? Her Rachel Morgan series has interesting and (I find) deep thematic currents. Not sure what you call the genre and don't care. I find her characters intriguing and in some ways whimsical but still compelling.
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Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
Post by Grabthar's Hammer   » Wed Mar 13, 2013 3:54 am

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"High-Thoughts colleagues!"

I can't believe that I forgot to mention Julian May's utterly awesome Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Time-Travel classics. More to the point, they have recently been reissued in E-Book format (Hooray!) and I'm a' buying. These and other finished classics, including Patrick Tilley's 'The Amtrak Wars' keep me going until my next 'Any-Weber' (yes, even - Out of the Dark) or '1632' or 'Emberverse' fix becomes available.

Here is the rundown of this Magnum Opus
    The Saga of the Pliocene Exiles
  1. The Many-Coloured Land
  2. The Golden Torc
  3. The Nonborn King
  4. The Adversary
  • Intervention - ("A Root Tale to the Galactic Milieu and a vinculum between it and the Saga of the Pliocene Exiles.")
    The Galactic Milieu
  1. Jack the Bodiless
  2. Diamond Mask
  3. Magnificat
These are so good (in my opinion) that I won't spoil them by over-revealing. For those lucky enough to read them for the first time, I'll limit myself to mentioning that some of my favourite aliens name's in Sci-Fi manifest in this series.

The Lylmik Quincunx consists of:
  • Atoning Unifex
  • Eupathic Impulse
  • Homologus Trend
  • Noetic Concordance
  • Asymptotic Essense

I wish to any who has not encountered these tales, the joy of their reading. And to those who know and love them, I say -
    "SLONSHAL!"
    ~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~
    "GOLD! - It may not buy happiness, but it can buy you a better state of misery, that's for sure!"
    Image
    Count Duckula
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    Re: What else do you read besides scifi?
    Post by Daryl   » Wed Mar 13, 2013 4:52 am

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    Grabthar's Hammer - totally agree. I managed to pick up a boxed set of the Saga of the Exiles at a country market for $5. Had already reread them but now have a permanent copy. Agree with the Amtrak Wars, Honorverse and Emberverse also.
    About a year ago got a phone call that a book I had ordered had arrived, got there and the latest Honorverse, Emberverse, and 1632 releases were waiting for me. Needed a three sided coin to decide which to read first.
    Try Turtledove, Lackey, Moon, Cherryh, Bear/Brin/Bova as well.
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