Ella Minnow Pea is by Mark Dunn. It's good fun, and short enough to read in one sitting. I have to say if I'd lived in their community I could have solved the local lipogram problem much more quickly than they did! And why not QUARTZ GLYPH JOB VEX'D CWM FINKS, eh, eh?
I just read The Wooden World: Anatomy of the Georgian Navy N.A.M. Rodger
I sometimes pick up books at random on subjects I previously knew nothing about.
Anyway, almost everything you thought you knew about the 18th century Royal Navy is wrong. Bizarrly, it was one of the most progressive large organizations of the period. The author spent about 10 years poking about in Admaralty archives in the Public Records Office so presumably he knows his stuff.
Sock by Penn Jillette - amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312328052)
Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation by Martin Millar - Out of print but, abebooks has it secondhand (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Martin+Millar&y=13&tn=Milk%2C+Sulphate+and+Alby+Starvation&x=43)
Both quite short, both were things I'd not have picked out for myself, but was given for Christmas. Both were pleasant surprises. Neither are sci fi.
Hamilton's short fiction is punchier I guess. It's just that I prefer longer books. I'd forgotten about Strange & Norrell. Excellent book if rather light on impact.
1421: The year China Discovered the World is an interesting read if you like alternative views of history :)
Hmm. I've nothing against longer books, when a longer book is demanded. I liked Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars), but recognise that they're lacking in some ways, chiefly characterisation).
In the same vein as 1421 (which I've not read, but which I have heard about) is Kim Stanley Robinson's Years of Rice and Salt - much recommended.
Use Of Weapons by Iain M Banks. If you promise to read it? I will lend it. Hell, I will buy it for you. A tragedy in the truest sense - a tragedy that cannot be averted, as it grows from the characters of the protagonists...
Otherwise, I would recommend The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle as the most pitch - perfect and agonizing characterization of first contact with a truly alien race.
Or George R. R. Martin, who writes medieval fantasy as it should be - brutal. Painful. Filled with despair at all the potential cut short.
Ot any and all Lois McMaster Bujold. Her sci-fi is as beautifully phrased as her fantasy, as every story grows from human beliefs and convictions.
I mean, I'm assuming you've read Neil Gaiman. If not, start with the ten volumes of The Sandman and then read American Gods.
The Player of Games is also good, of course. :) Oh, and also you should read Snow Crash, which has more ideas per page than most books do in their entirety.
Yep. I got introduced to the Culture by drnick (http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~njl98r/) when I was at southampton. Read all the books he had in a weekend or so.
I have a very well-thumbed copy of Snow Crash. :) Not read anything by Stephenson since the Cryptonomicon though.
I forgot to say "Walking on glass" is in my humble opinion a fantastic read and "The wasp factory" both Iain Banks.....without the M, so not sci-fi but still great :o)
Try The Diceman, Luke Rhinehart, A White merc with Fins, James Hawes. Written on the Body seconded for romantic modernism yeah yeah yeah, and um, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, Elizabeth Smart if you want to know where Morrissey got all his lyrics from.
Breakfast Of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I'm sure it is not everyone's cup of tea, but it is very different from anything else I have ever read. I loved it.
Also Porno by Irvine Welsh. It is the follow up of Trainspotting. I love the way he describes things and the characters he creates - you feel like you know them so well, they must be real. I love that.
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'Mis-spent Youth' and the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy.
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N.A.M. Rodger
I sometimes pick up books at random on subjects I previously knew nothing about.
Anyway, almost everything you thought you knew about the 18th century Royal Navy is wrong. Bizarrly, it was one of the most progressive large organizations of the period. The author spent about 10 years poking about in Admaralty archives in the Public Records Office so presumably he knows his stuff.
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by Penn Jillette -
amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312328052)
Milk, Sulphate and Alby Starvation
by Martin Millar -
Out of print but,
abebooks has it secondhand (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Martin+Millar&y=13&tn=Milk%2C+Sulphate+and+Alby+Starvation&x=43)
Both quite short, both were things I'd not have picked out for myself, but was given for Christmas. Both were pleasant surprises. Neither are sci fi.
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just.
plain.
awesome.
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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.
Anything by Charles Stross.
(I'd actually advise against reading Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy - it's just not worth the slog - but his short fiction is markedly better)
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I'd forgotten about Strange & Norrell. Excellent book if rather light on impact.
1421: The year China Discovered the World is an interesting read if you like alternative views of history :)
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In the same vein as 1421 (which I've not read, but which I have heard about) is Kim Stanley Robinson's Years of Rice and Salt - much recommended.
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If you promise to read it? I will lend it.
Hell, I will buy it for you.
A tragedy in the truest sense - a tragedy that cannot be averted, as it grows from the characters of the protagonists...
Otherwise, I would recommend The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle as the most pitch - perfect and agonizing characterization of first contact with a truly alien race.
Or George R. R. Martin, who writes medieval fantasy as it should be - brutal. Painful. Filled with despair at all the potential cut short.
Ot any and all Lois McMaster Bujold. Her sci-fi is as beautifully phrased as her fantasy, as every story grows from human beliefs and convictions.
I mean, I'm assuming you've read Neil Gaiman. If not, start with the ten volumes of The Sandman and then read American Gods.
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I have read Use of Weapons, though not for a long while.
Thanks for the rest. I was pondering obtaining Sandman the other day, but there's just so much of it!
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Oh, and also you should read Snow Crash, which has more ideas per page than most books do in their entirety.
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I have a very well-thumbed copy of Snow Crash. :) Not read anything by Stephenson since the Cryptonomicon though.
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bobbieflathead
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Also Porno by Irvine Welsh. It is the follow up of Trainspotting. I love the way he describes things and the characters he creates - you feel like you know them so well, they must be real. I love that.