If you want hard SF, go with Baxter, Vinge, Stross, Egan. Also Walter Jon Williams. And if you have the mind for some wam-bam scifi action stuff, check this out:

Dahak - book 1

 

Short books to kill the time:

Something Heavy:
Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Takes place after WWI, and initially starts out as three men meet in a bar in France after receiving a letter from Lord Henry Baltimore, their only common interest. There is much killing and action, as well as new tellings of old stories and folk tales as the three get to know one another and how they came to meet the aquaintance of Baltimore, and what they know of him. Pretty good book, highly recommend

The Arcanum, by Thomas Wheeler
It's kinda like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but instead of using fictional characters from books, It's using their authors. The four main characters are H.P. Lovecraft, Harry Houdini, Marie Laveau, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Very cool book, and the plot is freaking awesome.

Something Light:
Pyramid Scheme, and Pyramid Power, by Dave Freer and Eric Flint
A huge pyramid tears through the library of the University of Chicago and then proceeds to suck people into it, only to spit them back out. Dead. The Military shows up and tries to blow it back to the hell that spawned it, only to make it larger with every following attack. It eventually sucks in a group of people (a Mythographer, Biologist, Mechanic, Two Soldiers, and a fat retarded cop) who end up finding themselves in the golden age of greek mythology, only something's wrong, and they must find out what, or end up like the rest of the people who the pyramid sucked up: on a date with the coroner.

Pyramid Power is a continuation of Scheme, but set in the Norse Mythos.

Bulfinch's Mythology (Unabridged)
Covers golden age Greek Mythos, lightly touches several others, including Egyptian and Norse, before going into "The Age of Chivalry"(Arthurian Legend) and concludes with The Legend of Charlemagne. Personally, I thought Charlemagne was the best part, especially when it gets to Roncevalles towards the end. Most bad ass. Also, as Charles Martel (Charlemagne) was Norman, he therefore does not fall under the French Fail (without fail) Rule.

 

I recently read What is the What: The Autobiography of Valantino Achak Deng, a slightly fictionalized biography of the man written by David Eggers. It's the story of a Sudanese Lost Boy who, after fleeing his home village and making his way to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, eventually finds himself in Atlanta. It's a moving piece of work and definitely worth reading.

 

I misread Atlanta as Atlantis, and was intrigued. My disappointment is maximum.

 

Anyone know any really good Steampunk? I've been in the mood for some lately.

 

Reccing an old favorite of mine to any history fans:

Anyone who likes historical fiction, read Edward Rutherfurd's complete works. His novels typically span 1,000 or more years in a specific place and follow the development of various family lines in the area, also covering the integration of other cultures and races. He has novels about Sarum, London, and New Forest, England; Russia; Ireland; and New York. A lot of you would probably find it terribly dull, but for my fellow history lovers, I recommend Rutherfurd.

His writing is reminiscent of James Michener, if you've ever read him. I find Rutherfurd to be a lot less dull, with better characters. The important historical events are reliably true, and I quickly became immersed in the events depicted.

Enjoy!

 

The Overton Window. A work of literary genius wrapped in a deliciously tantalizing puzzle, it's truly going to be the mystery of the millennium. That's right, I'm calling it, and we're just 1% into it.

On a more seriousness note:
Book 2 of Turtledove's new series, 'The War That Came Early' came out recentish and impressed. Writing style is similar to the Southern Victory series, and is intended for a more mature audience (as opposed to Crosstime and the like). Francophiles will rejoice at seeing Spineful!France.

 

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. No doubt a fair number of people have picked it up already, but still. To quote Patrick Rothfuss, “This is a really fucking good book. Seriously. Have you read it? No? Go buy it, shitweasel.”

 

I'm thinking about reading this next. I did like Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy (despite the weird Mormon theology at the end).

I saw Lev Grossman's The Magicians recced earlier. Meh -- I hated it and felt like Grossman was basically giving the finger to Harry Potter fans.

I did like The Windup Girl, despite the problems mentioned concerning the lack of alternative energy sources. (I didn't have a problem with the "calorie currency.") Bacigalupi wrote a couple of other stories in the same world in his collection, Pump Six and Other Stories.

Other SF I have read recently that I enjoyed includes Bitter Seeds (an alternate history WWII novel with German supers vs. British sorcerers), The Passage (vampire apocalypse very reminiscent of Stephen King's The Stand), and A Grey Moon Over China (hard SF space epic that reminded me a lot of Battlestar Galactica).

(Yes, all the above links are to reviews I have written.)

I also just finished I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson. This is the original vampire apocalypse story, and it's a great read, despite having been written in 1954. (Needless to say, it bears little resemblance to the Will Smith movie.) Highly recommended.

 

I've recently read China Mieville's 'The City and the City', and I whole-heartedly recommend it. A murder mystery given the deeply weird treatment you'd expect from the mind behind 'Perdido Street Station'.

 

Yes! It's amazing, all of his work is. Seriously good.

 

So I tried Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. Hated it. More than any book I've ever read, I think. It was the first time I've ever thrown - literally thrown - a book at the floor in disgust and disappointment. Not to mention anger at the time I spent reading it being wasted. I got about halfway through the book, to when he starts learning the Skill, and all the melodramatic hurt-comfort "damaged goods" emo bullshit that ensued.

I don't think I've ever hated a main character more. Such a whiny-ass bitch.

*Sigh*

Am now starting Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which is meant to be very good.

 

Thanks for the review. I was going to buy it.

I'm reading an old goody of mine called The Twilight Realm written by Christopher Carpenter. 5 British role-playing college-age kids get sent to another world when one of the kid's uncle is possessed by that world's sorcerer while trying to seance with his dead wife. Much better than it sounds, and really had me wishing for a sequel based in the other world.

Besides that, I read this shitty dramatized story of the siege of Constantinople. Completely baffling attitudes from both Christians and Turks involved on both sides of the conflict, crappy character building and an unlikable main character led to giving up. Worst book my cousins ever got me while shopping the UK.

 

What the balls is up with these books?! Was there less of a 'zomg wtf, dude?! Lame!' aspect to these self-insert-ish style books back then? There are waaaaaaaaaaay to many of these kinds of books... Gor, this, War of the Flowers...

Speaking of, everyone point and laugh at Oz for reccing War of the Flowers. Rocker gets sent to a world with Dragons and majix.

Also; A historical-ish rec.

David Gemmell's Lion of Macedon/Dark Prince. They're in the same world as his Stones of Power series, which is a pretty good rework of Arthur and shit.

The Greek/Macedon series (LoM/DP) are about a half-blood Spartan/Macedonian by the name of Parmenion. Also the first book's got the rise of Philip II and the birth of Alexander.

Its kind of like ... Arthur meets 300 meets Dante's Inferno. Really good.

Dark Prince is ... like Hash's Twilight Reign. Philippos, the evil twin of Philip from an Alternate reality possesses 4 Year old Alexander, and Parmenion and an Assassins jump across to that reality with the help of Aristotle the sorcerer.

 

Never Let Me Go is indeed very good. You'll enjoy it, I'm sure.

 

Been on a bit of a magical realism (and associated movements) kick recently.

Alejo Carpentier: The Kingdom of this World, Explosion in a Cathedral
Jorge Juis Borges: Everything. Everything. I wouldn't even know how to begin to select a rec list from this guy's massive oeuvre.
Angela Carter: The Magic Toyshop, and interesting poetry.
Robert Krotsch: The Studhorse Man, Alibi and he's got some exceptional poetry.
Mikhal Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita

Borges is the best among the lot here. Some more contemporary writers in this mode would be people like Rushdie and Marquez, but they are pretty well known already. (Well, so are most of these folks, but anyway.) Of the many movements in literature in the 20th century, the two that interest me the most are the Absurdist and the Magical Realist.

 

I really hope those books aren't as anally retentive as the article on Wikipedia on magical realism. Ye gods, I hate post-modernism.

 

While Wikipedia is where I'd usually go for an initial exposure to something, I had better sources this time.

And no, they aren't. If you haven't read much in this genre, although most people here would probably have read Rushdie and or Marquez, the best place to start is Borges. Pretty much any decent library would stock it, and his oeuvre is so large, he probably has written something tailored to your interests.

Post-Modernism: I think the key to this is to stop trying to comprehend it as a single entity. While you could encompass Modernism under a single roof, and catalog authors via the degree in which they emanated its defining features, being post-modern is, in a sense, moving beyond definition too. Considering the diversity of influences it has, it is better to think of it as an umbrella term, or something of the sort.

 

I had to read Kingdom of This World for school, and it was pretty interesting.
If you like it read Like Water for Chocolate, it is pretty...interesting, despite the numerous magical orgasms that make you laugh.

 

Brandon Sanderson's books are all great. The Mistborn trilogy, Elantris and Warbreaker don't disappoint, and there are no flop books that some authors accidentally publish because their other ones are successful. Each of his books/series occur in completely different worlds, and it's amazing how many of those he has come up with.