The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith

This book honestly blew me away. I spent two days reading it and weeks after sifting through it in my head. The blurb on the front cover probably sums it up better than I ever could:

"THE MARBURY LENS crawls inside your head and won't leave. Scary, creepy, awful, and awesome." -Michael Grant, author of GONE and HUNGER

First off, this book is infinitely better than the book cover summary or for that matter, any review I can possibly give here (or have found online). I just won't be able to do it justice. Secondly, the book is extremely dark - don't let the YA rating fool you. Someone fucked up, big time, when they put that on there.

Here's a review I found helpful - (no spoilers)

"In this brutal but highly effective dark fantasy, Smith tells the story of 16-year-old Jack, who gets drunk at a party and is kidnapped, tortured, and nearly raped by a serial killer. Jack escapes, but is highly traumatized by the experience and refuses to go to the police... Later, when Jack arrives in London, he is accosted by a mysterious stranger who seems to know him and hands him an odd pair of glasses. Looking through them, Jack is transported to the horrendous, postapocalyptic world of Marbury... further destabilizing Jack's precarious sanity. This bloody and genuinely upsetting book packs an enormous emotional punch. Smith's characters are very well developed and the ruined alternate universe they travel through is both surreal and believable."

The Marbury Lens is like nothing I've ever read before. The writing is great and incredibly realistic. As you live inside Jack's head, his narration constantly keeps you guessing. Is he suffering from PTSD? Is he going crazy? Did he ever really escape from his kidnapper - does Marbury really exist? You're repeatedly thrown back and forth between Marbury and the real world, things blur, time skips, people fade.

I can't recommend this enough. Pick it up, read it, soak it in.

 

The Troy Rising series by John Ringo
(Includes: Life Free or Die, Citadel, & The Hot Gate.)
Genre: Science fiction

The Troy Rising series follows humanities emergence in the universe as what could only charitably be described as an "underdog". Live Free or Die begins at first contact, a neutral species places a "gate" in Earth's solar system, allowing anyone to travel to Earth, peaceful or otherwise.

Almost immediately, Earth is made into what is essentially a mining colony of another species, the "Horvath". Book one details Tyler Vernon's attempt to free his planet from the control of the Horvath, and eventually control the gate that put Earth in the situation in the first place.

This series is quite different from most other "first contact" scenarios, in that it doesn't focus on the government. In fact, for a large part of book 1, the military plays no other role than to be a side show antagonist. You can see Ringo's clear libertarian viewpoints here, and how he injects them into his characters in some ways. Instead of focusing on the government, book 1 follows Vernon, as he uses the free market of another alien species, to try to defend & advance his planet. It's a unique spin to say the least.

If you can get past some of the Libertarian nonsense espoused by the characters (the character arc does actually help with this later on), you'll probably enjoy this series.

 

Revelation Space is in my queue, but I've read House of Suns, also by Alastair Reynolds, which seems quite similar.

(Excerpt below from my full review at the above link):

I will also recommend Blindsight, by Peter Watts (an author I just recently discovered -- his short story was also one of the best in a collection I just read). It's a first contact novel in which a crew of post-humans is sent into the outer reaches of the solar system to figure out what the really freaking alien aliens want. And it's got vampires. Yes, vampires in a hard SF novel. Watts actually makes them work, unlike David Weber's entirely suckworthy Out of the Dark.

 

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams

(comprising The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell & To Green Angel Tower)

Where to start? This is my all-time favourite trilogy (tetralogy, technically, as the final book is split in two). It's epic fantasy, and manages to balance classic fantasy themes and elements with a redux of how they're presented and used.

The world it's set in is, barring Tolkien's works, probably one of the most complete and thorough functional environments that I've ever read. It's based loosely on a sort of 10th century England, but with a myriad of other influences thrown in. He spends the first half of the first book building up this world until it is utterly realistic and immersive before spending the rest of the series systematically destroying it, and despite dozens of points of view throughout and a real feeling of being utterly swamped by it all at the beginning, as you read you really begin to care about what is happening, about the characters, and so on. I could go into detail, but even with a trademark tl;dr I'd barely brush the surface, such is the cultural, lingual and historical depth.

Now, it isn't going to be for anyone. If you like your stories told quickly, you won't like it. If you like dashing, hardcore, sweeping heroes, you won't like it. If you prefer completely original fantasy elements outright as opposed to simply a different version of the classics, you won't like it. That said, there really is something here for everyone - shedloads of action, romance, sorcery, mystery, political intrigue, and so on, done tastefully and realistically. No, it isn't the most unique fantasy world, but it is the most immersive and believable I've ever encountered. The story travels the length and breadth of this world an delivers some truly epic scenes, but without making it episodic - it is a continuous, flowing adventure that is punctuated by very memorable characters and places, and it's a living, breathing world whose inhabitants are not just for decoration. Williams also has a command of the English language and the ability to use it really well that is unfortunately very rare in his contemporaries.

It's a straight-up, fantastic work of swords and sorcery fiction, but nothing about it is simple, nor is it quick. It's a series to get lost in.

 

@Zombie: If you're not averse to cerebral space opera with elements of future-humanity, space travel, human bioengineering, pervasive AI, post-scarcity society, etc., I recommend:

The Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright
(includes The Golden Age, The Phoenix Exultant, and The Golden Transcendence)

I don't normally read space opera, but this is some of the best out there, a story with breathtaking scope and imagination. Half a million years in the future, we've spread across the solar system and what it means to be human has become nebulous at best. Humanity organizes as largely a functioning anarchy, with civility held in the highest esteem. Into this is thrust an irrational hero, Phaethon, a guy missing half his memories through a self-inflicted brain-fuck and whose strength of conviction (you'll see what I mean at the end of book 1) makes Dresden look like a fair-weather opportunist. The writing's quite decent and after a slow start, it became hard for me to put down.

 

Malazan Books of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson.

It's set in a totally different world that is currently in the middle of an intense war. It follows the different factions around, and within those factions different characters. This probably the best and the worst part of it. Erikson does and absolutely amazing job of writing his characters, but there are some that I simply find boring or I want to find out more about another characters journeys.

It involves quite a bit of magic, and some truly unique systems. It also involves demi-gods and ascendants though, but I think he pulls it off quite nicely. The way he has them set up is through a system of cards that can be used to read the future. Each "house" contains different positions within it. These positions are occupied by real characters within the story, and they are usually pretty bad ass. The houses lose and gain power by having people worship them, and if they are forgotten then they lose all of their power. It's a pretty good system that prevents one player from having too much power.

I'm not sure my review can truly do it justice, but I would say if you want to give it a shot read at least the first two, and probably three books. I can guarantee you will want to read more about the Bridgeburners (an army division that is thought to be cursed because of the luck they've had). Link to the Wikipedia page on the first book.

 

^I'll second that rec. They're really well done books--the only problem I had with them is that there are so many characters. Like, a shit-ton. If you're the kind of person (like me) who generally roots for one character as the Hero, you might have trouble with these, because you might not see that particular character very often.

In my case, it was Ganoes Paran--and that's the main reason I've only read the first few books, because it kind of seems like he disappears for long stretches at a time.

@ Pers: I freakin love space opera, and that sounds like my cup o' tea.

 

I'm reading Gene Wolfe's 'Book of the New Sun' at the moment (one book, four volumes: The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, The Citadel of the Autaurch). It's set on Earth, but so far in the future that mankind has left the planet, travelled the stars, got bored, come home and then lost the technology and reverted to a semi-feudal system of life. But with little bits of crazy technology that might as well be magic.

I find it a difficult one to rec - it's a real Marmite book. The biggest 'flaw' is the pace; the main character, Severian, is exiled from the Guild of Torturers about a third of the way through the first volume, and what with one thing and another hasn't actually managed to leave the city the Guild is in by the end. The plot...kinda sorta isn't there. It's Severian's autobiography, and while his life is full of incident, it's really more of a history than an adventure. If you don't mind that though, it's well worth a read.

In other areas, I loved 'Drood' by Dan Simmons. Narrated by Wilkie Collins, it tells the story of Charles Dickens in the aftermath of a terrible train crash, where Dickens encounters a mysterious man who calls himself Drood. Part history of Dickens, part examination of a writer's life, part ghost/horror story, all excellent. It's amazing.

 

The Emperor Series by Conn Iggulden
(The Gates of Rome, The Death of Kings, The Field of Swords, The Gods of War)
While not being fantasy, this series of 4 books is one of the best pieces of fiction I've read recently. It centres around the life of Julius Caesar. Yeah, you probably know all about him ,and have also watched a few documentaries, but trust me when I say that this is a truly remarkable account of his life.

The Author has played around with few historical, well known facts about Julius, but they all be forgiven, as the story becomes much more dramatic(and doesn't feels cheap). It is a third person narrative with different POVs, but Caesar is always the focus. The characterization of Caesar is extremely well done, from his childhood years with Brutus, to his turning into the charismatic leader that he was. Also, don't turn it down simply because you feel HBO's Rome was awesome and nothing could beat it.

These books are a great adventure.

 

Lets not forget the Novels by Ian C. Esslemont. Especially Return of the Crimson Guard and the new one Stonewielder.

 

I'm gonna throw another one in here. This one, I enjoyed immensely. If you don't wanna start another long series, and are looking for a simple,stand alone fantasy novel, this one is a good choice.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

There is a magic school in this. And there is a plot-line involving a magical land based on Narnia. You will think that these two things make this novel an automatic fail, but on the contrary, they add to the awesomeness. The story can be divided into three parts. part one having the protagonist Quintin being mysteriously admitted to a Brakebills Academy for an education in magic. The magic system, while not the most detailed, or the most complex, is still fairly good, involving all the factors, from the location of the caster on the planet, to the effects based on astrology, and a whole lot of other things. The Narnia sub-plot is evolved in the form of traveling to parallel worlds. I'll say no more.

The things that makes this story different is that magic is almost like a sub-plot. The story is more about the main characters' struggle and his escapism. The book contains explicit references, has sex, alcohol, etc. This one is not Harry Potter, where you are off in the distant lands of Hogwarts having adventures. You won't like many characters in the story, but you'll definitely like the story. There's news coming out of a 2nd book, but I think this one stands out on its own just fine.

Check out some reviews on amazon if you're not convinced, they describe it far better then I did here. This book is worth reading.

 

Ugh. The Magicians could have been great, but I hated it. There was zero character growth, and while the writing was good and the world-building was very good at times, it was so cold and cynical that I didn't find it entertaining at all.

 

Hmm. The feeling I got from the book was much the same, but that's why I enjoyed it. It was a gloomy story, without being dark, if you know what I mean. Your review is almost spot on on many things, But the whole cold, cynical feeling of the book was what kept me into it.(Doesn't means I've got the whole emo-crap thing going on.)

As I said in above post, I know the characters in this book are not likable, some are even irritating. But, that's the thing, those things made them interesting for me. And as for character development, if you think that the point of every book should be that at the end of the story, there should be a lesson, or that the main character should always improve for the better, then I've got news, that's simply not gonna happen.

I'm not an author, so maybe I'm way off about these things, but I feel that characterization, instead of development should be given importance. That means getting into the character's head, and I certainly felt like it. Plus, his whole take on magic was really good.

Edit: Awesome Blog!

 

*Sees new thread.* *Feels like an idiot for posting in the old one.*

:facepalm

 

I started finished the Farseer trilogy a few days ago. Really interesting read. I am on book 3 of the Tawny Man trilogy right now. It follows the same character as the first one, but now he is fully grown and the character is developed a lot.

The first 3 books are about the bastard son of the king in waiting. He is trained to be an assassin and does work for the good of the crown. There is magic in the books. The skill and the wit(Later we learn about more but skill and wit are the main focus).

If anybody wants a link to a really cheap deal on all her ebooks, PM me.

 

I actually read both trilogies last month and could not put the books down, they are worth a read at the very least.

Just started the Discworld series, on Book 3 atm, and I think its hilarious!

 

Oh my god, I love the farseer trilogy (and the tawny man trilogy, tho not quite as much)--if you want to read something that is freaking awesome (I know, some people aren't into freaking awesome) then read these like right now. But don't plan on sleeping. Or eating. Or really doing much of anything except reading, lol.