....You realize that this is a Light Novel and the typical format that Light Novel Author's use, in addition to the traditional Japanese sentence structure, this is actually pretty god damn smooth right?

 

Don't know if anyones recced this before but this was awesome

Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card

I read it just before the 2nd book came out and I still haven't read the whole series but I remember the first one was really good.
A sci-fi/fantasy book though the science references flew over my head when I read it, I really enjoyed it though some of the plot twists were a bit obvious in the beginning.

It was pretty long though I'll say that. It could be a bit confusing if you don't reread some scenes or maybe that was just me. If you didn't know, this was the guy who wrote Enders Game (I didn't read that the movie just put me off even though I heard it was good). It took me 2-3 days to read it and I'm a fast reader. So, yeah it's long.

On a side note I also read the whole mistborn series this summer I know that's already been mentioned a lot in this thread and I back up all the good reviews. I never got super into the wax and wayne series but i liked hearing about what happened to the first trilogy characters

So mentioning it again Pathfinder's a good book to read if you're looking for a long book to start. I've heard a lot of people complaining the sequel is worse but there are a lot of mixed reviews so I'll check the rest of the series out and see if they're better or worse.If it's already been mentioned in this thread I'm sorry and I back up whoever recced it first

 

Gotta pull for Team LN.
Oregairu By Watari Wataru.
This is a Slice of life High school story told through the eyes? of Hikigaya Hachiman,a Cynical teenager.
He gets forced by his Teacher to join a club founded by Yukinoshita Yukino.(I know what you're thinking.The author has a Hard-on for Alliterative names)
This is not your standard Rom com.

 

I can second this recommendation.

The quoted text from Trig is a bit awkward, but this was definitely pretty readable and decent. Not sure if it's because the Korean-English translator is good or the source text was better. Either way, I haven't struggled through it like the stilted translations that other light novels generally have. If someone said it wasn't a translated novel but an English novel (not considering the Korean names and idioms, etc), I might believe them.

More about the story, I also agree that this was a unique light novel experience. What I most like is how it seems to be subverting (or at least lampshading) some common light novel/anime/manga tropes.

Most notably in the first few chapters

Spoiler

The main character shits on lolicon and loli shit

and also harem tropes

and yandere/tsundere tropes

Because these tropes are so common to animanga stuff, the book piqued my interest. I'm not sure if the author is setting up to play them straight/"better" later, but at the very least, it's nice to have some explicit backlash against the incessant pervy shit that litters every power fantasy light novel/anime/manga experience instead of either ignoring it or reveling in it like a lot of other series in the genre.

And yeah, I think the Code Geass comparison is pretty apt. The main character as depicted in the illustration pages looks very much like Lelouch. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a deliberate homage.

But yeah, I think it's pretty good after reading the first volume. There's only two out so far, so I'm not really sure what direction this is headed in. I'll update the post if my opinion changes after I read the rest of what is currently translated.

Edit:

Spoiler

Caught up and it does seem like he plays harem straight... kinda. I think it's within bearable at this point, but it could change.

 

'The Watchmaker of Filigree Street', by Natasha Pulley. The story of a telegraph clerk, a physics student, a clockwork octopus, Japanese and Irish nationalism, the Suffrage movement, Gilbert and Sullivan and the mysterious watchmaker who unites them all.

Beautifully written and atmospheric, especially for a debut novel. It's rather languidly paced for the most part, content to glide along letting you fall for the characters rather than throw plot at you, which does mean that the last hundred pages or so are a little breathless. That's a mild niggle for me though, and the good more than makes up for it.

 

I searched the entire thread and surprisingly it didn't have one of my favourite book series.

The Young Bond Series By Charlie Higson

Its about James Bond at a younger age.

The first one is-

Silverfin :-

Before the name became a legend. Before the boy became the man. Meet Bond. James Bond.

Something is in the water at Loch Silverfin. Something deadly. Something secret.

On his first day at Eton, James already meets his first enemy. In remote Loch Silverfin, a terrifying discovery threatens to unleash a new breed of warfare.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/603911.SilverFin

I recommend this to any one who has enjoyed reading the Alex Rider Series.

 

Finished reading 'I Am Pilgrim', by Terry Hayes. I'd seen it built up as the best thriller published in years, which I'm not wholly convinced about. I thought the writing was mostly solid, with occasional forays into clunky and cliched, the plot is largely driven by a mix of helpful coincidences and astonishing leaps of ingenuity, there's a very heavy handed use of foreshadowing in at least every other chapter, and various points at which I found myself rolling my eyes in disbelief at what I'd just read.

On the other hand, it's been a while - probably not since 'Skin Game' - since I've found myself staying up late because I just couldn't put the book down. It's undoubtedly compelling, and on the whole I'm inclined to give it a generous review despite its flaws, but I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend it.

 

So? I'm not going to read garbage and pretend to like it just because it's a poorly translated foreign YA novel. I'm actually not even sure why that would be an excuse.

Edit: Didn't see how old that comment was. To contribute to the thread: I read "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch recently. I was fooled by positive reviews and promises of a vaguely interesting premise.

It's... okay. I was a bit disappointed, to be honest. I wouldn't recommend it, but I also wouldn't say it's really awful. The reviews I read made it seem like some sort of mind-bending, complicated thriller with a good payoff at the end, or something like that. In reality, it's probably the most standard/paint by numbers take I've ever seen on the topic of alternate realities. 2.5-3/5

 

http://www.novelupdates.com/series/dungeon-defense/

Dungeon Defense, an absolute beauty of a piece, it is filled with battle stratagem, epic reveals, hidden plots, and an absolutely ruthless protagonist to take you on a roller coaster of a ride, for there is no sunshine and rainbows here. At times, you will find yourself confused with the contradictory way the author is developing the characters or plot holes that will make you want to stop reading, but in the end, everything ties together into a masterpiece that has left me breathless. All in all, if you have 2 hours to spare, then take the time to look through it, I promise it won't disappoint.

Take note that the book itself is in Korean, but you can find the English translations in the link above and its quality is also very well done.

 

For those interested the fourth book of the Traitor Son saga, A plague of swprds dropped this week and I think everyone who enjoyed the previous books will also enjoy this one. Though I have to say I personally found it and the last one not as interesting as the books before. I am simply no fan of "apocalypse" plots and think it tries to show too much in too little time/space (while at the same time showing unnecessary stuff) leading to a sometimes disjointed reading experience.

Plus I really dislike the way the MC romance is handled - seems to me the author went for the most boring and pointless option imaginable.

 

I've been on a Will Wight kick lately. My first foray into his stuff was through his Cradle series (Unsouled & Soulsmith); it's most similar to a wuxia/sci-fi blended universe, but I think it's really well done. Especially since the translation of "Coiling Dragon" is what got me into wuxia, and I had gotten to the point if I saw a couple more instances of "Swish," "Roar," and "Third Bro," I was done for.

His other series I read and enjoyed was "The Traveler's Gate" trilogy. Travelers can use Gates to access certain Realms which grant specific powers/flaws to their users.

The great thing about Wight is he's super responsive on Reddit, and is like a mini-Sanderson in his ability to churn out good books quickly.

Plus it doesn't hurt that his books are all super cheap on Amazon.

 

I'll second Wight, his stuff might not be amazing, but it's consistently highly enjoyable.

You should check out his other series too, if you like him. He writes two books from each main characters viewpoints in that one. Of Sea and Shadow/Of Shadow and Sea are the first ones IIRC.

 

I do not know if it's already been mentioned but Red Rising series by Pierce Brown I cannot recommend enough its got a strong protagonist that has a believable strengths and weaknesses that show he is not gary stu and has a good female lead and amazing secondary characters.

 

The first book is blatantly Ender's Hunger Games but it owns the idea well enough that I enjoyed the whole series.

 

Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows. It's a two book fantasy/crime series.

Though the synopsis seems fairly typical of novels in this genre, what makes this series shine is (without a doubt) the complexity and development of every single character in the book. There's not a single wasted word. Through the multi-POV structure we get in bits and pieces all of the characters' back stories and why they happened to join this job. I never felt impatient for another character's POV: they were all equally interesting and it was perfectly paced and placed. Add to that the increasingly higher stakes of the job they're on, the many surprising plot twists, and diverse world-building and magic system...and you get a solid 5/5 series.

Though I wouldn't mind a continuation of this series just to see the characters in action again, the second novel ended perfectly what the first started.

 

If any of you enjoy well developed magic systems, I recommend anything by Brandon Sanderson.

 

For everyone who likes timetravel stories as much as myself, I reccommend Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. It gets dark quickly and it stays that way, there is no shying away from the actual reality of the middle ages, no sugarcoating of anything, and the plot drives on remorselessly, keeping the tension up and the reader turning pages deep into the night. There are also some sequels in the same universe.

 

I'm so sick and tired of book series. I was just about to start rereading ASOIAF, but the very idea that it isn't finished (and if you read all the shit GRRM has going on it's probably safe to say that it never will) filled me with irrational hatred towards the books.

So I come here asking for a rec of a single book, that only aims to be a single book. Let it be 1000 pages long, but by the end of it I have experienced what this story has to give. Instead of serving as a launching platform for another god forsaken fifteen novel 'epic'. We have plenty of those already.

Also it would be nice if it was published within the last two or three years.

So anyone got any recs?

 

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits is the only book I have in my good reads library that is stand-alone, published within three years, and I rated above 3 stars.

The Rekoners series while not being a stand-alone book is complete, with two of the three books published within the last three years. I also rated them above 4 stars.