Books!

[Tap10lan]

I've thought of something that might be useful for us all!

In Sweden, books become very hard to find after a few years. Bookshops here don't keep older books in stock, and I'm not talking of "used books". After a few years, books are sold off in sales. It's sad.
E-books aren't cheap in Sweden (yet).
I want more options than Amazon.

So where do you guys find books at good prices?

One thing is libraries, obviously. They're great, but sometimes at least I want to own books.

www.humblebundle.com sells books every now and then. Cheap (if you want), and you get to do a good deed.

I use www.bokfynd.nu to look for the best price for books. Works for books in quite a few languages. There is a Swedish-centric tendency to the results, but you do get British booksellers, too, for instance.

Any other suggestions?

[SectoBoss]

If there’s anyone out there who, like me, is a bit fed up with the Tolkien-esque ‘elves and dwarves and the dark ages’ slew of fantasy novels recently, then I’d heartily recommend the author China Miéville. His stuff is what I always thought fantasy should be: full of weird creatures in impossible cities, with magic almost indistinguishable from science and schizoid tech all over the place.

If you want a good jumping-off point into his work, I’d recommend Perdido Street Station, which is the first of three largely-unconnected novels set in the same fictional universe.

On a similar topic, does anyone know of any good fantasy novels that buck the ‘always set in the middle ages’ trend? (I used to shun fantasy books when I was younger mostly for this reason, but I’m trying to broaden my horizons a bit more now)

[Tap10lan]

On a similar topic, does anyone know of any good fantasy novels that buck the ‘always set in the middle ages’ trend? (I used to shun fantasy books when I was younger mostly for this reason, but I’m trying to broaden my horizons a bit more now)

How about a sort of modern world where magic works like "science"?
Check out Walter Jon Williams two novels

"Metropolitan" and "City on Fire"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_%28novel%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_on_Fire_%28novel%29

Female protagonist, who's sort of a tax auditor for the substance that powers magic. Heheh, I really like these. I'd be happy if Williams did more novels in this universe!

[SectoBoss]

How about a sort of modern world where magic works like "science"?
Check out Walter Jon Williams two novels

"Metropolitan" and "City on Fire"

Wow, those sound really cool! Thanks!

[ParanormalAndroid]

Literature~
I could suggest far too many things, but uh:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22) is quite possibly one of my favourite novels (ever). It's a subtle, hilarious (yes, it makes it funny) portrayal of the inherent absurdity of war, and I'd recommend it to anyone.
I'll see what the reaction to that is, and if good I'll post more novels.

[SectoBoss]

Catch-22 is one of the funniest books I've read in my life. I feel like I ought to say that it's not just all comedy, though - there are some bits that reach out and honest-to-goodness slap you in the face.

So yeah, I second ParanormalAndroid on that one!

[DB (f.k.a. DaveBro)]

Tap10LAN:
Maybe there is something like www.paperbackswap.com in Sweden or nearby?  They recently started charging a membership fee, but it's been very good to our household.  You might even want to start your own, transatlantic postage being stratospheric.  They might even share coding if you wanted to do that.

Sectoboss:
Have you tried Urban Fantasy, like Seanan McGuire, Charles de Lint, Kat Richardson, C.E. Murphy, or Jim Butcher?  No Dwarves that I've noticed in any of them.

Seanan's October Daye books have fae, but they are updated and decidedly non-Tolkienesque.  Her Incryptid series is fae-free.  Shameless plug, there are free short stories in each series at her eponymous website.  She also writes as Mira Grant, and has released two or three filk CDs.

Kat Richardson's Greywalker books are set in the Grey, between life & death, with the past only a temporacline away. 
C.E. Murphy's Urban Shaman books mix Celtic and Native American beliefs, along with a Reynir-esque discovery of powers story--she's a police mechanic in the beginning, and never loses her gearhead tendencies.  Fae-free, unless you count the Tuatha de Danaan

Finally, there's gumshoe wizard Harry Dresden of Jim Butcher's Chicago.  Some books are fae-free, but these are likewise un-Tolkienesque.  Note, The Dresden Files refers to a short-lived TV spinoff.

I enjoyed all of these, so I hope you find something to like, in there amongst 'em. . Good reading!

[Fen Shen]

Sectoboss, one of my favourite Fantasy series is "The Long Price Quartet" by Daniel Abraham.
http://www.danielabraham.com/books-by-daniel-abraham/the-long-price-quartet/
The setting is really unique, in a somewhat-Asian culture with only small amounts of magic - bound spirits, called andates, are forced to work their special powers for their cities. And there are lots of political and personal intrigues. (I'm sorry, I'm bad at summarizing epic plots...)

[Viisikielinenkantele]

If there’s anyone out there who, like me, is a bit fed up with the Tolkien-esque ‘elves and dwarves and the dark ages’ slew of fantasy novels recently, then I’d heartily recommend the author China Miéville. His stuff is what I always thought fantasy should be: full of weird creatures in impossible cities, with magic almost indistinguishable from science and schizoid tech all over the place.

If you want a good jumping-off point into his work, I’d recommend Perdido Street Station, which is the first of three largely-unconnected novels set in the same fictional universe.

On a similar topic, does anyone know of any good fantasy novels that buck the ‘always set in the middle ages’ trend? (I used to shun fantasy books when I was younger mostly for this reason, but I’m trying to broaden my horizons a bit more now)

Oh, another Miéville-Fan! I recently reread "Embassytown", a novel about a human outpost on an alien world with a unique language-system. But my favourite is actually "The city & the city", about a fictive eastern-european city which grew into two intertwined cities with their inhabitants constantly "unseeing" each other.

Jim Butchers "Dresden Files" are really fun to read as ReturnOfDaveBro mentioned, and I liked also his "Codex Alera"-series.

If you like the "Dresden Files", you might also enjoy Benedict Jacka's "Alex Verus" books. It's somewhat similar as it also starts with wizards in the modern world, in this case London. But his approach to magic differs.

If you are interested in world-building, the books of L. E. Modesitt Jr. might be something for you. I especially like his newest series "Imager Portfolio" (still ongoing) and "Corean Chronicles", both with a unique set of magic-rules, politics and religion. If you want to try first a standalone book, I like to recommend "Haze", a science-fiction-novel about a secret mission on a very reclusive planet.

And now I'm going and looking up some of the suggestions, I'm desperately in need of a new book

[ParanormalAndroid]

Seeing as people seem to be hankering after modern sci-fi and fantasy, here's what I'd recommend:

Sci-fi
Iain M. Banks' Culture series for some of the best, most epic (in the old sense) space opera/sci-fi around.
Isaac Asimov's Foundation series for a more thoughtful alternative.
William Gibson's Neuromancer as it is the *definition* of cyberpunk.
Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep because it's legendary, and deservedly so.
Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama for a glimpse into how sci-fi used to be.

General Fiction
David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks (and to a lesser extent, Cloud Atlas and Ghostwritten) is a beautifully subtle modern take on fantasy, although they're hard to pin down to any one genre.
Iain Banks' (same author, no M) fiction (non-sci-fi) series is exceptional (start with Stonemouth or Dead Air, or maybe Complicity).

...
I'll stop for now, but there's a few ideas for all of you.

[Sunflower]

Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel

Published Sept. 2014

Holy smokes, this novel is extraordinary!  I'm so grateful to Mélusine for recommending it on the post-apocalyptic thread. 

Basically, Station Eleven is about a mutated flu that kills off 99.99% of the world's population, starting on a night when a washed-up movie star has a heart attack while starring in a Canadian production of "King Lear."  Twenty years after the outbreak, a young woman named Kristen, who was a child actress in that play, is now part of a traveling troupe of players bringing theater, music, and inspiration to ragged settlements of survivors.

Aside from the fact that it's a terrific novel with keen insight into love, friendship, co-worker complications, and other relationships... and that it's unflinching yet hopeful about the likely consequences of apocalypse... and that it's a gripping mystery story.... and so addictive I spent the last 4 hours frantically gulping it down before I have to return it to the library (regardless of Poor Neglected Responsibilities)...

-->It's basically "SSSS:  The Early Years"!
Not to say that it's derivative of Our Beloved Comic, or vice-versa.  But part of why I'm recommending it here is that it addresses a lot of the questions I had about what might have happened in the Known World between Year Zero and the present day. 

Of course, Minna's Scandinavians wouldn't necessarily react the same way as Mandel's Americans and Canadians.  But there are enough parallels to feed my tendency to overthink, and to obsessively wonder about the gaps in whatever narrative world I'm interested in.  I almost feel "I can sleep easier tonight, knowing there's at least one post-apocalyptic scenario with a plausible path for how we get from the near-total death of the entire human race to the relatively healthy, prosperous, and civilized state of Y90... so, sssshhh, left brain, you can stop gnawing on all those conundrums now."

Oh!  Plus!  One of the characters is a graphic novelist (and it's important to the story), so there's an extra bonus for SSSS fans. 

OK, rant over.

Review in the Guardian.

New York Times review:  Warning, spoilerriffic though interesting.

[tabeabd]

Thought I'd check out this thread and

Have you tried Urban Fantasy, like Seanan McGuire, Charles de Lint, Kat Richardson, C.E. Murphy, or Jim Butcher?  No Dwarves that I've noticed in any of them.

I've only read one work by Charles de Lint, "The Dreaming Place", and I really enjoyed it! It's an urban fantasy that uses Native American lore, which is pretty cool, and it's also a short (under 200 pages), easy read. I didn't think I'd really get into an urban fantasy, but I might read more if they're like this, haha.

A series I've been reading recently is the Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. There are 14 books so far though! I'm about halfway through. It's a fun detective/mystery type series that often takes place at the natural history museum in New York. Some books are better than others, but I have enjoyed all of them so far. The trouble is that the books aren't labeled as a series, so I keep having to look on goodreads to see the order they're supposed to go in. The first one is Relic, which ties in some interesting science-fictiony biology, and my favorite so far is Cabinet of Curiosities (the third one) which has to do with solving a 100+ year old serial murder case. Some of them are supposed to be able to be read on their own, but they make so much more sense if read in order!

[Mélusine]

If there’s anyone out there who, like me, is a bit fed up with the Tolkien-esque ‘elves and dwarves and the dark ages’ slew of fantasy novels recently, then I’d heartily recommend the author China Miéville. His stuff is what I always thought fantasy should be: full of weird creatures in impossible cities, with magic almost indistinguishable from science and schizoid tech all over the place.

If you want a good jumping-off point into his work, I’d recommend Perdido Street Station, which is the first of three largely-unconnected novels set in the same fictional universe.

Perdido Street Station was very good, but I have been disappointed by others books For me, China Miéville is marvelous at creating universes, but the story might suffer of a lack of... something. The Scar was not at Perdido Street Station level, in my humble opinion, and Iron Council had good ideas but I was unable to really enjoy my reading... but he's still good in the creation

Do you know Steph Swainston's books ? The Year of Our War was the only one translated in France, I had been obligated to read the next one in english with a dictionary ^^ (And it's not fault to have asked the publishers at every festival several years, but sadly it doesn't find readers here.) It's a more dark and adult fantasy, the main character, Jant, is one of the Immortals in a land in "war" against the Insects, the Messenger, the only one who can fly BUT a junkie. You'll not find fantasy's cliché (Middle-Age, princess, powerful wizard, prophecy, elves or dwarves...) inside. I still have the third book to read. In english. With a dictionary. But The Year of Our War is one of my best reading in fantasy

Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel

Published Sept. 2014

Holy smokes, this novel is extraordinary!  I'm so grateful to Mélusine for recommending it on the post-apocalyptic thread. 

I'm glad you liked this book It was my last reading when I saw Minna's drawing for the first time ^^

[SectoBoss]

The Scar was not at Perdido Street Station level, in my humble opinion, and Iron Council had good ideas but I was unable to really enjoy my reading

I will agree with you that Iron Council was definitely the weakest of the three. Ah well, each to their own! 

Thanks for all the various reccomendations guys! I think a trip to the bookship might be in order once my exams are over.

Edit: or even the bookshop, who knows... 

[koalalou]

So I've been trying to get caught up on the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan, since I haven't read any on the books since the first one in the series (The Lost Hero) came out. I'm on the second one, The Son of Neptune, right now and only part-way through the beginning of the book when I get to this bit and burst into giggles--

"Frank looked at Percy with wide eyes. He mouthed: Can your sword do grenade form?

Percy mouthed back, No. Shut up."


I'd forgotten how much this series could make me laugh.

Okay. That's all. Just felt like sharing. //beats a hasty retreat back to her usual threads//