Book Recommendation Thread

[FaeFae]

It's known that most roleplayers are also avid readers, so let's have a book recommendation thread! Perhaps we'll encounter something new and wonderful.

Book Name –  Author - Genre – Summary of Book
You can also include if it's a series, and if said series is completed.


I'll start us off with ...

The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie (Fantasy)

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian – leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.

Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

This is the first book in a completed trilogy.
www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/0575079797

[ladybug]

Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold (Space Opera)

When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by Aral Vorkosigan, commander of the Barrayan ship that has been taken over by an ambitious and ruthless crew member. Aral and Cordelia survive countless mishaps while their mutual admiration and even stronger feelings emerge. A science fiction romance by a Hugo and Nebula Award winning master. Bujold's SHARDS OF HONOR is the first book in her SF universe to feature the Vorkosigan clan, followed by the Hugo award-winning BARRAYAR.

First in a rather lengthy series

[Deleted]

Dead Weight: The Tombs - M Todd Gallowglas

The Faerie War is over. Did we win?

This is the first installment of the serialized novel DEAD WEIGHT, set within the world of THE FAERIE WAR.

In "The Tombs," a former military bard, Boy Scout wallows in grief and self-pity in post-war San Francisco. He wants nothing more than to numb his mind and escape from the memories and stories that plague him from his time serving in the U.S. Marines during the war.

However, conflict is brewing once again. Forces from Earth and Faerie seek to use Boy Scout's talents for their own purposes. Will he dance the same old dance, or can he cut the strings both worlds tied to him?

Remember: Not all faerie tales have happy endings.

First in an ongoing series.  This novella is more of a prequel for the series.  My favorite books in the series, by far, are Dead Weight: Warrior Poet and Dead Weight: Search and Destroy.


www.amazon.com/Dead-Weight-Tombs-Tale-Faerie-ebook/dp/B00I6UB1P4/ref=pd_sim_351_4?ie=UTF8&dpID=51SanUPdpaL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_OU01_AC_UL320_SR212%2C320_&refRID=EZPKJD52RXZYFBP5MR7E#nav-subnav

[realityjumper]

Self serving? Totally

Ranger's Homecoming by Karlene Tura Clark. (Fantasy) Bk 1 in a trilogy.

Summary of Book:
In all his long years, Amilmamir had survived wars across the changing landscape. Love and family, animal companions, and a duty to forests and his gods pushed him forward as times changed. Now the elf finds himself with a new love in the very young and energetic Annelise. Not sure he deserves her, or should even consider it; he finds his shell of indifference shattering under her playful charms. But with all the good in his life, a foreign queen threatens to take it all.

An unlikely team ranging from warrior princes and magi to assassins, city defenders and wastrels rally around him as he starts a journey to save his love, his lands, and what remains of his precious memories. Travelling dark tunnels and dungeon paths, fighting creatures changed by magic and alchemy, the hard questions remain: To whom am I loyal? Who is worth living for? Who is worth dying for? And who will stand vigil for an old ranger's homecoming?


Author's Page here with all books 

[Edge]

I'm going to recommend by author, since many do multiple series I enjoy.

Evan Currie
This guy does space opera primarily. His Odyssey One series is based on humanity discovering FTL travel and alien species and the fallout therefrom. On Silver Wings is set in a similar reality, not quite the same, but focuses on a team of fighter pilots rather than the crew of a intergalactic vessel. Steam Legion is just plain cool - a female Spartan soldier uses Roman-era versions of Steampunk tech to save the Library of Alexandria. I haven't read his other series (SEAL Team 13 and Scourwind Legacy) so if you do and like them let me know!

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Garrett Robinson
His Underrealm series (split into two main stories, The Nightblade Epic and The Academy Journals) is a fairly typical and slightly-unnecessarily verbose fantasy story mostly focusing on his versions of wizards. Still, despite the sometimes awkward use of language and dialogue and the rather unusual (or maybe just old-fashioned) forms of address and behavior, I found the story engaging enough to finish all of the currently-available books.

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Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire is my third-favorite author to tell modern fantasy stories about fey - only behind M. Todd Gallowglas and Jim Butcher, and there are definitely times she's beaten Butcher to the punch. Her October Daye stories follow the titular October, a half-fey in a modern California setting having to deal with the struggles of both her heritages and the schemings of those around her. I haven't read any of her other series, unfortunately. Let me know what you think if you do.

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Jim Butcher
I'm willing to bet 95% of everyone here knows who Jim Butcher is, or at least knows of his The Dresden Files series; I'm linking him for the purposes of advertising his two lesser-known series. Codex Alera is, in his own world, "the Lost Roman Legion meets Pokemon", and it works brilliantly. Cinder Spires is his take on the steampunk genre, and features crazy wizards who cast their magic by pulling energy through their souls and talking cats.

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Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw
Yes, THAT Yahtzee. He's written two books. Mogworld is the story of an NPC in an MMO who is really dissatisfied with his lot in life. Jam is about an apocalypse in Australia... and it involves jam. Who'da thunk.

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Susan Ee
Her lone series is the End of Days trilogy, involving a post-apocalypse (coulda seen that one coming, huh?) caused by angels (wait what?), and the survivors dealing with the results.

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Jasper Fforde
Fforde wrote the Thursday Next series, a story focusing on a character with the ability to literally read herself into a story and interact with the characters therein. Gets a bit meta at points - when she meets her own literary counterpart, for example - but a very fun, very smart series with a lot of easter eggs for classics-savvy readers. He's done other series too, but I haven't read them. Once again, recommendations welcome.

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Dave Gross
Gross is one of the authors for Pathfinder Tales, Paizo's partially-in-house and in-setting book publication series. He's most well known for his Radovan and the Count series, currently five books starting Count Varian Jeggare, a Half-Elf mage and nobleman with an eye for adventure, and his bodyguard Radovan, a brawling, street-savvy bruiser of a Tiefling. A few of his short stories starring the pair are also posted on Paizo's blog, and are linked from the wiki.

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Kevin Hearne
Imagine if Harry Dresden was an Irish-born immortal druid from the early days of Catholicism instead of a street-smart wizard from the mean streets of Chicago, and you have Atticus O'Sullivan, the Iron Druid. If that isn't enough to convince you to look into this one, he has an awesome talking dog and a badass staff-wielding partner/apprentice as his main supporting cast.

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Christopher Kellen
Another in the list of "typical fantasy" authors, Kellen's Elements of Sorcery and Arbiter's Codex series focus on a magical world on the brink of yet another inevitable apocalypse. Despite this I enjoyed it immensely. The former focuses on mages, as you'd guess, while the latter focuses on Arbiters, which are basically arcane paladins.

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R. L. King
Yet another Urban Fantasy in the vein of Butcher and Kearne. This one is "what if Harry Dresden was an older, slightly cantankerous teacher as well as a wizard?". Pretty fun, though I've only read the first one. This one's on my to-do list to finish.

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K.R. Martin
Only one book out by this guy, Micro God, the tale of an immortal having to deal with the fact that mortals all around him just keep dying. I mostly recommend him because one, I enjoyed the book, and two, I really like his YouTube show, The Book Was Better.

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Brian McClellan
This guy's flagship series is The Powder Mage series - yes, you heard me right, gunslinging mages. It's as awesome as it sounds. Check it out.

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Elizabeth McCoy
The only one of her books I've read is Queen of Roses, the tale of an A.I. that manages a cruise spaceship while a whodunnit unfolds around (inside?) her. She's apparently got a small array of fantasy titles as well, none of which I've read. Let me know.

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Garth Nix
I've read two of Nix's series - The Old Kingdom (also known as the Abhorsen series) and Keys to the Kingdom. Both are highly, highly recommended, and A new Old Kingdom book is coming out this fall! Let me know what you think of his other series if you've read them.

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Frances Pauli
Her main series are yet another fey-heavy set of tales - The Changeling Race and Kingdoms Gone, mostly focusing on the mortal descendants of fey dalliances or magic. If you like Gallowglas, Pauli is credited as co-author on Dead Weight: Warrior Poet, so check her out.

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Richard Roberts
Hey, do you like The Incredibles? How about a story where the heroes and villains from that movie operated openly? If either of those were "yes!", you will probably love his Please Don't Tell My Parents series. As you might have guessed, it focuses on the children of superheroes who, through a series of accidents and antics, become supervillains. Yeah. It's a TON of fun.

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Brandon Sanderson
If you haven't heard of him before, you are missing a LOT. Everything this man touches is solid gold. Mistborn. The Stormlight Archive. Reckoners. Elantris. Warbreaker. The Rithmatist. Infinity Blade. And more. If his name is on it, read it. I cannot recommend it more.

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Patricia C. Wrede
While a bit of a simpler series intended for younger readers, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles is nonetheless rather entertaining and a unique take on the old "dragons and princesses" myth cycle. There's a lot of fun in this one. And it's completely to blame for Megan liking making Cherries Jubilee.

[onivel]

Diana Gabaldon - Outlander Series .. First book is Outlander... time travel 1700s Scotland... I have read the full series and moved onto a spinoff series. Story is told from the woman's perspective of a twenty something post WWII British woman who finds herself whisked away through some standing stones to 200 years in the past. Fencing, fighting, chases, escapes, true love.. what more could you ask for  

Christopher Moore - Hilarious writer. Perfect light reading for fun and laughs. Featuring titles such as Bite Me: A Love Story.. and its follow up You Suck. he also penned one of my favorite tales - A Dirty Job (You get to meet Badhbh and the rest of the Morrigan sisters ). The story of the beta male. And not to be forgotten is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christs' Childhood Pal   

[Garage Trashcan]

Jun 30, 2016 11:34:06 GMT -5 onivel said:

Diana Gabaldon - Outlander Series .. First book is Outlander... time travel 1700s Scotland... I have read the full series and moved onto a spinoff series. Story is told from the woman's perspective of a twenty something post WWII British woman who finds herself whisked away through some standing stones to 200 years in the past. Fencing, fighting, chases, escapes, true love.. what more could you ask for  

Christopher Moore - Hilarious writer. Perfect light reading for fun and laughs. Featuring titles such as Bite Me: A Love Story.. and its follow up You Suck. he also penned one of my favorite tales - A Dirty Job (You get to meet Badhbh and the rest of the Morrigan sisters ). The story of the beta male. And not to be forgotten is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christs' Childhood Pal   

Double Down on anything Christopher Moore. I haven't read anything of this since high school and I regret not reading more of it. Anyone who was once into (or still is) into the whole "Sexy Vampire" novels should definitely read Bite Me.


Patrick Rothfuss -- The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear.

The first two books of Rothfuss's trilogy need no explanation. They're just damn good fantasy novels.

[Hand_of_Banath]

Seconding Edge's recommendation for Brian Mclellan's Powder Mage Trillogy, one of the most interesting universes I've discovered in recent times.

Raymond E Fiest's Riftwar Saga (Fantasy) and all related fiction - These are the books that got me into fantasy.

The Guns of The Dawn (Fantasy) by Adrian Tchaikovsky - a good, gritty read that follows a young woman's experience of conscription in a industrial-revolution era universe, funny and sad at the same time.

Anything by Bernard Cornwall - My personal favorites are the Starbuck Chronicles and anything featuring Richard Sharpe, his recent Arthurian and Early British pseudo-historical fiction series are great too.

Fortune's Pawn, Honor's Knight and Heaven's Queen by Rachel Bach (SciFi) - Badass chick in powered armor being badass, for three books.

Ghost Flight by Bear Grylls (Action/Thriller)- I got this with store credit from my bookstore loyalty card figuring that if it was utter garbage I would not be out of pocket, a few technical mistakes with millitaria aside, mercenaries and intrigue in the amazon jungle, Gryll's fiction foray was a blast.

Tales of the Ketty Jay Series by Chris Wooding (Action/Fantasy)- steampunk airships with a firefly esque vibe, pure awesome.

Anything by Matthew Rielly - every book plays out like a fast paced action movie, (Scarecrow Series) Shane Schofield AKA Scarecrow is almost my favorite literary character of recent reads, second only to his 2IC Gena Newman - Also, he's an Aussie WOOT

[Garage Trashcan]

Somehow no one mentioned Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. While I haven't read them, I'm throwing thing in here anyway. They're absurd, humorous, and also incredibly well-developed as a whole, creating an interesting universe.

[ladybug]

I think we just assumed everyone knew how great they are.

[Edge]

Yup. Same reason I didn't mention Neil Gaiman or Douglas Adams either.

I only brought Butcher up since he has his two lesser-known series. If I was only wanting to recommend Dresden, I probably wouldn't have mentioned him at all, since I figured most people would be familiar.

That said, if you happen to not... definitely check it out! Discworld is made of all kinds of hilarious awesome.

[ladybug]

Daniel Abraham - The Dagger and the Coin

Five book fantasy series, multiple POV to examine a war and whether weapons or economics is the best weapon to hand. It's more interesting than I make it sound here, though spiders feature heavily as the series goes on and may deter arachnophobes.

[ladybug]

Kate Griffin - Matthew Swift

Two years after his untimely death, Matthew Swift finds himself breathing once again, lying in bed in his London home.

Except that it's no longer his bed, or his home. And the last time this sorcerer was seen alive, an unknown assailant had gouged a hole so deep in his chest that his death was irrefutable...despite his body never being found.

He doesn't have long to mull over his resurrection, though, or the changes that have been wrought upon him. His only concern now is vengeance. Vengeance upon his monstrous killer and vengeance upon the one who brought him back.

Very interesting urban fantasy series with a rather unique narrative voice. I've read the first three of four.

[Edge]

Will Wight
I'm just about to finish the final book in his Traveler's Gate trilogy. Interesting take on spellcasters who draw their power not from esoteric knowledge, innate magical bloodlines, divine inspiration, psychic talents, or deals with otherworldly beings, but rather from separate planes of reality through which they must traverse and be tested. Has some pretty interesting twists and unique choices of magical abilities, and takes a few unexpected turns along the way. Recommended.

[TheGuyThatPlaysAsJames]

Jul 1, 2016 8:43:04 GMT -5 Hand_of_Banath said:

Raymond E Fiest's Riftwar Saga (Fantasy) and all related fiction...

Seconded. I love Feist to death.