Stats for nerds
4recommend
8mentions
6people
2013–2024years
75% recommend13% neutral13% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Snowpiercer was indeed sad, but I always assumed my negativity towards it was a result of having already read Hugh Howey's (rather good) Silo Saga, which it seemed to rip off at every turn, only having shifted the X and Y axes.
I came away from it thinking that if I hadn't read the Silo Saga, I might possibly have actually enjoyed Snowpiercer, though definitely nowhere near 95%'s worth.
- Is this constrained to Fantasy? I have a lot of Science Fiction recommendations too, but here's a small list:
Riftwar Cycle (several series) by Raymond E. Feist. - high magic, great overarching themes, enjoyable all around. Most of the characters are exceedingly interesting and many are extremely high powered.
Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross - More of the multiworld thing, but a great twist, also what would you do if you could introduce technology into a medieval world.
Deverry Cycle by Katherine Kerr - Rebirth cycles, immortal main character watches and guides several characters through multiple lifetimes.
Dark Tower series by Stephen King - Great story, ties into almost all of SK's books at some point.
Earthsea by Ursula le Guin - A classic story, epic for sure.
Scavenger Trilogy by K.J Parker - Dark and mysterious. Main character might be good, might be bad, but doesn't remember anything.
- -
A couple good series I ran across on Kindle Unlimited are:
Wayward Pines Series by Blake Crouch. - Like a post-apocolyptic Twin peaks, at least at first. A bit dark, the story bothered me near the end, but still worth the read.
Belial Series by R.D Brady - didn't know what to make of this one at first, "alternate history" (aliens and pyramids type), but it turns out pretty good. involves "Angels" though maybe not in the conventional sense.
Magic 2.0 by Scott Meyer - two books, both very good, highly recommend.
Travelers Gate series by Will Wight (surprisingly good)
Silo Saga by Hugh Howey - currently reading, but great writing, IMO.
There are even more Science Fiction books/series I'd highly recommend, but if you aren't into it, I won't bother you with em.
- I've read about 2/3 of the Silo Saga and I can't second this recommendation enough. It was originally just a novelette, but it was so popular on Amazon that he was compelled to write more and so far, it's all excellent.
- The Silo Saga, by Hugh Howey. Originally self-published and released as short Kindle "Singles", the first section of the series is collected in "Wool". The Omnibus collects the first five singles, and is $6 on Amazon[1]... but if you want to test it out, the first single he released is still available for free in the Kindle store. It ranks among the best zero dollars I spent all year.
Behind that, I really enjoyed "White Noise" by Don Delillo, though I did have some problems with characterization (basically, all the characters were the author), and Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Part-One-Hugh-Howey-ebook/dp/B005...
[2] http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Silo-Saga-ebook/dp/B0071X...
- I have an awfully long commute each day (around 3 hours) and spend most of the time reading fiction (scifi and fantasy).
I do this for two reasons:
1. It's fun.
2. In fiction authors have the liberty to go dip shit crazy with their possibilities. They can even change the inertia of the universe they are in.
I also think reading this kind of books helps to think outside the box and often helps to get a fresh view on problems I'm working on.
It also helps me relax my mind while reading, which I feel is a prerequisite for it to work properly.
PS: here are some of the works I particularly enjoyed lately:
Howey, Hugh.: Wool (and the entire Silo saga, very good read); Sanderson, Brandon: Mistborn: The Final Empire and the sequels (Sanderson is a genius when it comes to creating consistent universes); Phillips, Richard: The second ship (trilogy, contemporary argumented with alien technology); Corey, James S. A.: Leviathan Awakes (expanse series)
- Not reading it currently, but I can't let a thread like this go by without suggesting the Silo Saga by Hugh Howey. The first book in the series is "Wool: Part 1", which (last I looked) was a free Kindle book on Amazon, and I'd graduated to purchasing the rest of the series before finishing the second chapter.
It's a phenomenal series, and I'm a little embarrassed that it took me so long to find it.
Aside from that, I had started (before his passing) an Elmore Leonard marathon with the goal of completing every single novel that Leonard has ever written. If you're ordinarily a sci-fi reader, perhaps this isn't the best suggestion, but I find the wit, terseness and change of pace extremely refreshing.
