Got Any Fiction Recommendations?

[JustARandomPanda]

Here is one book I plan to read

 

What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson

 

Note: I detested the movie which I saw when it first came out in the Theater. I've begun the book and already it's different (thank god!) from the movie. I haven't gotten far enough into it yet but here's something one of the Amazon reviewers said about the book

 

One of Matheson's unique qualities as a fantasy writer has always been his almost scientific approach to the supernatural. Here, Matheson makes Heaven and Hell seem like a scientific, natural process, and one of the joys of the book is discerning all the intricate "rules" of how everything works. (That's another area where the movie falls short.) What needs to be kept in mind, however, is that Matheson doesn't do this just for entertainment purposes. In the novel's introduction, he tells his readers that the characters are the only fictional component of the novel, and that almost everything else is based on research. The book even includes a lengthy bibliography. Thus, the afterlife that Matheson describes isn't some fantasy world he concocted from his own head, but something he believes to be an accurate description of reality. Some people may wonder, at this point, about Matheson's religious background. He was raised a Christian Scientist, but gradually developed what he calls his own religion, taking elements from many sources. One of the book's main influences, I believe, is eighteenth-century Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg

[Mal]

Richard Matheson

I knew I knew that name (thanks Google) Good author.

 

You must read the original edition of "I Am Legend"

while it was a great movie it's a BETTER book

[randyattwood]

How can I not recommend my own book? https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/92795 Then and Now: The Harmony of the Instantaneous All. Stan Nelson, in his forties, is mired in nostalgia for the 1960s and the woman he lost then. He figures his only way out is to write about why he is so frozen. He creates in words the times and characters of then. He locates those characters in the now so they can comment on the veracity of his words about then. Except for the Chinese woman who first introduced him to the Tao.

 

My link

[Mal]

^ well with tags like romance, 1960s, hippies, tao, kansas, peace movement I've grabed a copy

[Seth Ananda]

No one seems to have mentioned Mercurious by Patrik Harpur, thats a great read about the western Alchemical approach...

 

Also An Illuminatus Trilogy, which note is different to The Illuminatus Trilogy. I think of at least the first two as being RAW's finest fiction...

[Mal]

Then and Now: The Harmony of the Instantaneous All.

My link

 

I really enjoyed reading this. Explores the relationships of people doing things I find interesting (being at uni, doing plays, learning about themselves, includes a1st exposure to Tai Chi)

 

Was hooked from the 1st chapter

[Taomeow]

Has anyone read The Coming Race (1871), by Edward Bulwer-Lytton? I got interested because someone in the know asserts it's as much nonfiction masked as fiction, based on being privy to the plans of secret societies the authors were members of, as Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World." Thinking of checking it out -- anyone know if it's worth it?

[Mal]

I recently read

Everything Matters! by Ron Currie, Jr.

 

On the day that Junior Thibodeau is born, he learns the exact moment when the world will end: 36 years, 168 days, 14 hours, and 23 seconds into the future--pretty heavy news for a newborn. Knowledge of the pending apocalypse--revealed by an omniscient, unnamed "we"--colors Junior's existence from day one and leaves him wondering: "Does anything I do matter?"

 

The end of this story can't be changed - the earth will be destroyed by a comet. But what Junior chooses to do at one point is incredibly beautiful - Excellent book, highly recommend. I absolutely loved it.

[JustARandomPanda]

No one seems to have mentioned Mercurious by Patrik Harpur, thats a great read about the western Alchemical approach...

 

Also An Illuminatus Trilogy, which note is different to The Illuminatus Trilogy. I think of at least the first two as being RAW's finest fiction...

 

Did Robert A. Wilson write "An Illuminatus Trilogy"? I can't find it on Amazon.

[doc benway]

I've been really enjoying Haruki Murakami's "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" - really creative and engaging read. i also read Kafka on the Shore. His stuff is existential and transformative. He seems to go through the process of change as he creates. He reminds me of Jodorowsky in that way.

 

Also - Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - brilliant fiction!

[Enishi]

I've recently read through all the currently released books of the 'Gone' series by Michael Grant.

 

It's surprisingly violent for a Young Adult series. 'After the end' type stories in which civilization has collapsed tend to be quite fascinating for me as of late.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Enishi

[Taomeow]

Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura

 

Stark simplicity of the writing, mind-bending complexity of the moral, ethical, transcendental implications.

 

O-fune-sama! Now this has become my word too for all kinds of phenomena I encounter or contemplate that involve contacts with higher, incomprehensible powers. O-fune-sama... which can roughly be translated as "her majesty the shipwreck" or "the venerated lord shipwreck," something like that.

 

Don't read this (short) novel if you're depressed.

[Cat Pillar]

Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura

 

Stark simplicity of the writing, mind-bending complexity of the moral, ethical, transcendental implications.

 

O-fune-sama! Now this has become my word too for all kinds of phenomena I encounter or contemplate that involve contacts with higher, incomprehensible powers. O-fune-sama... which can roughly be translated as "her majesty the shipwreck" or "the venerated lord shipwreck," something like that.

 

Don't read this (short) novel if you're depressed.

 

Great...had me all interested and just had to throw that last part in.

[Taomeow]

Great...had me all interested and just had to throw that last part in.

 

Sorry... Let me rephrase a bit. It can cause heartache in a feeling individual. I haven't cried over a book since I was, like, 8 or 9, and these days (when I read fiction only once in a blue moon and mostly stick to nonfiction) it takes a lot -- a helluva lot of authenticity -- to make me empathize with protagonists to the point of a genuine emotional reaction. I know how fiction is "made," fabricated, I see through the veils of the plot into the gears and gimmicks that make it work or falter, so it takes something more than skill, talent, and verbal prowess to get past my somewhat detached, "clinical" knowledge of what the author is "trying" to do and touch my heart. (Of course if a work of fiction has no genuine talent behind it, I just drop it a few pages into the disappointment -- a few paragraphs even, or a few words -- "hooks" don't hook me, worst come to worst I'll just read a bunch of pages ahead to find out what the big hoopla was all about and then drop it). So, if I read something and people come alive and their joys and sorrows pull me in, the "pulleys" have to be somehow organic, I detest artificial drama both in literature and in real life. So, Shipwrecks has those organic tragic-makers that life itself applies from time to time -- when her mood is dark. I'm not sure if it's "depressing" when it's "fascinatingly tragic" -- but I had to issue a warning so as not to darken someone's already dark outlook. But of course the level to which any book can have an impact on any particular reader's emotions varies greatly.

[Chang]

For those of you have not yet delved into the fictional medieval Japanese world of Lian Hearn then I can recommend you make a start with the first book in her "Tales of the Otori" series.

 

Across the Nightingale Floor

 

Book Description

In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the murderous warlord, Iida Sadamu, surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. Brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people, Takeo has learned only the ways of peace. Why, then, does he possess the deadly skills that make him so valuable to the sinister Tribe? These supernatural powers will lead him to his violent destiny within the walls of Inuyama - and to an impossible longing for a girl who can never be his. His journey is one of revenge and treachery, honour and loyalty, beauty and magic, and the passion of first love.

[ralis]

I started reading Radix again and am considering downloading from Audible.com another part of the Radix Tetrad. Attanasio has an awesome imagination.

[GrandmasterP]

Phil Rickman... Merrily Watkins series is super and his two hermetic slanted Dr Dee books Bones of Avalon and The Heresy of Dr Dee are well worth a look.

Robert Rankin for surreal Taoism and only then if you like laughing out loud.

Anything by Rankin, and there are over 30 books of his to choose from.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut. Original, cynical, sometimes hilarious and very clever anti-war sci-fi book. You'll either hate it or go on a Vonnegut binge.

[GreytoWhite]

I went on a Vonnegut binge but I'm pretty sure my first book of his was Breakfast of Champions.

[Mal]

Access February 2013's newsletter (with the free ebook code) from

Phoenix Pick by clicking below:

 

http://ArcManor.hosted.phplist.com/lists/lt.php?id=Zx8ACh4MAR9SVQUN

 

It's Arc of the Dream, VERY enjoyable

 

How did Attanasio get so wise about "this stuff" ?

Edited February 16, 2013 by Mal Stainkey

[GreytoWhite]

Man Attanasio is bloody brilliant.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Ghost-Dancer-Attanasio/dp/006109935X/ref=la_B0034Q2RSA_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361036265&sr=1-15

[Mal]

Radix and the novels that followed found their way to the page because, on Tuesday 27 April 1976, I dreamed I was dead. The wind snapping at my hair, I lay in a metallic coffin propped upright. I could see the open lid with a body length mirror affixed on the inside, presumably to reflect my ghost back into the coffin when the lid closed, keeping my wraith from wandering. In the dream, it reflected my naked, traumatized body covered with wounds, red medallions, and numerous iridescent bruises like shadows of a distant crowd gathering behind the veil of my skin. Fear like a ventriloquist moved cold hands along my back as I watched the people I know approach, climbing a steep tumulus under a sky of vivid blue and hurrying clouds. One at a time, they viewed my corpse, kissed my brow and squeezed my hand, wishing me well on my exit through the final doorway. This dream haunted me with fathomless patience, days and then weeks, saturating me with its soulful science until I ended my academic studies, dropped out of the doctoral program in literature I adored, and began writing my gnomic novels. These are two poems I composed to memorialize the dream that changed my life:

 

Last Vision

When you find yourself

Silent in a coffin of silver

And like the thunder you begin

Too late to remember

The light

When you find yourself

Dressed in amulets of blood

And the blue legions turn

To salute you

Do not look

For me

The mirrors will have closed.

 

View from a Coffin

I stand

In a doorway

Counting those who have known me

As they herd up

Their invisible mountain.

Clouds scour

The far wall.

I cannot fall

Awake. I bathe

In the blue paint

And offer what no one

Can resist. I am kissed,

I am kissed.

From my hand

A keyhole drops

Into each pocket.

 

http://www.radixtetrad.com/poetry.html

 

I'm going to have a go at last legends of earth. I've had these books for a while but they only seem like "the right book to read" at "certain times" (I took several tries to get through the 1st chapter of Arc)

[Mal]

Recently read this on holidays

 

The Martian

by Andy Weir

 

REALLY enjoyable, it starts like this

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

Log entry: Sol 6

I'm pretty much fucked.

That's my considered opinion.

Fucked.

Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life, and it's turned into a nightmare. I don't even know who'll read this. I guess someone will find it eventually. Maybe 100 years from now. For the record... I didn't die on Sol 6. Certainly the rest of the crew thought I did, and I can't blame them. Maybe there'll be a day of national mourning for me, and my Wikipedia page will say "Mark Watney is the only human being to have died on Mars." And it'll be right, probably. Cause I'll surely die here. Just not on Sol 6 when everyone thinks I did. Let's see...where do I begin?

 

and IMO it just kept on getting better and better It's the story of an astronaut as he tries to survive after being left alone on Mars. Great twists, realistic science.

 

Unfortunately I just read that "The Martian will no longer be available for digital purchase after April 30, 2013 A print edition will be coming out in February 2014." The kindle was only $.99 and I felt really bad that it wasn't at least $19.95. Totally enjoyable, if you happen to come across a print copy I recommend it, currently only available as an audio book

Edited May 20, 2013 by Mal Stainkey

[hydrogen]

Ganesha Goes to Lunch: Classics from Mystic India (Mandala Classics) [Paperback]

My first introduction to Indian mythology. An easy read and entertaining.

[Chang]

Try the The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud. Four books in all - The Amulet Of Samarkand , The Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's Gate and The Ring of Solomon.

 

The Bartimaeus Sequence^[1] is a fantasy series by Jonathan Stroud consisting of a trilogy published from 2003 to 2005 and a prequel novel published in 2010. The titular character, Bartimaeus, is a five-thousand-year-old djinni, a spirit of approximately mid-level power (fourth). The story follows the career of a teenage magician Nathaniel (later known as John Mandrake), and the alternative history of the peak of London's power as a magical oligarchy, through the eyes of the djinni Nathaniel first summons.

The series is mostly told from the perspective of Bartimaeus, although the Bartimaeus Trilogy also makes use of the perspectives of the magician Nathaniel and the commoner Kitty Jones. There is also one short chapter featuring the viewpoint of a foliot called Simpkin.

 

Hugely enjoyable.