You know what I could really do with right now?

[dolorous_ett]

I would love to have a new and wonderful long SF or fantasy book (series of books would also be fine) that I've just discovered and could wallow in.

What I really want is to read something like Harry Potter, Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space series, Robin Hobb's Assassin series or A Song of Ice and Fire - and not just reread it either, but

Comments

[st_aurafina]

I wish I could read Harry Potter again for the first time!

Katherine Kerr shot her mouth off about fanfic, but her books have some really interesting world building. Not perfect, but at least as good as A Song of Ice and Fire, I think. And a long, long series of books.

lilacsigil says "Julian May, even though she's terrible at endings." I think I agree there, too.

Then again, the last book I recced you, from memory, was The Historian, so take all of this with a pinch of salt.

[dolorous_ett]

Thank you both! I'll definitely look into both of them.

(and I think I picked up The Historian on a whim so you can't take the blame for that one! I've occasionally wondered about revisiting it - apart from anything else it shows up a lot in second hand book shops - but I never get past about page 3, so I guess it's Not To Be)

[nineveh_uk]

I loved Julian May's Pliocene Saga. Still do. I found Katharine Kerr got boring after the first four books, but liked those a lot.

Not SF/Fantasy, but I can't remember if you've read Patrick O'Brien.

[bookwormsarah]

Twilight?

*ducks*

There are few things as wonderful as finding a new book, loving it, and discovering the author has written many more. Have you read much/any Asimov? Not quite as immersive as some, but I did love them, and there is some brilliant word play in the short stories. I shall keep wracking my brains...

[dolorous_ett]

*hurls hardback copy of Breaking Dawn at your head*

Actually I quite liked Twilight, and got through all of Book 2 and a lot of Book 3 before I gave up as it had at some point ceased to be fun any more.

I still have a dream of going back to finish of my Cold Comfort Farm/Twilight crossover - the trouble is that to do that I will have to reread the Twilight books, and I have so little time at the moment that I really can't spare it to plough through big books that I don't really like that much.

I loved Asimov as a teenager! Perhaps it's time to revisit him...

[jin_fenghuang]

Have you read the 'Coldfire' series by C.S. Friedman?

She has amazing worldbuilding.

[dolorous_ett]

I haven't but from what you say it sounds like maybe I should...

[lareinenoire]

There are only two books out so far, but Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series is excellent from what I've read of it. It's YA steampunk and very well-written. Also, speaking of steampunk, the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger is not necessarily world-changing but at least fluffy and entertaining and the sort of thing that will tide you over until you can find something more immersive.

My current immersion reading of choice is Dorothy Dunnett, who obviously isn't scifi/fantasy, but it does remind me that well-written historical fiction has much the same effect.

[dolorous_ett]

I've never even heard of either of those writers, or read a word of Dorothy Dunnett! This just confirms that I am officially Out of Touch...

(that said, it means I'll get some happy surprises once I finally wise up....)

[lareinenoire]

To be fair, both of them are American and the books are fairly recent, so they may not have been especially publicized in the UK.

Dunnett takes a bit of effort at first, I'll warn you--it took me about three tries to get into the first book of each of her series, but once I was in, I was hooked.

[cloudsinvenice]

I know just the thing: The Stone Dance of the Chameleon trilogy by Ricardo Pinto. Lovely deep, complex worldbuilding and a real sense of... strangeness, of penetrating a world that's very different from ours, yet human nature is still human nature, so the political intrigues are very compelling. Also: canonical slash.