Fantasy, SF, and Horror books you'd recommend

[PennyThompson]

I love a lot of William Gibson's stuff, including the Sprawl books, but I think I like Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash even more. It's kind of a parody of Gibsonian cyberpunk, but it's also a hilarious and badass cyberpunk story in its own right.

The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory. He's got esprit up to here. Right now, he is preparing to carry out his third mission of the night. His uniform is black as activated charcoal, filtering the very light out of the air. A bullet will bounce off its arachnofiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door, but excess perspiration wafts through it like a breeze through a freshly napalmed forest. Where his body has bony extremities, the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of telephone books.

That was the first paragraph of the book, and is describing the protagonist -- whose name is Hiro Protagonist -- a mafia-employed pizza delivery driver and freelance hacker

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I love a lot of William Gibson's stuff, including the Sprawl books, but I think I like Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash even more. It's kind of a parody of Gibsonian cyberpunk, but it's also a hilarious and badass cyberpunk story in its own right.



That was the first paragraph of the book, and is describing the protagonist -- whose name is Hiro Protagonist -- a mafia-employed pizza delivery driver and freelance hacker

Snow Crash is awesome, and Cryptonomicon, while it is a fucking doorstopper of a plot if we take into account the diagrams, is a book that I loved back in university. I just don't see myself recommending Neal Stephenson because he has the same John Katzenbach syndrome that Katzenbach didn't heal himself from until he wrote What Comes Next: his stories usually end in disappointment.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Another great series is Eric Flint's 1632: Ring of Fire.
The premise is a chunk of West Virgina experiences a temporal anomaly and a sphere with a 5 mile radius has been transported back to 1632. It just so happens to contain the entire town of Grantsville. So a few thousand ordinary people have to figure out how to survive in the middle of the 30 Years War.

The author doesn't play the usual "Our technology awes the locals who start to worship us" or "with our tech we militarily dominate everyone". They have to forge alliances and work with other people.

The really interesting thing for writers is he opened up the world. You can write stories in the universe and they can become cannon.
There are anthologies of short stories, all cannon, which were paid work by fans.
They have "the grid" which is a list of every "uptimer" that came back in the "ring of fire". If no one has a claim on a character, you can write a story about them and submit it.
Also, several of the short story authors graduated to writing their own novels in the world or co-authoring them with Flint.

It opens things up to some awesome side stories. One really good novella is about Bach's great uncle. He discovers Bach's music, falls in love with it, but realizes that Bach will never be born, so he sets out to promote his works anyway.

 

[Britva415]

As a fan of William Gibson I'd suggest people to read the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" first before reading Neuromancer. Johnny Mnemonic is a much better introduction to William Gibson because his prose has the saturation levels, the brightness, and the contrast way too high, like beyond the limit of 100 most screens have. If you manage to survive Johnny Mnemonic, you are ready to read Neuromancer.

I like this recommendation. As long as one has already got out Gibson's Burning Chrome anthology in order to read Johnny Mnemonic, one might as well do the rest of the stories in there too, but most especially the Burning Chrome short story, New Rose Hotel, and The Winter Market. These four are the most relevant to Neuromancer, arguably taking place in the same universe and plying the same themes.

One should also be aware that the original short stories are basically nothing like the oddly distorted and Hollywoodized movies of Johnny Mnemonic and New Rose Hotel, so, any preconceptions based on those, or on Keanu Reeves and Willem Dafoe, should be left at the door.

 

[Volk359]

Anything by Alan Dean Foster, particularly his earlier works. The Spellsinger series is a great fantasy story. Ice Rigger was his first sci-fi book that I read and really enjoyed it. I’ve read it four or five times now, including the two sequels.

Rendezvous with Rama, great sci-fi book by Arthur C. Clark. It’d make a great movie, in fact it’s rumored that Morgan Freeman had been approached. That was several years ago, though.

 

[SmilingLez]

I loved The Riverworld series by Philip José Farmer

 

[PennyThompson]

I just don't see myself recommending Neal Stephenson because he has the same John Katzenbach syndrome that Katzenbach didn't heal himself from until he wrote What Comes Next: his stories usually end in disappointment.

Personally I kind of liked Stephenson's abrupt endings, but I can absolutely see why someone might hate them

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is also delightful, there's some racial and ethnic identity stuff that are sort of reductionist, but I think that kind of stems from its setting's neo-Victorian sensibilities and needn't be taken literally?

 

[yowser]

For those keeping score at home, over 90 books in a very short time. Rough list (likely with omissions/errors when info was incomplete) appended below.

A more elegantly displayed list is in the 'SciFi' collection (upper left tab under 'all collections') at the Master AH influential booklist at https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Litbooks

1984
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy Becky Chambers
A Desolation Called Peace
A Handmaid's Tale.
A Head Full of Ghosts, Paul Tremblay
A Master of Djinn Djélí Clark
A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built Becky Chambers
A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin
All Clear
All My Sins Remembered
Artificial Condition Martha Well
Assassin Trilogy Robin Hobb
Before the Golden Age
Blackout Connie Willis
Deadly Education (The Scholomance trilogy) Naomi Novik
Death of the Author Nnedi Okorafor
Declare Tim Powers
Diamond Age Neal Stephenson
Discworld Terry Pratchett
Dream Cycle H. P. Lovecraft
Dune, Frank Herbert
Ender's Game
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
First and Second Chronicles Thomas Covenant
Floating Dragon
Fred the Vampire Accountant
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost Story Peter Straub
Goblin Quest Jim C. Hines
Good Intentions Elliot Kay
Hemlock & Silver T. Kingfisher
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galazy Douglas Adams
Home for Wayward Children Seanan McGuire
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Innsmouth Legacy Ruthanna Emry
It Stephen King
Klara and the Sun Ishiguro Kazuo
Kushiel's Dart
Laundry Charles Stross
Legends & Lattes Travis Baldree
Light From Uncommon Stars Ryka Aoki
Malazan Book of the Fallen Steven Erikson
Malevil" Robert Merle
Miles Vorkosigan Lois McMaster Bujold
Mindbridge
Mistborn and Skyward Sanderson
Mortal Instruments series Cassandra Clare
Murderbot
Neuromancer William Gibson
Player of Games Banks
Red Mars Kim Stanley Robinson
Red Rising Pierce Brown
Red Sister Mark Lawrence
Ring Koji Suzuki
Ringworld
Shadowland-nice dark spin on magicians
Some Desperate Glory Emily Tesh
Stranger in a Strange Land
SuperPowereds Drew Hayes
Swan Song
The Broken Earth Trilogy N.K. Jemisin
The Caves of Steel Isaac Asimov.
The Chronicles of Amber Roger Zelazny
The Culture Series Iain M. Banks
The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Dragon Riders of Pern Anne McCaffery
The Earthsea Trilogy, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Everlasting Alix E. Harrow
The Expanse
The Forever Peace
The Forever War Joe Haldeman
The Gunslinger, Stephen King
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Locked Tomb
The Long Price Quartet, Daniel Abraham
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet Becky Chambers
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Men and the Mirror" Ross Rocklynne
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Phenomenon
The Prestige, Christopher Priest
The Ship Who Sang series
They Thirst Robert McCammon
This Is How You Lose The Time War Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Usher's Passing Robert McCammon
Vanishing Hitchhiker Jan Harold Brunvand
Victories Greater than Death Charlie Jane Anders
War Day" Whitley Strieber
Wolf's Hour Robert McCammon

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Gordon's "Childe" cycle and Weber's "Honor Harrington" series.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

For those keeping score at home, over 90 books in a very short time. Rough list (likely with omissions/errors when info was incomplete) appended below.

A more elegantly displayed list is in the 'SciFi' collection (upper left tab under 'all collections') at the Master AH influential booklist at https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Litbooks

1984
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy Becky Chambers
A Desolation Called Peace
A Handmaid's Tale.
A Head Full of Ghosts, Paul Tremblay
A Master of Djinn Djélí Clark
A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built Becky Chambers
A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin
All Clear
All My Sins Remembered
Artificial Condition Martha Well
Assassin Trilogy Robin Hobb
Before the Golden Age
Blackout Connie Willis
Deadly Education (The Scholomance trilogy) Naomi Novik
Death of the Author Nnedi Okorafor
Declare Tim Powers
Diamond Age Neal Stephenson
Discworld Terry Pratchett
Dream Cycle H. P. Lovecraft
Dune, Frank Herbert
Ender's Game
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
First and Second Chronicles Thomas Covenant
Floating Dragon
Fred the Vampire Accountant
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost Story Peter Straub
Goblin Quest Jim C. Hines
Good Intentions Elliot Kay
Hemlock & Silver T. Kingfisher
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galazy Douglas Adams
Home for Wayward Children Seanan McGuire
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Innsmouth Legacy Ruthanna Emry
It Stephen King
Klara and the Sun Ishiguro Kazuo
Kushiel's Dart
Laundry Charles Stross
Legends & Lattes Travis Baldree
Light From Uncommon Stars Ryka Aoki
Malazan Book of the Fallen Steven Erikson
Malevil" Robert Merle
Miles Vorkosigan Lois McMaster Bujold
Mindbridge
Mistborn and Skyward Sanderson
Mortal Instruments series Cassandra Clare
Murderbot
Neuromancer William Gibson
Player of Games Banks
Red Mars Kim Stanley Robinson
Red Rising Pierce Brown
Red Sister Mark Lawrence
Ring Koji Suzuki
Ringworld
Shadowland-nice dark spin on magicians
Some Desperate Glory Emily Tesh
Stranger in a Strange Land
SuperPowereds Drew Hayes
Swan Song
The Broken Earth Trilogy N.K. Jemisin
The Caves of Steel Isaac Asimov.
The Chronicles of Amber Roger Zelazny
The Culture Series Iain M. Banks
The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Dragon Riders of Pern Anne McCaffery
The Earthsea Trilogy, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Everlasting Alix E. Harrow
The Expanse
The Forever Peace
The Forever War Joe Haldeman
The Gunslinger, Stephen King
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Locked Tomb
The Long Price Quartet, Daniel Abraham
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet Becky Chambers
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Men and the Mirror" Ross Rocklynne
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Phenomenon
The Prestige, Christopher Priest
The Ship Who Sang series
They Thirst Robert McCammon
This Is How You Lose The Time War Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Usher's Passing Robert McCammon
Vanishing Hitchhiker Jan Harold Brunvand
Victories Greater than Death Charlie Jane Anders
War Day" Whitley Strieber
Wolf's Hour Robert McCammon

Well done!

 

[JennyCapricorn]

I can only recommend fantasy and the only ones of those return to are the Pratchett novels, Steven Brust’s Khaavren Romances - which are the Musketeer novels with elves - Brust and Emma Bull’s Freedom and Necessity, and Patricia Wredes various young adult fantasies.

 

[YmaOHyd]

On horror, Robert W. Chambers's short stories "The Repairer of Reputations", "In the Court of the Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign". All three were major Lovecraft influences, and "Court of the Dragon" and "Yellow Sign" in particular are as good as any of Lovecraft's short fiction.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

For those keeping score at home, over 90 books in a very short time. Rough list (likely with omissions/errors when info was incomplete) appended below.

A more elegantly displayed list is in the 'SciFi' collection (upper left tab under 'all collections') at the Master AH influential booklist at https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Litbooks

1984
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy Becky Chambers
A Desolation Called Peace
A Handmaid's Tale.
A Head Full of Ghosts, Paul Tremblay
A Master of Djinn Djélí Clark
A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built Becky Chambers
A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin
All Clear
All My Sins Remembered
Artificial Condition Martha Well
Assassin Trilogy Robin Hobb
Before the Golden Age
Blackout Connie Willis
Deadly Education (The Scholomance trilogy) Naomi Novik
Death of the Author Nnedi Okorafor
Declare Tim Powers
Diamond Age Neal Stephenson
Discworld Terry Pratchett
Dream Cycle H. P. Lovecraft
Dune, Frank Herbert
Ender's Game
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
First and Second Chronicles Thomas Covenant
Floating Dragon
Fred the Vampire Accountant
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost Story Peter Straub
Goblin Quest Jim C. Hines
Good Intentions Elliot Kay
Hemlock & Silver T. Kingfisher
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galazy Douglas Adams
Home for Wayward Children Seanan McGuire
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Innsmouth Legacy Ruthanna Emry
It Stephen King
Klara and the Sun Ishiguro Kazuo
Kushiel's Dart
Laundry Charles Stross
Legends & Lattes Travis Baldree
Light From Uncommon Stars Ryka Aoki
Malazan Book of the Fallen Steven Erikson
Malevil" Robert Merle
Miles Vorkosigan Lois McMaster Bujold
Mindbridge
Mistborn and Skyward Sanderson
Mortal Instruments series Cassandra Clare
Murderbot
Neuromancer William Gibson
Player of Games Banks
Red Mars Kim Stanley Robinson
Red Rising Pierce Brown
Red Sister Mark Lawrence
Ring Koji Suzuki
Ringworld
Shadowland-nice dark spin on magicians
Some Desperate Glory Emily Tesh
Stranger in a Strange Land
SuperPowereds Drew Hayes
Swan Song
The Broken Earth Trilogy N.K. Jemisin
The Caves of Steel Isaac Asimov.
The Chronicles of Amber Roger Zelazny
The Culture Series Iain M. Banks
The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Dragon Riders of Pern Anne McCaffery
The Earthsea Trilogy, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Everlasting Alix E. Harrow
The Expanse
The Forever Peace
The Forever War Joe Haldeman
The Gunslinger, Stephen King
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Locked Tomb
The Long Price Quartet, Daniel Abraham
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet Becky Chambers
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Men and the Mirror" Ross Rocklynne
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Phenomenon
The Prestige, Christopher Priest
The Ship Who Sang series
They Thirst Robert McCammon
This Is How You Lose The Time War Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Usher's Passing Robert McCammon
Vanishing Hitchhiker Jan Harold Brunvand
Victories Greater than Death Charlie Jane Anders
War Day" Whitley Strieber
Wolf's Hour Robert McCammon

Keep doing that and we'll have a Literotica's Author's Hangout Library of Book Recommendations.

Full disclosure: as a librarian, I had a tiny orgasm reading this.

 

[PennyThompson]

Keep doing that and we'll have a Literotica's Author's Hangout Library of Book Recommendations.

Full disclosure: as a librarian, I had a tiny orgasm reading this.

go on...

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Keep doing that and we'll have a Literotica's Author's Hangout Library of Book Recommendations.

Full disclosure: as a librarian, I had a tiny orgasm reading this.

Plot Bunny, 12 o'clock high and closing fast...

 

[ruddygore]

Ringworld also wasn't mentioned, by Larry Niven, if we're talking about classics. Maybe not so much the latter installments but the first book is really good.

In terms of horror, I can recommend The Phenomenon. I don't know if it has been published as an actual novel, but you can read the whole thing here. (It has nothing to do with the 2020 movie).

For Larry Niven short stories, "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex." Explains why Superman can't marry Lois Lane.

 

[Areala-chan]

And speaking of warrior nuns [...]

You rang...?

All joking aside, the Warrior Nun series is enjoyable, but has pretty much fuck-all to do with the source material outside of, "Nuns kicking ass." Barry Lyga spent a short time in his early career writing the Warrior Nun comics in the 90s, and it's well worth taking the time to track down his contributions. The Warrior Nun Areala / Scorpio Rose four-issue crossover mini-series is quite good as well. But maybe I'm biased, given my user name and all.

 

[Areala-chan]

Full disclosure: as a librarian, I had a tiny orgasm reading this.

Full disclosure: as a bookseller, these hands were made for this task.

 

[ruddygore]

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross and the follow ons.. Dark humor where an equivalent to MI6 is charged with keeping the people from summoning the elder gods.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Time lagged/jet lagged time travelers in 1890s England.

The Marching Morons and The Little Black Bag by C. M. Kornbluth. He doesn't have a very high opinion of humanity.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

For Larry Niven short stories, "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex." Explains why Superman can't marry Lois Lane.

Not sure if it's a coincidence or not... but your username reminded me of a great fantasy series.
The River of Dancing Gods by Jack Chalker

The character that instigates the action is Throckmorton P. Ruddygore.
The premise is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Hence, God created the world, and the equal and opposite reaction created another world, separated from ours by The Sea of Dreams.
The Angels convinced God to let them have that one. Our world was created by a perfect being, so it's perfect. This one was run by lesser beings...so...it's a little frayed around the edges. So to deal with the fraying they have "The Rules". The original rules were written by great beings, so they are great. Later rules were written by lesser beings so... they are... well... lesser.
Each chapter starts with one of the rules, and they are all the various fantasy tropes. "All adventuring parties will consist of at least 7 people, one of whom can't be fully trusted."

It's great fun and plays with the tropes of the fantasy genre while loving them at the same time.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Not sure if it's a coincidence or not... but your username reminded me of a great fantasy series.
The River of Dancing Gods by Jack Chalker

It's probably OK for people reading this forum, but be aware that Chalker really, really liked writing erotically charged sex change (and physical transformations in general, but sex change).

--Annie

 

[Comshaw]

As a fan of William Gibson I'd suggest people to read the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" first before reading Neuromancer. Johnny Mnemonic is a much better introduction to William Gibson because his prose has the saturation levels, the brightness, and the contrast way too high, like beyond the limit of 100 most screens have. If you manage to survive Johnny Mnemonic, you are ready to read Neuromancer.

I read Johnny Mnemonic when I read his short story anthology "Burning Chrome" in the late 80's. The movie tried to do it justice, and almost succeeded. The pictures were much better when I read the story.

Comshaw

 

[SugarStorm]

Full disclosure: as a librarian, I had a tiny orgasm reading this.

Full disclosure: as a bookseller, these hands were made for this task.

Alright - off to a room, you two.

 

[StillStunned]

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence, is the first in a fantasy trilogy with badass warrior nuns. All three books are pretty fabulous.

I enjoyed his Prince of Thorns series. Very grim, very unlikable protagonist, but the ending brings it all together very nicely.

And the Red Queen's War too. It has a veneer of lightheartedness, but underneath it's just as grim.

 

[StillStunned]

For anyone recommending The Lord of the Rings: "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" by Tad Williams is the closest approximation to it that I've come across in terms of beauty and depth of worldbuilding. But it's also an excellent story in its own right, very compelling with barely any sag.