Great fiction books


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On 8/7/2016 at 7:45 PM, UtahTexan said:

"To Kill a Mockingbird" inspired me to become an attorney.

 

That's interesting.  I've often pointed to this book and said,"This is the only book I've read where I liked the movie better."  But there's no accounting for taste.

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8 hours ago, mordorbund said:

I had to pick this up since I taught my kids that "Grandma is a spy". My brother heard them repeat the phrase while they were playing with Legos and I don't think he's looked at my kids or his mom the same way since.

The book is the novel equivalent of a "popcorn flick". I enjoyed it but I probably won't read it again.

Thanks for the recommendation.

not really a book... but in regards to spies; the spy vs spy comic collections (they were published in the MAD magazine), are awesome.

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Avalon by Anya Seton, 1965. Grittily faithful historical fiction set around the year 980 or so in southern Great Britain (England, Wales), Iceland, Greenland, and somewhere on the northeast coast of North America. I have no background in reading historical fiction, but I was riveted by this book. I believe it was well-received at the time it was released. I recommend it to anyone who would like a fictionalized romance using actual historical characters of the period. By "romance", I mean primarily a fictional novel, not some grand love story. Be forewarned, the plotline is unpredictable (much like real life) and doesn't go the direction you might think it should or want it to.

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On July 21, 2016 at 5:36 AM, mirkwood said:

Along with The Uplift War.

 

I like GOT, but you have to be ready to skip past some sex scenes.

I love Brin... And if i recall right hes the guy that coined the term meme, and it is interesting how he applies it in his uplift series. Ilove how he does various races and how the races influence each other.

 

 

for modern sci fi don't forget Timothy Zahn... This guy is up there at the top, not only is he a great story teller but he is squeaky clean too. Best known for being the first guy to expand the star wars universe past the events of Return of the Jedi. ( and introducing one of the best antagonists since darth vader; admiral thrawn). Check out his Conquerer trilogy as well as the Dark Force Rising trilogy, and his COBRA series.  And dont let the stuff that hes written that gets the teenage reader classification fool you either such as his Dragonback series.

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It's his retelling of the Greek story of Psyche and Eros but the focus is actually on Psyche's sister and her reaction to the whole thing. It is fantastic! It's quite understandable. It is fiction, obviously. There is a discussion thread on it down in the book club forum you could read through if you'd like, but it does contain a lot of spoilers. Here's the link to the thread if you're interested: 

 

Edited by Connie
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23 minutes ago, Connie said:

It's his retelling of the Greek story of Psyche and Eros but the focus is actually on Psyche's sister and her reaction to the whole thing. It is fantastic! It's quite understandable. It is fiction, obviously. There is a discussion thread on it down in the book club forum you could read through if you'd like, but it does contain a lot of spoilers. Here's the link to the thread if you're interested: 

 

Many thanks!

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Yup, I've got some!

T. A. Barron's "The Lost Years of Merlin" series and "The Great Tree of Avalon" series, the "Ender's Game" series, plenty of Newberry-winning or honored novels (I recently read Banner in the Sky and boy, was it brilliant), anything by Avi (I really enjoyed the satiric wit of "Nothing but the Truth", the emphasis on finding truth from whence it may come in the "Crispin" series, and much of his other novels).  Of course, you can find great stuff by LDS authors other than Orson Scott Card :D.  Brandon Mull is a genius, and while his "Beyonders" series may draw much from Tolkien and others, it's doesn't feel blatantly derivative at all.  In fact, I feel he weaves LDS themes into his novels in a way never quite accomplished by other LDS writers I've read from, including Card, perhaps because he's targeting a younger audience but even so: his novels are brilliant, insightful reads.

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A Wrinkle in Time - Madelaine L'Engle

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (and its 2 following trilogies) - Stephen R. Donaldson

The Alliance - Orson Scott Card 

Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites series. Yep it's a younger audience at first but the series has gone on so long it's worth reading at any age. 

King Rat - had to read it in high school. Depressing book about pows in ww2. Thought provoking though.Nobody mentioned Watership Down yet? I need to read that.  

 

 

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On ‎29‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 5:49 AM, Laniston said:

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (and its 2 following trilogies) - Stephen R. Donaldson

I love the original trilogy (Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War and The Power that Preserves). They are true classics - I could go on re-reading them all my life.

The Second Chronicles are OK.

It is the Last Chronicles I have trouble with: I thought The Runes of the Earth was good (though not up to the standard of the original 3 books) and Fatal Revenant ends on an almighty cliff-hanger. You can imagine how excited I was to get my hands on Book 3.

What a disappointment. Against All Things Ending was slow and turgid and boooooooring! All anyone does for the first 100 pages is stand about and talk, and it's not "The Council of Elrond" either; it's more like one of those dreary interminable arguments about car insurance people insist on having over lunch or at the pub.

It picks up after a while, but whenever the pace slows he characters huddle together again to discuss car insurance. The ending, I must say, is rather nice, and Donaldson improvises another doozy of a cliff-hanger.

Well the final book The Last Dark is on my bookshelf now. I've tried, but I've not yet managed to get past Chapter 2. I fully intend to finish it before I die, but right now I'm content to re-read Treasure Island instead. (I've just got to where Jim Hawkins has taken command of the Hispaniola but Israel Hands is planning treachery!)

P.S. This guy does some great tongue-in-cheek Stephen R. Donaldson illustrations http://zorm.deviantart.com/art/TCTC-Rimehilde-493331752.

Edited by Jamie123
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If you're into fantasy stories, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is a great series.  The last 3 books were written by Brian Anderson after Jordan's death.  Sexual content is minimal, violence isn't too graphic and the profanity is words that aren't curse words to us, but are sometimes quite shocking to the other characters ;)

For sci fi, I add my voice to the praise of Heinlein's Starship Troopers.  Also, anything by Ray Bradbury or Isaac Asimov.  If you like your sci fi super dense and detailed, you can't go wrong with Frank Herbert's Dune though the moral content gets pretty shaky at times.

I'm also a fan of the Horus Heresy series from Black Library.  Not all of them are awesome, but many are.  Very little strong content other than violence, which you'd expect from space marines.

Game of Thrones....   Well, I can't in good conscience recommend them to any Christian, but I don't agree with what others are saying about there being no good characters.  There are a few very moral, very honorable characters.  The problem is their own code of ethics often puts them at a disadvantage in their environment and tends to contribute to their short lifespans.  Eddard Stark being the best example.  Other characters who are people of genuine goodness include Jon Snow, Sam Tarly and Benjen Stark.

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15 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

What's the 7th?

Prelude to Foundation

Forward the foundation

The Foundation

Foundation and Empire

The Second Foundation

Foundation's Edge

Foundation and Earth

There are also references to the Foundation series in other Asimov books to tie it all into the same universe.  So, the Robot series and the Spacers should also be read to help get some background.

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4 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Prelude to Foundation

Forward the foundation

The Foundation

Foundation and Empire

The Second Foundation

Foundation's Edge

Foundation and Earth

There are also references to the Foundation series in other Asimov books to tie it all into the same universe.  So, the Robot series and the Spacers should also be read to help get some background.

Whoa!  I don't have that Foward the Foundation.  That's also a prequel?

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3 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Yes.

You are the best.  My son will be so excited when I tell him he is missing a book.  I think I'm just going to go ahead and get it and put it on his shelf as a surprise!

By the way, he spent all of last weekend cleaning his humongous bookcase and paring it down so he can put more books in there.  We were sitting there being nostalgic about Captain Underpants before eventually putting it in the storage box...

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