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Books! Do you read them? What are your favorites?
Tell me and discuss your favorite books. If there are enough replies we might even all find new books to add to our already unreasonably large TBR lists.


Some of my favorite books and recommendations

1. Neuromancer : Do you love Cyberpunk and weird prose? Do you want to read what I would describe as a neon purple prose laced with amphetamine? This is that book. You will be transported to a future past .. or past future, which ever floats your boat. High concept sci fi that still uses cassette tapes to access cyberspace, in a world where Microsoft's are microchips that you put in a socket behind your ear because this stuff is basically pre Windows.
the writer doesn't explain sheeet. What is an Ono Sendai? Well .. keep reading to find out in 5 pages or 5 chapters. Or you can just google it and find out it's a brand of Cyberdeck. (if you don't know what a cyberdeck is, this book might not be for you). If you love those old 80/90's sci fi movies, think o.g bladerunner, strange days, total recall etc etc. if you love Cyberpunk by Mike Pondsmith (cyberpunk red TTRPG and cyberpunk 2077) Go read this book. Mike Pondsmith basically lifted 70% of his world building from this book. I love cyberpunk 2077 and Mike for creating it but that's just a fact.

Companion read : Burning Chrome, the short story. This has the backstory of Molly Millions a central character in Book 1 and 3. The backstory for Evelyn Parker in Cyberpunk 2077, the whole Doll snuff thing is very similar to Mollie's backstory. Also read the sequels. The second book might honestly be better than the first. The third one has one of my all time favorite characters ever, but personally never liked the ending.

2. Book of the New Sun : This is an extremely weird book (it's 4 books of 300 pages) to try and recommend and explain. This is a book that will require you to almost study it while you're reading and 300 pages might end up feeling like 600. See the whole thing of this book is that Gene Wolfe "found this book" and then "tried his best to translate it" and these are the memoirs of this guy called Severian who is the Autharch (emperor) and recounts his own life. The prose therefore is weird, and Gene Wolf uses extremely archaic words, concepts and has long parts of philosophical rambling. Part of which, esp at the start of the first book, I am certain he wrote just to troll people. Severian claims he has perfect photographic memory but that is clearly BS. He has grown up in a tower that if you pay attention too isn't really a tower and he is part of the torturers guild, being raised to torture and execute people for the Autarch. The fact that he becomes the Autarch isn't a spoiler, it's told to you at the very start but many miss it but that's what the whole book is about, not him becoming the Autarch but the writer masterfully writing and forcing you to pay an incredible amount of attention to detail. Which in turn is extremely rewarding. Every now and then, suddenly you will learn something or the author will leave a breadcrumb that will completely change the entire lens that you're seeing things through. Which is one of my favorite things ever. The amount of times this book blew my mind is why it is one of my favorite books. Because at the core of it, I do not at all agree with the writer's Catholic doomer view of humanity. This book is often described as very hard to read, I've seen PhD's claim the only really understood 20% after their first read and only understand 70% after their fifth. I find that's not really true as long as you're patient, bother try and understand what you're reading which means you will have to sometimes take a moment. Consider what you're reading and maybe reread a paragraph/page a few times. < This likely one of the favorite books of your favorite fantasy / sci fi author. It's science fiction but for all accounts it reads like fantasy.


Companion books : Lexicon Urthus. You should have this at hand while reading this tbh



I was gonna add more books but the edibles kicked in. So I guess I'll update it when I update it.
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Gibson's Bridge Trilogy.
I've been reading a lot of horror this October, and The Troop by Nick Cutter has just become my all-time favorite in the genre outside of Lovecraft's and King' bibliographies.

It's essentially a much, much darker (and better, imo) Lord of the Flies, but fair warning : the author's descriptions leave nothing to the imagination. If body horror, animal abuse and self-harm really get to you, you're not gonna finish it.
One of these days I need to sit down and read House of Leaves. Heard good stuff about that one.
引用自 Bayaz First of the Magi
Tell me and discuss your favorite books. If there are enough replies we might even all find new books to add to our already unreasonably large TBR lists.


Some of my favorite books and recommendations

1. Neuromancer : Do you love Cyberpunk and weird prose? Do you want to read what I would describe as a neon purple prose laced with amphetamine? This is that book. You will be transported to a future past .. or past future, which ever floats your boat. High concept sci fi that still uses cassette tapes to access cyberspace, in a world where Microsoft's are microchips that you put in a socket behind your ear because this stuff is basically pre Windows.
the writer doesn't explain sheeet. What is an Ono Sendai? Well .. keep reading to find out in 5 pages or 5 chapters. Or you can just google it and find out it's a brand of Cyberdeck. (if you don't know what a cyberdeck is, this book might not be for you). If you love those old 80/90's sci fi movies, think o.g bladerunner, strange days, total recall etc etc. if you love Cyberpunk by Mike Pondsmith (cyberpunk red TTRPG and cyberpunk 2077) Go read this book. Mike Pondsmith basically lifted 70% of his world building from this book. I love cyberpunk 2077 and Mike for creating it but that's just a fact.

Companion read : Burning Chrome, the short story. This has the backstory of Molly Millions a central character in Book 1 and 3. The backstory for Evelyn Parker in Cyberpunk 2077, the whole Doll snuff thing is very similar to Mollie's backstory. Also read the sequels. The second book might honestly be better than the first. The third one has one of my all time favorite characters ever, but personally never liked the ending.

2. Book of the New Sun : This is an extremely weird book (it's 4 books of 300 pages) to try and recommend and explain. This is a book that will require you to almost study it while you're reading and 300 pages might end up feeling like 600. See the whole thing of this book is that Gene Wolfe "found this book" and then "tried his best to translate it" and these are the memoirs of this guy called Severian who is the Autharch (emperor) and recounts his own life. The prose therefore is weird, and Gene Wolf uses extremely archaic words, concepts and has long parts of philosophical rambling. Part of which, esp at the start of the first book, I am certain he wrote just to troll people. Severian claims he has perfect photographic memory but that is clearly BS. He has grown up in a tower that if you pay attention too isn't really a tower and he is part of the torturers guild, being raised to torture and execute people for the Autarch. The fact that he becomes the Autarch isn't a spoiler, it's told to you at the very start but many miss it but that's what the whole book is about, not him becoming the Autarch but the writer masterfully writing and forcing you to pay an incredible amount of attention to detail. Which in turn is extremely rewarding. Every now and then, suddenly you will learn something or the author will leave a breadcrumb that will completely change the entire lens that you're seeing things through. Which is one of my favorite things ever. The amount of times this book blew my mind is why it is one of my favorite books. Because at the core of it, I do not at all agree with the writer's Catholic doomer view of humanity. This book is often described as very hard to read, I've seen PhD's claim the only really understood 20% after their first read and only understand 70% after their fifth. I find that's not really true as long as you're patient, bother try and understand what you're reading which means you will have to sometimes take a moment. Consider what you're reading and maybe reread a paragraph/page a few times. < This likely one of the favorite books of your favorite fantasy / sci fi author. It's science fiction but for all accounts it reads like fantasy.


Companion books : Lexicon Urthus. You should have this at hand while reading this tbh



I was gonna add more books but the edibles kicked in. So I guess I'll update it when I update it.

Sci-fi/Fantasy.

The Spellsinger series
The Gaean Trilogy (Titan, Wizard, and Demon)
The Master of Time series
Lord of Light
The Well World Novels
All the books from Tolkien
The Darwath Trilogy
The Vlad Taltos books (from Steven Brust)
The Wheel of Time

Oh jeez ... I could just continue on.

Reading is such a joy.
Atomic habits
Gibson's Bridge Trilogy.

On my TBR, I also absolutely loved his short stories. Especially hinterlands and dogfight
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.
Dan Simmon's Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion (metaphysical Sci-fi) :
In a world where Humanity colonized most of the galaxy thanks to space travel and a network of stargates, various factions compete around a particular planet where something is travelling backwards in time. The story unfolds slowly, and is full of religious and literary references.

From the same author, check our Carrion Comfort, an incredibly gripping horror thriller with supernatural elements. It tells the story of a world where some individuals (often in high position of power) have mind-control abilities only rivaling their absolute lack of empathy and morality. The story begins in the WW2 concentration camps, and follows the fight for vengeance and justice of a survivor of both the camps and the cruelty of these "mind vampires" along with a diverse group of interesting characters. TW : some parts of the story are very dark.

Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz (humorous post-apo) :
Maybe my favorite book. It tells a story spanning hundreds of centuries, starting some time after a global nuclear apocalypse, followed by the destruction of knowledge and science. The story follows a monastery dedicated in secret in preserving Humanity's advancements for an era where they be accepted again. The story then jumps to the time where science resurfaces, often with humorous situations where engeniring relics are treated as religious artifacts. The moral of the story is about how science without memory leads to repeated cycles of ruin or something, read it and make up your own conclusions :)

Pierre Bordage's The Warriors of Silence (space opera/fantasy) :
This epic story depicts the fight for the control of the Human Federation of planets between the Scythes of Hyponeros, an alien race with psychic power on which the corrupted human elite is counting to stay in power, and the Warrior of Silence, a cast of reclusive monks using sort of jedi powers. We mostly follow the trajectory of some washed up alcoholic loser on a washed up minor planet, who ends up in the heart of the conflict, way over his head of course.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld :
There shouldn't be a need to introduce this excellent serie, but I'll try : multiple colorful characters interact in a very peculiar world driven as much by fantasy conventions than by humor. There are multiple entry points in the serie, my favorite might be Equal Rites.

Bonus read : Good Omens written with Neil Gaiman, also an excellent writer, e.g. American Gods.

Guilty pleasure : David Gibbins' Atlantis :
Basically modern day Indiana Jones specialized in archeological diving with unlimited funding goes around the mediterannean sea on the path of an ancient civilisation, in an adventure that sometimes verges towards the bad James Bond rip-off. Not particularly well written, but very well documented and painted when it comes to diving scenes (the author is an actual archeological diver). So full of tropes that you're either going to love or hate it, no in-betweens.
I really liked Conan the Conqueror (Hour of the Dragon) by Robert E Howard

Kinda works as the sequel to the Conan movies which we never got, King Conan. So it was a treasure to get to read. It's also free to read.
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