Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Forum

Aww it gets even better with each passing book! Most authors hit their peak at book 2-3. This guy was good the whole series.

I used to read quite a bit of fiction about 15+ years ago and just recently started reading fiction again. I bought a Nook from Barnes and Noble 3 weeks ago and read Clan of the Cave Bear and about to finish the 2nd book The Valley of Horses. A couple of days ago I went to the used book store and picked up 2001: A Space Odyssey since it is not an ebook yet, and I picked up a used copy of Dune because the ebook is $14 and I did not want to spend that much in case I didn’t like the book. I am looking forward to reading them. If I like them I do plan on getting all of the books in the series and since the Dune books are all ebooks it will be real convenient to load them to the Nook without having to go to the bookstore. I have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books and some Star Wars books and enjoyed them. Recently I picked up the first book in a trilogy called Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley. The trilogy is called the Godless World Series. Has anyone read any those? Any suggestions on any other fantasy/sci-fi books that are not listed in this forum? I saw the Wheel of Time series listed here and added the first book to my e-wish list on my Nook. Does anyone else use ereaders like Kindle or Nook?

@Bardoly:

skinny1,

Welcome back to the world of fiction!  One of these days when I get some time, I’m going to edit the first post and add a lot more good fantasy/science fiction to it.

I’ve thought about getting a Kindle, but I’ve got a couple thousand books, and I don’t want to purchase all of them in digital format, as that will be pretty expensive.

For good books, I’ve already recommended these, but a few that stick out would be David Eddings’ Belariad series

http://www.amazon.com/Belgariad-Vol-Books-1-3-Magicians/dp/0345456327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289677259&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Belgariad-Vol-Books-Wizardry-Enchanters/dp/0345456319/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289677259&sr=1-2

and David Weber’s, “Empire From the Ashes” trilogy is really good too.

http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ashes-David-Weber/dp/141650933X/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

Thanks Bardoly. I ended up taking my Nook back because I was having issues with it freezing on me. I am in part 2 of the Dune novel and bought the rest of the series. It is a great read and found out that George Lucas took some ideas from it and The Lord of the Rings series and used the ideas for Star Wars. I also found out that Frank Herbert used the Middle East as a reference for Dune. The story is great and can’t wait to read the other books by him and the books that his son and Kevin J Anderson released. We have a store in town called Half Price Books which is where I buy most of my books from. Not a bad deal to pay half price and a little for tax as it works out to about the same as getting a book for a penny plus shipping from Amazon. The store has a whole aisle of two shelfs of sci-fi/fantasy books to choose from. I did see that they have most if not all of the Wheel of Time series up to book 12 so far. I use the notepad feature on my phone to write down authors/book titles so while I am browsing I have books that I can look for.

As far as getting a Kindle and replacing your existing library that is big decision. It could get expensive but a lot of the books are fairly inexpensive but if you have a store that will buy your existing books that could off set the cost a little of buying them in digital format.

Have you read the fantasy series from Stephen King called The Dark Tower? It looks like it might be pretty good.

I chose the Nook over the Kindle because of in-store support at a local store if I needed it whereas the Kindle would have to be shipped back to Amazon if there was a problem with the device. Since I did not purchase too many books with the Nook maybe some day I will try the Kindle. The other advantage that I liked about the Nook is that there is an expandable memory slot that will hold up to a 16 gig Micro SD card. The Kindle has a built in 4 gigs and no expansion slot. The Nook has a user replaceable battery that costs about $30. The Kindle has to be sent back to Amazon and can cost between $80 and $100 to fix although I did see somewhere on the net that it is possible to replace the battery on the Kindle by yourself. I do plan on getting the Wheel of Time series since I do like long stories. The series is on my list of must reads. If I need a break from Dune maybe I will pick up the first book in the Wheel of Time and give it a read. If I like the first one I will pick up the rest of them.

What’s the name of the essay where a space nation lost a war because they focused on developing their technology so much that they were not able to win the numbers game.

@calvinhobbesliker:

What’s the name of the essay where a space nation lost a war because they focused on developing their technology so much that they were not able to win the numbers game.

Star Wars IV and VI.

I started the Star Wars Darth Bane series. I really like it.

Has anyone posted anything on Lord of the Rings? Man I love those books! I’ve read them three times and counting. When I watched “the making of” the movies I learned alot about Tolkien. A real fascinating guy. I like how he didn’t lie allegories in his book and said if something in the book meant something to you thats the point. I think a important part is hope. A key element in the story.

@Pvt.Ryan:

Has anyone posted anything on Lord of the Rings? Man I love those books! I’ve read them three times and counting. When I watched “the making of” the movies I learned alot about Tolkien. A real fascinating guy. I like how he didn’t lie allegories in his book and said if something in the book meant something to you thats the point. I think a important part is hope. A key element in the story.

There are some Middle Earther on this site. I love the books.

@Pvt.Ryan:

Has anyone posted anything on Lord of the Rings? Man I love those books! I’ve read them three times and counting. When I watched “the making of” the movies I learned alot about Tolkien. A real fascinating guy. I like how he didn’t lie allegories in his book and said if something in the book meant something to you thats the point. I think a important part is hope. A key element in the story.

At the very beginning of this thread, I stated that I had just started reading The Hobbit.  I went through that - entertaining enough - and then started on the first book of the trilogy.  Well, I put it down about 60 or 70 pages or so.  Just got tired of reading “The Hobbit 2” and couldn’t put up with it anymore.  Never went back.

Don’t get me wrong, I like fantasy books and movies (I’ve only seen the first Trilogy movie), but I felt like I had seen and read so much as a kid that probably did owe a nod to Tolkien that I was burnt out by the genre once I finally gave him a shot.  Maybe some other time I will, but I’m not so sure.  Especially with all that damn singing…sheesh

Now I juggle between a few books of 100 or so I downloaded for free on my iPad.  Currently it’s the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a classic Chinese novel, a triple translation of the Quran, and some Jules Verne.

Ya I cant say the singings annoying but give it another shot. It starts off horrible then gets better. They have to explain it all to the people who never read the Hobbit. Also if you watch all the movies you dont even need to read the books!  :-D

@Pvt.Ryan:

Ya I cant say the singings annoying but give it another shot. It starts off horrible then gets better. They have to explain it all to the people who never read the Hobbit. Also if you watch all the movies you dont even need to read the books!  :-D

I enjoy the details of the Fellowship of the Ring book has. I wish the other two had as much detail.

I watched the movies first, then read the books.

As was mentioned earlier  “The Forever War”  is an excellent read as well as the “Foundation” series Bradbury’s "The Illustrated Man " is excellent as well,perhaps a little twisted . “Ender’s Game”  already mentioned is a great read  Try Harry Turtledove’s World at War series  Earth is Invaded in spring 1942  Mankind has to unite to fight off the aliens  He also has a Great War series which is an alternate history where the south wins the civil war  It runs through wwII