Novel recommendations

[norwich36]

Computer update, for those who care: it's still somewhere in the bowels of FedEx, and supposedly will be delivered to a facility near me tomorrow. Maybe. I think the computer gods are trying to tell me something, really.

Anyway, I am once again asking my flist for suggestions, this time for sci-fi and fantasy novel recommendations, since I have to put something on my amazon wishlist under $50 for a family gift exchange, and I don't honestly have any good ideas, since when I see a novel I want to read I either buy it or get it at the library. So--read anything good lately?

(I already have the latest two Connie Willis books, and I'm not getting the new Robin McKinley, since I've heard it ends on a cliffhanger and she never does write sequels of things. That pretty much exhausts my knowledge of "recent things I'd want to read in scifi/fantasy.")

Comments

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

I've been reading lots of YA lately but some of it is sci-fi/fantasy?

The best I've read is definitely Patrick Ness's 'Chaos Walking' series (sci-fi, kinda postcolonial themes?). So amazing, so thinky, sparked a 12 hour discussion about psychology and war with supacat at one stage.

In the more escapist realm, I have really enjoyed 'Graceling' and 'Fire' by Kristin Cashore--both fantasy novels in related universes, featuring very strong heroines and page-turny writing. Great holiday reads. :)

There's the Hunger Games series too of course. :) I'm not as crazy about them as many people but I did enjoy them and the concept behind them (televised blood sport in the future, as a kind of extension of our reality TV culture) was interesting. Again, heroine is unusually strong (though not unproblematic for me personally).

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know about Hunger Games because I read a J2 AU of it! (This, sadly, is how I know the plot of many films these days.) Thanks for the recs--I'm definitely going to check them out. Part of my motive in requesting books is, of course, to give me something to do while I'm at my parents' for 2 weeks!

[serrico.livejournal.com]

Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link. It's a book of short stories, but they're fairly substantial short stories, and they're *good*. Much more fantasy than sci-fi.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Thanks--I'll definitely check that out!

[elizah-jane.livejournal.com]

Have you read "The Company" series by Kage Baker? The first couple books are so so, but the series as a whole is pretty amazing.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

I have not--thank you for the rec!

[rsadelle]

I second this rec! The first book, especially, is really a scene setting one, but I spent years waiting for each next book in the series.

[norahy.livejournal.com]

don't know if you read any of Katharine Kerr's Deverry series, it is a total of 15 books, complete story, or as complete as it is going to get.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've heard of those, though I didn't realize it was such a long series. Thanks for the rec!

[teot.livejournal.com]

The Tairen Soul series by CL Wilson. It's a romance/fantasy series and I was surprised by how much it managed to squeeze everything I didn't know I wanted into a fantasy novel. It was like a slash story - only het!

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I will check that out. I definitely like het stories with a slashy vibe.

[rsadelle]

Off the top of my head:

The Andrea Cort novels by Adam Troy Castro. (Don't be deterred by the male author: I loved them. Also, I got the rec from a transwoman at a panel on bisexual characters in sci fi.)

Naomi Kritzer has a duology I love and a trilogy that was also quite good that are both lesbian fantasy novels. (Or at least the duology - I think the triology also has lesbian characters.)

The Kitty series by Carrie Vaughn is one that's compelling enough to get you to the third book where she really learns to write. (I have issues with something plotwise that happens in it, but you might not have the same issue.)

I also love the Elantra novels by Michelle Sagara, and one of them turned out to be unexpectedly femslashy.

Lyda Morehouse's AngeLINK series is right up your alley, but they may be out of print.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Everyone is reccing these long series! I know I'm going to read the first novel and then get hooked, so I have to get careful. I looked at the amazon descriptions of these and am amused at how the covers of the Kitty series look like every single urban fantasy series I'm addicted to. And I see both Morehouse and Kritzer have religious themes, which you know I always love. You are very good at predicting things I will like! Though holy crap, someone wants $125 for an out of print Morehouse. I think I'll try interlibrary loan for those. Unless the local library has them?

[rsadelle]

Hee! I always say I don't read long series but then I actually do. The Kitty series definitely fits in with the other urban fantasy series. I reread the Kritzer duology recently, and found the religious stuff even more interesting than I remember it being. The local county library used to have at least one of the Morehouse books, but it looks like they don't anymore. ILL might be your best option!