Fellow fan of series here! Let me see...

Young Adult
Percy Jackson series is fun (and finished, too, I think).
Artemis Fowl series isn't quite as good as Percy Jackson IMHO, but it's got a following.

Fantasy
Harry Dresden series This is one of my favorites. Harry is Chicago's only professional wizard. There are a ton of these books and they are still going strong.
Game of Thrones These are great...but unfinished. If you watch the show, reading the books does help you get even more out of the story, I think.
Wheel of Time Another good series. There is a LOT of this series and it's finished. (Thank you, Brandon Sanderson!)
Mistborn Speaking of Brandon Sanderson... This one is very good. I highly recommend reading the Mistborn books before trying the Stormlight Archive, but only because as good as Mistborn is, Stormlight Archive is even better.
Stormlight Archive Amazing. Man, these are good. The series isn't finished, but the two books that are available are some of my favorites ever.
Kingkiller Chronicles I loved the first book. I could not freakin' believe I enjoyed the second one even more. The third one is still pending.
Temeraire Dragons in Napoleonic times. Super cool premise! This one is not finished (I don't think, anyway).
Gentlemen Bastards Con men in a fantasy realm. It's pretty light on the fantasy elements. Very light, I'd say. I'd also say that it has some of the very best swearing that I've ever come across. :D

Scifi
Old Man's War I'm almost finished this one--it's amazing!

Horror/Thriller
Passage Trilogy I've heard these described as vampire books...maybe zombie books... It's apocalyptic for sure. Great books!

Mysteries
Amelia Peabody Egyptology + murder mysteries. Super fun, but trust me...go with the audiobooks for these. They are best when they are performed.
Stephanie Plum Total popcorn reads. If that's your thing, shut off your brain and just enjoy.
Walt Longmire These get particularly good as it goes along. The main character is a sheriff in modern day Wyoming. (Side note: The TV show is also great--just don't expect them to stick to the books.)

Graphic Novels (Everything recommended can be gotten in a "book" format instead of only in comic form, in case that matters. I've gotten most of these from my local library.)
Locke & Key Eerie as crap. Love the art! This one is on-going.
Y: The Last Man All the men on the planet drop dead in a day...except for Yorrick. REALLY good. This is the series that got me reading graphic novels. Plus, it's finished!
Walking Dead I am not a zombie fan...but I like these. They're not done, but I've read up through volume 22 and am still enjoying them.

Other
OutlanderI have no idea how to categorize these or even give a description that does them justice. I refused to pick it up for AGES because it sounded like a bodice-ripper romance and that's not my bag. But these are good!

I hope there's something in there that'll do for you. Have fun and read on!

Edit: Apparently, I need to practice formatting. :/
Edit 2: I forgot to add the Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentlemen Bastards #1).

If you guys are fans of jewelry there is a site that sells cosmere related items. For example, me and my best friend got the adolin and dalinar shardblade necklaces because we relate to those two characters. There are also mistborn rings you can inscribe with your own message/word, and some other cool pieces. Other gifts Ive gotten and loved included other fantasy books I hadn’t read yet. I’ve heard great things about the king killer chronicle and intend to give those a try. I’m certain others on this thread can give great recommendations as well. I also received some money for the cosmere tattoo I had wanted for about a year, which was a wonderful surprise from my sister. Whatever his favorite metal, order, rune, or element from a Sanderson book, I’m sure there’s a way to give him a personal and meaningful token of that thing. Another book that isn’t related to sanderson but are philosophical pieces are “American philosophy: a love story” and “hiking with Nietzsche” both authored by John Kaag, whom was a college professor of mine. Both books are wonderful stories about love from a philosophical viewpoint, sharing the undertones of many Sanderson books. Both are great reads that taught me a lot if your husband enjoys philosophy/the deeper meanings to sandersons books. If you’re interested in other recommendations, feel free to pm me. Good luck!

Link to jewlery site: https://badalijewelry.com/collections/brandon-sanderson
Kingkiller chronicle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0575081406/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=
John Kaag books:
American philosophy: https://www.amazon.com/American-Philosophy-Story-John-Kaag/dp/0374154481/ref=nodl_
Hiking with Nietzsche: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1250234689/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Additional notes...

Basic Background

• All GitS stories start out as abstract and confusing -- they essentially drop you into the middle of a mission and are set in the future, amidst a bunch of tech and terminology that you need to learn and understand on the fly. We're talking spy, cloack-and-dagger, intrigue, conspiracy, mystery. This is a good thing.
  
  
• The movies are dense and the series take some time to weave together. It helps to be patient and pay attention, both to the dialogue and to the details that you see in both the foreground and background.
  
  
• The Matrix was heavily influenced by the first movie, and there are even direct, frame-for-frame visual shout outs to the first GitS film in The Matrix.
  
  
• If you enjoy sci-fi like Children of Men, Blade Runner, The Zero Theorem or even Her, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or the Bourne series then you're in for a treat.
  
  
• Ghost in the Shell, as a whole, is the visual successor to Neuromancer, by William Gibson.
  
  Recommended Viewing Order
  
  Start with the first film. It's the foundation for everything else.
  
  
• The first film is an adaptation that differs from the manga, so if you like the movie and then go back and read the manga you won't be slogging through the exact same thing twice.
  
  
• The original came out on Blu-ray [Amazon] only two days ago (yay!), and the new version will be of much better video and audio quality than the initial 1995 version (although the subtitles are apparently not as good).
  
  
• The dubbed voice acting is, for a change, pretty great, so feel free to watch in English or Japanese. The subtitles might be worth using, as the English dub isn't as clearly worded as the original text (if I remember correctly).
  
  
• After you watch the first film, check this out.
  
  Next, I'd watch the two Stand Alone Complex series
  
  
• Both are fantastic. If you watch the first movie first you'll know all or most of the characters. The pacing is much easier to digest and you get to know the characters a lot better. The story is still abstract, twisting and turning... but it's fun to unravel the mystery with our heroes. Makes for great binge watching.
  
  You can watch the second movie or the four Arise episodes in any order.
  
  
• The second movie is probably the most dense, convoluted story in the series. It also has the best animation and is a lot of fun. Now that I think more about it, I think I'd save this for last. But you can really watch it whenever you want, so long as you've finished the first film (it won't otherwise make much sense).
  
  
• Arise is an origin story reboot. The characters have different backgrounds and how they meet is much different than in the original story. There are a number of homages or references to the original movie as well. Compared to the rest of the GitS stuff, Arise felt like lighter fare in terms of its complexity and sophistication. I enjoyed Arise, but this little mini-series is probably my least favorite content within the GitS universe.
  
  Primer Information About the Wider GitS world (Mild Spoilers)
  
  The below is written in a block so as to make provide optical camouflage against accidentally catching spoilers if you don't want to read them.
  
  The goal of this section is to help ease you into understanding the politics and organization of the GitS world.
  
  The GitS world is set in Japan, but there are also international players. Japan has gone to war against other (made up) nations (sorta like Kazakstan), and we meet some of the ex-soldiers. Cybernetic technology is now well integrated into society, but was most extensively developed, weaponized and used by the military. At the most basic level, almost everyone now has brain implants. These implants are the foundation of most of the philosophical discussion in the GitS world. They're also the foundation for most of the crime, communication and investigation. Some people only have those basic neural implants, while others are entirely or almost entirely cybernetic. Much of the philosophical discussion, then, is about the line between the physical body and the soul (ghost), about what makes us individual and unique.
  
  Americans are not the good guys (in many respects, the series extrapolates on how WWII influenced and continues to influence Japan's development and national identity). The Japanese government is divided into self-contained groups: ministries and sections. We follow Section 9. On the surface these groups all work together, but there's really a lot of backstabbing and secret warfare between the groups.
  
  I think that's enough to get you started.
  
  tl;dr: Definitely watch - one of my favorite creations of everything of all time. Enjoy!

This is not exactly what you're looking for but may be close enough.

Jack McDevitt has a series of novels about 2 antiquities dealers in future. Typically they come across an unusual artifact or story. They then have to work out the truth in a similar fashion to the detective mysteries you mention.

They are called the Alex Benedict novels. They are an easy read but raise interesting questions IMHO. All but the first are told from the PoV of Chase Kolpath, Alex Benedict's pilot and partner.

I started with the third novel, Seeker, which won the Nebula award.

I've read them all and found them entertaining, though somewhat repetitive in some plot devices. You don't have to start at the beginning of the series.

FWIW Jack McDevitt has a second group of books called The Academy series. I've read a few of them and liked them but prefer the Alex Benedict novels.

Hope this helps. You might also ask for help in /r/printsf - a sub dedicated to written scifi.

Edit: I also thought of another story that contains an pretty good mystery. It's called Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future. It has a great ending.

Scavenger hunts are too much fun! I should be working! RAWR! Thanks for the fun break =]


1.) Something that is grey. My name is makeup and I am grey! WL

2.) Something reminiscent of rain. This color is called "Naughty Nautical". Nautical = water, water = rain. =D?? WL

3.) Something food related that is unusual. Pretty sure most people don't have teeney shaped veggie cutters. WL

4.) Something on your list that is for someone other than yourself. Tell me who it's for and why. (Yes, pets count!) This is for my two parrots! My quaker especially loves dried papaya. I'm teaching her how to fly right now and have been using food as a reward, but we ran out of papaya a couple of weeks ago, and our local bird store has been out of stock for a long time. Turns out that Whole Foods doesn't carry dried papaya either. Rawr! WL


5.) A book I should read! I am an avid reader, so take your best shot and tell me why I need to read it! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I had heard about this when the movie came out in English. I liked the movie and then moved on with my life. Come this spring, I found myself facing a LOT LOT LOT of driving by myself, so I started borrowing audiobooks from the library. I borrowed all three of these books and REALLY enjoyed them. It wasn't at all what I expected. They're murder mysteries with a lot of themes about violence against women. When I learned about the author, it became that much more interesting. The author wrote these books with the intention of making 10, but died after the third one. They found them after he died. The themes about sexual violence stem from a gang rape he witnessed as a teenager. He never forgave himself for not being able to help her, so he channeled all those emotions into his writing later in life. Anyway.....interesting stuff. Good books. I recommend them :)


6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related! Pfft.


7.) Something related to cats. I love cats! (keep this SFW, you know who you are...) If I was a cat, this would be my JAM!


8.) Something that is not useful, but so beautiful you must have it. Dresses are admittedly useful for avoiding public indecency charges, but not really useful beyond that. BUT LOOK AT THE RAINBOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WL


9.) A movie everyone should watch at least once in their life. Why? Not on my wishlist (it's on American Netflix though!), but everyone should be aware of the impact of plastic on the environment and our bodies. Education is everything. Plus, there's a newborn baby at the end.


10.) Something that would be useful when the zombies attack. Explain. 1. Stab zombie in the skull. 2. ??? 3. Profit. The reviews rave that it's super sharp and doesn't stick so it probably wouldn't get stuck in their skull like other knives. WL


11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals. I don't know if I'd use the word profound, but it would sure help me out. A big passion of mine is learning to ID birds. I'm pretty good at most birds, but finding information on juveniles is VERY difficult sometimes. I've used this book before to help identify birds in hand, but I think the information regarding juvenile plumage would help me identify young birds from afar. It's even part of my job to identify birds! WL


12.) One of those pesky Add-On items. This is an Add-On item, but it's also a hair addon =P Not on my WL, but I'm losing my hair like crazy so I might have to look into these >.>


13.) The most expensive thing on your list. Your dream item. Why? This isn't the most expensive item on my list (that was #8), but it's the one that would help me the most! When I do field work, I tend to have a lot of gear on me at once, and the extra strain of binoculars around my neck tends to give me some really freaking sore muscles. A harness would be MUCH easier on my shoulders/neck/back. I start field work again in October, so I plan on buying it for myself by then anyway =] WL


14.) Something bigger than a bread box. EDIT A bread box is typically similar in size to a microwave. This is larger than the average bread box.

15.) Something smaller than a golf ball. I am smaller than a golf ball! WL

16.) Something that smells wonderful. This smells amazing!!! I'm infatuated with cinnamon, but had to stop using cinnamon Crest YEARS ago because I developed a bad reaction to it. This stuff is expensive, but the company is very environmentally responsible and I feel good giving my business to them. WL


17.) A (SFW) toy. This seems pretty SFW unless you're playing Cards Against Humanity. evil grin WL


18.) Something that would be helpful for going back to school. I used sticky notes all the time in school! WL


19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be. I've obsessed with birds since I was 11. I've been obsessed with rainbows forever. I'm currently obsessed with sushi. THIS IS ALL THREE! WL


20.) Something that is just so amazing and awe-inspiring that I simply must see it. Explain why it is so grand. Hear me out! This baby can keep ice for DAYS. Sitting out in the sun for hours on end? NO PROBLEM! YOU'LL HAVE ICE AT THE END OF THE DAY!! Seriously, Thermos needs to pay me for how much I rave about their stuff. My water bottle has still had ice in it after three days AND being refilled twice. No joke.

BONUS
This beauty was made in OR.


fear cuts deeper than swords. She is my favorite character by far :)

I plot out the major arcs of both the story and the characters. I make sure to nail down the essentials of what is happening when, as well as developing a good understanding of my character motivations.

For me, a lot of planning involves just taking the time to mull over the themes I want to work with, or explore questions I want to raise. This involves asking a lot of questions to everyone I know, everyone I meet. It makes for great party conversations!

It takes a few months, during which time I'll also explore what's already been written/said about what I'm hoping to do. I look at similar movies and books, anything at all that's already been produced that has themes or topics similar to what I'm developing.

I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of books.

As a concrete example, my most recent novel is about what would happen if everyone in the world stopped sleeping.

I spent months asking everyone I knew what the longest was that they stayed awake. I also read pretty much the only comparable thing on the topic, a fictional novel called "Sleepless" by Charlie Huston. I also read articles on sleep and neuroscience, as well as watched TED talks and other related videos.

Then I conducted a sleep-deprivation experiment on myself. I wanted to know what it would be like to not sleep. (I am a wuss and didn't make it that long- I need sleep more than the average bear apparently!)

This novel is in the style of World War Z (early title: World War ZZZ, huehuehue) and so it involved a lot of characters. Too many to keep track of in my brain, unaided.

I had index cards for each one, as well as drafts notes (using Scrivener- hurrah!). I got really comfortable with character creation. I read Stephen King's On Writing and O.S. Card's Characters and Viewpoint.

I was able to craft an overarching narrative by determining which characters would inject the story with which elements, and placing them where they needed to be. They got moved around a bit as I went on, but throughout I was very aware of the overall flow of the work.

Through careful planning, the actual writing (80,000 words) only took about seven weeks. I am a machine when it comes to word output, if I've done my (months and months of) homework. A second draft saw a lot of that cut, and more added in to bring it up to 86,000 words in three weeks of the hardest work of my life.

For me, planning is super important. If I don't plan well enough, I waste days. Days where my story goes off the rails, or my characters do things which don't make sense.

It's wonderful to see some things happen more fluidly, and I've had lovely surprises this way, but I always stop and think about if that is really what I want to be doing before I proceed.

I hope this long winded reply answers your question. I do enjoy sharing this sort of thing, and I hope it helps other writers do what they love to do.

Full disclosure: I've talked about these books before. It's hard not to talk about them again, because I love reading books!

The dated but still fun modern-fantasy SERRAted Edge series written by Mercedes Lackey and others starts with Born to Run. They tackle some serious issues and have serious moments, but they're generally a nice light read.

Dana Stabenow's Alaskan murder mystery Kate Shugak series starts off with A Cold Day For Murder -- and it's free if you have a Kindle/other e-reader. The main character Kate and her half-wolf Mutt have a lot of suspenseful, yet occasionally hilarious, moments. There's even a bit of romance thrown in here and there.

David Weber writes a space-opera series that's on its ... twentieth? novel. It all started off with On Basilisk Station and The Honor of the Queen -- both of which are free as well through the Kindle store! (HotQ is probably my favorite in the entire series.) This series is less humor and a little more cerebral (especially once you get to 'recent events' and end up re-reading the entire series to spot the plot setups...) but honestly, how can you argue with a main character whose primary companion is a six-limbed, arboreal, prehensile-tailed, thumb-wielding, telepathic cat?

Maggie Furey wrote a magic-fantasy quadrilogy that I discovered years ago when I read Aurian. It's actually been long enough since I've read it that I don't remember tons of the details, but it's currently very high on my to-read (again) list.

Naomi Novik writes an alternate history Napoleonic-era Britain (with dragons!) that starts with His Majesty's Dragon. I highly recommend the first three. It's sort of sea-and-sky-opera with some lighthearted fun thrown in.

A new addition to my recommended list is the modern-fantasy Dresden Files, written by Jim Butcher and starting with Storm Front. Private investigation meets spellslinging, with sometimes unpredictable and often hilarious results.

IF men call you cute and adorable, it means they're NICE guys, not crude gross pigs. But never, never, never never think that doesn't secretly include "extremely fuckable" and "sexy" too. They are just smart enough not to blurt out their very real pervy thoughts of you because any guy who really shares what a lusting horndog he is inside his own head that to a modern, intelligent woman such as yourself figures he will probably get tasered and maced.

Being around N's your whole life has left deep scars about your beauty, your confidence, even just making a single mistake in you. Does your university have a counseling office? go talk to them about finding a good therapist you can work with while you are getting your PhD. Being 5'1, looking young, AND having this headtrip from your N's means that part of your preparation for your CAREER you need to battle these demons asap. When you get out into your field, you are going to need to have the self confidence to be assertive and to function as the well educated, competent professional you will be.... you will need to command respect. The good news is a PhD takes years, so you have the time and space to do this as a "personal learning and growth project" before you are out there in the workforce. But you can do this.

Tell me how you like Mama Gena once you read her. :)

Edited to add: Oh, and if you like reading fiction... The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson... Lisabeth Salander is the heroine of this trilogy, and she is magnificent... and she has exactly your build.

Peter Watts - Blindsight - kinda a harder form of sci fi, great detail about some hard sci fi style like post-scarcity methods, genetic and psychological tweaking, and wow the aliens in this one are really alien Book is available online for free because the author is just that cool.

M. J. Locke - Up Against It - Easier, a young adult sort of sci fi. Ice as a valuable commodity, hackable nanobug poop, and a great AI narrative. Also, one of the main characters has a very very Ripley feel about her, I think you'll like that.

David Simpson - The Post-human series - Just get the whole thing, the books are speedreaders for me. Kinda pulpy, but follows the whole of humanity's awakening to the multiverse and trans-human technology. Does and amazing job of ethics in the age of moddable bodies and backup brains. I'm not spoiling anything for you, but this might be the easiest read of this list. Was free for a while on amazon, now it's only $3

P.J. Haarsma - Virus on Orbis 1 - if you like that young adult feel this and the entire Softwire series should hold you over nicely. Clone babies on a interstellar seed ship, and one of them has a rare superpower, though he doesn't know it. Another AI-centric story, but more abstract with the imagery.

Also, my favorite short story - Alfred Bester- The Stars My Destination - humans have always been able to teleport, but what secrets does Gully Foyle, a proven deadbrain burnout, hold that could revolutionize the discovery again? A pretty great retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. should be public domain by now...

Do you like mysteries?? I hope you do! Because I'm about to tell you about my favorite mystery series ever! =D

Check out The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. It's the first in an absolutely amazing mystery series. Mysteries are my favorite books, but I'm weird and I'm really picky about them. So I promise this one is good!

To sum it up, the stories follow an 11-year-old girl who lives in a small village in 1950s England. She is very clever for her age and is very talented at chemistry. In particular, she is very fond of poisons. Long story short, a murder occurs and she helps solve it!

They're SO GOOD. I haven't heard many people IRL talk about these books, but according to the first couple of pages or so, they win awards and such. Anyway, I'd highly recommend this book and the whole series!

Thank you so much for this contest! =D

Based on your list, it seems you're a video gamer, too. Nice, so some of your fiction titles reflect that.

• Phantoms by Dean Koontz -- I'm guessing you like Silent Hill or Resident Evil type games. While this book by Koontz doesn't involve zombies, it is centered around a mysterious town. Suddenly everyone in a small American town has disappeared and it's up to a visiting sister and a sheriff to solve the mystery. The plot ramps up quickly and escalates (big time), and it's one of my favorite books. Lots of action, too, with great mix of horror (and a little sci-fi). While Dean Koontz has written some clunkers, early Dean Koontz really rocked.
  
  Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001RWQVSK/
  
  
• Andromeda Strain by Micheal Crichton -- One of Crichton's earliest novels and it deals with a team of scientists trapped in a facility as they try to contain a viral outbreak that can destroy the world, but they are running out of time. It's a really thrilling read and was made into a great film, too. Your titles you posted often deals with pandemics or viral attacks so I figured you'd enjoy this.
  
  Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/Andromeda-Strain-Michael-Crichton-ebook/dp/B007UH4EPS/
  
  
• Sphere by Micheal Crichton -- Since you mentioned Dead Space series so here's some sci-fi horror. Another one of my favorites from Crichton. While it does deal with aliens and a spaceship, it's actually set on Earth, where instead of something buried in ice (like with The Thing), an alien ship is deep underwater. A team of scientists have to delve deep into the ocean and try to breach the alien ship known as the Sphere.
  
  Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/Sphere-Michael-Crichton-ebook/dp/B007UH4G9C/
  
  
• Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell -- this is the horror/sci-fi short story that the The Thing and it's remakes were based on. While written in 1938, it's still a great read (and available on Kindle). The author, Campbell, was a giant figure in the Golden Age of Science Fiction as he was also the editor of Astounding Fiction Magazine, the landmark magazine that ushered in Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, AE Van Vogt, Henry Kuttner and other legendary sci-fi writers.
  
  Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/Goes-There-RosettaBooks-into-Film-ebook/dp/B003XVYLGW
  
  
• Vault of the Beast by A.E. Van Vogt -- another sci-fi horror story from the Golden Age of Science Fiction, this one a short story (on Kindle for only $1.49). Van Vogt's stories are a huge influence on horror and sci-fi writers, influencing Stephen King, Koontz, John Carpenter and many others. I love this creepy tale that is a must for lovers of the The Thing. Here's the first line: "The creature crept. It whimpered from fear and pain, a thing, slobbering sound horrible to hear. Shapeless, formless thing yet changing shape and form with every jerky movement. It crept along the corridor of the space freighter [...]"
  
  Kindlie link: https://www.amazon.com/Vault-Beast-E-van-Vogt-ebook/dp/B001M0N0FO
  
  
• The Nightrunners by Joe R. Landsale or The Drive-In by Joe R. Lansdale -- since you like Evil Dead, Joe R. Lansdale is known for his mix of occasional humor and extreme horror. Like the Evil Dead films, he can get gory, but not at the sacrifice at making creative plots and great characters. Lansdale does also westerns, texas noir, crime novels, etc, which are all great, so he covers a ton of genres. Early Lansdale tended to do more horror, however, as you see from these two books. One of my favorite authors, and great if you want some hi-octane fun.
  
  Kindlie link Nightrunners: https://www.amazon.com/Nightrunners-Joe-R-Lansdale-ebook/dp/B00634UDHC
  
  Kindlie link The Drive-in (book 1 of 3): https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Joe-R-Lansdale-ebook/dp/B00H1L5D9E
  
  
• Natsuo Kirino horror novels (Real World / Out / Grotesque) -- Since you mentioned The Ring which was originally written by Japanese author Koji Suzuki, so maybe try some horror from other Japanese authors. Kirino's works are equally unsettling reads, so I'd recommend checking any of her titles out. You could also try Ryu Murakami, who writes some twisted stuff, like In Miso Soup or Coin Locker Babies.
  
  I also agree with others for their recommendations for Laird Barron, John Langan, Shirley Jackson, Dan Simmons, H.P. Lovecraft, Paul Tremblay, and of course Stephen King. For King, try the Dark Tower series as that's a mix of Western and horror, kind of like if Red Dead Redemption video game went into the horror territory but on an epic scale. Great series. Also check out The Stand which is epic post-apocalyptic tale. I quite liked The Shining as someone else has mentioned and I also liked Salem's Lot.
  
  Lastly, for a great (and free) short story that is a nice twist on The Thing, check out this story that has a similar premise, only it's from the alien's point of view. It was quite cool, and an interesting idea to see how things would look like from the alien's side.
  
  All the Painted Stars by Gwendolyn Clare -- available to read online here at Clarkesworld Magazine website
  
  
  

Greetings! Acquiring editor and freelance editor here. Thought I'd give you some info on what I know to be the TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING ROUTE.

Agents are the way to go for traditional publishing. Get a good query letter, a nice synopsis, and a polished manuscript. If you have a good hook and a clean manuscript, then you're in the green.

Check out your favorite authors (the ones that have similar work to your own) and find their agents. See about their agencies as possible places to send queries.


If you're looking for editors (which you should only do once you've done a good deal of revising yourself), a great place to try is your favorite authors again! Check out their publishers and find out if they use in-house or freelance editors. See if you can get in contact with them. Of course, this is going to cost some cash money as this level of editor runs $30-60/hour, if not more.

On the opposite end, college students can make for adequate proofreaders for much less money. However, they won't be the best help when it comes to actual revisions.

When it comes down to it, you need a professional for professional work. There are some editors here on the writing subreddits with varying degrees of skill and expertise. I've done work for fellow redditors at relatively low prices (relatively is the key phrase, as even a 50% discount is putting you at $15/hour) with some good success. If you want more info, send me a PM and I can give you the lowdown on hiring a freelance editor (preferably a local editor so you can go shake their hand).

Even self publications need good editors, though. I spoke briefly with the author of Avagadro Corp. who spoke to the difference in the sales of his first two self-published novels. His first went through low quality editors and he got a lot of flak for it. The second time through, he paid a pro and got great results! William Hertling: He's even got a book on how to maximize the chance of your self publication to hit critical mass.

Most of this is copypasta from another reply on this thread, since it seemed silly to just rephrase all the things. Please note the last paragraph if none of these seem fun. I read a lot, mostly exclusively SF/F (both adult and YA), and boy do I have opinions on it. And if you're not a reader starting with YA is a thought. There's a lot of fun, intelligent YA out there now as publishers realize teens don't actually want to be treated like they're stupid.

For a low commitment (i.e. not part of a series), humorous start there's Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman's Good Omens. I like a lot of Gaiman's work, which ranges from the strange and humorous (see: GO) to the strange and creepy (Anasazi Boys), but what I'd recommend from him depends on what you're looking for.

In the funny but harder scifi range I'd rec the beloved classic Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. This is seriously one of the wittiest books I've ever read besides being an action-packed scifi romp.

If you're interested in urban fantasy I have all the recs. Everything from Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series Book 1: Storm Front, for the grown-up wizard, to Seanan McGuire's October Daye series Book 1: Rosemary and Rue, if you're more into fae.

For the dark and more sexual (seriously, there is sex in these books) I highly recommend the Fever Series by Karen Moning, Book 1: Darkfever.

If you like SF/F books (like Discworld, Animorphs, etc.) let me know what subgenres (e.g. hard scifi, urban fantasy, urban scifi, fantasy romance, young adult _____ ) you think you might like and I guarantee you I have a recommendation or two. I read a lot.

I think someone already mentioned Julian by Gore Vidal. This would be an interesting topic, as the novel concerns Julian the Apostate. You could have a very interesting debate on the birth of the modern Christian faith. You could also include episodes 3, 4 and 5 of Twelve Byzantine Rulers, a very popular podcast and quite a good introduction to the "Eastern Roman Empire"; a topic sadly much overlooked in most history schooling.

The Cicero books of Robert Harris (author of excellent "What if Germany won WWII" novel Fatherland, itself a great potential for discussing what "could have been"), would make a good start for discussing the fall of the Roman Republic. There are two books in a triology currently published; Imperium and Conspirata, also published as Lustrum.

Apart from Ancient history, if you want to consider American history, you could try the wonderful novels of E. L. Doctorow. His Ragtime is often included in lists of "best American novels" and deals with racism, the early years of Jazz, includes many famous American persons and of course fictional characters. Another one of his is The March which might be rather topical at the moment, as it deals with Sherman's March to the Sea during the American Civil War. Very good reading (as most of Doctorow is) and not too long either.

I'm really surprised that nobody has mentioned this one yet, but you should check out the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Storm Front is the first book in the series. Don't quit after only reading the first one! The series gets better as you go!

Also, I just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 and loved it :)

EDIT: If you read a lot, I would really recommend using PaperBack Swap! (gotta be honest, this is a referral link through me!) They have a ton of great books available for around $3.45 per book (with shipping) at the most, and that's if you actually purchase credits.

Year Zero by Rob Reid. It's essentially a book about record labels finding out that aliens have been listening to [and illegally downloading] all of earth's music for decades. When they find out about this, the Alien's realize that they owe Earth an unfathomable amount of money and it would be impossible to ever pay it all. So two aliens hire a lawyer, Nick Carter to handle the case. They hope he can strike a licensing agreement, and the fate of Earth rests in his hands.

I actually haven't finished the book, but it is a really easy read and has a lot of funny pop culture references, as well as fairly legally accurate. The plot is just outrageous, which makes it that much better in my opinion. The idea of it all I think would just make for a great adventure, and would have some great CGI. Would be even better if they got the real Nick Carter to play Nick Carter.

I love Tana French! She writes a good, complex mystery that really sucks you in. She started with In the Woods. This is also the start of her Dublin Murder Squad books - all of them great.

Gillian Flynn, who wrote Gone Girl, also has another book out - Dark Places.

Also some of my favorites are Nicholas Evans (Horse Whisperer, among others). I've read most of Jodi Picoult's books (Leaving Time is pretty recent, and one of my favorites).

I find many of my books by keying in favorites on Amazon, and seeing what other people also buy. If you are a Prime member, you also get 2 free advanced books every month, and with a Kindle, you have the lending library as well. My Kindle library is out of control - I've been using Kindle Unlimited to keep that more manageable & it's easy for me.

The Hunger Games / Divergent / Ender's Game / Maze Runner series are great also, are fun reads, and give you a bit more time with the characters as part of a series.

It is. Plus the author has a great sense of humor and lets it color his writing. I've turned quite a few people on to the series with no complaints. To be fair, all of those people did enjoy books of a similar nature. Good luck and let me know what you think if you read them. The first book is Storm Front. They're pretty expensive right now on Kindle so I linked the paperback edition for you. My local library always has the books available, so I'd check there as well - free is a great price as well :).

The Andromeda Strain e-book!

I started reading it over the summer, then someone accidentally spilled coffee on it and ruined it. :(

It's such a great book. I love Crichton.

The little things in life that make me happy are cute snapchat/text messages from my friends, nice mugs, tea, and good music. And TinyChat. :-)

Thanks for the contest ♥

So, it was a fun book, but I found more than a few aspects of it to be a bit unbelievable and aggravating.

• All of what follows is something that you will learn about the setting in the opening chapter or two, and while it is background material that is absolutely relevant to the plot, is not itself about any of the characters or events of the book... so I don't think that it is spoiler material. Still, I've enclosed it in spoiler blocks just to be safe.
  
  -----
  
  [Spoiler](/s "The nominal concept of the setting is that everybody alive has a high capacity digital storage device embedded in the base of their skull/neck that keeps track of everything they do/say/learn/experience. As such humans are basically software... you can put any consciousness in any body. Bodies can be grown, or confiscated, or traded. Any event that kills a person but doesn't destroy the storage device doesn't kill the person permanently... he/she just downloads into a new body... possibly one that was a clone of the old body, or possibly an upgrade or downgrade depending upon finances. In fact, there is no need to even go back into a body as one can run one's consciousness entirely inside a virtual environment... and at a much faster rate than a human brain would support. This is not a concept in the background... the story revolves around this idea. ")
  
  [Spoiler](/s "If you find that to be a believable idea, then you'll love the book. I don't. I think that too much of how we think is intrinsic to the mechanism of how our brains work. You couldn't put a genius mind into the body of mentally disabled person... you'd end up with a mentally disabled person with vague memories of being a genius. Personally, I don't think it could work even in less extreme cases than that: I strongly suspect that information and meaning as it is experienced in a human is encoded symbolically into neurons in a way that is utterly different and incompatible with the way similar or even identical information is encoded into the neurons of any other human... that is the way any individual thinks is essentially encrypted relative to the way any other individual thinks... and that this is a property that is physically encoded in the shape and genetics of individual neurons in the brain such that it could never be separated from the brain. (This is consistent with what we know about how brains work from fMRI studies... when you look at a picture, or do a task such as multiplication, the same general regions of the brain light up for you as anyone else, but the pattern of activation isn't exactly the same... ever). ")
  
  [Spoiler](/s "But lets say we choose to ignore the fact that the premise is more than a little incompatible with what we know of neurobiology. The premise is also self contradictory in ways that are annoyingly implausible but convenient for the plot. Without getting into spoilers, Altered Carbon takes place in a society that has the ability to copy and digitize the consciousness of a human, create functional independent AIs, run simulations of humans so realistic that the simulations don't know that they are simulations or that the environment that they are in is simulated, move such software-human-identities between bodies, and yet still treats human consciousness as a black box! You want to extract a particular fact from a stored mind? You have to actually boot that mind up into a body or software simulated environment, and ASK IT with language! I mean, if the author wants to explore the consequences of human identity as software that's great, but GO ALL THE WAY! Extracting information from a stored consciousness, given all the other things this civilization can do, should be child's play... as simple as typing in search terms in a search engine... the fact that the consciousness is not running should only make it easier. ")
  
  [Spoiler](/s "All in all, a fun light reading, but not as intriguing as it could have been. In many ways, Kiln People by Brin explored much the same subject matter, and did so in a more intellectually rigorous manner. Oddly, the fact that the mind-copying technology is much less believable in Brin's book (and analogue rather than digital in nature) makes the over all story much more believable because it lets the story focus more upon the metaphysical, social, and moral implications.")

Rendezvous with Rama the whole series is pretty good.

2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke Collection: The Odyssey) that series as well

Neuromancer

Homeland: The Legend of Drizzt, Book I: Bk. 1
the dark elf trilogy is pretty good

for amazingly deep and rich backdrop you can't beat the Dune (40th Anniversary Edition) (Dune Chronicles, Book 1) at least the first three.. others that were wrote by his son and other authors are ok but dont live up to the originals imho

pretty much all of Robert Heinlein's stuff stranger in a strange land, starship troopers (nothing at all like the movie), Glory Road, Have Spacesuit will travel.

>> Real men jog home from their vasectomies! (I took a bus.)

> I've read this from you about 10 times now and I still giggle.

I do tend to repeat myself. Sorry about that. I'm glad you're still enjoying that one.

> Really? I looked this up and I got spouses. Are you sure?

Mouse -> mice. Spouse -> spice.

I am sure it's a joke. And, it's not original on my part. It's from Heinlein.

> Btw, there is a (suspected) finch family nesting in my mom's clothespin bag. When I saw them I thought of you. Noisy little things. Chirping their fool heads off, hopping around the deck, flying all over the place. They are entertaining. I don't know if there are babies yet, but I've seen the adults bringing bugs into the clothespin bag. No tweeting yet, though.

Cool! I hope you get to see the chicks. With birds that small, they grow up fast. You're most likely to see them when they're about the same size as the adults but more drab and fluttering their wings, chirping, and begging for food. Watch for a bit and you'll see the parents feeding them.

If you get to see them younger and featherless in the nest, that's really lucky. I usually don't.

> If I get a pic I'll send it to you.

Cool. Then maybe I can identify them for you.

P.S. The full quote, though I'd like more context but not enough to dig out the book, is:

> Among such people the plural of spouse is spice.

> --Lazurus Long, Time Enough For Love, pg 339

• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is the first book of the Flavia De Luce mystery series. I quickly fell in love with the heroine and the authors writing style draws you in easily.
  
  
• Note to self: don't read sad books while you're on an airplane
  
  *Done
  
  Thanks for passing on the literary enjoyment!

Ok, you like a lot of the authors I do so Imma try and throw a couple out there.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi Set in future Thailand where global warming has run rampant, the oceans have risen, and gene companies produce food seed continuously to keep ahead of genetic plagues that destroy anything edible. It's some solid hard scifi and if you like Gibson and Dick it should do ya well.

Red Thunder by John Varley Set in the near future the Chinese are clearly going to win the spacerace to Mars and a small group decides to build a ship to beat em. This is the first in a three part series (which I just learned had a third part lookin up that link) and I enjoyed it.

As for fantasy...

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher In the world of The Dresden Files, magic is real, along with ghouls, vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves, zombies and other mythical monsters. Harry Dresden works to protect the general public, who are ignorant of magic and the dark forces conspiring against them. This makes it difficult for Harry to get by as a working wizard and private eye. The Chicago PD's Special Investigation unit, when led by Karrin Murphy, regularly employs Dresden as a consultant to help solve cases of a supernatural nature. I love this series, whenever a new book comes out (and hes up to 14 not counting a few short story collections and such) I read it almost nonstop.

I haven't read anything good in years and the things I have read are usually due to finding new books for my kids or reading the books that have been adapted to tv/film.

One of my all time favorite series was from Robin Hobb. Starting with Assassin's Apprentice. This was a difficult read for me at the time, but I loved the story behind the characters.

I started reading less fantasy after reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Millennial Series. I read these after watching the original films. It is fantastic. Just don't buy the fourth book, it wasn't even written by him as he has been dead for a while now.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. I didn't start reading those until Game of Thrones premiered on HBO.

Now for some really old school, Dragonlance by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The fourth book came out years later and was fantastic. I have read more than a few of the side stories, but the main books are the best in my opinion, probably would not hold up well today.

Currently, I have The Martian by Andy Weir and Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan waiting for me to read.

The Five People You meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom is a book that I consider a must read. I don't consider it a spiritual book, but it did change my perspective on how I view my life in this world.

Gillian Flynn is one of my favorites, and I group her with Denise Mina, Tana French, Sara Gran, and Elizabeth Hand. These are the books that I recommend to start each writer:

• Elizabeth Hand - Generation Loss
  
• Denise Mina - Garnethill
  
• Tana French - In the Woods
  
• Sara Gran - Dope or Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead
  
  I HIGHLY recommend all of these -- they're all biting and well written and thrilling in different ways.

It's pretty light reading, but if you like the idea of an Indiana Jones style adventure in space (but with a bit more science), I would check out 'Seeker' by Jack McDevitt.

It's a pretty fun and engaging read.

Lnk: http://www.amazon.com/Seeker-Jack-McDevitt/dp/0441013759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291709470&sr=8-1

It was brutal. I wasn't that good. But there were many people who were superb. It was such a pleasure watching them perform.

Here are some sci-fi recommendations (you may have read them already, but I thought I'd offer anyway):

Serious Scifi:

Anathem the "multiverse" (multiple realities) and how all that works
Seveneves feminism meets eugenics—watch out!
The Culture series by Iain Banks, esp Book 2, the Player of Games Banks is dead, but wrote some of the best intellectual scifi ever

Brilliant, Visionary:

Accelerando brilliant and hilarious; and it's not a long book
Snowcrash classic
Neuromancer another classic

Tawdry yet Lyrical (in a good way):

Dhalgren beautiful, poetic, urban, stream of consciousness, and more sex than you can believe

Underrated Classics:

Voyage to Arcturus ignore the reviews and the bad cover of this edition (or buy a diff edition); this is the ONE book that every true scifi and fantasy fan should read before they die

Stress Pattern, by Neal Barrett, Jr. I can't find this on Amazon, but it is a book you should track down. It is possibly the WORST science fiction book ever written, and that is why you must read it. It's a half-assed attempt at a ripoff of Dune without any of the elegance or vision that Herbert had, about a giant worm that eats people on some distant planet. A random sample: "A few days later when I went to the edge of the grove to ride the Bhano I found him dead. I asked Rhamik what could have happened and he told me that life begins, Andrew, and life ends. Well, so it does."

If you liked Dan Brown, you could give Umberto Eco a try with Foucault's Pendulum or In the Name of the Rose - His books are more intelligent and were written before Brown was around.

I read a lot of historical fiction, if that is of interest you could start with The Gates of Fire by Pressfield or The Last Kingdom by Cornwell

Mystery, action, and fantasy all rolled into one - Dresden Files might be of interest to you - it is kind of a detective noir mixed with fantasy. Also, the series vastly improves as it progresses.

If you would like a coming of age story, The Power of One follows a boy in turn-of-the-century South Africa and examines class and race relations in a very accessible way.

If you want to try reading some of what are considered "The Classics" I would recommend All Quiet on the Western Front and To Kill a Mockingbird

Tried to think of some of my favorites across several very different genres...If any of these appeal, I can expand on them with more similar suggestions.

I've read the preview of this book and it looks pretty good, especially since I love well done urban fantasy story's. You'd probably really enjoy the Dresden Series... about a badass wizard detective living in Chicago.

Here's a link to the first book if you want to check it out:
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Front-Dresden-Files-Book/dp/0451457811

Ya know, I'll order a paperback edition of a Madness of Angels from amazon right now if you promise to take a look at the Dresden Series. Deal?

StarRisk is good fun as long as you arn't looking for deep hidden meanings in your writing, because other than a few story twists it's fairly straightforward. That doesn't make it any less entertaining thou.

The Evergence series is a considerably more sophisticated read and you'll likely get some good milage out of the story on that one. Everything from ascended beings to cyborgs and super soldiers.

The two I was trying to remember are

Seeker: It's an exploration and discovery novel, so not particularly military in approach but interesting.

The Faded Sun Trilogy: This one is a retired military character that ends up in a fish out of water situation. It's admittedly very long and was a tougher read than I had anticipated when I picked it up but I enjoyed it even if I felt a bit burnt out at the end because there's so much going on and the pacing isn't that great since it's actually 3 books in one cover.

If you want to get absolutely insane milage out of a book series try the Otherland series. It's not a space opera but it's a heavy duty sci-fi regardless. For hard space sci-fi the Culture series is also really incredible and should probably be at the top of this list not the bottom.

Hitler wanted to control Europe and establish the 1,000 Year Reich, which was his idea of a modern version of the Roman Empire. Before the US began to help England and Russia with Lend/Lease and other programs, he didn't give a lot of thought to North America or Asia.

Specifically, Hitler wanted to create a homeland for his idea of the Aryan people, which would include western Europe, eastern Europe and a significant slice of the western Soviet Union. Much of the new, eastern lands were to exist almost entirely to provide raw materials and slave labor for the citizens of greater Germany. The existing populations of the newly conquered lands deemed to be not Aryan enough were either to be eliminated, or moved to the new lands and forcibly settled so they could be exploited.

As someone has already suggested, you can read about Generalplan Ost (General Plan East) to see the broad outlines of what he had in mind. Hitler also had plans to redesign Berlin to be the new capital, and do things like build the Führermuseum in Linz, his hometown.

If you want an entertaining alternate history novel about what might have happened had Hitler won, Fatherland, by Robert Harris gives a good idea of what might have been.

Fiction Books

Cryptonomicon - Very few books make up a cypher system based on playing cards, have a story that spans WW2 through the present day and in large part revolve around creating an alternate digital currency, a data haven and startup life.

Neuromancer - this is the book that created cyberpunk and that inspired all those bad movie ideas about hacking in 3D systems. That being said, it marked a real turning point in SciFi. Without this book "cyber" security specialists would probably be called something else.

Snow Crash - This is much more breezy than the other two but still has very recognizable hacking/security elements to it and is just fun.

Non Fiction

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - This isn't a book about technology so much as deduction and figuring things out (while being hilariously entertaining).

I included all these here in large part because they are what inspired me to get into development and sysadmin work and I bet that I'm about 20 years older than you if you're just getting into the field - so there's a decent chance that your coworkers are into them too.

Do you read cyberpunk? Looking at art is great but I find reading to be the biggest inspiration because how I imagine the world is unique and original to me. Likewise, how you imagin the world will be unique and original too and completely different from how I see it. Check out books like Neuromancer, the book that started cyberpunk.

[edit] One of my favorite quotes from the book

> His eyes were eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a frequency whose name was rain and the sound of trains, suddenly sprouting a humming forest of hair-fine glass spines.

Paints a different kind of picture than you can get from images.

What sort of fantasy do you think you would like? High fantasy, modern day real world fantasy, steam punk, romance, adventure, coming of age?

If you are looking at staying with a Young Adult fantasy theme, I would suggest Cassandra Clare's series, [The Mortal Instruments] (https://www.amazon.com/Bones-Mortal-Instruments-Cassandra-Clare/dp/1481455923/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1478740289&sr=8-3&keywords=the+mortal+instruments) and it's prequel series, [The Infernal Devices] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1481456024/ref=pd_sim_14_6?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1481456024&pd_rd_r=H6XGB69FAEC3097ZA851&pd_rd_w=lLXM8&pd_rd_wg=MOvOs&psc=1&refRID=H6XGB69FAEC3097ZA851) . The prequel series is actually my favorite of the two. It is steam punk fantasy while the other is not. I also would recommend [The Dresden Files] (https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Front-Dresden-Files-Butcher/dp/0451457811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478740351&sr=1-1&keywords=dresden+files), by Jim Butcher even though they are not Young Adult. They contain every type of fantasy creature and setting you could imagine. It's a series about a private detective in modern day Chicago who also happens to be a wizard.

If you want to delve into a zombie genre, I have enjoyed [The Forest of Hands and Teeth] (https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Hands-Teeth-Carrie-Ryan/dp/0385736827/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478740244&sr=8-1&keywords=forest+of+hands+and+teeth) series by Carrie Ryan as well as [The Enemy] (https://www.amazon.com/Enemy-new-cover-Novel/dp/1484721462/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478740190&sr=8-1&keywords=the+enemy+charlie+higson) series by Charlie Higson.

I'm no expert on sci-fi, but 'Year Zero' was pretty good. It felt like an american angle on a hitchhiker type story. It's more funny than profound, at least when compared to hitchhikers. Most of it takes place on Earth, and the alien world has to be kept from being viewed by humans because it's beauty would overwhelm and possibly kill them. So it's hardly described at all.

The audiobook is read by John Hodgman, and he does a great job with all the voices. I had no idea he did voices.

I have a four book series about the emergence of artificial intelligence that Wired called "chilling and compelling." It starts with Avogadro Corp: http://www.amazon.com/Avogadro-Corp-Singularity-Closer-Appears-ebook/dp/B006ACIMQQ/

The series spans forty years, and is ideal for people interested in the singularity, the progress of technology and its impact on people and civilization, and is especially well liked by software developers and others in tech, since the protagonists of most of the novels are programmers.

I recommend the Posthuman series.

http://www.amazon.com/Post-Human-Series-Books-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00H0D5NTI

Very good AI themes. I do admit it gets pretty deep scifi pretty quickly, I think he takes it a little too far to be honest. That said, read all 4 books, they're short and the 4th one redeems that 3rd one.

Dr. Max Tegmark, cosmologist and physics professor at MIT

• Permutation City, by Greg Egan (Powells) (Amazon)
  
  Dr. Jane Goodall, Primatologist
  
  
• The Story of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• The Miracle of Life (not listed)
  
  Dr. Sean Carroll, Theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology
  
  
• Dragon's Egg, by Robert Forward (Powells) (Amazon)
  
  Dr. Temple Grandin, Animal scientist
  
  
• "I’m a Star trek fan..."
  
  Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior astronomer and director at the Center for SETI Research
  
  
• Golem XIV, by Stanislaw Lem (Powells) (Amazon)
  
  Dr. Chris Stringer, Anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London
  
  
• Brazil, the movie (YouTube)
  
  Dr. Jack Horner, Paleontologist at Montana State University
  
  
• Jurassic Park, the movie) (IMDB)
  
  Dr. Adam Riess, astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University
  
  
• Contact, by Carl Sagan (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• The Fountains of Paradise, by Arthur C. Clarke (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• Foundation series, by Isaac Asimov (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• The Silo saga, by Hugh Howey (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• The Stand, by Stephen King (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• Watership Down, by Richard Adams (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham (Powells) (Amazon)
  
  Dr. Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics at Cornell University
  
  
• The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Chriton (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• Colossus: The Forbin Project, the movie (IMDB)
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (Powells) (Amazon)
  
  Dr. Ainissa Ramirez, materials scientist
  
  
• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler (Powells) (Amazon)
  
  Dr. Mario Livio, astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute
  
  
• Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne (Powells) (Amazon)
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey, the movie (IMDB)
  
• Dr. Strangelove, the movie (IMDB)
  
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the movie (IMDB)
  
  Olympia LePoint, rocket scientist
  
  
• Gravity, 2013 (IMDB)
  
• Back to The Future, 1985 (IMDB)
  
  Dr. Danielle Lee, biologist
  
  
• Dune, 1984 (IMDB)
  
  Dr. Michael Shermer, historian of science
  
  
• The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951 (IMDB)
  
  Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist
  
  
• The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951 (IMDB)
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968 (IMDB)
  
• Planet of the Apes, 1968 (IMDB)
  
• The Terminator, 1984 (IMDB)
  
• The Quiet Earth, 1985 (IMDB)
  
• Contact, 1997 (IMDB)
  
• Deep Impact, 1998 (IMDB)
  
• The Matrix, 1999 (IMDB)
  
• The Island, 2005 (IMDB)
  
• Watchmen, 2009 (IMDB)
  

I have several good recommendations for this one. First I will give you two fiction books you MUST read if this subject is a real interest of yours.

Islands In The Net by: Bruce Sterling
https://www.amazon.com/Islands-Net-Bruce-Sterling-ebook/dp/B00PDDKVXK/

Neuromancer by William Gibson
https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595

For non-fiction the one book that really did it for me was again by Mr. Sterling it's called The Hacker Crackdown and it is so amazing!!
https://www.amazon.com/Hacker-Crackdown-Disorder-Electronic-Frontier/dp/055356370X

Good luck. PM for more recommendations if you need them. This is a genre I am very interested in myself and have read extensively.

Yeah, if it was free to play I'd push a lot harder for people to try it, but I can understand not wanting to plop down thirty bucks for a game you're not sure you'd want.

However, I really love modern day/supernatural settings. Some of my favorite book series are The Nightside books by Simon R. Green, The Hollows series by Kim Harrison (especially so because I actually live near Cincinnati, which is where the books take place), The Hellboy graphic novel series, and so on.

So yeah, a game with a modern day setting where I get to spend hours fighting zombies, insane cultists, bloodthirsty vampires, and elder gods? Sign me up! :D

Perhaps Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn would be something for your Grandmother.

As to Murder Mystery's I can recommen Scandinavian crime literature(I'm Scandinavian myself, so I might be a little biased). First I can recommend a series by Jo Nesbø, it's a link to the first book in his series about inspector Harry Hole.

I can also recommend Jussi Alder-Olsens series about Department Q It's also a link to the first book in the series. It's about a cop, who is not following the rules of the murder department and as a result gets put in the basement and have to work on old cases. It's quite good and surprisingly funny.

Somwhat of a classic series in Scandinavian Crime literature is The Millennium by Steig Larsson Series Series, which has a pretty damm good story. The first book is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

As to Horror The Shining by Stephen King is always a good read, maybe not gory, but it freaked me out, when I read the first time.

You can check them out and see if anything would fit to what your Grandmother enjoys. I hope you find something good.

Tell us a little bit more about yourself. What entertainment genres do you like? Are there any subjects you want to learn more about?

Here's a few good books I've read recently:

• 1491; about cultures in the Americas before Columbus arrived. There was a lot more going on than you'd think.
  
  
• The Tipping Point: about looking at big trends and processes and finding the place where you can make a difference.
  
  
• Storm Front: Book 1 of the Dresden Files: One of my favorite fiction series. Urban fantasy about a wizard who works as a private detective in Chicago. Phillip Marlowe/film noir sort of attitude with a lot of insight and humor.

I really enjoyed these books and have read a lot of similar self published works. A series that is very similar is B.V. Larson's Star Force series.
http://www.amazon.com/Swarm-Star-Force-Series-ebook/dp/B004H8FVEQ/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

I am a glutton for any type of military scifi and will read through a lot of the self published authors, and some of these authors sell a surprising amount of books. Thomas Deprima is one of these authors as eggrock has pointed out, his series is one of the better selling ones. Although its not selling like it did about a year ago. I do disagree with him on his beliefs that he wrote all his good reviews. There are a lot of people who like his style of writing.

Going back to whether I've read any of his other works, I have not. Although I have debated buying Accelerated, Strontium 90, and Invasion Alaska on a few occasions. I've just never worked up the desire to read them. So I guess we're in the same boat. You can always go to his amazon page and read the reviews.

Love this series highly recommend it up until the third book but the fourth book... His other series on silver wings fits the bill as well though.

A few other great reads though that are fairly similar listed in the order of my preference.

• A sword into darkness by Thomas A.mays
  
• swarm by B.v Larson
  
• exodus: empires at war by doug Dandridge.
  
• The nameless War by edmond Barrett
  
  
  Also sorry about high jacking this started writing this as a response then ended up recommending a bunch of other books .

I doubt this is it, but I'll plug Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein.

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Enough-Love-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441810764/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371002335&sr=8-1&keywords=time+enough+for+love

Hopefully it might help you or someone else get pointed in the right direction.

Yeah, Im fully into ebooks, but the cost really is BS. I think there is some drama between publishers and amazon that always inflates the prices. Some self published authors have really cheap Ebooks (I loved this book and its sequels and they're only $3-$5 each). So there is a chance the prices may go down at some point if something changes between amazon and publishers.

I actually got into Ebooks while pirating them, so cost wasn't an issue, after awhile i got so used to the convenience of having it on my phone I couldn't go back to print. Then i had a little more spending money and decided buying them was even more convenient.

One of the biggest reasons I loved the Millennium trilogy was Larsson's use of Sweden itself as a character. Everything from the weather to Scandinavian minimalism helped make the story so much more real.

Following those, I ended up reading and loving Tana French's trilogy. The stories follow three Irish police officers (though the stories are more loosely connected than Millennium) and her use of Ireland itself is absolutely brilliant. Give the first one In the Woods a shot and see what you think.

Edit: My mistake. It looks like a fourth book was just published in July.

I'm reading Time Enough For Love by Robert Heinlein right now. It takes place in the year 4272 in an interplanetary human civilization with "the Senior", who's been alive since the 1940's (and who's genes aided research into 'rejuvenation clinics' for the wealthy and connected), giving his life stories and wisdom to the leader of a planet who wants to leave and colonize a new world. It's a fascinating read, and gets into some decent scientific detail too. Heinlein also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers.

> But at least have enough class not to advertise that you did it.

Hey, Jim. Long time fan of the Dresden books; I usually use them as a case example of showing people what it's like for an author to improve over time, because I think it's very clear to the reader how consistently you get better as a writer from book to book (although you rely on the word 'literally' far too often for my taste). I understand your point of view on people sharing your books for free, but I cannot support your attitude that there is anything remotely shameful about it, any more than there is shame in lending or giving a book to a friend - it is simply a fact that a digital book can be given away without the giver no longer having it, which shouldn't have any impact on the morality in question.

Some of your pirates truly can't afford your books, and you should not consider them a loss of sales in any way. Many, like thefran has strongly implied he is, struggle with inadequate service - information in the digital age is always in competition with free, and sellers who do not realize this make poor decisions that cause piracy. theFran has straight-up admitted that he had to buy a bootleg because, for no good reason, he could not buy your product when it released, as it was delayed in his country. In the internet age, that is straight-up inexcusable. This is your publisher's fault, not yours, but you should understand that he was out to enjoy your work, not hurt you, and as a group, the people involved in selling him the book dropped the ball collectively.

If you're serious about wanting to sell more books to internet denizens, 1) make absolutely sure digital copies of your book release no later than the physical book does, 2) in every format used by a digital reader, 3) on widely accessible markets, 4) for a reasonable price (this means less than the physical copy; 5 dollars is about right). This shit, where the digital copy costs MORE than the paper copy, is just going to lose you sales. http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Front-Book-Dresden-Files/dp/0451457811

I realise you're the author, but you're big enough to tell your publishers to stop being idiots. Get on the phone with them and start making yourself more money and your internet readers happier.

Howdy.

I am /u/vrlkd (Strava), been around a while but my posting frequency fluctuates between being overly active and AWOL. I am more consistent with my Slack participation. I'm based in London and can regularly be found at my local parkrun.

1. 2,017 miles for the year would be sweet.
   
2. I ran a low 18s 5k in May before getting injured, so I would like to break 18:00 before the end of the year.
   
3. I've a bunch of books to read (next on my list is Sapiens and The Name of the Wind). Other than that, simply to stay healthy and positive. To enjoy life.

I just finished reading the first book in The Singularity series. Not the greatest book ever, but it's something you might not have heard of which is definitely worthy of attention. It has the added benefit of being fairly short and fast paced.

If you liked Sanderson for his straightforward style and fun tone, I recommend Jim Butcher. You can read the Codex Alera for epic fantasy or his more popular Dresden Files, which is urban fantasy.

Sounds like you might enjoy Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. I think Snow Crash is meant to be in the same universe - it's hilarious but not as dense. You might also like his Cryptonomicon, though it's not technically Sci Fi.

Tad Willams' Otherland Series is Epic Sci Fi with a huge amount of detail. Might be right up your alley.

Dune, Neuromancer and The Enderverse if you haven't already read those.

David Brin wrote a great novel that explores this somewhat called Kiln People. It's a fun and pretty easy read, and directly deals with those questions! It's a murder mystery involving temporary human avatars made from a kind of recyclable slurry that people upload consciousness to.

For sheer 'play in the virtual world' stuff, you MUST read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. You'll blaze through that, so follow it up with Stephenson's The Diamond Age


Good YA dystopic future stuff:
The Windup Girl

Station Eleven


Finally, get into Neuromancer, by William Gibson. It's a fantastic--some would say genre-defining--cyberpunk novel.

Then go devour everything Stephenson and Gibson put out there. That should get you through at least the first half of the summer. Happy reading!

https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595

 

Check out r/cyberpunk

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series)

 

Neuromancer is coined as the novel that started it all in terms of what is known as cyberpunk today. Altered Carbon is a new show on netflix coming tomorrow and Blade Runner as far as I am concerned is the best sci fi movie ever made. r/cyberpunk is a good place to start your journey but feel free to message me and talk about cyberpunk stuff anytime you want.

Good fiction excites the mind and teaches new concepts. Most future minded scientists are science fiction fans for that reason.

Snow Crash is just a fun ride. Pulp fiction, not more complex or involved than that. Enders Game is the same.

Try the fanfiction I recommended, or Understand (pdf) by Ted Chiang, or The Last Question by Asimov, or Baby Eating Aliens by Yudkowsky. All of these are free, by the way, and relatively short.

Each have important lessons embedded in good stories, philosphical quandries that we are rapidly approaching, like what will it mean to be human when we are no longer entirely biological?

Also, if you want just a reeeeeaallly good scifi book, I don't think you can go past Neuromancer by Gibson. Less thought provoking but seriously well written.

Are you looking for straight comedy or just things with comedic elements? Do you have any specific genre preferences?

For example, Steven Brust's Jhereg series has a very snarky protagonist, but it's not a comedy.

Same would be true for the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, if you like urban fantasy.

I'll add this thematically similar recommendation: Sleepless, by Charlie Huston.

It takes place in LA instead of New York, but it's about what happens when the city falls apart due to an incurable plague. In the novel, it's insomnia. The story bounces between a detective and an assassin. I love the book for its atmosphere and world-building, as well as for the way it answers the question of what systems and power structures emerge when urban civilization collapses.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.com.au

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amazon.it

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amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. The protagonist is a wizard who works with Chicago PD on magic related and other supernatural cases. There are some strong female characters, a sort of Scooby gang eventually, lots of vampire intrigue, and while the sense of humor isn't exactly the same, I find it to be in the same neighborhood, just a little geekier. Here is a link to the first book in the series.

You should definitely check out Dresden Files. Please dont base it on the horrible TV series they made the books are fantastic.
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Front-Dresden-Files-Book/dp/0451457811/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291817709&sr=8-1
also the audio books are great, read by James Marsters.

I think you would love the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. The thirds and final book is yet to be released but they are an absoolutely wonderful read :D

First Book

Second Book

ebook. Happy happy birthdaaaaay!!

it's the weekend

That was so much fun!

And by the way. You are looking STUNNING today. Like, I can't look away! So... so... beautiful...

(also, I think I would like this from my wishlist)

Avogadro goes into great detail on A.I. designed to do exactly what OP said happened. It's sci-fi and amazing.

Those books are insanely awesome!!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

If you like fantasy, check in with the folks over at r/fantasy. That being said, Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind is phenomenal epic fantasy with beautifully crafted storytelling. If you want fast paced urban fantasy, check out Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, which is about a magic wielding private detective with an irreverent sense of humor.

Sure!

Cryptonomicon

Snow Crash

The Electric Church

Neuromancer

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

That should get you started. :)

http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daemon-Book-2-ebook/dp/B002VUFKDY

as well as the original Daemon (http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez-ebook/dp/B003QP4NPE/) Both are great reads.

You might like this. It's somewhere in the middle between soft and hard sci-fi in my relative opinion, but I found it a good read.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Post-Human-Omnibus-1-4-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00H0D5NTI - books 1-4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inhuman-Book-Post-Human-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00HYLX4R4 - book 5

These are all great books too

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forever-War-3-Book/dp/B00W6RJ6SC - Joe Haldeman's Forever War

https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Sins-Remembered-GOLLANCZ-S-F-ebook/dp/B005HRTA4I Joe Haldeman's All My Sins Remembered

Granted not exactly to your spec, as it's 1980's sci-fi and thus based around now, HOWEVER very good story.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J3EU5RC - Greg Bear's Eon books

Haha, I actually read a great book that was self published! CyberStorm http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BT4QRHG

There's a series of books that I found on kindle that's literally called Post Human.

Book one is good.

A plot point from book two onward is kind of odd. [Spoiler](/s "Divorce seems to be not a thing? and everyone's medical status is always being broadcast to their spouse so if you see someone attractive who is not your spouse then they instantly know. And since everyone is effectively immortal this comes up a lot, which is why divorce not being an option seems kind of stupid." )

Anyway, it's a minor plot point and just really odd which is why I mentioned it.

As to the tech, it's maybe magic? I'm not sure but it's definitely on the softer side of sci-fi.

Still worth a read if you have kindle unlimited.

I really enjoyed Avogadro Corp (first in a series). It's a compelling and plausible story about an emergent AI, and it takes place in the not-too-distant future.

(disclaimer: I know the author, but I met him after reading the book, and I enjoyed the book before I knew him)

I read Seeker which is part of the Alex Benedict Series in Spring 2011. Changed my life forever.
Read it apart of a science fiction English class and despite that I read it out of order from the series, it was fantastic.
The vision of the future portrayed in this novel is what I'd like our future to be.

My friend suggested this to me! Looks exciting!

Thanks for the contest!

I really loved Ender's Game, but I know its not everyone's cup of tea. You should read The Dresden Files. It is a really good mix of fantasy/magic and detective/action types.

An episode set in the backdrop of a NYC Blackout would be really cool. Like a parody of the real NYC blackout of 1977. Maybe it's the dark army's real motive for working with Elliot on "Stage 2". Elliot even says something in beginning of s2e9 like "we never questioned the dark army's motives"). It is totally plausible, even likely, that the Dark Army is sponsored by the State (China), maybe they want to have the first strike in a true Cyber War with the US. First they break down society by aiding the crash of the financial system and encouraging dissent. Next cut the power, civilization starts to unfold, next bring the telecom systems down, invade, WWIII! Ok I'll put my tin foil hat back on.

edit - this is also a part of the plot of a book I read recently called Cyber Storm

If you haven't read it yet try out

http://www.amazon.com/CyberStorm-English-Edition-Matthew-Mather-ebook/dp/B00BT4QRHG/

By the same author. I haven't read Darknet yet but CyberStorm was great.

How about some good books?:

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey - First in the series.

Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green - First in the series.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett - Hilarious

Other works of fiction that contain the concept of a metaverse;

Books

• The Otherland series, by Tad Williams, beginning with City of Golden Shadow (sidenote, this series also has an MMORPG based on it, currently in closed beta, and recently (October of last year) brought back from the dead)
  
  
• The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons, beginning with Hyperion.
  
  
• The Golden Oecumene, by John C. Wright, beginning with The Golden Age.
  
  
• Accel World, by Reki Kawahara, beginning with Kuroyukihime's Return. (If you are familiar with the manganime Sword Art Online, this is by the same author, and shares the same universe)
  
  
• This Alien Shore, by Celia S. Friedman. (amazon link)
  
  
• The Sprawl Trilogy, by William Gibson, beginning with Neuromancer.
  
  
• Accelerando, by Charles Stross. (free e-book link)
  
  Anime and Manga
  
  
• The .hack series, specifically .hack//SIGN
  
  
• For a lighter feel, there's Summer Wars (available on CrunchyRoll) and the INCREDIBLY similar second Digimon movie, Our War Game!. Also I guess by extension, but not really explored as much, the entire Digimon series, as it takes place in an analogy for the internet.
  
  
• Serial Experiments Lain
  
  
• Okay fine, here's Sword Art Online (CrunchyRoll link)
  
  Film
  
  
• The Singularity is Near, a speculative documentary based on the Ray Kurzweil book of the same name.
  
  
• The Thirteenth Floor, a crime thriller about the owner of a VR simulation company getting murdered.
  
  ----
  
  I know I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the genre, because if there's one thing humans are good at, it's writing fucktons on what we like.
  
  So feel free to comment additions to this list, or opinions on what I've currently included. I have by no means read/watched all of these, so having someone with actual experience with each of these weigh in would be nice.

Check out the Flavia de Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley. While they do feature murder they're light, humorous, and quick reads. There are only 4 currently in print, but I think there'll be something like 7 in total. Bradley is pushing them out pretty quick.

General

Neuromancer By William Gibson

Neuromancer spawned the Cyberpunk genre and is responsible for much of cyber culture today, despite being written before the internet entered the public consciousness. Interesting characters, poetic descriptions, and a drug-addled noir atmosphere.


>Goodreads blurb: The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . .

>Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employers crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

>Hotwired to the leading edges of art and technology, Neuromancer ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the century's most potent visions of the future. (less)

I've enjoyed both of those authors, so I guess I'll recommend some books I've liked.

In no particular order (links to the first book in the series, on amazon):

The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell

Spinward Fringe by Randolph Lalonde

Star Force by B.V. Larson

Honor Harrington series by David Weber

Valor series by Tanya Huff

I choose Neuromancer.

I have never read it but I have been told I need to. Also, Neuromancer is the first novel to win the Sci-Fi triple crown (Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick award). It came out in 1984 and coined the term "cyberspace" for online computer networks. Other terms such as ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) were also coined or given significance through this novel. Also the term "Matrix" when referring to a computer network was used here (Suck on that Matrix trilogy).

The function of money itself is a variable.

What is money? I've heard it as "An agreement within a community to establish a system for the distribution of resources."

Everything about how it works: inflation, interest, scale, who issues it. . . is all arbitrary.

Markets, as they currently function, are set up to drive unsustainable recurring growth. . . and they've shaped global human behavior toward a kind of destructiveness, greed and unchecked ambition that is SINGLE HANDEDLY the source of, I will go so far as to say "most" of the human suffering in the world. But those that benefit from them the most are almost Pavlovianly conditioned to have a hard time seeing this. This is a big problem.

If YOU would like to open your eyes, here's some resources:

Barnard Lietaer was a world class economist (who was one of the architects of the Euro. . .which he warned was going to cause and run into a lot of the same problems as it has, but it had POLITICAL requirements that HAD to be met that had those problems baked in) who focused his work on helping communities reimagine the idea of what currency even is. When you realize it doesn't have to work the way it does, the whole way that markets even work starts to look. . . well downright evil and unnecessary. . . sorry Libertarians.

This book and it's sequel are interesting techno-thriller sci-fi. But the second book imagines a system by which a market economy could be managed by democratized opensource AI to produce MUCH better social outcomes. This kind of a system is MUCH more in reach than people reflexively think. It also takes a look at how one MIGHT use gamification to help people rethink their preconceived notions of how economies MUST work.

And also. . .this is dope!

Oh man. I've been waiting for a thread like this to pop up. I loved Neuromancer to no end, along with House of Leaves. Containment was good shit too, very interesting read, but relies on easy plot fixes. It doesn't ruin the story, in my opinion.

You also can't go wrong with anything by Kurt Vonnegut and Phillip K. Dick.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher is one of my favorite series. It's less scifi and a bit more on the fantasy genre, but still really good. It's much less high fantasy than the Game of Thrones series and set in Chicago in today's time. Plus the main guy gets to ride a zombie t-rex.

The Nightside series (12 books) by Simon R Green was pretty good. While not being specifically YA, I don't remember it having overly objectionable content.

not sure about those, but I bought the UK covers and they look amazing on my shelf

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle/dp/0575081406

I'm not very far yet but I've heard such great things about 'Sleepless' by Charlie Huston. Everyone has told me it's hard to put down.

A zombie-ish disease is widespread, but nothing like the normal kind. This disease makes it so that people cannot sleep. Without sleep your brain cannot function and you basically turn zombie-ish. There's also some kind of drug element that makes it so you shouldn't sleep, or something. So if you read this book at night you just want to stay up reading, but you're also terrified to fall asleep in case shit goes down.

It gives me some Philip K Dick vibes, too, which is always a good thing.

EDIT: Here's a link to the amazon descriptions, because I'm pretty sure I butchered my own description. Hopefully this interests you more!

The post-human series is one of my all time favorite tanshuman series. It's got some good character development, A.I., most may consider it leaning towards fantasy in some aspects. I always just remember the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00H0D5NTI/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488172906&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=post+human+omnibus&dpPl=1&dpID=51nKxcjtmcL&ref=plSrch

I've recently read two books that I absolutely fell in love with:

1.) Stories of Your Life and Others: http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/1931520720/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413578672&sr=8-1&keywords=stories+of+your+life+and+others

2.) Neuromancer (A classic that I've just gotten into): http://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413578739&sr=8-1&keywords=neuromancer

This is true. That said, one can always introduce the magic into the mundane - a passing reference to a spell in the opening paragrah or page and you're good.

Or read the first two pages of the first book of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series for another, more direct approach:

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0451457811

I just realized there is a series you will ADORE. The Nightside series by Simon R. Green! 12 books out so far and #13 due next year.

I wouldn't call it paranoia. The media is totally sensationalizing what he says. But nothing he has said has been wrong. Nukes are insanely dangerous, but a nuke doesn't think.

I think the first nuclear tests were even extremely risky, if I recall correctly, during a documentary I was watching it was said that they weren't exactly sure what would happen... they had a good idea but it was simply an idea. (idea == theory)

Elon Musk wants to dump money into making sure our first AI is developed to be benevolent rather than self serving, I say why not? There's actually a good sci-fi book that touches on this subject: Post-Human (Amazon).

[Post-Human Spoiler](/s "Essentially, China rushes an AI to win the world war but in the process of rushing the AI essentially takes over and begins to attempt to wipe out the planet. The government is finally able to send a suicide team with a tactical nuke to take it out, at which point strong AI is banned. Meanwhile a team secretly works on a strong AI but with the intent of having it be a protector of humanity from both other strong AIs but also from itself and their environment. Long story short, it ends up doing all of that.")

I enjoyed "Time Enough for Love"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Long

Also:

"Elantris" and "Warbreaker" by Brandon Sanderson

Oh! Also check out "The Mummy or Ramses the Damned" by Anne Rice!

Daemon and it's sequel Freedom by Daniel Suarez would probably be a good recommendation if you like those two books you mentioned in the title.

Great! My address is 126 Albert Street, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3T1. The edition I'm sending is http://www.amazon.com/dp/0441569595, and is in like-new condition.

In the Woods by Tana French maybe? The main character, Rob, becomes a homicide detective as an adult after having two of his friends murdered when they were kids (he was with them but lived and has no memory of the events). There is something with a shovel later on. It doesn't exactly fit, but it was a pretty popular book a few years back and I thought it was worth a try.

I'm currently reading Year Zero by Rob Reid.

It deals with the fact that, due to how twisted our copyright laws are, and how ridiculous the damages are supposed be when copyright infringement occurs, that the alien civilizations who've been listening in and loving our music are now faced with being copyright pirates to the tune of all possible wealth in the universe.

That seemed pertinent to the subject at hand. Also, the book is pretty funny, in a Douglas Adams kind of way.

Avogadro corp series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006ACIMQQ

AI isn't omnipotent, but close, and a very good description on how the AI comes to be.

You will love anything by Jack McDevitt. Especially http://www.amazon.com/Seeker-Jack-McDevitt/dp/0441013759

So then we can have what's in the book Freedom: http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daniel-Suarez-ebook/dp/B002VUFKDY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1417827999&sr=8-3&keywords=freedom

Qotd: What kind of clone? Like in Kiln People? if it was like that, I'd say, do my photo editing that I'm behind on, another to do all the flyer hanging I need to get done (and travel for), and a 3rd to tackle my to-do lists. My original self will stay here and pet cats.


​

You sound like you know a bit about this stuff. You might like this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Sleepless-Novel-Charlie-Huston/dp/0345501144/ref=sr_1_13?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372710495&sr=1-13

I too, like books. I think you'd like The Andromeda Strain. It's by the same author who wrote Jurassic Park.

They're light reading and not hard scifi, but the WWW trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002361NDM/ and Avogadro Corp https://www.amazon.com/Avogadro-Corp-Singularity-Closer-Appears-ebook/dp/B006ACIMQQ are both entertaining and in that niche.

This sounds very similar to the plot on Daniel Suarez's book Kill Decision: Link
Which I HIGHLY recommend.

Along with his other books Daemon and Freedom.

They are AMAZING on audible...

I recommend 2 series by BV Larson:

First Swarm Book 1 of "Star Force"

Second Steel World Book 1 of the "Undying Mercenaries"

Also The Synchronicity War by Dietmar Wehr

Now for a shameless plug for my favorite Sci-fi book: We Are Legion book 1 of "Bobiverse" There is some ship to ship fighting. But its more Sci-fi comedy.

> What if my children or a younger friend will be immortal? In a thousand years they will have forgotten the 40 years they spent with me.

If that's really what you believe, may I suggest reading Robert A. Heinlein's Time Enough for Love. ( Amazon )

This specific one
It doesn't mention the carnivorous house, but it's definitely part of the plot in book 1.

Step 1: Purge the TV show from your memory.

Step 2: Pick up Storm Front and enjoy!

Believe it or not there are quite a few good sci-fi books exploring these ideas already. Here is an incomplete list you may want to check out:

• Snow Crash where it's called the 'Metaverse'
  
• Otherland where it's called 'Otherland'
  
• Neuromancer where it's called 'The Matrix' (pre-dates the movie by the same name by more than 10 years, fyi)
  
• Hyperion where it's called the 'data plane'.

In all honesty, the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are pretty tough to get into, since they are practically the ur-examples of fantasy, written back when a lot of commercial fiction methodology was still being developed.

When i read a book, I worry first and foremost if I'm entertained, if I am, I'll give it my recommendation, regardless of the flaws. These are the ones I think you'd find best for jumping in with.

YA/Middle Grade Books

• The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner (post-apocalypse)
  
  
• Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan (modern kid finds he's the son of Poseidon)
  
  
• Leviathan/Behemoth/Goliath by Scott Westerfeld] (World war 1 with mechs and genetically engineered animals)
  
  
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini (a kid finds a dragon egg and fights the big bad guy. As a warning, it uses the exact same monomyth structure as Star Wars so the similarities are... apt.)
  
  
  Fantasy
  
  
• Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (a gang of thieves try to rob the evil overlord)
  
  
• Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (a brutal war between about a half different factions over who gets the crown. Gets really complex fast so it might not be a great one to start with.)
  
  
• Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (I always say it's Oceans 11 written in the Game of Thrones world)
  Discworld by Terry Pratchet (I'd recommend not starting at the beginning.)
  
  
  Sci-Fi
  
  
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (it's Ender's Game. You must read this)
  
  
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi (Not sure how to pitch this. It's space marines fighting everyone)
  
  
• The Sector General Series by James White (It's like House, but in space with aliens. Not without flaws but very underrated in my view)
  
  
  Urban Fantasy
  
  
• The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (a hard boiled private eye who is also a wizard)
  
  
• Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia (Band of mercenaries hunt monsters. The author is very libertarian/right wing so if you can't stand that, you might not like the books. The kindle edition has to be bought from the baen.com bookstore)
  
  
• Grimnoire Chronicles by Larry Correia (1930's with magic, zeppelins, etc Same warning as above, but it's more subdued here.)
  
  
  Thrillers/Suspense
  
  
• Da Vinci Code/Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (even though I think Brown really needs to improve his writing style, he still can get the books going pretty intensely)
  
  
• Jurassic Park, Timeline, Congo, etc by Michael Crichton (a bit tougher reads since they're pretty scientific, but still good stuff)
  
  
• John Grisham's early work such as A Time to Kill, The Firm, Runaway Jury, etc. (legal thrillers but not hard to get into. I'm not a huge fan of his later stuff)

BV Larson's Star Force series is pretty decent.

This book has a really funny premise.

I first saw it in neuromancer. If you haven't read neuromancer yet... You really should. Also count zero and mona Lisa overdrive; these 3 books form the Sprawl trilogy and were hugely influential in the formation of the cyberpunk genre.

A quick note of a book - although I'm giving away a ton of plot here - is Fatherland by Robert Harris. Even knowing doesn't stop the chilling effect of this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Fatherland-Novel-Robert-Harris/dp/0812977211/ref=la_B000APBPA4_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425472562&sr=1-2

EDIT: Downvotes about a book regarding the holocaust?

If you are looking for an action-packed easy-read then try out the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Almost ideal for reading when not quite up to 100% in recovery.

There's a novel out that reflects this issue, just heard about it on NPR.

Basically in the novel humans suck at everything compared to aliens except for our musical abilities and they love our music so much that they sometimes die of happiness when listening to it. According to our copyright laws, the universe owes us more than three times the amount of money that exists in the entire universe so some aliens are out to destroy earth to get out of the debts.

TL;DR book related to this issue, here

I read a book a while back called Avogadro Corp, which is about Google a fictionalized tech company creating a project that inadvertently becomes self-aware. For what it's worth, I think it's very close to what you're looking for.

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.

Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Stars in My Pockets Like Grains of Sand by Samuel Delany.

My nomination might be quite a difficult read but it is short in comparison and may leave us invigorated.

Neuromancer by William Gibson [SCIFI,NS]

> * The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . .
Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

Hope you like it.

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher is your thing if you like a character who would die for the principles. It's hard to explain it without spoilers, but several times he choose principles over the easy way out.


Start with Storm Front.

Have you read Freedom (TM)?

It's a sequel to Daemon, but paints a vision of the world close to yours.

Careful, if they become sentient they could start subtley creating their own sleeper agents. The Book

I'm almost always juggling reading material. At the moment I am reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, and Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Just finished reading Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet by John G Turner, which I highly recommend.

This is an interesting read.

Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green. It's not really "period" but the series does have a dark and quirky sense of humor and they're mysteries, mainly.

• Dune by Frank Herbert.
  
  
• Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer - somewhat of a longshot, but something made me think of it.
  
  
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
  
  
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
  
  
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami.
  
  
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
  
  
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand .
  
  
• Neuromancer by William Gibson.
  
  
• The Running Man by Stephen King.
  
  You might even get a kick out of The Hunger Games or Divergent... And of course 1984 :)

• William Gibson's Neuromancer and related.
  
  
• Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon and sequels. Also Thirteen.
  
• China Mievlle's The Scar. I can't vouch for his other books - reading in publication order would be to start with Perdito Street Station instead, but I haven't read it myself, yet.
  
• Warren Hammond's Kop and sequels - I feel like this series has been a bit neglected by this subreddit, and I don't know why I rarely see it mentioned here. IMO this series is better than Morgan's sequels to Altered Carbon.

The Post Human Series by David Simpson might fit the bill https://www.amazon.com/Post-Human-Omnibus-1-4-David-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00H0D5NTI

I'm going to chip in Stephenson's Snow Crash should be on the list, as well as Gibson's Neuromancer.

The original is called Neuromancer btw, if anyone is looking for it.

https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson/dp/0441569595

Related sci-fi novel Avogadro Corp.

The premise is "What if Google invents the world's first AI, and it's a paperclip maximizer of language?"