The Warhammer 40K universe is very large but the WH40K hobby breaks down into a few buckets.

You have lore, the mythology.

A good place to start is to read books like The Horus Heresy series of books.

You can find these on Amazon or The Black Library as well as many other places. Prices comparable to equivelant paperbacks.

If books aren't your thing, there are many youtube channels devoted to exploring the lore of every chapter, and race within the WH40K universe. Vaults of Terra was one that I found early on and have enjoyed a great deal.

Many people gain exposure to WH40K through video games like Space Marine and the DOW series.

The table top strategy game also is diverse and has its own skill trees. Some people prefer to spend much of their time painting amazing models, some even make their living doing so. Converting is its own thing, where people take bits from various models and sculpt them together to make their own amalgamations from their imaginations and nightmares.

Others just want to get a 6 foot long table top "chessboard" out, and play a game with your dudes. The table top game does require you to bring enough pieces to play, and you need to know the rules of the game, but there's a pretty accessible path to get there too.

In my personal experience, I watched a lot of videos on youtube of people playing. Youtube says there's about 150k videos of people talking through their games so you should be able to find what you're looking for.

To find a game a good step is to look for your friendly local game store. When I got started I just googled around until I found some people near me who played once a week, reached out and asked if I could come watch a few games. I painted up some guys, read a couple books and let them know I'm just learning, and asked if someone wanted to play against me .... and if they could help explain what I'm doing wrong in a friendly way. That worked great.

Now back onto the original question of expense. The books, games, and youtube part is pretty self explanatory. The table top gaming part is the grey area. Games played on the table top have a mechanism so that you don't show up with 5 dudes, and I come at you with 100 Godzillas. That wouldn't make for a fun game. This is the currency of points.

Games Workshop has preselected sets of models into starter kits that are available that give a beginner a box of dudes to make that make for a good place for a person to get started and have enough firepower to play a game and get a feel for it.

My personal experience was pretty organic. I like daemon, monster zombies from space with giant chain axes and plasma cannons. Sounds cool. I watched some youtube videos and figured out a modest list of models that I would need to play a game. I then went on Ebay and picked up the ones that I could as I could, learning how to paint as I went.

As I hung back and had fun with my hobby, I figured out more specifics, sometimes ordering from Games Workshop, Forgeworld, or Ebay and found that I really enjoyed the modeling aspect of the hobby.

I hope you have fun too!



Grandfather Nurgle is your friend and only wants to see you, your family, planet, species and Galaxy just as happy and jovial as all of the rest of the Plague Planet.

I've just finished The Windup Girl, which I had been putting off for some time. It was, quite simply, the most astounding and breath-taking science fiction book I've ever read. I loved it.

However, my problem is that I buy books compulsively. Mostly hard copies, but recently I bought a Kindle and buy the odd e-book or two. I have literally hundreds of books on my "to read" list.

One near the top is A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I recently read her phenomenal Wolf Hall and was blown away by her skills as a story teller. I'm a bit of an armchair historian, and I'm particularly interested in the French Revolution (amongst other things), so I'm very excited by the prospects this book holds. If it's anything like Wolf Hall then I'm in for a very particular treat.

Also near the top lies Quantum - Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality, Manjit Kumar's much lauded recent history of the emergence of quantum mechanics. I very much enjoyed other tangentially related books on this topic, including the wonderful The Making of the Atomic Bomb and The Fly in the Cathedral, so this should be good fun and educational to boot.

Having read and loved Everitt's biography of Cicero, I'm very much looking forward to his biographies of Augustus and Hadrian.

I'm listening to an audio-book version of The Count of Monte Cristo on my iPod, which I find rather enjoyable. I've only got through the first half dozen chapters and it's already taken a few hours, so this looks to be a nice, long-term and periodic treat for when I have time alone in the car.

Cronin's The Passage keeps piquing my interest, but I was foolish enough to buy it in that lamentable format, the much cursed "trade paperback", so the thing is a behemoth. The size puts me off. I wish I had waited for a regular paper-back edition. As it is, it sits there on my bookshelf, flanked by the collected works of Alan Furst (what a wonderfully evocative writer of WWII espionage!!) and a bunch of much recommended, but as yet unread, fantasy including The Darkness that Comes Before by Bakker, The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss and Physiognomy by Ford.

Books I have ordered and am eagerly awaiting, and which shall go straight to the top of the TBR list (no doubt to be replaced by next month's purchases) include Orlando Figes's highly regarded history of The Crimean War, Rosen's history of steam The Most Powerful Idea in the World and Stacy Schiff's contentious biography of Cleopatra.

A bit of a mixed bunch, all up, I'd say.

For (currently) free Kindle books, David Weber's On Basilisk Station is the first book in the space-opera Honor Harrington series. The second book The Honor of the Queen, is one of my favorites in the entire series. Eric Flint's 1632 turned into a massive and awesome alternate-history series. If you'd like to delve into Alaskan-based murder mysteries, give Dana Stabenow's A Cold Day For Murder a try as the first in the some eighteen book Kate Shugak series.

For paid Kindle books, there's Hugh Howey's Wool Omnibus is the beginning of the dystopian Silo series; the followup Shift Omnibus is actually a prequel trilogy that I haven't gotten yet but is very readable. Naomi Novik's first novel in the alt-history Temeraire series, His Majesty's Dragon, is currently $.99.

In print, Elizabeth Moon's military fantasy The Deed of Paksenarrion is available used for a very affordable price and is an epic series. The Cage was my introduction to a fantasy universe written by SM Stirling, Shirley Meier, and Karen Wehrstein. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander is a sort of alternate history/light romance series set in Scotland that I've thoroughly enjoyed. Brent Weeks' assassin-based (excuse me, wetboy) fantasy Night Angel Trilogy was recently released as an omnibus edition. Empire from the Ashes collects Weber's Dahak sci-fi trilogy into an omnibus edition. Weber and John Ringo co-wrote March Upcountry and the other three novels in the sci-fi Prince Roger quadrilogy. If you haven't tried Harry Turtledove's alt-history sci-fi WW2 'Worldwar' series, In the Balance starts off a little slow plot-wise but picks up good speed. EE Knight's sci-fi/futuristic fantasy Vampire Earth starts off with Way of the Wolf. Mercedes Lackey wrote the modern-fantasy Born to Run with Larry Dixon, and the rest of the SERRAted Edge books with various other authors. Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk and slightly dystopian Snow Crash is hilarious and awesome. Maggie Furey's Aurian is the first of a fantasy quadrilogy that I enjoyed many years ago.

If you're at all familiar with the Warhammer 40k universe, the Eisenhorn Omnibus is Dan Abnett's wonderful look into the life of an Imperial Inquisitor. He's also written a popular series about the Tanith First-and-Only Imperial Guard regiment starting with The Founding Omnibus. He also wrote the first book in the Horus Heresy series, Horus Rising (I highly recommend reading the first three novels together as a trilogy and then cherry-picking the rest).

... and if you've read all that already, I'll be impressed.

Edit: Why yes, I do read a lot. Why do you ask?

I used to date a girl who was totally dismissive of sci-fi - "it's all that ridiculous pew-pew lasers Star Wars rubbish" was the way she'd characterise it.

I overcame this with the first book of Michael Moorcock's The Dancers At The End of Time series, which she loved, but I also managed to ruin it by buying all three books in a big collection. She overdosed on them within about 3 or 5 days, about 100 pages from the end of the last one, never to touch sci-fi again.

The Dancers At The End of Time is very atypical sci-fi, rather the way The Hitchhikers' Guide is - I consider it a Shakespearean farce in novel form - but I believe it underlines the fact that sci-fi can be anything we want it to be.

It seems like this edition is all three of the novels, and I'm surprised it's only 600 pages long - the edition I bought for my gf weighed about 1/2 a kilo. I suggest starting your wife on this edition, which I believe quite slim and easy to get through.

I recommended Morgan's Altered Carbon to an acquaintance recently. He's a bit of a boy, and loves the Terminator trilogy the same way I do, but his gf is disinterested - however I believe that she too read and enjoyed Altered Carbon, lured in by the promise of its one or two steamy sex scenes. The novel is a crime thriller and the protagonist, Kovacs, is a lone hero much like the Jack Reacher character of Lee Child's novels. If she likes Jack Reacher, she'll certainly like Altered Carbon, it's just the same - well, actually, better - but with a slight William Gibson flavour.

I second the suggestion of The Time Traveller's Wife, but with reservations - there's nothing else within the genre that's written so sensitively. Sci-fi is about exploring possibilities and TTTW does that, but it's kinda a love story first, and sci-fi second. Actually, I kinda think all sci-fi should be as good, or wish that all sci-fi made you appreciate the characters as much.

Fear cuts deeper than swords - it really, really does. :)

1.) Not just grey but Earl Grey.

2.) A rain cover.

3.) Ginger chews?

4.) Ninja throwing knifes for my wee son - because I'm a craptastic parent!

5.) A classic, Ender's Game because why haven't you already read this??

6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related! Sorry! Nothing physical. $1.55 is the closest.

7.) Hello Kitty!

8.) I think compasses are beautiful.

9.) Princess Bride - but no on my WL. <3

10.) Gerber 22-41131 Profile Guthook Fixed Blade Knife -- It's self explanatory really.

11.) I love to cook and I need to cook healthy food but my current knives (and I use the term loosely) leave me beaten and bloody. So these

12.) Happy crayons

13.) A surfboard. Because they are BADD ASS!

14.) A gun safe could hold a lot of bread!

15.) Pretty lupus friend earrings!

16.) Blood orange and bergamot candle!

17.) Doctor Who K-9 bobble head!

18.) Pencils. I freaking LOVE pencils.

19.) A gift card, so I can gift more people. :)

20.) I love this beautiful buddha.

MADE IN OREGON! Bob's Red Mill flours. Look it up!

I love silly contests like this - I know others have done better, but I had fun looking. <3

Almost all of Peter F. Hamilton's books are like this. Huge plots that intermingle. Its not nearly as gory or as ummm unexpected as ASOIAF, but they are my favorite books. He also is one of the best futurists that I can think of to date. He does not get too crazy with future technology and strives to make sure that everything is plausible and makes sense. I highly recommend it

I would start with Pandora's star, its the first of the Commonwealth series. If you want some plot points I'll be happy to summarize.

If you didnt want to hop into a series right away, Fallen Dragon is a decent starter stand-alone so you can get into his work.There are a few less characters since its not as epic, but a really great read.

The Nights Dawn trilogy is pretty massive as well with even more 1st person views. I just finished it (1.2M words!!!) and while I loved it, the concepts were a bit out there. Its a great read tho.

Among Others by Jo Walton

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

I think the Dark Tower series is a must read. It starts off with The Gunslinger and continues. I think it is the best series I have ever read.

If you want to look other than fantasy/sci-fi...

Lamb by Christopher Moore is very funny, makes you think, and breaks your heart. I love it.

A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorite books ever written. Everyone that I have given this book to has read it and bought it for someone else to read.

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins is Tom Robbins at his best. It's also one of the most polarizing books I have suggested to friends and people online. You will either love it and buy the rest of Tom Robbins's books or you will hate it and never listen to me again. I hope it's the first reaction.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an amazing book about life in high school. I haven't seen the movie yet because I enjoy this book so much that I don't want to get pissed off at a director ruining one of my favorite books.

Good Omens by Pratchett/Gaiman is certainly a pretty rockin book.

Hopefully this helps you find some new authors to enjoy!

Edited for: I will never forgive myself if I don't put in what I consider one of the best fantasy coming of age stories ever. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is the first of the series. Read it. Do it!

I ran a pretty successful six-month long campaign. Actually got to finish the story arc, unlike most campaigns I've run. We found the system...workable. The character options were pretty interesting, though the psyker felt OP to the players and the psionic manifestation effects were often game changing, usually in an amusing way, but sometimes they proved distracting from the main story just because some of their effects are so life-altering.

We all love the setting and were willing to put up with the idiosyncrasies of the system mechanics. I'd highly recommend reading Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn omnibus - it will really give you a good feel for the whole Inquisitor/Acolyte feel. Abnett's a really fun read all around.

I'm sure the Imperium could accommodate a submerged city like Rapture, even its Randian philosophy (though if it deviated from worship of the emperor, it's heresy - perfect fodder for an inquisitor and his/her team). Though I'm curious to know what else you have planned for the character.

EDIT: incorrectly called Rapture a "subterranean" city.

My first translated from Russian - LitRPG and motivational book: Restart (Level Up Book #1) LitRPG Series

https://www.amazon.com/Restart-Level-Up-Book-LitRPG-ebook/dp/B07CKRMLJB/

The idea of augmented reality isn’t new. The Google Glass project is in fact nearing its completion even as we speak. But the idea of digitized real-life stats, that’s a bit different. I had it in summer 2014. At the time, I was working hard trying to lose weight from my original “too-fat-to-tie-laces” 242 lb. to my current 175 lb. These days, I can’t even imagine my life without going to the gym.

It was in the gym that I first realized how effective weight training could be.Today you lift 45 lb, a week later it’s 55 lb, and six months later, it’s already 175! Or, speaking in RPG terms, you level up Strength from 2 to 8.

Then an idea struck me. What if we could see all these status bars, skills and characteristics in real life just as we can in MMORPG? It’s one thing to know you’ve learned something from a book - and it’s something quite different if you can clearly see that it’s added +2% to your Intellect. Or that a visit to a swimming pool gives you +5% to Stamina. Would that motivate you more?

I’m absolutely sure it would. This is exactly why I’ve always loved RPG and LitRPG as well as weight training. Three years ago, I couldn’t do a single pull up. Now I can do fifteen easily. It’s the same in business: whether you work your backside off or just go through the motions, your company’s earnings are the only accurate barometer of your activity.

I spent some time thinking about it until it all fell into a pattern. That’s when I came up with my MC Phil Panfilov and his story. I mapped out his development arc, added some key scenes, came up with support characters and started writing.

That’s how I finished "Level Up. Re-Start", the first book in a series which tells the story of a gamer who’s been a bit too lax with his life. By the time he’s thirty-something, he has a wife, a string of one-off freelance gigs, a powerful computer, a level 110 rogue character in a popular RPG game and a beer gut.

What could happen in the life of an overgrown nerd in order to change his attitude? Could his wife - whom he loves a lot - leave him? Or what if he somehow could see the world through a game interface? Would he be able to face the harsh reality if he could see that his Reputation with his wife is Unfriendly, his Agility is stuck at 4, Strength at 6, Stamina at 3 and that his most advanced skill is WoW playing? Isn’t it time he did something about it?

That’s basically a glimpse into my story which I wanted to share with my English-language readers. The finished book has already hit the bestseller list back in Russia. The English translation of the first book in the series is available in KU.

Is there anything in particular you're leaning to?

Author Cherie Priest has a couple excellent books.

• Boneshaker, first book in her Clockwork Century series. It's a steampunk setting with zombies and all sorts of wonderful stuff. This book is actually on sale through the end of the month for $2.99.
  
• Bloodshot, first book in her Cheshire Red Reports series. It's about a vampire gal who is a thief-for-hire.
  
  The Dresden Files series, by Jim Butcher, is a wonderful series. It's about a wizard-for-hire in the modern world, and delves into the wonderful magic environment that Jim has created. Jim likes to put his characters through trouble and turmoil, and it's good for character development! The series starts off with Storm Front.
  
  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is another great series. It's a post-apocalyptic/oppressed setting, centering around something called 'The Hunger Games' - an annual battle that captivates the capitol and all twelve remaining districts. There is a movie releasing next year, as well.
  
  The Name of the Wind is a terrific book by Patrick Rothfuss, the first entry into his series The Kingkiller Chronicles. It's a fantasy setting, and is about a character named Kvothe recounting his life. The writing style has an absolutely artistic writing style that is captivating to read, and such interesting and progressing events that make you eagerly turn the page. I have not yet read the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear, but I'm told it's even better in every way.
  
  Terry Pratchett is an amazing and renowned author. He has been knighted, an event for which he created his own sword for by hand, battles against Alzheimer's in a most respectable and commendable way, and has created such an interesting and provoking world that provides a lot of laughs and curious perspectives on matters. Where you start is a more difficult choice. A couple choice options might be as follows (I haven't read others yet, so I can't attest to others, but there are many!).
  
  
• Guards! Guards! which is the first installment to the City Watch sequence.
  
• The Reaper Man trails after Death, after he has been fired from his job.
  
  I haven't started this book yet, nor looked into it, but I have heard terrific reviews. The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, is his first book in his Gentleman Bastard Sequence series.
  
  And of course, if you haven't entered George RR Martin's world of Westeros, the series A Song of Ice and Fire could be a wonderful read. It's very complex and very long and not yet complete (five books so far). It starts off with Game of Thrones, which is what the recently-aired HBO series was based upon.
  
  In the science fiction sphere, I would recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's the first in his Ender's series, and there are quite a few books set in the world. I have only read the first one, and it was an excellent read, insightful and thought-provoking.
  
  ...anyway, that should be a few to peek at!

Any of these three series I recommend as modern-day Lord of the Rings classics

Eisenhorn, books 1-3 of a 9 book series are simply the best books I've ever read - the series is currently on book 7. I recommend Eisenhorn to anyone that just likes to read. Books 4-6 are just as good, called Ravenor, with the 7th book in the series now out, called Pariah.

Another amazing series of books I love are the Old Man's War books, effectively a series of 6 books with some short stories in between and the last book being broken up into thirteen short stories (such was the demand for the books while they were being written). Fantastic, fantastic series - I recommend them to anyone.

I also love and recommend The Dark Tower series, 7 books. They're the only thing written by King that I've liked.

I'd like to give you an unbiased view of his books but I'm afraid when it comes Alastair Reynolds I suffer from a blatent case of fanboyism; he's the only good scifi writer novelist us Welsh have (nearly insulted all the Doctor Who fans there), it still amazes me how many great scifi writers Scotland produces in comparison.

I believe his characterisation improves, this was after all his first novel.

His biggest strength IMHO is his worldbuilding, I can't get enough of his Revelation Space universe. His second novel set in the Revelation Space universe (although can be read as stand-alone) Chasm City is my favourite as it started me on my journey through his universe and generally got me hooked on all his writing.

The last one The Prefect set before the melding plague was also excellent, I'm hoping he writes a few more over this time period after finishing 'Poseidons Children'.

TLDR; I'd recommend to keep on reading, you will be rewarded.

The Horus Heresy is a series of books which now numbers several dozen. Reading the entire Heresy series isnt quite required to get into 40k. Rather, the first three novels are a pretty good introduction to the universe, its conflicts, and its major players.

Now, there are also rule books for the Horus Heresy game, which was created to synergize with the novel series. Those have "fluff" (story) in them as well, but Id stay away from the rule books unless you find yourself super deep in. The HH codices are expensive, and even the 40k rule books came be a bit of a slog (theyre poorly written, IMO).

Honestly, if you dont want to buy anything right now, the best place to start is the Lexicanum. You can learn about the various factions, some of the lore, and all kinds of cool stuff. And the best part is, its FREE!

-a hammock because the outdoors is awesome

-this sharpie is amazing

-these pens, although a little pricey, are AMAZING. Additionally, you can get refills for them on Amazon and those are inexpensive

-best coloring pencils imho

-Some really awesome book series one, two, three and four

-for math, here's some sodoku

-Some movies: Overboard, When Harry Met Sally, Burlesque

-Telescope

-Picnic basket

-Spirituality book

-some incense and an awesome fairy burner to go with them

I'll try and add some more later :)

Thanks for the contest

I really really want it! ( $5 and $10

Ethical Concern: The GMO corn is trademarked by <insert well known chemical company here> and the seed is sold to farmers who invest in it. Corn propagates by wind, neighbor farmer did not buy in but now his seed stock is infiltrated and the trademark owners sue him for stealing seed stock or some other violation of copyright. Local farmer caves to relentless legal pressure, soon all food stock is owned by corporations. This could get really wild (The Windup Girl), but so far that's still sci-fi, right?

Environmental Concern: Most GMO crops are created by chemical companies who in turn make products effective on plants that were not created by them. Rather than taking time to work with the environment these companies amass petrochemical sprays (a further economical cost to the farmer as well) and bombard regions so their plant survives. This chemical mixture goes into the soil and water where it in turn effects us; you do know that ALL drinking water is recycled I hope.


So you might be right, there might not be concerns on the healthy diet level (though we all know how wonderful the American diet is for us all). But there are larger socioeconomic issues here as well. To lock this only on a healthy for diet issue is absurd. I highly recommend Botany of Desire (book or PBS) as the potato chapter is enlightening on this measure (from an economic standpoint). Basically; organic food is far more economic in terms of space, maintenance, and profit per square foot.

Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch

Really flawed main character, but still, you want him to succeed. :) Excellent naval sf. The religious element is creative.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Not exactly military sf--the main character is more security personnel than military personnel--but it reads like good military sf. Nonstop action and the protagonist's running commentary is golden.

There are a few places you could start: The Afterman, the Year of the Black Rainbow novel, or the Amory Wars Second Stage comics.

I'd recommend starting with the Amory Wars Second Stage comics. Keep in mind, you'll want The Amory Wars comics, since they tell the complete story for Second Stage and In Keeping Secrets so far. There's also The Bag.On.Line comics, which were only a couple of issues before they were scrapped. If you decide to pursue them for a collection, expect to pay a bit of money for them.

Following that, you can continue the Amory Wars into In Keeping Secrets.. That's the latest album that's been adapted for those comics, but Claudio is currently writing the Amory Wars versions of Good Apollo 1 and 2.

If you feel like getting a very brief and confusing telling of Good Apollo 1, there's an old graphic novel that was released for it. Again, though, it will run you a bit of money, and while the art style's cool, it doesn't convey the story well and is quite short. For the time being, you'll have better luck finding bits and pieces of the Good Apollo story clued together across the internet and interviews.

You can then go back to the Year of the Black Rainbow novel, which tells the story of Coheed and Cambria's creation. It's pretty self-contained, though it does have a few references that will stick out if you're familiar with the later story.

The Afterman is only loosely connected to the Amory Wars, as it takes place long before Year of the Black Rainbow and expands on some of the unexplained concepts of the universe. Deluxe editions of the album contained artwork and brief explanations of the songs by Claudio, and u/TheElitist921 scanned and uploaded the explanations on the sub. Here's his post for Ascension, and here's the link to Descension.

Happy reading!

Edit: Bonus! u/DefiantLion also gave a synopsis/interpretation of the story to My Brother's Blood Machine over at r/TheFence.

Yeah I read a lot of Fantasy and Sci-fi. Umm, if he likes more Military Scifi I would recommend:

• Dauntless It's the first in a really cool space/naval series about a fleet of spaceships far from home and fighting through enemy territory to get home. All the while the Fleet Commander is acclimating to being 100 years in his own future (without "timetravel")
  
  
• Starship Troopers Is a classic scifi by Heinlein and has very little to do with the movies. Similar war ideas, giant bugs, but totally different feel. No cheesyness.
  
  
• Ender's Game of course is a classic Scifi book. Young boy growing up in a Battle School where they train kids to be soldiers. Very deep, very perspective changing.
  
  
• Stranger in a Strange Land Is another Heinlein book. A human boy grows up being raised by an alien Martian race on Mars. Brought back to Earth as an adult human, but again raised and taught everything by Martians. Has no concept of earth, our beliefs, our morals, our actions, anything. An amazing story that gives a great perspective for a WASP like me to see what it's like to integrate into a society where nobody is like you, and you understand nothing.
  
  If he likes "high fantasy" (elves, wizards, knights, etc) then let me know and I throw out a few of those too.
  
  EDIT: Also I'll plug Audbile.com here because these all also have great Audiobooks with GREAT narrators and I love listening to my books on my Android phone all the time. And of course Amazon owns Audible! discounts for buying the audiobook and the kindle book (often cheaper than outright buying the audiobook!)

https://www.amazon.com/Perilous-Waif-Alice-Long-Book-ebook/dp/B01NBWXMP9

Scifi. The worldbuilding is very rational, but the protagonist isn't at all.

On the topics you mentioned:

• Young western guy: main character is a preteen asian girl.
  
• Good analytical but piss-poor social skills: she sort of doesn't fit on this axis. Her primary skillset is hurting things, being lucky, and stuff I can't mention because spoilers. Gets along well with basically everybody who knows her.
  
• Dearly held views on science and rationality: also sort of doesn't fit on this axis. Her thinking is more tactical and political. She has a very clannish right-wing attitude toward life. Likes learning things, but mostly because they help her succeed, rather than for love of learning.
  
• Meek but hardworking and philosophical: definitely not meek, very hardworking, not terribly philosophical.
  

1. My favorite book (beginning of a trilogy, plus more after that, yaaay!) is Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn. It is set in the Star Wars universe, about five years after the battle of Endor. It is written so well, you can practically hear the background music. Plus, he introduces my favorite character of all time in that book.
   
   
2. I don't even remember the name of my least favorite book. I refuse to give that thing room in my brain. It was billed as a murder mystery, but the murder was only a mystery to the main character, who actually heard it go down while she was hiding, but spent the next several chapters oblivious. Then it took her over 2/3 of the book to figure out that the murder victim just might be the girl who had been renting a room in her house and who had been coincidentally missing since the night of the murder. Oh, and the author was simply awful at giving her characters normal human reactions to things. Then at the end, it turned into a "you should go to church and become a 'Christ-centered' Christian" book. I don't even...
   
   
3. Harry Potter. The books are charming. But the movies took what she wrote, embellished, and made a rich world of depth and wonder.
   
   
4. Jumper. It's a very good Young Adult fiction book, easily enjoyable by adults as well. The movie took the slightest hint of a main theme, wasn't even true to the mechanics of that, and threw out everything that made the book good. As Hollywood does.
   
   
5. I enjoyed the Battlestar Galactica book that was based on the original TV series. I'm pretty sure that the only reason was that I was young and loved the series.
   
   
6. Jedi Search: Star Wars (The Jedi Academy): Volume 1 of the Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson. I'm so sorry to say this about an author, but after reading Zahn's work, it was like going from art at the Louvre to a child's crayon scrawlings. Then he booted my favorite character off to the periphery and failed to justify her reason for taking off and randomly showing up merely for exposition, then disappearing again. To add insult to injury, he repeatedly brought up that she had "tried to kill" Luke Skywalker. Ahem, no. Had she actually tried, he would be dead. The entire point had been that she was fighting to not kill the guy. And she succeeded. In not killing him. Dude, if you are going to play (write) in somebody else's universe, you need to do your research.
   
   I would be happy with any of the e-books on my list that are in your price range. But here are five:
   
   Sara, Book 1
   
   Ender's Game
   
   Wyrd Sisters
   
   Witches Abroad
   
   Horror, Humor, and Heroes Volume 2
   
   Have fun with your first gift giving! And thanks for the contest. :)

Ahh shit, I did not really see the part about you wanting longer audio. Book length is pretty short for litrpg so this is really tough.

The best I can do for that criteria is recommend good long audiobooks but they wont be litrpg.

Ready Player One is a self explanatory recommendation. 16 hours

Super Powereds super hero book. Super long at 26hours per book and 4 books total in series

Wool followed by Shift followed by Dust. Its an international bestseller post-apocalyptic drama. I dont really like drama but this one is amazing

Three body problem followed by Dark Forest followed by Deaths end . Its a three part ultra hard core science fiction. There are moments when it gets boring only to turn around and fuck your mind so hard you wont know what hit you. Written by a Chinese author which introduces an interesting perspective on things you dont see with American authors. 14/23/25 hours

Dresden Files is a great long running series with avg 16h per book

I will recommend you probably one of the greatest and most realistic LITRPG book I've listened to recently. It's on my top 5 favorites right now

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Re-Start Level Up Book 1

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKRMLJB

So addictive, very refreshing with a solid narration. You just can't wait just how the mc develops and improves himself.

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It will probably even inspire and motivate you on how to be a better person in real life.
I can even say that many will probably relate to the scenario if this ever happened to you.

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It's that good

Start here: https://www.amazon.com/Francisco-Street-Secrets-David-Eames/dp/0935182756. It's a history of SF from the view of it's citizens that have had our streets named after them. It's a fascinating book!

The "bad" sections of town are the Tenderloin and Bay View/Hunter's Point 'hoods. They're "bad" because they house poor residents and the area are prone to drug and human trafficking, as well as violence.

The "Muni Metro" subway is nice, but it's starting to show its age. Each station has different colored walls and floors to distinguish one from the other. They've finished boring out the main tunnel for the new "Central Subway" under Stockton Street, and how they're (block by block) ripping up the street and inserting the infrastructure around the tunnel.

It almost never snows in SF. I've lived here 20 years and I've seen it once (it evaporated before it touched the ground at Haight Street and Market Street, and this was at night!) and a friend "out in the Avenues" had a sleet / snow storm that laid out a couple of inches a few years ago. Other than those "freak" occurrences the Winter months are (WERE!) usually raining and overcast. However with the ongoing drought in California our Winter's have been pretty dry lately.

The "High Class" 'hoods are Pacific Heights and Sea Cliff.

The last two I cannot answer as they're too subjective. What's expensive to me wouldn't be to another, and "coolest" is far more subjective than just $ or $$$!

One of the biggest issues facing the city now is "Techies". These are well paid, IT-related, young professionals that are moving into the city and rents have been skyrocketing. SF is a very NIMBY city so for years now no one wanted to allow high density building in their 'hoods. Hence a shortage of rental units. We also have some very Renter-centic laws in the city that have owners of apartment buildings just not renting them out and having to deal with those laws.

That should be enough for you to get started on your research. Let me know if anything else comes up.

Personal Note: One of my favorite books is Altered Carbon (https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474925617&sr=1-1&keywords=altered+carbon). It's a sci-fi novel based in SF that's intelligent, very well written and trippy as hell. The author does a great job basing it in SF, but not falling into the trap of "over explaining" the details/scenery to "prove a point". (I hope that makes sense.) It was a joy to read because of that. I could "tell" where they were by what he was describing!

I don't sell anything for less than 2.99. I don't know much about action/thrillers, but in SF/fantasy, publishers are starting to market novellas like novels.

Look at Martha Wells' Murderbot series, novellas, all. The first is 3.99, and all subsequents are 9.99. Oh, shit, the 5th one is 13.99; this has really taken off. My point is, they are pricing novellas just like novels.

I think you can't just write a book and publish it on Amazon and see what happens. Because if you do it like that, nothing will happen.

You want to research your genre and find a market. You need to find out Amazon's subcategories for your genre and see how each is selling. There will be a couple hot categories where the competition is fierce, and there will be some cold categories. You want to find a category somewhere in the middle that syncs with you and what you like to write.

Then you want to research the books that are selling in that category, and emulate them. Readers are jonesing for a fix, and they want a certain type of narrative that's going to satisfy their particular craving. You want to have a cover that tells your readers instantly that you've got what they're looking for. This is very important, because people are searching by looking at thumbnails of book covers. If you're no good with a graphics editor, you can buy premade book covers for ~$30-100.

Some premade book covers are so good, I've bought the cover first and then written the story to match the cover.

Yeah, you say you've hit the classics, but did you read all of them?

Neuromancer is my favourite book. Not just in the cyberpunk genre. So I'll more-than-second that recommendation. I agree that Burning Chrome is very good.

Mirrorshades (a short story collection) is also pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Bruce-Sterling/dp/0877958688

Altered Carbon is excellent noir/cyberpunk.

http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457692/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372885278&sr=1-1&keywords=altered+carbon

The Eisenhorn Trilogy (easily found at most book stores) is probably the most commonly recommended starting point, and for good reason: It's fantastic writing, and provides most of the knowledge you need as it goes on. If you like that, there is a story about his successor called the Ravenor Trilogy.

You can also pick up any short story collection and follow along mostly without issue.

Reading 40k novels/stories is tricky because the universe has grown almost out of control with characters and places and concepts, but the more you read the more you assimilate the information, and after a while you don't even know how you learned this stuff. But damn if it isn't entertaining sci-fi.

Best of all, for something so heavily involved in war and identity and politics, there is almost zero political agenda, by some miracle. Female characters complement male characters rather than trying to replace them. "Good guys" lose and protagonists die very frequently, giving a nice sense of urgency and importance to each story because -- let's face it -- in almost any sci-fi nowadays the protagonist is going to win because box office. Romance is almost never a theme, and in the rare instance it appears, it has a more powerful effect due to occurring naturally (and sparsely), rather than as part of a formula.

Good stuff all around.

Thanks for your help man. I just checked out the Steyr M9-A1 at the local gunshop (the .357 I had my eye on is on Gunbroker.) It felt really great in the hand, and I love the sci-fi aesthetic but unfortunately that style of grip angle does not suit me, it pointed really high (like 6" at 3 yards) when held in my natural wrist alignment.

Kinda random, but if you enjoy guns and sci-fi, I'd highly recommend the book Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. In addition to being a fantastic noir/hard future sci fi, it has a quite few plausible but futuristic handguns.

I did the opposite (Perth - Melbourne). First up, it's easy. The roads all the way are busy, and there's no "middle of nowhere" where your life might be in any kind of danger if you break down etc.

It takes ages. It's one thing to know Australia is super big, it's another thing to drive across the island. But it's beautiful, too. I was grateful that I wasn't going to have to turn around and come back any time soon when I arrived, though.

If you are in a super hurry, you can do it 4 full days of driving. With two rotating drivers, and a bit of risk (don't drive at night unless you really have to, your odds of hitting something and damaging your car are not insignificant), you can do it in about three days.

If you're in a rush, Drive Melbourne to Adelaide on day one. Ceduna day two. Noresman day three, Arrive in Perth at the end of day 4. I took 5 days, but I stayed a night on the Nullabor and had a leisurely time of it. If you aren't in a hurry, and haven't seen the Great Ocean Road, take that road. So beautiful.

Other than that, the trip is pretty straight-forward. Treat your drive like you would a day at work. Stop for lunch, have a few little breaks. Maybe work back a little. You'll do fine.

Take something to listen to. I had Audiobooks. As a suggestion if you haven't already read it: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. If you're new to Audible, you should be able to download it for free. Read by Wil Wheaton, about a far-too-possible future for Humanity/Internet/Second Life kind of thing. Full of 80's pop culture.

Great series of books. You do not need to read them in order; I read book 4 first, and it spoils nothing.

Supposedly, Amazon Prime wants to do a miniseries of this, or at least the first book, to the level of quality of Game of Thrones. I'll... believe it when I see it.

Anyway here are Amazon/Audible links! (Or hit up your local library, etc.)

1. Consider Phlebas paperback / Audible
   
   
2. The Player of Games paperback / Audible
   
   
3. Use of Weapons paperback / Audible
   
   
4. The State of the Art (collection of short stories) paperback / Audible
   
   
5. Excession (I read this one first, it's great) paperback / Audible
   
   
6. Inversions (sort-of a Culture book) paperback / Audible
   
   
7. Look to Windward paperback / Audible
   
   
8. Matter paperback / Audible
   
   
9. Surface Detail paperback / Audible
   
   
10. The Hydrogen Sonata (my favorite - Vyr Cossont is my hero) paperback / Audible
    
    I really like this stuff as space opera type stuff. It's usually not "hard" sci-fi like Asimov or even Philip K. Dick or anything, but I rather hope humanity heads in the direction of the Federation, and then ultimately to The Culture.
    
    Fun fact!! Elon Musk named the autonomous drone barge ships (the ones that SpaceX rockets land on) after some Culture ships. Namely the Of Course I Still Love You, and the Just Read The Instructions. I also rather like the full name of the ship Mistake Not… (Don't Google it! It's a spoiler!!!)

Use of Weapons and, everything else by Iain M. Banks. Amazing stuff. Trust me.

The Blade Itself and the rest of that series by Joe Abercrombie.

Altered Carbon and the rest of that series as well as Thirteen and The Steel Remains, and it's sequel (still waiting on book 3) by Richard K. Morgan. He's pretty amazing.

That would keep you busy for a long time and are all pretty amazing. Seconding Dune, which is amazing, and the Name of the Wind which is great but very popcorn.

But really, if you were to read everything by Iain M. Banks you would be a better person.

Edit: The Sparrow

And They Shall Reap The Whirlwind is a self insert into the life of bomber harris. It's long and well done.

Set in Stone A rational/ist Stonepunk story set in the future on planet controlled by an AI in an agrarian society. A very interesting and enjoyable story. /u/farmerbob1 's other story Symbiote was also pretty good.

Savage Divinity I remember the start being a little slow, but seriously awesome world-building. Has a fair amount of romance
> A modern man finds himself reincarnated in the body of a young slave with no skills and quickly fading memories. Follow his journey to find normalcy while living in a savage world, filled with myth and legends, monsters and Demons. In a land where the strong rule, the weak serve, and bloodshed is a way of life, peace is a luxury few can afford... Less action, more character and world driven is my aim. Mature language and themes, but no raunchy sex.

Updates 3 times a week usually, currently I get more excited by updates from this than from MOL.

The Last Angel is a story where humanity lost a war and was conquered, but humanities most powerful weapon, an AI Battleship, continues the war 1500 years later. It's been 4 years since I've read it and from what I remember it switches genres to a survival horror novel about halfway in for 20 chapters or so. Really good and apparently there is a sequel that I am going now going to have to check out.

The Gam3 is an extremely well done Litrpg. If its something you like the author has published an edited version of the first book Opening Moves with some extra content. Its the best LitRPG I've read, feels smooth and not clunky.

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 read all the time, I actually didn't like the idea of reading on a tablet or e-reader at first, but I'm reading every day on my new Kindle and I love it.

I would highly recommend The Thrawn Trilogy, first book here. I also really loved the whole Ender's Game series found here. One last big recommendation is The Sword of Truth series found here.

Richard K. Morgan: A land fit for heroes

It's a pretty damn good fantasy series. I got into it because his cyberpunk noir novels were so damn good. Altered Carbon and the rest of the Takeshi Kovacs novels were excellent.

Also, I was lucky enough to have friends immediately recommend Joe Abercrombie post asoiaf. The First Law Trilogy is absolutely gripping. Personally, I think it's better than asoiaf.

I'VE READ OVER 50 BOOKS IN THIS GENRE OVER THE PAST YEAR. SOME ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS, BUT I DO LIKE THEM. THINK SWORD ART ONLINE, BUT A BOOK, AND NOT WEEB. GIVE THE GAM3 A TRY, IT'S A FREE READ HERE (ALSO AVAILABLE ON AMAZON IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR).

Most of what's on here is fairly classic straightforward detective stuff, which is great, but I've always been a sucker for mysteries that merge with other genres or do unusual things. A good handful if that's your bag:

• The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster - 3 short novels packaged together and vaguely related. Also a pretty great mindfuck book
  
• Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem - detective novel whose narrator has Tourette Syndrome
  
• The Alienist by Caleb Carr or In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff - Historical fiction/mystery taking place around the turn of the century and during the dawns of forensics/criminal psychology/criminology
  
• Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan - Sci-fi/hardboiled detective novel in a future where the human mind can be digitized and backed up off-site, rendering murder irrelevant. Terrific book, I find myself compelled to reread it and its sequels every year or so.
  
  Those are all more or less "detective fiction" style mystery, if you're looking at the broader genre I cannot recommend The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon any more highly. I haven't been sucked into writing like that in a long long time.
  

My favorite 40k books are usually by Dan Abnett (and it's not a very unusual opinion). The omnibus about inquisator Eisenhorn is probably the best of his that I've read.

I agree that Horus Heresy series is also a great place to start, as it sets the background for the 40k universe. I really enjoyed the first 5. At the time that was all that was published -- I had no idea there were 28 now, wow!

Hey everyone, this week we discuss action scenes and how to ensure they're engaging and meaningful. Hope you enjoy it!

May 10th is when our Scrivener promotion ends, so if you've been trying it out and want to buy it, be sure to use the code RATIONALLY at checkout for 20% off before then!

The book recommendation this week by /u/alexanderwales is Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. It's a hardboiled detective story set hundreds of years in the future, when human minds can be digitally stored and put into empty 'sleeves' at will. A wealthy man, Lauren Bancroft, hires the ex-military detective Takeshi Kovacs to get to the bottom of a supposed suicide; the suicide was Bancroft's, who was restored from backup and has no knowledge of what might have made him take his own life. The novel has all the staples of hardboiled detective fiction, filtered through a transhumanist lens where bodies are disposable, torture takes place in virtual reality, and the femme fatales have been genetically engineered for beauty. The action in particular is a highlight, which is a good thing because there's plenty of violence along the way.

If you want to give the audio book a try, sign up for an Audible trial through us to get a free book and help support the show. Thanks for listening!

Dan Abnett wrote a short story that went something like this, though set in the Warhammer 40k universe. It was a good story, and a linking piece of the Eisenhorn series, which is a great read if you like sci-fi stuff at all, even if you have no interest in the Warhammer 40k world. Pretty good read even if you don't like sci-fi stuff...very cool development of characters over a long period.

Riddle the First: Wine
I’ve heard tell that wine can be paired with fruit and cheese. Because I’m a classy lady I would have no trouble substituting traditional cheese for some White Cheddar Cheez-its:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ONPN9K/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OX0211BFWC4U&coliid=I2QRJJ8FY0PH3O

Riddle the Second: Broom
Do you know how dusty White Cheddar Cheez-its are? Of course I need a broom to keep my side of the dormitory clean!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006TESANU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OX0211BFWC4U&coliid=I37I11D6JNTLOL

Riddle the Third: Hat
What “classy lady” wouldn’t want a miniature top hat headband fascinator? I just hope its not too distracting to the other students…
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IB052U4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OX0211BFWC4U&coliid=IPL430LO8ISSR

Riddle the Fourth: Book
I chose a muggle book of fiction I’ve wanted to read for a while now, The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. I’ll give you a prize if you can say “Bacigalupi” three times fast…
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1597801585/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OX0211BFWC4U&coliid=I3IYSDZAX1N183

Riddle the Fifth: Trunk
Cards Against Humanity would be stowed away in my trunk. What better way to learn about all my new housemates after sorting is complete?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004S8F7QM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OX0211BFWC4U&coliid=I1Z7ZLARVMKSAN

For Bonus Points: Cape
I need variety! Why wear the same boring old cape day after day if I don’t have to? With Dancing Colors Scarves I could have a different colored cape, or a cape of many colors, anytime I pleased!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042SR4F0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OX0211BFWC4U&coliid=I2KTI79YW1128G

If I understand correctly, you're implying there won't be fantastic new MMO games? And implying that in /r/futurology? ;)

I'm not saying I'll be an MMORPG either, hence the MMO (short for Massively Multiplayer Online).

Let me share a vision of an extremely immersive mmo game, from the book Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks:

> The first night away, he linked into one of their direct-link sensory entertainments, lying on the bed with some sort of device activated under the pillow.

>He did not actually sleep that night; instead he was a bold pirate prince who’d renounced his nobility to lead a brave crew against the slaver ships of a terrible empire amongst the spice and treasure isles; their quick little ships darted amongst the lumbering galleons, picking away the rigging with chain shot. They came ashore on moonless nights, attacking the great prison castles, releasing joyous captives; he personally fought the wicked governor’s chief torturer, sword against sword; the man finally fell from a high tower. An alliance with a beautiful lady pirate begot a more personal liaison, and a daring rescue from a mountain monastery when she was captured . . .

>He pulled away from it, after what had been weeks of compressed time. He knew (somewhere at the back of his mind) even as it happened that none of it was real, but that seemed like the least important property of the adventure. When he came out of it — surprised to discover that he had not actually ejaculated during some of the profoundly convincing erotic episodes — he discovered that only a night had passed, and it was morning, and he had somehow shared the strange story with others; it had been a match, apparently. People had left messages for him to get in touch, they had enjoyed playing the match with him so much. He felt oddly ashamed and did not reply.

Honestly it depends what you are interested in. If you are into the Imperial Guard, then you can't go wrong with the Gaunt's Ghosts series, which narrates story of Colonel-Commisar Ibram Gaunt and his crack team of Guardsmen. The first book in the series is First and Only by Dan Abnett

If you are interested in 40k's crazy [sci-fi take on the Spanish Inquisition] (http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Inquisition), then the [Eisenhorn Trilogy] (https://www.amazon.com/Xenos-Eisenhorn-Dan-Abnett/dp/1849708738/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466481737&sr=1-1&keywords=eisenhorn) might be your kind of thing.

If you are into more the cataclysmic galaxy spanning warfare, the sprawling Horus Heresy series of novels may be worth looking into. These are set 10,000 years before the normal 40K setting, and detail the fall and betrayal of Warmaster Horus, and the massive civil war that it sparks, which is instrumental in setting the stage for the world as it is in 40k. The first book in this series is [Horus Rising] (https://www.amazon.com/Horus-Rising-Heresy-Dan-Abnett/dp/1849707448/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=519sDhjvfXL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR99%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=522C5CJ8ECDM71RF2P9S). While there are literally dozens of novels in the series, by several different authors, the first three (Horus Rising, False Gods, and Galaxy in Flames) will give you a pretty solid overview of the events of the Heresy.

Really, you can start with pretty much any series within the universe that sounds interesting to you, and there are literally a hundred or hundreds of books set in the universe, there isn't any set order outside of individual series that should be read. If you run into something you don't understand, the [Lexicanum] (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page) has articles on literally anything within the universe that you could think of.

It's a really fun universe to get into honestly, if you have any questions feel free to send me a message!

For elaborate world building, it's tough to beat Dune. Intergalactic politics in the wake of an AI rebellion, deep mysticism and Bedouin-flavored lore, religious fanatics, a drug that makes the universe go round, and giant freaking sandworms!

Ender's Game is another popular suggestion to get you into reading. I preferred Dune, though.

Another good read that I enjoyed immensely was Unwind by Neal Shusterman. After the United States has fought a second civil war over abortion, a new deal is struck - no abortion, but unwinding up to the age of 18. It's dark and twisted and I loved it... especially considering it's a young adult novel, which is not my genre of choice.

Odd Thomas is a fun series, but Koontz can be kind-of hit or miss. I'm finding the odd-numbered books in the series to be better than the even-numbered ones, but that's just based on the first four. I wonder if that was intentional?

The Expanse Series: Definitely military. Very well done.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+expanse+series

Pandora Star: Well done. Far forward mainstream Sci-Fi. Book One of the Commonwealth Series. Possibly Hamilton's best. http://www.amazon.com/Pandoras-Star-Commonwealth-Peter-Hamilton-ebook/dp/B000FC1AFC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421719806&sr=8-1&keywords=pandora+star

Relayor isn't military - it's SWAT. Lots of action. Strong character development, interesting plot. Lots of surprises. A couple of new concepts that will blow you away.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HI4PA8S

No need to be worried man! It's just a lovely conversation between space lovers

I just remembered probably my favorite sci-fi novel: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It is so much better than the movie, which, to be honest, I didn't like too much. It's also a very easy read.

Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, and Use of Weapons

These three were written by Iain M. Banks and they're all sci-fi novels set in a far off future Earth where we live in a post-scarcity, stateless, classless, communist paradise. Banks uses the alien societies we encounter in the future as a means of criticing our actual, modern society today.

I absolutely love those novels. The Culture (what we now call the united humans of earth + their colonies) is fascinating. I won't spoil it for you. But go for it. Read until your eyes bleed.

Also, if you're looking for something fun and innocent. You can't go wrong with The Smurfs. I shit you not, I grew up on these so don't any of you dare insult them >.>

You'll want the comics, of course, not the cartoons.

That would be cool. I used to frequent r/freeebooks quite a bit but have stopped due to the fact I have everything for the most part already (people post there as frequently as possible based on the subreddit rules). So this will help fuel my ebook addiction. 800 kindle books seems to be in my future....

Edit: Though The Breaker Series (books 1-3) is currently free and posted there, looks pretty good. Edward W. Robertson is the author, who people really seem to like here.

1. I wish people would more often use turn signals. It's incredibly simple and easy and makes everyone safer.
   
   
2. I made plans to see a friend I don't get to see very often :)
   
   
3. Life is, in itself, meaningful.
   
   
4. Whoooo

I find that authors reading their own books is usually a good thing. Anthony Bourdain reading Kitchen Confidential and John Hodgeman reading The Areas of My Expertise are my favorite examples.

Old Man's War has an excellent narrator. And I know the opinion on Ready Player One is rather polarized, but if you are interested Wil Wheaton's narration is great.

The whole Ender's Game series is really, really good. I highly suggest reading all of the books. Everyone always compares it to the Hunger Games, but I personally don't think they really compare.

2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America is a book I thoroughly enjoyed, and I had my dad read it too. It's it's a bit apocalyptic, and of course it's a fictional novel, but the story sounds so plausible it's scary.

People have already recommended a bunch of books by John Green, but I second those recommendations. He's a wonderful author.

Finally, a coming-of-age book which just so happens to be my all-time favorite book is The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

I can talk about books all day. I love reading so much

I agree, everyone seems to suggest the same series of books by the same authors. But that's the echo chamber effect.

My favorite series that I never see represented is by Peter F. Hamiltion. The Commonwealth saga of books:

• Pandora's Star
  
• Set a few hundred years in the future, humanity has traveled the galaxy via wormholes, but some astronomers led by a far reaching conspiracy unlock a star that ancient aliens walled up to protect the universe from the narrowminded aliens that inhabit it. Naturally, humans open it and unleash MorningLightMountain onto the greater Commonwealth and cause billions of deaths.
  
• Judas Unchained
  
• The 2nd part of humanity's battle with MorningLightMountain, picks up right where things left off and ties everything together.
  
• The Dreaming Void
  
• Set in the same universe, but over 1,000 years later, humanity has traveled around the galaxy now and opened up a few more mysteries, but one remains - what is inside the black hole at the center of the galaxy? One human dreamed of paradise in there, and now trillions of humans want to go in.
  
• The Tempral Void
  
• Continues the tale of people trying to get into The Void, and the issues it's causing
  
• The Evolutionary Void
  
• The final chapter of The Void trilogy, does everything work out?
  
• The Abyss Beyond Dreams
  
• Set between Judas & The Void Trilogy, this is about another set of humans trying to get into the black hole at the center of the universe
  
• A Night Without Stars
  
• Not released yet, but finishes up the story of the humans who tried to get into the void.
  
  The entire series of books is very fast paced, but it's a space opera. He often spends 50 or so pages introducing a character not to be seen again until the next book. It's worth it though, Hamilton is great at tying up all those loose ends in ways you wouldn't think possible.
  
  Hamilton is often recommended for his other trilogy - Night's Dawn. Personally, I felt that was very poorly done. For instance, the 2nd book has no outcome on the end events whatsoever. Plus, it's very much more typical for a space opera zombie book series. Not my cup of tea, so to speak.

First suggestion, although it isn't fantasy more historical fiction, is James Clavell's Asian Saga. Starting with Shogun. It takes about 70 pages for me to really get into the story, which for a normal length book would be a lot but these are over 1,000 pages for the most part. It sounds daunting but the stories are full of adventure and intrigue and you will very likely be captivated and swept away.

Second Ender's Game Series Kind of a classic science fiction series, just like Dune.

Third The End. The second book in the series releases on the 30th of August.

Have you ever read any Orson Scott Card? His Ender's Game and series is absolutely amazing. He has a few other series, too, like Seventh Son, and some amazing standalone books like Songmaster.

Another trilogy I'd highly recommend is the His Dark Materials series, including The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.

Agreed. I was looking through the gallery of Ender's Game book covers and most of them are atrocious. I do think this cover is probably the best I've seen, in terms of representing the book well and still giving a cool sci-fi feel to it, without looking too much like a kids book like this one.

Well, there's /u/bethrevis' Across the Universe trilogy for starters. I didn't like the first book much, but loved the next two.

Cecil Castellucci's Tin Star is a standalone YA sci-fi with strong Titan A.E. vibes.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game also fits, though it's a smaller focus, I think.

More adult than YA, but I'm currently reading Steven Erikson's Willful Child and it fits the easy reading notes. It's kind of Star Trek helmed by meta-William Shatner/Zapp Brannigan/Zaphod Beeblebrox, as narrated by Kurt Vonnegut.

I believe These Broken Stars would also fit the YA space opera label, though I haven't read it.

Edit: And if you don't mind spinoffs, I forgot about Star Wars' Young Jedi Knights series. Loved those as a kid. Not sure how they stand up, but that was the series fitting the YA niche instead of adult or MG.

Read the Eisenhorn omnibus, it's good writing, and covers a lot of good material for 40k universe.


Some of the Horus Heresy gets a little fanfictionish, I didn't like a few of them. It really comes down to the quality of the individual writer, some of them are clearly better than others. This goes for all the various books and series set in the universe.


If you want to apreciate the universe check out the online Lexicanum
and a few other web pages. You don't have to read the rulebooks, but they do have a lot of fluff in them. Most of the important stuff can be found online though. There are some really good pure fluff books from GW, like the Imperial Infantryman's uplifting primer

This is such a crazy awesome contest, and you are such a crazy and generous person!

A Kindle Fire is the ideal e-reader in my opinion. I'm constantly on the go, and constantly stuck in long rehearsals and going on trips which have a lot of down time. Reading is one of my favorite things to do, and I tend to go through books really quickly. I love real books, that paper feel and smell, but it's not always the best idea to pack two or three books to take along. Luggage can get heavy, there's not enough space, etc. With an e-reader, I could have tons of books at my fingertips! I feel like I should maniacally cackle there, but it might not be the best idea.

If I win, I would love the book Ender's Game to start off the Ender Quintet.

Young Miles

I love the Vorkosaigan series. Miles is like a whirlwhind of chaos, dragging awesomeness and interesting events wherever he goes behind him.

I also love the Honor Harrington series.

Honor is a bit like a female Miles, but more awesome, because she has a telepathic tree cat, and can singlehandly kick your ass, and the army you brought with you.

The City That Fought.

This one is a bit older, and is harder to find, but worth it. The story revolves around a city run by a person who's basically the ship's computer, and his Brawn. (Girl who does all the manual type things because he's literally stuck in a tube monitoring things). Just about anything by Ann McCaffery is good, though. I was introduced to her via her "Dragonriders of Pern" series, which is the best damn sci fi disguised as Fantasy I've read.

Cheers!

>As to the mental rewriting, I'm able to simply bite the bullet. I would likely feel rather physically violated, but not mentally so.

I think this makes intuitive, almost Cartesian sense, and I think I agree. What if you still had little mental residues of the last mind, though? Dreams, for example, are probably related to our brain processing and consolidating memories. Dreaming and realizing that they're "someone else's" mental residues (or, if you like, "your" mental residues while your brain was rewritten/hijacked/tricked into thinking it was someone else) might be a bit disturbing.

Bit of a tangent but if these sorts of conundrums interest you and you haven't read it already I highly recommend Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan, a noir-cyberpunk novel about a future where consciousness can be digitized, with some strange consequences for the idea of the self.

Dauntless, by jack Campbell (Dauntless is the first book out of six)

Lots of fun action...not sure how it rates in regards to staying power or intelligence. It'll probably be forgotten in 10 years. But as far as a military action/drama goes, it's pretty awesome

Yea the lore they are building\built in the halo universe is awesome. If you have finished the books try looking for the spartan ops season 1 on youtube. Runs for almost an hour and is a pretty fun watch.

Also The Lost Fleet is a nice easy read.

If you're looking for something for < $1.46 you're mostly only going to find short stories and books of questionable quality by indie authors.

If you're willing to be patient the Kindle Daily Deal has high quality books from time to time for only $2. Just off the top of my head I've gotten sweet deals on Arthur C. Clarke, Stanislaw Lem, Lauren Beukes and Philip K Dick.

Amazon also has Monthly Deals and periodically a Big Deal where you can find books for $2-$5.

If that money is burning a hole in your pocket a quick perusal reveals a few books within a couple dollars of your credit:

Most of Greg Egan's books are permanently at $2.99

Nod $3.79 was an amazing book, nominated for several awards

1st 3 books of the Dragonriders of Pern $1.99

Player Piano $3.99 by Vonnegut

Flowers for Algernon $4.81

Enders Game $3.99

A Calculated Life $3.99 - was nominated for a couple awards this year

Edit, Also found (and added prices to all):

The Last Policeman $2.99

Horns $2.99 This is horror and not sci-fi but it is a thrilling good book.

^(Note: these are all books I've read and can recommend from experience.)

David Brin's Sundiver is a detective mystery. Likewise his Existence is a mystery about a recently discovered artifact, though its presentation with multiple perspectives lacks the singular detective tone of Sundiver. It's not as much of a mystery/thriller more of a mystery/adventure. It is also one of the overall best science fiction novels I've ever read; the writing is top notch, the characters superbly lifelike, the tone excellent, and the overall reading experience enjoyable and filled with a realistic optimism.

Gregory Benford's Artifact is an investigative mystery about a strange artifact. His Timescape is about a strange phenomenon.

Jack McDevitt's The Engines of God is an investigative mystery about a strange artifact.

Asimov's The End of Eternity is a classic mystery/thriller.

Alastair Reynolds' The Prefect and Chasm City are both standalone detective mysteries. His Revelation Space is similar, but does not have the same classic mystery tone.

Greg Bear's Queen of Angels and Slant are both standalone detective mysteries.

I seem to recall the Second Foundation (Foundation's Fear, Foundation and Chaos, Foundation's Triumph) trilogy by Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, and David Brin having some mystery aspects. I think one of them at least is a detective mystery, but I can't remember which right now.

Dan Simmons' Ilium/Olympos is a sort of detective mystery, but its tone is much more action/adventure despite the protagonist's undertakings to determine what in the world is going on.

Joan D. Vinge's Cat Trilogy (Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall) are detective mysteries.

Julian May's Perseus Spur is a detective mystery. It's pretty light-hearted and a lot of fun to read. Something you would pick up at an airport bookstore and not be at all disappointed with. I can't speak for the other two books in the trilogy, haven't read them yet. Just ordered them off Amazon for $4 a piece.

I could go on, but I think that should keep you busy for a while.

 

^(Edited to clarify the tone of some suggestions. Some are more traditional mystery/thriller, while others are more adventure/mystery, more alike to Indiana Jones than a noir detective.)

You can always write a web novel in the style of light novels.

The Gam3 sold here started off as a series on Royalroad and went to publish in amazon. It's a more western novel, but still has some of that light novel characterization feel to it.

Mother of Learning is another fantastic english web novel though I don't believe it has any commercial releases.

This is a book I don't see often, but I think it fits really well with your tastes.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

It's got a dystopian future where the world is run by corporations, and has an interesting cast of characters with their own goals. It's a standalone novel, but I will highly recommend it.

Books! Especially the two Dan Abnett trilogies: Eisenhorn and Ravenor.

http://www.amazon.com/Eisenhorn-Warhammer-40-000-Omnibus/dp/1844161560

http://www.amazon.com/Ravenor-The-Omnibus-Dan-Abnett/dp/1844167372

Each is an "omnibus", three relatively short novels that were combined into a single book (750 or so pages paperback each?).

Start with Eisenhorn, it's a great primer to the general 40K world. Ravenor is much darker, and also fantastic.

Oh my God, it's such good stuff. Pirate the epub versions, or buy a used copy for pennies somewhere. I think they're out of print now.

I'm certainly glad I tried his stuff out. His Breakers pack of books 1-3 for free is one of the best deals out there. (Turns out that deal is on Amazon.co.uk, not in the US.

I know there are some lame ones in the numbered book series, but the stand-alone novels seem to have a much higher success rate. Diane Duane, the Reeves-Stevens, and Peter David were my favorites. I guess David is a little divisive. He's known for taking tiny threads from canon and tying them together in his own stories, but sometimes he goes overboard. Even so, Q-Squared is one of my favorite Trek books ever.

>That said I feel like it would be a hell of a lot easier to live on a hot earth than it would be to live on mars.

Maybe; a rise in temperature means a rise in the prevalence of disease and superstorms. Combine those two and it doesn't look very promising for human civilization on earth.

On the other hand, developing a colonized mars with domed cities that have been acclimated to human climate would be quite easy to live in due to the lack of superstorms and disease. We need the tech (no small feat, though possibly achievable in the next half century I think) and the management to manage that tech. Even so, access to these domed cities would be limited so the point is moot if we're talking about moving the majority of human life over there.

If you want a good piece of hard sci-fi, check out Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. The focus of the utopic novel is colonizing and terraforming Mars and includes a great deal of political ideology and quasi-scientific ideas about how we would make it on Mars.

Second Stage Turbine Blade Ultimate Edition

In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 Ultimate Edition

That's the closest thing to a 'compendium' as you'll find. Also, Claudio did releases a Good Apollo Graphic Novel around the release of GA1, but it's not nearly as in-depth as SSTB or IKS as it was written/drawn/published on a severely small budget. It's going to be re-released in the future true to the format we know, though.

Almost forgot YotBR, but you'll have to go searching beyond Amazon for that, as all of the physical releases are sold out and the only thing left available is the Kindle edition.

Happy reading :)

The Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold are a lot of fun. First collection is Young Miles. You can get the whole series off of one of the free Baen cds.

The Mageworlds series is also enjoyable, in a "clearly riffing on Star Wars" way. First book is The Price of the Stars, and is a mere $3 on Kindle nowadays. (Which is nice, since the early books spent a fair while being not-terribly-in-print.)

Eisenhorn is probably the best possible place to start in 40k. You get every possible angle of 40k explored in this omnibus as well as a some fantastic characters. Add Ravenor for flavor.

After that, dive into the military side of things with Gaunt's Ghosts. This covers primarily the Imperium vs Chaos side of the conflict, but also the internal conflicts the Imperium suffers from.

Now that you're thoroughly acquainted with the human side, view the universe through the eyes of the super-human Space Marines in The Ultramarines Omnibus. This series shows the strengths (and weaknesses) of the Space Marines as well as introducing the terrifying Chaos Space Marines more thoroughly.

Cry for death to the False Emperor with Soul Hunter. Follow up with the sequels in Void Stalker and Blood Reaver to get a very interesting perspectives from the Renegades.

Finally, finish your introductory odyssey with The Horus Heresy. You'll be reading how the modern universe came to be.

This is a "fuck-ton" of reading and will keep you busy for 6 months to a year or more before you finish. These series are the best of the best in the novel side of things. There are huge amounts more in the Army Codexes ^^that ^^you ^^should ^^be ^^able ^^to ^^find ^^for ^^$0 ^^on ^^"sharing" ^^sites and other excellent novels. PM me anytime and I'll happily answer questions/suggestions.

Perilous Waif by E. William Brown hits the sweet spot for me. Great characters and setting, and just enough mystery to keep the bigger picture interesting. He really sets up some promising ideas for the future.

Ummmm well it isn't everyday I can be Santa but here you go. Best Star Trek book ever written. Probably one of my favorite sci fi books period.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Q-Squared-Star-Trek-Next-Generation/dp/0671891510

I ain't so good at book descriptions but here's some stuff I really enjoyed -

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-A-Novel/dp/0307887448

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: http://www.amazon.com/The-Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi/dp/1597801585

The author would argue with me about this being SF - Atwood prefers the term "speculative history" I believe - but the entire Oryx and Crake trilogy is very good.
http://www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676/ref=la_B000AQTHI0_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397411558&sr=1-2 the first book in Oryx and Crake, followed by Year of the Flood and Madaddam

Been on a huge Cyberpunk reading kick lately, especially William Gibson. I've never been much of a reader, so it's awesome to find books that are easy to dive into. Just finished Count Zero, now about half way through Burning Chrome. Altered Carbon arriving today for beach trip this weekend B)

I highly suggest any of these to anyone who is even moderately interested in the genre.

Met new VP of software at work yesterday. I'm actually pretty excited about working for him now. I really liked my old boss, but this dude seems much more... managerial. Hopefully I start getting actual development work now.

Awesome post! Love reading these.

For anyone who wants to read realistic science fiction focused on Mars in the same vein (but much deeper) as The Martian check out Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars

Rad Kindle Case is best case!

Red Mars is a book that I've been wanting to read for quite a while. I've been a fan of sci-fi writing ever since my dad handed me my first Heinlein book, Podkayne of Mars. Red Mars seems to be in the same vein, of a futuristic take on colonizing Mars.

I'm okay with PMing you my address, too. Stalk me all you want, I'm not terribly interesting. I also have a screen protector for my Kindle, which has been working well so far!

Ready Player One is a story about the future of VR [Oasis] and the struggle over who will run it. I hope all the VR Enthusiast read or listen to the book. It's a great story. I don't want to put out spoilers if you haven't checked the book out. The significance of this video becomes apparent after you've reached a little ways into the story. Also the audio book is narrated by Wil Wheaton.

http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One/dp/B005HG7BWC/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1395951167

So, I read and finished Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Evolution, and Revolution, which I referenced in last month's thread. It was a really great collection of stories from a variety of authors.

After that, I continued my cyberpunk trend with Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. It was recommended on a list of cyberpunk books, most of which I compulsively bought. I really liked it, especially the character development. There are two more books in the series, which I'll have to get.

Instead, though, I started Limit, 1200 page epic translated from German. It received a bunch of awards and I read that lots of the technical details are on point, which is something that typically takes me out of the story a lot. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of July, but it's a lot to read and I'm easily distracKitty!!!

Most of the characters in The Windup Girl are Thai or Chinese.

The Left Hand of Darkness messes around with gender in interesting ways. (Also, Ursula K. Leguin is an all-around fantastic author.)

Robert Heinlein can be a controversial author, but many of his works had non-white protagonists. Manuel Garcia O'Kelly-Davis from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is multiracial, and Johnny Rico from Starship Troopers is Filipino, if I recall correctly.

Someone else in this thread recommended The Brief But Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, and it's not exactly SFF (more in the vein of magical realism) but it is easily one of the best books I've ever read.

This could probably fit in a category called geneticpunk. It's a good read. Also where's your source to the link? Always source other peoples work. That chick is beautiful and I'd like to see more of her.

• Alastair Reynolds tends to yield polarized reactions, but I enjoyed House of Suns. Granted, there isn't much in the way of alien life, but it has the "destructive faction in the galaxy" sort of feel.
  
  
• Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton, as mentioned by another commenter. If you can get used to the author's wordy prose, it's a pretty cool story and creative setting involving humanity's expansion across the stars and eventual encounter with an alien race.
  
  
• Also seconding the Babylon 5 TV series recommendation by another commenter. A galaxy filled with various alien races, with their own inter-empire political histories and wars. After all of that gets set up, a mysterious threat looms over every civilization, and...well you'll just have to watch, haha.
  
  
• I know you weren't asking about video games, but I highly recommend the Mass Effect series. One of the best threat-of-extinction space opera stories of our time, in my opinion (a lot of people hated the ending, but I thought it was fine, so YMMV).
  
  
• Star Wars. Of course.
  
  
• If you're okay with amateur fiction, go to /r/HFY and sort by top/all-time. Have fun.

The Breaker series, best self published thing I've ever read. Huge number of positive reviews, this is no hobbyist, this guy has chops.

I'd say Start Here Credit to u/smoomoo31

Then to go more in depth, Go Here Credit to u/Sentry_the_Defiant

If you'd like, you can purchase the books for yourself! SSTB and IKSSE3 and Prequel YOTBR (Kindle Edition, They're on Amazon and other mass market retailers if said dealers are available to you)

Good Apollo: Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness is getting a re-do of it's original comic, which is quite difficult to get now, so I'd hold off, its coming soon. And No World For Tomorrow is also coming in comic form sometime after GA1.

And just for clarity's sake, it is posted in those resources but I figured I throw it here anyway, with all the prequels, the story's official order is as follows: The Afterman: Ascension, The Afterman: Descension, Year Of The Black Rainbow, Second Stage Turbine Blade, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, Good Apollo: Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness.Good Apollo: Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow. They're latest a;bum, The Color Before The Sun, is non-conceptual, based souly in their, namely Claudio's, life.

If you have any questions, feel free to post on here or PM me, we all love this stuff!

Hah, well there's a loaded tag.

I have no idea what happened to him/her, but I'm happy to have lent some input.

For the record I'm no expert, just a space nerd that reads a lot :-p

If you're curious to read more I'd recommend either Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments for nonfiction, or Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy for really well-researched and realistic science fiction.

The Takeshi Kovacs trilogy by Richard K Morgan was pretty great. Last good scifi I read.

http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457692/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240608120&sr=8-2

Try Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon or Walter John William's Hrdwired for some good cyberpunk. For a good post-apocalypse novel you might like Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.

Here's a little bit of reference fiction for you:

Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo

• takes place on a generation ship. There are distinct upper and lower classes based on heritage. The original purpose of the mission has long been forgotten and the records been destroyed in revolutions past. An attempted mutiny takes place and is shutdown by the ruling party which elevates their position since preventing mutinities is the primary concern of the aristocracy. Lots of abandoned sections of the ship since the population is less large and less resourced than in generations past.
  
  Chasm City by Alistair Reynolds
  
  
• Half of the book involves flashbacks to a character's experience of being the last group of a 3-generation genship flight. A fleet of genships are sent on an interstellar migration. The fleet devolves into extreme prejudices, military rule, political intrigue, and activities contrary to the purpose of the mission: safely transporting their frozen human cargo to the target settlement planet. The hatred's developed during the flight transform into centuries-long warfare after the planet has been settled. Funnily enough, the settler's became oddity's in the human space world because sub-FTL flight is developed soon after they departed earth and the rest of the stars were settled with more sane people who could make the trip in a single lifetime.
  
  Analogue: A Hate Story
  
  
• An interactive fiction game where your job is to reconstruct what happened on a derelict generation ship. You learn that the idiotic descendants of the original ship crew have long forgotten what the ship was for, that they are even on a ship, and all the skills necessary to operate and maintain the ship. However, the root access for the ship's computer is owned by the emperor. The people mimic a Korean Josun Dynasty society. An inhabitant of a sleep pod is awakened from a much earlier generation and is bewildered by what's become of the ship. She's also the only one that knows anything about the ship's system. Also, there's a ship AI. The story ends with everyone on the ship being spaced and suffocated.
  
  
  Honestly, I think the best potential for a generation ship game is trying to keep things from devolving into chaos, barbarism, totalitarianism and cannibalism. Of course, if you actually make it to your destination, did you manage to retain the skills and resources necessary to survive or actually accomplish the mission objective when you get there?
  
  Maybe you could have a partial win to the game if your crew completely dies out, but you were able to make an AI to complete part of the objectives when you arrive at your destination. So, it would be a score-based game, trying to see how much achievements you can make or how high a score you can accomplish.
  
  Again, I'm curious what your take is on this game setting.
  
  
  Edit:
  
  Thought of one more.
  
  Passages Series by localroger.
  
  
• The universe and human's are controlled and ruled by AI's and AI ships. I can't remember but in one of the stories, an AI wants to carry people across space and he requires them to meet a certain societal model before he will carry them. So, a cult is formed with very rigid social rules and requirements. After several generations, the cult is ready and he takes them through space. After many many generations, it's a sort of religious village existence, trying to find and take care of any discontents and dissidents before they cause trouble. Finally they arrive at their destination and they parachute to the planet and start a colony.

I would love Ender's Game for my kindle. Thank you for the contest and congrats on the new job.

My kitty makes me happy!

I'd love this kindle book!

Can you feel the love

You talked to the right guy! If you want an awesome point of view and introduction (or just great stories if you are already a fan) to the Warhammer 40k universe I suggest you read the following in the order I put them:

Eisenhorn Omnibus

Ravenor Omnibus

The Emperor's Gift

All these are intertwined, there is another trilogy to follow up Eisenhorn and Ravenor but only the first book has been release for that so far. The Eisenhorn Trilogy are three of my favorite books and I read from many, many sources outside of WH40k

Use of Weapons, by Iain M Banks.

E: Dunno how to recommend it and its plot twist without spoiling said twist, but I'll try. It's two stories, told simultaneously and in reverse chronological order; in the one, mercenary Cheradenine Zakalwe is pulled out of retirement by the Culture to do one more job for them, and demands/is offered as payment a chance to see his sister one more time before she dies, while in the other we see his past and what made him the man he is today, including a civil war in which (medium-small and gorey twist) [spoiler:](#s "his adopted brother butchered his sister and turned her into a chair"). Really good, super shocking, strongly recommend.

E2: That spoiler, BTW, is not The Twist, that comes a bit later.

Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood are two of my favourites.

The Wind-up Girl is also pretty neat.

The Fionavar Tapestry is one of my all-time favourite fantasy reads.

The Lies of Locke Lamora is usually a good bet if you like GRRM.

For an epic series consider Dune by Frank Herbert especially as we approach the new Dune movie in 2020.

For well written political-military sci-fi with a good grounding in realistic physics try the Honorverse by David Weber. First book is On Basilisk Station

For exceptional military sci-fi Hammer's Slammers by David Drake. They are a series of short stories that can stand on their own but when read together form a cohesive story arc.

For a one-off story that deals with some major issues of technology and how it can affect our near future try the bio-punk story The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Be warned however there are some really... uncomfortable parts that are NSFW to put it mildly. Easy to skip but wanted to be up front about that.

As a personal guilty pleasure I will also recommend the military sci-fi series the Legacy of the Aldanata by John Ringo. It is not "hard sci-fi" but I really like Ringo and the core quadrilogy is so much fun. Start with A Hymn Before Battle

I'd recommend the Miles Vorkosigan Adventures omnibuses by Lois McMaster Bujold, starting with Young Miles (there's an omnibus before it, but with Miles' mother as the protagonist).

Miles is similarily intelligent as Ender, and a very driven person. The first omnibus is a firework of genius. You follow Miles from one impossibility into the next and can enjoy his mad planning that somehow manages to save the day, but rides him and his entourage deeper into various problems.
Especially the first books about Miles have their fair share of action and spacebattles, but later parts go deeper into the psychology of Miles and various other characters.
The series spans over ten years in Miles' adventurous life and the omnibuses are cheap to get.

If you choose to get any, I'd suggest you don't read the descriptions on amazon or on the back of the books. I'd things spoilered for me, which was annoying. Oh, and the order of the omnibuses is kinda screwed up, with the last two swapped for some reason, which was another spoiler for me, since I realized it too late.

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. It blends genres (mystery + noir + SF) and I think does a great job of introducing a novice to SF .

[Edit] FWIW, I purposely avoided the "classics" as I think many of them would be quite dated to today's audience and would not be a good intro into the genre. But I would hope that as their taste in SF evolves that they would find the classics on their own and would be better able to appreciate them.

They all seem to be for 8-14yr olds...

Edit: Oh. Maybe that's what the OP meant. I got excited because I thought it would be a bunch of great books for guys, not for kids.

In case that's what you came looking for too, here's a couple of greats:

Beat the Reaper It's like House meets the Sopranos, except better.

Altered Carbon The most bad ass futuristic sci-fi book, ever.

You were pretty vague in your request, but i'll leave this right here:

http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457684

Pretty dark and mature cyber punk/detective noir book.

Life of Pi is really good. I also just read Slaughterhouse 5, which was excellent, but I felt it was too short. I am reading Ender's Game right now, which is excellent. There are so many good books. Check out /r/books, /r/booksuggestions and I think you'll find a bunch to read.

I liked sea of rust, which amazon recommended after All Systems Red. It was a short read but it was the best thing I've read in quite a while.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MYZ8X5C/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1517790536&sr=8-1

Here's his description:

> Watch Nat Geo's MARS Monday 11/14 at 9/8c: http://makemarshome.com/
>
> Watch Kevin and Jake's videos! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_MhErD-EA0&index=2&list=PLiyjwVB09t5xDxwO8KpwJA2HTA13xarpf
>
> Thanks to Nat Geo for sponsoring this video
>
> Earth and Mars size comparison: http://www.space.com/16871-how-big-is-mars.html
>
> calculate how much you’d weigh on Mars: http://www.exploratorium.edu/mars/yourweight.php
>
> Martian ‘sun dial’:
>
> http://www.universetoday.com/96930/curiositys-sundial-carries-a-message-of-hope/
>
> http://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/interactives/revealing-mars-before-after-image-comparison-slider/rover-opportunity/
>
> Touching Mars images (walnut regolith): http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2005/dust_devils.html
>
> Pascal Lee:
>
> http://www.pascallee.net
>
> https://www.facebook.com/PascalLeeOfficial/photos/a.533740600028877.1073741831.518292958240308/951932401543026/?type=3&theater
>
> Other flag ideas:
>
> http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20151214-what-would-the-flag-of-mars-look-like
>
> https://astrosociety.org/edu/publications/tnl/66/flag.html
>
> Kim Stanley Robinson’s excellent trilogy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QCS914/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
>
> terraforming of Mars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars
>
> Outer Space Treaty: http://www.state.gov/t/isn/5181.htm#treaty
>
> Extraterrestrial Liberty: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-18063-2_3
>
> Time on Mars:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timekeeping_on_Mars
>
> http://jtauber.github.io/mars-clock/
>
> Mars orbit: http://www.windows2universe.org/mars/mars_orbit.html
>
> Mars orbit proximity chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_mission_to_Mars#/media/File:Mars_close_appr.png
>
> NASA Mars time program: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/
>
> Mars Watches:
>
> http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/spotlight/spirit/a3_20040108.html
>
> http://web.archive.org/web/20120525133718/http://executivejewelers.com/jewelscart2000/store/jewelscart2000_listCategoriesAndProducts.asp?idCategory=10
>
> Darian calendar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darian_calendar
>
> Ask a Mathematician physicist article: http://www.askamathematician.com/2012/09/q-is-it-likely-that-there-are-atoms-in-my-body-that-have-traveled-from-the-other-side-of-the-planet-solar-system-galaxy-or-universe/
>
> Apollo quarantine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Quarantine_Facility
>
> space dust: http://www.universetoday.com/92807/rocks-from-mars/
>
> Blood and skin cells changing: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1q16hw/im_32_is_there_a_single_cell_or_even_molecule/
>
> Planetary protection:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection
>
> https://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/
>
> Mars sample return [PDF]: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/pss/presentations/200803/04-Atlas-PPSonMSR.pdf
>
> glow worms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnocampa_luminosa
>
> ANSMET: http://caslabs.case.edu/ansmet/
>
> AH84001: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Hills_84001
>
> Bill Clinton speech on Mars rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHhZQWAtWyQ
>
> All music by http://www.youtube.com/JakeChudnow

Ask JIDF-Shill.


But in Horus Rising on pages 354-355, Horus says the Emperor was born in Anatolia (spelled Anatoly in Horus Rising), and shows a ring the Emperor gave him made a year before he (the Emperor) was born.


>The dreadful Sagittary, he said. Most warlike of all. Strong, relentless, unbridled, swift and sure of his mark. In ancient times, he told me, this was the greatest sign of all. The centaur, the horse-man, the hunter-warrior, had been beloved in the old ages. In Anatoly, in his own childhood, the centaur had been a revered symbol. A rider upon a horse, so he said, armed with a bow. The most potent martial instrument of its age, conquering all before it. Over time, myth had blended horseman and steed into one form. The perfect synthesis of man and war machine. That is what you must learn to be, he told me. That is what you must master. One day, you must command my armies, my instruments of war, as if they were an extension of your own person. Man and horse, as one, galloping the heavens, submitting to no foe. At Ullanor, he gave me this.’

>Horus set down his cup, and leaned forward to show them the weathered gold ring he wore on the smallest finger of his left hand. It was so eroded by age that the image was indistinct. Loken thought he could detect hooves, a man’s arm, a bent bow.

>‘It was made in Persia, the year before the Emperor was born. The dreadful Sagittary.



https://www.amazon.com/Horus-Rising-Heresy-Dan-Abnett/dp/1849707448

I was originally going to go for the Mars Trilogy's first book Red Mars, but that just has to wait for a Reddit free gift from my new favourite SciFi author :D

I am a fan of this style also.

The Novice: Summoner: Book One (The Summoner Trilogy 1)

​

Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) This series takes place in a school like environment.

​

The Hound of Rowan: Book One of The Tapestry Very YA, but Fun.

​

The Emperor's Blades: Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, Book I A lot of the book takes place in a "school"

Kylar, Durzo, Dorian, Solon, Feir, Logan, Lantano, Viridiana, Elene...so many characters that I absolutely fell in love with from the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.

Also right now I decided to start reading some Warhammer books i've had sitting on my shelf. Am almost done with the first book in the Eisenhorn omnibus and it is amazing. I never knew how badass an imperial inquisitor is! I can't wait to read the next Inquisitor trilogy by Dan Abnett, "Ravenor"

Try Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds. First of all, probably my favourite space epic of all time, the Revelation Space story arc is amazing and I love his focus on technology and space travel/combat. That said, Chasm City is more of a self-contained story that takes place primarily around a particular planet, and is one of the best twisty narratives I've had the pleasure of reading.

Specifically, Chasm City itself was a "golden age" style metropolis of kilometre-high skyscrapers and technology before a nano-plague took hold and transformed everything into a grotesque caricature of what it was. The city as it is "now" consists of the upper echelons existing in their now-dampened utopia while the slums far below have fallen to the poor and criminal.

...it's about time I read it again.

>Anyone read this book?

Dude, it's practically the Citizen Kane of cyberpunk. Dated, hard to grasp and totally genre changing. I loved it when I discovered it in the early 90's but truth be told it's been surpassed several times.

Read it, and if you find the themes interesting try Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.

Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet series is pretty good.

Also, Jack Campbell is a pen name for author John G Hemry, who wrote another, slightly less space opera-y series beginning with Stark's War.

Also, several military SF anthologies are out there, some with annual volumes. They're a great way to get exposed to new material!

Non-canon, but I really like Q Squared (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Q-squared-Star-Trek-Next-Generation/dp/0671891510) - incorporates a couple of alternate realities and a really good story.

I know you can get a Kindle version of YOTBR on Amazon. You can get all of IKSSE:3 on comixology. As for the others, there's not really a medium to grab them online. Not great for SSTB, but Good Apollo (as previously stated) will be re-released soon. I've got a feeling that'll be released digital just like IKSSE:3.

Gary Gibson does some credible space adventures. The Shaol sequence was pretty enjoyable.

A bit harder edged but brilliant is the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy from Richard Morgan. Start with Altered Carbon.

Also Neal Asher's Polity Agent series has a lot of good action tinged with horror.

It's an old one, but my hands-down favorite Star Trek novel is Q-Squared by Peter David.

I should mention that I haven't read any Star Trek novels published since 1998, but if you like Q it's hard to imagine you wouldn't enjoy this book.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


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

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.

If you like stuff like this, I recommend reading Ready Player One! by Earnest Cline (also available in audiobook read by Wil Wheaton).

I’ve recently been enjoying “The Gam3” series by Cosimo Yap : it was recommended to me after I finished RP1 and I was looking for something new.

While it’s not the same as RP1 I’ve found it to be an amazing read - loads of depth to the world(s) in it and just really draws you in.

Description from Amazon
> The Earth is changing. The alien invasion brought social upheaval, advanced technology, and an armada of peacekeeping robots. But Alan, a college student pursuing a now-useless degree, cares little about all of this. He has only one thing on his mind: the Game.
>
> A fully immersive virtual reality, the Game appears to be a major part of the invading civilization. Alan can't wait to play, recklessly diving into the digital universe. Soon though, Alan realizes the Game is anything but simple, and the stakes are higher than he ever imagined.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opening-Moves-Gam3-Book-1-ebook/dp/B01DFCNAPG

I am a big fan of Alastair Reynolds' Chasm City because it has a pretty good twist.

The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold - quite a long series full of fantastic books and amazing characters. Start with Young Miles.

I was a total girly-girl at your daughter's age, and LOVED The Secret Garden at her age. Would Coraline be too scary for her?

For your son, 6th grade is when I discovered Ender's Game and got WAY into the Star Trek novels. Franchise books tend to be pretty clean, would he be interested in the Star Wars novels?

Yeah man... I've been broadening my horizons. Not sure why I'm so addicting to this genre but I keep searching for that next fix. I stumble upon some litrpg-adjacent novels that scratch the itch, like Persephone Rising and Perilous Waif, (those were pretty good) but then I feel the need to read more cybernetics-enhanced battle women books like those and it's back to square one.

Glaxnor, I almost always agree with you, but here we part ways. It may be true of certain types of SciFi, or even the entire Fantasy genre, but not all. Replay and Altered Carbon are two that disprove this, for me.

Golden Age of the Solar Clipper - Nathan Lowell

The Lost Fleet - Jack Campbell

Both were enjoyable reads. The Golden Age series follows an average guy as he gets a job on a space freighter and slowly rises through the ranks. The main character isn't some long-lost cousin to a space prince, or the only person that can save the universe, he's just a guy trying to make a living for himself. There aren't any space battles, so it might be a good change of pace for you, depending on what you read. The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue, though, so be warned if that sort of thing turns you off. There are about 6 books in this series.

The Lost Fleet series does include space battles. It's a story about a long-lost hero returning from cryosleep to a government and a war so unlike what he left behind. It's a story of how Geary, the protagonist, handles his new setting (fighting off politicians, lovers, and assassins) all while trying to return his fleet (which, through dumb luck, he commands) back home from deep in enemy territory. It's pretty good, and the space battles are well thought out. There are bout 10 books in this series.

For those commenting the lack of women authors, I agree.

I suggest Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente. She has other interesting books as well.

ALso, I did not see Paolo Bacigalupis The Windup Girl mentioned, very good

Probably in a world where Roundup was a stable of every schoolchild's healthy breakfast.

You might enjoy The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Try out the Culture books by Iain M. Banks. Use of Weapons is my personal favorite and more militaristic than the others (which are still amazing scifi!).

In this same vein, though grittier than Banks and Hamilton, is the Takeshi Kovacs series by Richard K. Morgan, starting with Altered Carbon. The main character is a former UN envoy (think baddest of the badass special forces). People's minds are backed up continually in a cortical stack, which is almost indestructible. Instead of interstellar travel, people like Kovacs have the contents of their stacks transmitted across the galaxy and "re-sleeved", loaded into a new body on the other end.

The series raises some interesting questions about identity and morality when death and attachment to a specific body are taken out of the equation. His first book also deals specifically with the topic of very, very long-lived people.

That pretty much describes The Windup Girl, a recent joint hugo/nebula winner.

A great military/space opera sci-fi series is the Miles Vorkosigan books. They're action-adventure-drama-mystery-comedy. Really excellent. Start with Young Miles, when Miles is 17 and flunks out of military academy.


The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub completely captured me around your age. It's dark fantasy, and ties in with King's The Dark Tower series. Which you also could give a shot.

Sometimes you can get lucky and find an author that writes both in the YA and adult range, like Neil Gaiman.
I'd suggest Neverwhere and American Gods (which is a bit more adult than Neverwhere, but you should be fine to read it).

The Windup Girl ( or anything by Paolo Bacigalupi ) is pretty fantastic.

The Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy starting with Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. If you've ever wondered what life would be like if we could digitize human consciousness and shoot that consciousness at light speed through the cosmos to be inserted into awaiting bodies or "Sleeves", this may be the book for you. What is mind-blowing is not the technology so much as the insight into what our world would look like and how it's associated population would look/behave in their consequential relationships/interactions. Very enjoyable at the same time as being scary. A great time to read this type of subject matter ahead of our supposed transcendence/singularity.

Seriously, I could see your concept working as a movie script, and I think you could write with that in mind, especially as you develop your character's personalities.

You might shoot for novella length rather than short story or novel, so maybe 40,000-50,000 words. Bang out the first one and you're already into your first sequel by the end of the year.

Look at the recent success of Martha Wells' Murderbot series. Novellas. Sequels. They are competently written, lighthearted short novels, and people are downloading them.

http://www.amazon.com/Enders-Game-Ender-Quintet-ebook/dp/B003G4W49C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1370567555&sr=1-1&keywords=ender%27s+game
Have always loved this book, I would really like the Kindle for reading books and watching movies on the go. As a younger kid I would always read and now I feel as if it doesn't happen as much. This would make me read.

You said you weren't looking for fiction, but other people might come to your thread looking for those kinds of suggestions, so sorry to leave you hanging, but I'll put a few out there, because I've enjoyed this genre.

Opening Moves Aliens have taken over and ostensibly done away with war, but the main character finds out the stakes in the aliens' "Game" may be just as high.

Solarversia We've got a sort of reality show VR game where a hundred million players duke it out over the course of a year to win a big prize. It's easy to get sucked into this one as a gamer, because the author really captures this sens of video game action. There's pseudo-ai personality modeling based on social media, and even a fanatical AI doomsday cult.

Survival Quest Don't let the name turn you off here. In this trilogy the biggest MMO has become so big that prisoners are actually sentenced to server their time in VR capsules mining resources for paying non-prisoner characters. Where standard players get to choose their class and have access to outside materials like guides and wikis, the protagonist here (who's unjustly charged, of course!) gets his class selected for him, and must learn the nuances to this underplayed Shaman class, as well as figure out how to earn respect, while simultaneously earning his way out of prison. The third book just came out on the 10th, and I wouldn't have found out about it if not for writing this, so thanks! And enjoy!

Redshirts

Ready Player One

Fuzzy Nation

Those are three that come to mind right off the bat.

He did a great job with Ready Player One.

Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, currently tearing through Woken Furies by Richard Morgan

fast-paced and well written stories of a commando-type. gritty and cool Gibonesque universe where consciousness is stored on in a small metal cylinder at the base of the skull, you can die, be revived, change bodies, etc. cool AI hotels, unfathomable ancient Martian tech, lots of guns

also just finished Dragon's Egg and Starquake by Robert L Forward

1mm alien slugs living life a million times faster than humans on a neutron star with 63 billion times the gravity of Earth. hard science. dry dialog for humans, but really well done conception and description of such an alien race, from when they first learned how to use natural tools, until they have control of blackholes, FTL/time travel, etc. (over a few Solar days)

Ender's Game was pretty good. And of course you have to read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

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

The Lost Fleet series had pretty good fleet battles. Viewed through the eyes of the main commander, and slowly building up in complexity of description/execution because of plot points.

Randomly picked it up cause I liked the title for whatever reason.

If you liked that book, check out The Windup Girl. It's a book, but about a post-oil economy where people are storing energy in springs, and there is a small group of android-like people who run on that energy.

Just finished The Myriad on the recommendation of r/scifi and while it was good i wish it had more fleet combat. I guess i have just been spoiled by Honor Harrington.
The next book i am gonna read is The Dauntless and we will see how it goes