Reddit mentions: The best war fiction books
We found 890 Reddit comments discussing the best war fiction books. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 328 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.
1. The Things They Carried
- Columbia University Press
Features:
Specs:
Release date | October 2009 |
2. Ravenor: The Omnibus
Specs:
Height | 7.75 Inches |
Length | 5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | July 2009 |
Weight | 1.45 Pounds |
Width | 2.3 Inches |
3. The Things They Carried
- Great product!
Features:
Specs:
Height | 8 Inches |
Length | 5.31 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | October 2009 |
Weight | 0.45 Pounds |
Width | 0.62 Inches |
5. Shadow Ops: Control Point
- Signed
Features:
Specs:
Color | Multicolor |
Height | 6.73 Inches |
Length | 4.23 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | January 2012 |
Weight | 0.4 Pounds |
Width | 1.01 Inches |
6. A Thousand Splendid Suns
- Riverhead Books
Features:
Specs:
Color | Multicolor |
Height | 7.94 inches |
Length | 5.2 inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | November 2008 |
Weight | 0.7188 pounds |
Width | 0.98 inches |
7. In the Balance: An Alternate History of the Second World War (Worldwar, Volume 1)
Specs:
Color | Black |
Height | 6.8 inches |
Length | 4.25 inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | December 1994 |
Weight | 0.58 Pounds |
Width | 0.95 inches |
8. The Blade Itself (The First Law Trilogy (1))
Orbit
Specs:
Height | 9.25 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | September 2015 |
Weight | 1.2 Pounds |
Width | 1.5 Inches |
9. Red Army
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Height | 9 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | January 2011 |
Weight | 1.13317602668 Pounds |
Width | 1 Inches |
10. Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium
This is a 7th printing of the first UK editon, 2007, 10 9 8 7, a new 756-page omnibus trade softcover, from Black Library, by Sandy Mitchell.
Specs:
Height | 7.75 Inches |
Length | 5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | April 2009 |
Weight | 1.11994829096 Pounds |
Width | 1.9 Inches |
11. Going Home: A Novel (The Survivalist Series)
Going Home
Specs:
Color | Multicolor |
Height | 7.99 Inches |
Length | 5.35 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | July 2013 |
Weight | 0.77602716224 Pounds |
Width | 0.99 Inches |
12. The Tartar Steppe
Used Book in Good Condition
Specs:
Height | 8.25 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | November 2005 |
Weight | 0.59965735264 Pounds |
Width | 0.61 Inches |
13. Lines of Departure (Frontlines Book 2)
- Innovative Gameplay: Shift from a fantastic 3D world to a mysterious universe in 2D!
- Mature Story: Explore an adult world as seen through the eyes of a little girl.
- Unique Atmosphere: A surreal 1920s world, inspired by vaudeville and film noir, and cradled by a jazzy soundtrack!
Features:
Specs:
Release date | January 2014 |
14. Age of Ra
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Height | 6.75 Inches |
Length | 4.1875 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | July 2009 |
Weight | 0.45635688234 Pounds |
Width | 1.1 Inches |
15. Devices and Desires (Engineer Trilogy (1))
- Produces a waterproof finish
- Ideal for indoor or outdoor use
- Insulates and protects electrical Splices and connections
- Seals and protects wire splice connections, this formula is resistant to chemicals, solvents, saltwater and other common fluids
Features:
Specs:
Height | 8.25 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | October 2007 |
Weight | 1.28 Pounds |
Width | 1.68 Inches |
16. Space Wolf Omnibus: Spacewolf / Ragnar's Claw / Grey Hunter (Warhammer 40,000)
- Used Book in Good Condition
Features:
Specs:
Height | 7.75 Inches |
Length | 5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | November 2008 |
Weight | 1.0582188576 Pounds |
Width | 1.9 Inches |
17. Chemistry, 11th Edition
Specs:
Height | 10.5 Inches |
Length | 8 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 4.82591891518 Pounds |
Width | 1.7 Inches |
18. Curse of the Mistwraith (The Wars of Light and Shadow, Book 1)
Specs:
Release date | June 2010 |
19. Team Yankee
Specs:
Height | 6.76 Inches |
Length | 4.24 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | March 1994 |
Weight | 0.43 Pounds |
Width | 0.95 Inches |
20. Life and Times of Michael K: A Novel
- Penguin Books
Features:
Specs:
Color | Orange |
Height | 0.3 Inches |
Length | 7.6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | January 1985 |
Weight | 0.30423792156 Pounds |
Width | 5 Inches |
🎓 Reddit experts on war fiction books
The comments and opinions expressed on this page are written exclusively by redditors. To provide you with the most relevant data, we sourced opinions from the most knowledgeable Reddit users based the total number of upvotes and downvotes received across comments on subreddits where war fiction books are discussed. For your reference and for the sake of transparency, here are the specialists whose opinions mattered the most in our ranking.
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?
Julian Gracq's gorgeous, gorgeous novel. Yes, I'm re-reading now just to study it because it's just... so... beautiful!
There are two books that I shall mention that I think would be of interest to genre readers, even though they are not nominally genre books.
SMILE AS THEY BOW is a beautiful, sad tale of an aging transvestite spirit dancer in Burma, and it's lovely and amazing and a whole different way of thinking about POV from a non-Western writer. http://www.amazon.com/Smile-as-they-Bow-Nu/dp/1401303374/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407256044&sr=8-1&keywords=smile+as+the+bow I strongly recommend it to everyone in the world.
Recommended to me by Larry Nolen, there is an amazing book translated from the Italian that I think genre readers would love. The Tartar Steppe is a beautiful allegory and warning chime to everyone in pursuit of glory: http://www.amazon.com/The-Tartar-Steppe-Dino-Buzzati/dp/1567923046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407256202&sr=8-1&keywords=the+tartar+steppe
Also, recently, I read Gina Ochsner's latest short story collection, and it is whimsical and beautiful and heartbreaking. In the opening story, a middle-aged Eastern European couple is haunted by the ghosts of the children they didn't have. Later on, people place their broken hearts on trebuchets and cast them into a field. http://www.amazon.com/People-I-Wanted-Be-Stories/dp/0618563725/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407256400&sr=8-1&keywords=gina+ochsner+people
Lately, one of my favorite recent reads came out from Small Beer Press, and explores the fascinating figure of Jonathan Edwards. Spider in a Tree by Susan Stinson is an amazing, and beautiful book, exploring the life and times of a fascinating figure from American History. http://smallbeerpress.com/books/2013/10/01/spider-in-a-tree/
I'll recommend one book that isn't out, yet, but I want everyone of you to go and get it. Jenn Brissett's debut novel, Elysium, is coming from Aquaduct, and it's a complex and amazing story about what remains of us. It's powerful and complex and full of amazing imagery. I know I intend to write a full review when the time comes for such things. http://www.aqueductpress.com/forthcoming-pubs.php
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'm glad you asked! I know you said you like American and more modern history but I'm going to suggest something from a little bit further back.
One of my personal favorites is "A Conspiracy of Paper" by David Liss. It's set in the 1700s in London so it's not too extreme of a culture shift and it's an action/mystery novel that I couldn't put down. It's also really well researched and has a lot of history about one of the earliest stock markets in the world.
http://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Paper-Ballantine-Readers-Circle/dp/0804119120/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b
If you're feeling a little more bold, check out Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. It's set in the 12th century and it traces the growth of a town into a city over about 100 years. If you like fantasy as a genre, this might be more your thing and it is also has a lot of history about what life was like during the Middle Ages and its a cool mystery/drama to boot.
http://www.amazon.com/Pillars-Earth-Ken-Follett/dp/045123281X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331181793&sr=1-1
Lastly, this is less historical and more of a just a really good read but check out The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. It's a collection of war stories from Vietnam and really gets you into the mindset of what it was like to fight over there and then come home. I read it years ago and loved it.
http://www.amazon.com/Things-They-Carried-Tim-OBrien/dp/0618706410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331181955&sr=1-1
Let me know if you end up liking any of these! Everyone has different tastes so you may find something else you like better but these are the first three that popped into my head.
I wish you luck in your endeavors ! I don't know much about boats but I think you should go for a sail boat ... To me it seems like you have more freedom in a sail boat ... But that's just my opinion ... You probably know more about boats than I do ... Although I would love to own a boat one day ! I understand your frustrations with the government and realize why you would want to abandon it ... I suggest you read " The Life and Times of Michael K" by J.M. Coetzee...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0140074481
A great book about the obstacles to escaping modern governance ... If you do decide to read it let me know what you think ... Maybe we can bounce some interpretations of the text off each other to better understand our positions ... Sails away friend ! Shoot me a PM if you want to know some good ports ! I would love to see a picture of your new boat also
Edit: added a link to the book
I know what you mean about story and meaning and context. I always liked history, but I'm drawn to the same types of books you are. Some of these might be eschewed by "proper" historians, but they're all great reads that manage to teach some history as well. If you're interested in the subject matter, you'd likely enjoy them.
Well, you raise an interesting question when you say you're after "book 'one' of the lore". I don't actually think there is such a thing.
See, 40k is more an environment, a genre, than a story-arc. So much goes on that is totally independent of everything else. And, in fact, with the Horus Heresy stuff a lot of it even happens in a totally different timeline. An analogy would be like asking for book-one in the Star Trek universe; you could pin down the very first thing that ever happened in terms of date, but it would bear zero resemblance to a lot of the more popular, better writing.
Now, I've been kicking around 40k fluff for, god, getting on for thirty years. And for my money the best place to start would be a set of books based around the Inquisition - since they're the ultimate enforcers of the Emperor's will in both Civil and Military matters they see rather more of human society than merely the battlefield. If you only buy one book make it the Ravenor omnibus by chap called Dan Abnett (he also wrote the Gaunt's Ghosts novels, as well as being one of the main writers of the Horus Heresy series, so he knows what he's on about).
The Ravenor books contained in this omnibus give you three things:
However, saying that, there's a few bits of free stuff kicking around the internet that are worth reading on their own merits. They're showing their age these days but hell, so am I:
The first is Deathwing, a short-story written as part of the release of Space Hulk; this was a board-game based around Space Marines in Terminator armour assaulting huge, ancient spaceships that appear every now and then, emerging from the Warp with no warning. In an ideal world they're empty and stuffed with delicious technology. However, a lot of the time they're filled with nasty surprises; hence the Terminators and their storm-bolters. Games Workshop are pretty good at deleting anything from the internet that violates their copyright, but a .pdf of it is here.
The second, though, is more important, and is basically as holy a piece of writing as you'll ever get in 40k. It's the story of the final, monumental, universe-deciding duel between The Emperor and his twisted, warped son Horus. Again, GW do an inquisition-grade job of purging it from the archives, but a copy of it is here, if you can excuse the advert at the start. Thinking how the Horus Heresy series will end, and how they'll revisit this, sends a shiver down my spine.
Anyway. Wall of text over. I hope you enjoy whatever it is that you choose in the end :-)
Swan Song - Robert McCammon Of the books I read last year this was my favorite.
Old Man's War - John Scazi - It's a pretty fun Military Sci-fi series
Leviathan Wakes - S. A. Corey - Near space, space opera.
Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson - Epic Fantasy with an interesting magic system, good place to start with a popular author
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie - "Grimm Dark" fantasy, he does an interesting thing by playing with a LotR style quest.
The Black Prism - Brent Weeks - Interesting Magic system, one of my favorite ongoing fantasy series. Much better than his first trilogy IMHO
Midnight Riot - Ben Aaronovitch - Funny urban fantasy series that takes place in London
His Majesty's Dragon - Namoi Novik - Napoleonic* war + dragon's, fun quick reads.
Sevenes - Neal Stephenson - Stand Alone sci-fi novel about human's trying to survive in space as the world ends.
I can suggest more if you want, and I assume you've probably read at least some of these. Hope you enjoy some of them at least though.
I finally finished Solaris and I'm starting Terms of Enlistment. A recommended book that popped up on my feed sounded interesting but it was a later book in the series so I'm going in from the first one.
Update: Finished Terms of Enlistment a few days ago and moved onto the second book in the Frontlines series Lines of Departure. I'm 60% through it at the moment and really digging the series so far. I'll probably finish it this weekend. I'm also reading through the Preacher comic series.
Solaris was good overall but the hard sci-fi portions about the planet were a bit of a chore to get through. I was way more interested in the people involved in the story than the technical aspects and history of the planet they were on even though it's important to get a sense of just how alien the place is.
I love sci-fi in general but I've always been more of a horror/mystery book guy. I felt like Terms of Enlistment was a good choice for getting into the military sci-fi genre and couldn't wait to get into the next one when I finished it.
edit: fixed bolding since I was posting from mobile and didn't do it originally. Also added an update above and links below.
Solaris
Terms of Enlistment
Lines of Departure
Basically, all sorts of things happen because the atoms, molecules, or whatever, want to be stable, i.e to achieve lowest energy. Forming ions, i.e. removing or adding electrons to the atom, is a way for atoms to achieve lowest energy (stable).
The spdf orbitals do come into play. An atom's electronic configuration can be described with its shells, orbitals, and the number of electrons in the orbitals. For example, iron's configuration is 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^6 4s^2 . The electrons has another property, its spin. Spin is an intrinsic form of angular momentum, thus carries energy. Electron can spin two way (that is the up and down arrow you see in orbitals). Pauli exclusion principle says that there cannot be two electrons in a single orbital that have the same spin (since the momemtum is the same direction, it will add up and increase energy). For the similar reason, the pairings of all electrons in a degenerate orbital (i.e. 2p, 3p, 3d, etc. orbitals with the same energy) decreases the energy (cancelled out spins in a way). However, the pairing of electron also increases energy because it decreases the distance between electrons. So, the degenerate orbitals is more stable when it is half filled or fully filled (the latter is more stable). The orbital can be more stable: just don't have the orbital. The energy of an atom is lowered when a specific set of degenerate atomic orbitals is empty, fully filled, or half filled.
Now consider the iron atom again. When it ionizes, it will want to be mroe stable. An obvious option is to take off 4s orbital entirely, losing 2 electrons, thus creating Fe^2+ . Now the ion's configuration is 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^6 . To become more stable, we can make 3d orbitals (take ten electrons at most) half-filled to 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 3d^5 . Compared to the neutral atom, the ion loses three electrons, making it Fe^3+ . But the energy difference between Fe^2+ and Fe^3+ is not that big. External energy and chemical environment can convert them to each other. For example, oxidizing agents, a category of chemicals that love to rob electrons from others, can make Fe^2+ become Fe^3+ by accepting an electron from Fe^2+ .
Are they structurally different? Yes, other than the configuration difference (I think it can count as structure), the atomic radius is different. Fe^3+ is smaller because it has fewer electrons obviously, meaning less repulision between them, and thus stronger attraction to the nucleus.
Textbooks include the one given in the sidebar by Oxtoby and Chang's one. You may be able to find these books in your local post-secondary library. The edition doesn't matter. Oxtoby is a little hard, but it is good for in depth explanation. Chang is great for AP and other high school studnets.
Alright lets do this.
Fantasy:
You like friendship and grimdark? You get the Slayer series:
http://www.amazon.com/Gotrek-Felix-First-Omnibus-Novels/dp/1844163741/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426257019&sr=1-1&keywords=gotrek+and+felix+omnibus
You like malice and conniving and plot twists? You get the Darkblade Series:
http://www.amazon.com/Chronicle-Malus-Darkblade-Warhammer-Anthology/dp/1844165639/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426257058&sr=1-1&keywords=darkblade+omnibus
You like the Empire n shit? They did a whole series about every "part" of the army:
http://www.amazon.com/Empire-Omnibus-Warhammer-Chris-Wraight/dp/1849705879/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=15PKR46KZZN2847VPRMN
The omnibus contains the arty, pikemen, and 2handed swords companies. There is also a Reiksguard book and some others.
40k:
You like comedy? You get Ciaphus Cain (currently 2 omnibus, books getting a bit stale now but the early ones are good):
http://www.amazon.com/Ciaphas-Cain-Hero-Imperium-Novels/dp/1844164667
You like philosophy (kinda)? You get the Night Lords series:
http://www.amazon.com/Night-Lords-Aaron-Dembski-Bowden/dp/184970676X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426256834&sr=1-1&keywords=night+lords+omnibus
You like pure bloody action? You get any of the Gaunts Ghosts:
http://www.amazon.com/Gaunts-Ghosts-Founding-Dan-Abnett/dp/1844163695/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426256866&sr=1-2&keywords=gaunts+ghost+omnibus
You like the movie The Dirty Dozen? You get The Last Chancers:
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Chancers-Warhammer-000-Novels/dp/1844163008/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426256913&sr=1-1&keywords=last+chancers+omnibus
You want all the pre-lore in the game? You start collecting the Horus Heresy books (up to like 30 of em):
http://www.amazon.com/Horus-Heresy-Box-Volumes-1-12/dp/1849708290/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426256963&sr=1-2&keywords=horus+heresy
I got plenty more. But these are good places to start. If you like one race in particular over others, let me know and I can recommend some race specific books for you.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Fantasy.
Engraved on the Eye by Saladin Ahmed. Fantasy stories. Free.
Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. SF.
Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey. SF. (Part One, free.)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. SF.
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Fantasy.
----
You also can check in at /r/FreeEBOOKS, /r/freekindle, /r/KindleFreebies and /r/kindlebookdeals occasionally. There are lots of self-published ebooks nowadays, and lots of them are offered free or very cheap, especially if the writer is a new author. Lots of them aren't very good, but there's also some hidden gold. Some writers will offer their ebook for free for a limited time (like, a week or less) in hope of encouraging some people to write them a good review.
You should expect most answers on the official subreddit for the series to be pretty biased. Most people who hated AFFC of ADWD aren't here because they've dropped off by now, even if they were big fans and waiting for TWOW
Here are the problems with the last 2 books, and you can use this very rough and short list to determine if you wanna keep reading:
For some people, that stuff sounds appealing--those people are telling you in the comments right now that AFFC is their favorite in the series. For some, that stuff is super duper boring. Parts of season 4 and all of season 5 cover the important bits though, so if that sounds painful just watch those episodes. The show characters are very different from the book characters, so expect to be disoriented.
Book recommendations would be The First Law trilogy for fantasy, and Welcome to the Multiverse for scifi.
How old is your nephew? Does he prefer books on modern or historic soldiery/warfare? There are a few adult books (like The Things They Carried) I read as a teen that I really enjoyed, but I wouldn't give them to anyone younger than 15 or 16. There are also several juvie books (like My Brother Sam is Dead or Under the Blood Red Sun)that are fantastic reads, but they're mostly historical fiction.
Right now I'm reading The Things a Brother Knows which is shaping up to be excellent, but I'm not nearly far enough along to officially recommend it.
If you're okay with ornate prose, Janny Wurts's Wars of Light and Shadow epic fantasy series is exactly what you're looking for. Layered, complex story, huge (interplanetary!) scale, not excessively dark, with richly detailed and carefully thought out worldbuilding--I did a post here a while back where I talked in more detail about what I've enjoyed in the series, if that's helpful.
Nine books out of the planned 11 are currently available, 10th releasing very soon, and final novel in progress. First book is Curse of the Mistwraith.
The bobiverse is a good, fun, new one... Martin Kloos is great if he likes military scifi. Vernor Vinge is great with little or no bodily fluids, just spiders and dying civilisations...
Any of the three books by Khaled Hosseini would be an excellent choice. Each tells the story of a different person/life/dilemma in Afghanistan. They're very, very well-written and poetic and have in-depth, intriguing stories. A Thousand Splendid Suns is my favorite of the three, although the other two (The Kite Runner and And the Mountains Echoed) are quite good as well.
fuck, I'm drunk and just remembered one more author:
K.J. Parker
Her books border the line between fantasy and reality by setting them in fictional worlds but having so much of the content and actions be based on real-world science and lifestyles.
She has a bunch of books and several in series, I would recommend starting with her books The Engineer Trilogy
. The first two books in that series are two of my favorite books ever and can stand up against anything else I have recommended, for me at least. If you like that series, then commence reading every other thing she has written. Her newer stand-alone novels have been excellent.
Interesting. I don't find that excerpt you quote to be poetic at all. It's literary, and it's intellectual, but it's so matter-of-factly stated, so down to earth, very essay-like.
Perhaps the phrase you are looking for is "old-fashioned". "Our human and filial duty", for example, sounds like a kind of britishism, a kind of solemn way of doing an inventory of the human condition. I interpret the main character as being a baby boomer (actually I see Barnes is a baby boomer himself, born in 1946, so he's in his sixties now), part of the generation that is distancing itself from the war generation while inheriting many of its aspects. It makes sense that he is somewhat old-fashioned to modern eyes.
As for trying to be Adrian: I don't quite agree with that comparison. While it's true that Adrian plays a big background role, the main focus is still Tony's own attempt to figure out his past from a fairly great distance in time, and he is past the point when he needs to emulate Adrian, having lived his life and nearly reached old age, which Adrian never did.
Speaking of turning dull and meaningless things intro poetry, have you read J. M. Coeetze? The only guy to win the Booker twice. His Life & Times of Michael K is mind-blowing. It bears comparison with McCarthy's The Road, although it's obviously quite different. Coetzee has this sort of crooked, intellectual and uncompromising lyricism to his prose that I love.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Both are Pulitzer Prize winners, guy-ish and accessible literary fiction.
Also, James Elroy's L.A. trilogy, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential and White Jazz. An omg his autobiography My Dark Places.
My husband recommends anything by Jim Harrison.
EDIT: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
I'm reading The Nerdist Way by Chris Hardwick and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
My to-read list has about 400 books on it, so I doubt you want me to answer that. <3 I love reading. Reading's the best.
I read and liked Red Storm Rising, but that was before I knew enough for it to bother me. (My father, who did ASW work, used to joke with his coworkers about the scene where they remotely detonate a torpedo, though that may have been from Red October.)
If you like tank action, I hear Team Yankee is good, and I quite enjoyed Red Army, both for its perspective shift and its reliance on everything but techno-babble.
Edit: What I mean by techno-babble, when they're describing a column of tanks moving through a blasted village, the author doesn't just rattle off model numbers and call it a day, he describes them very vividly, painting them more as lumbering, animated beasts than machines given designations. I don't think he ever actually gives a model number, ala T-72, throughout the book.
I read a pretty decent novel based on this premise called The Age of Ra by James Lovegrove.
There are other books in the "series" as well, but the form of the gods is different in each (In The Age of Zeus they're not gods, but people with super suits). I found them to be entertaining.
I can only think of one that hasn't already been mentioned:
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati.
He's more on the absurdist side (Camus, Kafka) than on the magical realism side, but it's really good and definitely underappreciated.
Also, don't forget Italo Calvino, although he's one who obviously got the credit he deserved.
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.
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.
Some favorites,
A Visit From the Goon Squad is worth mentioning because I know a lot of people really like it, but I couldn't get into it.
Oh yeah, it's a whole genre. The three that I have enjoyed the most are:
"Going Home " by A. American - Morgan is ~250 miles from home & family in Florida when everything fails / EMP, and he has to walk home. Book 1 of a series, Book 10 was just released a few days ago. Don't get too worried about the grammer / structure of Book 1, it was his debut book, and he has gotten better as an author, and editors are doing a better job.
There's a whole story about how the book came to be. https://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-American/dp/0142181277
"Deep Winter" by Thomas Sherry. Volcano erupts in Washington state. There's 4 or 5 books in this series. https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Winter-Thomas-Sherry-ebook/dp/B004J171BC
"Lights Out" by David Crawford. EMP event around Austin, Tx. I did enjoy the story, but some of the situations were just a bit too convenient (in my opinion ). https://www.amazon.com/Lights-Out-David-Crawford/dp/0615427359
Enjoy!
I say give the sample a read on Amazon (even if you aren't planning to get it in Kindle format). The sample size isn't excessively long, but skimming through it just now, it is pretty typical of Janny's style in anything I've read of hers.
See if it interests you and go from there. :)
I would recommend Terms of Enlistment and Lines of Departure. Good books. Although you'd have to read through both books to get to the part you'll love, it will be worth it.
Which covers did you get? I went for these, but I think both versions look pretty nice. And they're absolutely worth reading.
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Amazon Smile Link: Control Point
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|UK|www.amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|
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To help add charity links, please have a look at this thread.
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.
Try this: Going Home it's more adventure that One second after but a fun read with some good descriptions of gear and tactics. (Bug out bags/lights/knives and such)
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
KU is awesome for readers like you and I. Problem is the 'quality' of some of the writing.
&#x200B;
There are several series buried in the tons of books available. The first one that comes to mind for me is Marko Kloos Frontline series beginning with Terms of Enlistment, its kinda dark but I read all six of the books he's done, having read all of them I believe he'll be back (or I hope he isn't done) to add more.
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I've read thru quite a few others, mostly on the military scifi end, but if you're interested in fantasy, there are also a lot of books available in that genre too
If you're able to enjoy "what if"/alternate history sci-fi - the WorldWar series by Harry Turtledove (first book here) is basically "how would the earth's societies and governments react if aliens invaded. In 1942." This has some of what you're looking for, in the sense that human society is torn apart and drastically changed, but it's not apocalyptic. It's a four-book series and if you really loved it there's more set in the same universe after that.
For easy reading veering into adult territory, I'd probably recommend some Tim O'Brien or Kurt Vonnegut. The Things They Carried (short fiction about the Vietnam War) or Slaughterhouse-Five (PTSD after the bombing of Dresden) are good starting points.
Now, if you just want "favorite adult books" of any difficulty, I've got a much longer list...
War40k is a pretty intense universe.
I enjoy the books a lot, and there are a lot out there.
I recommend an omnibus to start off, like this one or Gaunts Ghosts if you want to read up on it from a different perspective.
It definitely does, and Sanderson's work on the final 3 books was pretty inspired to say the least.
Also, check out
https://www.amazon.com/Lies-Locke-Lamora-Gentleman-Bastards-ebook/dp/B000JMKNJ2
https://www.amazon.com/Way-Kings-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/0765365278/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=KRSFJE42GMR8VFGZGC72
https://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/0316387312
https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Thorns-Broken-Empire-Lawrence/dp/1937007685/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492715571&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=prince+of+thorns
I just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns and personally thought it was fantastic. Check it out if the subject interests you I guess.
If you want an overview, I'd start with the wiki.
If you want some pretty solid reading material, consider The Horus Heresy, or possibly William King's excellent Space Wolf series.
I could never get into Clancy, no matter how hard I tried. I always feel like I'm reading a Wikipedia article on a piece of military equipment.
The hands down best fiction book on the Soviet way of war is the Red Army by Ralph Peters, he captures the Soviet military mindset perfectly. The barely controlled chaos one would expect in such a war is faithfully described. It's the "little" details, like say traffic jams, that would play a huge role, but are overlooked by most authors without a military background.
It's simply great, I couldn't recommend it enough.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Army-Ralph-Peters/dp/1451636695
The book this is a cover to is amazing.
http://www.amazon.com/Age-Ra-James-Lovegrove/dp/184416747X
The "Age of ... " series by Lovegrove is great.
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati
My absolute favorite book. Albeit slow in parts but I really do believe every high school graduate should receive this book. An unknown gem that has some of the best lessons in life implanted inside it's soul.
This is from The Things They Carried, which is one of my favorite books of all time. True to your excerpt, it's a very interesting interplay of fiction and autobiography.
There's a whole series based upon The Road not Taken by the same author. It's called the Worldwar series and starts with In The Balance:
http://www.amazon.com/In-Balance-Alternate-History-Worldwar/dp/0345388526
It's pretty good if you like that kind of scifi or military fiction in general.
The list was too long to fit into a self-post, here is the continuation.
Prolific Authors: (5+ Books)
Science Fiction with apocalyptic elements:
Oh, another that I had forgotten about earlier/ The Age of Ra by James Lovegrove.
http://www.amazon.com/Age-Ra-James-Lovegrove/dp/184416747X
I've been reading through it for the last bit and it's wonderful. It's sci-fi instead of strict fantasy but it's still a superb bit of literature.
Frontlines series by Marko Kloos is on sale on Amazon (and then all audiobooks with excellent Luke Daniels narration are very cheap for owners of the Kindle version : )
Please double check prices before buying anything
Amazon Title |amaz| Audible Title |whisper
---------------|------|---------------|-------
Terms of Enlistment|$0.99|Terms of Enlistment|$1.99
Lines of Departure|$0.99|Lines of Departure|$1.99
Angles of Attack|$0.99|Angles of Attack|$1.99
Chains of Command|$1.99|Chains of Command|$1.99
Fields of Fire|$1.99|Fields of Fire|$1.99
I'm sorry for your loss.
The first two people that come to mind are my childhood friends who were so close to me. We would hang out every day after school and all day during the summer. Football, swimming, exploring the creek. We did everything together. Come high school we all kind of drifted apart due to moving and I miss them. We rarely talk and I really need to change that. But whatever they are going through or doing right now, I wish them well. This song hits so close to home.
[Item] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002TWIVNA/ref=aw_wl_ov_dp_1_7?colid=1SIUS7LA411J7&amp;coliid=I3TY6QXRCEA39A)
Thanks for the contest.
A Thousand Splendid Suns got a little hard to read through the tears. Amazing writer, Khaled Hosseini.
> https://www.amazon.ca/Chemistry-Raymond-Chang/dp/0073402680
I think this is the book that my coworker gave to me! glad to know that this book is a good source to turn to!
Team Yankee was a great novel written about ww3 from a squad-level perspective
http://www.amazon.com/Team-Yankee-Harold-Coyle/dp/0425110427/ref=cm_lmf_tit_2
I don't have a "blurp," sorry :) Here's the amazon link to my first novel if you want to check it out. http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Ops-Control-Myke-Cole/dp/1937007243/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1416598299&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Myke+Cole
The World War series is really good, about aliens invading Earth in the middle of WWII. It starts with In The Balance
Another of my favorite Turtledove books is A Different Flesh, which a series of stories about the colonization of the New World where Homo erectus crossed from Asia instead of the ancestors of the Native Americans.
Agent of Byzantium is great, too. A series of stories in an alternate Byzantine Empire where Mohammed converted to Christianity instead of founding Islam.
Another great book on this topic but from the POV of the Soviet Union in WWIII is Red Army:
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Army-Ralph-Peters/dp/1451636695
That book and Red Storm Rising are two of my favorites.
Yes. Ralph Peters found it so bad that he wrote his own! It's much better!
Amazon link
Myke Cole's Shadow Ops series deals with people with "super" powers and is pretty darn good. The first on is Control Point.
Hi Ivan! If you like military stories you should check out The Things They Carried. This is a book that many American students are required to read in high school and college. I think you'll enjoy it.
Damn this shit is fucking FIRE! Love it! Thank you for your words.
If you guys like this you should check out Myke Cole's Shadow Ops
Is X-Men meets Black Hawk Down. A military story with magic from another world where humanity is taking advantage of.
I recently read Terms of enlistment by Marko Kloos and it had a very realistic basic training in the book.
You're getting lots of recommendations, so I'm just giving you the most recent one I have read that fits your description that I liked.
The Things they Carried by Tim Obrien is basically exactly what you described.
I love Slaughterhouse Five!
Going Home, I only read this one out of the series but enjoyed it.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Space_Wolves
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Wolf-Omnibus-Spacewolf-Warhammer/dp/1844164578
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Space_Wolves (trolly but still a fun read)
Great, guess I'm on another tank battle kick. Good a time as any to re-read Red Army.
Tim O'Brien: The Things They Carried Great book if you haven't read it.
Sounds like you like short books with easy reading and heavier themes?
Maybe give World War Z (Journalist interviews people around the world trying to piece together events before, during, and after a zombie outbreak - lots of political commentary and survival skills in there) or The Things They Carried (interconnected short stories about the Vietnam War) a try?
You could also try more John Green, or some of his suggestions from this sub.
If you'd rather stick to classics, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are the dystopias you're "supposed" to read immediately following 1984.
The engineer trilogy! Haven't read it, but I think you would like it! Here is a link to the first book.
The Hobbit is always a favorite of mine. But otherwise, I can never recommend The Things They Carried enough. It's a fictional account of the Vietnam war, but it doesn't always seem that way. It's gritty and doesn't really spare you the horrors of the war and what people going through it had to deal with. Oh, raffle, My favorite book!
ETA: And if I happen to win, I'd love this book, since Dick Van Dyke is possibly my favorite person ever.
There's Crash Course chemistry (YT channel). Great way to start in my opinion. I'd say watch that before moving to Khan academy. Then, if you're really serious: https://www.amazon.ca/Chemistry-Raymond-Chang/dp/0073402680 .
I learned with this book, turned out good.
I need to read it again.
Favorite military book for me, read once and then again on station, was Red Army by Ralph Peters, available on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Army-Ralph-Peters/dp/1451636695
I looked at the first book today and it has over 1,500 ratings. I was shocked as well. His first book went out as a freebie, and it was a brilliant gamble for him. He just happened to do it with a damn good story. The Amazon marketplace is flooded with terrible freebies, but that one was a page turner.
A surprising number of these books were assigned reading from classes.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
And I'm currently reading a book recommended by an excellent redditor somewhere in this sub, Mad in America by Robert Whitaker
You need to edit this comment ASAP with a link to purchase :-)
Edit
hardcover
paperback
kindle
http://steamcommunity.com/id/MEEEEEM/
I'd like GTA 4, my friends all have the game, but I got keys during the steam sale instead...
Also, read this: http://www.amazon.com/Ciaphas-Cain-Imperium-Sandy-Mitchell/dp/1844164667
So what type books do you suggest on the subject? I have heard these to are pretty good novels about the hypothetical ground war in Europe. http://www.amazon.com/Red-Army-Ralph-Peters/dp/1451636695/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&amp;colid=2JK25VZ6ZNS08&amp;coliid=I3MYN941OLF33Q
http://www.amazon.com/Team-Yankee-Harold-Coyle/dp/0425110427/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&amp;colid=2JK25VZ6ZNS08&amp;coliid=I1F8NGLSHARZST
Say no more fam.
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. Here's the amazon link. My suggestion is to go for a fun as hell book first. This one is a Modern Fantasy, so modern setting with a flare into the fantastic. This author is writing to entertain you by blowing the shit out of monsters (the bad ones), so he's not going to Saturday-morning-cartoon spoon feed you a moral message with a side of action. None of that "But what does the author realllly mean? No, oh no, this guy's going to give you elder vampires that tank direct mortar fire and sustained belt fed .50 cal's and C4 detonations and have them square off with a werewolf afterwords. Fun. As. Hell.
If you're feeling a blood and guts, swords and axes kinda book try The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie This guy is dark and grimy with his action, and once again, this guy is writing to entertain you, not give you something to talk about with friends that watch Oprah. This is more like John Wick movies smashed together with Braveheart and a smidge of Lord of the Rings.
Wow, no one has mentioned the Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove yet? Aliens invade in the middle of World War II. It's super detailed & there's 6 or 7 fat, juicy books in the series.
I really liked the book Red Army by Ralph Peters, I rank it right up there with Red Storm Rising.
It never covers the reasons for the war, it is pretty much just from a military perspective although it dances around from the privates, to mid level officers to the generals. And as the title implies, it is primarily from the point of the view of the Red Army, and I think it does a fantastic job at humanizing them (even though I will always root for the US, I did feel bad when some of the characters died).
Evan Currie, Marko Kloos, Craig Alanson, Josh Dalzelle; these are all writers I know for certain started as self-published authors. Also, probably H Paul Honsinger and Nick Webb.
If you want to sell self published MilSF, read and study the first books in all those series, and then emulate them.
It's a real good read. It's not comedic, no, haha.
Here's the first volume on Amazon.
Looks like that might be Worldwar by Harry Turtledove. Not sure if it's what the OP was talking about.
I personally like the Ciaphas Cain Omnibus.
The Ciaphas Cain stories are a little less grimdark 40k. They can be fairly light hearted, action packed and often humorous (a lot of pop culture references). It's enjoyable to read something that doesn't take itself too seriously after reading a lot of the dense 40k novels out there. It is not focused on space marines but that shouldn't be an issue.
Also they are dirt cheap on amazon, along with the first omnibus (books 1-3 plus 3 short stories) you could get the second omnibus (books 4-6 plus short stories) for $21 all together.
Was the "Going Home" Series.
It's in the first book, linked below. Not a bad series.
http://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-American/dp/0142181277/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415568502&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=going+home
Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker? It's the first book in "The Engineer" trilogy, and the Orbit edition has a dark grey cover with a padlock & key on it...
I'm not 100% sure it's what you're looking for, but The Things They Carried is fantastic. It's a collection of short stories about soldiers in the Vietnam War, though I'm not sure if it has the grittiness I think you might be looking for. Worth checking out though. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0618706410
This is the first book in his 8 book series that explores similar themes, discussed in a few other replies.
https://www.amazon.com/Balance-Alternate-History-Second-Worldwar/dp/0345388526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1484408647&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=in+the+balance
Read this: https://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law/dp/0316387312
Those are the full names
Here are links
Zumdahl:
http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Steven-S-Zumdahl/dp/061852844X/ref=la_B001ILMCPG_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406049265&amp;sr=1-2
Chang:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0073402680?pc_redir=1405946005&amp;robot_redir=1
Buy them used and you don't need the latest edition (This saves a lot of money)
http://www.amazon.com/Things-They-Carried-Tim-OBrien/dp/0618706410
Possibly Harry Turtledove's Part 1 in his WorldWar series.
http://www.amazon.com/Balance-Alternate-History-Second-Worldwar/dp/0345388526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1323840078&amp;sr=8-1
You remind me of Tim O'Brien
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Read the "Look Inside" previews to see if any of these is for you.
On My Way to Paradise by David Farland/Dave Wolverton.
Wool by Hugh Howey.
Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch.
Jennifer Government by Max Barry.
Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos.
If the reading gets too grimdark for you, give the Cain series a shot.
Then I suggest everything else by Kafka and nothing else by Bulgakov. Also this and Russian classics as a general rule.
My first thought from your description was the Shadow Ops series by Myke Cole.
http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Ops-Control-Myke-Cole/dp/1937007243
Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/Blade-Itself-First-Law-Trilogy/dp/0316387312
I’m basically a book pusher where these are concerned.
The Things They Carried
Click and read the first few pages.
The Eisenhorn and Ravenor Series by Dan Abnett from the Black Library.
A. Americans survivalist series maybe?
https://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-American/dp/0142181277/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0142181277&pd_rd_r=8TJMWAWP45BAAWTEGQ7B&pd_rd_w=RT0pR&pd_rd_wg=44RPd&psc=1&refRID=8TJMWAWP45BAAWTEGQ7B
Here is the mobile version of your link
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
I’m reading this for my library’s adult book discussion in three weeks. I got lucky because it’s available in KU! It’s a personal account of the Vietnam War.
Ah my bad, it is called "Outside context".
And the reference to that
>Reference to the Iain M. Banks book Excession. The author coined >the term "Outside Context Problem" to indicate a surprising and >unexpected situation, such as an invasion by massively superior >alien force occuring in the middle of World War 2.
For SciFi bookworms probably more interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Balance-Alternate-History-Second-Worldwar/dp/0345388526/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1494493466&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=harry+turtledove+world+war
Pick up a few of the books. I would read, in order:
Caiphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM
Gaunt's Ghosts
Eisenhorn
Ravenor
Those 4 will give you a fairly firm grounding of the lore and a feel for the universe. The first two are war books, the latter two focus on the inquisition.
I was reading this WW3 novel; Soltau was one of the objectives for OPFOR (on its way to Weser river) and OPFOR destroys Luenberg as a propaganda thing
what about:In the Balance: An Alternate History of the Second World War (Worldwar, Volume 1) by Harry Turtledove.
http://www.amazon.com/In-Balance-Alternate-History-Worldwar/dp/0345388526
I was also going to say The Things They Carried. I read that book in high school in my AP English class at same time we were studying the Vietnam war in History. The feelings that book left me with have never gone away.
I have mostly nonfiction recommendations, but hope the following are of some use to you! I used these in my classroom in the past year with much success.
I can edit and add more fiction later when I get home, and look over my bookshelf as well.
World War II
"In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin" by Erik Larsen - highly recommend, especially if you are familiar with Larsen's previous book, The Devil in White City
"The Monuments Men" by Robert M. Edsel - highly recommended, especially if you are interested in the juxtaposition of art, war, and espionage.
"Unbroken" - by Laura Hillenbrand, highly recommended. Hillenbrand's command of the language and prose coupled with the true story of Louis makes this a compelling read. Even my most reluctant readers couldn't put this done.
Vietnam War
"The Things They Carried" and "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up, and Ship Me Home" by Tim O'Brien are quintessential war canon. Must reads.
Iraq/Afghanistan/Modern Military Operations:
"The Yellow Birds" by Kevin Powers was called "the modern AQOTWF" by Tom Wolfe. Pretty poignant book. Absolute MUST READ.
Although you are looking for novels related to WWI or WWII, the book The Things They Carried relates to the Vietnam War, but has very little to do with it. The collection of short stories follows a variety of characters with all very different backgrounds. I do not believe you must know a lot about the political context of the war to understand the effects it had on the characters. Lastly, the collection is classified as fiction but there appear to be some very real moments because O'Brien was in the Vietnam War. Worth a quick read.
With Wings Like Eagles
The Blonde Knight of Germany
Stuka Pilot Be forewarned, the man was an unrepentant Nazi.
Samurai!
Edit: If you want some non-aviation but still military books:
Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 World War I and Its Violent Climax
The Last Battle
Slaughterhouse 5 Fiction
The Things They Carried
To Hell and Back