SeanF Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 Has anyone nominated Terry Goodkind, or Robert Stanek? My top ten (which could easily change if I were in a different mood). Nero's Heirs, by Allan Massie The Lord of the Rings Pride and Prejudice Watership Down Flashman at the Charge, by George Macdonal Fraser The Hobbit The Liveships Trilogy, by Robin Hobb (treating it as one book) I Claudius Cocktail Time, by PG Wodehouse A Storm of Swords Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mosi Mynn Posted February 21, 2020 Author Share Posted February 21, 2020 8 hours ago, IlyaP said: I went so far as to make this nice and tidy in a table. I REGRET NOTHING. 1 S. Morgenstern, abridged by William Goldman The Princess Bride, The ‘Good Parts’ Version 2 Jim Dodge Not Fade Away 3 William Gibson Distrust that Particular Flavour 4 Neal Stephenson Cryptonomicon 5 Virgil The Aeneid 6 A.S. Byatt Possession 7 Glenda Guest Siddon Rock 8 Matthew Stover Heroes Die 9 Bill Flanagan U2 at the End of the World 10 Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice Properly done! I forgot Bernard Cornwell (and Terry Pratchett) in my list. I really want to put the whole of The Warlord Chronicles in as an entry - but I'll go with The Winter King because I love how he opens the whole saga with the dreaded birth of Mordred, emphasising how the brat should have been killed at birth (always listen to Morgan). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlyaP Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 1 hour ago, Mosi Mynn said: I really want to put the whole of The Warlord Chronicles in as an entry - but I'll go with The Winter King because I love how he opens the whole saga with the dreaded birth of Mordred, emphasising how the brat should have been killed at birth (always listen to Morgan). *goes to Goodreads* *adds to the 'To Read' list.* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 Actually I believe I few people have legit Listed Goodkind :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Cartman Posted February 21, 2020 Share Posted February 21, 2020 22 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said: I too was lost at Eragon, then jumped ship at the word grimdark On 2/20/2020 at 1:53 PM, Darth Richard II said: You had me til Eragon Ha ha. Doing completed series that I've read is far more restrictive than I thought. What would be your top 3 YA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 You know, that’s an interesting question considering I have no idea what the hell is actually considered YA these days. A lot of stuff shelved as YA on the UK isn’t here and vice versus so it gets confusing. That said the only ya I can think of I’ve read(that I liked) is Harry Potter and Kate Elliott’s YA trilogy, can’t think of the name. i actually really liked the first Dark Materials book but the rest, yuck. hmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 Shattered Sea was marketed as YA I think, so that, His Dark Materials (although The Book of Dust really tips this in a darker more adult direction) and I guess HP? I'm drawing a blank on the YA series I have read right now. And the categorisation of YA novels is always a weird one tbh. Like Bradley Bealieu's Shattered Sands series, for example, is excellent but I don't know that I would call it YA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 That's what I mean, neither of those are sold as YA here in the colonies. It's confusing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongRider Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 On 2/21/2020 at 3:30 AM, Mosi Mynn said: I forgot Bernard Cornwell (and Terry Pratchett) in my list. I really want to put the whole of The Warlord Chronicles in as an entry - I would put the trilogy as one entry, I really enjoyed them immensely, it was so well done. Plus the ending made me stand up and cheer as it was the best ending of anything I had read in awhile. So good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inkdaub Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 On 7/7/2019 at 4:35 AM, Inkdaub said: Yeah this is difficult. If I have to pick specific books within a series I will never finish a list. So I will cheat 'a bit' and have a series represented by it's first book. Lord of the Rings - Tolkien Hunter's Oath - West Eye of the World - Jordan One Hundred Years of Solitude - Garcia Marquez Gardens of the Moon - Erikson Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Clarke Thunderer - Gilman Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Pessl Fortress of Solitude - Lethem Kavik the Wolf Dog - Morey (This is the book that I credit with getting me into reading books that weren't Sweet Pickles) I'll probably need to do a top ten B list because too many are missing from this one. Chandler's The Big Sleep should be on this one so sadly Kavik has to go. Can't drop any of these so I'll make a Top Ten B so other favorites won't feel left out. Book of the New Sun - Wolfe Harry Potter... - Rowling The Haunting of Hill House - Jackson The Black Company - Cook Shadow of the Wind - Ruiz Zafon The Night Circus - Morgenstern The New York Trilogy - Auster Resume with Monsters - Browning Spencer City of Stairs - Robert Jackson Bennett Now I'll set to coming up with some reason to make a third list... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 A difficult task, but I think I have a pretty accurate list of my Top 10: Dune - Frank Herbert Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John le Carre Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse The Sorrows of Young Werther - Goethe The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami American Tabloid - James Ellroy The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mosi Mynn Posted April 9, 2020 Author Share Posted April 9, 2020 On 4/6/2020 at 7:38 PM, LongRider said: I would put the trilogy as one entry, I really enjoyed them immensely, it was so well done. Plus the ending made me stand up and cheer as it was the best ending of anything I had read in awhile. So good! It is all one story - maybe we need separate Top 10s for standalone novels and multi-volume stories? I do like The Winter King in particular, though, because it introduces the characters, the countries, and the political intrigues so well. It is also the best introduction of King Arthur I have ever read. He takes a character we think we all know, leaves us waiting for over 70 pages to actually meet him, and makes him more awesome than the legends, yet also very human. On 4/8/2020 at 12:25 AM, Stones said: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John le Carre I forgot Le Carre!! Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is an extraordinary novel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freshwater Spartan Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Tough task. No particular order but using goodreads... War and Peace Leo Tolstoy The Corrections Jonathan Franzen A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving The Stand Stephen King Trinity Leon Iris The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck Les Miserables Victor Hugo With Fire and Sword Henryk Sienkiewicz Slaughterhouse 5 Kurt Vonnegut Flanders Patricia Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaston de Foix Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 1. Lord of the Rings 2. A Game of Thrones (the first novel) 3. the Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (if I had to pick a Pratchett) 4. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 5. Middlemarch 6. A Suitable Boy 7. Midnight's Children 8. The Way of Kings 9. Wolf Hall 10. Bring up the Bodies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 This is a difficult task, of course, even restricting myself to fiction. Some of these books made a huge impression on me earlier in my life but I am not sure if I reread them today they would seem as good. I am also including some fantasy series as one book. And the only reason I am NOT putting ASOIAF in my top ten is I'm going to stubbornly not do that unless GRRM ever finishes it. So here are my top ten as of this moment, not in any particular order: Smith, Agnes An Edge of the Forest Champagne, John The Blue Lady's Hands Grant, Joan Winged Pharaoh Lewis, C. S. Till We Have Faces Tolkein, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings Stewart, George R. Earth Abides Walton, Evangeline The Mabinogion Tetralogy MacAvoy, R. A. A Trio for Lute Crowley, John Little, Big Adams, Richard Shardik Honorable mentions, which if I was thinking about this on another day might replace some of the above, would include Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana; GRRM's Fevre Dream; Steven Saylor's Arms of Nemesis; Mary Brown's The Unlikely Ones; Victor Hugo's Les Miserables; Joyce Carol Oates' Bellefleur; Jim Crace's Continent; Joan Slonczewski's A Door Into Ocean; Naomi Novik's Uprooted; and Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongRider Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 On 4/9/2020 at 10:40 AM, Mosi Mynn said: It is also the best introduction of King Arthur I have ever read. He takes a character we think we all know, leaves us waiting for over 70 pages to actually meet him His intro to Merlin was similar too, as Merlin was disguised as someone else and it was a while before he emerged as Merlin. Quite witty too, had a few cruel japes about poets if I recall. Great series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mosi Mynn Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 17 hours ago, LongRider said: His intro to Merlin was similar too, as Merlin was disguised as someone else and it was a while before he emerged as Merlin. Quite witty too, had a few cruel japes about poets if I recall. Great series. Cornwell's Merlin is wonderful, tied in with how Cornwell deals with magic. Nimue is awesome too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freshwater Spartan Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 On 6/7/2020 at 10:29 AM, Gaston de Foix said: 1. Lord of the Rings 2. A Game of Thrones (the first novel) 3. the Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (if I had to pick a Pratchett) 4. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 5. Middlemarch 6. A Suitable Boy 7. Midnight's Children 8. The Way of Kings 9. Wolf Hall 10. Bring up the Bodies What did you like about middlemarch? The last 5-10 years I have been trying to expand my 19th century intake and I am always looking for recommendations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaston de Foix Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 4 hours ago, Freshwater Spartan said: What did you like about middlemarch? The last 5-10 years I have been trying to expand my 19th century intake and I am always looking for recommendations. The psychological astuteness. The generosity of spirit with which George Eliot approaches her characters. Middlemarch is essentially a novel devoted to exploring the question: What do we owe each other if there is no God? And in Eliot's telling, a great deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlyaP Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 1 hour ago, Gaston de Foix said: The psychological astuteness. The generosity of spirit with which George Eliot approaches her characters. Middlemarch is essentially a novel devoted to exploring the question: What do we owe each other if there is no God? And in Eliot's telling, a great deal. Love the hell out of this book. The middle chapter, with the candle and the mirror? So marvellously written. And works as a great sister text to Pride and Prejudice (or as it was initially called, First Impressions). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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