Wanted: book suggestions?

Well Alexs, I would suggest the Inheritance Cycle, but unfortunately, it has no khukuri's in it, unless a new character is unveiled in the final, fourth book (coming soon, yay!). And, even more unfortunately, that's all I got. But, I do hope someone can help you more, and it is nice to metaphorically meet you. Peace.

 

Malazan series of Steven Erikson and Black Company series by Glen Cook are among my favorites. Very gritty and dirty, and talk about the uglier side of fantasy war that most books don't mention: the smell, disease, finding a place to relieve oneself, etc.

Liked Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series until the last 4 books or so, I'm finishing it up as my "filler" series in between my favorites.

D&D stuff (primarily Forgotten Realms) is fun to read too, and the Dragonlance series by Weiss and Hickman is what got me into fantasy as a kid.

Then there's silly and fun stuff to read with the kids, such as the Redwall series by Jacques with its anthropomorphic animal characters.

Brent Weeks had the Nightangel trilogy, ninja and magic. Reads like a video game plays.

Tales of the Otori by Hearn is another ninja/ samurai series, with more Japanese influence than Weeks' stuff.

I can go all day, I have a a forests' worth of books stored here ;p

 

Im a big fan of the classic and "hard" science fiction of Asimov, If you havnt read I Robot then youre missing out. Theres also the forward thinking short stories and novels by Arther C. Clarke and the amazing Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson that takes the idea of terraforming to a whole new level

but none of these really feature weapons or martial arts per se.....

for monsters, the best science fiction story that I can think of is the short story "who goes there" which was turned into the movie "the thing" more recently
http://www.outpost31.com/books/who.txt
and the short story "On the Orion Line"
http://homepage.mac.com/sjbradshaw/baxterium/orion.html

one of the best science fiction books that I have ever read is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, its on the Marine Corps reading list and delves into the psychology of leading and following commands all in an amazing science fiction involving space stations, interstellar travel and advanced AI, just remember that the enemy's base is down! But I would avoid the other books by Orson Scott Card, he was a bit of a one hit wonder

 

My favorite four-part series:
John's Ringo's A Hymn Before Battle is the first in the Posleen War series. Followed by Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell's Faire.

I'll second Ender's Game as an incredible book, but disagree about the rest of Card's writing in the Ender universe. It is true that Ender's Game is a book for young people. It has some very deep concepts buried in it, but it's written at a level that a mature 10 or 11 year-old will have no problem with it. The remainder of that immediate series are books for more mature audiences. (Not "adult" in the prurient sense, just not books for children.)

On that note, I need to get 1000 words written before "bedtime". Cheers.

John

Oh- edited to add- Larry has a couple of books not in the MHI universe. One is Dead Six, and the other is Hard Magic. Both excellent reads. Many of Baen's series have at least a few free books that can be downloaded from their website. The first two of the 4 Ringos I mentioned are available there.

 

I disagree that Ender's Game is a book for young people, it is written from the perspective of a child and therefore the language used in it is quite simplistic however the concepts in the book itself are very much intended for a mature audience. Ill admit that Card's other books in the series (particularly Speaker for the Dead) are considered by many to be great works of science fiction. So perhaps my dislike for them is completely within my own tastes, but I felt like the other books Card was trying hard to attain the metaphysical conclusions found in books like Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End or Nancy Kress' Probability Moon while falling flat

without going much further into a tirade.... all of Orson Scott Cards books in the Ender Series are written for the same audience, the themes found within Enders Game are magnified and built upon in the later books, but I think that the simple style of the book makes it much much better than the heavy handed approach he uses in the later books

oh and Alexs, no one has mentioned this so far probably because of how obvious it is and because youve probably already read it.... but if you havn't read Lord of the Rings its exactly what you're looking for

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! I most humbly disagree with you on this point sir. I will agree that Ender's Game was really the only good book from that series (the second was just ok and he lost me after that), but he has another series called The Tales of Alvin Maker which is a fantastic read IMO. It's essentially a retelling/imagining of the settling of America if folk magic was real. I highly recommend this series to the OP based on the other's that he has liked. I also think you'd enjoy the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan but I agree with a previous poster who said it has dropped off in the last few books (I would imagine this is mainly due to the passing of the author :thumbdn Terry Goodkind has a decent series out, I can't remember the name of it but the first book is Wizards First Rule. Oh and don't forget Steven King's Dark Tower series, it gets knocked by some but it is one of the most interesting series (both the story and the "meta-novel" concept) I've ever read. Ok I need to get back to work, hope you find something you like.

ETA: I second what Issun said above, Lord of the Rings, and prior to that The Hobbit are MUST reads. Can't believe I forgot about that one. Oh and Dune! Can't forget Dune either...yikes I really could keep going all day

 

I'm going to have to agree with ndeezl here: I thought Terry Goodkind's "Stone of Tears" series was excellent. I don't know if I'd say it's very 'martial artsy', but most of the fight/battle scenes do get very detailed. I also loved David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean, along with the offshoots "Belgarath the Sorcerer" and "Polgara the Sorceress". As Qeth said, the Redwall series is good too (even if it was written for a younger audience). At least that's how I remember it, it's been a while.

Back when I was in school and often had reason to visit the library, one of my favorite books was this big red tome called the "encyclopedia of arms and armor". I spent many hours going over that book. I wish I could find a copy, but it's almost as if it doesn't exist online.

 

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Dune by Frank Herbert. Someplace to Be Flying by Charles DeLint. The Dresden books by Jim Butcher. The Paladin by CJ Cherryh. The Paksenarrion trilogy by Elizabeth Moon. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Watership Down by Richard Adams. And laugh all you want but Harry Potter was a good read.

A mix of fantasy and sci-fi. I've read a lot of Qeth's suggestions, too. The Otori and the D&D/FR books. Good stuff.

Frank

 

Personally, I think that reading Terry Pratchett's books (especially the ones about the Ankh-Morpork City Guard, such as The Fifth Elephant) are an excellent education in how weapons are actually used.

 

Great timing on this thread

I'm getting ready to read Monster Hunter Alpha starting tonight. UPS should have it dropped at my door by the time I get home

I read more zombie stuff than anything. If you do the e-book/Kindle thing, White Flag of the Dead is a good series. Nice long book for an ebook. Has some fun shooting/melee scenes. Currently there are 3 books in the series, and I burned through them all in about 2 weeks.

I still haven't run across a series I like more than Larry's MHI books. I'm very attached to the characters

 

Loved the Ender series... Also a HUGE discworld fan (Terry Pratchett)... I've been reading Simon R Greens stuff lately (deathstalker/secret histories/nightside...Also read John Scalzi's Old Man's War... REALLY interesting book... David Drake's Hammer's Slammers are cool, they're about an armoured mercenary unit in a sci-fi setting... the author served with the 11 acr black horse in Viet Nam and tried to incorporate his own experiences and other historical events into the story lines...For non-fiction, I JUST leant my Dad a great book on the history of the imperial navy... read like a novel... I'll try to find the author...
Also good is the atrocity archives by Charles Stross...The dresden files are also fun reading...
I HAVE to pick up the new MHI too... AMAZINGLY fun reading...

 

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There's more heady and not so much action-packed, but Frank Herbert's Dune series is a great read.I'm a little less than halfway through the fifth in the series. Love the political intrigues, the post Butlerian Jihad evolution of humankind's capabilities, and allusions to "ancient times".