What do you read that's non-Trek

I've read very little Trek sci-fi, or other tie-ins for that matter (no snobbery, I just save my reading time for new settings I don't already get a dose of from TV).

Current/recent reading:

• "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon - story about a fictional pair of comic-book creators working during the birth of the Golden Age of US comic books; an interesting insight into the period, good story, and a brief appearance by Stan Lee!
• "Carter Beats the Devil" by Glen David Gold - fictional account of the career of Carter the Great, a 1920s stage illusionist; a superb read, combining fascinating facts about the great conjuring acts of the early 1900s (such as Houdini), the mysterious death of President Harding, the invention of television, the nature of illusion, romance and a great story to pull it all together. Highly recommended.
• "Dead Air" by Iain Banks - the complicated life of a London shock-jock post 9/11; good, though not a patch on his earlier stuff like The Crow Road, Espedair Street.
• "The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell - a study of how social phenomena work like epidemics, and how the snowball-effect can result from a very small change; read this book and see the world around you just a little differently. It's fascinating, full of good examples, and very convincing. Bound to be in every would-be demagogue's back pocket...
• "The Second World War" by John Keegan - a cogent, easily-digestible one-volume history of WW2; an excellent overview if you're looking for a comprehensive history that'll identify areas you'd like to explore further. As always, clearly written, lucidly argued.
• "Redemption Ark" by Alastair Reynolds - set in the same universe as his first few books, about humanity's first encounters with a machine intelligence whose purpose is to wipe out all intelligent life; not a new idea, but very well presented, and with a few new twists. His SF is diamond-hard, but he also does decent characters too. Read this, and the first two as well!
• "The Dragon Waiting" by John M Ford - a story set in an alternate Renaissance history where magic does work; one of the Classic Fantasy reprints, this is a great read. Get this if you can (and proof that good fantasy stories can be one volume long!)

As for stuff I'd put on classic or must-read lists, I generally go by authors:

- Tolkien (of course:))
- Patrick O'Brian - Aubrey/Maturin, also the Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore
- Iain (M) Banks - His fiction is good, his SF is superb
- Terry Pratchett - Best satirist currently writing (in any genre)
- George RR Martin - Game of Thrones, etc
- Peter F Hamilton - Greg Mandel trilogy, Night's Dawn Trilogy, etc
- David Weber - Honor Harrington series
- Lois McMaster Bujold - the Vorkorsigan saga, particularly the earlier books
- Arthur C Clark - Childhood's End, The City and the Stars, 2001
- Issac Asimov - Foundation trilogy, Robot trilogy, the short stories
- Frank Herbert - Dune, Dune Messiah
- Guy Gavriel Kay - Any and all

I could probably add a dozen others to the list if I put another five minute's thought into it...:)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Cdr Scot II
Current/recent reading:

• "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon - story about a fictional pair of comic-book creators working during the birth of the Golden Age of US comic books; an interesting insight into the period, good story, and a brief appearance by Stan Lee!

---

Anyone who is a fan of comic books would, I believe really enjoy this book. Reading it, I felt like I was living through the 30's-50's. Late 30's/early 40's New York is captured especially well.

Yeah, Dan, the research is superb (und utterly unobtrusive - you pick it up without noticing). I was also fascinated about the way it described how the comic book phenomena exploded after Superman was first created - and it illustrated how it was possible for Schuster and Segal to die without seeing more than a fraction of the wealth their creation produced over the years. Quite shocking :( .

It must also be the first time that a Pulitzer prize-winner has credited Jack Kirby for teaching him all he knows about storytelling :cool:!

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

Of late I've been reading Zecharia Sitchin's wacky Earth Chronicles series of fringe theory. Between him and Erik von Daniken, conspiracy and "ancient astronaut" aficionados have never had it so good. Penned between 1980 and the early 1990s, the five-book series is one of the most amusing I have read in ages. The titles, for those of you who are curious, are The Twelfth Planet, The Stairway to Heaven, The Wars of Gods and Men, The Lost Realms and When Time Began.

On the more serious side, I've been reacquainting myself with the classic medieval Arthur and Roland tales, from Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur and Eschenbach's Parzival to Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and beyond. :D

Quote:

---

Originally posted by RaconteurX
Of late I've been reading Zecharia Sitchin's wacky Earth Chronicles series of fringe theory. Between him and Erik von Daniken, conspiracy and "ancient astronaut" aficionados have never had it so good. Penned between 1980 and the early 1990s, the five-book series is one of the most amusing I have read in ages. The titles, for those of you who are curious, are The Twelfth Planet, The Stairway to Heaven, The Wars of Gods and Men, The Lost Realms and When Time Began.

---

Sounds as silly as the Left Behind series ;)

I forgot to mention Anonymous Rex and Casual Rex, by Eric Garcia. These are hard-boiled detective stories about dinosaurs masquerading as people by wearing rubber suits. Once you accept the basic premise and go with it, they're actually pretty well thought-out. Many American football linebackers are brontosauri in disguise. :D

Mostly I read non-fiction & game books. An awful lot of weird reference books. (You can't imagine the looks you get from the B&N countergirl when you're buying "Jane's C^3I Systems 1995-96" and "Teach Yourself Japanese" at the same time...) I've also got an assortment of mystery writer guides to trauma and such-like. Fiction that I read, is mostly military sci-fi. I used to like Harry Turtledove's alternate histories, but finally got fed up with them having so many gratuitous sex scenes. I don't know if he had to write for Harlequin to make ends meet or what, but it gets damn annoying to have to stop the plot for several pages of boinking that have little or nothing to do with the story. I also read an assortment of books by authors who'll be at cons I'll be attending so I'm not entirely clueless when I get there. (I met Neil Gaiman twice before reading any of his books...) Most recently, I read a collection of Misty Lackey's short stories prior to Crescent City Con.

Let's see. Listing all the books would take too long, so, in no particular order:

S-F/Fantasy Authors:
Harry Turtledove
Neil Gaiman
Isaac Asimov
Robert Heinlein
Larry Niven
Wayne Douglas Barlowe
Dougal Dixon
Douglas Adams
Diane Duane
Peter David
Arthur C. Clarke
Jack Chalker
Fred Saberhagen
Roald Dahl
(and dozens of others I can't remember now)

SF Genres:
Alternate History
Time Travel
Short Story Anthologies

Other Materials:
Gaming Books
Trek
White Wolf
Comic Books
Exiles
Punisher
Ultimates
Ultimate X-Men
Spectre
Lucifer
Hunter: Age of Magic
Transformers: Armada
Transformers: G1
Fables
Marvel Mangaverse
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Elseworlds Stories
Other interesting Crossovers (Superman/Aliens II, for example)
Secret Files

Let's see. I constantly read and read books by George Orwell.

Trying to stay current with White Wolf's vampire novels.

Some DnD novels, mostly Greyhawk and Dragonlance.

The two bricks i'm trying to get through right now are:

Peter Berling's Children of the Graal series.
Unix Complete by SYBEX.

I read everything, including that label you aren't supposed to tear off your mattress. (The fine print says it's o.k. as long as you don't intend to resale it.):D

Sci-Fi: Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein. David Drake, William Dietz, William Gibson, Walter (sometimes Jon) Williams. Charles Sheffield, Robert Forward, Hal Clement. Joe Haldeman, Phillip K. Dick. Alan Dean Foster. Niven and Pournelle. Harry Turtledove. John W. Campbell. Others I like but can't think of.:D

MacCaffery, Lackey and a few others..

I am currently reading:

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
(I'm working my way through his Pallaser novels)

How to Think About the Great Ideas by Mortimer J. Alder

Trinity: Terra Verde from White Wolf Publishing, because I'm a huge fan of their Trinityverse RPGs.

I need to clear my decks in the next couple months to start my yearly rereading of Lord of the Rings. It's a Christmastime tradition: comfy chair, roaring fire, quiet music, huge hefty red single-volume edition in lap.

Other things I have read which I would recommend to others interrested:

Mary Stuart's Merlin/Arthur novels, begining with The Crystal Cave

Thomas Costain's history of the Plantagenet kings series, begining with The Conquering Family

Ellis Peters's Cadfael mysteries

Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. Also her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, which is quite remarkable (using the same rhyme scheme and meter as the original Italian), well commented, and her last work (she died before completing the Paradiso). Make sure you read all three parts, and don't just stop with the Popes roasting in hell in the Inferno.

Anything by P.G. Wodehouse

That ought to keep you reading for a while...

-Chris Landmark

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Stack
Ambrose Bierce - Another history writer - I prefer his non-WWII books like his book on Lewis & Clark.

---

Er, Dan, Ambrose Bierce disappeared in 1913, aged 71 - I'd guess all his books were non-WWII ... unless you know more about what happened to him than anyone else? ;)

I tend to read games and history books mostly, and not as much as I'd like :( Fictionwise, most of my favourites have already been mentioned, but for the record:

Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe (the series that made Sean Bean famous) mainly, but I'm reading some of his other stuff. Not got to Starbuck yet.

Raymond Feist - the only writer to successfully create a novel from a D&D campaign. The Empire trilogy are especially good.

Neil Gaiman - obviously.

Simon R. Green - it pains me that nobody has mentioned this guy. Of course, he's local to where I grew up :) He's responsible for Deathstalker, which is slightly too dense space opera, but the stuff to look for is his Hawk & Fisher books - very realistic (as in this is what the world might really look like with magic) fantasy - and the tie-in Blue Moon novels. Drinking Midnight Wine came out last year, and is a superb modern fantasy in the same tradition as De Lint.

Charles de Lint - not seen much of his stuff lately - he tends to be a little unpleasant, but it works well.

And a smattering of others as the fancy takes me...

Just discovered J K Rowling :rolleyes: and Nick Hornby (High Fidelity). I'm also getting into political thrillers for light reading :)

D'oh - I meant Stephen Ambrose. :D That's the oddest typo I've made in a while...