Bored to death

13 Comments

Comment by Q on March 11, 2008 at 9:57pm

Hmm.. I'll have to give this some thought. I've already suggested the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever to you. But now that I consider it, it may not fit your requirements of non-good vs evil. There is definitely an evil in this series, it's just that well... The hero really isn't all that nice. :/

And it's been a long time since I've read it.

Comment by Chase Anderson on March 11, 2008 at 10:01pm

not a book, but the movie "Princess Mononoke" If you havnt seen it.... watch it, i think its exactly what ur looking for

Comment by Nils Kristján on March 11, 2008 at 10:03pm

Although I am not that into Anime, I really enjoyed Princess Mononoke & Akira and a few other movies. I think its not that I don't like Anime as much as it is just that I haven't really looked into it at all.

Comment by Chase Anderson on March 11, 2008 at 10:08pm

aside from miyazaki films (mononoke, spirited away) im really don't enjoy anime, they seem to all have identical plot lines. "Mysterious Hero is a good guy who is better at life than everyone else, he gets more powerful every episode, then he fights things (every fight he almost dies, but then pulls something out of his ass)"

Comment by Silkmansungod on March 12, 2008 at 12:53am

Also by Stephen Donaldson is a sci fi series called The Gap. Although there is Good/Evil storyline the 'good' aint very good! (like the covenant series!)

1. The Gap into Conflict. The Real Story. (Novella)
2. The Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge
3. The Gap into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises
4. The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order
5. The Gap into Ruin: This Day All Gods Die

I read the Thomas Covenant series too, which was fantastic, but The Gap series blew me away!.

Comment by Sarem on March 12, 2008 at 6:56am

I can Personally Guarantee the dragonlance novel series
first of all if you like it you will get to read them for years, bc of the massive collection of novels that are all perfectly in tune with each other. Also you can go to amazon and buy like 10 books for like 3 bucks once you decide you want to, and they are not cookie cutter at all! Dont let the name fool you , its not some crappy random hoakie "dragon" tale, i promise you. If your not sure, id say start with Flint the King or THE LEGEND OF HUMA
if you start with those you will need to take somethings in the world for granted, but it will show you what your in for. other than that Id say start with the lost histories miniseries, or right for the chronicles mini series, which is technically where you should start, i decided a long time ago , tha ti would look up the time line and read them in chronological order, im now 32 books into the series and my mind is full of great moments in the books' histories, It helps me with DnD all the time, i can improv anything as a GM bc i can just see every way every situation can turn out.. Please take my word for it, buy one, used, for dirt cheap , and after you love it. You are in for a lifetime of great readding, I started it bc i hate getting involved in something good and seeing it end, like how sad tou get when you see ur at the end of an RPG that you like, or when you finish the last chapter of a really good book or series, or when you see revenge of the sith and Love it, but then when the credits roll you realize that that is it! all your gonna get!, that will not happen with the dragonlance novels at all. and they are not the cookie cutter R A SALVATORE stuff or robert jordan stuff you were looking to stay away from !!! GLIMMERING RECOMMENDATION FOR DRAGONLANCE NOVELS!

Comment by Sarem on March 12, 2008 at 6:58am

if your not looking for something in the fantasy /sci fi realm let me know i can recommend some really good novels. Also, if you ever dont know what to get hang out at a bookstore, and strike up convos with the workers you think might have the most in common with you and get them to recommend something

Comment by Nils Kristján on March 12, 2008 at 7:28am

Thanks for the replies guys, really appreciate it, I'll look into the Tomas Covenant & dragonlance books for sure I'd also like to recommend to you guys a series called Malazan Book of the fallen by Stephen Erikson.

I completely understand when you say you don't like seeing a series end, I rarely buy stand alone books since I read very fast and I get absorbed into the world I'm reading about very easily. The malazan series has 7 books out and book number 8 is coming out in September, each book is pretty long and all of them are well written. A worth while read for any one who likes fantasy and a must for real fans of the genre.

Comment by Elliott on March 12, 2008 at 8:55am

One of my best friends has read all of the Dragonlance books and says that they are basically the most generic fantasy novels in existence. She admits that they are enjoyable, but that they feature such worn out trends as tinkerer gnomes, valiant and ignorant humans, stuck up elves, alcoholic dwarves, ... the list goes on. No offense to anyone who likes the novels, but I would really steer clear of them. From what I hear Nils, you don't want Warcraft the novel.

I would steer away from fantasy for a while, man. If WoW is starting to lose its magic (I had 2 Kara geared 70s and quit out of sheer boredom), then you should try to find some really unique takes on scifi. Avoid scifi written because it's like fantasy but with lasers instead of fireballs. You should actually avoid lasers at all costs.

What you need is a pile of clever novels which use the scifi genre to amplify their message, not drag in an audience. Althought I bought a used copy of "The Last Stand of the DNA Cowboys", which caught my eye for its superb chance at ridiculousness, I try to find scifi that breaks the mold and tells a human story, not a story about what spaceships might be like.

I would look up this author Ursula K Le Guin. She writes fantasy for young adults, which can be very appreciated by people of any age. Her fantasy is what Harry Potter ripped off and made into a kiddy book. In her tales of a young wizard she doesn't tell a straight forward tale of good versus evil, but a tale about a conflicted young man running from his mistakes and fighting his inner roadblocks to pick himself back up again.

Her scifi is what I would suggest though. Her father was an anthropologist and so her scifi all tends to be about an observer sent to a planet to explore an alien race. You don't get light travel and ray guns, you get extreme social practices that challenge our perceptions of lifestyle and morality all within a setting that you truly enjoy painting in your mind. Of course, within the situation of observer/observee there are really great plots ranging from homicide to war, rebellion to love affairs. They are really compelling novels.

The Left Hand of Darkness
Four Ways to Forgiveness
The Dispossessed
World's of Exile and Illusion, includes 3 separate books (City of Illusions. Planet of Exile. Rocannon's World)

I would avoid The Word for World of Forest, the weakest of her novels. And the fantasy series that I would recommend when you feel like reading some fantasy again is the Earthsea Trilogy, make SURE that you read them in order.

Other than Le Guin's scifi, novels that I have really appreciated are: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. It's a story about a prison colony on the moon that has created a very interesting culture and custom system for itself. The story that ensues is really awesome. A computer engineer befriends the super computer that runs the entire moon colony and ... well they really mix things up. I won't give it away. It's a fun and really worthwhile read. Good characters, great plot, wonderful setting.

Then there is a novel which really stuck to my heart. This is The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. It was inspired by his experience in the Vietnam war, and what you get is the tale of cold hard soldiers (men and women) who are shuttled from the war fronts of an intergalactic war at faster than light speeds and back home again to find all their families and everyone they've known long since dead. The novel essentially destructs time and leaves us with humans floating with no ties to a sense of home, history, or friendship, struggling to make connections. It blew my mind when I first read it. It's overdue for another read.

These are all on my profile under "books" naturally. I know there are more that I should put up there, but I guess that list there is a start. You will meet some new authors that I really think you will enjoy.

Other than that, look up some of the Hugo and Nebula Award winners of the past years. Those are like the Oscars of Scifi novels.

Comment by Jade Talon on March 12, 2008 at 9:46am

Pick up these two books:

Expendable - by James Alan Gardner
The Black Company - Glen Cook

Should be easy to find each for cheap, and they're very good and quick reads. There are several more books in those series, so if you like the first ones, you can keep reading more.

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