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Well another poster asked if we had a thread for book recommendations and while they come up all over the place, we haven't had a specific place for recs. Now we do; let's call this a consumer reports for books if you will... I always use this criteria: If it's worth reading, it is likely worth owning a copy, (that said, I am one of those weird bibliophiles who thinks nothing of dropping $100+ on a worthwhile tome as I just did on Harlan Ellison's Can and Cantankerous. So there... I've just demonstrated how to use the thread. ? The book I referenced is (sadly) the last collection of stories published during Harlan's lifetime and one can never go wrong with Ellison, be it short stories, essays, columns, or a combo of any or all, he was always a treat to read and the aforementioned book is available in a variety of editions so you don't NEED to spend $100+ on a copy unless you're into the whole first edition thingie... 

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The Best of Walter Jon Williams

 

The Best of Walter Jon Williams

$45.00

Okay, I'll admit to copying the entire starred review from Publisher's Weekly, why? Quite simply, they nail it... Almost... It's odd, Walter Jon Williams and I don't know each other despite sharing publishers, living in the same state, having many mutual friends etc. I have tremendous respect for the man's writing, it's just when I'm pressed for a recommendation that I get all tongue-tied and mumbling... You see Williams is one of those authors who never does the same thing twice. Yes, there are giveaways to assure you that you have indeed acquired a WJW book, make no mistake about that. A lover of the language such as Williams is going to shine through stylistically no matter what genre he's working in. This collection is a great place to start if you're unfamiliar with the body of his work, it will give you some paths to follow. On the other hand, if you're a WJW fan this can be a useful tool to ensure that you haven't missed anything. FWIW, the publisher of Subterranean and I talk pretty frequently, yes, we're competitors, but more importantly it is a friendship that goes back over thirty years. I do recall a conversation where the subject touched on "desert island authors", you know, you can have all the books of ONE writer, who will it be? It's one of those silly, unanswerable questions as you have to think of factors such as body of work, quality and quantity and so on. I know that along with heavyweights like James Joyce, Cormac McCarthy and Jorge Luis Borges that genre authors Gene Wolfe and Walter Jon Williams were in the discussion based on both quantity and quality of work. Anyway, this is one of those books that is long overdue, $45.00 may sound like a lot, but if you amortize that amount you get $3.75 per story and it is starting to look like a bargain. Of course you can count on the book being picked up by the Science Fiction Book Club to say nothing of a mass-market paperback next year. There are some books that can be waited for, this is not one of them ...

With the publication of his debut novel, The Privateer, in 1981, Walter Jon Williams began one of the most varied and prolific careers in contemporary popular fiction. His work encompasses cyberpunk (Hardwired), military SF (The Dread Empire’s Fall series), humor (The Crown Jewels), even disaster fiction.  But much of Williams’s best work takes place in the shorter forms, as this generous volume, filled to overflowing with award-winning and award-nominated stories, clearly proves.

With one exception, The Best of Walter Jon Williams reflects its author’s affection for—and mastery of—the novella form. That exception is “The Millennium Party,” a brief, brilliant account of a virtual anniversary celebration unlike any you have ever imagined. Elsewhere in the collection, Williams offers us one brilliantly sustained creation after another. The Nebula Award-winning “Daddy’s World” takes us into a young boy’s private universe, a world of seeming miracles that conceals a tragic secret. “Dinosaurs” is the far future account of the incredibly destructive relationship between the star-faring human race and the less evolved inhabitants of the planet Shar. 

“Diamonds from Tequila” is a lovingly crafted example of SF Noir in which a former child actor attempts a comeback that proves unexpectedly dangerous. “Surfacing” is a tale of alienation featuring a research scientist more at home with the foreign and unfamiliar than with the members of his own species. Finally, the magisterial “Wall, Stone, Craft” offers a brilliantly realized alternate take on a young Mary Godwin, future creator of Frankenstein, and her relationships with the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, culminating in the creation of a monster who would “stalk through the hearts of all the world.” 

These stories, together with half a dozen equally substantial tales, are the clear product of a master craftsman with a seemingly limitless imagination. The Best of Walter Jon Williams is the capstone of a truly remarkable career. It’s the rare sort of book that the reader can return to again and again, finding new and unexpected pleasures every time out. 

 

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And now for something completely different. Being a contrarian by nature it is a rare thing when I agree on a popular choice award in any sort of media. However, let's look at science fiction's Hugo Awards (named to honor a gentleman who couldn't write his way out of a wet paper bag, but was sensible enough to found magazines wherein those who could do it far better than he had the necessary forum to display their wares), anyway, while the Hugos have frequently earned my displeasure by being awarded to the wrong book, they are to commended for never having made a howlingly bad choice, and recently displayed a level of taste and guts that restores my faith in our species by doing the unthinkable by ignoring the dozens of military sf books spewed out like the vomit of a teenager having their first meeting with Jose Cuervo and presenting the award for best novel of 2015 to a woman and what's more to a woman of color! The book in question is The Fifth Season and the author is N.K. Jemisin. 

While the aforementioned award presentation is certainly a feel-good moment in regard to our fellow hairless apes it was to be topped the following year when the Hugo voters opted to present the award to Jemisin's sequel, The Obelisk Gate. Now going back to the very inception of the Hugos in the early 1950s, one thing has remained a truism, sequels are to be ignored. For that matter books that appear to be plotted to have a sequel(s) should also be ignored. Victims of this draconian (il)logic include (among others) no less than Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, and Dan Simmons. So just like that three of the finest prose stylists that the field has ever produced get the stinkeye from the voters honoring this unwritten and poorly thought-out rule. The aforementioned gentlemen couldn't sway the voters to take a chance and possibly offend the shades of goofy old duffers wearing propeller beanies and bow ties; it took Nora Jemisin to break down this wall that had stood since 1951. Just to make sure that these books got their due recognition, the voters did the right thing again and gave the award to the third book in the trilogy, The Stone Sky. I doubt that we will ever see such a phenomenon again, all three parts of a trilogy honored as the best individual novels of the year in which they were published. Do I agree with these selections? Oh, absolutely! N.K. Jemisin is one of my top ten current authors along with Robert Reed, Caitlin Kiernan, Neil Gaiman, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, John Scalzi, D.P. Watt, Joe Abercrombie, Tamsyn Muir and Albert Cowdrey (wow, there's some recs for you!) Anyway, if you're shy about committing to a trilogy, you can always dip your toes in the water and start with Jemisin's collection, How Long 'til Black Future Month? Anyway, do yourself a favor and checkout some N.K. Jemisin, you'll be glad you did!

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I actually read The Fifth Season a few months ago and while my recommendation would carry much less weight, I do second it. Very good book with some very clever bits of craftsmanship that still feels fairly complete while leaving a clear sequel hook or two out there.

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Thanks for creating this. I like the idea of people recommending actual books. I was thinking more along the lines of if I wanted to get into a certain genre, what would be a good book to read or if I wanted a history book on certain countries what are some good reads for that. I like I said I do like the idea of people recommending certain books that they enjoy and people should go read. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/31/2021 at 12:45 PM, Kuetsar said:

I have read every history book out there, but I've read quite a few so any questions you have in that area I can answer. . . .

I like reading books on the history of certain countries or regions like Central Europe, Eastern Europe, The Balkans, etc. Any good books on the lead up to World War I, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, or on how the Middle East borders got changed after WWI?

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Dreadnought, by Robert Massie is a great book exploring the relationship between the Kaiser and Edward VII and the buildup of naval forces leading up to the war. Like anything by Massie, its well worth seeking out. There is a sequel about the naval war itself, but I haven't read it yet.

A peace to end all piece by David Fromkin is a great read about the breakup for Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI, and the Mandates, and so on. . . 

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On 4/8/2021 at 9:15 PM, Souder85 said:

Any good books on the lead up to World War I

This is probably the most "known" recent one but I thought "The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914" by Christopher Clark was a good dive into the conditions that lead to the start of World War 1.

 

This might be too specific of an ask on the history front, but I had a soft spot for the few counterfactual books I read as I found looking at how history could have went a different way put the actual events into greater context so if @Kuetsar knows any good one of those I'd be interested to hear them.

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19 hours ago, username said:

This is probably the most "known" recent one but I thought "The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914" by Christopher Clark was a good dive into the conditions that lead to the start of World War 1.

I tried to read The Sleepwalkers a long time ago and couldn't get into it. I thought it was really dense and my knowledge of those alliances from way back is very spotty. So I ended up trying to wiki all those players and alliances and that took away from reading the book. Bad thing is I finally got rid of it.

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It is very much not the easiest read in the world, for the first bit of it I actually had a notepad next to me to jot down names and brief descriptions of who they were which is probably the first time outside of school I had to resort to that. I think probably a good half of the people who give it a shot will likely bounce off of it for those reasons, but if you can get past that it really does a remarkable job laying out what all the major players were facing at home and abroad and hence why they made the disastrous series of choices they made.

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