12-28-2011, 06:54 PM | #1 |
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Moving from SF to contemporary fiction recommends please
I'm just looking for something different and interesting to read. My only area of reading is SF - Space Opera, Cyberpunk, Military SF. I like Peter F Hamilton, Heinlein, William Gibson, Richard Morgan. I'm pushing myself into Jeffrey Thomas territory - I just love Blue War and wish it was an ebook.
I've dabbled in Tom Clancy (great, but I'm no gun nut), Roberto Bolano's 2666 (intriguing, but never finished) and managed the Bourne Trilogy - but put off by the connection to Van Lustbader. Never liked his work. Can anyone recommend works in another genre that may pique a SF nut's interest? I'm looking at trying some crime fiction, never read that, or even just some plain contemporary. I don't like period drama, so stuff set earlier than 1900 may be pushing it (unless it's free ) and even then... Any ideas? Got some money to put down on some ebooks... |
12-28-2011, 08:04 PM | #2 | |
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Try Raymond Chandler....twas a great writer...good crime fiction...
Haruki Murakami Orphan Pamuk J.M. Coetze.... Quote:
Last edited by hidari; 01-01-2012 at 07:50 PM. |
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12-28-2011, 08:06 PM | #3 |
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Margret Atwood
Toni Morrison. Michael Bulgakov |
12-29-2011, 03:17 AM | #4 |
Are you gonna eat that?
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Tom Piccirilli, he writes modern noir about very damaged people.
Last edited by xg4bx; 12-29-2011 at 03:22 AM. |
12-29-2011, 09:38 AM | #5 |
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As a transition author, you might wish to try Haruki Murakami, who straddles sci-fi/mystery and literary fiction.
Don |
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12-29-2011, 09:41 AM | #6 |
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Try Jeffrey Deaver. Superb crime/thriller author. I haven't read a book of his that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed.
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12-29-2011, 01:54 PM | #7 |
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David Mitchell is another good "transition" author: Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas have (some) SF elements, and are highly acclaimed (Cloud Atlas won the British Book Awards Literary Fiction Award).
All of his books are available in ebook form (in the UK at least). Iain (M.) Banks is also worth a look: he writes sci-fi under "Iain M Banks" and mainstream fiction under "Iain Banks". "The Bridge" is one of the latter and has a neat sci-fi "feel" to it. I don't know much about crime fiction, alas :/ Last edited by MrTeatime; 12-29-2011 at 01:59 PM. |
12-30-2011, 05:04 AM | #8 |
Are you gonna eat that?
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maybe David Morrell. i haven't read much of his work but Creepers was a cool story about urban archaeologists/a treasure hunt and First Blood introduces John Rambo (yup, that Rambo) but the book was faaaaar better than any of the movies.
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12-30-2011, 06:29 AM | #9 |
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Have you considered nonfiction?
Michael Brooks' 13 Things that Don't Make Sense is a fascinating read, as is Lisa Randall's Warped Passages. (I've also been eyeing I am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter, although I haven't read it yet.) |
12-30-2011, 06:55 AM | #10 |
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Michael Crichton has several like Jurrasic Park, the Andromeda Strain or Timeline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Fiction_2
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12-30-2011, 07:38 AM | #11 |
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Carlos Ruiz Zafrón's The Shadow of the Wind
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12-30-2011, 10:20 AM | #12 |
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12-31-2011, 08:24 AM | #13 |
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T. C. Boyle writes hip, contemporary works that almost always has a twist of some kind.
Short Stories Greasy Lake. Modern Love, etc. |
12-31-2011, 09:21 AM | #14 |
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Douglas Adams' 'Dirk Gently' novels are wonderful. I reckon they're under appreciated due to being filed under the 'Science Fiction' section...
Only two of them: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and the lovely titled " The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul". 'Tea-time' opens with: It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport." Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort..... ps just bought a copy of "The shadow of the wind" , sounded well worth a go.... the backlog of books in my calibre collection is getting a bit out of hand... and I thought of another recommendatio for the OP... Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse 5" . I re-read this some while back, and intend to read it again just to check whether it's as wonderful as I think it is... Yes to Murakami also... may want to start with "Norwegian Wood" ( a less mystical/weird Murakami novel) and then go straight to "The Wind Up bird Chronicle" - and if you like him, make sure you read "Underground" - sounds a bit dull, but is oddly extremely interesting writing on the sarin gas poisoning in Japan... Last edited by Coops; 12-31-2011 at 09:31 AM. |
12-31-2011, 09:35 AM | #15 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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Now wait a minute we have DIA here in Colorado....it's Arty!
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