URGENT-Need Fictionwise Recommendations

[SlowRain]

Okay, I'd like to zero out my Fictionwise micropay account before this wonderful 50% off coupon expires. I have hours, not days.

My problem is this: I'm geographically restricted from buying Random House books. So I guess this leaves the independents, which I'm perfectly willing to try.

Here are a list of my favorite books and authors for reference:

John le Carré
Graham Greene
Alan Furst
Martin Cruz Smith
Philip Roth
Gore Vidal
Gabriel García Márquez
Peter Carey
Patricia Highsmith
Paul Auster
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
The Angels of Russia by Patricia le Roy
Prague by Arthur Phillips
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Waiting by Ha Jin
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Based on that list, what would you recommend? If you're unsure, just recommend your favorite independent book that is available from Fictionwise.

I'm flying a bit in the dark here, so I'd really appreciate your help. I'm guessing I have enough micropay credits for about 4 or 5 books.

[SandyLu562]

I read Smilla's Sense of Snow maybe 10 or so years ago, was a really well written book and interesting too, bit of a mystery and i recall. I definitely recommend that one for ya.

Margaret Atwood is a great writer, altho i have Blind Assassin and haven't read it.

you could also look up books on amazon that are available to you and see what people say about them. i can usually judge pretty well from the feedback if i'd like the book.

Good Luck and have fun!

[SlowRain]

I don't think I explained well enough. That is not a list of books and authors I want to buy; that is a list of books and authors I've read and enjoyed. I provided the list as a reference for people to know what I'm interested in so they can make recommendations based on that list.

Otherwise, just recommend some good independent books that are available on Fictionwise (no Horror, Erotica, Romance, or non-Fiction).

The hours are ticking down for me.

[SandyLu562]

oops! I see that now ...

no clue how to advise you lol

I'm headed over to see if anything jumps out at me ;p

[Marcy]

What about some magazines? You can get single issues of Analog, Ellery Queen, Asimov, or Alfred Hitchcock for $2 with the coupon and double issues for $2.50.

If you like cozies at all I enjoyed Kate Gallison's Mother Lavinia series. And I just found some of Peter Clement's medical thrillers in multi-format although some are also DRM-only.

-Marcy

[ATDrake]

If you're not averse to science fiction and fantasy, about a month back someone else asked for recommendations for using up their FW Micropay balance and there were a lot of books suggested. Some of them are award-winners, classics in the field, or both, and most were MultiFormat, so it probably won't be geo-restricted.

You seem to like stuff with a literary/thriller flavour, so maybe Lucien Shepard and Kurt Vonnegut, and possibly some Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick could be to your taste. There's also the Chris Beckett rec, which I haven't read, but the person who did says it won a major UK literary prize, so it might be more your sort of thing.

[SlowRain]

Okay, this is what I picked up:

Georgia On My Mind by Charles Sheffield
A Song for Lya by George R.R. Martin
Barnacle Bill the Spacer by Lucius Shepard
Schrodinger's Kitten by George Alec Effinger
AEgypt (AEgypt Series Book 1) by John Crowley
Love & Sleep (AEgypt Series Book 2) by John Crowley
Sandkings by George R.R. Martin
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry

I'm not the biggest fan of George R.R. Martin's never-ending A Song of Ice and Fire, but he is a decent writer when he gets to the point, so I decided two of his shorter, stand-alone works would be okay. I've heard good things about the AEgypt, so I figure that's worth a try, and I think the Rohinston Mistry book was very well received when it was released. I picked the others because they were dual Hugo-Nebula winners.

I still have $0.77 left if anyone can suggest something.

[ATDrake]

Ted Chiang, Hell is the Absence of God. 1.25 regularly, at half-price should get you down to 14 cents, unless you're willing to drop in a bit more for something else.

Chiang is a truly excellent and inventive writer, who's only done short stories so far, but practically everything of his has gotten at least an award nomination. This particular one won Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and was also a Sturgeon nom, and if you like it, I highly recommend his collection Stories of Your Life (no longer sold on FW), which I personally own in two languages.

Seriously, if I'd known anything of his was available at FW, I'd have added it to the list.

However, if you don't care for the themes in HitAoG, typing "hugo nebula" into the Key Words search box brings up a bunch of double nominated/award winning stories, including stuff by Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. LeGuin, and others.

Forever Yours, Anna, 99 cents, by Kate Wilhelm is the best time-travel mystery/love story I've ever read (even moreso that Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is also an excellent comedy of errors, but alas, a Random House title). You said you didn't care for romance, so it might not be to your taste, but it's really not the sort of standard genre romance you may have been thinking of, and the story was nominated for Hugo and won Nebula, as well as being included in Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction series.

Wilhelm also wrote one of the sf post-apocalyptic classics "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" (Hugo Award, Nebula nom), normally writes very well-received mysteries, and was married to fellow sf writer Damon Knight and used to run what became the Clarion workshop which has produced a lot of well-known sf/fantasy writers.

Also, I should note that if you're tempted by anything of Mike Resnick's which says "Kirinyaga", the entire bundled collection of all his Kirinyaga stories is available at Baen's Webscription for a mere $5, with absolutely no DRM or geo-restrictions.

[SlowRain]

Thank you once again. I'd already bought Hell is the Absence of God a couple of years ago when there was some sort of freebie deal. I picked up Forever Yours, Anna based on your recommendation. It's not that I don't like romance (Love in the Time of Cholera and Memories of my Melancholy Whores are both brilliant), I just don't go in for the Romance genre as a whole.

However, I don't know when I'll get around to reading them.

[ATDrake]

Glad to be of assistance. You picked up some really good stuff for yourself, so when you've got time to read them, I think it'll be a pleasant surprise.

Sandkings was not only an award-winner, but they turned it into a really creepy Outer Limits episode. And Effinger and Shepard (whose first name I keep mistaking with Quebec politician Lucien Bouchard's) are usually quite good indeed, with only the occasional dud.

It's really too bad the way FW has gone downhill since the B&N acquisition and the Agency 5 thing. It's a great source for normally hard to find sf/fantasy shorts and backlist/out of print novels, many of which are offered direct from the authors and DRM-free.

I just wish they'd stop removing stuff I was planning to buy during the next big coupon/sale.

[SlowRain]

Yeah, I understand. I didn't want to say too much earlier, but I'd like to rant a bit:

I hate what B&N did to Fictionwise, just like I hate what Amazon did to Mobipocket. I also hate what Agency 5 did. Random House, with their geographic restrictions--just like the rest--are no better. I refuse to buy anything from these companies--but that doesn't mean I won't acquire their books through other means. I guess that's just my way of fighting corporate greed and stupidity.

However, I pledge to pay a fair price to independent publishers who are doing it right. I have no problem whatsoever buying books from companies that are being honorable to both the customers and the authors--and are still able to make a profit for themselves as well.