Best stand alone novels - any genre, any author

[Pete]

Originally Posted by BenG

[I]

Dune by Frank Herbert. It's better to pretend it's a stand alone novel.

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Sad but true. It really was a great read, and everything done afterwords to try to prolong it failed dismally, both book and movie.



Stitchawl

I'd disagree if you all are talking about the rest of the series that Herbert wrote. They weren't as good as the first (though I did think the last two came close), but they weren't bad. I'm a Herbert fan, so Herbert's "not bad" is much better than most other books, IMO.

But the movie and mini series were pretty bad, and books by Herberts son and that hack he hired are truly, truly awful things.

[Genaro Zamora]

hmmm.........

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Pete;

I'd disagree if you all are talking about the rest of the series that Herbert wrote. They weren't as good as the first (though I did think the last two came close), but they weren't bad. I'm a Herbert fan, so Herbert's "not bad" is much better than most other books, IMO.

But the movie and mini series were pretty bad, and books by Herberts son and that hack he hired are truly, truly awful things.

I was exaggerating, but the original does work as a stand alone novel. Of the sequels I like The God Emperor of Dune the most.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Pete

But the movie and mini series were pretty bad...

I like the Dune movie.

[BenG]

I hated the movie when it first came out in 1985, but I've since grown to appreciate it more. I have it on DVD.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

I like the Dune movie.

Me, too. Even if the special effects aren't all that.

[BVLarson]

I would check out Stephen King's works over the years. Most of his books, nearly all, are stand-alone and well written.
-bvl

[PKFFW]

Once again thankyou to everyone who has taken the time to reply with suggestions. It is much appreciated.

Cheers,
PKFFW

[carld]

Steven King's The Stand (unabridged), is one of the few novels I've read more than once, and one of two (LoTR being the other), that I've read more than twice.

Also, Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard (yes, Mr. Scientology). It's not all that well written, and it's filled with familiar and well-worn Sci-Fi tropes, but there's just something about the story that pulled me in.

[foreverjuly]

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin. That should be perfect for you, PKFFW! The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood might also work. Read either of them?

[dougf4]

Try C.J. Box's, Blue Heaven (2008)

(BLUE HEAVEN, Box's first stand-alone novel, won an Edgar Award for Best Novel of 2008 and has been optioned for film.)

[SeaBookGuy]

"Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn is dead brilliant!

I was completely blown away when the murderer (and motive) were revealed. There is a clue given to make the mystery "fair", but it'd take a very astute reader to pick up on it. I'm not usually into thrillers, as such, but could not put this one down.

[EatingPie]

To Kill a Mockingbird is neither a fantasy, nor science fiction. However, it is one of the greatest books I've ever read (said as a major SF/Fantasy fan myself). And it's as stand alone as it gets; the author never wrote another book.

People I've talked to have said "oh yeah, I was forced to read that in school." The problem is, the book being told from the POV of a young child causes schools to mistakenly think it's for kids. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I'm glad I read this as an adult rather than a child, or even young adult.

-Pie

[jupstin]

How about The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Here's a summary:

Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian combines a search for the historical Dracula with a profound sense that Stoker got some things right--that the late Mediaeval tyrant kills among us yet, undead and dangerous. From Stoker, she also takes a sense that the supernatural seems more real when embedded in documentary evidence.
Three generations search for Dracula's resting place, and their stories are nested within each other, so that we know that at least two quests ended badly. Kostova rations her thrills very carefully so that we jump out of our chair at quite slight surprises, especially when we have come to expect buckets of blood and loud bangs. She also has a profound and well-communicated sense of place and period, so that the book is equally at home in 1930s Rumania, Cold War Budapest and 1970s Oxford. Kostova is particularly good on the sights and sounds of remote country places and the taste of real peasant food--this sensuous realism does not always go with her other skill, the creation of imagined documents and folksongs that feel as real and true as what might be actual.

This is a quietly good book rather than a spectacular debut, with some uncomfortable twists in its tail; her heroine-narrators are, and perhaps remain, in the most serious of jeopardies.

I loved it

[Ea]

Originally Posted by jupstin

How about The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Here's a summary:

I loved it

That was a good book - though heavy to sit with (I read the p-book version )