I need help discovering incredible books.

[Apache]

H. Bean Piper's Uller Uprising. This is a Sci Fi book based on the British Seapoy Mutiney.
Apache

[Santos]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I'm going to assume you have some special interest here. You sure do seem to recommend them a lot.

Oh yea, I love the darn things and not many people even know about em. So with something new, ya gotta spread the word, right? And since my wife might soon be working for the company, I do have a special interest in them

[way8lifter]

if I were trapped in a space craft ..traveling for years on end ( spaces version of a desert island ) and could only have a small box of books with me ..I would have

IT
lord fouls bane ( and all the follow ups )
The Pawn of Prophecy
The Dresden files .

[Requiem]

American Rust by Philip Meyer
Room by Emma Donoghue

Both very good recent books

[Wald07]

Ok. Here I go, in no particular order...

I, Robot- Sir Isaac Asimov - Short Stories
(Yes, the movie was LOOSELY based)

Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

And in the same vein....
1984- George Orwell- though, I've not gotten around to it...

Tick Tock - Dean Koontz- Hilarious and supernatural
Relentless- Dean Koontz- Hilarious and.... serious?

Skeleton Crew- Stephen King- Short Stories
Nightmares & Dreamscapes- Stephen King - Short Stories

[bloodlover]

I second reading the classics. Sure maybe Tolstoy, Pasternak or Oscar Wilde are not for everyone but there is a lot of variety to be found here and most likely you will soon discover your favourite book amongst classic books.

I can't really tell you a good book or many a recommendation since tastes differ a lot.

[eskimo49]

Have you read 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' ? Amazon had all 5 books of the trilogy on special offer a few weeks ago. I've enjoyed them all, and they are worth reading.

[David Munch]

I hate threads like this... My To Read list always doubles...

[Wald07]

Originally Posted by PapaNer

Then I moved on and finally read the entire Harry Potter series, Hitch Hikers Guide series ....

Originally Posted by eskimo49

Have you read 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' ? Amazon had all 5 books of the trilogy on special offer a few weeks ago. I've enjoyed them all, and they are worth reading.

The OP beat you to it!

[ndixon]

I have to put in a mention for Kurt Vonnegut - he was branded a Sci-Fi author early on, but he didn't really set out to write science fiction; he was more interested in ideas about society and people, and the crazy ways people have devised to kill each other - his WW2 experiences polarized his opinions on this, which is why Slaughterhouse-Five would be a good place to start.

He has a fairly informal, irreverent style, often writing like he's telling a personal anecdote to a rapt audience: unclear plot, placing himself into the narrative, foretelling events, outlining up front what will happen to a character later on.

He often makes narrative excursions to other worlds, not to inject science-fiction, but to ask "what if society were like this instead?", and you can see some of his influence in Douglas Adams' work later.
Breakfast of Champions features a story-within-a-story called Plague on Wheels which may remind you of the Vl'hurg / G'Gugvuntt / swallowed-by-a-small-dog incident in HHGTTG.

You could dip your toes in with his short story collections, but his style really comes through in his novels and essays (A Man Without A Country is one good collection).

[Illinifan]

Two weeks ago in church, the pastor told us to turn to the person next to us and tell them our favorite novel. I turned to my 21 year old son and said "The Stand by Stephen King" and he replied "The Count of Monte Cristo". We agreed we'd read the other's book.

I finished TCoMC in about a week. Awesome. I'd read The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask before, but for some reason I'd never picked up this book. It is definitely a classic.

One word of caution, though. My son handed me his paperwork B&N Classics version and I found out that it is abridged. So much so in fact that there are a couple of sub-plots that are entirely gone. The unabridged versions are available in ebook formats all over the Net so I'm going to re-read the longer version some months down the road.

I was more aware of what I was doing when I handed him the restored, full length version of The Stand. ;-)

[=X=]

Science Fiction:

Philip K. Dick

This is one of my favorite SF writers. His short stories fall under the "Ice Berg" principle. On the surface he writes simple to read short stories but underneath they have deep psyc/social meanings.

Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep = Movie(Blade Runner)
Minority Report
Total Recall
... Tones more short stories

The movies have a very lose parallel with the short stories. Personally I've enjoyed the movies as much as the short stories.

Fantasy:
Trollslayer series (Not the deepest nor the funnies fantasy novel but the author has a lot of character in his writing style. )
Anything from Robert E. Howard (Conan, Kane, etc..)

New Age
Carlos Castaneda - The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
Suppose to be a real life account of an Archeology student (some however consider it fiction). Regardless it is a good book, has some great philosophy and all in all a fun story. It's a total of 12 books but smaller than two Harry Potter books. Don Jaun (the mentor) is a colorful character.

Dan Millman - Way of the Peaceful Warrior. Very much like the Carlos Castaneda except the mentor in this book is Buddhist. The philosophy is just as rich but the story/characters do not match Castaneda's book

=X=

[FatDog]

I will curse you by not telling you about incredible books, but incredible authors.

Try "Jurassic Park" and you will start to hunt for every Michael Crichton novel.

Try "Ringworld" by Larry Niven.

"Gateway" by Frederick Pohl and you will start to devour the Heche saga.

For lighter stuff - try "Terry Pratchett" diskworld series. There is a rough-order but you can pick up any one and start. Try "Soul Music" or "Maskerade".

And any Jasper Fford is entertaining.

Try Michael Connelly "The Poet" for a good serial killer novel and the start of another great author to look for.

Want slightly strange FBI agent who investigates odd things? Try the Agent Pendergast novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. (Both of these authors have some great series in their own right).

[speakingtohe]

Perhsps Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Series
Or Tim Dorsey Serge Storms
Ben Aaronovitch
Mario Acevedo
Glen Cook
Lawrence Block
James Lee Burke
Liz Williams
Harlan Coben

I'll stop now

Helen

[fantasyISbetter]

I second most of Helen's recommendations, and also Jim Butcher's Dresden series. Incredible authors (for me, incredible means memorable)- Connie Willis, Christopher Moore, Terry Pratchett, Kage Baker, Laurie King (Beekeeper's Apprentice series), Sean McMullen, Daniel Suarez, Ian Tregillis, Liz Williams, Kristine Katherine Rusch. So many good authors.