I have a unique book reccomendation request

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

Now that looks good. I been meaninf to read Solaris by the same arthur I believe

Yes, it's the same author. Solaris is also a great novel, but despite having some romance in it, is even more inscrutable than Fiasco. They both deal with alien encounters that we humans anthropomorphize with tragic results. On a fine scale, the stories are hard to follow because one side doesn't follow our usual scripts. However, on a larger scale, they are just the usual man overreaches and falls story.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

Ha! Read it in high school. Cried for days

...and in the film, Cliff Robertson won the Academy Award for Best Actor of the year. A great film, in my opinion.

[JSWolf]

Awakenings by Oliver Sacks is an awesome true story. It's also an awesome movie with Robin Williams and Robert DeNero.

Hailed as a medical classic, and the subject of a major feature film as well as radio and stage plays and various TV documentaries, Awakenings by Oliver Sacks is the extraordinary account of a group of twenty patients. Rendered catatonic by the sleeping-sickness epidemic that swept the world just after the First World War, all twenty had spent forty years in hospital: motionless and speechless; aware of the world around them, but exhibiting no interest in it—until Dr Sacks administered the then-new drug, L-DOPA, which caused them, temporarily, to awake from their decades-long slumber.

[Penforhire]

I don't see where a spoiler tag is necessary after anyone reads the request and continues to read this thread.

So anyway, I'll suggest two -- Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and Ben Winters' "The Last Policeman" trilogy.

[John F]

Maybe some YA stuff? It's not sci-fi/fantasy, but maybe Thirteen Reasons Why, The Fault in Our Stars, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, ...

[Lordblacknail]

Flowers In The Attic I stopped reading her because her books are too sad.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

I don't see where a spoiler tag is necessary after anyone reads the request and continues to read this thread.

So anyway, I'll suggest two -- Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and Ben Winters' "The Last Policeman" trilogy.

I'm using this thread as a "books I should avoid" list - I like happy endings.

If you like mysteries, here's one where the end of the series probably meets your criteria. I certainly wasn't expecting it. It's been a while since I read this and don't remember much about it except the very end. It's only a 3-book series, I read the bundle version via Overdrive library.

C.B. Forrest Charlie McKelvey mysteries The Weight of Stones / Slow Recoil / The Devil's Dust

I also recalled that we once had a thread about depressing books, in case that interests the OP:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ght=depressing

[HLS]

Oh if you like doomsday books read SEVENEVES By Neal Stephenson. One chapter is awefully technical but beyond that its amazing but it has a happy ending. In a nutshell it is about the end of the earth and we scramble to start a coloney in space to save the human race. The book is about the aftermath and surviving in space. Awefully sad but it jumps to 5,000 years into the future where we start to rebuild the earth so that it is habitable. I do not consider this a spoiler for its a very basic summary


Quote from Amazon: "From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years.

What would happen if the world were ending?

A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.

But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain . . .

Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown . . . to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.

A writer of dazzling genius and imaginative vision, Neal Stephenson combines science, philosophy, technology, psychology, and literature in a magnificent work of speculative fiction that offers a portrait of a future that is both extraordinary and eerily recognizable. As he did in Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the Baroque Cycle, and Reamde, Stephenson explores some of our biggest ideas and perplexing challenges in a breathtaking saga that is daring, engrossing, and altogether brilliant."

[hildea]

George Orwell "1984"

Steven Brust "To Reign in Hell". I don't remember exactly how it ends, and I can't find my copy, but it starts with Jahve and Satan as good friends and allies who sincerely want to work together for the benefit of angelkind and all of creation. They just disagree about some specific policies. The whole book consists of seeing the situation gradually spin out of control.


And not science fiction: Remarque's "Nothing New on the Western Front".

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by gmw

The other thought that occurs to me is that this whole thread needs to be wrapped in "spoiler" tags - any book that gets mentioned here has its (otherwise possibly surprising) end spoiled.

Well, yeah! My first thought was now I can't read anything recommended here!

I don't necessarily avoid doom and gloom but won't read a book if I know that's what to expect (except maybe if it's a classic), but that's mostly because of the spoiler effect. One time I lamented that I couldn't ask for recommendations for mysteries where the butler actually did it ... and someone proceeded to give me such recommendations

[sjfan]

Nevil Shute’s On the Beach is a classic in this vein. From Wiki:

The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere following a nuclear war a year previously. As the radiation approaches, each person deals with impending death differently.

[MickeyC]

If you want a depressing book, read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

[doubleshuffle]

Has anyone mentioned Thomas Hardy yet? Can't go wrong with Tess of the D'Urbervilles or Jude the Obscure.

[ZodWallop]

Something that came up in a different thread: Robert Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars with its original ending (which is what is now available).

[issybird]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Has anyone mentioned Thomas Hardy yet? Can't go wrong with Tess of the D'Urbervilles or Jude the Obscure.

Jude the Obscure is the most depressing book ever written.