There are 11 others after this one. Great fun, great history, great reading.
Posted on 09/27/2013 12:03:41 PM PDT by Hugin
Hi everyone,
Recently I've found myself with a lot of spare time on my hands, so I've been doing a lot of reading, and I'm looking for recommendations. I'm not looking for anything heavy, but basically escapist fiction, with my favorite genre being historical fiction. I've read everything by most of my favorite authors; Bernard Cornwell (Sharpe's Rifles, Saxon Tales, etc.), Conn Igulden (Emperor, Genghis series), Stephen Pressfield (Gates of Fire, Afghan Campaign, etc.), and also Michael Crichton. So I'm looking for recommendations and who better to ask than Freepers?
Actually, he had one of his scumbag cronies write them for him.
There are 11 others after this one. Great fun, great history, great reading.
Lucifer’s Hammer(Niven & Pournelle).
Last of the Breed (l’Amour).
Some skinny guy from Kenya by way of Chicago wrote a couple works of fiction.
Oh, and if you like historical novels of the sea, try the Master and Commander series by O’Brian or the Hornblower series by Forester.
Zane Grey
I just read a very good book called Ordinary Grace and I thought it was outstanding.
http://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Grace-William-Kent-Krueger/dp/1451645821
Agree: “Unintended Consequences” John Ross
Here free: http://www.zjstech.net/~ddixson/Unintended_Consequences.pdf
Good idea. I loved Killer Angels, never read the prequel.
One of the greatest true adventure stories ever is Xenophon’s Anabasis or “The March up Country”.
It tells the story of 10,000 Greek mercenaries who win their part of the battle but are left stranded inside a hostile Persia and 1000 miles from home.
The Persians treacherously kill their generals at a meeting. The troops elect new generals, one Spartan and the other Athenian. Xenophon was just on the expedition as sort of a reporter but he ends up as one of the generals.
Allow me to recommend my own modest efforts:
http://www.amazon.com/TSN-The-Sea-Grass-ebook/dp/B00E9DRBGA/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2
Brad Thor, Start with the Lions of Lucerne and work your way from there.
Or Clive Cussler, Dirk Pitt stories
Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs
O’Reilly-—Killing Lincoln
50 American artists you should know
Illustrated History of Gettysburg
NOVELS
Thornton Wilder—The Bridge of San Luis Rey
John Fowles—The Collector
If you’re looking for fictionalized history, I think you might like some Jeff Shaara (sp) novels. I read his revolutionary war one and rather liked it. (He also wrote some of the books mentioned above.
If you want “alternative history” ... beware, a lot of it is pabulum and dreck.
If you must Turtledove, read the guns of the south & call it quits. Kind of like Dune, it’s all downhill from there.
If you choose to scifi, check out Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. They have some good collaborative stuff, especially the Mote series
If you further choose to scifi, try Jack Vance; with a side order of dictionary.
For fantasy, you might like to try Jhereg by Steven Brust.
In general, a very worthwhile thing to investigate is the Gutenberg project, lots of very good public domain literature there. Likewise, if you have an e-reader, lots of great literature is available for free. I know I got some Mark Twain and Sherlock Holmes via ibooks.
Good luck and good reading!
Actually, I thought he was referring to the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. Fantasy combined with ‘private-eye’ -style writing. Highly addictive.
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