Re: Book Recommendations
Harry Turtledove. Not for everyone, but his alternate histories and fantasies are both fascinating. He really goes in for epic scale, particularly in the series that starts with How Few Remain.
Also, I will add my support to Angel-- Pratchett, definitely, and Holt was decent. Also Garth Nix.
I Am Legend, by [I forget his first name] Matheson, which Freak suggested, was decent. But it was slightly creepy, and so were the short stories slapped in the end to make the book longer. The guy had a bit of an unhealthy fixation with some creepy sex. Necrophilia and such, or suggestions of it.
Brave New World was pretty good.
Some new suggestions: Robert A. Heinlein, particularly Starship Troopers, is awesome. Arthur C. Clarke's novels aren't as good, but still entertaining. I remember my favorite being Childhood's End; but his short stories are much better. And yeah, Asimov too, hell yes.
In addition to the Big Three: Philip K. ****, awesome. Wrote more short stories than novels, but the short stories are VERY good. Lots of them (and at least one novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) ended up movies, too, none of the movies as good as the story.
Timothy Zahn, too. I can definitely rccomend his Blackcollar series and his Star Wars novels; but I've only read a couple of his standalones. They were all cool.
And an addition, one I read recently, Old Man's War, by a relatively new guy named John Scalzi, very good.
And Orson Scott Card, particularly the Ender/Shadow series, though Alvin Maker is decent.
Greg Bear.
Walter Mosley
Fantasy-wise: Tolkien, hell yes, and Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time) is decent. Piers Anthony is... sometimes good. I actually can't think of any others. My brain is broken.
Oh, wait, there it is: Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series. His others are much more targeted towards younger kids, but the Artemis Fowl series is entertaining no matter how old you are.
Military/Science Fiction/Alternate History/Fantasy/Baen books: Eric Flint, David Weber, Mercedes Lackey, Catherine Asaro, Dave Freer.
And actually, the Halo series (like Killjoy suggested) is decent, if you ignore the shoddy printing game-based books always have and the sometimes-kinda-off narration. Eric Nylund is better than Dietz and the others. Mass Effect: Revelation is pretty good, too.
Triz suggested Midnight for Charlie Bone, by Jenny Nimmo. The series, I read the whole thing, was pretty good, but I didn't like it so much. Partly it's because Nimmo seems to be continuing it long past its death, but [shrugs]. It also seems a bit like a Harry Potter clone, but it isn't really. Much.
R.A. Salvatore was good in the one book of his I read-- Dragon Precinct, a standalone, was really good-- kind of reminded me like the Discworld Guards novels, but only in its premise of cops in a magical world.
Can't think of any others, but I probably will later.
I love books.