I can't believe that no-one has mentioned Iain M Banks/Iain Banks yet!

Feersum Endjinn
Use of Weapons
Inversions
The Bridge

All fantastic, but for different reasons. Holding them all together, though, is excellent writing style and some brilliant narrative structure/styles, mostly involving skewing the reader's perception of an event or series of events and then slowly revealing an altenative reality. I can't praise them enough :) 

Seconded - although I'd swap Use of Weapons and Inversions for Player of Games and Walking On Glass....Feersum Enjinn and The Bridge are superb though, first 1/2 of the bridge is one of the best things I've read... 

I'll forgive you both for missing out Excession. Probably my most read book, think I'm up to about 8 times now.

Bal, go read PKD. 

A lot of King's books seem to be related to the Dark Tower, including:
Salem's Lot
The Stand
Insomnia
Hearts in Atlantis
Black House

Also, if you go to Stephen King's website, www.stephenking.com , there is an audio excerpt from the upcoming fifth Dark Tower book, read by King himself. It's fairly interesting, a flashback depicting the demise of Alain, Cuthbert and Jamie de Curry. 

No, not the Omnibuses. I hadn't heard of those, actually. The titles are:

The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft: Dreams of Terror and Death
The Transition of H. P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness
The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre 

Those ones I'm talking about:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0586063226/qid=1052839440/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-8530110-1898516?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0586063242/qid=1052839440/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-8530110-1898516?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0575003391/qid%3D1052839593/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr_11_1/102-8530110-1898516

Altho I'm wondering why the third one isn't available on amazon.com but is available in english over amazon.de... *shrug* 

The Stranger and The Outsider are one and the same, although, the actual title, L'�tranger, more litterally means Stranger than outsider. I guess it depends on who translated the book... :) 

Great book that. Horrorshow.

Is it just me that imagines John Lydon (Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols fame) doing the "talking book" version?

BTW, apparently the twenty-first chapter was dropped from the initial American release, and from Kubrick's film, according to this copy's intro. Burgess was mighty upset. End of uninteresting historical aside. 

wow, those sound really uplifting!

:) 

necros: yes of course, I forget that I read a translation :/ thx

wrath: they are very cheery :) 

Yes. I think the names were chosen to sound (gasp!) horrifying. Instead it came out cheesy. But it's all Lovecraft on the inside, so what does it matter? 

Ooooh, some fans of Roland and company.
The Dark Tower Books are an annual read for me and I do love all of the tie-ins in many of the other books mentioned. There is a semi-short story about Roland that takes place before he meets Jake at the waystation. It can be found in the short story compilation called "Everything's Eventual". Many of those short stories are King at his very best.

My all time favorite read would have to be "Boys Life" by Robert R. Mcammom. Its the story of a young boy in a deep south town in Alabama USA back in the 50/60's. It is reality with a very strong twist of majic thrown in. Not Harry Potter majic but boyish imagination majic.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671743058/qid=1052955396/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/002-0169923-0887236

There is also a very interesting series of books that fall under the "The Lost Regiment" banner. William R. Forstchen mixes Civil War soldiers, sci-fi, time travel and man-eating nasties in the series. These books are sleep stealers, once started and the night hours just dissapear. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Forstchen%2C%20William%20R./002-0169923-0887236 

is it uploaded somewhere else? 

These books I think are the best King's creation. The atmosphere is very interesting.
I don't think that my english is able to discribe all that I think about the Dark Tower books and Gunslighter's adventures. But even here, at mapper's board I found fans of this story.
The Stand is also King's masterpiece.
I think reading of these books is not only interesting but IMHO is also very inspiring in mapping and some other kinds of creativity. 

I'm quite impressed how much discussion this thread got. I thought people had given up reading in this day and age. All hail nerds eh =). So what's Smabler read in the last 8 months??

Perdido Street Station - China Mieville - Fantastic steampunk, one of the best books around, dripping in atmosphere although runs out of steam (!) a little.

The LiveShip Trilogy - Robin Hobb - Surprisingly really good fantasy - coherent, multi-stranded and clearly written.

The Crow Road - Iain Banks - Missed this out when I first got into Banks....not twisted enough but still pretty sharp.

On - Adam Roberts - Bleak, discolated sci-fi, vaguely similar to Banks' sparser moments, a bit dissatisfying.

Salt - Adam Roberts - Political sci-fi again with a Banks feel, again sparse on feeling and involvement.

Jerle Shannara Trilogy - Terry Brooks - typically weak fantasy - nice premise but illogical and not involving enough.

A Shadow On The Glass - Ian Irvine - incoherent fantasy, doesn't flow nor make much sense.


Next I will be reading something from quite a few books I've bought recently:

The Scar - China Mieville (if it's anywhere near as good...), Schild's Ladder - Greg Egan (sci-fi so hard it makes my brain hurt), Redemption Ark - Alastair Reynolds (kinda cool dark sci-fi), The Chronoliths - Robert Charles Wilson (a clear, sharp imaginative author), Geomancer - Ian Irvine (read 1/2, grim & intriguing fantasy, vast improvement over first series), Heresy - Anselm Audley (fantasy, sounds good), Speed Of Dark - Elizabeth Moon (sounds a bit cheesy but entertainment 'lite'). 

Im glad to see new books are coming out, and thats a huge understatement, I finished Wizard and Glass my 8th grade year, and have been anxiously awaiting the 5th book, and now Ill get to read it as a sophomore in college.
I have noticed a lot of tie ins with the Dark Tower, but the main one that sticks in my memory is The Eye of the Dragon, which involves a character, a wizard, named Flagg, and a child named Roland. It was the first King I ever read.
I dont really feel that The Stand was his masterpiece, although it was a great story, up until its end which I was quite disappointed with, but the character of Nick was wonderful.

Poppy Z Brite is definitely worth checking out, however Ive only read Drawing Blood (or was it Lost Souls ? its been years and I get the 2 mixed up, regardless it involves the house in north carolina and the 2 gay guys). She is quite good at her style though.

Id love to read more Lovecraft, but I have such a hard time finding the actual stories, everything is stuff inspired by him which turns out to be bad ripoffs... Ive found sites with them online, but when it comes to reading stories, I vastly prefer a book in my hands while laying on the couch.
Can anyone recommend the names of publishers or collections of short stories of Lovecraft that are authentic and I can pinpoint on amazon or such ? 

See my post #30. Also the stuff mentioned in Gom's post #31 seems to fit your requirements as well. 

thanks rpg, i started reading the thread but well, i mainly just felt like sharing, so i made my post. im gonna order those 3 when i move into my apt =) 

Ranked in order even!

1.Use of weapons
2.The Bridge
3.Excession
4.Against a Dark Background
5.Inversions
6.Player of Games
7.Feersum Endjinn
8.look to windward
9.Consider Phlebas

But really, they are all good. The guy is just a fantastic writer, with a huge imagination.

The bridge is the only "non-SF" book of his i have read, i was thinking of maybe "the wasp factory" next. 

The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345384210/

The Transition of H.P. Lovecraft
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345384229/ 

Which are exactly the ones I mentioned in my post. Except I didn't bother with handy Amazon links.

But neither of us bothered with amazon women. 

 

What is it with Use Of Weapons and Against A Dark Background....I found them pretty sparse and lifeless compared to the rest of his stuff....but enough people like them.

Anyway, his non-SF stuff. The Bridge is the best, but also very good are Walking On Glass which is surreal and brilliant and The Wasp Factory which is just plain warped. I'd say Complicity is also well worth it....you may like Song Of Stone since you liked UOW and AGADB, but I found it too minimal. The Crow Road, Whit, and The Business are too normal and Canal Dreams is nasty without any bite. Never tried Espedair Street for obvious reasons. 

'Only Forward' by Michael Marshall Smith is one of my favourite books, I must have read that 4-5 times at least... quirky, lots of humour, and its one of the few books I've found genuinely moving. Unfortunately that author's later books weren't anywhere near as good as his first (Only Forward). Still worth a read, though.

Dean Koontz... this guy used to write fairly average horror/thriller type novels earlier on in his career (not bad, but not exactly remarkable). He sure learned from experience though, because most of his recent work is so well written that its just not funny. My favourites would have to be 'Sieze the Night' and 'Fear Nothing' (they go together).

Elek, I'm a bit of a Stephen King fan too, and I read through all 1100 pages (or is it more?) of 'The Stand', and still wanted more. Great stuff. He (King) kind of lost the plot for a while there, but his recent stuff is quite good. He does really good characters/dialogue I think! I really liked 'Desperation'... tak!

A few people mentioned Ian Banks... I've read a few of his (Inversions, I can recall, at least), and they were quite good. I tried to read 'Player of Games' and couldn't get into it though... I'll have to try again, as I see several recommendations for it here.

Dan Simmons - almost anything by him is gold.

I'm currently reading a new sci-fi novel called Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan... his first novel, apparently. When I saw it in the bookstore, I figured that if it had the whole back cover and the first 3 pages of the book devoted to quotes about how brilliant the novel was, I figured it almost had to be worth a read. And it is quite good, perhaps not as spectacularly awesome as the quotes would have you believe, but I've been compelled to read it whenever I get the chance and have raced through it much faster than most books I've read recently, so its certainly worth a recommendation. 

Can't believe I forgot Clive Barker! I've liked everything of his that I have read, 'Weaveworld' is the first that springs to mind, though.

Douglas Adams, well, that goes without saying... I loved the Hitchiker's Guide and Dirk Gently books, I steadfastly refuse to even look at the 'book' they released after his death though...

Eh, who is the guy who wrote the medieval books about Sparhawk? The Diamond Throne, etc... oh yes, David Eddings? I've only read the Diamond Throne series, haven't looked at the Belgarath stuff and the rest.

I've got to try to pick up 'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes (I think). I read the short story and I really enjoyed it, apparently it was turned into a full novel later on though, so I'll have to check it out.