Any good books to recommend?

[Peter Lorre]

If you like 1984, you should read "The Napoleon of Notting Hill" by G.K. Chesterton (written in 1904 and set in '1984' aswell).

It's not as famous as 1984, but it's a better book (in my opinion). Deals with issues like imperialism, the sovereignty of smaller states and instead of an all controlling government, it shows one that just doesn't care what happens. A great read (in my opinion ).

 

[lalwean]

It isn't out yet but it comes out later this month, its the first book of a series of 9 by an up and comming author named Ryan Tomasella. Drylor The First Artifact is the first book in the series and it follows a man named Von as he struggles to regain his memory and stop his brother from destroying everything.

The back of the book:

When a man wakes up inside a cage that is being carried through
an underground city, he has no idea where he is or what has
happened to him. As Von, a victim of amnesia, is taken to a jail
cell to await his fate amongst elves, humans, dwarfs, gnomes, and
halflings, he is told he is a member of the Royal Guard of Genisus.
It is not long before he is transported to the palace where he
meets an impatient king who eventually returns him to his jail
cell while deciding his destiny.

As Von’s memory slowly returns, he discovers that he is the only
one who can protect Drylor—a world that abandoned him—
from its greatest evil, his own brother. Through his journey to the
truth, Von meets an unlikely group of friends who are willing
to sacrifice everything to help him stop his brother Scarlet
from annihilating the only world they have ever known.

As Von’s past becomes clear and reveals his future, he soon
realizes the only way he can end his brother’s heartless
massacres is to find him and kill him.

For how long the information about this book has been out, it's developed quite a following on facebook already. It's something I would definitely recommend checking out.

 

[Shimrod]

The Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance which is absolutely brilliant. It isn't often that I come across books that are of this high of quality.

I'm bad at summarizing books, so you can read about them on the Wikipedia article for the Lyonesse series:

Book one - Suldrun's Garden

Book two - The Green Pearl

Book three - Madouc

There are currently hardback and softcover omnibuses of this trilogy which I recommend getting ASAP before the book is out-of-print again. The titles in this book are generally out-of-print and you're usually forced to have to buy used out-of-print copies from used book stores. You could, of course, purchase volumes second-hand, but you likely won't find it in local bookstores; used copies of the books in this series aren't easy to find and can be pricey.

I'm creating this post so that you folks can acknowledge the existence of this series; it's strongly deserving of attention. It's a shame that it's obscure and often out-of-print.

Consider checking it out. If you're into speculative fiction, this could very well become one of your favorite series of all-time. Heck - even if you're not into speculative fiction you could enjoy this. Lots of people who've read this say that this is on par (or even better) than Lord of the Rings.

If you like this series, you might like other stuff by Jack Vance.