Can you recommend a book for me please?

I’ve basically been ordered to pick up any fiction book and read, after a friend discovered I’ve not read anything but non-fiction for a decade.

The ones I’ve enjoyed in the past have been short, fantastical or sci-fi (think Aldous Huxley, Ian McEwan), but crucially with amazing first person descriptive prose - the kind where you’re immersed in the writing so much you’re almost there with the character.

I liked sci-fi as the world’s constraints weren’t always predictable. Hope that makes sense.

Any recommendations?

Edit: I’m going to up the ante and, as a way of motivating myself to get off my arse and actually read a proper story, promise to choose a book from the top comment, after, let’s say arbitrarily, Friday 2200 GMT.

Edit deux: Wow ok I don’t think I’ve ever had this many responses to anything I’ve posted before. You’ve given me what looks like a whole year of interesting suggestions, and importantly, good commentary around them. I’m honouring my promise to buy the top thing in just under 4 hours.

author_shrubs ,

Name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss. The book is a must read if you love prose.
The series isn't finished, probably won't be, though I hope it will be. You have been warned.

Cowbee ,
@Cowbee@lemmy.ml avatar

Roadside Picnic. Not too long, but phenomenal overall and told via first person.

Churbleyimyam ,

The best first-person novel I've read is Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. The best first-person sci-fi novel I've read is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

capybeby ,
@capybeby@sh.itjust.works avatar

I second Project Hail Mary

Slotos ,

Adding to the pile.

Peter Watts. Most of his works are available on his site for free - https://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

Greg Egan. Start with Diaspora.

Alastair Reynolds. I recommend starting with short fiction in Revelation Space and looping back to main novels. I accidentally approached it that way, and the experience of all the stories linking together was downright magical.

Charles Stross’ “Neptune Brood” explores the idea of debt under the guise of a space opera-ish action. Afterwards, Glasshouse and linked books will present a different existential crysis to mull over.

Cory Doctorow’s Little brother is an excellent book to follow 1984 with. And a great start to the rest of his biography.

N. K. Jemisin’s “Broken earth” was quite a treat, prose- and story-wise.

Ann Lecke’s “Imperial Radch” is a brain-twister, especially for someone whose native language is gendered all throughout. It was fun giving up on information I’m used to have in words.

Pierce Brown’s “Red rising” has one of the best flowing prose I’ve read. Do mind that the story was initially planned to be a trilogy, and it clearly shows in narration.

Mark Lawrence’s everything. “Power word kill” is a great play around DnD, and “The broken empire” has the most loathsome protagonist you’ll ever root for.

hades ,

Just as a general advice that has only occurred to me recently: if you don't like a book, stop reading it and read another one. There are great books, and there are mediocre, and also you some might work better for you, and some worse. If you start with a book that you don't like, and power through it anyway, you might be reluctant to try another one.

You've mentioned sci-fi, but didn't mention Robert Sheckley. If you haven't read any of his stories, drop everything and read Citizen in Space, for example.

If you'd rather go for something more modern, fun, but also a little sad, try The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

For something extremely entertaining, but also mysterious, try Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson.

If you're into videogames and like drama, try Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. That's the best book I've read in the past 5 years.

sibbl ,

I enjoyed reading the Arc of a Scythe book series by Neal Shusterman. Its world where people don't die and where a very central AI helps people fascinated me.

Ixoid ,

There are some great suggestions here - I'm also adding to my reading list!

I almost exclusively read sci-fi, and my favourite author is Peter F. Hamilton. He has written some mind-bendingly good space opera, much of it spanning multiple novels.

His best work IMHO is a one-shot, standalone novel called Fallen Dragon. It's got rampant uber-captialism, space marines, geurilla warfare on colony worlds, and aliens. And a very satisfying conclusion that I didn't see coming.

fleet ,

Naive Super. Not sci-fi, but a quick enjoyable read. I've read it 4 times now. Its just a fantastic simple book to get back into reading fiction.

carcus ,

Haven’t seen this one mentioned, but The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin might work. I don’t believe there’s a lot of first person, but it’s an interesting read.

hybridhavoc ,
@hybridhavoc@lemmy.world avatar

IMO this is a wild recommendation to give to someone that doesn't do a lot of reading.

carcus ,

That’s fair, I had thought op had mentioned they didn’t read fiction, not that they didn’t read at all. Maybe I missed some nuance in the comments, thanks for pointing it out if I did. For all I knew they could be reading Foucault. Enjoyable read regardless, I wouldn’t be discouraged.

Bigoldmustard ,

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. If you only read one fiction book ever, you could do a lot worse.

It’s not Sci-fi. It is beautiful though, and complex and descriptive and puts you right there with the character arcs. Just a staggering work of genius I can’t recommend enough. I buy it for people I care about.

FUBAR ,

Daemon by Daniel Suarez. I read that as a young programmer and it’s still in my mind. Written before the whole AI hype.

The godfather. People always say the book was better. This is the case here

Quintus ,
@Quintus@lemmy.ml avatar

I made a comment somewhere else a few days ago so I'll just copy paste.

Les Misérables is easily the best book I’ve ever read in my entire life. A few years ago I read a shorthened version of it and even then I was fascinated by it. I finished reading the full text two months ago and oh my fucking god this book is the best thing ever written.

I’m Turkish so I read the Turkish translation (will read the full text in English and French when I learn it) and on the back of it, it says something along these lines:

“… Les Misérables is the third and the most majestic collumn of the author’s novel trilogy that tells of the society…”

And I completely agree with that. This book is simply timeless. The characters, situations, unjustice, inequalities, all the suffering in it could be applied to any society. This book is real.

The messages that it sends are solutions to topics that seemingly anybody with a functioning brain should be capable of thinking and realizing. And yet, these solutions are ignored and refused because of greed, revenge, bloodlust and most important of all, ignorance.

The main character of the book, Jean Valjean is the embodiment of redemption. His entire arc teaches us how to treat criminals. Some countries today are taking these lessons and applying them. The lessons being; treat them as human, rehabilitate them. The result? They actually do heal and return to society as normal human beings.

And yet you see people against this practice. Those kinds of people are blinded by bloodlust and revenge. They are the same kind of people that were racist, sexist and much more back in the day. The arguments that these people bring don’t hold up either. The most common one I see (at least from my perspective) is this:

“You wouldn’t react this way if they hurt one of your loved ones!”

The fact that these people don’t know anything about me aside, this argument is pointless as it implies that I would be blind to fact and logic when I’m in pain. And while that is true, me being angry over an apple falling onto my head won’t make gravity any less real. In other words, so what?

The biggest victims of this mentality are pedofiles. Not the ones that do engage in action. But rather the ones that don’t harm anybody are aware of their issue. For instance, if a non-engaging pedo went to a therapist and told them of their issue, what would the therapist do? Call the police of course. And what would that do? Their life would be pretty screwed from that point forward. Assuming they are the non-engaging type, of course. I don’t believe this to be the correct attitude towards these kind of cases.

I would also like to dive into other topics that the book covers (and perhaps extend on this one) but it would be way too long for a comment. Thank you anyone reading this far. I would like to hear your opinions on the matter and discuss even!>>

laurelraven ,

Something not by one of the more well known authors I could recommend are the Indranan War trilogy and Farian War trilogy, by K. B. Wagers

Also, The Frontiers Saga series by Ryk Brown is fantastic, and I think getting close to 40 books by now

nuggsy ,
@nuggsy@lemmy.world avatar

I'd recommend Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

It fits fantastical, I think and it's also listed as sci-fi, but not sure it is.

It's the book I suggested to a mate of mine who wanted to get back into reading again. He loved it so much that he bought a 2nd proper copy with illustrations by Chris Riddell, my favourite illustrator.

dandelion ,
@dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I don't think anyone has recommended the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson yet.

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