Reccomendations from Fandomedia

[alias_sqbr]

People who didn't attend are allowed to read these too :)

From the "rant for five minutes on your favorite book" panel. I've definitely forgotten some, tell me in the comments and I'll add them. It's worth keeping in mind that someone loves each of these books, and just becuase I didn't doesn't mean you won't.

• A fire upon the deep Bubbles with ideas.
  
• The Vorkosigan saga Possibly my favourite series in the whole world
  
• Kil'n People I normally find David Brin annoying but this was heaps of fun.
  
• Lord of Light Really interesting
  
• Guns Germs and Steel (also Collapse) Changed the way I think about the world, worth slogging through the sometimes dense text.
  
• Bridge of Birds These are good but a little twee.
  
• First two Damiano books Personally I prefer "Tea with the black dragon". Just saying :)
  
• Use of Weapons Opinions vary on whether this is one of the better or worse "Culture" books, personally I prefer "Excession", "Consider Phlebas" and "Player of Games".
  
• Vurt I didn't like this book all that much but I'm not big on low-science psychedelic cyberpunk
  
• The Borribles
  
• Ex Machina
  
• The Princess Diaries
  
• Fables
  
• Nylon Angel
  
• Short fiction of Ted Chiang
  
• Honor Harrington
  
• The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse
  
• Bimbos of the death sun
  
• Freedom and Necessity
  
• Echoes of the Fourth Magic
  
• Agent of Change
  
• Altered Carbon
  

Also, Atomic rocket.com (seems to be down, possibly wrong url) from the science panel, and on the off chance Kylie Ding reads this, Sierpinski crochet, googling finds better examples, unfortunately I can't remember where I got the pattern.

Comments

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the relative merits of the Culture books referenced. Excession only just edges out Player of Games for my all time favourite; it's probably about time I found out whether it can withstand a second reading :)

Thanks for posting the rest - of all the non-Banks, I've only read half of Neon Angel. Yay for recs!

[grahame.livejournal.com]

It bobbles with ideas ;-)

[alias_sqbr]

No, that's "the peace war" :)

[lizbyrd.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, I bought Bridge of Birds at the con, before this panel, on Stephen Dedman's recommendation.

[justadecoy.livejournal.com]

Others on the list I was writing:

"A Fire Upon the Deep" Vernor Vinge
"Guns, Germs and Steel" & "Collapse" Jarrod Diamond
"Crash Deluxe" Marianne De Pierres
"Fables" A Graphic Novel
"Ex Machina" Another GN (Transit worker becomes superhero)
"Lords of Light and Magic" Roger Zelazny
(which I can't find in a searchable list of his work so I'm not sure about)
"Kil'n People" David Brin
"Zombies of the Gene Pool" "Bimbos of the Death Sun" Sharyn Mccrumb

Something I wrote down as Barry Hewitt "Lee Chao"

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

Excession is the most common favourite amongst the Culture readers I've spoken to over time. It's mine as well. It's to do with all the cool ship dialogues for me.

[grahame.livejournal.com]

Yep, but it was a good attempt at a joke :P

[nico-wolfwood.livejournal.com]

I've actually been looking for the Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse for a while now but no one seems to have a copy available to borrow. I may just have to end up buying it. (that was a not very subtle request in case you have copy BTW :) I'll be returning the stress of her regard to you tomorrow.

also, I found Bridge of Birds good but the sequels twee. This list makes me want to start reading more books again.

[nico-wolfwood.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about "Lords of Light an Magic", might it be Lord of Light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light/)?

[alias_sqbr]

Sorry, my best bet is to borrow it from fred_mouse (who reccomended it) and I don't think you know each other.

[alias_sqbr]

Yep, that was it.

[alias_sqbr]

Not sure what that last one is, but have added the others.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. The language! The names! The conspiracies! :)

[alias_sqbr]

Well, it was certainly an attempt...

:)

[alias_sqbr]

I have met a reasonable number who really like "Use of weapons" though.

[haircaspian.livejournal.com]

Some more I wrote:
Freedom and Necessity
(I didn't note the author, but Amazon lists it by Steven Brust & Emma Bull)

Echoes of the Fourth Magic
R.A. Salvatore

Agent of Change (& the rest of the series)
Steven Miller and Sharon Lee

Vurt
Jeff Noon
(I don't remember if this was a favourite, it might have just been mentioned as a discussion point)

the 3rd "Fury of Angels" book

[pedanther]

Barry Hughart's Li Kao series, which begins with 'Bridge of Birds'.

[alias_sqbr]

Added! Do you know who wrote the "fury of angels" books? Googling wasn't very helpful.

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

I think it's actually Nylon Angel

[haircaspian.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I e-mailed Terrycat with the address of this post since I think it was his recommendation.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Oops. Yes. It is. Or at least, that's the book I'm halfway through :)

After hearing Marianne reading an excerpt from her new book, I can now hear her voice when reading this one. It's very cool.

[terrycat.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I blurred two titles together.
It's actually the Takeshi Kovacs series - Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies by Richard Morgan

[alias_sqbr]

OOps, thanks! Though I think "Neon Angel" would make a good book title too :)

[alias_sqbr]

So is it "Woken Furies" you reccomend?

[alias_sqbr]

Ah, good to know I didn't miss one :)

[terrycat.livejournal.com]

All three are good but as a personal preference, I liked Altered Carbon best.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

ditto