I need a good book to read... any suggestions? i enjoy scifi and action?

Question: I need a good book to read!.!.!. any suggestions!? i enjoy scifi and action!?

I have read the entire enders game series and enjoyed it alot!.!.um id like a book that is funny and intersting but not really hardcore scifi please suggest something cause i need stuff to read this summer or i will be bored to death!. thanksWww@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Good choice going with Ender's Game!. I remember reading the original short story and really liking it!.

I'm not sure what you mean by "hardcore sci-fi" so I'm going to go with a few different authors!.

First I'd suggest with RINGWORLD!. Larry Niven's best solo novel!. It has spaceships and aliens!.!.!.but this is NOT a Flash Gordon or Han Solo!. There is nothing else like it (well except for the two sequels)!. Very exciting and engaging!. There is an air of mystery, and as with all of Niven's "Known Space" series, it is lighter than a lot of sci fi!. I think you might like that!.

ANYTHING from Niven's "Tales of Known Space"!.!.!.including the stories about Gil the ARM (I really liked Gil) are excellent!. Niven has faith in people, so his carachters tend to be smart and they live in a future that is full of smart, competent people!.!.!.so the future is one that generally works!. None of this post-apocolyptic depression crud!. People are going to go into space, get rich, and be free!. In Niven's future, the UN may run the world, and they may be an incompetent bureaucracy, but they aren't powerful enough to REALLY muck anything up!.!.!. at least not seriously!.!.!. and there are always other planets you can go to if things get too bad!. So there is an air of optomisim and positivisim about Niven's work that Any Known Space book is good, but Ringworld is unique unto itself!.

Second I'd look at MOTE IN GOD'S EYE by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle!. Robert Heinlein (probably the best of the "Golden Age" of Sci Fi authors) said that he considered it to be the best Science Fiction novel ever written!. (High praise coming from him!) It is a real classic, and the one of the very very few novels with a truly ALIEN alien!.!.!. Niven said that the hardest thing to do was to create an alien that thought as well as a human, but DIFFERENTLY!. In this book he does it!. This Universe is very different from Niven's Known Space series, but again it is a future full of competent and intellegent people who live and work in a future that is generally run by competent and intelligent and HONORABLE people!.!.!. danger, adventure, excitement, mystery!.!.!.but none of the utter depression you see in the "after the great eco-disaster when everyone but me died!.!.!." books!.

Heinlein himself is spotty IMHO!. I'm a great fan of his earlier work, but his later stuff falls short, in my personal opinion!. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is good!.!.!.Door into Summer is good!.!.!.Lazarus Long and Farnhams Freehold not so much, and Stranger in a Strange land I didn't like at all!.!.!. though many disagree with me on that!. I noticed that when Heinlein hit his mid-life crisis it didn't go so well!.!.!. all of a sudden his stories start to be full of older men who don't age, live forever, and attract hordes of beautiful young women who are just dying to sleep with them, for reasons that are never really made clear in the plot!. NOT his best work!. I mention it because I noticed that it tends to happen to authors who are childless (which may have something to do with it) middle aged atheists!.!.!.Personally I think it comes from how Christians and non-Christians view death, and thusly aging differently!.!.!.!.but I digress!.

In any case I, as a rule of thumb AVIOD the later works of most Sci-Fi authors!. Once they start trying to work out their own mortality !.!.ugh!.!.!.ugh!.!.!.blech!!!

I've seen some of the same thing in a number of Sci-Fi author's work!.!.!. When you boil it down to Poul Anderson's Tau Zero is the story a starship crew who become immortal because of an accident with their starship!.!.!.and all the characters are straight out of a "Childless by Choice Faculty Members for NPR" rally!. You almost expect to see a MCGOVERN 72 bumper sticker on the back of the starship!.!.!. one wonders if all the testing was done to select a crew of "mankind's best and brightest" or just "a bunch of REALLY annoying, people who think they are a lot more perfect, enlightened, and smart than they really are"!. Needless to say I didn't like it!.

An exception to this rule is C!.S!. Lewis!. (of Narnia Book Fame)!. He wrote a space trilogy!. Out of the Silent Planet is the first book!.!.!.influenced a bit by H!.G!. Wells!. It is about Ransom (the hero's) involuntary trip to Mars, and mostly it is about the "people" he encounters there!. Not a phaser in the entire book, it is all about the Martians!. Lewis, like Niven, does Aliens right!.

Perelandra is the second book in Lewis's Space Trilogy and I did not like it at all!.!.!.fortunately you can skip it and not miss anything!. Lewis said it was his favorite thing of his he ever wrote!.!.!.which I find ironic, because, as I said, I really disliked it and he is one of my favorite authors!.

The Third book is the best THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH, almost a C!.S!. Lewis meets H!.P!. Lovecraft sort of thing!.!.!.It is one of my favorite books!. It can be read independently (in fact all 3 of the books can) so I'd do that!.!.!. just skip Perelandra!. It incidentally takes place almost entirely at an English University in the late 1940s!. NOT a "Space Opera"!.

(Speaking of which, avoid Lovecraft as well!.!.!. I read a lot of him in college and for the most part all I can say is yuck!.)

THE STAND by Steven King is also a personal favorite!. I'm not a King fan generally!.!.!.THE STAND and Salem's Lot are, I think, the only things of his I have read!.!.!.but I really, really, really liked THE STAND!.

Saving the best for last, Ray Bradbury is the master!. I hate to say this, but no author I have ever read, except for Shakespear, has as unique and wonderful way with the English language!. I tell people all the time to read THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES and THE ILLISTRATED MAN just so they can get "There will come soft rains"!.!.!.and , "The Long Rain" and "Rocket Man" !. Those three are the most haunting storirs I have ever read!.!.!.

Before you read Farenhiet 451 though!.!.!.read this http://www!.laweekly!.com/news/news/ray-br!.!.!. Bradbruy gave an interviwe talking about the story and how english teachers always get it WRONG!.

Good luck and enjoy!Www@QuestionHome@Com

You should look up Jasper Fforde's "Thrusday Next" series!. There are four books, "The Eyre Affair" "Lost in a Good Book" "The Well of Lost Plots" and "Something Rotten!." It's about life for a SpecOps officer on another time line!.There is action, and humour!.!.!.a little bit of romance, but it is real life kind, with sarcasm and stuff like that!. There are alot of literary allusions, but since you seem like you read alot, you would probably get them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If you are looking for funny, sci-fi and not too hardcore, then you will want to read Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, as well as the following books in the series!.

These books are fun to read, suitable for teenagers and adults and will give you enough sci-fi content to keep you satisfied!. They are fun to read and have some really great characters!. Just remember not to leave home without your towel!.

For action, with a little sci-fi content, you might try some of the books by Matthew Reilly!. These are action packed books with some interesting stories, a couple really great heroes and some really bad men!. I would start with Contest (which has the most sci-fi content), and then recommend Ice Station and Seven Deadly Wonders, the first books of two different series!. These series are more action/adventure, but are really fast paced and will keep you turning pages!.

You might also like the Ringworld books by Larry Niven!. These are a little more traditional sci-fi books, but shouldn't be too "hardcore" for your tastes!. He mixes in plenty of humor, adventure and action to keep you moving along, and writes some pretty interesting characters!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The Tactics of Mistake by Gordon Dickson!. It's a military SF on a par with Ender's Game, but a bit easier to follow!.

The Wizard in Spite of Himself by Christopher Stasheff!. First book in a very good series!.

Search for the Sun by Ellen Anthony!. Science fiction mystery!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

he host by stephenie meyer
harry potter
the percy jackson series by rick riordan
midnighters series by scott westerfeld
and blue bloods by melissa de la cruz

hope this helps! good luck!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Ella Enchanted
if you've already read that,
Fairest
it's by the same author
I've read Ender's Game and LOVED it
You should enjoy these too!Www@QuestionHome@Com

The "Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter" series by Laurell K!. Hamilton (you won't regret reading them)Www@QuestionHome@Com

Atlantis by Andy McDermont is a really good Action book- google it, its really good!!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Rash by Pete Hautman
Jumping Off the Planet by David Gerrold
Whales on Stilts by M!. T!. AndersonWww@QuestionHome@Com

Twilight series!!!Www@QuestionHome@Com

twilight series:)Www@QuestionHome@Com

The Host!.!.!.but only if you can handle romance and sci-fi
Not hardcore!. really well written, though!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

WEBSITE BELOW HAS LOTS OF DIFFERENT LISTS!.

James White:
Beginning Operations: A Sector General Omnibus includes: Hospital Station, Star Surgeon, and Major Operation!.
Alien Emergencies: A Sector General Omnibus includes: Ambulance Ship, Sector General, and Star Healer!.
Double Contact (about the Cinrusskin, Dr!. Prilicla)
General Practice (includes Code Blue - Emergency and The Genocidal Healer)
Mind Changer
The Watch Below
The Silent Stars Go By

Madeleine L'Engle:
A Wrinkle in Time *
A Wind in the Door *
A Swiftly Tilting Planet *
Many Waters *
An Acceptable Time *

E!. E!. "Doc" Smith:
Triplanetary *
First Lensman *
Galactic Patrol *
Gray Lensman *
Second Stage Lensman *
Children of the Lens *
The Vortex Blaster (a!.k!.a!. Masters of the Vortex) *
The Skylark of Space series *

Andre Norton:
Starman's Son *
Galactic Derelict *
The Time Traders *
Solar Queen

Ursula K!. LeGuin:
The Telling *
The Word for World is Forest *
The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia *
The Left Hand of Darkness *
City of Illusions *
Planet of Exile *
Rocannon's World *
The Lathe of Heaven *

Lois Lowry: The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger
Scott Westerfeld: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras!.
Jules Verne: Journey to the Center of the Earth *

Isaac Asimov:
Prelude to Foundation
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth
Forward the Foundation
I, Robot (Nothing like the movie!)
The Caves of Steel (Robot Series)
The Naked Sun (Robot Series)
The Robots of Dawn (Robot Series)
Robots and Empire (Robot Series)
The Currents of Space (Empire Series)
The Stars, Like Dust (Empire Series)
Pebble in the Sky (Empire Series)
The Gods Themselves
Nightfall
Nemesis
Fantastic Voyage
Gold
The End of Eternity

Ray Bradbury:
The Martian Chronicles *
Farenheit 451 (First published in 1953!. A future totalitarian regime has banned books and they are burned!.)
Dandelion Wine
The Illustrated Man

H!. G!. Wells:
The Time Machine *
The War of the Worlds *
The Island of Dr!. Moreau
The Invisible Man

C!. S!. Lewis:
Space Trilogy - Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength

Larry Niven: Ringworld
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle:
The Mote in God's Eye and Lucifer's Hammer

Edwin A!. Abbott:
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Dionys Burger wrote a sequel called Sphereland!. The two can be purchased in one volume!.)

Arthur C!. Clarke:
Against the Fall of Midnight *
Childhood's End
Rendevous with Rama
The City and the Stars
The Fountains of Paradise
2001: A Space Odyssey
2010: Odyssey Two
2061: Odyssey Three
3001: The Final Odyssey

Robert A!. Heinlein:
Rocket Ship Galileo *
Space Cadet *
Red Planet *
Farmer in the Sky *
Between Planets *
The Rolling Stones (Space Family Stone) *
Starman Jones *
The Star Beast *
Tunnel in the Sky *
Time for the Stars *
Citizen of the Galaxy *
Have Space Suit-Will Travel *
Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon *
Tenderfoot in Space *
Green Hills of the Earth
The Past Through Tomorrow
Double Star
The Door Into Summer
Starship Troopers
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Friday
Glory Road
Time Enough for Love
The Puppet Masters
Podkayne of Mars *
Time for the Stars
Red Planet
Farnham's Freehold
Stranger in a Strange Land (a classic of science fiction)

Stanley Robinson:
Mars Trilogy - Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars

Michael Crichton:
Sphere, The Terminal Man, The Andromeda Strain, and Jurassic Park

Walter Tevis: The Man Who Fell to Earth
Frederik Pohl: Gateway
David Brin:
Earth
Sundiver
Startide Rising
The Uplift War
Brightness Reef
Infinity's Shore
Heaven's Reach
Glory Season
The Postman
Kiln People

Joe Haldeman: The Forever War
James Blish: Cities in Flight
Gene Wolfe: Book of the New Sun
Stanislaw Lem: Solaris, Cyberiad, Eden, and The Star Diaries

Philip K!. Dick:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep!?
The Policeman Said
Flow My Tears
The Man in the High Castle
Ubik

George Orwell: 1984
Frank Herbert:
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapter House of Dune

Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle
Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Nancy Farmer:
The House of the Scorpion (Humans despise clones, but young Matt is the clone of El Patron and that gives him special status!.

Anthony Horowitz
Alex Rider Series - He was told that his Uncle Ian died in a car crash!. However, 14 year old Alex has seen the bullet holes in his Uncle's windshield!. He was not prepared for the news that his Uncle had been a spy for MI6, the British top secret intelligence agency!. Alex is recruited to locate those who killed his Uncle and finish Ian's last mission!. - Stormbreaker (2000), Point Blanc (2001), Skeleton Key (2002), Eagle Strike (2003), Scorpia (2004), Ark Angel (2005), Snakehead (2007), and Yassen (Forthcoming)!.

Diamond Brothers Series - The Falcon's Malteser (1986), Public Enemy Number Two (1987), South by South East (1991), The Blurred Man (2003), The French Confection (2003), I Know What You Did Last Wednesday (2003), The Greek Who Stole Christmas (2007), and The Radius of the Lost Shark (Forthcoming)!.

Pentagram Series - The Devil's Door-Bell (1983), The Night of the Scorpion (1984), The Silver Citadel (1986), and The Day of the Dragon (1989)!.

Power of Five (In the U!.S!.: The Gatekeepers) - Raven's Gate (2005), Evil Star (2006), Nightrise (2007), and Necropolis: City of the Dead (2008, Forthcoming)!.

C!. S!. Forester (1899 - 1966; English) Hornblower Series
Mr!. Midshipman Hornblower - The year is 1793 and Horatio Hornblower is a 17 year old boy who is ordered to board a French merchant ship and take command!. This is the first in a series of adventures for the young man!.

Lieutenant Hornblower - This is the second book (of 11) in the series!. The seafaring Hornblower is promoted to Acting Lieutenant under the command of an insane Queeg-like of a ship's captain!. The ship runs aground, is attacked by Spaniards, and Hornblower saves the day!. You will find lots of adventure!. 1952!.

Other Titles Include: Hornblower and the Hotspur, Hornblower During the Crisis, Hornblower and the Atropos, Beat to Quarters, Ship of the Line, Flying Colours, Commodore Hornblower, Lord Hornblower, and Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies!.

Tom Clancy

Jack Ryan/John Clark Universe (Listed NOT by date of publication, but rather chronologically) - Without Remorse (1993), Patriot Games (1987), Red Rabbit (2002), The Hunt for Red October (1984), The Cardinal of the Kremlin (1988), Clear and Present Danger (1989), The Sum of All Fears (1991), Debt of Honor (1994), Executive Order (1996), Rainbow Six (1998), The Bear and the Dragon (2000), and The Teeth of the Tiger (2003)!.

W!. E!. B!. Griffin

M*A*S*H Series

Brotherhood of War Series (Army) - The Lieutenants, The Captains, The Majors, The Colonels, The Berets, The Generals, The New Breed, The Aviators, and Special Ops!.

The Corps Series (Marine Corps) - Semper Fi, Call to Arms, Counterattack, Battleground, Line of Fire, Close Combat, Behind the Lines, In Danger's Path, Under Fire, and Retreat, Hell!

Men at War Series (OSS, WWII precursor to the CIA) - The Last Heroes (aka In The Line of Duty), The Secret Warriors (aka Covert Operations), The Soldier Spies (aka Give me Liberty), The Fighting Agents (aka Into Enemy Hands), The Saboteurs, and The Double Agents!.

Honor Bound Series (OSS) - Honor Bound, Blood and Honor, and Secret Honor!.

Badge of Honor Series (Philadelphia Police) - Men in Blue, Special Operations, The Victim, The Witness, The Assassin, The Murderers, The Investigators, and Final Justice!.

Presidential Agent Series (Contemporary Counterterrorism) -By Order of the President, The Hostage, The Hunters, and The Shooters!.

Vince Flynn

Mitch Rapp Series (Mitch is a CIA "black ops" counterterrorism agent) - Transfer of Power (1999), The Third Option (2000), Separation of Power (2001), Executive Power (2002), Memorial Day (2004), Consent to Kill (2005), Act of Treason (2006), and Protect and Defend (2007)!.

Robert Ludlum

The Scarlatti Inheritance (1971), The Osterman Weekend (1972), The Matlock Paper (1973), Trevayne (1973, writing under the pen-name Jonathan Ryder), The Cry of the Halidon (1974, writing under the pen-name Jonathan Ryder), The Rhinemann Exchange (1974), The Road to Gandolfo (1975, writing under the pen-name Michael Shephard), The Gemini Contenders (1976), The Chancellor Manuscript (1977), The Holcroft Covenant (1978), The Matarese Circle (1979), The Bourne Identity (1980), The Parsifal Mosaic (1982), The Aquitaine Progression (1984), The Bourne Supremacy (1986), The Icarus Agenda (1988), The Bourne Ultimatum (1990), The Road to Omaha (1992), The Scorpio Illusion (1993), The Apocalypse Watch (1995), The Matarese Countdown (1997), and The Prometheus Deception (2000)!.

John le Carre

Call for the Dead (1961); A Murder of Quality (1962); The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963); The Looking-Glass War (1965); A Small Town in Germany (1968); The Naive and Sentimental Lover (1971); Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974); The Honourable Schoolboy (1977); Smiley's People (1979); The Little Drummer GiWww@QuestionHome@Com