In no particular order, as I don't really have a specific "favorite" book:
1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I really liked this book when I was 15, and I suppose that I still do. Eric Showers told me that the main character is Hitleresque, which makes a certain amount of sense in retrospect. The characters are interesting, as is the underlying theme of the corruption of youth and innocence.
2. Redwall by Brian Jacques
My childhood was consumed by this series. Small woodland creatures fight vermin and go on wild adventures to distant lands. Structured similarly to Lord of the Rings, with mice instead of hobbits and rats in place of orcs. Quite decent, for a young-adult book.
3. I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole
I'm a sucker for Star Wars. There are some very good books in the Expanded Universe, and some very bad books; this is one of the better ones. It's a first-person account of the adventures of Corran Horn, police officer/pilot/Jedi, second only to the great Han Solo as the baddest dude in the galaxy, as he infiltrates a murderous band of space pirates and eventually blows stuff up.
3a. The X-Wing series, by Michael A Stackpole and Aaron Allston
Hey, it's that name again! Contains spaceships, explosions, more spaceships, inaccurate physics, a wolf-man, a pig-man, and a horse-man. Despite the silliness, this whole series is quite good, since it avoids the Expanded Universe trap of sending Luke, Han, and Lando off on another misadventure, instead creating a new set of intriguing (and often oddly entertaining) characters.
4. D-Day by Stephen E. Ambrose
Non-fiction account of the biggest invasion in history. Vividly describes a wide range of settings and figures, from the infantry storming the beaches to the panzers struggling to mount a counteroffensive. Ambrose is excellent at relating history in a compelling, interesting manner.
5. Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard
Space Opera written by the founder of Scientology. The Space Mutiny of the literary world, for all you MST3K fans. Overly long, with many questionable decisions on the parts of both the main characters and the author. It's on this list because I couldn't stop laughing at the densely-placed stereotypical cliches. Contains quite a dose of anti-Freudian undertones, and of proto-Scientology. Don't read this book unless you're the sort of person who watches SyFy Channel original movies.
Thanks for the list. Seems appropriate that it has a science fiction intergalactic war theme running throughout (after all, you always advertised epic battles in your Laire announcements). Don't know Redwall--is it more exciting than Watership Down, or do you not know that one?
ReplyDelete