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Hey i havent been around in a long time but i just read SoTG and decided to check the boards.
Anyway i just wanted to see if there are any other books out there like Enders Game. Another book that just blows you away and instantly becomes your favorite book I havent found any others so far that changed my life like EG did.
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Well, that depends, Sci-fi or Fantasy. I don't know of one for sci-fi... EG tops my list. But as for Fantasy, pick up "Eye of the World" by Robert Jordan. I'll warn you though-- Highly addictive series!!! And Jordan hasn't finished it yet-- but there ARE like 10 or 11 books to date, and each is 800+ pages, so it's likely to keep you busy for a while. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Posts: 84 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Also, I have been reading Maps in a Mirror (A collection of OSC's short stories) and WOW. Some of them put me in some of the wierdest moods ever before I go to bed (I try to read at least one a night).
Posts: 27 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Of course! "Sam I Am" became my favorite book almost overnight (although not recently). When I was three years old, it was my absolute reading joy. I would walk around the house and read it to anyone I bumped into. My parents have a videotape of me squeaking "I do not like them, Sam I Am!" to them at the kitchen table.
"Sam I Am" will always be among my favorites. Although my taste in books has changed (not surprising), I doubt any of my recent reads can equal the enthusiasm of my "Sam I Am" craze. So is it my favorite book? I don't have a favorite book. I have many, depending on how I remember my passion for them--from Richard Scary in preschool to Brian Jacques in fourth grade to OSC now.
If the question means which book I enjoy right at this moment, I would have to say Enchantment because I just read it and am rereading it for the second time in four days. But by the time I've reread it to a pulp, I don't think it will be one of my all-time favorites. It's entertaining and novel, but doesn't interest me to the point of favoritehood.
Posts: 973 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Read OSC's Homecoming saga if you have yet to.
And while franchise books will surely destroy our brains, any Timothy Zahn Star Wars book is worth at least 1 read.
To get back on topic: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. forget the movie, read the book. Please, please, please don't read this unless you're 20 or so. I don't want to be responsible for anyone doing anything stupid.
Posts: 7 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Dude...Ender's Shadow. That one takes it for me. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Colombus as well.
Posts: 46 | Registered: Apr 2005
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While Enders game remains my favorite book, there have been other books that have blown me away so to speak.
Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden Glimpses by Lewis Shiner
If your more intersted in SCI-FI I can't recomend highly enough the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Posts: 29 | Registered: May 2002
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Hitchikers guide to the galaxy. It wont be your favorite book, you will be able to put it down, but it is one of the few books that makes you say "what the hell?" at least 4 times per chapter. Funniest book ever, especially if you try to take it seriously
Posts: 31 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I would recommend other Card books for that blow me away feeling, but there are a couple of other authors that make me feel like I've come home, only to a strange new place.
Robin McKinley always does that for me, every time.
Kage Baker does too. She writes science fiction mixed with historical fiction, and she also writes fantasy. Her books are also deeply character driven and fascinating, and deal with hard choices. She also uses quite a bit of wit as a leavening agent, which is nice. She is still a relative newcomer to the field but has published more than a half dozen books and is cooking several more. I would start with her first novel of the Company, The Garden of Iden.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Dune (and sequels and prequel) Harry Potter (and sequels) Fahrenheit 451 Sahara (the recent movie was based on it) The Horatio Hornblower series by C S Forester Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (and Lila) by Robert Pirsig
Posts: 116 | Registered: Sep 2004
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One book out of the sci-fi realm, but smack dab in the middle of the fantasy world that blew me away in its strange way, is the melancholy tale of "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco.
His style enthralls the reader in the pre 14th century time period of the novel. Baudolino is a character that will stay in my memory forever.
Posts: 201 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Has anyone else read Umberto Eco? I've only read the one book, but I am interested in his other works...
Posts: 201 | Registered: Mar 2005
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The only Eco novel I've read is Foucault's Pendulum, which is incredible, but also a bit exhausting. It's superficially similar to Da Vinci Code, but for the uber-intellectual - very dense, but fascinating and very worth it. It took me about three or four weeks' solid effort to get through it all, and normally books that size only take me three or four days, but that was definitely time well spent!
(Btw, I'm new! I've been lurking off and on for the past few months, though. Hi, everyone! )
I'm more of a fantasy reader than sci-fi usually (except for Card, of course), and a couple of my favorites are Robin Hobb and Jacqueline Carey. They're both very strong on characterization and rich, complex plots and settings. I've read all of Robin Hobb's books (though not her pseudonym's yet), and they're amazing. I've only read Carey's Kushiel trilogy so far, and I should probably warn you that her books are definitely rated R...at least. They're fabulous, but not for the prudish or, um, young and innocent. George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series is also excellent, full of political intrigue and gritty realism...and he's *finally* finished writing A Feast For Crows!
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I have a lot of favorite books that I have read. Harry Potter was exceptional, along with LotR and the Enderverse. The book that intrigued more than these, however, was the Belgariad, by David Eddings. His use of classic writing tools are amazing. In one of his writing classes, OSC discussed how to use characters names in the book. Husbands use their wives first name, while children use mom, and so forth. In the Belgariad, this simple literary idea is used as an integral character development stage for Garion (the lead protagonist). There are few characters more effectively created in this series. Every character, including those that only touch the surface of the story, are incredibly tangible. If have never has so many moods arise while reading a book. It is a must buy for fans of LotR and a great buy for everyone else.
Posts: 60 | Registered: Jun 2005
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It's not too hard to come up with great books that are on a par with Ender's Game for intensity, entertainment value, clever plotting, or even the sheer "This is cool!" factor, but I know exactly what you mean about being blown away and having a book become your instant favorite, and that's much harder to come by.
To have characters that you feel as though you know better than your own friends, to feel as though you've spent weeks (or maybe just a long night!) by their side, watching them struggle and ultimately prevail, and then to feel it all again every time you pick up the book - that is the sign of an amazing novel.
Ender's Game did it for me, and the sequels Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide even moreso. I had a bunk in the launchies' barracks right alongside Ender; I wandered the piggies' forest and stood by every time Han Qing-Jao traced woodgrains. To me, the secret is an intimate connection with both a character and a setting. I couldn't get the same feeling for Children of the Mind or the Shadow books because I felt they jumped about too much between places and characters. They were still great stories, hard to put down, but once I finished I didn't have the same yearning to dive right back in and experience them again.
Outside of OSC, I would second the recommendation for Robin Hobb: her Assasin's trilogy evoked exactly the same feelings as the original Ender series did. It's told entirely from the point of view of a single character, and Hobb makes it very easy to invest yourself in all his dreams and loves, bittersweet as they often are. Her Liveship Trader's trilogy is also great, but like the Shadow series, without that tight focus that the Assasin's trilogy had; the plot is far more intricate and I would describe the story as more expansive and epic - like Tolkien, it sweeps across many nations, peoples, and even species.
Hope that helps!
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Beowulf (Larry Niven);A lot of action, neat idea. Ringworld (Larry Niven);Don't particularly care for the writing style, but once again, a very interesting concept
Posts: 2 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Someone recommended Pahlaniuk's Fight Club...I have to disagree. Fight Club was the worst of his novels, and the movie was much, MUCH better than it was - this is one point that 95% of his fans, critics, and even he agrees.
If you're going to read Pahlaniuk, read Survivor, or Choke.
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