Favourite NON-blacklibrary books

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**Soladrin**

So yea, since the novel thread over in 40k forums have sprouted some heated arguments I was wondering what people here like reading apart from that.

Guess I'll list some off the top of my head.

A brave new world.
Prose Edda
Dante's Inferno
The name of the rose.
Halo Novels (bite me)
Goblin quest, Goblin hero, Goblin war.
Cryptonomicon
The sin war trilogy (diablo books)
Some of the Magic the Gathering novels (Nemesis(Vlad the impaler rip off? hell yea but its awesome), ravnica series, Rath and storm, Invasion etc.)
Starship troopers

**Iron_Chaos_Brute**

HALO NOVELZ!! N00B!!!1! W34KS4UC3!!1!

j/k

On topic:
John Irving. Anything the man writes is fantastic.

**sebster**

I finished White Tiger the other day, it's a really great book.

Other than that, pretty much off the top of my head...
1984
The Little Prince
The Cider House Rules
Midnight's Children
Catch 22

I've never read a blacklibrary book. I read one of the fantasy ones years ago, it was alright.

EDIT - Oh, and I read the bloodbowl one as well, just recently. That sucked.

**Manchu**

Moby Dick is my favorite book.

**Cheese Elemental**

Anything by David Gemmell.

The Jerusalem Man trilogy in particular is awesome. Great use of religious themes.

**Tim the Biovore**

I like all Matthew Reilly (except Hovercar Racer, just coz). And I find myself leaning towards a reading list of classics.

**warpcrafter**

The 12th planet by Zecharia Sitchin. Don't knock it unless you've read it. Then you won't be able to.

**J.Black**

Never read a BlackLibrary book, though i keep hearing that Mr Abnett is an excellent writer.

I love most stuff by Iain M Banks; especially the Culture novels. Some of his non-scifi fiction is pretty good too.

Stephen Donaldson is another fave, especially if i'm in a dark mood. He writes some of the most masochistic books on the market.

If i want something light-hearted, i'll go for Robert Rankin: His sense of humour is unmatched

**Commander Endova**

Agreed on the Halo books.
Also, His Dark Materials
Big fan of Tom Clancy Novels

I also tend to read lots of books on modern warfare. The Utility of Force, The SAS Mental Handbook, Combat Techniques, Masters of Chaos, Stalkers and Shooters, Down Range, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green...I could go on.

**Iron_Chaos_Brute**

Commander Endova wrote:
I also tend to read lots of books on modern warfare. The Utility of Force, The SAS Mental Handbook, Combat Techniques, Masters of Chaos, Stalkers and Shooters, Down Range, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green...I could go on.

You ever hear of the Paladin of Shadows series by John Ringo

**Mad Rabbit**

Soladrin wrote:
A brave new world.
Prose Edda

Two great ones.
Also a fan of:
1984
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut
Catch 22
H.P. Lovecraft
Most Clive Barker
Old Norse sagas (Njal's Saga is probably the best)
Medieval histories and the like
DUNE (only the ones written by Frank Herbert)
Selected philosophy (Sartre, Nietzsche)
Steal This Book
Demian by Hermann Hesse

**Fafnir**

Sandman: The Dream Hunters
The Count of Monte Cristo
1984
Sandman: Endless Nights
Batman: The Killing Joke
The Alchemist
Watchmen
Maus
Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

**mattyrm**

Gemmell seconded, the man was a fething legend. The lord of the silver bow was awesome, as were the trilogy, and pretty much every single book he ever wrote.

**Commander Endova**

Iron_Chaos_Brute wrote:
Commander Endova wrote:
I also tend to read lots of books on modern warfare. The Utility of Force, The SAS Mental Handbook, Combat Techniques, Masters of Chaos, Stalkers and Shooters, Down Range, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green...I could go on.

You ever hear of the Paladin of Shadows series by John Ringo

I read a few John Ringo books while I was at Redstone Arsenal, to pass the time. I liked them well enough. Tom Clancy but more sci-fi. Never head of Paladin of Shadow, though. I take it carries your recommendation?

**The Dreadnote**

My absolute favourite series of all time is probably Alastair Reynold's "Revelation Space" books. Also, anything else this man writes.

**Iron_Chaos_Brute**

Commander Endova wrote:
Iron_Chaos_Brute wrote:
Commander Endova wrote:
I also tend to read lots of books on modern warfare. The Utility of Force, The SAS Mental Handbook, Combat Techniques, Masters of Chaos, Stalkers and Shooters, Down Range, Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green...I could go on.

You ever hear of the Paladin of Shadows series by John Ringo

I read a few John Ringo books while I was at Redstone Arsenal, to pass the time. I liked them well enough. Tom Clancy but more sci-fi. Never head of Paladin of Shadow, though. I take it carries your recommendation?

Indeed. Mil fi, no sci fi, but there are times when you'll have to skip 50 pgs. in the earlier books b/c of NSFWness that gets in the way of killing various people

.

**Lint**

Glen Cook's "Black Company" series is really good.

**Commissar Molotov**

"The War Hound and the World's Pain" by Michael Moorcock is one of my favorites - it's the first of the "Von Bek" trilogy, and it's about a mercenary captain of infantry in the Thirty Years' War who is sent on a quest to find the Holy Grail by none other than Lucifer himself...

**Alpharius**

Just about anything from Jack Vance
Dan Simmon's HYPERION series
Erickson's MALAZAN series

And so many, many more!

**Bran Dawri**

J.Black wrote:Stephen Donaldson is another fave, especially if i'm in a dark mood. He writes some of the most masochistic books on the market.

He really likes his characters to suffer, doesn't he?

Anyway, books I've recently enjoyed:

American Gods (N. Gaiman)
Neverwhere (same author)
The Forever War (Joe Haldeman)
The Child Thief (Brom)

Edit: And Pratchett, of course.

**Alpharius**

How could I forget!

ANYTHING in the POLITY series by NEAL ASHER
ANYTHING in the CULTURE series by Iain M. Banks

**The Dreadnote**

Banks' non-culture sci-fi is awesome too - "matter" was a great read.

**Alpharius**

The Dreadnote wrote:Banks' non-culture sci-fi is awesome too - "matter" was a great read.

Some of it is positively brain twisting though - "Feersum Endjinn" anyone?

**The Dreadnote**

Not read that one yet, though in fairness most of Bank's work could fall under the category of "brain twisting". Is Feersum Endjinn any good?

**BrookM**

My Tank Is Fight! (Zack Parsons), Your Next-Door Neighbour Is A Dragon (Zack Parsons), Alphabet of Manliness (Maddox), Nation (Pratchett), the Millennium Trilogy (Stieg Larsson).

**chromedog**

mattyrm wrote:Gemmell seconded, the man was a fething legend. The lord of the silver bow was awesome, as were the trilogy, and pretty much every single book he ever wrote.

Seems you have the man and the character confused.

Gemmel is but a writer of fantasy prose.
Druss was the LEGEND.

Prose Edda,
Armor
Starship Troopers
Dune (only the Frank Herbert ones)
Halo novels (are mostly written better than the BL books)
Anything by Kim Newman (including most of his older "Jack Yeovill" GW work).
David Drake's Hammer's Slammers
the Known Space series by Larry Niven.

**Khornholio**

I really like the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. They are really awesome low-fantasy. The other stuff by DeCamp and other authors is OK, but Howard's stuff is great.

Right now I'm reading 'Thus spoke Zarathustra' by Nietzsche. It's not exactly light reading and brings on a lot of contemplation about one's path in life. It's genius, but do you really want to follow the advice of a guy who spent the last 11 years of his life in an insane asylum?

Any book dealing with World War II or Nazis is worth reading. World War II ruled all wars.

Ancient historical texts, or 'primary sources', particularly the ones by Titus Livy.

**Alpharius**

Oh!

Definitely ARMOR by Steakley!

A shame he never did write much else after that (Vampire$ is it, right?)

I hear he's working on a sequel to ARMOR though...

**Soladrin**

What kind of book is Armor?

Also, no one has read Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines?:( those books are bloody hilarious. Imagine your standard DnD quest or something, but from the goblin's view of things.

**chromedog**

Armor is a book about a PA trooper called Felix and his (mis)adventures. It's a great read.

Didn't realised I hadn't finished it the last time I picked it up. I thought the "Jack Crow" stuff was a different story (it is and isn't. It's kinda essential to the entire thing).

Steakley only did Vampires after it, AFAIK (have it also).

John Carpenter used it for his "Vampires" movie. Jack Crow, Vatican sanctioned Vampire Hunter. Played by James Woods.