TTP Book Club

**Manse** · 08-04-09, 07:04 AM

Since the fantasy authors have been tagged, I'll go another route and get into my "airplane reading." (I travel a lot for buisness, so I buy overpriced books in the airport)

I've been a huge fan of Ted Bell lately. He has a series of books that follow a james bond/pirate fellow by the name of Alex Hawke. They are thoroughly entertaining.

Of course, if you're into that sort of thing, there is always Clive Cussler. Though, I would start reading Cussler's early stuff first, so the rest of it makes sense.

**SJA** · 08-04-09, 09:29 AM

Ive grabbed a few James Rollins books while flying, they are a decent read. Sort of a poor man's Crichton. I read the entire Dale Brown series when I was in Iraq in 03, the first 5 or 6 books in the series were good, then he went from plausible to ridiculous with the capabilities of the main characters and I lost interest.

I also highly recommend Ariana Franklin, she has written two books about a female doctor/pathologist in 12th century England that are great.

**Veovis** · 08-04-09, 09:35 AM

Originally Posted by DeusInnomen

... ahh, right, here's one most people don't think of. Almost everyone knows Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" book. What most people don't realize is that it's the first book in a trilogy, followed up by Caves of Steel and The Robots of Dawn. They both tell a fantastic detective/murder mystery tale.

The Robot series also ties into Asimov's Empire and Foundation series, spanning his entire career and ~15 books. I've read all of them except for one I think.

And actually The Naked Sun comes after Caves of Steel. Entire list here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series

**DeusInnomen** · 08-04-09, 09:40 AM

Thanks Veo, I knew that didn't look quite right and something was missing, but I was too busy to fact check m'self.

And yeah, the Foundation series is also fantastic. I just didn't want to totally nerd out with Asimov all in one sitting.

Now that I think about it, though, I never actually got around to reading the Empire series.

**~~hawgballs~~** · 08-04-09, 09:47 AM

Vonnegut FTW

**laggyNgroovy** · 08-04-09, 09:51 AM

Been meaning to post in this for days.

Awesome read, "The Life of Pi" by Yanni Martel. Stay away from the Wiki pedia entry if you don't want spoilers.

Way oversimplified, a ship goes down at sea. The survivors are a young boy, a wounded zebra, a hyena and a tiger, all on the same life boat. The story before they go to sea was quite good and stands alone in my opinion. Throughout the story, there are many great insights and humorous situations. Try being Muslim, Hindu and Christian all at the same time and being forced to choose because you "can't be all 3 at once" as he keeps getting told.

There is one section of the book that I still don't understand after 3 reads. I even downloaded the audiobook from www.audible.com and I still don't get it. The audiobook was well read if you're attention span leads you that direction. But the section I refer to is when the survivors have been at sea for weeks so delirium is a factor in the story.

Anyway, read it or not, I enjoyed the hell out of it.

**jason_jinx** · 08-04-09, 09:54 AM

Neuromancer novel by William Gibson

**Veovis** · 08-04-09, 11:06 AM

Laggy, I will add your weird-ass sounding book to my list.

**Veovis** · 08-04-09, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by DeusInnomen

Thanks Veo, I knew that didn't look quite right and something was missing, but I was too busy to fact check m'self.

And yeah, the Foundation series is also fantastic. I just didn't want to totally nerd out with Asimov all in one sitting.

Now that I think about it, though, I never actually got around to reading the Empire series.

Yeh, the Empire series is the hardest read of them all, it is the one I didn't quite finish the final book of. The interleaved continuity between Robot and Foundation series is great though.