Topic: Recommend a book to me, suckas!

[Johnny Slick]

Okay, so admittedly I have more criteria than what you'd normally expect. I am looking for the following:

- Something character-driven. That has to be priority #1. I'm just getting done reading a series with vivid characters that to me saves whatever other flaws it has (this being the Hunger Games trilogy). One of the issues I've had with fantasy in the past is that too often the characters are just cardboard cut-outs. So please recommend stuff to me from any genre by all means but understand that character is like my #1 thing, above good plotting, a fascinating milieu, a smart style, an interesting hook, and so on.
- Preferably fantasy or SF given what I just finished but again, I'm really, really open on that.
- Preferably preferably available on audiobook, since I don't have a lot of time right now to sit down and read stuff (I do, however, walk around all over the place and so have the time to listen).

Dance for me, SGU monkeys! DANCE!

[amysrevenge]

Leviathan Wakes by James A Corey

Audible.com blurb:  "James S.A. Corey delivers compelling SF that ranks with the best in the field. In Leviathan Wakes, ice miner Jim Holden is making a haul from the rings of Saturn when he and his crew encounter an abandoned ship, the Scopuli. Uncovering a terrifying secret, Jim bears the weight of impending catastrophe. At the same time, a detective has been hired by well-heeled parents to find a missing girl, and the investigator’s search leads him right to the Scopuli."

The two main characters are really great, they kind of start out almost as opposites, and kind of move toward each other as the story goes on.

[MikeHz]

I'm not a big Stephen King fan, and barely made it through the Dark Tower series, but I'm having trouble putting down his time travel yarn, "11/22/63." It's engaging, and certainly the best book of his that I have read.

[Johnny Slick]

Hmm. I was strongly considering Book I of the Dark Tower series, although I remember not being able to get into it when I was like 12. I hadn't heard of Leviathan Wakes though.

[WC]

- Preferably fantasy or SF given what I just finished but again, I'm really, really open on that.
- Preferably preferably available on audiobook, since I don't have a lot of time right now to sit down and read stuff (I do, however, walk around all over the place and so have the time to listen).

Accidental Time Machine audiobook.

[Unlimited]

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex--or design. He fears no one--until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu has also died many times. She can absorb bullets and make medicine with a kiss, give birth to tribes, nurture and heal, and savage anyone who threatens those she loves. She fears no one--until she meets Doro. From African jungles to the colonies of America, Doro and Anyanwu weave together a pattern of destiny that not even immortals can imagine.

Giant paragraph I wrote before I looked up teaser description -

(click to show/hide)

Follows a women who is immortal through her ability to control the natural processes in her body. She can sample DNA and become another animal, or person. She is found by a man named Doro who has the ability, or curse to steal people's bodies. Once he jumps bodies he cannot remain in one for too long or he gets a sort of hunger, and has to do it again, if he resists it just happens eventually when he sleeps or get's hurt. Talks about when he was born the first thing he remembers is looking down at his own lifeless infant body, from his mother's eyes, then he blacks out and comes to in a jail cell, figuring out later its been like 13 years. In the book he has breeding colony's set up all over the world where he gathers people who "taste" a little better, breeds them and basically makes super humans. There are several books in the series, the last one is thousands of years in the future where an alien pathogen, possibly some sort of nano-technology (it's never specified) has turned everyone with exception of the descendants of Doro's breeding program, into some sort of monkey wolf alien.

 After I read Wild Seed I had to read everything the woman wrote. A shame she isn't around anymore. =(

[NekoNinja]

Okay, so admittedly I have more criteria than what you'd normally expect. I am looking for the following:

- Something character-driven. That has to be priority #1. I'm just getting done reading a series with vivid characters that to me saves whatever other flaws it has (this being the Hunger Games trilogy). One of the issues I've had with fantasy in the past is that too often the characters are just cardboard cut-outs. So please recommend stuff to me from any genre by all means but understand that character is like my #1 thing, above good plotting, a fascinating milieu, a smart style, an interesting hook, and so on.
- Preferably fantasy or SF given what I just finished but again, I'm really, really open on that.
- Preferably preferably available on audiobook, since I don't have a lot of time right now to sit down and read stuff (I do, however, walk around all over the place and so have the time to listen).

Dance for me, SGU monkeys! DANCE!

I find it funny that your list of requirements is pretty much exactly the same as mine. :p All the best stories are driven by really good characters. As for recommendations, Ive been reading parts of the Discworld series which really isn't all that bad.

[Sordid]

I've been reading parts of the Discworld series which really isn't all that bad.

Particularly The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

[Johnny Slick]

Okay, so admittedly I have more criteria than what you'd normally expect. I am looking for the following:

- Something character-driven. That has to be priority #1. I'm just getting done reading a series with vivid characters that to me saves whatever other flaws it has (this being the Hunger Games trilogy). One of the issues I've had with fantasy in the past is that too often the characters are just cardboard cut-outs. So please recommend stuff to me from any genre by all means but understand that character is like my #1 thing, above good plotting, a fascinating milieu, a smart style, an interesting hook, and so on.
- Preferably fantasy or SF given what I just finished but again, I'm really, really open on that.
- Preferably preferably available on audiobook, since I don't have a lot of time right now to sit down and read stuff (I do, however, walk around all over the place and so have the time to listen).

Dance for me, SGU monkeys! DANCE!

I find it funny that your list of requirements is pretty much exactly the same as mine. :p All the best stories are driven by really good characters. As for recommendations, Ive been reading parts of the Discworld series which really isn't all that bad.

The good news: I looooooooooove Discworld.
The bad news: Because of this I think I've read all of them.

[WC]

Flipping through my Sci Fi audibook lib, based on your criteria, my favs (in no particular order)

• Doctor Who audio plays
• Everything Douglas Adams read by Douglas Adams
• Asimov's End of Eternity, Foundation, Pebble in the Sky
• The aforementioned Accidental Time Macine by Joe Haldeman (good walkin' around sci fi, light on story)
• American Gods and Anansi Boys
• The Minority Report and Other Stories by some dick
• I Am Legend and Other Stories by some other dick, read by Robertson Dean
• Slaughterhouse-Five
• Animal Farm/84 read by Ralph Cosham
• Brave New World read by Michael York

It's always worth revisiting classics in audiobook form. Damn, I needs me some new audiobooks.

[NekoNinja]

Okay, so admittedly I have more criteria than what you'd normally expect. I am looking for the following:

- Something character-driven. That has to be priority #1. I'm just getting done reading a series with vivid characters that to me saves whatever other flaws it has (this being the Hunger Games trilogy). One of the issues I've had with fantasy in the past is that too often the characters are just cardboard cut-outs. So please recommend stuff to me from any genre by all means but understand that character is like my #1 thing, above good plotting, a fascinating milieu, a smart style, an interesting hook, and so on.
- Preferably fantasy or SF given what I just finished but again, I'm really, really open on that.
- Preferably preferably available on audiobook, since I don't have a lot of time right now to sit down and read stuff (I do, however, walk around all over the place and so have the time to listen).

Dance for me, SGU monkeys! DANCE!

I find it funny that your list of requirements is pretty much exactly the same as mine. :p All the best stories are driven by really good characters. As for recommendations, Ive been reading parts of the Discworld series which really isn't all that bad.

The good news: I looooooooooove Discworld.
The bad news: Because of this I think I've read all of them.

Hmm. twilight is character driven. :p Or on a somewhat slightly more serious note (or maybe not,) her other book "the host" wasn't actually all too bad.

If you are interested in some more children's fiction I always liked Philip Pullman and the Ender's Game series. Or theres of course the classic Douglas Adams. XD Although I would presume you've already read all of them.

Ive always liked Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 if you can stand reading it (the first one that is)...

I'm guessing youve probably already read all of those... I am no use to you... 

Wait for me to get around to trying to write something. I'll let you read my cheap stuffs. :p

If it comes down to it I would recommend reading some good nonfiction. You can probably find some Micheal Shermer stuff on audio if you haven't already read it... And theres always iTunesU.

[Neon Genesis]

I recommend The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemminey Snicket.

[Johnny Slick]

I enjoyed Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy; in fact that might be the only other YA series I've read as an adult. I ended up picking up Neverwhere, which pandaHOnium mentioned in one of the book threads. It's pretty cool so far.

[amysrevenge]

Neverwhere is a very good choice, especially in audio.  Croup and Vandemar are fantastically engaging.

[Neon Genesis]

I enjoyed Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy; in fact that might be the only other YA series I've read as an adult. I ended up picking up Neverwhere, which pandaHOnium mentioned in one of the book threads. It's pretty cool so far.

If you like young adult fantasy, you should check out the Artemis Fowl series and the Percy Jackson series.