Sci-fi/fantasy book recommendations

Oh yeah, if you can find them the Bureau 13 books by Nick Pollotta are fun reads. It's an X-Files type of thing, where the FBI has Bureau 13 to deal with monsters and supernatural critters.

If you want an interesting world, no idea if it's available on a Kindle, is John Varley's Gaea trilogy (Titan, Wizard, Demon). I found it mind blowing when I first read it.

Also early novels by James P. Hogan, before he turned into Walter from Fringe. The first three books from the Giants series (Inherit the Stars, The Gentle Giants of Ganymede, Giant's Star), The Genesis Machine, Thrice Upon a Time, The Two Faces of Tomorrow, The Proteus Operation and Code of the Lifemaker. His later works, after the early 1990s, tend to start getting away from plausible extension of today's technologies to real fringe stuff.

For worldbuilding fans I'd recommend:

-The Mistborn triliogy by Brandon Sanderson.
Lots of original ideas in here.
It's set in a world where the hero prophecied to take down the "Dark Lord" failed. A 1000 years later a group of master thieves decides it would be fun to rob the dark god's treasury. Over the course of the three books the story evolves from there into something truly epic. The world is really well thought out and constructed. So is the story, with little things, seemingly insignificant at first, having a big impact in the later books. Also Allomancy is the most awesome magic system ever thought off. Mistborn (the strongest Allomancers) make ninjas seem like rheumatic cripples.

If you like Mistborn you can try:

-The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.
Again a truly unique world by Sanderson with some awesome magic systems. This is Epic fantasy with a big E. It is the first book of a ten book series and it's just over a 1000 pages long. The second one is scheduled for late 2012 or early 2013 with the plan to release 2 books every 3 years after that. Yeah. That's a long while, but if there's one author who can stick to a schedule like that it's Sanderson. The guy's a writing machine. Since 2005 he published 12 books. (2 stand alone fantasies, Mistborn trilogy, 4 YA novels, Way of Kings and he's currently working on the last of the 3 Wheel of Time books he was contracted to finish.)

-I'm currently reading the Prince of Nothing trilogy by Scott R Bakker. Again a big epic with a vast and detailed world. It's quite dark and grim in tone. I find the use of language really good. Bakker has a degree in philosophy and it shows in the themes of the story and how they're handled. Also his characters tend to go on long philosophical introspections (which may or may not turn people off of the books). It's not light reading, but I'm liking it so far.

Other books I read this year and really enjoyed:

-I am NOT a serial killer by Dan Wells and its 2 sequels.
These books are supernatural thrillers. 15-year-old John Wayne Cleaver is obsessed with serial killers, he works in his family's morgue and he is a sociopath who recognises in himself all the psychological markers of a budding serial killer. Then a real serial killer strikes in town and a cat and mouse game between the two begins.
The way Dan Wells places you inside the head of a teenage sociopath is really uncanny. He makes you sympathise with John even while he deeply disturbs you. Even though the language is relatively simple, there's some really well written prose in these books. Technically they're YA novels, despite the darkness of the subject matter, but the quality of the writing makes it accessible for older readers as well. I read each novel in single sitting (300-350 pages). There's also a step by step description of the embalming process of the human body and tips on how to make a proper blazing fire. So it's educational too!

-The reapers are the angels by Alden Bell.
This is dystopian sci-fi about a young woman born into a world where society has been destroyed by a zombie apocalypse. The zombies only serve as a back drop for the story (and the word 'zombie' isn't actually used). The real story is about Temple, 16-years-old going on a hundred, and the people and things she encounters as she wanders what's left of the world. Since Temple was born after the apocalyptic event (we never get to know what exactly happened) she has a different outlook on the world than we would have, since this is all she knows. Despite the overall bleakness of the story, there are some truly beautifull scenes in here. The writing style took me a few pages to get into, but once I did it really grabbed me.

After skimming the thread and not seeing it mentioned, I'll throw out the "Incarnations of Immortality" fantasy series from Piers Anthony. Let's, see there was...

On a Pale Horse
Bearing an Hourglass
With a Tangled Skein
Wielding a Red Sword
Being a Green Mother
For Love of Evil
And Eternity

Order, spelling and exact titles subject to my pourous memory.


As for Sci-Fi, I recommend...

Timeline and Jurassic Park (both better than their movie adaptations), and The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson