Can you recommend me some novels based on my taste?

[spookymulder93]

Some of the books that totally captured my attention have been Animal farm, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, The Zombie Survival Guide, Notes from the Underground.

Some of the books that I have found to be alright in parts but for the most part boring are For Whom the Bell Tolls and Frankenstein. I found them to be too "wordy" and didn't get to the point quick enough.

I'm looking for some good novels that have interesting themes, dialogue, or action. All 3 in one novel would be great. I love Sci-Fi.

I don't really like writing that's in classic English. Like the kind that's in Frankenstein.

[Dark Muse]

Off the top of my head some possibilties:

A Clockwork Orange
The Stranger aka The Outsider
Slaughterhouse-Five

[spookymulder93]

Saw the movie.
Read it in high school. It was decent.
Read it in high school. It was decent.

[Scheherazade]

Not sure about your taste but these are more or less based on my taste:

Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?

Brave New World

[Niamh]

Goin on the Zombies Survival Guide I would say try the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Followed by And another Thing... By Eoin Colfer

[kelby_lake]

Brave New World would meet your dystopia needs (Farenheit 451 and 1984 are both dystopias)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is amusing (skimmed through it one day).

Notes From The Underground seems like a bit of an anomaly in your list. But if you like Russian stuff, The Master and Margarita might be good for you, and it's a bit political too (or at least, it was written in 30's but couldn't be published until the 60's)

[Satan]

Try Dune, Neuromancer, World War Z, works of Asimov and H P Lovecraft.

[janesmith]

The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood

[applepie]

Someplace to be Flying by De Lint - it's not really scifi, it is a bit more like urban fantasy, but I loved it. He also has a number of books of short stories which are also good.

Anything by HG Wells. My favorite is still The Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau, but I mostly enjoy all of his works.

Scher is right on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It was the bookclub read a couple of months ago, and I loved it. Once I started reading, it was a bit hard to put it down.

Anything by Jules Vern may fit the bill as well. He's not as easy to read as Wells, but they're still good stories.

I'll also second or third Douglas Adams. I love the entire Hitchhikers Guide series.

Hope this helps.

~Meg

[Katy North]

Why stop at Notes from the Underground? Go straight on to Crime and Punishment!

Other shorter but intense-with-action yet literary books are:

Lord of the Flies
Dracula
Anything by Rudyard Kipling, like Jungle Book or Captains Corageous
Agree with Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep
1984

Sci Fi authors I really like are:
Alistair Reynolds... sometimes I have to read the first few pages with this guy, but after that I get into it intensely
John Scalzi... if you don't like series like his "Old Man's War" give his one shots a try.
Connie Willis - some of her longer novels might be a bit wordy, but give Bellweather a shot at least.
Kage Baker -- if you don't mind mixing romance with your action, her "Garden of Iden" is excellent
Dan Simmons -- First two books in his "Hyperion" series are some of the best Sci Fi I have EVER read.
Orson Scott Card -- if you like Sci Fi and haven't read him yet, do it. Now.

phew... well, now I guess now you guys all know... when I'm not reading high minded literary authors I'm totally a sci fi fangirl :alien:

[chrissy613]

Not sure about your taste but these are more or less based on my taste:

Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?

Brave New World



Does Brave New World involve a lot of sexual content? lol... just wondering I did a buy and return without reading the second page.

[Katy North]

Yes, it does have quite a bit of sex in it. Though the gratuitousness of the sex serves to make a very profound point...

[Scheherazade]

I don't think there are any explicit passage in Brave New World.

[kelby_lake]

Does Brave New World involve a lot of sexual content? lol... just wondering I did a buy and return without reading the second page.

There are no explicit sex scenes. Part of their society is promiscuity- no one has romantic relationships. 'Everybody belongs to everybody.'

[Katy North]

oops, I'm sorry... I couldn't remember the actual passages, I just remembered being fairly shocked when I read it ten years ago at the age of 16... so I assumed she was reffering to actual sex scenes

[Mariamosis]

Kurt Vonnegut's "The Sirens of Titan"
Jack London's "The Iron Heel"
Vladimir Nabokov's "Invitation to a Beheading"
Aldous Huxley's "Island"
Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment"
Daniel Keyes's "Flowers for Algernon"
George Orwell's "Keep the Aspidistra Flying"

[Stendhal]

As far as interesting themes go, I reccomend The Red and the Black by Stendhal and The Magus by John Fowles.
For science fiction I reccomend A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, as well as anything by H.G. Wells. Both authors are loaded with social commentary and great writing.

On disliking "classic English" that is something you will have to get over. Many great novels seem wordy to a modern reader, but are still filled with great themes and great truth.

[bazarov]

We by Zamyatin because of dystopian books on your list.

[spookymulder93]

I've got a lot of reading ahead of me.

[applepie]

I've got a lot of reading ahead of me.

That seems to be the nature of things. So much to read, and I never have the time to do it all :D