Best crime & adventure books according to redditors
We found 469 Reddit comments discussing the best crime & adventure books. We ranked the 131 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 469 Reddit comments discussing the best crime & adventure books. We ranked the 131 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Slight book spoilers ahead.
I recently read a book called Pandemonium by Warren Fahy. It's a sequel to his first book in this series called Fragment which personally I liked a lot more.
Anyways Pandemonium is about an underground world of animals that's been locked away from the surface for millions of years and one of the main creatures is a a giant octopus/slug like create that hangs from the ceilings and when you walk by it drops onto your back and latches on to you.
Then it jams it's gooey proboscis into your brain and walks you around like a giant meat puppet.
Here's a few that won't get mentioned since it seems like people are only putting down books they had to read for school.
Shantaram - Fictional but based off author being an escaped Australian convict who joins the Bombay mafia.
Catch Me If You Can - Read this years ago. It's supposed to be true but apparently a lot of it is just tale tales. Don't care, most fun I've had reading a book.
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter - Finally, a smart book about video games that won't insult your intelligence. All gamers who care about the games they play should read this. It also does a great job on showing where the industry is failing creatively. God I loved this book.
Anything by Chuck Klosterman - He's funny, smart and writes on deep philosophical/sociological ideas by talking about Saved By The Bell and other pop culture ideas.
In case you don't get the reference...
The book: https://www.amazon.com/Sphere-Michael-Crichton/dp/0061990558
& the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120184/
Shantaram
Shantaram
I hate to sound like a salesman, but this book has everything. It's a fugitive tale, a love story, an insight into the author's mind, a philosophical treatise, a war novel, an ode to India, and more. I've never read a book that had so much to give and so much to say. Brilliant.
As funny as it is tragic, as sentimental as it is harshly realist.
Reamde by Neal Stephenson has significant portions of it in Seattle.
The author lives in Seattle.
you may enjoy this book then:
http://www.amazon.com/Riptide-Douglas-Preston/dp/0446607177/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313256333&sr=1-1
You should check out REAMDE! It nailed the whole ransomware phenomenon before it was on most folks' radars. Pretty incredible, and more fun and less technical than a lot of Stephenson's work.
Yeah Ready Player One is one of the biggest Sci - Fi novels written in the last decade. This is legit stuff but I'm usually more optimistic when I see a book is being made into a TV series or mini-series.
For another MMO related mainstream SCIFI novel, check out ReamDe by Neal Stephenson. You can probably find Ready Player One and ReamDe in your local library if you live in the USA.
Shantaram. Absolutely immersive.
Reamde.
I agree, everyone seems to suggest the same series of books by the same authors. But that's the echo chamber effect.
My favorite series that I never see represented is by Peter F. Hamiltion. The Commonwealth saga of books:
The entire series of books is very fast paced, but it's a space opera. He often spends 50 or so pages introducing a character not to be seen again until the next book. It's worth it though, Hamilton is great at tying up all those loose ends in ways you wouldn't think possible.
Hamilton is often recommended for his other trilogy - Night's Dawn. Personally, I felt that was very poorly done. For instance, the 2nd book has no outcome on the end events whatsoever. Plus, it's very much more typical for a space opera zombie book series. Not my cup of tea, so to speak.
Damn I thought you were kidding. Shit that’s surprising.
https://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Warning-William-W-Johnstone-ebook/dp/B077X12YNG/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1543326677&sr=1-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=trigger+warning&dpPl=1&dpID=51wOpOKLZXL&ref=plSrch
Based on your comment, I have determined you may be interested in REAMDE by Neal Stephenson.
Relevant
>Neal Stephenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Anathem, returns to the terrain of his groundbreaking novels Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon to deliver a high-intensity, high-stakes, action-packed adventure thriller in which a tech entrepreneur gets caught in the very real crossfire of his own online war game.
>In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft. A skilled hunting guide, he eventually amassed a fortune by smuggling marijuana across the border between Canada and Idaho. As the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in which he lives. He also created T’Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of fans around the world.
>But T’Rain’s success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player’s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game’s virtual universe—and Richard is at ground zero.
Agreed, except we really aren't overpopulated. The entire world population could live in individual 1000 sq ft apartments inside the state of Texas (so a family of 4 in a 4000 sq ft place); that leaves a whole lot of unoccupied space around the rest of the world, even if some of it was devoted to food and energy production. The current estimates are a peak population around 9 billion, before it levels off and may even reduce, due to the falling birth rate in modern countries.
The real problem is resource scarcity; or more specifically, people don't live within their local ecosystems. And some of the very wealthy capitalize on this for their own benefit (and have for centuries), to the detriment of others not in their immediate nepotistic circle.
I think a reputation based economy, after resource "scarcity" has been solved; is the real direction humanity should, and will go. It's projecting waaay into the future, but like The Culture.
A closer idea on the possibilities of how "virtual reality" will incorporate our reputations into our daily interactions and society are in two recent books, REAMDE and Ready Player One.
I always stick to 3 books at a time.
Main:
Jurassic Park by Michael Critchon. I love this book. I have about 9% left and will finish it during bedtime tonight. Crazy thing is everyone tells me The Lost World is the superior novel. Will start on it after I'm done with this.
Secondary:
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway. Gustavo is just getting his fish to bite. It's okay. I don't have a ton of time to read it, but once it's my main book, I'm sure I'll put a lot more time into it.
Just Starting:
Slobberknocker: My Life in Wrestling by Jim Ross**.** I'm a huge wrestling fan, and this is the autobiography of Jim Ross, a man that has been in the business for many decades. I am only a few pages in, but I know I will kill this book in a few days once this is my main book.
Next Books to Start:
The Lost World by Michael Crichton
Without Remorse by Tom Clancy
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (Suggested by a Reddit User's post)
Note: I DO NOT have an Amazon Associates account so I do not get any income if you click on the link or not. I just wanted to make things easier for anyone who may wish to purchase or get more info without copying and pasting into google and whatnot. :-)
Mumbai/Bombay is a slightly intimidating place for even the most rugged travellers. It can seem more if this is your first trip to India.
However, it still is one of the most amazing cities I have been to. It comes close to bringing the vastness of indian culture to one place, so forgive it when the chaos and the asymmetry get to you. Shantaram will enhance your understanding of the place a bit.
What are your plans though? Where all? How long?
Has anyone heard of this oddball doorstopper tome Shantaram link to Amazon here? It's got a breathless cover blurb love note from Pat Conroy (who I love) but...a well meaning much older hippie dude pulled it out and was pressing it on me and I generally side eye books that people try to push on you (A Child Called It, The Shack, The Secret, Five People You Meet In Heaven, Heaven is For Real, etc). Any impressions?
Here's the back blurb/summary: (which is not encouraging, btw)
"So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel by Gregory David Roberts, set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.
Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.
As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.
Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas---this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature"
Excellent book yes. But the most undeservedly overlooked book in my opinion is Shantaram, which is one of the best books written in English in the past 50 years.
Reamde by Neal Stephenson!
From Amazon:
>In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft. A skilled hunting guide, he eventually amassed a fortune by smuggling marijuana across the border between Canada and Idaho. As the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in which he lives. He also created T’Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of fans around the world.
>But T’Rain’s success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player’s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game’s virtual universe—and Richard is at ground zero.
>Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to the wilds of northern Idaho and points in between, Reamde is a swift-paced thriller that traverses worlds virtual and real. Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which unforgettable villains and unlikely heroes face off in a battle for survival, it is a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century, from the global war on terror to social media, computer hackers to mobsters, entrepreneurs to religious fundamentalists. Above all, Reamde is an enthralling human story—an entertaining and epic page-turner from the extraordinary Neal Stephenson.
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway. (He's
John LeCarre's son.)
Without Remorse is probably the best story and character plot line. This book was actually fantastically interesting to read instead of Clancy's usual war stories (which are also great for a quick read.) Of all Clancy's books, Without Remorse is the only one that I have gone back and read a second, and third time.
http://www.amazon.com/Without-Remorse-Tom-Clancy/dp/0425143325
For something a little different but very absorbing check out Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
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I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
Neal Stephenson knows about Hungarians. Your comment makes me think Csongor's character is surprisingly grounded in reality.
Trenutno citam:
Planiram i citati:
Evo moj 'library' :P
http://i.imgur.com/Xpe7Vk5.jpg
Moj tip za vas je Shantaram. //switch to English now, because it's a lot easier. It's about a guy who escapes from a prison and goes to Bombay. He starts off low and grows both spiritually and materialistically in the streets of Bombay. It's like GTA: Bombay but with more places (Indian countryside, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Africa). I've already been interested in India because of films like Darjeeling Limited, but this book sealed the deal: I want to visit that country.
A suppressed .22 can have almost no report. Like seriously, all you hear is the mechanical action. That's gotta be a plus for an assassin if they get in close and aim well.
John Clark used one this way in the stellar Jack Ryan prequel, Without Remorse. (Back when Clancy's name on the cover meant he actually wrote it.)
Try Shantaram - it is a fictionalized memoir about an escaped Australian convict that travels to (and through) India, mixing with peoples ranging from the destitute, the criminal, and the famous along with mixing with a varying cast of other ex-pats.
I have never read anything else quite like it and I feel like it really captures the essence of its location very well.
Fragment by Warren Fahy.
If you haven't already taken care of your Secret Santa, well here you go:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786040505/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_mhB.Bb0Y23N9H
https://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Warning-William-W-Johnstone-ebook/dp/B077X12YNG/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1543448937&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=trigger+warning&dpPl=1&dpID=51wOpOKLZXL&ref=plSrch
Fragment?
Check out Drood by Dan Simmons. I picked it up on a whim, and couldn't be happier that I gave it a chance. It's a total trip, and suspenseful in a laid-back / behind-the-scenes sort of way.
Also, I find anything by Michael Chrichton to be utterly "un-put-downable". I'd recommend starting with Congo or Prey, but definitely give Sphere a shot before you move on.
Edit: Sorry I meant Micro instead of Prey. Prey was "meh" but Micro is great. Also definitely check out Timeline! (Sorry, I'm basically obsessed with Chrichton)
Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, is another favorite of mine. But, it's been so long since I last read it that I can't really remember why. I'm going to be rereading that one again soon.
Shantaram by Gregory Roberts.
I've been reading through this book for a few years, but it so beautifully depicts Bombay that I so desperately want to visit.
It's also a lovely book.
If you're into India and amazing stories from jail you should read Shantaram. I read it several times!
And I agree with 'On the Road' as least favorite!
I've been saying this a lot on reddit lately, but read this book mate: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It's about a guy who was forced to do this. probably the greatest novel I have ever read.
That's Trigger Warning written under William W. Johnstone's name. I've seen a couple youtube reviews that cover it in it's entirety and it's so baaaaad.
I personally like Jenny Nicholson's review.
The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman.
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.
Reading this, I was reminded of a passage from one of my favorite books (Shantaram):
> Justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. You can see, by what we have done with these two boys, that justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them.
You have all the information you need, just type it into Amazon and there ya go.
p.s. Reamde IS available in US on Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/Reamde-A-Novel-ebook/dp/B004XVN0WW/ref=ntt_at_ep_edition_2_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
Dumped from my ~/docs/books.txt file:
Jonathon Stroud - The Bartimaeus Trilogy
John le Carre - Little Drummer Girl
Sloan Wilson - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloan_Wilson
Norman Mailer - The Naked and the Dead
Storm of Steel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_of_Steel
Karl Marlantes - Matterhorn http://www.amazon.com/Matterhorn-Novel-Vietnam-Karl-Marlantes/dp/080211928X
Sharon Kay Penman
Neal Stephenson - Reamde: A Novel http://www.amazon.com/Reamde-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061977969
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
1493 by Charles Mann
The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts
The Worst Day by RJ Davin http://www.amazon.com/Worst-Day-RJ-Davin/dp/1921791624/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324288263&sr=1-7
Starship Troopers
Christopher Stasheff
Books by James Rollins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Rollins
Noah Gordon
The Physician
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Physician
Books by Sheri Holman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheri_Holman
Books by Barry Eisler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Eisler
Claire Messud - The Emporer's Children
Norman Rush
Robert Stone
James David Duncan
Cormac McCarthy
Zadie Smith
Shantaram. Actually, I think it would be better as an HBO/Showtime series since I don't think they could condense the whole movie into 120 mins.
I wasn't too keen on White Tiger - it just came across as a bit pretentious - very makey-uppy. But I can see how it would shock and awe the non-Indian readers as a lot of stuff that Indians can gloss over could be positively disturbing to average Western reader.
I am currently reading (nearly finished) Shantaram by Greogry David Roberts. I don't know how much of that is fact, and how much fiction, but man, I am stunned by the international dimension of Mumbai underworld. I had heard of names like Chotta Rajan, Shakeel, Dawood Ibrahim etc, but I could have never guessed how diverse the activities of the Mafia are. Drugs and narcotics seems to be just the tip of the iceberg, if you read this book. I would seriously recommend this to other desi readers.
For anyone wondering what these books are actually about, here are their Amazon pages. I've read neither, so I can't speak for them myself.
Great North Road
Fallen Dragon
Here are a couple of gritty anti-hero picks:
https://www.amazon.com/Galveston-Novel-Nic-Pizzolatto/dp/1439166668/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535913824&sr=8-1&keywords=galveston
https://www.amazon.com/We-Run-Bad-John-Curry-ebook/dp/B07DDL22LZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535913480&sr=8-1&keywords=we+run+bad
REAMDE is is an extremely enjoyable experience
It's only one book, but Nic Pizzolato's Galveston is a really great crime novel. Pizzolato is also the writer/creater of HBO's True Detective, so if you enjoyed that, I think you'll really like his work. He's also written a book of short stories titled Between Here and the Yellow Sea
I would add this: You really have to be interested in the history he talks about to bother with the series. I enjoyed it enough to put in the effort, but I can only give it a half-hearted thumbs up.
If you find the history of science and economics interesting, go for it. If not, I'd say that even the good parts aren't enough to make it worthwhile.
And fwiw, you might want to check out Reamde. It gets relatively poor reviews compared to his other books, but I thought it was great. It's less about big ideas and more about just telling a great story. It has the same humor and brilliant writing as his others, just in a very accessible thriller format.
If she enjoys reading at all, get her a copy of this book. It's intimidatingly big for non-readers, but every line is poetry. It made me want to visit India- not the rich, luxurious parts, but the slums, the dirty parts with real people.
The Forever War - Haldeman
Flowers for Algernon - Keyes
The Prestige - Priest
LoTR - Tolkien
Sphere - Crichton (One of the first "real" books I read as a kid, and was my favorite for years. It isn't the best in the world, but it is an extremely fun page turner and means alot to me)
There are also three books I've read in the last couple of years that I want very badly to say are in my top five (to replace some of those listed above). But it has not been long enough for me to make a decision, and I probably need to re-read them. Those three are:
The Passage - Cronin
Cloud Atlas - Mitchell
Wolf Hall - Mantel
Sounds a lot like Neal Stephenson's Reamde novel.
This is pretty random, but if anyone has read the book Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts...This is pretty much how I imagined Prabaker was almost all the time.
Also, if you haven't read that book and you want to read an engaging, albeit LONG story, it is quite worth it. 10/10 would read again!
You're doing this wrong. If you approach books as a task for self-edification that you view as a duty, you're going to hate it. Read whatever you want, for entertainment. Read funnystuff. Read thrillers. Read fantasy. Read weird science fiction. Heck, read history, economics, and science.
TL;DR: Read whatever the hell you feel like, and I guarantee you you will feel better about yourself than you would have by forcing yourself through Ulysses or War and Peace.
I think Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts might be what you're looking for. I usually read fantasy also but I've never been sucked into a novel like Shantaram... truly a special book.
If that doesn't sound like your thing, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho gets suggested in the sub a lot, its also very good.
Don't get me wrong, he's talented and I've never failed to get through one of his books (I'm looking at you Stephenson - odd, I usually love his novels but that I could not get through). I do find myself thinking "Oh, get on with it. Let's have some more story already" quite often.
Try Shantaram.
Guy escapes from an Australian prison to India. Story details the whole process of becoming familiar with a completely foreign culture.
Amazon
Shantaram
Pappillion
*Former gunny
Does he like to read? These are two of my favorites, and I'm fairly certain most vets would enjoy them too:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Forever-War-Joe-Haldeman/dp/0312536631/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367616641&sr=8-1&keywords=The+forever+war
http://www.amazon.com/Without-Remorse-Tom-Clancy/dp/0425143325/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367616649&sr=8-1&keywords=Without+Remorse
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.
The City and the City by China Mieville.
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.
While it wasn't Seattle-centric, Neal Stephenson's Reamde had a scene or two in Seattle. Some of the other locations in the book are in British Columbia and the wilderness between BC and Seattle.
shantaram is a great book he might enjoy!
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
It's an investment of time (i.e 944 pages) but the first line is:
"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."
It's a (slightly fictionalized) account of an escaped convict who creates a new life in Bombay. One of the few books that I deeply regretted finishing.
Shantaram
http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322162176&sr=8-1
The guys who wrote "The Relic" also wrote a mediocre book (fiction) based on this thing.
I'm midway though The Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton (in audiobook form). It's pretty great so far. He's a masterful worldbuilder and of of my favorite Sci Fi writers.
I've also been enjoying the Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia. Its quite the guilty pleasure of a modern fantasy.
I'm going to go with Shantaram. Probably one of my all time favorite books, has some of the most beautiful prose ever committed to paper. I'm not really sure why it isn't more well known. Those who have read it seem to gush about it.
Shantaram Such an amazing book that you won't notice how long it is.
Douglas Preston wrote a fiction book based on this called [Riptide.]
(http://www.amazon.com/Riptide-Douglas-Preston/dp/0446607177) Its low on historical accuracy, but a pretty good read if you are into that sort of thing.
For Pynchon, I like Against the Day. It captures a lot of the sort of science-y weirdness that Stephenson always uses.
Go ahead and pre-order Reamde! I just need to read through Anathem one more time and make sure I haven't missed anything.
Shantaram
and The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265074018&sr=8-1) - the best book i've ever read and more than likely will ever read.
Title: Masterminds
Genre: Action, Crime, Family Sagas
Words: 115k
Released a few months ago but then stopped promoting to work on the blurb/back cover. My kindle format is currently FREE to anyone interested till tues (9/24), but otherwise want to know thoughts about the description in the link.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T27CR5B
Take Away their Bliss. Replace it with suffering. And even saints will turn to sinners. Welcome to the city of Durante. There's no God here.
Durante: The Devil's Playground is an adult action crime thriller. $4.99 on Amazon
A desperate man pushed to the edge becomes a vigilante in the crime-ridden city of Durante. With a revolver in hand and his all-consuming Devil persona, he is on a crusade to kill every last dirtbag criminal in Durante. Even if that means saving a bullet for himself.
A young detective torn between saving the city from the vigilante or letting loose the Devil to save it's citizens. All the while hiding his dirty past from his partner and the rest of the police force. Will he resist the temptation from the vigilante to find out if his late father was really a corrupt detective and what will it cost him to find out?
YES YES YES....
I'm actually rereading the whole series as we speak in preparation for the newest book, The Abyss Beyond Dreams.
His books can be a bit overwhelming, but it's absolutely worth it. I might suggest this list of characters in order to keep everyone straight. http://peterfhamilton.wikia.com/wiki/Characters_%28CS%29
What about Sphere by Michael Crichton?
Or The Legacy of Heorot?
Hope that helps! If not, let me know and I can keep searching. :)
Ream.de by Neal Stephenson. My favorite living sci fi author. It’s not his best ( I preferred Snow crash, cryptonomicon, anathem, seven eves and the baroque cycle, and put this on par with Diamond Age and Rise and Fll of Dodo (which he co-authored)), but it is very very good, and one of the few with no true “sci-fi” elements (as in, it takes place today and there is nothing supernatural and all technology in the book exists and is in use). It’s a crazy story involving a crypto virus, the Russian mob, and terrorists - I won’t say more because that would be giving it away. If you like techno thrillers, I recommend it highly. Even though it is among my “least favorite” of his works, we are talking about literally my number 1 favorite living writer. Ream.de is better than all Tom Clancy novels combined - and I’ve read a ton of those - he basically slam dunked the entire genre in a single book and then moved on. For any other author it could easily be a fitting magnum opus, but so much of the stuff Stephenson has written is so insanely creative, compelling, mind blowing and expertlt crafted - I mean how many people can keep you on the edge of your seat for 900 pages of a story about a cryptolocker virus? That’s ream.de, and like I said, it’s among his less compelling works. His first major novel, Snow Crash, is on par with neuromancer as an all time sci-fi greatest hit. It’s “cheesy” but it is so much fun and alarmingly - alarmingly - prescient.
Anyway, yeah. He is good.
I'm going to throw in REAMDE by Neal Stephenson.
If you have never read the R6 book, but want to, I highly suggest you start with Without Remorse first.
Reamde by Neal Stephenson link
A young man steal credit card numbers for the mob. The middle-man in the deal got his computer hijacked by a virus relating to an insanely popular MMO that the yourn man's girlfirend's uncle owns and develops. They then have to track down the hacker to get the computer virus removed to save them from the mob.
It is a really interesting book and a great, fun read.
Sounds like Reamde
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Removed due to cluttered link: please resubmit only as
https://www.amazon.com/Durante-Devils-Playground-Miles-Overland-ebook/dp/B073CDFH9H/Not my favorite book, but Michael Crichton's Sphere was an incredible page-turner
I'm 63 years old, and I was involved in the Internet before Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW. My son is currently a PhD candidate in Comp Sci, and will go to work for Google next spring. I have some familiarity with the Internet. Let me tell you a couple of things about it. First, it can't be "cleaned up". Second, it shouldn't be "cleaned up".
By all means learn security. Learn how to keep people's data safe. That is a skill that will be in great demand from here on out. Forget about this whole "justice" thing though. There is no justice. There are just people who don't want to get fucked over, and people who want to fuck them over.
Addendum: If you haven't already, you should read Reamde.
Shantaram by Gregory David
Shantaram, just started but its great. About an australian guy that escapes prison and becomes a criminal in India (I think so far). I think about 50% or more is true: http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330529
This book about the Mumbai(Bombay) criminal world from a Westerners perspective/involvement. Great read. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330537
Check out this book http://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330529
It is basically GTA Mumbai.
Read the book Shantaram, It's about a foreigner who discovers India and it's Good, Bad and ugly side!
I'm sure you'll enjoy it
There's a decent novel based on this idea that's got some treasure-hunting-supernatural-ness to it--I haven't read it in years, but I remember it being pretty entertaining.
http://www.amazon.com/Reamde-A-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0061977969
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.
I bet you'd like Angelmaker and To Say Nothing of the Dog!
For a quick read: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Great story, hilarious, lots of layers, if you want to go looking for them. Fun read even if not.
Two excellent novels that you might identify with. Both long, but fantastic:
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Novel about a young officer in the Vietnam war (around your age), based on the author's experiences. Great book, long, but very engaging and entertaining read.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts: Just go to the amazon page, can't do it justice here, fantastic book.
A cool part about these is that each could be considered a "Roman a clef" (should be some accents there), at least loosely, as both are based to some degree on actual events in the author's lives. Though liberties are certainly taken, still neat to remember.
happy birthday man, time to end boredom
for me it was playing music. My friend randomly told me one day I should get a bass because he played guitar and my other friend played drums. fast forward 10 years and it's essentially my profession.
as for the wishlist item, how about this
it's a book that's been on my to-read list for over a year now, just haven't had the chance to get to it because of so many other awesome books.
A while ago I read a book about an island that a team of scientists found, miraculously untouched by mankind. This island had a strong concentration of mantis shrimp, which over the hundreds of thousands of years had evolved into massive and powerfully terrifying creatures that could kill humans instantly.
Big kudos to anyone who could find me the name of this
EDIT: FOUND IT For those of you who love Mantis Shrimp, death, destruction, and a little bit of romance, this is the book for you.
My goal for the year is to read 50 page a day. I've been on or ahead of pace for every day except two so far this year. I go through books quite quickly and I'm itching to read a long book. May I offer Reamde? I read his Anathem this year already. It is one of the few long books I've read that held my interest. It has renewed my faith in reading longer novels. Sadly, it is not much cheaper used.
If I may, the next book I would like to read is the sequel in the Thursday Next series. Just finished the first and I can't wait to start the second. This is another rarity as I generally dislike series. This book can be purchased much cheaper used ;)
Would be really interested in a game that plagiarizes the economic system in Reamde, which was otherwise a mediocre novel: http://www.amazon.com/Reamde-A-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062191497
Basically all money and other resources need to be 'mined' in-game first, like Bitcoin, before it exists. There's a finite (but large) amount of resources in the world. There's no need to spawn players with money if they have some kind of capability that other players might find useful.
Yeah it can be a bit dense, particularly with the military jargon. I tackled it in high school, and if it weren't for the fact that I regarded it as this big, adult novel, I wouldn't have persevered. I hadn't yet read a book that seemed to tell so many stories simultaneously!
But I recall -- during my second attempt, I believe -- that I was suddenly aware of all the different threads and who everyone was. And I was utterly, irretrievably, hooked. Now I think of Clancy as an author who writes for those of us with short attention spans, despite the intimidating length of his novels.
But as a first Clancy book, I would really recommend Without Remorse. It's a page turner without all the military-speak of Red October.
As an aside, I'm reading Red Storm Rising right now, and while my Kindle doesn't have page numbers, per se, it tells me that, at my current reading rate, I have 28 hours left in the book. Lol.
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. A great story too, but I'm amazed at his style and how effortless it is. He's one of the few authors that, as another writer, I'm envious of.
It's been over a decade but how about Michael Crichton's Sphere http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0061990558/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1464396892&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=sphere+michael+crichton&dpPl=1&dpID=51uD6r8D1BL&ref=plSrch
Yeah came out last year I believe. It's pretty good, but not as insightful as some of his others. This one is a little more suspenseful and focuses a bit more on the real plot rather than the subplot like in his other books. Still a pretty good read!
I second this, The Historic Pleasure Pier is fun for kids but no more historic than just standing on the Seawall.
You can't swing a dead cat without hitting something old or historic in Galveston. Most of which don't have websites, so until you go you just won't know. But when you get there you will have no shortage of things to do.
Read this, not super happy pregnancy material, but the best book about Galveston by far. This one is supposedly pretty good to, bit I haven't read it yet.
If you liked it check out the book Without Remorse by Tom Clancy. Everyone I've talked to agrees that Taken is based on the book.
when truth stranger than fiction
Here's a book for you, kiddo.
For the normal humans reading this, here is a funny video reading the book the epitomizes humans like this guy.