I’m often asked for book recommendations, so here’s a list of my favourite books sorted according to genre with links to my Goodreads reviews:
Fantasy
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1060416159
Paternus: Rise of Gods by Dyrk Ashton https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2150070302
The Darkness that Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/324718560
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2695365862
Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1562128103
Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad #1) by David Eddings https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1133113982
Beyond Redemption by Michael R. Fletcher https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1309340479
The Mirror’s Truth by Michael R. Fletcher https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1714889388
Norlyska Groans by Michael R. Fletcher and Clayton W. Snyder https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4247862704
The Lost Regiment #1: Rally Cry by William R. Forstchen https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1069002380
Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1079818592
The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2411810927
The City by Stella Gemmell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/629233553
Legend by David Gemmell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1101413088
Ravenheart by David Gemmell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1137327151
Waylander by David Gemmell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245222398
Wolf in Shadow by David Gemmell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245228289
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2120727067
The Hand of the Sun King by JT Greathouse https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4917634963
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3982328291
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1059663565
Ship of Magic (The Liveship Traders #1) by Robin Hobb https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1113867290
Blackdog by KV Johansen https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2223084587
The Gunslinger (Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245222492
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1052797420
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1916130976
Dream Songs by George RR Martin https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1136130081
Blackwing by Ed McDonald https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2007222696
Promise of Blood by Brian McLellan https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1103023376
The Scar by China Mieville https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1059845898
The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations #1) by Michael J Sullivan https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/360600504
The Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/725036643
The Thousand Names by Django Wexler https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1043204778
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245222502
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2898057520
Science Fiction
Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223648
Voyage by Stephen Baxter https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1057330544
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1055394174
Dauntless by Jack Campbell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2216940800
Midshipman’s Hope by David Fientuch https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1119898937
Neuromancer by William Gibson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223673
Count Zero by William Gibson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223685
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1139124995
Slow River by Nicola Griffith https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1083081075
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223551
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1044115670
Dune by Frank Herbert https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223544
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1107595048
Broken Angels by Richard Morgan https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223698
Vurt by Jeff Noon https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1040358888
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1113866663
Hyperion by Dan Simmons https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223816
Olympos by Dan Simmons https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1135640749
Blackthorne by Clayton Snyder https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4982543292
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223661
The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1097568544
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2203713746
City of Golden Shadow (Otherland #1) by Tad Williams https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1071653247
The Middle Kingdom (Chung Kuo #1) by David Wingrove https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1089546717
Crime
The Smoke by Tom Barling https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1108498517
Every Dead Thing by John Connelly https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1748356603
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/987382048
White Jazz by James Ellroy https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/987381207
American Tabloid by James Ellroy https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245222874
Perfidia by James Ellroy https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1123778962
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245222785
Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/681570152
Mr Mercedes by Stephen King: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1374366493
The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1424950569
Horror
World War Z by Max Brooks https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1134736611
The Passage by Justin Cronin https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/898991957
The Fireman by Joe Hill https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2222184021
NOS4R2 by Joe Hill https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1077415795
Cell by Stephen King https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1666344083
The Dead Zone by Stephen King https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223368
It by Stephen King https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223204
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1036354909
I am Legend by Richard Matheson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1092021510
Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1139127061
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245222508
Anno Dracula by Kim Newman https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1065473118
The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1095151043
Famous Monsters by Kim Newman https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1090388401
The Original Dr Shade and Other Stories by Kim Newman https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1132210278
Jago by Kim Newman https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1127385843
Infected by Scott Sigler https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1129038617
The Terror by Dan Simmons https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1092023174
Floating Dragon by Peter Straub https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245223250
Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/717368757
John Dies at the End by David Wong https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1592725690
Historical Fiction
The Alienist by Caleb Carr https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245225119
Sharpe’s Enemy by Bernard Cornwell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1074341502
Bomber by Len Deighton https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1111846433
Flashman in the Great Game by George McDonald Fraser https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1084672569
Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1036810587
Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1035991441
The Queen of Bedlam by Robert R. McCammon https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1106115032
Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2221131027
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1096628137
The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1118072543
Dark Fire by CJ Sansom https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1058921216
Contemporary Fiction
Complicity by Iain Banks https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1112570635
The 13th Valley by John M. Del Vecchio https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1087970525
The City and The City by China Mieville https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1124654921
Humour
The United States of Absurdity by Dave Anthony & Gareth Reynolds: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2211073557
I, Partridge by Steve Coogan et al https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1111065964
Nomad by Steve Coogan et al http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1825233932
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1129852211
How Not to Grow Up by Richard Herring https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1048988085
Backstory by David Mitchell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1002909850
Wilt by Tom Sharpe https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1125585934
History
Reel History by Alex Von Tunzelmann https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1782564515
Stalingrad by Antony Beevor https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245224129
The Social History of the Machine Gun by John Ellis https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1061343313
Fake History by Otto English https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4899515794
War of the Aeronauts by Charles M. Evans https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/711370188
The Gunpowder Plot by Antonia Fraser https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1035131846
Bloody April by Peter Hart https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/255731118
Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914 by Max Hastings https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1085620022
Bomber Command by Max Hastings https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1098909928
All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/717366050
A History of Warfare by John Keegan https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1078182446
Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245224264
War on the Waters by James M McPherson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1002062862
The First Day on the Somme by Martin Middlebrook https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1081492776
War in the Air 1914-45 by Williamson Murray https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1073255374
Business in Great Waters by John Terraine https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1076793468
The Right of the Line by John Terraine https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1122975643
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2568890395
1812: Napoeleon’s Fatal March on Moscow by Adam Zamoyski https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1100658699
The Black Death by Philip Ziegler https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1110232363
Non-fiction
If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1624753315
The Hell of it All by Charlie Brooker https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/403903373
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/245224756
Hardware: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1070835616
Icon by Frank Frazetta https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1050037194
Alien by HR Giger https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1079122967
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/355262163
Beyond the Horizon: The Art of John Harris https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1113868075
An Animated Life by Ray Harryhausen https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1047059554
Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2562828780
Robin Ince’s Bad Book Club by Robin Ince https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/396745389
On Writing by Stephen King https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1083807813
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1092022266
Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall by Spike Milligan https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1082324809
The Successful Novelist by David Morrell https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2271545586
Watching War Films with My Dad by Al Murray https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/918121939
Write. Publish. Repeat. by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1128266203
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2204817508
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2220101266
First Light by Geoffrey Wellum https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1109452637
Comics
Crossed by Garth Ennis https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1037745731
Sandman vol 1 – Neil Gaiman https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1088859511
Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1130630515
The Complete Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1087239032
Chopper: Song of the Surfer by John Wagner and Colin McNeil https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1066248236
Poetry
William Blake: The Complete Writings https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1099401682
March 16th, 2015 at 12:24 pm
I can’t remember if it was The Book of Three (in Swedish though) or Tolkien that I read first but I was firmly set on fantasy from an early age. Had my daughters read The Book of Three and now realised that I have to find it for my 10 year old son as well 🙂 For me Steven Erikson would be on any list as well as a few others but reading this I seem to have missed Gemell. Will rectify that as soon as I can.