Books, if you love Firefly you will really love reading....

POSTED BY: Murkymerc
UPDATED: Friday, April 7, 2006 18:36
VIEWED: 24405
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DAVESHAYNE

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 5:34 AM

Not sure of any books that I would call particularly Firefly so I'll just rattle off a bunch of books I think everybody should read and enjoy. Not in any particular order.

The Phantom Tollbooth. (Yeah, it's a kids book. So what? It's fun.)

The Lord of the Rings. (The Professor sure could write the prose.)

Catch 22. (Perhaps the best novel ever writen. Seriously.)

Dune.

The Stars Like Dust, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation. (Asimov in his prime.)

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. (Easily Heinleins best.)

The Shockwave Rider. (A John Brunner book with a happy - if contrived - ending; something of a rarity. Arguably the first cyberpunk novel.)

Neuromancer. (The first novel to be called cyberpunk.)

Ringworld. (Larry Niven at his best.)

David

"A lot of people are asking me, you know, what exactly is Firefly? It's a tv show you morons!" - Joss Whedon

BELOWZERO

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 5:50 AM

Mike Resnick, Santiago and Return of Santiago. He is a browncoat for sure: look at the cover art on the second book and tell me who that guy and that ship remind you of!

I second Guy Gavriel Kay, I still love the whole Fionavar tapestry.
I love Diana Wynne Jones as well. Out of print book called Dogsbody is my fave. A kids' book but who cares?

Ditto on George R R Martin.

I also like Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. This guy is a browncoat to the point of quoting Firefly episodes in his latest, Dead Beat. "We ar enot gonna die. You know why? Thomas is too pretty to die. I am too stubborn to die. And polka will never die."

I also like (and y'all can just shoot me for crossing genres) the Laurell K Hamilton Anita Blake series, Glen Cooke's Garrett the investigator series, and Black Company. Peter David has a couple of series: the King Arthur one and Sir Apropos of Nothing--that I recommend.

Kelley Armstrong is also highly recommended, as is Tanya Huff (hi-LARIOUS) and Mary Janice Davidson's Undead and... series (also just too darn funny).

I, uh, don't watch much TV either. Hasn't been much point, since nothing is on that comes close to Firefly.

Have fun! Raid your local library if you need to. Interlibrary loan has saved my butt more than once.

"Do not go gentle into that good night....
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. . ."
--Dylan Thomas

Though my soul may set in darkness
It will rise in perfect light.
I have loved the stars too fondly
To be fearful of the night.

CAB1729

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 7:09 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kaele:
Sharpe's Rifles by Bernard Cornwell.

It's an entire series.

~Kaele

Great mil-fic. And Sean Bean in the TV series was soooo good. Sooo hot.

Um, what were we talking 'bout?

Oh books.

The Vlad Taltos/Dragaera books by Steven Brust. His sense of humor is very close to Joss's - sly, unexpected, a little sarcastic, with the occasional non sequitur. Start with Jhereg or if you can't find that, it's out in a trilogy with the first three books.

Plus, Brust has written his own darn Firefly novel which we're all hoping gets accepted by the Joss camp. He couldn't bear to write about after Serenity cuz he's a big Wash fan so he ignored the instructions and did one between Ff and Serenity. He read excerpts at a con here in Michigan and it was funny, exciting, true to Joss. No word yet on if it'll ever get published.

I really really want to read that book!

Anger on one side, sadness on the other.
Nobody knows about the third side.

ARCADIA

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 7:30 AM

I recently read the first book in the Hyperion series and loved it. I'm going to read the second one over spring break. Look it up on amazon for a good description of what it's about. I think Firefly fans would like it because it is very character-oriented. The author structured it after the Canterberry Tales. It starts with seven characters coming together, and as they journey each is asked to tell their story (and their stories are the majority of the book). Since Firefly fans tend to like character driven works, I think you'd appreciate that.

Aside from that... hmm...

Well, there is a fun scifi series by David Gerrold that I like. It starts with the book "Jumping off the Planet". The premise is that Earth is overpopulated, and people are looking to get off the planet, either to live on the colony on the moon, or venture to new colonies beyond. These stories are told by Charles "Chigger", the middle of three brothers who are journying to the moon (and in later books, beyond the moon). Chigger, if I remember correctly, is 13/14, his older borhter is entering college age, and his younger brother is 8 or 10. I think a Firefly fan would like these books because 1) Chigger is funny, 2) Though the boys get caught up in some pretty big political issues, they are not big political figures. They're kids. Like our BDHs they rise to the occassions presented to them, but they don't seak them out the way that Star Trek chracters do, 3) Gerrold's portrayel of the future is just plain cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Objects in Space"
River: It's just an object. It doesn't mean what you think...

LEGOLAD

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 8:15 AM

Okay, I just joined for the sake of adding to this thread. I'm sure you will have heard of these books:

His Dark Materials.

It's a trilogy, and it's as good as you've heard. Read them; you will not regret it. Most imaginative and epic fantasy since Lord of the Rings, which Dave was already good enough to recommend. They're not as humour-oriented as Firefly, but I love them both for the same reasons: believable characters struggling to get by in wondrous and deadly worlds, learning the big picture as they go along. Great stuff.

Also agree with Ivy; Ender's Game and its sequel are both fantastic, although the series kind of loses steam after that. Like Dune, come to think of it. Funny how we all seem to read the same books...

"We need a hood ornament."

NUCLEARDAY

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 8:29 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Arcadia:
I recently read the first book in the Hyperion series and loved it...

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that one! Had the first book in the series gathering dust in my closet for years, and couldn't believe I'd waited so long to read it once I got past the first few chapters. That whole series is easily some of the best stuff I've read in recent years.

(Come to think of it... there's a couple of parallels between that series and Firefly, especially once you get to the last two books.)

________________________________________________
You can take my hope when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

GARIM

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 10:13 AM

I can easily second the recommendation to read the Hyperion series and OSC's Ender books.

One series that hasn't been mentioned that is a very good read and also character driven (with some really disgusting bad guys and interesting good guys - with crews that get into trouble constantly) is The Gap series by Stephen Donaldson.

All of these three series are very good reads...

AUSSAY

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 11:45 AM

The Wednesday Next books by Jasper Fforde - funny and smart

and Dune is great

"Shake your head boy, your eyes are stuck"

www.fireflyfans.net
http://www.browncoatsriseagain.com/

JUGGLESGEESE

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 3:01 PM

Great taste... I love these too. I didn't know anyone was reading them but me!

RHODRI

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 3:10 PM

Anything by David Gemmell - he the Gorram Man!! But in particular "Wolf in Shadow", "The Last Guardian", "Waylander".
Gemmell is the Master of the Anti-hero.

Also check out George McDonald Fraser's "Flashman Papers", a Victorian scoundral with a hand in virtually every period event, and it ain't what you're taught at school either!

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