Books, if you love Firefly you will really love reading....
POSTED BY: Murkymerc
UPDATED: Friday, April 7, 2006 18:36
VIEWED: 24405
PAGE 3 of 10
Quote:I second the Sir Apropos series. There are three books out; Sir Apropos of Nothing, The Woad to Wuin, and Tongue Lashing, and I'm sincerely hoping for a fourth, after the Whedonesque last paragraphs of book 3 (everything is resolved, the story's over, then we get a bombshell dropped matter-of-factly in our laps).
Originally posted by BelowZero:
Peter David has a couple of series: the King Arthur one and Sir Apropos of Nothing--that I recommend.
Peter David is also responsible for the Star Trek: New Frontiers series, which I'd recommend even if you dislike Star Trek. David is like the Joss of written work, and New Frontiers is unlike any Trek before or since.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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You'll laugh at me for this, but the only books that I've loved like I love Firefly are Harry Potter.
There's the same kind of "characters with mysterious pasts waiting to be revealed" aspect, a similarly detailed 'verse, humor and witty prose, characters you can fall in love with, action, drama, and heartbreak.
The balance of humor to serious drama is tilted further in favor of humor, and there's nothing as dark as the darkest moments of Firefly (but for "childrens" books, the later ones have some pretty dark stuff. An ear? Bah, how about a guy who voluntarily cuts off his own whole hand?)
If you've seen the movies and were unimpressed, give the books a chance - some of the movies are ok but as a whole they're pretty much video fanfic. Although, if you've seen the movies, you've gone and spoiled all the plot twists for yourself, which wasn't real smart ;)
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Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches series. Start with "The Witching Hour," and see if it grabs you.
____________________________________________________
They could not take the sky from them -
Our Big Damn Heroes made a film!
I'm gonna see Serenity then
go back the next morning and see it again.
Cuz no one at Fox knew this show had no equal
C'mon Universal, and greenlight the sequel!
Click on my profile for my Annoyingly Long List of Firefly Links.
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I'm surprised no-one here has yet mentioned the Dark Tower books by Stephen King. They're fantasy, with all the usual myth and magic stuff, but set in a western style world, with gunslingers in place of knights.
They Kind of remind me of Firefly. They blend Westerns with fantasy, whereas FF blends westerns with Science Fiction. They're brilliant and I'm currently addicted to them.
"Gorramit Mal... I've forgotten my line."
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Quote:
Originally posted by Legolad:
Okay, I just joined for the sake of adding to this thread.
Welcome to the board. Post early, post often.
Quote:
Funny how we all seem to read the same books...
It's spooooky.
David
"A lot of people are asking me, you know, what exactly is Firefly? It's a tv show you morons!" - Joss Whedon
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One of my favorites is the Chanur books by C.J. Cherryh: Pride of Chanur, Chanur's Venture, The Kif Strike Back, & Chanur's Homecoming. Currently the first 3 books are sold as a trilogy and the 4th one is sold separately. Go figure.
Most of the story happens on spaceships or a space station. There's this merchant ship whose captain gets caught up in the matter of a wayward, stowaway human - it's the first human any of them ever saw, and threatens to crash the captain's own species' fragile peace with some nasty aggressor alien neighbors. Suddenly nobody knows where the space-borders are anymore.
There's action, smart dialogue with humor and galactic intrigue. There's a bunch of great characters who have to work together to solve problems so bad that only a really good writer could get them out of without dumbing down the antagonists. I totally love these books.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Arcadia:
I recently read the first book in the Hyperion series and loved it.
That's the first thing I thought of - Dan Simmon's Hyperion series. I've read all four of these books a few times and they're my absolute fave sci-fi.
Great characters, really interesting future world, super-cool ideas for technology (farcaster house, oh man do I want one of those!), a religion vs science vs mythology angle which I really liked, adventure, war, AI, romantic love, parental love, etc... I could go on.
The 4th book gets a little slow and heavy with the description, but it's worth getting through. I highly recommend these books!
m4p
I'm the president. I don't need to listen.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Corncobb:
I'm surprised no-one here has yet mentioned the Dark Tower books by Stephen King. They're fantasy, with all the usual myth and magic stuff, but set in a western style world, with gunslingers in place of knights.
They Kind of remind me of Firefly. They blend Westerns with fantasy, whereas FF blends westerns with Science Fiction. They're brilliant and I'm currently addicted to them.
Okay, this is not a spoiler, just a warning: When you get to the end of the last book, when Stephen tells you to stop reading RIGHT NOW, please take his advice and do so. Do not read the last little bit he added.
Of course I know you'll read it anyway. But you'll regret it afterward. Trust me on this one.
____________________________________________________
They could not take the sky from them -
Our Big Damn Heroes made a film!
I'm gonna see Serenity then
go back the next morning and see it again.
Cuz no one at Fox knew this show had no equal
C'mon Universal, and greenlight the sequel!
Click on my profile for my Annoyingly Long List of Firefly Links.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Rhodri:
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!
I read those many years ago and they were great fun, very witty and very enjoyable, especially if you like historical novels.
Along those lines I highly recommend the The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Patrick O'Brian. I would never have thought Napoleonic naval warfare would be such a great read but O'Brian is "wow." Amazon is running a special on the entire series right now too.
Science Fiction: Many great ones but one writer that tends to slip by under the radar is a Polish SciFi author, Stanislaw Lem. He wrote Solaris that the 2 films were based on. I liked the films ok but like a lot of films from books the books are better. And he writes short story collections as well. In a nutshell: great imagination combined with great humor. Try "The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy," for a start if you're curious. One reviewer at Amazon said:
"One of my all time favorites. I have read and reread this book so many times, and it never ceases to make me laugh...then think about how much more relevant this book becomes as the years go by...then I laugh and think some more.
This book is an essential read for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the nature of reality. Whether you're 13 or 33 (63) this book will wind your brain up and send it in all directions. So....read it!!!"
Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.net
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Quote:
Originally posted by grizwald:
Okay, this is not a spoiler, just a warning: When you get to the end of the last book, when Stephen tells you to stop reading RIGHT NOW, please take his advice and do so. Do not read the last little bit he added.
Of course I know you'll read it anyway. But you'll regret it afterward. Trust me on this one.
I agree. I wish it'd ended different.
Of course, I'd still read the ending, warning or no!
I'm the president. I don't need to listen.
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