Happy St George's day

[liv]

I'm not really interested in celebrating a saint's day (not being Christian), nor in celebrating Englishness (not being that sort of patriot), nor in dragon-slaying (as I generally find myself on the side of the dragon). However, I kind of like the idea of the Catalan version where people give eachother books.

So I propose a game: comment and recommend me a book, and I'll rec you something in return. If I don't know anything about you, I'll suggest something that I really like, and which I generally find isn't well known. And I'll keep going until I find something new to you, if necessary. You can give me a hint of the sort of books you prefer if you want to, but it's not required; it might be a more fun game if I have to guess based on my judgement of your character.

I have a comprehensive list of everything I've read in the last seven years, in case you find it hard to know where to start, but you obviously don't have to read through all that.

Comments

[rmc28]

You don't have Elizabeth Bear in your list, so I am going to recommend her to you. Specifically, I am going to recommend her trilogy Hammered/Scardown/Worldwired which starts off as a gritty detective story set approx 50 years from now, with the political world order somewhat different. And then turns into space opera.

If you can't get hold of Hammered et al, then I also recommend Blood and Iron/Whiskey and Water which are two books which really play around with myth and fable and Faerie and Merlin all interacting with the modern world.

[liv]

Thank you. I was put off reading her stuff because she has a history of being a complete wanker on the internet, but a positive rec for her writing is enough to counterbalance that.

I think you might enjoy AS Byatt's Babel tower. It's one of my favourite books in the world, and is literary fiction written with a really SF mindset (sort of the anti Margaret Atwood, if you like). Caveats: it's actually the third in a quartet, though it stands alone really well, and I read it long before I even knew the others existed. And the main character is the mother of a boy a little bit older than Charles, which is interesting but has the potential to be upsetting as well.

[rmc28]

Thank you. I have looked it up in the library catalogue and should be able to pick it up when I get home.