Books You Should Have Read By Now

The author is a horrible person and I don't want to support him in any way, shape or form.

My GoodReads list. It's not complete by any means - there's about six books in the last few months that I haven't added yet, and a thousand or so from the last 38 years that I read before GoodReads existed ;-)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2071205

I'm noticing a disturbing lack of Clarke and Asimov there.

I've read a few thousand books probably in my life. Most of them before a lot of people on this forum were probably born. And Goodreads I've mostly only added stuff I've read since I joined. Almost nothing prior, except a few notables that everyone should read (The Snowball for instance, Good Omens, etc).

How does that list not include Clarke and Asimov?

i am not disagreeing. It's mostly down to how much you want to restrain yourself to realism. (or dare to call it that). Fantasy is simply further down the "not like real life" lane.

There's a lot of sci-fi and fantasy I love. There aren't many I consider required reading:
- The Hobbit
- Good Omens

Even some of my favorite reads like Peter Hamilton, Raymond Feist, David Eddings aren't under "must read"... just.. you really should because they're a lot of fun to read.

I loved Elfstones of Shannara. Best large scale battles I've ever read.

I never picked up any of the other Shannara books(Genesis, High Druid, ect). Are they as good? I think somebody told me they were more world flavor books than adventure stories.

Asimov's Foundation series is pretty good even with its flaws. There are lots of plot holes and weak characters, but the main concept is really interesting.

There is much more to the book than the movie. I think the movie did a really good job, but there are some things it just can't cover.

Brooks follows pretty consistent plot progressions in all his books. I enjoy them all, but the stories they tell are rarely "new". They are, as you said, world flavor that continue to grow the world that he's made.

Two of my favorite underrated series from him were the prequels. Running with the Demon /Knight of the Word / Angel Fire East set the very initial stage for the creation of the world of Shannarra in the US in the 90s. The Genesis of Shannara books actual go into the actual transition from a world on the verge of total destruction, where a small seed of the remaining people (not all human) become the group that starts the transition to a world reborn. It's pretty cool story telling, and some of the most interesting writing he's done since the original trilogy.

If you haven't already read their books you might like Brandon Sanderson and Steven Erikson, they are very good and might be your kind of thing looking at the other authors you mention.

EDIT: Brooks's Sword of Shannara was the first "big" book i remember reading when i was about twelve and got me hooked on the genre. I also followed up with David Eddings's Garrion books and then his Sparhawk books. That was about 20 years ago. Me and my brothers still use some online names connected to them. I think other authors have surpassed them now but it has been a long time since I read those so I could be wrong.

The Mistborn trilogy by Sanderson was really fun to read.

This, right here. One of my favorite fantasy series. (I think the first book of the series was my favorite, but they were all very good.)

Also, the Witcher saga, by Andrzej Sapkowski, recently adapted to a well-known video-game franchise. It's written in Polish, and only some of the books have been translated to English, but it is possible to find fan-translations.

I'm currently trying to read Moby - uhm - "Richard". Sadly, being the pagan I am, I have some trouble understanding the biblical references and analogies, which seem to be quite important.

Edit: Whelp, the name actually got censored, so i guess I'll have to use the long version

What's wrong with Moby's Dock?

Just watch the Thug Notes once you're done. Seriously, Thug Notes has way better analysis than most not-university-hosted online sources.
(also Big Richard TV : P)

All the Oculus Rift news flying about referencing the Metaverse reminded me to recommend you Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, Diamond Age and to a lesser extent Anathem. They're all standalone books, just really excellent scifi adventures with a brain on top.

Yes, thug notes is pretty B...Ballin? :RICHARDS, I'm not very good at this

Good scifi, however, is a way of capturing the zeitgeist and preserving it. The best scifi provides a metaphor for the time in which it was written.

I am quite a fan of scifi, because I believe the themes explored are much more interesting than love and loss.

@nanolathe - I found a mostly relevant thread for you to write your description of good scifi.

There's this Arthur C. Clarke story about a race of horse-like beings. They're very clever and could easily build things like bridges and sailing ships. But they don't have any fingers. Later they discover a primitive tribal race that does have fingers. I don't find it very plausible but it's a fascinating idea.