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    Default favorite non-King read

    there's probably a similar existing thread which this can be merged with, but until then...

    spoiler alert: this is just a thinly disguised thread for reading recos, but I thought it could be fun.

    I prefer genre titles, and I find I have exhausted everything by King and my other favorite authors at the moment. While I was looking for something else to read in the meantime, I saw some discussion here about a book called REPLAY by Ken Grimwood which several members named among their favorites. based on that discussion, I picked up a copy and really enjoyed it.

    Got me to thinking: if others shared some of their non-King favorites, perhaps I would find something I might not have otherwise discovered.

    I'll start. My most recent non-King favorite is LEXICON by Max Barry. its a cool thriller with a genre twist.

    My all-time non-King favorite might be a bit tougher, and changes from time to time, but right now I'd say it was BOYS LIFE by Robert McCammon. If you have never given him a try, it might be a good entry point.
    "When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes."
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    Default favorite non-King read

    Glad you enjoyed Replay. I love that book. Here's another non-King favorite of mine.

    The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. For those who enjoy epic historical fiction. It's one of the best books I've read.

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    The Infected trilogy by Scott Sigler is awesome. Three of my all time favorite books. Great techno-thriller series with violence, humor, aliens, and really good character development.

    John Dies at the End and This Book is Filled with Spiders by David Wong are unique reads that everybody should give a try at some point. It's horror and humor and is totally out there, but also very enjoyable and well written.

    Peter Clines writes a series of books, the first one being Ex-Heroes, which is a blend between the genres of super heroes and zombie apocalypse. Fairly unique, well done, and fun to read.

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    Some of my favorites:
    Novels - 'The House Next Door', by Anne Rivers Siddons
    'Ghost Story' and 'Floating Dragon', by Peter Straub
    'The Pet', by Charles Grant
    'A Dark Matter', by Michelle Paver
    'A Head Full of Ghosts', by Paul Tremblay
    'The Elementals' and 'Cold Moon Over Babylon', by Michael McDowell
    'The Shaft', by David Schow
    'The Ceremonies', by T E D Klein
    'The Night Walker', by Thomas Tessier

    Collections - 'Dark Companions' and 'Ghosts and Grisly Things', by Ramsey Campbell
    'The Books of Blood', by Clive Barker
    'Dark Gods', by T E D Klein
    '20th Century Ghosts', by Joe Hill

    Lincoln.

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    Anything by Cody McFadyen (if you're into serial killer thrillers) and Daniel Hecht (if you're into slightly supernatural neuropsychological-gothic thrillers). Both authors have stopped writing after publishing five novels or so, AFAIK.

    A really tense horror novel is The Ritual, by Adam Nevill.

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    There are many for me. One series I've reread multiple times is Otherland by Tad Williams. One of the my favorites. Jack McDevitt has a book called Eternity Road which I love as well and of course The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

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    Robert McCammon's Boy's Life, Swan Song and the ongoing Matthew Corbett series of historical fantasy novels can hardly be bettered.
    Also very highly recommended come Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant fantasy novels, his The Gap Science Fiction saga (just awesome) plus his Mordant's Need two-part book series (fantasy).

    sk

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    BOY'S LIFE is indeed a great one.

    Quote Originally Posted by FennyBate View Post
    Some of my favorites:

    'Ghost Story' by Peter Straub
    'A Dark Matter', by Michelle Paver
    'A Head Full of Ghosts', by Paul Tremblay
    'The Elementals' by Michael McDowell
    'The Ceremonies', by T E D Klein
    'The Night Walker', by Thomas Tessier

    'Dark Gods', by T E D Klein
    '20th Century Ghosts', by Joe Hill

    Lincoln.
    A great list of suggestions here.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ben Staad View Post
    and of course The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
    My favorite book of all time.

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    Quote Originally Posted by zelig View Post
    Glad you enjoyed Replay. I love that book. Here's another non-King favorite of mine.

    The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. For those who enjoy epic historical fiction. It's one of the best books I've read.
    I'm not a huge fan of epic historical fiction, but I loved PILLARS. Highly recommend that book.

    I need to read REPLAY, given all the positive buzz around here.

    My most recently read favorite is READY PLAYER ONE. Finished it a couple weeks ago and I already want to read it again.
    "...that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little." ~ Ray Bradbury

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    Great historic detective fiction - the Nate Heller series by Max Allan Collins (starts with True Detective)

    His best known creation may be the Road to Perdition series (comics & novels) which was the basis for the Tom Hanks/Paul Newman film.
    His Quarry series will soon be making its debut as a Cinemax TV series.

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    Complete Sherlock Holmes, some Verne, some H.G. Wells, the Hyperion books, classic titles by Arthur C. Clarke. I could re-read only these until I die and I'd be perfectly content.

    I collect Gaiman, Powers, and Wolfe. Those guys are about a quadrillion times better writers than H.G. Wells and Verne. I'd still go with the latter in a deserted island scenario. Those books make me feel happy.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by zelig View Post
    Glad you enjoyed Replay. I love that book. Here's another non-King favorite of mine.

    The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. For those who enjoy epic historical fiction. It's one of the best books I've read.
    I'm not a huge fan of epic historical fiction, but I loved PILLARS. Highly recommend that book.

    I need to read REPLAY, given all the positive buzz around here.

    My most recently read favorite is READY PLAYER ONE. Finished it a couple weeks ago and I already want to read it again.
    Patrick, you won't regret reading Replay. It's a fantastic book.

    John

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    Thanks, John. I'll order it today and put it on To Read list.
    "...that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little." ~ Ray Bradbury

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    Not to everyone's taste, but Philip Pullman's NORTHERN LIGHTS (aka THE GOLDEN COMPASS) is a brilliant book. The second (THE SUBTLE KNIFE) and third (THE AMBER SPYGLASS) are incredible--and better books, in some ways--but it's been many years since a book knocked me that flat.

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    Really tough to nail down only a few (I have so many "favorites"). Here's a shortlist:

    Booked to Die by John Dunning (and all the Cliff Janeway novels)
    Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
    Slob by Rex Miller (and most of the others in the Jack Eichord saga)
    Miami Blues by Charles Willeford (and the other three Hoke Moseley books)
    Murder in the Wind and The End of the Night by John D. MacDonald (and many others)
    The Black Company and Garrett P.I. series' by Glen Cook
    Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White
    Chinaman's Chance by Ross Thomas (Hell, anything by Ross Thomas really)
    LaBrava by Elmore Leonard

    and on and on...

  17. #17
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    I too have many.

    Dracula - my absolute favorite
    Hyperion series
    I Am Legend
    Boy's Life
    The Passage (soon to be trilogy. The first two were good so far)
    Almost anything by Richard Laymon

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    Lots of great books on the lists above - I agree with the high praise for the McCammon titles. I would add William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist and Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs. Re-read The Exorcist in 2015 and while the shock is gone it still holds up very well as innovative and very well written in addition to being a trail-blazing horror novel. Silence is one of the best structured novels I have ever read. Both of these novels are entirely exhilarating first reads-akin to falling into the author's world -and stand up to revisits.

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    Good call, Phalucha! Silence of the Lambs (and Red Dragon) should have been on my shortlist as well. I adore those books! Definitely one of my all-time favorites. Hannibal is up there too for me (I probably liked it more than most people), but it's not quite at the level of Silence and Dragon.

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    Richard Bachman is pretty good.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cordial Jim View Post
    Good call, Phalucha! Silence of the Lambs (and Red Dragon) should have been on my shortlist as well. I adore those books! Definitely one of my all-time favorites. Hannibal is up there too for me (I probably liked it more than most people), but it's not quite at the level of Silence and Dragon.
    I don't know what it was, but Hannibal struck a chord with me too. It might not be the superior of the three, but if I had to choose just one of them to reread, it would be Hannibal.

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    Seriously though, I love all these writers (no particular order):

    Bret Easton Ellis
    Thomas Harris
    Clive Barker
    Robert McCammon
    Edward Lee
    Anne Rice
    Cormac McCarthy
    Thomas Pynchon
    Kealan Patrick Burke
    James Joyce
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    JD Salinger
    Truman Capote
    JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith
    William Faulkner
    Jeff Lindsay
    EM Forster
    Fyodor Dostoevsky
    Vladimir Nabokov
    Toni Morrison
    Chuck Palahniuk
    Philip Roth
    Joyce Carol Oates
    Agatha Christie
    Dashiell Hammett
    Oscar Wilde
    GRR Martin
    Gillian Flynn
    Max Brooks
    Jack Ketchum
    Hugh Howey
    Scott Sigler
    Neil Gaiman
    Franz Kafka
    Edgar Allen Poe
    Brian James Freeman

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by firemonkey66 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Cordial Jim View Post
    Good call, Phalucha! Silence of the Lambs (and Red Dragon) should have been on my shortlist as well. I adore those books! Definitely one of my all-time favorites. Hannibal is up there too for me (I probably liked it more than most people), but it's not quite at the level of Silence and Dragon.
    I don't know what it was, but Hannibal struck a chord with me too. It might not be the superior of the three, but if I had to choose just one of them to reread, it would be Hannibal.
    What did you guys think of Hannibal Rising?

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by carlosdetweiller View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by firemonkey66 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Cordial Jim View Post
    Good call, Phalucha! Silence of the Lambs (and Red Dragon) should have been on my shortlist as well. I adore those books! Definitely one of my all-time favorites. Hannibal is up there too for me (I probably liked it more than most people), but it's not quite at the level of Silence and Dragon.
    I don't know what it was, but Hannibal struck a chord with me too. It might not be the superior of the three, but if I had to choose just one of them to reread, it would be Hannibal.
    What did you guys think of Hannibal Rising?
    I only read it the one time when it came out, but I remember being vaguely disappointed. I really liked how Harris explored and explained Hannibal's mind and thought process in Hannibal and I was hoping for a continuation of that in Hannibal Rising. If I recall correctly, it wasn't much like Hannibal in that regard.

  25. #25
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    I read Hannibal Rising in one sitting and remember thinking, beautifully written but definitely the weakest of the Hannibal Books and I don't have any desire to read it again. I've read Red Dragon twice and could stand another read soon. Hannibal is the first book that I read three times. I will probably read it again. Such a gorgeous, messy but unique and bizarre book. I am a huge fan of the film version of The Silence of the Lambs which may be why I've only read that book once.

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