Neil Stephenson's System of the World is like 2,000 pages of "SCIENTISTS, FUCK YEAH!" about 17thand 18th century science, mathematics, economics, war, and culture. They're huge, sprawling novels that will teach you all kinds of weird esoteric shit about the history of science and maths while being viscerally exciting.
Cryptomonicon is an earlier novel that fits in the same world and is basically "CRYPTOGRAPHY FUCK YEAH", A great if slightly out of date way to learn some basic concepts about crypto and espionage without having to understand math at all.
The Ancillary Saga is just fucking cool, A sci-fi adventure about identity, family, belonging, authoritarianism, war, and what really matters when the chips are down. Also enthusiastically queers the concept of gender and builds vivid, interesting new cultures.
The whole Mockingjay/Hunger Games series is really good and compelling. Brutal take down of Liberalism, capitalism, media culture, and sports of all things. i read all three books in 36 hours.
The Laundry series by Charles Stross are a series of mock-spy lovecraftian cosmic horror novels. They're alternately deadly serious and affectionate parodies, and feature exiting adventures like fighting zombie nazis on the moon.
Anything by Terry Prachett is very good and readable. Discworld is a constant favorite of many fantasy fans. Try Guards, Guards for a good start. It's where the series really gets it's legs. Its about cops, though. They're lovable, fantasy cops, so basically nothing like the real thing.
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers was the loose inspiration for Pirates of the Carribean and features the last conflict between magic and ironworking set in the high seas of the Carribean. Includes cool shit like undead Blackbeard and the doing magic with blood.
Red Shirts by John Scalzi is an affectionate parody of Star Trek. Scalzi also notably was one of the first people to endorse anti-harassement codes of conduct as Sci Fi conventions
The Time Machine and War of the Worlds by HG Wells are both great classic romps
Tarzan and John Connor of Mars are very readable adventures with very bad politics - Connor for isntance is a "Southern Gentleman"
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is still the ur-Science Fiction novel and one of hte best works in the genre
Dracula is also a great read.
If you're in to JESUIIIIIIITS IN SPACE then Mary Doria's The Sparrow is a harrowing sci-fi adventure about anthropology, culture, grace, and suffering.
Starship Troopers is a very fashy sci-fi classic and a great companion to the Starship Troopers movie that parodys it.
John Steakley's ARMOR is a good follow-up to Starship Troopers that ruthlessly deconstructs it.
John Steakley's Vampire$ is a hilarious vampire adventure novel that was made in to a ridiculus John Carpenter movie that is some excellent trash filmmaking
Red Cavalry by Issac Babel is a classic fictionalize first hand account of the Red Cossacks during the Russian Civil War/Revolution
1984 by my boy Orwell is a damning take down of Stalinism written by a man traumatized and embittered by Stalins betrayal of the Spanish Revolution
Any of Lovecraft's stuff is classic pulp horror that also gives a great insight in to the mind of a vicious racist.
the Conan books are fun adventure classics with a surprisingly nuanced main character. Not for everyone because it's very much an ubermensch fantasy, but there's a lot going on that it doesn't always get credit for.
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor is a very well reccomended sci-fi adventure about a young Himba woman's adventures in space, but I haven't had the chance to finish it yet.
Oh, and don't forget The Lord of the Rings. It's not for everyone but it's a classic for a reason.
A Long War To A Small Angry Planet can be a bit hard to find but it's a very charming slice of life novel about the crew of a long haul space ship, their relationships, their hardships.
I'll second anything by Stross or Pratchett (although IIRC the zombie Nazis were on an alternate Earth devoid of atmosphere). I've also read and enjoyed Armor, Starship Troopers, and most of Lovecraft. I'll have to check out your other recommendations.
I gave up on Dracula about halfway through because it was too melodramatic for me. Maybe it was an artifact of it being serialized and every chapter ending in a cliffhanger. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday.
Vampire$ sounds cool, I'll have to check out the John Carpenter movie at least. It sounds kinda like the manga/anime/OVA Hellsing, which is really fucking cool if you can put yourself in the mindset of a goth 14 year old and don't mind violence and gore. At one point Dracula crashes an SR-71 into an aircraft carrier full of Nazi ghouls and crucifies them on the wreckage. There's also the Hellsing Abridged series if you're into the whole brevity thing.
Vampires is... It's got wayyyy to many dick jokes, I'm pretty sure there's a scene where vampire strippers eat everyone, and there's just shedloads of blood. It's not mature. it's not highbrow. it probably has some problematic shit I am forgetting. But if htere was a dirtbag vampire movie it is this.
Neil Stephenson's System of the World is like 2,000 pages of "SCIENTISTS, FUCK YEAH!" about 17thand 18th century science, mathematics, economics, war, and culture. They're huge, sprawling novels that will teach you all kinds of weird esoteric shit about the history of science and maths while being viscerally exciting.
Cryptomonicon is an earlier novel that fits in the same world and is basically "CRYPTOGRAPHY FUCK YEAH", A great if slightly out of date way to learn some basic concepts about crypto and espionage without having to understand math at all.
The Ancillary Saga is just fucking cool, A sci-fi adventure about identity, family, belonging, authoritarianism, war, and what really matters when the chips are down. Also enthusiastically queers the concept of gender and builds vivid, interesting new cultures.
The whole Mockingjay/Hunger Games series is really good and compelling. Brutal take down of Liberalism, capitalism, media culture, and sports of all things. i read all three books in 36 hours.
The Laundry series by Charles Stross are a series of mock-spy lovecraftian cosmic horror novels. They're alternately deadly serious and affectionate parodies, and feature exiting adventures like fighting zombie nazis on the moon.
Anything by Terry Prachett is very good and readable. Discworld is a constant favorite of many fantasy fans. Try Guards, Guards for a good start. It's where the series really gets it's legs. Its about cops, though. They're lovable, fantasy cops, so basically nothing like the real thing.
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers was the loose inspiration for Pirates of the Carribean and features the last conflict between magic and ironworking set in the high seas of the Carribean. Includes cool shit like undead Blackbeard and the doing magic with blood.
Red Shirts by John Scalzi is an affectionate parody of Star Trek. Scalzi also notably was one of the first people to endorse anti-harassement codes of conduct as Sci Fi conventions
The Time Machine and War of the Worlds by HG Wells are both great classic romps
Tarzan and John Connor of Mars are very readable adventures with very bad politics - Connor for isntance is a "Southern Gentleman"
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is still the ur-Science Fiction novel and one of hte best works in the genre
Dracula is also a great read.
If you're in to JESUIIIIIIITS IN SPACE then Mary Doria's The Sparrow is a harrowing sci-fi adventure about anthropology, culture, grace, and suffering.
Starship Troopers is a very fashy sci-fi classic and a great companion to the Starship Troopers movie that parodys it.
John Steakley's ARMOR is a good follow-up to Starship Troopers that ruthlessly deconstructs it.
John Steakley's Vampire$ is a hilarious vampire adventure novel that was made in to a ridiculus John Carpenter movie that is some excellent trash filmmaking
Red Cavalry by Issac Babel is a classic fictionalize first hand account of the Red Cossacks during the Russian Civil War/Revolution
1984 by my boy Orwell is a damning take down of Stalinism written by a man traumatized and embittered by Stalins betrayal of the Spanish Revolution
Any of Lovecraft's stuff is classic pulp horror that also gives a great insight in to the mind of a vicious racist.
the Conan books are fun adventure classics with a surprisingly nuanced main character. Not for everyone because it's very much an ubermensch fantasy, but there's a lot going on that it doesn't always get credit for.
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor is a very well reccomended sci-fi adventure about a young Himba woman's adventures in space, but I haven't had the chance to finish it yet.
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Oh, and don't forget The Lord of the Rings. It's not for everyone but it's a classic for a reason.
A Long War To A Small Angry Planet can be a bit hard to find but it's a very charming slice of life novel about the crew of a long haul space ship, their relationships, their hardships.
I'll second anything by Stross or Pratchett (although IIRC the zombie Nazis were on an alternate Earth devoid of atmosphere). I've also read and enjoyed Armor, Starship Troopers, and most of Lovecraft. I'll have to check out your other recommendations.
I gave up on Dracula about halfway through because it was too melodramatic for me. Maybe it was an artifact of it being serialized and every chapter ending in a cliffhanger. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday.
Vampire$ sounds cool, I'll have to check out the John Carpenter movie at least. It sounds kinda like the manga/anime/OVA Hellsing, which is really fucking cool if you can put yourself in the mindset of a goth 14 year old and don't mind violence and gore. At one point Dracula crashes an SR-71 into an aircraft carrier full of Nazi ghouls and crucifies them on the wreckage. There's also the Hellsing Abridged series if you're into the whole brevity thing.
Vampires is... It's got wayyyy to many dick jokes, I'm pretty sure there's a scene where vampire strippers eat everyone, and there's just shedloads of blood. It's not mature. it's not highbrow. it probably has some problematic shit I am forgetting. But if htere was a dirtbag vampire movie it is this.