I think both Walter Jon Williams and Alastair Reynolds have numerous individual sci-fi novels that are very high quality.  Neal Asher has a couple of different series that I find exeptional, one for sci-fi the Polity Worlds and his series on the world with aging sea captains who live for centuries.  Dave Duncan, mostly fantasy, has more series than Orson Scott Card some of which I found very entertaining.

Tales of the Malazan is a GREAT concept.  A friend of mine reads them and keeps begging me to read them.  I have two issues with it:  1) too long and too many characters (it's just not my thing) B) The weren't available on the Kindle and now some are and some aren't.  I will read them at some point but right now I am just trying to stay with single books or maybe trilogies.  I think a lot of the stuff I am reading now will have sequels.  January is going to have 3 new books in series that I am reading and I'm pumped about that.

AJ, yeah, Vonnegut is the stuff!  I don't think I've read Cat's Cradle but when I have hours to devote to straight reading I'll check it out.  Hey, X-Mas is coming up which means family time and that always gives me time to read to avoid them.  Trust me, holidays with the Risky's is something you should all try to avoid.

RECON, Dave Duncan is one of those hit or miss for me.  I've read a few of the King's Blades books and liked parts but didn't really like the whole but then I read some blurb about him or the series and remember what I liked and try again.

I actually just put his trilogy "The Great Game" on my download list.  I think it sounds pretty cool in a thought provoking way.  I'm in the mood for thrillers or mysteries right now (in a Sci Fi/Fantasy World).  I get jones about something for a while and then read too much of that type and have to move on.

Oh, and just because I care about you all, here is the Amazon listing of the next book on my Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AJ8812/ref=docs-os-doi_0

Have you tried chronicles of the black company by glen cook?  same level of quality in general, but a little more focused than malazan.  I think that the bridgeburners in the malazan books were based off the black company when they were creating them.  I would recommend the first 3 books, at least.  There are more, but I only made it through a few of them before I got bored and kind of petered out as the quality slipped

The Rope wrote:

Have you tried chronicles of the black company by glen cook?  same level of quality in general, but a little more focused than malazan.  I think that the bridgeburners in the malazan books were based off the black company when they were creating them.  I would recommend the first 3 books, at least.  There are more, but I only made it through a few of them before I got bored and kind of petered out as the quality slipped

The Rope, I read most of the Black Company books and found that after the first 2 or 3 which I liked the stories just lost their way, were repetitious and not nearly as enjoyable.  I kept reading more hoping to see them get back to the first few and they never did.

Yeah, that is kind of the feeling I started getting too.  Good to know I wasn't the only one.  The first 3 were pretty great though :)

RiskyBack wrote:

RECON, Dave Duncan is one of those hit or miss for me.  I've read a few of the King's Blades books and liked parts but didn't really like the whole but then I read some blurb about him or the series and remember what I liked and try again.

I actually just put his trilogy "The Great Game" on my download list.  I think it sounds pretty cool in a thought provoking way.  I'm in the mood for thrillers or mysteries right now (in a Sci Fi/Fantasy World).  I get jones about something for a while and then read too much of that type and have to move on.

Oh, and just because I care about you all, here is the Amazon listing of the next book on my Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AJ8812/ref=docs-os-doi_0

Then I think you would really like Neal Asher the Polity Series and most of Iain banks Culture Series.

Slaughterhouse Five is fantastic. My favorite Kurt Vonnegut though is Sirens of Titan. Awesome, funny and clever. Any Vonnegut is awesome, or at least very good. 

The Once and Future King is also pretty good. 

Have you read any Ray Bradbury? Farenheit 451 was to me what Slaughterhouse Five is to you. Having reread it a few years back blew my mind. I couldn't believe that I didn't love the book, even though I was in 5th grade the first time.

Ooh, and how about A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court! Mark Twain nails this. A time traveller that lands in England hundreds of years ago, and teaches the yokels a thing or three while scaring them shiftless with random things he knows from the having lived in modern times. He sets himself up to be the toughest cat on the block, and knock Merlin down a few times.

I've read most of the Classics.  Bradberry, Vonnegut & Azimov but of course not everything by them.  It's difficult for me to go back to them now becuase I have read so many versions of their stories since they were the inspiration for so many future writers and, as we all know, good artists borrow, great writers outright steal!

I couldn't read any Twain now because I would have High School Flashbacks and I just can't take that at my age and cardiovascular health.  He's great and I didn read Conneticut Yankee back in High School and probably didn't appreciate it but that is just gonna have to be one of those things.

Ok, I got done reading "Ready Player One"  by Ernest Cline and it has now become my favorite book EVER.  The only reason some of you may not like it is because it is mainly full of references of movies, books and video games from the 80's so if you didn't live through them or aren't a fan of the 80's you might not like it too much.  This is the guy who wrote the screenplay for the movie "Fanboys" so if you've seen that movie you understand what kind of references I am talking about.

I suggest all interested give it a read...it may just change your life!

http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/030788743X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323378326&sr=8-1

Thanks for the recc Risky.  Just placed a hold on it at my library. 

There is a new heavyweight contender in the fantasy world, Brandon Sanderson (who you might know as the guy who is finishing the wheel of time books), just released the first book (The way of Kings) in a new epic series of his own this year.  I read Mistborn (an earlier trilogy by Sanderson), which although enjoyable, sort of cast Sanderson in my mind as a sophemoric fantasy auther.  His writing seems to have come a long way since then.. I couldn't stop reading The Way of Kings.

I know Sanderson through Mistborn and I think sophemoric is a great adjective for it.  I'm a fan of sophemoric when the author means it, but alas, Sanderson did not.  Finishing the Wheel of Time books won't do much to promote him in my mind as I think that series should have ended 61 books ago (it's been going on a long time).

I will keep Way of the Kings in mind since I am book hunting as we speak.

What's up with the sophemoric spelling?

Touche

if your into the fantasy type stuff have you read any of the 'witch world' books by andre norton? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_World

That series looks pretty cool.  Kinda similar to the world of Heroes Die which I am a HUGE fan of.  I'd read it, but there is a problem...

They aren't all available on the Kindle and Risky don't touch paper!  I requested them on the Kindle so we'll see.  I've had some luck with that in the past.

RiskyBack wrote:

I requested them on the Kindle so we'll see.  I've had some luck with that in the past.

Did you tell them that you're kind of a big deal?  They should be quick to respond then 

Risky is way too classy to do that..  Humility (..cough) is his middle name.