Risky did you read The Hunger Games trilogy?  What did you think of those books?

I'm also starting Ready Player One today...it better be good!

Ready Player One is Awesome!  You should get most of the references so that makes it tons better.

I read the Hunger Games and I liked the series overall.  The first book was by far my favorite and I liked the addition of the Political games in the other two books but the ending of the third pissed me off.  It seemed like the author was writing, stretched, yawned and said "I'm tired...The End".  Wrapped everything up too quickly and cleanly.  LAME!

A bad ending ruins a book most of the time.  Not all the time because Calculating God is one of my favorites and Robert J Sawyer never knows how to end a story.  I think the series could have ended after the 2nd book with some additions and I would have been happier.  I don't need a solution to the worlds problems in a book, I just need a story to be told and told well..

+1 to Ready Player One.  Thanks Risky for suggesting it -

The Hunger Games trilogy is very popular with myself and one of my kids and enjoyed by the rest of the family.  I liked how it focused on the propaganda aspects of war and also that the protagonist was not invulnerable.  We may be going to a midnight show of the movie next week -

I thought the ending was alright overall - especially that it did not have a "the heroes ride off together into the sunset" feeling to it.  What does spoil the ending some for me was what happened when the last set of bombs went off.  It felt forced for sure -

(Agreed with Calculating God and Sawyer...although Calculating God had a great and cool overall theme, the actually story was pretty bad.  Between that book and Flashback, I'm just not a fan of Sawyer's writing style.)

I just finished the Hunger Games too, and they reminded me a lot of Ender's Game (the first book) in that it wasn't "overwritten" with too many details and just plain long.  In The Hunger Games they stayed consistent throughout the series which was good (unlike something like Harry Potter) and I thought the ending was a bit abrupt, although I was kind of expecting the abruptness (again as that was somewhat they style of the books).  I agree with A37, in that it did have a bit different ending than the normal ending, which was cool, the bombs kind of helped with that and left some things to ponder.

Sawyer's writing style is a lot like mine in that every word is basically telling the reader "Dude, I'm pretty awesome!" so that's why I appreciate him.  Plus, he's an Anthropologist and that makes me happy.  I just wish he would think a little bit about the ending before writing it.

I actually think A37 summed up my opinion of Hunger Games pretty well.  I guess I was a little bit more offended by the abrupt ending than you two were but every thing else is basically the same.

Just finished Ready Player One, very cool book!  I got quite a few of the references (I could see how it would be even better the more you got), but great story and flow.  Good all throughout, thanks for the recommendation Risky!

P.S. Anyone ever see the Sliders episode that has the same "OASIS" like theme?

Any other good stand alone books out there?  I'm not in a Series mode...

Stand alone books in SciFi and fantasy are few and far between nowadays.  David Gemmel has a few I enjoyed.

Echoes of the Great Song
Dark Prince
Lion of Macedon

Usually Gemmel is the KING of series most of them never ending (he died not finishing a few) but these are decent stand alone books.  His series The Rigante kind of reads like stand alones since they are through time and the first 3 of 5 are about different characters in the same world.  I remember enjoying them.

I highly recommend Emissaries from the Dead (An Andrea Cort Novel) by Adam Troy Castro.  So far there are only 2 books and I haven't seen anything else coming down the pipeline.  It's a SciFi fantasy in an interesting future and Andrea Cort is a very unlikable Ice Queen who I totally fell in love with .  I liked the second book The Third Claw of God better but I think just because Emissaries got me to appreciate the character so much.  These are not feel good books but they are decent mysteries.  I know you aren't looking for series, but 2 books isn't really a series.

How about some disturbing Horror?  Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote Fight Club, has some good stuff.  I guess horror is the not the right word but it's the closest I can get.  I really like Choke and Damned.  I also really enjoyed Snuff, and even though it's really darkly hilarious, the subject matter isn't everyone's cup of tea.  It is written is a very unique narrative that actually had me reading it again right after the first time.

I just finished Up Jumps The Devil by Michael Poore.
Very interesting twist on Ol Scratch and his motivations.
Really well written for a debut effort.

I recently slogged through but really appreciated Tad Williams' Otherland series.  A little but the reluctant hero, but probably more a journey of human discovery.  The opposite of the reluctant hero: Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand (I know... I know...) but it's really the only book I have ever read that defends and justifies the ego driven self admiration, i.e. production, we've all come to embrace these days. 

On the lighter side, you'll probably appreciate the mastery in Terry Pratchitt's - Wee Free men. 4 books in the series, (like three hours reading total) but funny as hell and really nice stories. 

Or anything, and I really mean anything by Herman Hesse. Start with Siddharta, go to journey to the east and have steppenwolfe for dessert. 

Given what you describe you taste as, I think you'll like all of these. 

RECON wrote:

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.

I'm 2/3rds of the way through Alastair Reynolds 'Revelation Space'. After a slow start I'm really starting to enjoy it.