Wondering What to Read Next? Try asking this website. Type in an author name and a book title and the site will offer a list of recommended titles to read next, as suggested by readers' lists of favorite authors and titles. The thinking behind the site is that if one person likes author A and B, anyone else who likes author A will also like author B. More weight is given to associations made multiple times across different lists.
For kicks, I types in some books I liked. Here are the recommendations:
For Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
- Chronospace by Allen Steele
- Raft by Stephen Baxter (I read this years ago and liked it very much)
- Hyperthought by M. M. Buckner
- Tunnel in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
- Quad World by Robert A. Metzger
- Gridlinked by Neal Asher (which I liked, though not as much as Century Rain)
- The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
- Forever Free by Joe Haldeman (haven't read it. Yet.)
- Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds (which I liked)
- Valis by Philip K. Dick (never read it)
- The Illuminatus!: Trilogy by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson (never read it)
- Vurt by Jeff Noon (never read it)
- Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (never read it)
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (read it and liked it)
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (read it and liked it)
- The Cassini Division: A Fall Revolution Novel by Ken MacLeod (never read it)
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (never read it - I know...sad)
- Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (read it and liked it)
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (read it very long agoand dont remember much of it)
- Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (Never read it but want to)
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Never read it)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Steadman (Never read it)
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Read it and couldn't finish it)
- Being There by Jerzy Kosinski (Never read it)
Comments (5)
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Posted by John DeNardo at Friday October 14, 2005 at 1:08 AM
© Friday October 14, 2005 at 1:08 AM SF Signal
Your hypothesis is unfortunately correct: you are the only person on the planet who failed to enjoy Left Hand of Darkness.
Now, I have some sympathy for you. The author takes an unconventional approach to story-telling, and is more concerned with mood and atmosphere than plot. I cannot think of any other book where every other chapter is an anthropological report, or a native myth, or some other bit of background detail. I also cannot think of any other book where the characterization of the world and its people is so deep and moving. There are certain risks genius takes which more pedestrian story tellers avoid.
Posted by John C. Wright on Friday October 14, 2005 at 8:35 AM at 8:35 AM
Good point, Mr. Wright.
I've had a number of folk tell me I should read the Culture books by Iain Banks. I read Consider Phlebas a few years back and found it close to unreadable. I love big, freaky SF, and that book in no way qualified.
Someone please tell me that Phlebas is the worst of the lot, or that it isn't representative of the rest of the series. Please.
I'm coming off Revelation Space at the moment, and will need to cleanse my palate before continuing with Mr. Reynolds. I'm torn between rereading the Faded Sun books (which I haven't read in, god, twenty years) or Queen City Jazz, which I've never read.
Posted by Jeff on Friday October 14, 2005 at 9:12 AM at 9:12 AM
just as a test i put in red mars by robinson
and you came back with private parts by howard stern!??????
what a joke
Posted by bill derbyshire on Monday October 17, 2005 at 12:32 AM at 12:32 AM
I typed in Red mars by Kim Stanley Robinson and got back...
Time Travelers Strictly Cash - Spider Robinson
Private Parts - Howard Stern
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth - T. Harv Eker
Final Assault - Dean Wesley Smith, Kathryn Kristine Rusch, Steve Saffel
The Tenth Planet: Oblivion: Book 2 - Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
Standard Candles: The Best Short Fiction of Jack McDevitt
Paradise Screwed: Selected Columns of Carl Hiaasen
The Second Angel - Philip Kerr
The Endymion Omnibus: "Endymion"
I have a feeling that unless you are registered and have entered a large number of books (so the program "knows" you), this thing works like the Amazon.com "people who bought a also bought b" system, which comes up with hilarious results like Howard Stern being linked with Kim Stanley Robinson.
I've tried this site a few times without registering. So far, nothing it's suggested has really surprised me (is that because I have 5k books sitting on shelves at home and many more that I've read over the years?). Retirement Home for SF Curmudgeon's, here I come!
Posted by Fred Kiesche on Monday October 17, 2005 at 12:54 PM at 12:54 PM
Fred K. Sent us an email reminding us that this engine is similar to something we posted about earlier, Literature Map - where you could visually see the names of writers that are "close" to a writer of choice.
Examples: see the writers who are most like Philip K. Dick, Neil Gaiman, Theodore Sturgeon or Alastair Reynolds.
Posted by John on Tuesday October 18, 2005 at 1:46 PM at 1:46 PM