From time to time, friends ask for book recommendations, so I thought I'd compile my list here so I can forward it to those with similar tastes. I have to note that I seldom have time to READ books anymore - when I am reading, it's usually journal articles or texts, so my pleasure "reading" is actually in the form of audio books. I listen to them when I bike, do laundry, garden or clean the house. I'm a huge fan of, and subscriber to, audible.com (I'm not an affiliate, so I'm not making money from this post :-) )
When I'm not listening to non-fiction (usually something to do with the brain, Quelle Suprise...), I like SF, and post-apocalyptic stories. (And yes, I'm a fan of the Zombie genre. :-) But most of that is crap - it's pure mind candy entertainment, and not to most people's tastes.) From time to time, I will listen to something on the best seller list as well, so I'll list those separately at a later date. For now I'm going to highlight just 6 series that I really liked and were great in audio book form.
If you are looking for a GREAT listen/read, These are audio books that I highly recommend:
1. Daemon by Daniel Suarez. Written by an IT security specialist, the tech stuff is bang-on and it's disturbingly prophetic. The story starts with a Bill-Gates-like billionaire who made his fortune on a massively-multiplayer online game (World of Warcrack anyone?), but is dying of a brain tumor. He creates an autonomous AI that is loose on the world networks, and has an agenda. Nuff Said. Read. This. Book. Fantastic listen/read and great narration as well. The sequel, Freedom, is also a MUST listen. His other books are also excellent, but these are still my hands-down favourites. Daniel writes near-future technical sci-fi that tackles ethically-charged topics like autonomous drones in Kill Decision, and Crisper/Cas-9 gene editing in Change Agent.
2. The Joe Ledger series by Jonathan Mayberry, read by Ray Porter. I LOVE anything read by Ray, and he IS Joe Ledger in this series. Joe is ex-special forces, working for the Baltimore police, when he is recruited by an off-book organization called the Department of Militatry Sciences, whose mission is to protect the world from bioterrorism. Read the books in order and start with Patient Zero - a Zombie story, but with a plausible twist. Love that one of the biology profs at Carleton, Ken Story, was a technical consultant on this book. :-)
3. The Expanse series by James SA Corey. Starting with Leviathan Wakes -Power, politics, war, intrigue and first contact in a great series of books. Humans have moved out into space. Mars and Earth are in a tense treaty. The asteroid belt is populated by the working class who are controlled by earth and mars and are seeking parity and freedom. Though the books have been recently made into a series on SyFy (and the Space Network in Canada), the books are much easier to follow. However, I do love that the linguist who came up with Dothraki for GoT also wrote the "Belter" creole for the Expanse TV series.
4.) We are Legion (We are Bob), Book 1 of the Bobiverse by Dennis E Taylor. Also read by Ray Porter. Bob was a software startup founder who just sold his company, made his millions and decided to book himself into a cryopreservation company just in case... and he gets hit by a car shortly afterwards. 100 years later, he is "revived", only to find out he has no body, no rights, and is intended to pilot an exploration ship to the stars... There are only 2 books in the series (Book 2 is For We are Many), and I binged both. Anxiously awaiting the next in the series.... The book is both hysterically funny, with great references to other fun sci-fi movies and trivia, and also poignant. It also asks the question: "What constitutes self?", without getting overly pedantic And once again, Ray Porter rocks. (Did I mention how much I love Ray Porter's narration? He could read the dictionary and make it sound like War and Peace.)
5.) Red Rising by Pierce Brown. A trilogy set on the planet mars in the distant future when humans have colonized the planet, and a caste system reigns supreme. The protagonist, Darrow, is a member of the lowest caste, believing they are suffering to terraform the planet for future generations, only to find out the planet already has above-ground cities and parks, and they have been lied to for generations. A complex story about love, allegiances, identity, ethics and honour.
6.) Terry Pratchett's Discworld series - Start with The Colour of Magic and move on from there. You can read them out of order, but it's much better if you read them as written. That way, you will know WHEN and HOW the Librarian became an Orangutan and why he never wanted to be changed back into a human. This series is brilliant social satire set in a flat world that rides on the backs of 4 elephants which stand on the back of the great Space Turtle Atuin.... (Does the city Ank-morpork sound anything like New York?) The world contains Wizards, and Witches, and magic, but all so that he can make fun of our most dearly held beliefs and predjudices... (The Weird Sisters is a direct riff of everything Shakespeare, Small Gods pokes fun at religion, belief and the human condition; Reaper Man is Pratchett's version of Death Takes a Holiday (Death rides a white horse named, Binky); and The Last Continent is a huge riff on Australia (with place-names like DidjabringABeerAlong), and that's just a few.... virtually every story pokes fun at something we hold dear). Filled with memorable characters, brilliant metaphors and endlessly quotable lines, his writing is delightfully entertaining.
I also greatly like work from Neil Gaiman (he reads his own books, when they aren't performed by a full cast), and Neal Stephenson, but the books are hit-and miss on Audible. Some are great, some are merely good... at some point after my Thesis is defended, I'll list my favourite post-apocalyptic novels (a sub-genre of which is Zombie apocalypse) ::-)
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