Someone recommend a book....

[pylon]

The last fiction book I read cover to cover was Fantastic Voyage in like grade 10 or something. This weekend I want to read a book. Something sci-fi spooky. Like alternate dimension alien demons or something along those lines. Something that will make me poop my pants in the woods.

I really feel I have missed out by not reading books all these years.

[onetwo_threefour]

Well, more fantasy-ish than science-fiction, but not princesses and dragons fantasy is the Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazney and it does have alternate dimensions and some demon-like creatures. His writing is very accesible but not juvenile.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Game of Thrones?

[troutman]

Non-Fiction - just reading Quiet - all about introverts, and how they are different from extroverts.

http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/

Top 10 Sci-Fi/Fantasy books for 2012 recommended by the editors of SF Site:

http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best13.htm

Bowl of Heaven, looks very interesting to me:

http://www.sfsite.com/columns/dave387.htm

For fans of large-scale, interstellar SF chock full of advanced alien cultures, super-science technologies, the thrill of discovery linked with ever-present danger, and perhaps the greatest Mystery mankind has ever known -- all played out against the immense backdrop of the galaxy -- you are in for a treat with Bowl of Heaven.

[Traditional_Ale]

Coma meets Blade Runner in this future noir thriller, a compulsively readable melding of hardboiled narrative and hardware invention. Smith forecasts a decadent future in which the rich clone themselves at birth and callously harvest replacement organs from their "spares" as they need them. Narrator Jack Randall, a debauched but conscientious ex-cop, flees to the megalopolis of New Richmond with seven clones he has liberated from a spare farm and is almost immediately relieved of them by a gang of thugs. Jack's efforts to find out who has abducted the spares and marked them for death plunge him into a mystery that ultimately links the two events that have shattered his life: the brutal unsolved murder of his wife and child, and his soul-searing tour of military duty in The Gap. A virtual world built from the flotsam and jetsam cluttering the Internet, The Gap is an awesome conception made to seem supernaturally eerie yet scientifically feasible. Smith elaborates this creation brilliantly, as a surreal battleground where Jack confronts the demons that have haunted him for a decade, and as a symbol of emptiness and waste that brings the novel's numerous depictions of personal and social devaluation into sharp focus. Both a disconcerting portrait of a future that might be, and a poignant study of one man's fight to resist it, this novel augurs a promising future of another sort for its author.

Michael Marshall Smith effortlessly blends the worlds of Douglas Adams, William Gibson, Will Self and Raymond Chandler in this illuminating sophmore novel. "Spares" is a humane, cleverly written rumination on the nature of humanity, and how far we'll go to convince ourselves that we've lost it, masquerading as a cyber-punk detective-thriller/comedy/fantasy/horror novel.

Taking, as it does, our worst fears about the misuse of cloning technology and accelerating them to the Nth degree, Michael Marshall Smith plunges us into the world of Jack Cardigan, a disgraced former policeman/war veteran/drug addict running from a past he can't escape into a future he can't control. On the way he'll revisit another plain of reality, be accosted by a talking Fridge and explain to you where cats really do "go" when you let them out. Yes, it is as off the wall as it sounds and several times more ingenious than you suspect.

If you're a would-be writer, you'll put down your pen and not want to bother after reading this. It really is that good.

[Puppet Guy]

more fantasy than sci-fi. but Weaveworld by Clive Barker is well worth the read: a parallel world is woven into a rug, and as the rug unravels the inhabitants start escaping.

[Finny61]

I'd recommend The Shining by Stephen King, maybe Phantoms or Watchers by Dean Koontz. That is if you want that poop in your pants feeling. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist is good too.

If you want epic like The Stand, try Swan Song by Robert McCammon.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

In all seriousness: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Such a wonderful book. Dark, some fantasy sci-fi aspects, based on the underground system in London. He does a great job of taking mundane things and bringing them to life. Plus, great characters and a very solid plot.

[PsYcNeT]

Any Philip K. Dick short story collection.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Any Harlan Ellison collection.

[Flames89]

This looks interesting:
http://www.amazon.com/Infected-A-Nov...ref=pd_sim_b_4

or others in the spooky/scary vein:
http://www.amazon.com/Hater-David-Mo...d_bxgy_b_img_y
http://www.amazon.com/Seed-ebook/dp/B0073XV3K8
http://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Vintage...mm_kin_title_0

[Sliver]

Have you ever read 1984? I just read it for the first time last month and OMG it was awesome. George Orwell was one messed up mofo.

[Sliver]

Oh, also, if you just want something light as you dip your toe back into reading, try The Hunger Games. Though it's classified as teen or young adult, it's an enjoyable book (so are the other two in the series).

Ender's Game is also completely awesome and sounds like the type of book you're looking for.

[pylon]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Keep em coming.

[undercoverbrother]

Really good book, have not read it in years, might have to open it up again.

[PsYcNeT]

The Ticket That Exploded - William S Burroughs

Mogworld - Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

Gun, With Occasional Music - Jonathan Lethem

DOMAIN - James Herbert (really cool if you want scary/sci-fi)

[simmonjam1]

Infected by Scott Sigler sounds like it would be up your alley. It's a book about parasitic aliens.

Not spooky or scary but a really good read, The Guns of The South by Harry Turtledove. A South African white supremacist organization discover a time travel method to supply the Confederate States with AK-47 rifles.

[Flames89]

Two others:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...w_myk_ro_title

and of course The Passage, which I read.
http://www.amazon.com/Passage-Novel-.../dp/0345528174
Wasn't crazy about it, but I will read the next book of the series (The Twelve).

[photon]

Originally Posted by troutman

Bowl of Heaven, looks very interesting to me:

http://www.sfsite.com/columns/dave387.htm

For fans of large-scale, interstellar SF chock full of advanced alien cultures, super-science technologies, the thrill of discovery linked with ever-present danger, and perhaps the greatest Mystery mankind has ever known -- all played out against the immense backdrop of the galaxy -- you are in for a treat with Bowl of Heaven.

I was not at all impressed, he managed to make something huge seem small and uninteresting.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Oh, also, if you just want something light as you dip your toe back into reading, try The Hunger Games. Though it's classified as teen or young adult, it's an enjoyable book (so are the other two in the series).

Ender's Game is also completely awesome and sounds like the type of book you're looking for.

Sliver, have you checked out Wool, by Hugh Howey? It's a series but they just released it as an 'omnibus' in March which has all the books in one which makes things a little easier.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Really good book, have not read it in years, might have to open it up again.

I'm about 2/3s of the way through this book right now. I'll have it wrapped up by the end of the week, but every page is an effort. I'm not enjoying it at all.