One of My Favorite Authors

As some of you already know, I am a wide ranging and rather voracious reader. Any and all subjects are fair game, however I particularly enjoy historical novels and science fiction.

One of my favorite authors, Steve Perry, has a rather robust and entertaining blog that you all may enjoy. In addition, Mr Perry's books (athletic, martial arts flavored science fiction) are the ones that I find myself returning to again and again as the years pass bye. Like old friends they have only improved with age.

For those who may be unfamiliar with him, both his new works as well as old favorites are available on either Amazon.com (both hard books and ebooks) or directly from his blog (ebooks only).

Steve Perry Amazon listings

His Blog

Remember that if you have a kindle, you may also download free samples.

Enjoy!

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Nice! New reading material! I just started reading Spindoc.

Nice! New reading material! I just started reading Spindoc

One of my favorites.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Author: R.A. Salvatore

-Favourite book: Home land

-The ending of his 2 page prologue (the last liner) from that book alone got me hooked.

Related to gymnastics-ish: Way of the peaceful warrior. The ending was really eye-opening. First time I had looked at things in that matter. It's where I went from an atheist to an agnostic (I think that's the word). Reminded me of the Lion King!

Dude. Forgotten Realms has some real winners!

Salvatore is fantastic!

JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis are my two childhood (lol!) favorites... I've read the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia about five or six times each!

Timothy Zahn writes great Star Wars books, and Orson Scott Card writes brilliant science fiction.

Patrick Smith said:

JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis are my two childhood (lol!) favorites... I've read the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia about five or six times each!

Childhood! Bah get real, those are not just for children (At least CS Lewis, I have not read LOTR) No I refuse to believe that they are for kids. You are never to old to read Narnia, NEVER, and they never get old. Ever. Period. They are some of the best books written.

Nice blog he has!

JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis are my two childhood (lol!) favorites... I've read the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia about five or six times each!

Great books, but I always preferred the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervin Peake to those two and I've always found it weird how he is almost never heard of when the other two are highly renowned. I suppose that it might be because it's such a difficult read, well worth it though.

My favourite Science Fiction writer is William Gibson. He wrote the short story for Johnny Mneumonic. Terrible film, great story.

Newguy said:

Childhood! Bah get real, those are not just for children (At least CS Lewis, I have not read LOTR) No I refuse to believe that they are for kids. You are never to old to read Narnia, NEVER, and they never get old. Ever. Period. They are some of the best books written.

Nay, good sir, far be it from my intention to imply that LOTR and CN are children's books. I sayeth only that I was intensely, and still am, of both series in my childhood, such as it was, as I am still a humanling of eighteen years. To go further, both series are enchanting for the young and the old, the sick and the well, the short and the tall.

And that's a fact.

spinelli said:

Great books, but I always preferred the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervin Peake to those two and I've always found it weird how he is almost never heard of when the other two are highly renowned. I suppose that it might be because it's such a difficult read, well worth it though.

It could be because it's not as well known. I've never heard of it until now. I'm putting on the request list, though. Sounds good!

Edit:

It's also that, at least to my knowledge and this only concerns JRR Tolkien and LOTR, no writer has created as indepth a fictional world with as realistic a geography and history, multiple races, languages, cultures, each with its own history, and so impressive characters. Personally, I find reading work by JRR Tolkien to be one of the most delightful things I've done, which is not something unique to me. Although in the end, how much someone enjoys the work is not, by itself, something to determine whether it is good or bad.

Not to put down other writers, because there are other authors who I think are absolutelymegagusoawesome; but JRR Tolkien spent his entire life writing The Simerillian, the REAL book of Middle Earth, from which sprang the LOTR series.

I enjoyed Tolkien as a child. I still do as I went through the Silmarillion and LotR within the last year.

Having started to absorb myself into R.E. Howard, I think may have enjoyed him more as a child. I might try some Lovecraft soon.

Even though many would say he's a Tolkien hack, I have enjoyed Terry Brooks as well. I might have to try it out, Martial Arts Sci-Fi sounds real interesting.

I have quite a list of favorites though I will limit myself to two from two different genres.

Daniel Quinn - all of his books are enlightening and helped me think of things in new ways.

George R.R. Martin - loved his series before they ever thought of the HBO series Game of Thrones

Patrick Smith said:

It's also that, at least to my knowledge and this only concerns JRR Tolkien and LOTR, no writer has created as indepth a fictional world with as realistic a geography and history, multiple races, languages, cultures, each with its own history, and so impressive characters. Personally, I find reading work by JRR Tolkien to be one of the most delightful things I've done, which is not something unique to me. Although in the end, how much someone enjoys the work is not, by itself, something to determine whether it is good or bad.

Good master Smith, I'm sorry to tell you that you are terribly wrong. I'm a Tolkien fan myself, having read Silmarillion a dozen of times (more than LOTR), but the lack of certain things has always poked me right in the eye. You see, I tend to be quite nitpicky about, well everything, and I noticed that Tolkien didn't put too much effort in creating other than what's necessary for the story. It's kinda hard to explain, so I'll try on an example: kings of Gondor were no more. The stewards took the ruling role. And that's it. No further explanation of the court's hierarchy, how that happened, no court administration etc. You see where I'm pointing at? But maybe that's just me - I was one of those children who was questioning everything with endless string of whys

I find Game of thrones quite fascinating, as well as Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. I highly recommend the second, it's so underrated.

Having started to absorb myself into R.E. Howard, I think may have enjoyed him more as a child. I might try some Lovecraft soon.

Lovecraft is well worth a read, especially the rats in the walls, the most disturbing short story I've ever read. If you enjoy him Edgar Alan Poe has some similar stuff.

It's also that, at least to my knowledge and this only concerns JRR Tolkien and LOTR, no writer has created as indepth a fictional world with as realistic a geography and history, multiple races, languages, cultures, each with its own history, and so impressive characters. Personally, I find reading work by JRR Tolkien to be one of the most delightful things I've done, which is not something unique to me. Although in the end, how much someone enjoys the work is not, by itself, something to determine whether it is good or bad.

To an extent Terry Pratchett has done the same thing with his Discworld series, but of course it's meant to be a bit absurd although it does mirror or own society in some very interesting ways.

Oh and for anyone who's more into their SF than fantasy I'd heartily recommend Solaris by Stanislaw lem, which also has some really good adaptations of it, my favorite being the Radio 4 audio dramatization. And also the Road by Cormac Mccarthy, but I'll warn you now it's pretty bleak.

Patrick Smith said:

Newguy said:

Childhood! Bah get real, those are not just for children (At least CS Lewis, I have not read LOTR) No I refuse to believe that they are for kids. You are never to old to read Narnia, NEVER, and they never get old. Ever. Period. They are some of the best books written.

Nay, good sir, far be it from my intention to imply that LOTR and CN are children's books. I sayeth only that I was intensely, and still am, of both series in my childhood, such as it was, as I am still a humanling of eighteen years. To go further, both series are enchanting for the young and the old, the sick and the well, the short and the tall.

Too true good sir.

Oh and two of my favorite authors are GA Henty and Douglas Bond, Who both are historical fiction authors. Good good stories, Especially GA hentys "In the reign of terror" And Douglas Bonds "Hostage lands" They are more directed at humanling males under the age of 20. But I think they would be great reads for anyone!

Another great one is James Byron Huggins. He writes very captivating stories...

Another, too, is G.K. Chesterton. His Father Brown stories are great as are all his works.

Great to get some suggestions on new authors.

Love all of Salvatore's work, especially his description of hand-to-hand combat. Also a fan of much of Orson Scott Card's work, and Jack Vance.

If you want to read a good book about the Chronicles of Narnia, read Planet Narnia.

I have read Narnia and the LOTR series including the hobbit and the Silmarillion.

I never liked Narnia lol but the LOTR series or any of JRR Tolkeins books are really good, probably the best books I have ever read. I have heard that Game of Thrones is a good series and the world is really in depth, I am going to take a look at that series.

Science fiction or fiction is my favorite kind of genre too because some authors are very creative which makes for an interesting read.

Two other worthy Tolkein pieces that have not been brought up are "Leaf by Niggle" (personal favorite) and "Farmer Giles of Ham." For me, the appeal in Tolkein comes from his mastery of language. LOTR might be a bit strong in that regard for some, but his care and poetry in all his writings is something I cannot remotely emulate. And when I read, I look not only for a good story. I expect that great care has been placed in each word. To haphazardly throw about words and then call oneself a writer (as some do), is a grave sin to me. Where possible, I also prefer to read text in the original language. Translation can't always mimic the often hundred of years of semantic baggage that caused an author to choose a particular word. But then again, I am a nerd who enjoys the OED. No wonder

OED?

Oxford English Dictionary, I'm guessing.

I like Tolkien as well. Haven't read the Silmarillion yet though.

Oh, the Silmarillion is beautiful. I love the history it creates! I had so many questions about who these people were in LotR and The Hobbit, like Galadriel and some of the other names that get mentioned like Earindel a few others, and you don't just get answers... you get the feeling that you just watched one of the more awesome History Channel specials!

slizzardman said:

Oh, the Silmarillion is beautiful. I love the history it creates! I had so many questions about who these people were in LotR and The Hobbit, like Galadriel and some of the other names that get mentioned like Earindel a few others, and you don't just get answers... you get the feeling that you just watched one of the more awesome History Channel specials!

Exactly! I would dare to say that Silmarillion is way better than LotR.

Speaking of using difficult language, I think the book that was the most difficult for me to read (although very interesting) was Dante's Inferno (I haven't read the two other books though).