Some of my Favorite Books (Historical Fiction)

Its quite close between Historical Fiction and Fantasy over which is my favorite genre. I've read more Historical Fiction than any other genre out there. Heres some of my favorites.

Historical Fiction:

Bernard Cornwell - The Grail Quest:

The Grail Quest (S): Story of a young englishman whose village is raided. Lost in the raid is the village's most prized possession. A relic claimed to be the lance of Saint George. The story takes place during the time of the 100 year war and by the end he finds himself in France.

Sven Hassel - Legion of the Damned:

Legion of the Damned (B): Tells the story of a German soldier during World War 2 on the eastern front. Sven is a deserter who has been sent to a punishment tank regiment. There he has to fight to survive against the Russians.

Conn Iggulden - Genghis: Birth of an Empire -  Emperor:

Genghis: Birth of an Empire (B): Great story that tells the life of Temujin and his life from birth until founding the worlds greatest empire as Genghis Khan.

Emperor (S): The story of a young Gaius of the Julii family as he is thrown into the world of politics where he is forced to plot and scheme just to survive.

Gary Jennings - Raptor - Aztec:

(Note: Gary Jennings is my favorite author, I had a lot of trouble choosing which Books to feature. Check out His other works, Spangle and The Journeyer, as well.)

Raptor (B): The 'memoirs' of Thorn, an Ostrogoth who hides a secret, 'he' is a hermaphrodite, a person who has the genitals of both a male and female. At a young age he is sent to a monastery, where he is soon found to have female parts. He is sent to a convent where it is discovered he has male parts. Kicked out of both he travels through the Roman Empire searching for the other Ostrogoths.

Aztec (S): A series which begins with the tale of Mixtli and his life from before the Spanish arrival in America and later his travels through the countryside and then working with the spanish. Unfortunately Jennings Passed away after writing the second book, his estate has hired other authors to finish the series based on Jenning's notes he had for further books.

Some of my Favorite Books (Science Fiction)

I've not really read a lot of science fiction. The majority of it is rather mainstream stuff. Nevertheless I am going to jot down my favorite authors and books.

Science Fiction:

Sarah Bayen - G11:

G11 (S): The computer has taken over the ship and now runs day to day life. Adults enter cryogenic sleep until making landfall, leaving their children at the whim of the computer. This story used to be widely available online, Books two and three in the series have become difficult to locate. I have uploaded them HERE (Book 1), HERE (Book 2), and HERE (Book 3) so you can read them if you'd like. If you enjoy the books they are available from amazon as well and I suggest you support the author.

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game - Shadow Saga

Ender's Game (B): Overcrowding on earth has restricted parents to two children per couple. Ender, a 'third', is selected by the military for training in their elite school in space. The school may teach other things, but the primary function is to host the 'game', a zero-gravity battle arena where students are taught war tactics and leadership skills.

Shadow Saga (S): Following the war students are sent back to earth and as each student as seen as a brilliant conqueror by their nations, political strife is rife.

Frank Herbert - Dune

Dune (B, S): Paul's family is given command of the only planet known to have 'spice', a drug that is needed to navigate space. When this leads to conflict Paul finds himself living amongst the natives and learning that his destiny may be far more than he thought.

Some of my Favorite Books (Fantasy)

I have mentioned that I am a big book reader. Theres really only a couple genres I dislike. I don't care for mysteries, mostly because I can figure out "Who dun it" within a few chapters, and of the mystery books I have read, NONE surprised me at the end. If you know of any REALLY GOOD surprising books let me know in a comment. The other genre I dislike, though don't have much experience with, is romance. I do like to read 'literotica' online and there have been a few stories that were available in print, but I have yet to read any romantic or erotic literature that would find success in mainstream shops.

So what genres do I like? Well to be honest I like most of them. I have read everything from Historical Logistics reports to Dr. Who novels. My favorites though are Historical Fiction, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi. To avoid turning this into a post that never ends I will try to limit myself to 1 Book and 1 Series per author. I'm also going to break up the post by Genre. Books will be marked by (B) and series by (S), if I haven't read anything outside the series posted I won't list a book.

Fantasy:

Raymond Elias Feist - Magician - The Empire Trilogy:

Magician (B): This book tells of the story of a young man who is discovered to have power and taken as a magician's apprentice. His nation soon finds itself at war with an invading host and he and his friend Tomas are swept up in the conflict. Its a great story of love, loss, and reunion with plenty of political intrigue.

The Empire Trilogy (S): This series is co written by Janny Wurts. It focuses on Mara of the Acoma, a young girl who finds herself head of one of the houses of the Tsurani. Its a tale of political intrigue, assassinations, and general life within the Empire of Tsuranuanni.

George Raymond Richard Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire:

A Song of Ice and Fire (S): If you like fantasy books and haven't read this series than I feel sorry for you. Its the series that has spawned the TV show Game of Thrones. Full of political intrigue, assassinations, battles, romance, and mystery, this series is one that simply cannot be missed.

Jennifer Roberson - Chronicles of the Cheysuli:

Chronicles of the Cheysuli (S): More political intrigue (starting to see a pattern?), assassinations (okay, you SHOULD be seeing a pattern here), battles, and magic. It tells the story of the Cheysuli, a race of people who are being hunted down and their attempts to restore their birthright as leaders.

Brent Weeks - The Night Angel:

The Night Angel (S): A story about a young street urchin who is taken on as an apprentice to a 'wetboy' (type of assassin) and his transformation into one of the best in the world.Full of (you guessed it) political intrigue, assassinations, battles, magic, and romance.

TV Shows...(Not Sci-Fi)

Okay, I covered some of the Sci-Fi shows I like in the last post, but thats just one genre and there are many more out there. So how bout we cover some of the other shows I really have enjoyed (why do I ALWAYS type that word as enjoied?)

Band of Brothers: This is one of my favorite shows. I love history, especially World War 2 history. I have read countless books, both fiction and non-fiction, that cover the war. This show is great, its based of a book that I have not read (but plan too) so I can't actually speak on the quality of the adaption. However I can tell you that there are a few vets who I have spoken with who fought in Europe and told me "If you want to know what it was like, watch Band of Brothers or the opening to Saving Private Ryan."

Breaking Bad: While not my favorite show ever, its up there. I know it has won a lot of awards and that I just jumped on the bandwagon after the fact to see what everyone was talking about, but really it is simply that good. I love watching the fall from school teacher to drug cook.

Game of Thrones: Its not a TERRIBLE adaption of the books, it is missing quite a bit but thats always going to happen. So if its a bad adaption (but not terrible) why is it on this list? Because its EPIC. Its testament to just how great the book series is that so much can be left out while still creating an awesome TV series. Which do I like better? I'll wait until both are complete to decide on that.

The Walking Dead: When this first came out I had never heard of the comic. I used to read a lot of mainstream comics such as Batman and Spiderman. I had heard of Image but couldn't tell you any of their comics other than Spawn. My Guild Wars guild mates were watching it but I really wasn't that interested in it. They convinced me to give it a shot and I was blown away. Any time a show opens with a child being shot in the head you know its something thats not going to hold anything back. I think it was that opening scene which both shocked and hooked me to the series.

Dexter: I love the books. Apart from Season 1 they pretty much abandoned basing the show on the books, which in my opinion was a good call. Since Dexter was supposed to be such a prolific serial killer there was bound to be many more stories to tell and I think they did a pretty darn good job with them. Except the ending. The ending was TERRIBLE.

House (M.D.): One of my favorite shows ever. Hugh Laurie is hilarious and he brings just enough humor to the show that its not all gloom and doom. I honestly have not finished season 8, mostly because as long as I don't finish it theres still more House for me to watch and its not ended... Sad I know, but its been my favorite series for a long time.

Six Feet Under: I laughed when my mother watched this show. She wanted to be a mortician and I found it bizarre. It wasn't until about 7 months ago that I watched the series for myself. Its quite funny and well worth watching. I honestly just watched it because it had Dexter (or at least the actor who plays Dexter) in it.

There you have it, my top 7 TV series I have watched in the last year.

TV Shows...(Sci-Fi)

I don't watch a lot of TV. In fact our TV isn't even hooked up to receive TV signals. Instead we have it hooked up to to our computers so it can act as a second monitor. I honestly don't miss TV all that much. Boring commercials, boring shows, never anything you really want to watch, just something to pass time.

Thats not to say that I don't watch TV shows. There are quite a lot that I have watched and enjoy, even some that are still ongoing. Recent shows I have watched include Game of Thrones, Dexter, The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, Dr. Who, and Breaking Bad. These are all shows that I have watched in their entirety. Is this dedication, fanaticism, or just downright mad? No, not really. If you cut out commercials, you can watch 4 episodes in the same time that it would take you to watch 3 with them.

I used to like Seinfeld. I used to adore Simpsons, Futurama, and all those cartoons. Now though I really don't care for Sitcoms, in animated variety or otherwise. Sadly the genre I really liked seems to have been left behind. All the great sci-fi shows from the 90's and early 00's have been canceled or just run their course without any replacing them. So what were my favorite Sci-fi shows?

X-files holds a special place in my heart. I grew up watching the show, staying up late to watch it come on right before Outer Limits. I remember following these two our local fox station would go into static until the news at 6.

Battlestar Galactica is one I just recently finished watching. It was amazing. I know that it was based on an earlier series, which I haven't watched, so I don't know how it compares to that one. However that still doesn't stop me from saying its one of my favorite Sci-Fi shows I've seen.

Stargate series used to come on before some other show I would watch on Sci-Fi channel. I can't remember which but I found myself tunning in an hour early just to watch it as well. I've not sat and watched the entire series, though I do have it downloaded so I intend to do that at some time.

Without doubt my two favorite series though are Dr. Who and its spinoff, Torchwood. Being American I didn't have any exposure to the show until I saw it on TV when I first arrived in NZ. I can honestly say its one of my favorite shows I've ever seen on TV if not my favorite. I had no understanding of the Doctor or how they accounted for his appearance changes when a new actor comes on, so it was a bit of a shock after the first season of the 2005 relaunch. I still tear up each time the doctor regenerates.

Torchwood, well really I just love Captain Jack Harkness. However the final season was just awful and while I would love to see a return to the offbeat stories of seasons 1 and 2, I doubt we will be seeing a 5th season of the show.

Now what about what I think of other shows? I think I'll split this post into two and cover them later.

Hooked on 'Project Zomboid'

I love zombies, I went over it a little in my DayZ post but I think I'll go into it a big further here. I am a big fan of zombie games, books, movies, whatever. Some of my favorite books are Day-by-Day Armageddon, Zombie Survival Guide , and World War Z (which is NOTHING like the movie incase the movie is holding you back from reading the book.)

Movies have been hard to come by. Good ones that is. There are plenty of bad ones out there. Most zombie films have become a mix of horror/comedy. You have pseudo-zombie movies like 'I am Legend' or zombie films such as '28 days later' and '28 weeks later'. But none are really that good.  'The Walking Dead' is EASILY the best portrayal of zombies on screen. It is a rather good adaption of the comic, and keeps the fear of the zombie paramount even when there are other problems.

Sadly, most games treat zombies as something to go out and hunt rather than something to be feared. Games like Dead Island, Left for Dead, Dead Rising, and Killing Floor are all eradication games rather than simply trying to survive. These games are still very fun but they don't depict the type of Zombie I like. The slow shambling terror thats moan can 'call' all nearby zombies.

In steps Project Zomboid. Its a survival game that sticks you right in a post apocalyptic world and tells you straight off 'This is how you died.' It is possible to survive for a long time, but very difficult. This is after all a survival game as well as a zombie game. You need to scavenge food, manage sickness, and create/find shelter.

Just when you think you have all that covered, Power and Water get turned off. All that perishable food you scavenged is now going to slowly rot. Hopefully you have been preparing for this and have farms and water collectors built and ready.

Killed all the nearby zombies and think its safe? Think again, with random gunshots and helicopters, the zombie hordes can and will cross the map. Some just may end up at your front door. 

The game isn't perfect and there are something that seem odd, such as why you can't just leave a pot out in the rain to collect water, but if you don't like something the game is easily moddable. One of the first things I modded into the game for instance what the ability to create wood nails (called trunnel or treenail) that could be used instead of scavenging for nails. Next was the ability to dry wet towels. I don't resent having to mod these 'basics' into the game, and rather appreciate the ability to. There are far too many games out there without the ability to mod things.

All in all the game is NOT perfect, nor is it finished. It is however the closest thing I have come in a game to the survival aspects of a zombie apocalypse.