Some fiction stories or series to read?

Comikkaze

Comikkaze

I really wanna get into reading fiction to work on story development but I don't know of any good fiction stories. I would prefer for them to be series but hopefully something that hasn't been made into a movie cause chances are I've seen the movie already lol. If you have any series that are out now that you are into can you let me know? Thanks :)
 
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In this day and age, anyone with enough will to spew words on a page until they've got a few hundred of them can publish a novel. That doesn't make them writers, it just makes them published.

To that end, I say screw anything recent. Go back to the classics and learn what REAL story-telling was all about. Read the stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, H.P. Lovecraft, Oscar Wilde, T.S. Eliot. These people are writers and true wordsmiths. Few people in this day and age can come even close to their level of expertise and artistry in writing. 99.9% of published authors don't even bother to try.
 
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DDK said:
In this day and age, anyone with enough will to spew words on a page until they've got a few hundred of them can publish a novel. That doesn't make them writers, it just makes them published.

To that end, I say screw anything recent. Go back to the classics and learn what REAL story-telling was all about. Read the stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, H.P. Lovecraft, Oscar Wilde, T.S. Eliot. These people are writers and true wordsmiths. Few people in this day and age can come even close to their level of expertise and artistry in writing. 99.9% of published authors don't even bother to try.
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If it's only good when it's old you should only read books that survived hand-copying before printing was invented. Ilias, Oddesee, Beowulf, Caterbury Tales, Ab Urbe Condita, Metamorphosis, Mahabharata, oh, and the Bible is pre-printing-age as well. :P

I'm not saying the classics are no good, in fact they are classics because they survived over time and still serve as inspiration. But old = not the same as good. Nor is recent equal to bad.
It's like saying: "They don't make good music anymore."
Which isn't true. It may be the case you don't hear new music you like: it doesn't mean it isn't there. :D
Or: 'everyone can post a movie on YouTube, so only old shot on celluloid films are good'
(Let's delete this website! :lol: )
 
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I am reading world war Z (zombie world war type book) right now because I like the way it goes into detail as a type of history book detailing the personal events of a man who lived through the events and wants his story to teach future generations to avoid the inevitable second zombie war. It sounded really interesting so I downloaded it from iBooks lol. Wish me luck on this one
 
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My fav book of all time is a clockwork orange...yeah there is the movie but key parts from the book were left out...but make sure its the compleate book (thats was banned in the US) not the edited verision!!!!

Michael Moorcocks Elric of Melniboné and the serise of books.....this chacter actally appeared in a novella's then later they were reformatted as the novel Stormbringer (1965) the publishing history is a little confusing but worth the trouble!! so do a wikii and google search to find it.

Dune.....yeah yeah the movies..just read the book LOL

Candide by voltair....a verry interesting read!

The kingsman saga by ben bova...he has several books and a lot of his predictions about technology and space science came tru "MOONRISE, MARS, and TITAN combine romance, adventure, and the highest degree of scientific accuracy"...." worked with leading scientists in fields such as high-power lasers, artificial hearts, and plasma dynamics".


Of course Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's the compleate works of Sherlock Holmes.....i love thoes stories..its really hard to beat them...i think i need to revisit them...

enjoy!
 
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I'm surprised at all the Foucault's Pendulum love. I found it pretentious and unreadable.

But my recommendations would be Heinlein, Robbins and Pratchett, mainly.

'Stranger in a Strange Land' -Robert Heinlein

'The Unfortunate Profession of Jonathan Hoag' (short story) -Robert Heinlein. This one would make a great short film or feature and, my copy at least, has several other short stories included that are fun little sci-fi romps.

'Thief of Time' -Terry Pratchett

'Moving Pictures' - Terry Pratchett. This one is just especially fun if you're into movies.

'Jitterbug Perfume' - Tom Ribbins

'Solaris' is fun but pretty creepy. Read it during the day.

I read Clive Barker's 'Everville' relatively recently and enjoyed it quite a lot.


And, of course, best for last: Harry Potter ;)

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Psychosis Media said:
Of course Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's the compleate works of Sherlock Holmes.....i love thoes stories..its really hard to beat them...i think i need to revisit them...
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I whole-heartedly second this. They are awesome stories. Really fun to read and there's lots of 'em :D
 
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Just a suggestion. If you're looking to understand story structure for future script writing, you might want to consider reading scripts of your favorite films or critically acclaimed and/or popular films you haven't seen. Not only are they entertaining, but you learn a heck of a lot about story structure and script writing.
 
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I used to read a lot of novels when I was younger but I've switched to reading more short stories, since they're more analogous to feature films.

I would consider Flannery O'Connor, Franz Kafka, and (most of) Harlan Ellison required reading as far as 20th century shory story writers go.
 
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Psychosis Media said:
Michael Moorcocks Elric of Melniboné and the serise of books.....this chacter actally appeared in a novella's then later they were reformatted as the novel Stormbringer (1965) the publishing history is a little confusing but worth the trouble!! so do a wikii and google search to find it.
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Wierd that you mention this series. This is on our short list of backup film projects. I thought I was the only one who remembered it. Very unique fantasy series.
 
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Dreadylocks said:
'The Unfortunate Profession of Jonathan Hoag' (short story) -Robert Heinlein. This one would make a great short film or feature and, my copy at least, has several other short stories included that are fun little sci-fi romps.

I read Clive Barker's 'Everville' relatively recently and enjoyed it quite a lot.
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The mysterios black goo under the fingernails, that story stayed with me for over a decade. This would be great for a festival short.

Everville would be really interesting in the art style of "Scanner Darkly"
 
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Nate North said:
Wierd that you mention this series. This is on our short list of backup film projects. I thought I was the only one who remembered it. Very unique fantasy series.
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Yeah im sort of a fan...it has a verry intersting hero/villian thing going on there...its just really different fantasy type stuff than the usuall hero vs villian thing.

Its a really good read as far as im concerned.
 
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