Media Reccomendations Thread

[Marqo]

This is an idea I've had for a while, and it seems like a good time to actually create it: A forum thread where we can recommend cool stuff (in various formats) to others.

These can be books, TV shows, movies, music, (web)comics, manga/anime and whatever else one can come up with. The one thing that doesn't really fit here would be games, as we've already got something similar to that in the Games forum.

I'll kick this off with a few myself:

Books

The A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. The first book is called A Game of Thrones. A series of fantasy books (currently at 4) focusing more on characters, politics and intrigue than fantastic elements. Most characters are morally ambiguous, and the setting is pretty grim. The primary storyline (at least at first) is about the conflicts between the various noble houses in control of Westeros, the continent where most of the story is happening. The first book is currently being made into a television series by HBO (they've cast some big names, like Sean Bean) which is also looking quite promising.

The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. The first book is called Storm Front. There are currently 12 books in the series, which starts off ok but gets progressively more epic. The story is about wizard/private investigator Harry Dresden and the various cases involving the supernatural he has. As the story progresses (and there's generally about a year in-universe between books) Harry becomes progressively more powerful, but so do many of his foes.

The various Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. I haven't read them all myself, but they're great humorous fantasy novels. I can't really think of any way to describe the books in their entirety. If you have a sense of humour, you should read them. Though there are sub-storylines spanning several books and various protagonists and groups of protagonists, you can pretty much start with any book.

Anime/Manga

Mahou Sensei Negima (the manga). It starts off as an unwanted harem comedy about a ten-year-old wizard and the class of (several years older) girls he has to teach, but shifts into being far more action-oriented farly quickly. It's still running and currently almost at chapter 300 (a chapter's about 15-20 pages).

Gundam Unicorn. The latest Gundam series, meaning it has pleny of giant robot combat. Only a single 50-minute episode has been released so far, but it's certainly worth watching. 5 more episodes will be released, with several months between each. I love giant mecha (in any form; From the various Gundam anime series to Titans in 40k to warjacks in Warmachine) and the reason this specific show was included on this list is that I think it's got the highest production quality of any mecha anime I've seen and has great potential. If you like this show, Gundam 00 is a good place to continue.

Webcomics

I've recently discovered Girl Genius, a comic about (as the creators put it) adventure, romance and MAD SCIENCE. It's set in an alternative Europe in the past (About the time of the industrial revolution) where some people have something called the Spark; a gift for invention/technology which turns you into a more-or-less mad scientist. As a result of this, there are plenty of technologies like massive zeppelins, steam-powered robots and death rays. One has to start at the beginning to follow the story, but it's a fun story to read.


That's it from me, at least for now; I'm looking forward to your recommendations.

 

[Panda with issues...]

Good thread. I'm sure I could add a ton of book recommendations to this.

 

[Panda with issues...]

Books:

Fantasy Authors:

David Gemmell
Raymond E. Feist.
George R.R. Martin
Scott Lynch - Lies of Locke Lamora - Probably the best debut fantasy novel I've read, and the follow up was just as good.
Robin Hobb
Steph Swainston
China Mieville - The Scar is his masterwork

Hard Sci Fi:

Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth and Void series are powerhouses, though his other stuff is mediocre. I've never had a pair of books quite take over my life like Pandora Star and Judas unchained did

Iain M Banks - The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, Excession, Feersumm Endjinn and Look to Windward are all excellent, the first 2 especially so.

Alastair Reynolds - Chasm City is his best.

Richard Morgan - All very good, and his new fantasy novel is a corker too.

Non fiction:

Anything by Jared Diamond - 'Guns, Germs and Steel' and 'Collapse' are both excellent

Comics:

Neil Gaiman's sandman series - Simply the best comic series ever made, and a story that could only have been told through the medium.

Alan Moore's watchmen and V for Vendetta. Fantastic comics, with V fairing far better as a film adaptation.

Preacher

Fables

The walking dead

Invincible

The Boys

Powers

Fables - Easily my favourite ongoing comic

Y: The last man

J. Michael Straszynski's Rising Stars, Midnight Nation and Book of lost souls - all fantastic.


Music:

Not desperate to get into a shit slinging match, but Soulsavers are probably the best newer group I've heard. Broken and It's not how far you fall it's the way you land are both fantastic albums.

Manga

Cowboy bebob. Simply the best.

Webcomics:

Penny Arcade - The daddy
Scary go round (now bad machinery)
Order of the Stick
Cyanide and Happiness

These are the only ones i continue to read regularly.



All of these things come with my personal stamp of approval, so if you don't like them, you can kiss my furry black and off white ass.

 

[Ghostwolf67]

I've recently discovered Girl Genius, a comic about (as the creators put it) adventure, romance and MAD SCIENCE. It's set in an alternative Europe in the past (About the time of the industrial revolution) where some people have something called the Spark; a gift for invention/technology which turns you into a more-or-less mad scientist. As a result of this, there are plenty of technologies like massive zeppelins, steam-powered robots and death rays. One has to start at the beginning to follow the story, but it's a fun story to read.

Girl Genius is very well written and one of my personal favourites in the webcomic world (its actually 3rd from the top). Solid reccomendation there. cookied.

There are literally thousands of webcomics to choose and most if not all are free to view. If you havent endulged yet i suggest you do. There are some brilliant ones.

GOBLINS: A look at D&D from the peculiar angle of the lowliest of mobs. A must for all those who want a fresh perspective on the old chestnut that is tabletop D&D. Nice comic with only one downside of it being hosted on keenspot so there are pop ups.

Comic books and graphic novels are more my thing and so here would be some of my all time greats.


POWERS. This independant comic book deals with homicide detectives and the police in general trying to keep up in a world of superheroes. Detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim deal with all cases pertaining to superhero deaths and have the heavy burden of solving them with no powers of their own. Now i say 'comic book' and 'superhero' in the same sentence there which may make some of you get the wrong idea. This comic is a police drama with a wicked streak of humour coupled with a fresh unique artstyle and an idea done way before copy cats (like Gotham Central) emerged. This sits upon a pedestal as my favourite comic book of all time. It hasnt been surplanted in 4 years. (PS: there are adult themes expressed in the comic)


DMZ. A dark, graphic and gripping account of a second American civil war where the country is torn in half and New York becomes the new no mans land. A war for the 21st century in a setting you wouldnt expect the story centres around a photo journalist's trip into the DMZ (demilitarized zone) of manhattan. This comic is a brutal look at modern warfare from one mans perspective who is caught quite literally in the middle of it. This comic isnt for the faint of heart.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Books:
Hard Sci Fi:

Richard Morgan - All very good, and his new fantasy novel is a corker too.

I'm halfway through Altered Carbon just now, read it a couple of times in the past and it really is fucking great. It was Roninski that put me onto Richard Morgan a while ago and I've managed to work my through most of his books, with the exclusion of Black Man (half finished) and the new fantasy one. Market Forces is probably my favourite, the irresistable blend of socio-economic collapse, cut-throat business and guerilla warfare stitched together by glorified destruction derbies just blew me away. Want to buy a Saab, now.

 

[Gombol]

Books:

Fire Warrior

Last Chancers (all books / Ombius)

Storm of Iron

(All Black Libary books)

I'll post an anime list when I can be bothered to leaf through what I can pose an oppinion on. ^.^

Oh. Heart Of Iron too, If you enjoy Books on "Tape" (CD)

 

[Panda with issues...]

I'm halfway through Altered Carbon just now, read it a couple of times in the past and it really is fucking great. It was Roninski that put me onto Richard Morgan a while ago and I've managed to work my through most of his books, with the exclusion of Black Man (half finished) and the new fantasy one. Market Forces is probably my favourite, the irresistable blend of socio-economic collapse, cut-throat business and guerilla warfare stitched together by glorified destruction derbies just blew me away. Want to buy a Saab, now.

Ronin put me onto him too. It wasn't a mistake. If you like him, you'll probably like the others I mentioned.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Personally, I didn't like The Steel Remains (by Richard Morgan). It wasn't the switch to fantasy that broke it for me; I felt that there were three stories following his three main characters that were incomplete in themselves and not sufficiently compelling when woven together. That and I intensely dislike Ringil, largely because he's such an unlikeable guy. In fact, the only character I did like was Archeth and I felt I didn't get to see enough of her...

That said, I also intensely disliked Chris Faulkner (Market Forces, by Richard Morgan) and still got on with the book better. Interesting concepts and well executed but I could pretty much have shot Chris in the face myself for treating Carla so poorly.

The Takeshi Kovacs novels, however, I love, with Altered Carbon carrying the "best of" title, for me, partly because it has the raw energy of an idea first explored. Arguably, Broken Angels is better given the depth he has had chance to build, but firsts tend to be sweeter for me.

Recently read The Algebraist, by Iain M Banks, which is a slow starter but builds up well and his aliens are well executed and believeable. Also, his universal meta-religion "The Truth" is a nice idea.

In anime, I can heartily recommend both Naruto and Bleach, but only the material that is main arc (i.e. that which tracks the manga). Like much anime of this sort, both need time to get into the background of the story and both have their typically teenage selves, but both stories are ultimately exceedingly heroic and that's just pure win for me. Also, by avoiding the non-arc material you get a much better sense of progression and character evolution, which the off-arc stuff destroys by being restricted to either just doing what's been done before or resetting the world to the base state in time for the next on-arc story.

In comics, read 52. It comes in four parts and has, well, fifty two issues. It's a year in the DC universe when Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman have all gone into recluse, leaving the other lesser known heroes to pick up the slack. All that and the world is just recovering from the events of Infinite Crisis and just about to go into another state of disaster...

Or just read and re-read Midnight Nation by JMS. My favourite comic ever. Makes me cry.

 

[Gombol]

'Kay. Leafed through my anime:

Bleach (Action oriented, just gotta bite through the filler episodes.)

Amaenaide yo! and Amaenaide yo!! Katsu!! (Same thing, just different episodes. Kinda NSFW if you watch anime at work / in public.)

Blood+ (Would reccomend Blood: The Last Vampire, anime movie too. Not the Live action one, that one failed.)

D.Gray-man

Death Note

Fullmetal Alchemist

Ghost Hunt (Scary as hell, somtimes.)

Ghost in the Shell

Soul Eater

Strawberry Panic

Mnemosyne (Rather NSFW too.)

And the best evar!

Lucky Star.


Place all these can be found (If you don't have somewhere solid to watch) is:
http://www.otakucenter.com/

Has movies, and OVA's too.

Bear in mind though, it's plastered in ads (Since It's mostly free, there are donaters, but a sites gotta make money somehow to stay up.)

 

[elDiablo]

A quick note for now (more to come this evening), regarding Panda's and Ronin's posts, Ian M. Banks and Peter F. Hamilton are two of my favourite sci-fi authors.

The Culture books by Banks are brilliant, though having recently read Matter I was a little disappointed. Excession is by far my favourite of his books, with Player of Games being a very close second. His universe feels huge, and his ideas, while deep, are quick to pick up on. I recently went back to my parent's house and picked up all of his Culture back catalogue, and have just gone through them again. Awesome reads, all of them.

The Commonwealth Saga and Void series by Hamilton are, as Panda says, amazing. I randomly picked up Pandora's Star at Gatwick when I was about to fly to France. It's a good 1200 pages long, and I finished it in a little over 3 days. That's how much it sucked me in. When I got home I bought Judas Unchained and the first two books in the Void series (the third and final book is due for release early September), and read them all back to back. I've pre-ordered the final Void book, and am thinking that I will probably start again from the beginning of Commonwealth Saga to prepare myself.

Other great Sci-Fi authors include William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. Get Neuromancer and Cryptonomicon respectively for mind blowing experiences.

Edit - And Snowcrash, don't forget Snowcrash!

 

[Ronin Storm]

Death Note

Ghost in the Shell

+1. Can't believe I missed Death Note. Probably the best writing in anime I've seen, plus an flair for making the motions of a pen seem incredibly dramatic.

Also, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (the first one) is excellent and is, for those paying attention at the back, really in a separate timeline from the films.

I randomly picked up Pandora's Star at Gatwick when I was about to fly to France. It's a good 1200 pages long, and I finished it in a little over 3 days. That's how much it sucked me in.

I just got lost with Pandora's Star around half way through and never really got to speed with it even before that. Admittedly I was reading it around ten pages at a time over months so maybe it's a book that needs to be read in a sprint?

William Gibson [...] Get Neuromancer

All Tomorrow's Parties, by William Gibson. His best work. Neuromancer is seminal, of course, and a strong read as a direct result, but All Tomorrow's Parties is superior in both form and writing quality. And, besides, I enjoyed it more.

 

[Panda with issues...]

I just got lost with Pandora's Star around half way through and never really got to speed with it even before that. Admittedly I was reading it around ten pages at a time over months so maybe it's a book that needs to be read in a sprint?

This is quite correct. The level of intertwining characters, ideas and general scope is only really rivalled by the song of ice and fire series in terms of complexity, and so yes, it needs to be read rapidly in order to keep all the events fresh in your mind. The length is necessary.

 

[elDiablo]

What Panda said. I ended up reading it a chapter at a time, and found it ok. When I got to Judas Unchained (and the Void series), I was reading it on the train to and from work. I ended up reading it in "sections", ie, the blank lines between paragraphs. I would really not suggest stopping mid "section". And as I was reading it an hour each morning, and an hour each evening, I found it quite easy to fall. If you were picking it up at random intervals, I can see how it would quickly become confusing.

 

[Iron_fist]

I'm halfway through Altered Carbon just now, read it a couple of times in the past and it really is fucking great

that reminds me i shall have to nab another from you at some point, though i do need to get round to clearing some of the other books from the top of my to be read pile first...

as for recommendations i'll throw some anime of the steampunky variety at you:
Last Exile (wiki)
an awesome retro-futuristic series, giant flying battleships and a really involving story.

Steamboy (wiki)
a film set during the industrial revolution in Britain, nice twisting plot with plenty of action to keep you entertained, and very pretty to make it all the sweeter

 

[AcidK]

Manga:

Mahou Sensei Negima - Put simply, out of the miriad mangas I have read, this is by far the best out of the lot. Starts off as a magical harem comedy but slowly turns into one of the best action-packed mangas around.

xXxHOliC - Paranormal manga comedy that co-incides a seperate manga (Tsubasa Chronicles)

Mx0 (aka Mana x Zero) paranormal / action school manga. Ended rather abruptly, though


Anime
Since I have about 560gig of anime, instead explaining all of the ones I would recommend, I will simply list them with thier genre (otheriwse this would be one epically long post)

Lucky Star (comedy)

Bleach (minus the fillers) (action)

Death Note (drama)

Soul Eater (action)

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (action)

FLCL (aka Fuli Culi) (comedy)

Elfen Lied (action)

Kannagi (aka Crazy Shrine Maidens) (comedy)

Clannad + Clanned Afterstory (drama)

Hayate no Gotoku (aka Hayate the Combat Butler) (comedy)

Hellsing Ultimate (action)

Last Exile (action)

Rozen Maiden (action / comedy)

Toaru Majustu no Index (aka Certain Magical Index) (action)

Toradora (comedy)

 

[Iron_fist]

FLCL (aka Fuli Culi) (comedy)

this is also a total headtrip, love it

 

[elDiablo]

this is also a total headtrip, love it

But still totally one of the best things in the world ever dot com. Also, soundtrack rockers my sockers.

 

[Marqo]

But still totally one of the best things in the world ever dot com. Also, soundtrack rockers my sockers.

I'll have to agree on that one as well. Only 6 episodes, but those are filled with awesome weirdness. Some people have described FLCL as "what happens when you give the team that made Evangelion the good drugs," and I can totally see that.

Another recent anime that's worth watching is Fairy Tail. The storyline and characters are nothing too special, but the show is fun and has excellent music.

About Mahou Sensei Negima!, the new OVAs are also pretty cool. However, they are basically extremely faithful adaptations of the manga. Which would be fine if they didn't start at chapter 175. IF you've read the manga up to that point it's great though. Apparently a movie is also in the works, which would probably end with the tournament finals. That has the potential to be one of the most epic 2v2 battles ever animated.

 

[AcidK]

I got annoyed with the negima anime adaptions a long time ago, especially the Negima!? ones. I much prefer the manga... however the OVA was good

 

[Marqo]

For the level of genre shift in Negima!, the picture on this page should tell all. (Warning. It's TVTropes, so following the link might result in a wiki walk.)