Recommend me a novel to read on holiday

[Muon]

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.

Particularly recommended if you ever got into any of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels.

[abelardsnazz]

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is a stone cold classic.

I'm currently reading King of Thorns, the second of The Broken Empire trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Great if you like Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones.

[Fungus]

If Harry Harrison's your thing, West of Eden is a cracking read. Sequels too if you enjoy this alternative history.

Best recent book for me is probably A Death in the Family - Karl Ove Knausgaard. Utterly convincing stuff, should be up a squaxx' street.

[I, Cosh]

Where are you going?

[Tony Angelino]

I remember going on holiday and reading Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton. Worth a read if you haven't already. you could then move on to an Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators classic. You don't really need to read them in order.

[Rara Avis]

Seconded. This was a fantastic read and I can't wait to read the others in the series.

Best recent book for me is probably A Death in the Family - Karl Ove Knausgaard. Utterly convincing stuff, should be up a squaxx' street.

I would also recommend this one:

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Thanks, and keep 'em coming

[Tiplodocus]

Lord Jim.

[Richard]

The Forever War, Joe Haldeman.

[The Adventurer]

The Forever War, Joe Haldeman.

Just be prepared to cringe a bit

[Pyroxian]

Old Man's War, John Scalzi (Main character turns 70 and leaves Earth to join the Colonial Defense Forces)

The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross (Book 1 of the Laundry Files - think X-Files meets Cthulhu via the British Civil Service..)

Storm Front, Jim Butcher (First Harry Dresden) (Private Eye who's also a wizard)

[sheridan]

I remember going on holiday and reading Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton. Worth a read if you haven't already. you could then move on to an Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators classic. You don't really need to read them in order.

Five go to Smuggler's Top was my favourite Famous Five book.

[sheridan]

I remember going on holiday and reading Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton. Worth a read if you haven't already. you could then move on to an Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators classic. You don't really need to read them in order.

Five go to Smuggler's Top was my favourite Famous Five book.

Though thinking about it - is Treasure Island the first Five book?  And Smuggler's Top is quite early in the run anyway.

[TordelBack]

I read the earlier Famous Five books to the kids a few years ago: Five on a Treasure Island is the first, and it's great stuff, a perfect kids' book. The second, ...go Adventuring Again is bloody awful, a miserable even traumatic affair, and I don't know what Blyton was thinking. Next is ...Run Away Together, essentially a calculated reprise of the first one, although it is Blyton in full-on evil servant mode; then ...Smuggler's Top is the pick of the bunch, very exciting and evocative.

But dear god that second one.

Getting back on topic, recent beach-type books I've enjoyed include Ben Aaronovitch's PC Grant series, Absalomish fun about the supernatural division of the Met, starting with Rivers of London and improving as they go on; Joe Abercrombie's First Law series, starting with The Blade Itself, a breezily written post-GoT fantasy with a memorable cast; C J Sansom's Winter in Madrid a sort-of historical thriller exploring the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, written in Sansom's easy prose; Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth, very low key grubby 70s Whitehall spy shenanigans with a psychosexual and literary twist, probably my favourite of his recent books; and absolutely anything by Jack MacDevitt: it's not a proper holiday without Chase Kolpath or Priscilla Hutchins in your carry-on.

[ZenArcade]

Can't whack a bit of 'culture' from Iain M Banks...if you really want cheered up, try The Men in the Jungle or The Iron Dream by Norman Spinnard.....if you really, really want cheered up, The Lords of the Starship by Mark Geston.
Happy reading. Z