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My current reading list:

beware, large image

Best of Star Wars Novels:

Legends:
Thrawn Trilogy
X-Wing Series
Hand of Thrawn Duology
Outbound Flight
Survivor's Quest
Darth Bane Trilogy
Darth Plagueis
Shatterpoint
Revenge of the Sith novelization (it's just that good)

Canon:
Lost Stars
Battlefront: Twilight Company
Tarkin
Before the Awakening (if you're interested in TFA characters)
The Force Awakens novelization (if you want to read deleted scenes, but the dialogue is choppier than the movie)

I read a lot of Sci-Fi and Historical Fiction.

I love pretty much all of Robert Harris' books, but mainly "Pompeii" and the Cicero Series.

I also really like Terry Pratchett, although I am not sure what genre you would put his books in, but they are pretty fun and funny

Recently I have read a lot of Peter F. Hamilton and Iain M. Banks, but they can be pretty deep Sci-Fi

And even more recently I have read the "Rivers of London" books by Ben Aaronovitch, but they might be too British for some :s

Also Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series but I haven't finished that

That's just what I have been reading recently though  

Sorry for not including specific books by the way :s but it's hard to decide. :s

Not sure where you can even find it, but Rebel Moon by Vox Day is a neat read, as is Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series. Anything by Harry Turtledove is golden, basically.

Not sure where you can even find it, but Rebel Moon by Vox Day is a neat read, as is Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series. Anything by Harry Turtledove is golden, basically.

Turtledove manages to stick in an awkward sex scene into nearly everything he writes, even if it isn't relevant (at least for his earlier books). I do find his books thought-provoking, though. (I read Worldwar, Colonization, and Homeward Bound.)

Best of Star Wars Novels:

Legends:
Thrawn Trilogy
X-Wing Series
Hand of Thrawn Duology
Outbound Flight
Survivor's Quest
Darth Bane Trilogy
Darth Plagueis
Shatterpoint
Revenge of the Sith novelization (it's just that good)

Canon:
Lost Stars
Battlefront: Twilight Company
Tarkin
Before the Awakening (if you're interested in TFA characters)
The Force Awakens novelization (if you want to read deleted scenes, but the dialogue is choppier than the movie)

Ever read the Republic Commando series?

My Kindle broke just as I was getting into the Clone Wars era.

If you ever get the chance, I'd suggest the Republic Commando series. Also, I like Karen Traviss as a writer generally speaking.

If you ever get the chance, I'd suggest the Republic Commando series. Also, I like Karen Traviss as a writer generally speaking.

I assure you I'll be reading it pretty soon.

I would like to recommend the complete web serial Worm by Wildbow (J.C. McCrae). Excellent dark superhero story with more realistic powers/power use. It is 1,680,000 words long, or around the same length as the current ASOIAF series.

In case you want more support that this is a good story, Weissreich has written two fanfics on Worm, both posted in the Howling Wind Tavern. The new citizen RedRevenant also seems to enjoy it.

If you read and enjoy Worm, the author has also written Pact (supernatural) and is currently writing Twig (biopunk) (which I haven't read yet, but most readers I've talked to seem to feel it's the best work he's written).

Pact is great. It has more and better magic than Harry Potter. Along with that, the characters are great, and work through tough situations.


For Aiur!

Pact is great. It has more and better magic than Harry Potter. Along with that, the characters are great, and work through tough situations.

To be fair, if you want a rational magic system, Harry Potter isn't exactly the best place to look for it...

The thing about Pact, compared to Worm, is that the characters get no break. They're just constantly hammered down time and time again, which can be emotionally exhausting to read. Wildbow has stated that Pact was much more experimental than Worm, so he is less likely to edit it for actual publication.

Your talk about Harry Potter has reminded me to also recommend the complete fanfic Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky. It's highly popular, but also one of the most controversial fanfics out there, particularly because it breaks most conventions of good fanfic writing and because the author tries to advance his rather strange ideologies in the story. Though I find many parts of it largely flawed, I still found it enjoyable. If you enjoy it, there are many metafanfics of it (which you can find on /r/HPMOR), though I would particularly recommend the ongoing Significant Digits, which has excellent worldbuilding and story (and which is probably better than HPMOR in those aspects).

I'd highly recommend the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars is the first book in the series) by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Imagine politics, but in space. Then imagine the problems of rising global temperatures, overpopulation and corporate greed played out on a canvas that includes not only one planet but two - Mars is the hotbed for the next step in human society, and it's not a step that's going to be made without much bloodshed.

The author's political bias comes across in the text, but if you remember that the story isn't about the characters but about the planet itself, you'll be fine. Really excellent writing otherwise, visual enough that you can picture yourself there on Mars and feel the dust storms that ravage the surface.

I really don't have to agree with a character to find him fascinating. I will most definitely give these books a try.

Your previous mention of The Prince got me quite interested in that book, and I must say I found it quite fascinating as well. Are there any similar books? The more realistic, the better.

In terms of political writing I'd say check out Noam Chomsky's 'How the World Works'; it's a brilliant, non-fiction account and assessment of the state of the world and who's to blame for it being as bad as it is. He's a really good thinker anyway, so would recommend anything else he's written too.

Otherwise? Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes is a good read if you can power through the slightly archaic writing style, and some of Locke's treatises on liberty et cetera are well worth the time as well; you can usually find transcripts online if you look hard enough.

If you want any other ideas, bookshop philosophy best sellers are usually a good place to start. Political bookstore choices are usually bollocks as anything worth reading in terms of political theory isn't going to sell commercially, and what does sell is a load of shit.

I recently finished Arc 2 of Twig. It's excellent, and I most definitely recommend it, especially if you enjoyed Worm and/or Pact.