Author: Tom Clancy

First, if you've seen the movies Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, or The Sum of All Fears you really must read the books, because the movies are not very true to the books in some significant ways.

Clancy has written a number of books featuring Jack Ryan as the central character, but his novels tend to have large casts of characters, and the more recent ones are quite long as well. Tons of details related to the military, from what's it like at the lower echelons, to operations, weapons, to the highest levels of command and the thought processes that occur in any military endeavor. He also opens the door for us into the world of intelligence agencies, and whether or not he is completely accurate in this portrayal, it is highly entertaining.

The downside for some people reading Clancy is that you also get quite a bit of what I assume is his political viewpoint. Some I agree with and some I don't, but I grew to like the Jack Ryan character in most respects, an everyman who is thrown into some unbelievable situations and has to cope as best he can. Clancy is quite capable of coming up with wild scenarios that play out across a world stage. Since 9-11 of course his scenarios don't seem quite so wild, since he actually wrote (years before 9-11) about an incident in Debt of Honor where an airplane crashes into the Capitol building. The resulting chaos and re-building of government that occurs after that, in Executive Orders was my favorite of all these books. Perhaps because, as always, in Clancy's world just like in the real world, such a catastrophic event is not the only thing the new President has to deal with--in that book we get biological warfare, more terrorism, war with Iran, and more.

I think I am fond of these books because they are quite detailed, and even if I don't always understand all the military stuff, most of it makes sense to me. Of course they are heavily weighted to show the U.S. as right and lots of other places wrong, but he doesn't go so far over the top to make me stop reading.

Clancy has another one coming out soon Red Rabbit which is supposed to go way back to the beginning with Jack Ryan's career. You can read these books individually without having read previous ones, but I highly recommend that you follow the list below to really get an understanding of the Jack Ryan character's development as he moves from CIA consultant to eventually the office of President of U.S.

Series:

Patriot Games
Red Rabbit
The Hunt for Red October
The Cardinal of the Kremlin
Clear and Present Danger
The Sum of All Fears
Debt of Honor
Executive Orders
The Bear and the Dragon

Author: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Written in the mid-80's, this is a novel of alien invasion, a bit like War of the Worlds in the idea that we know they are coming, we don't know if they'll be friendly but we expect them to be, only to find out their first communication with us is to attack massively. The ability of the U.S. and Soviets to use nuclear arms for defense doesn't make as much difference as you might think.

Even though this story was written when there still was a Soviet Union and the Cold War was still going on, the politics of that don't interfere too much with the story in terms of dating it.

Niven and Pournelle are great at quickly establishing their characters, giving the reader a feel for the emotions and motivations of all the players without tons of discourse about it. Their depiction of an alien race is very credible, gradually showing us just how different in thought and beliefs the aliens are from humans.

My only real gripe about this book is that at the end of a rousing climax, with the fate of all humanity and aliens hanging in the balance, the denouement seems slightly rushed, and we don't get any sense of what things are like after that. I think even a short epilogue would have made me happier than the ending they wrote. However, I still think overall this is one of those classics in science fiction, worth re-reading from time to time because it is enjoyable.

By the way, this is the only book I've read where a group of science fiction writers plays a significant role, in a creative idea where they advise the President on the aliens.

Not too much hard science, just enough, with some likable characters, excitement and suspense, and also some nice info on survivalist stuff since disasters abound in this book.

Author: Dean Koontz

Another Koontz book that you ususally find in the horror section, but I think it deserves the science fiction category because of the time travel aspect.

This is one of my favorite Koontz books, where he really brings us into the life of his strong lead female character, showing the significant events that molded her from childhood into adulthood. The time travel aspect is not explained until later in the book, which is cool, and when it is explained it makes sense in the context of the story. I also think Koontz does a fantastic job in his books writing about children, and he does that here, first with the lead character in childhood, and later with her son.

I think one of the things that makes me like Dean Koontz books is that there is always a message of hope in there...that people can overcome the traumas and difficulties in their lives to become good and caring people who succeed in their goals and dreams.

Exellent read, some humor, a touch of romance, exciting climax, well-drawn likeable characters, worth re-reading.

Author: Michaela Roessner

What if 90 percent of the world's population suddenly vanished? What would the survivors be like a generation or so later? What cultural changes, biological changes, psychological changes may have transpired? This book explores it all in an interesting story that focuses mainly on one of the survivor groups that lives in and around the Winchester Mystery House.

The House itself is fascinating, as are the questions and possible answers about why all those people disappeared, will they ever return, and could it happen again. I found the characters well-drawn, and particularly liked the female characters of three separate generations who are all involved in one way or another in looking at what has occurred.

Survival details are good, not just focused on how one person can survive on their own, but how entire societies can survive after a catastrophic event, and how those societies will evolve differing belief systems based on their perspective of the event.

Excitement, physics, character development, exploration of cultures are all included here, with strong female characters. I've re-read this book several times and always enjoy it.

Author: Diana Gabaldon

The Outlander series is an intriguing mix of history, romance, and fantasy/science fiction, which leads me to call it historical fantasy. The main character, Claire, starts out in the first book as a nurse just after WWII. She ends up time travelling back to the 1700's, and most of the stories take place there, in Scotland, England, France, and eventually America.

Gabaldon is an excellent writer, providing lush descriptions of the various locales and incredible detail on the way people lived in those times. Her premise is believable, and when we make the jump with Claire back to her future, and later back again to the past, it seems entirely right.

The books are long and focus quite a bit not just on giving us the background stories of the historical facts of the times, but also delve deeply into the relationships of the main characters. Emotional growth, difficult decisions, and the meaning of family are explored amidst the backdrop of wars, cultural changes, and differences in lifestyles occuring two hundred years apart.

In some respects these books fit the qualifications for some disaster books, because the details on how to survive without 20th century technology are well-written.

I anxiously await the final book in this series! With believable heroines and heroes, adventure, a timeless love story, and what appears to be a fairly realistic portrayal of the past, these books are highly recommended.

Series:

Outlander
Dragonfly in Amber
Voyager
Drums of Autumn
The Fiery Cross

Author: Jane Jensen

A group of religious leaders are drawn to the same place and experience a vision, after which they tell their followers that the world is going to end--now. There are signs leading up to the end, and these signs are various catastrophes that Earth's citizens have to try and survive.

There is lots here about prophecies, from Nostradamus to Revelations. What the author does that is different is to bring into question whether these prophecies are really coming true, or is there some other explanation. Her questioning is done through the questing of a Catholic priest, who ultimately meets up with others like himself from various religions who have had the vision.

This is an interesting story, and has some good disasters, but there is something lacking. Not sure if its that we don't really feel connected to the priest, or if perhaps the writing just doesn't make it seem like this could really happen. Not great, but not terrible.

Author: David and Leigh Eddings

This is a contemporary novel that doesn't really fit in the categories of mystery or fantasy, even though there are bits of each of those in the book. Its more a psychological study of a young woman who was severely traumatized and how she attempts to regain her life. The story is told in the first person from the perspective of her childhood friend who is now an adult.

I enjoyed the book, although not as much as I enjoyed the Belgariad and Mallorean series. I think the Eddings excel at fantasy...this book wasn't quite up to the standards of the previous works. The story does move right along, even though there is a tendency to tell us every single detail of some things that are irrelevant. Probably could have cut a 100 pages from the book and it would have been fine. I think I ended up liking the book because of the characters more than for the story or the writing.

Author: Stephen King

This is a beautifully written ghost story of sorts. I almost hate putting it in the horror section, because people have such strange views on what that means. The interaction between characters, dialogue, emotional depth of this novel is stunning.

Highly recommended, won't write any more in case I give something away about the plot.

Author: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

My favorite disaster book of all time. There may be disaster novels out there that are better written, have more stuff happen, whatever...I just love this book.

Its the story of an asteroid heading toward Earth, and what happens before and after it arrives. As always, I love it when the story expands to the aftermath part. In this case, we get to see various methods of initial survival and then later, various means of rebuilding society.

Some things are now dated in the book, but it is still worth reading. There is a bit of goriness, but really not too much. Likeable characters, interesting tips on ways to survive, a political bent that is clearly focused on us staying in space and expanding the space program. And very good descriptions of what happens when an asteroid of a decent size hits the Earth.

Author: David and Leigh Eddings

I go back to this series when I'm looking for a comfortable set of books to curl up with for a few days. The cast of characters have become old friends, and I only wish their story could have been continued beyond these books.

The creation of an entire world, with its own customs, culture, races, and belief systems is always fascinating to me. The Eddings succeed at it, providing rich description without bogging us down. We get to know fascinating characters with wildly different personalities, and experience the special gifts of each member of the group. From sword-play to spying to cooking to a kind of magic, there is enough here to keep things exciting.

The story is an adventure, a quest, a coming-of-age story, with interesting familial relationships explored with humor. Even though The Belgariad series could stand alone, The Mallorean series picks up right where The Belgariad series ends, continuing the story.

It is true that the story uses the old Tolkein scheme of a group of travelers seeking something out or going off to perform a task, but then, LOTS of fantasy series use this concept for a good reason--because it works! These aren't complex books, and they are quick reading. After the two sets of five books each, the Eddings wrote two sequels that take us back to the lives of two main characters before the series took place. These books are better written than the series books and are a good addition to the series, filling in gaps and answering lots of questions.

Series:

The Belgariad:

Book One: Pawn of Prophecy
Book Two: Queen of Sorcery
Book Three: Magician's Gambit
Book Four: Castle of Wizardry
Book Five: Enchanter's End Game

The Mallorean:

Book One: Guardians of the West
Book Two: King of the Murgos
Book Three: Demon Lord of Karanda
Book Four: Sorceress of Darshiva
Book Five: The Seeress of Kell

Sequels to the series, but going back many years:

Belgarath the Sorcerer
Polgara the Sorceress

Author: Diane Mott Davidson

Like your mysteries with a few recipes sprinkled in and a dollop of great food descriptions? Then this series is for you. Goldy is the main character, a caterer. She ruminates best on the mysteries in her life when she is preparing food for her various catering jobs. Each book has a number of recipes included, and some of the food she makes sounds absolutely scrumptious. Over the series, Goldy has evolved and grown--something I always like to see. At first reading these books I was almost startled by Goldy--then I realized that I was reacting to the fact that she wasn't perfect, that she had bad days, could be irritable, could make mistakes with her son...in fact, she was more like a real person than I'm used to seeing in popular mystery books.

Davidson does a great job also describing the scenery where Goldy lives in Colorado, and the books are page-turners. Some humor, some suspense, pretty good on the development of relationships, great food.

Series:

Catering to Nobody
Dying for Chocolate
The Cereal Murders
The Last Suppers
Killer Pancake
The Main Corpse
The Grilling Season
Prime Cut
Tough Cookie
Sticks & Scones
Chopping Spree

Author: Jo Dereske

The Miss Zukas books are delightful mysteries featuring a librarian living in a small town in the northwest. Part of the fun in this series is how well-drawn the character of Miss Zukas is--meticulous, curious, conservative, yet with a flair for getting involved in solving the occasional murder. Each book shows us a bit more about Miss Zukas and her emotional make-up, along with relationships with her mother, best friend, library staff friends and foes, and the town sheriff. In particular, her relationship with her best friend is wonderful--the flamboyant friend being diametrically opposed in personality type from Miss Zukas.

I highly recommend these books as a fun read. Well-written, and with a great sense of humor.

Series:

Miss Zukas and the Library Murders
Miss Zukas and the Island Murders
Miss Zukas and the Stroke of Death
Miss Zukas and the Raven's Dance
Out of Circulation
Final Notice
Miss Zukas in Death's Shadow
Miss Zukas Shelves the Evidence

Author: Neal Stephenson

I actually enjoyed reading this book more the second time around than the first! I think that was because I wasn't prepared in the first reading to throw myself into the world of crypto, nor was I ready for the way the story shifts back and forth between WWII and a time a bit in our future.

There is lots of techie language, but if you don't totally understand it the book is still good. I ended up liking how the story goes back and forth between a soldier/encryption expert in the past and his grandson who is setting up a data haven in the future.

I wouldn't classify this as cyberpunk, and even though you get some history, I think its mainly a good science fiction read.

Characters are spotty in a few places, but mostly well done. The view of where we are heading with global communication and the internet was fascinating. Stephenson adds enough adventure with a touch of romance to keep this suspenseful and a page-turner.

Author: Dean Koontz

Strangers is about a disparate group of people who are slowly drawn toward the same place and each other because of one mind-blowing incident. The build-up of suspense is good as the story shifts from one character to another, telling how each is coping and trying to explain to themselves what their strange behaviors mean.

I'm not saying anything else about the plot so I don't give away the story.

I see this as one of the first books where Koontz really broke out of the horror genre and began to get into more of the kind of books he writes now. His use of language and description is superb, and his ability to take you into the minds of his characters, into their feelings, makes it easy to relate to them and care for them. I re-read this book every few years.

Author: Peter F. Hamilton

This is set up as trilogy, even though the way I bought it was as 2 separate books in each of the first two parts, then a really large final book, so 5 books all together. It is an impressive attempt to create a future in detail, and tell a monumental story about humankind facing the consequences of an afterlife and coming to terms. I think Hamilton succeeds in these books, with an amazing number of characters and stories happening at once, with loads of minute trivia that help you see and grasp this world.

Some people have said his writing is too wordy, that the books, especially the last one are too long. I don't have a problem with any of that. I love a really long, juicy book, that lets me learn enough about the characters and places they live so I can be comfortable there with them. His alien species make sense and are different enough from humans--a failing in so much science fiction, that of having aliens who are essentially humans but just look a little different.

The whole idea of having inhabitants from afterlife spilling into the regular world was unique (come on, Al Capone brought back? you gotta love it!), and the conflicts this brings are well-explored.

Long, but worth it. Adventure, romance, hard science, aliens, heroes and heroines, some gross stuff but not gratuitous, good guys and bad guys, tech stuff I wish we had now.

Series:

The Reality Dysfunction - Part 1: Emergence
The Reality Dysfunction - Part 2: Expansion
The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 1: Consolidation
The Neutronium Alchemist - Part 2: Conflict
The Naked God

Author: Melanie Rawn

I LOVE these books! Buy all six at once, because you won't want to leave the house after you start reading the first one. Melanie Rawn has created an entirely different world in these books, and her writing will transport you there.

The books of course, see titles, feature dragons, and the depiction of the dragons is believable. In other words, the actions of the dragons seem realistic and not just there for some effect. But where the writing truly shines is in her gradual development of a cast of characters that you end up having strong feelings for. There were places in these books where I actually got teary--which is unheard of for me when reading! I got so into believing in these people that I would get irritated and angry with a character when they did something I didn't agree with--always a sign I'm completely drawn in by the writer.

This is just a wonderful series of fantasy books. There is excitement, danger, tragedy, romance, a complete culture created, plots and sub-plots, all tied together in beautifully written language. Get these books, you'll love them.

Series:

The Dragon Prince Trilogy:
The Dragon Prince
The Star Scroll
Sunrunner's Fire

The Dragon Star Trilogy:
Stronghold
The Dragon Token
Skybowl

Author: Donna Andrews

This is a first novel that completely captured me - lovely to read, and funny too. The heroine is well-drawn, and the supporting cast are eccentric and hilarious. Dialogue is great. Even though the mystery is not intensely complex, it is still quite enjoyable and with the characterizations it turns into an excellent lazy afternoon read.

This may or may not be turning into a series, but there is one book which is a sequel to this one, bringing back almost all the characters. I didn't find the second book quite as enjoyable as the first one.

Series:

Murder with Peacocks
Murder with Puffins

Author: Pat Frank

Written in 1959, this classic about thermonuclear war and its aftermath is dated, but still worth reading. Between 1959 and now we have learned a lot more about radiation and its effects and the global effects of huge numbers of nuclear bombs being detonated in a nuclear exchange such as the one described here. In other words, I seriously doubt the people in this book would have survived, and even if they survived the initial "war" they wouldn't have lasted for any great length of time. So know that you're going to have to really suspend disbelief on this one.

Additionally, times have changed and therefore cultural attitudes as well. The depiction of what attitudes were like in a small southern town is probably not accurate by today's standards, in regard to prejudices and class distinctions.

Having said that, I recently re-read this book and enjoyed it thoroughly. I think this is because most of the book details the aftermath, how they survived day by day, with nifty details from coping with a lack of salt, to how they got water, to even what they ate as time went on. There is not a huge amount of character development--let's face it, Stephen King would have turned this story into a 1,000 pages or more and you would really feel you knew the people in the end. But Frank does what he set out to here, which is to write a cautionary tale, with a dollop of hope thrown in for good measure. For its time, it is actually quite extraordinary.

Author: Dean Koontz

Even though this book is in the horror category, it doesn't totally belong there. That's because a lot of Dean Koontz books get classified as horror because there doesn't seem to be a good category for his work. In this book an intelligent golden retriever has been created through genetic manipulation--so you could say this is a science fiction book. However you classify it, the book is good.

Koontz has a beautiful way of describing animal to human interaction. The story which seems so far-fetched at first, draws you in, and half-way through the book you find you're totally hooked into this idea, that you believe this dog really can think and communicate with humans. The wonder of that idea is expressed nicely.

I cared about the main characters, and the dog!, and wanted to read another book about them when this one was finished. Alas, Koontz has not written a sequel, and maybe that's just as well since it would be hard to top what he did here. There are other Koontz books that have very intelligent dogs who communicate in various ways, but this one was the first and is my favorite.

I also like this book because the characters develop over time in a believable way, something that is lacking in so many books out there these days.

This is a fun, exciting read. Yes, there are a few gory parts, but they really do seem necessary to the story.

Author: Stephen King

I love this book--the long version that he published years after the first one. I think I like it so much because it has more than just a catastrophic event; it also has so much on setting up a new society after the event. So many disaster books just focus on the disaster, leading up to it and averting some final devastation that would wipe out everything. Then the book ends. I think its more interesting when the reader gets to see what happens after the initial disaster, in the aftermath, how people restore their lives or rebuild society in a new image.

In this case, King has a confrontation between good and evil to address during that aftermath. I liked the fact that he wasn't afraid to bring up good vs. evil themes. These days too many folks shy away from such black and white issues.

The realism of the effects of a viral plague, how it starts, how it spreads, what the world is like afterwards...all these are very well done.

The cast of characters are great, leaving you with the feeling that you got to know these people, to like or dislike them and their choices. You care about what happens to them.

Some people think this book is too long, but I think all the details are important here. Some parts of it are just plain gross, but its all necessary to the story.

Definitely a must-read. I've read it dozens of times.