"What to read next...?" Topic

I'm looking for a good book. What do recommend for someone that reads loads of science-fiction, as well as WWII and ACW history?

I saw a tome at Borders on the post-WWII occupation of Germany. Claimed to offer a review at a glossed over period in history. Looks interesting, but is it?

"The Lost Regiment" series by William Forstchen. Combines both science fiction and ACW. The first book is called "Rally Cry"

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Try the Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt. It is a great read and covers quite a bit of history really piecing some things together.

"Old Man's War", by John Scalzi.
If you like Heinlein before he went off the deep end, you will love this.
It's very much in the Starship Trooper mode. Like SST, it is about Duty and with very interesting political variations. The sequels are not bad either.

"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card is also first rate scifi.

"Old Man's War", by John Scalzi.

Just finished that one a very good read.

Scalzi is quite good. Just finished rereading "Old Man's War, "Ghost Brigades", and "The Last Colony". Not in that series, and much lighter, is his excellent "The Android's Dream". Very Westlakish.

See also John's thread on Elmore Leonard.
TMP link

Have you tried Lois McMaster Bujold? Her Vorkosigan novels are probably my favorite SciFi series, and a pair of fantasy novels she wrote, "The Curse of Chalion" and "Paladin of Souls", are also two I reread regularly. The Vorkosigan, particularly the early ones, are military SciFi, but done better than most people do it – emphasis on the people, not the hardware.

"Guns of the South" by Turtledove. Ditto "The Lost Regiment" as the first few were quite good.

Without Warning by John Birmingham.

Neal Stephenson and Iain M Banks are a couple of my favourites – almost all of their books are really good.

Stirling's _Island in the Sea of Tiime_, first of a
trilogy. The sequels are good, too.

Take a look at Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space series; Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap are the original trilogy, with Chasm City, The Prefect, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days and Galactic North as separate stories in the same setting.

I'd also recommend Jon Courtenay Grimwood. neoAddix, Lucifer's Dragon, , reMix and redRobe are one setting (an alternate cyberpunk-style world where Napoleon III's dynasty continued and the Russian Revolution never happened), and Pashazade, Effendi and Felaheen are another (an alternate near-future Alexandria in an Ottoman Empire that managed to last). The al-hist is possibly rather hokey, but don't let that put you off – in both cases it's there to create a setting, rather as something integral to the plot.

I second fred12df's Iain M Banks suggestion, although his latest 2 books (The Algebraist and Matter) are rather wordy. When you can fill one page with only two sentences, it'd getting rather silly.

"I second fred12df's Iain M Banks suggestion, although his latest 2 books (The Algebraist and Matter) are rather wordy"

I still like pretty well everything he has done, both as Ian Banks and Ian M Banks.

For wargamers though, his 'Player of Games' is the must read.

My dad got me a replacement copy of Alistair Macleans 'HMS Ulysses' for my birthday (after he threw out my original copy! serves me right for leaving it his house). Enjoying reading that again, probably his best book as I suspect it is strongly autobiographical unlike some of his later adventure fiction. Certainly a lighter read than 'Wolf Hall' which I found a bit of a slog.

I would second John's suggestion of Ender's Game with a follow up of Ender's Shadow afterward. Same story with two different points of view.

I will counter the suggestion of Guns of the South because I could not finish it.

If you like satire with a scifi bent, the I would suggest Keith Laumer's Retief series. My personal favorite is Retief's War.

Well, I finished Ender's Game, but only because it was a loooong bus trip and I didn't have a spare. I found it extremely predictable. The Alvin Maker series, on the other hand, is quite good, especially the first one.

Picked up the "Sunrise Lands" by Sterling. I'd already read the "Island in the Sea of Time" and the "Dies the Fire" series, so thought, what the heck.

I'm a big fan of Scalzi's wook too.

I'll take a look at Elmore Leonard.

Thanks y'all!