I’ve always been an avid reader and loved different genres from the beginning. I started out reading historical fiction as a child, including the Little House books, Anne of Green Gables, and Where the Red Fern Grows. I soon discovered that science fiction and fantasy did the same thing, transporting me to different worlds and places instead of times. Many of my favorite books have elements of these as well as action, tension, thrills, and romance. These things transcend genre, and by reading books that combine genres, I find some of the most interesting and original stories.
This amazing story is one that belongs in multiple sections of any bookstore. Where would you shelve a historical fiction, action-adventure, time-travel, romance? Anywhere you want. This is the quintessential genre combination series, perhaps the best of all time.
I discovered Outlander in 1998 when the fourth book in the series was published. I bought it on a whim, liking the sound of historical fiction/time travel. The book immediately transported me along with Claire into the 1700s, where I rooted for her to fall in love with Jamie Fraser and stay with him.
There is so much love, lust, heartbreak, and action in this story I have to read it again every few years.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The first book in Diana Gabaldon’s acclaimed Outlander saga, the basis for the Starz original series.
One of the top ten best-loved novels in America, as seen on PBS’s The Great American Read!
Unrivaled storytelling. Unforgettable characters. Rich historical detail. These are the hallmarks of Diana Gabaldon’s work. Her New York Times bestselling Outlander novels have earned the praise of critics and captured the hearts of millions of fans. Here is the story that started it all, introducing two remarkable characters, Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser, in a spellbinding novel of passion and…
This was the fifth time I have read this book, and I swear I love it just as much every time I read it.
The book is about a writer who has a story come to her in waking dreams and flashes of vivid insight. The story of the past is one of her ancestors who lived near this place.
As a writer, this idea appeals to me. Some of my favorite ideas have come to me in the space between waking
and sleeping. The dual timeline of present and historical mesh seamlessly so that the two pieces complement each other, and I love rediscovering all the ways the pieces connect.
Having met the author and taken a dozen workshops with her, I appreciate the craft that went into the writing. Plus, she’s a fellow Canadian.
"I've loved every one of Susanna's books! She has bedrock research and a butterfly's delicate touch with characters―sure recipe for historical fiction that sucks you in and won't let go!"―DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander
A hauntingly beautiful tale of love that transcends time: an American writer travels to Scotland to craft a novel about the Jacobite Rebellion, only to discover her own ancestral memories of that torrid moment in Scottish history...
In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded…
Tigana might be my favorite book of all time, any genre, which says a lot.
Every time I read it, I am blown away by the perfection of the story and characters and the intricate story of love, hate, rebellion, magic, and politics. I have read it at least a dozen times since I first discovered it, and every time, I find something new or rediscover something I’d forgotten that makes this book wonderful.
It has the structure of a fantasy story and quest for redemption but is also a story of family, friendship, trust, loyalty, and love. It could be any empire and conquest in history. Imagine how devastating it would be to have the name of your country erased from time and memory.
With this rich, masterfully written extravaganza of myth and magic, the internationally acclaimed author of THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY trilogy has created an epic that will forever change the boundaries of fantasy fiction.
Set in a beleaguered land caught in a web of tyranny, Tigana is the deeply moving story of a people struggling to be free. A people so cursed by the dark sorceries of the tyrant King Brandin that even the very name of their once beautiful land cannot be spoken or remembered.
But not everyone has forgotten. A handful of men and women, driven by love, hope and…
I love Katniss Everdeen and the simplicity of her wish. She just wants to save her little sister. Her life has been one of hardship and tragedy, and she will do anything to keep her sister alive.
I love her tenacity and how she grows and survives in the face of overwhelming odds, all while living in a constant state of terror.
This is a brilliant story about growing up and surviving in a harsh world. The world-building is excellent, doled out in small pieces as needed without over-explaining. We enter the world of Panem, District 12, and the Reaping and leave changed. It changed how I look at reality TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever...
I love an awesome end-of-the-world story, including this one about lab-made, escaped vampires that end civilization as we know it. Apocalyptic science fiction and vampire horror make a terrific combination.
I’ve read the series three times and this first book at least one extra time. The sense of doom as the apocalypse unfolds is suspense-filled and pulls the reader along at breakneck speed. I also love the complex and flawed characters.
Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old and her mother thinks she's the most important person in the whole world. She is. Anthony Carter doesn't think he could ever be in a worse place than Death Row. He's wrong. FBI agent Brad Wolgast thinks something beyond imagination is coming. It is. THE PASSAGE. Deep in the jungles of eastern Colombia, Professor Jonas Lear has finally found what he's been searching for - and wishes to God he hadn't. In Memphis, Tennessee, a six-year-old girl called Amy is left at the convent of the Sisters of Mercy and wonders why her…
Life in SoCal in 2195 is controlled by a corporatocracy. Elsa scavenges twenty-first-century trash, living on the edge of starvation in this ruthless world through instinct and grit. When she unearths a metal tube containing maps to six seed bunkers, she dreams of renewable sources of food and a life based on more than subsistence, but GreenCorps will stop at nothing to acquire her find.
Accused of theft and beaten, she escapes with a handsome train hopper. They seek the long-lost bunkers, hoping to break the GreenCorps monopoly. They receive help from a teenage pick-pocket and a solitary widow. If this group of lonely misfits cannot find a way to distribute the seeds, GreenCorps will continue to choke out any chance of a better life.
As a child, I lived in a small valley sheltered from the night city lights. I could see the stars, and from that time, that is where my imagination dwelled. As a teenager, I read several of the books I have listed here, and from that point, I was inspired to read more and also to write myself. I sincerely believe that despite our current problems, humanity will outlive its troubled childhood and reach for the stars. We are destined for the stars, and only in the works of science fiction writers is that future explored. The books below helped me to become a successful author in my own right.
An alien starship appears in the Solar System! Humanity faces a glorious future, or total extinction, and only Joe Falcon can make the choice. Never would Joe have imagined it would fall to him to make the decision that would alter the destiny of two worlds, launching humanity towards a glorious future, or to extinction.
Falcon's Call is an action packed dive into the unknown, written in the style of the great, classic, science-fiction stories. If you like surprising plot twists, compelling characters and a hero who actually cares, you must read this new novel by Mike Waller.
Reader's Favorite Gold Medal winner 2019 B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree 2019 Chill With A Book Premier Award 2019
In a heart-pounding battle for humanity's survival, one man holds the key to a glorious future or utter extinction.
In a race against time, Earth and Mars race to claim a derelict alien ship as it enters the Solar System, both aware that whichever planet succeeds might in so doing achieve technological advantage over the other. But who should they send? Joe Falcon, an unlikely candidate, never saw himself as the "right" person. Accompanied by a crew of misfits, each fleeing their own…
