Book Request: Recommend Me Something Not Depressing

[Weezer]

I've found that the vast majority of the books I read are incredibly depressing and I'm up for a change. Preferably something sci-fi/fantasy, but other genres aren't out of the question. I'd like to disallow anything particularly saccarine and really want something that is serious on some level. I've failed at serious but not depressing.

Some examples of stuff I've read and enjoyed: all of Douglas Adams, Prattchett, Heinlein, Tolkein, Asimov, Gaiman, Herbert, Mieville, Gibson and Donaldson. Most/much of George R.R. Martin, P.K. ****, Banks, Steven Erikson, Glen Cook, Moorcock, Sergey Lukyanenko, Clark, as well as many others.

So, I come to the Playground in the hopes that your collective knowledge will help me find what I desire.

[Lord Raziere]

I recommend Warbreaker. its by Brandon Sanderson….

[Feytalist]

Again, I can recommend Eddings. All his work is relatively lighthearted, considering its content. It strikes a nice balance between serious and fun, I think.

It's wildly subjective, of course. What I consider simply to be intense storytelling you might think of as depressing. But it doesn't hurt to try it out.

The majority of Anne McCaffrey's works are also generally light reading.

[Seonor]

Try Stephen Brusts "Phoenix Guards" funny, serious swashbuckling.

[Selrahc]

John Wyndham could be a good one. It's interesting sci-fi that can deal with some bleak situations; apocalypse, alien invasion etc; but generally in quite an upbeat and optimistic way.

[Serpentine]

Not often Wyndham gets a plug. Jolly good.
Even more rarely: Robert C. O'Brien. Only wrote about 4 or 5 books, but they're all very different and very good.
Second Anne McCaffery.
Tamora Pierce is very light reading, but still good and often dealing with fairly dark themes.
I think Plague Dogs is very good, too. Oddly enough, the movie version had a depressing ending apparently, but the book doesn't.
Tad Williams, particularly Memory Sorrow and Thorn, and Tailchaser's Song.
Terry Pratchet, obviously.
Uuuuum... I had another but I forgotted it :/

[Manga Shoggoth]

Again, I can recommend Eddings. All his work is relatively lighthearted, considering its content. It strikes a nice balance between serious and fun, I think.

Of Eddings work, I would certianly recommend the Belgariad (story of a farm boy with a destiny). In my opinion it is his best work. He basically takes most of the fantasy tropes and plays them for all they are worth. Amazingly, this turns out an enjoyable story.

At this point you may want to stop. Eddings writes a lot of his fantasy the same way, and if you are sensitive to that sort of thing the later stories can be annoying. If not...

Then there is the Elenium (story of a knight with a destiny). It is well told, enjoyable, and has engaging characters. It is somewhat more grom and gritty than the Belgariad, but still fairly light. Its only real problem is that if you have read the Belgariad you can see all the tropes he is re-using.

If you like the Belgariad, then you might try the Mallorian (sequel series, with the problems that implies), Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress (two seperate books detailing the events before the Belgariad through the eyes of the title characters).

If you like the Elenium, you might like the Tamuli (another sequel series, same problems)

Failing that there is The Redemption of Athulus (world's greatest thief gets entangled in events beyond his control). Reasonably enjoyable, but the writing us very uneven.

I tried reading the Elder Gods series and gave up part way through the first book. When you can see daylight through the building blocks it's time to stop.

And finally, I suspect that if depressing is not your metier, you should avoid High Hunt.

[Serpentine]

I really liked The Redemption of Althalus. Elder Gods is... eh. It's rather hard to relate to a character who is quite literally a god.

[Weimann]

I must recommend The Name of the Wind, and the sequel The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss. The writing in incredible. You can really see that the author loves stringing words together. It's sometimes painfully beautiful.

[Weezer]

John Wyndham could be a good one. It's interesting sci-fi that can deal with some bleak situations; apocalypse, alien invasion etc; but generally in quite an upbeat and optimistic way.

Looks very old-school, which of his books would be good to start with? He seems to have quite a few.

Again, I can recommend Eddings. All his work is relatively lighthearted, considering its content. It strikes a nice balance between serious and fun, I think.

It's wildly subjective, of course. What I consider simply to be intense storytelling you might think of as depressing. But it doesn't hurt to try it out.

The majority of Anne McCaffrey's works are also generally light reading.

I've read most of Eddings, I think he was the second big fantasy author I ever read when I was a kid, after Tolkein of course. He's very good but I'm looking for something new.

I recommend Warbreaker. its by Brandon Sanderson….

I'll have to give that a look, I've read Elantris by him and really enjoyed it.

Try Stephen Brusts "Phoenix Guards" funny, serious swashbuckling.

Swashbuckling always gets a few points in my book.

Not often Wyndham gets a plug. Jolly good.
Even more rarely: Robert C. O'Brien. Only wrote about 4 or 5 books, but they're all very different and very good.
Second Anne McCaffery.
Tamora Pierce is very light reading, but still good and often dealing with fairly dark themes.
I think Plague Dogs is very good, too. Oddly enough, the movie version had a depressing ending apparently, but the book doesn't.
Tad Williams, particularly Memory Sorrow and Thorn, and Tailchaser's Song.
Terry Pratchet, obviously.
Uuuuum... I had another but I forgotted it :/

A seconding of Wyndham, definitely going to have to read some of that.
Already read a lot of Pierce, I enjoy her, nicely fluffy.
Never really a fan of McCaffery, only liked the first (chronoligically, not in order she wrote them) Pern novel, the rest didn't do it for me.
Williams I have mixed feelings about, I really liked Otherland (though that wasn't exactly uplifting) and disliked Memory, Sorrow, Thorn after reading the first two books.

I must recommend The Name of the Wind, and the sequel The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss. The writing in incredible. You can really see that the author loves stringing words together. It's sometimes painfully beautiful.

I love Name of the Wind, can't believe I forgot to mention it. His use of prose is simply unparalleled within the fantasy genre.

[endoperez]

Lord Demon is an interesting book. A co-project between Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold, it's about a being best described as demigod slowly unraveling the plots weaved across hundreds of years. The magic system and creatures are influenced by Chinese myths, chi, lion-dogs guarding holy places, Asian-style dragons, feng shui etc.
The substory is the main character learning more about humans, and becoming more human, in various ways.


If you can find Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, it's another really interesting book influenced by Chinese myths and culture. It's not all wine and roses, but is pretty light-hearted, and contains several running jokes which I found hilarious.

[Selrahc]

Looks very old-school, which of his books would be good to start with? He seems to have quite a few.

Definitely very old school. Day of the Triffids is probably his best book, so start with that.

Incidentally, have you read Kurt Vonnegut? Most of his stuff doesn't really fit in with "Not depressing" but it seems like you've hit most of the other big names in Sci-Fi.

[Serpentine]

Looks very old-school, which of his books would be good to start with? He seems to have quite a few.

The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos (made into Village of the Damned) are his most famous works. I can vouch for the former, but not the latter. I've also read Chrysalids, which was in my opinion a good book.

Never really a fan of McCaffery, only liked the first (chronoligically, not in order she wrote them) Pern novel, the rest didn't do it for me.

Have you read The Ship Who Sang? It's my absolute favourite of her work, I think, and is pretty different to the Pern books.

Williams I have mixed feelings about, I really liked Otherland (though that wasn't exactly uplifting) and disliked Memory, Sorrow, Thorn after reading the first two books.

Tailchaser's Song is a very different and very odd sort of book. It's a fantasy quest book... about cats. And it's weirdly dark.

[Radar]

For some reason Andre Norton doesn't get any attention theese days. She wrote and co-wrote quite a lot of books and usualy they are on the positive side of the high-spirited/depressenig scale. There is a similar problem with her as with Eddings - she often reuses tropes and plot elements. Her books are a good read nevertheless.

Some of the works by Lem would be great: Mortal Engines, Cyberiad and probably The Star Diaries (to a lesser extent). I found A Perfect Vacuum quite entertaining as well. Most of his other works are great, but rather pesimistic and/or heavily philosphical, so not the thing you're looking for.

[Manga Shoggoth]

If you can find Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, it's another really interesting book influenced by Chinese myths and culture. It's not all wine and roses, but is pretty light-hearted, and contains several running jokes which I found hilarious.

Again, a good book. The sequel (The Story of the Stone) is also good, although I was less impressed by the third book (Eight Skilled Gentleman). About the only depressing part is the number of ways Number Ten Ox completely fails to get the girl in the end.


If you can't find the published version, the original draft of Bridge of Birds was published online. It is very different from the published version (Number Ten Ox is missing, for a start...), but worth a look.

[H Birchgrove]

Doc E.E. Smith's Skylark and Lensman (though I only know it from Wikipedia etc and the comics adaptation of the anime).

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan and John Carter of Mars novels.

Jules Verne.

Karel Capek, especially War with the Newts and The Absolute at Large. Horrible stuff do happen in the books (war, racial prejudice etc) but it's dealt with in a satirical manner.

Not SF, but I love Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk. Partially about the Eastern Front during The Great War, military bureaucracy and shenanigans. Similar to Blackadder's last season (without vitriol) and M.A.S.H. up to eleven and beyond the impossible. You'll also learn about the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

[Weezer]

Definitely very old school. Day of the Triffids is probably his best book, so start with that.

Incidentally, have you read Kurt Vonnegut? Most of his stuff doesn't really fit in with "Not depressing" but it seems like you've hit most of the other big names in Sci-Fi.

Old school is good, I have a soft spot for pulp sci-fi, it's always interesting looking at how the genre has changed in the past 50-60 years.

Yeah I've read Vonnegut, my favorite of his was Sirens of Titan, but as you say he isn't exactly uplifting. That's another of my problems, much of my reading has come from top X lists, so I've run through most of the big names, making it harder to find good stuff.

The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos (made into Village of the Damned) are his most famous works. I can vouch for the former, but not the latter. I've also read Chrysalids, which was in my opinion a good book.
Have you read The Ship Who Sang? It's my absolute favourite of her work, I think, and is pretty different to the Pern books.
Tailchaser's Song is a very different and very odd sort of book. It's a fantasy quest book... about cats. And it's weirdly dark.

So Day of the Triffids it is.
I've only read her Pern novels, I'll have to try that one to see if I like it more.

Dark fantasy about cats? How is there anyway I could pass that up?

Lord Demon is an interesting book. A co-project between Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold, it's about a being best described as demigod slowly unraveling the plots weaved across hundreds of years. The magic system and creatures are influenced by Chinese myths, chi, lion-dogs guarding holy places, Asian-style dragons, feng shui etc.
The substory is the main character learning more about humans, and becoming more human, in various ways.


If you can find Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, it's another really interesting book influenced by Chinese myths and culture. It's not all wine and roses, but is pretty light-hearted, and contains several running jokes which I found hilarious.

Never read anything based heavily on Chinese myths before, sounds really interesting. Have read some of Zelazany before and liked it, so this is definitely something to look into.

Doc E.E. Smith's Skylark and Lensman (though I only know it from Wikipedia etc and the comics adaptation of the anime).

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan and John Carter of Mars novels.

Jules Verne.

Karel Capek, especially War with the Newts and The Absolute at Large. Horrible stuff do happen in the books (war, racial prejudice etc) but it's dealt with in a satirical manner.

Not SF, but I love Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk. Partially about the Eastern Front during The Great War, military bureaucracy and shenanigans. Similar to Blackadder's last season (without vitriol) and M.A.S.H. up to eleven and beyond the impossible. You'll also learn about the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Read Smith, Burroughs and Verne, loved them all. Really enjoyed the Lensman series, how could I not love a series where they pulled antimatter planets from other universes and crashed them into their enemies?

A Blackadder and M.A.S.H.-esque novel about WWI? Sounds pretty awesome.

[Friv]

I recommend Tanya Huff. She writes stuff that's pretty funny, but also decently serious, and tends to straddle the line between pulp and interesting drama, and she's written all varieties of urban fantasy, high fantasy, and science fiction.

If you haven't been burned out on the "vampire detective" genre, the Blood Price series is very good (plus, the vampire is the bastard son of Henry VIII, which is kind of funny), and its sequel series, which I just call "Smoke and X", is even better.

[Serpentine]

Tanya Huff sounds kinda like Jasper Fforde.
I'd describe him as being to literature and nursery rhymes what Pratchett is to fantasy and pulp fiction and Douglass Adams is to science fiction. I've only read two of his books - a Thursday Next and the one about Humpty Dumpty - but they're a lot of fun.

[Traab]

Oath of Swords by David Weber. That and the two books in the series after it, are the only three fantasy books he wrote, the rest are sci fi. It is hilarious. Lots of witty repartee between the two main characters, nose tweaking, silly songs, and in between humor you have 7 and a half foot tall warriors cleaving brigands in half from crown to crotch. Whats not to love? Best part is, the main characters are of a race ive never read about before, hradani. They hate magic, dont like the gods, (for very good reason) and yet the two main characters are up to their necks in magic and gods and cant get away from it. (and they DO try) As for the rest you have dwarves, elves, halflings, and of course, humans. Its got demons and vampires, champions of the gods, wand wizards, wild magic users, mages, (all very different) intelligent horses, amazonish women, heroic tales of daring do, wanna be bards making up silly ditties, its got it all.

[Liffguard]

I'd recommend some David Gemmell. He writes unapologetically old-school heroic fantasy. His books aren't exactly happy but embrace what I like to call idealistic cynicism. Evil exists, good people die, cowards prosper. And that makes it all the more meaningful that there will always be people willing to do good anyway. He firmly believed in redemption and that nobody was so fallen that they couldn't do good again, not for hope of reward but purely for its own sake. Another common theme is courage and how anyone is capable of it, even the least likely. I always return to Gemmell for a little comfort reading, or when I need cheering up.

[Tavar]

Oath of Swords is definitely a good choice.

Roger Zelazny Lord of Light and his Amber series are exceedingly well written.

The General Series By SM Stirling And David Drake is some good military sci-fi, while the Belisarius series by David Drake and Eric Flint is a good example of military historical fiction/alternate reality.

[Traab]

I'd recommend some David Gemmell. He writes unapologetically old-school heroic fantasy. His books aren't exactly happy but embrace what I like to call idealistic cynicism. Evil exists, good people die, cowards prosper. And that makes it all the more meaningful that there will always be people willing to do good anyway. He firmly believed in redemption and that nobody was so fallen that they couldn't do good again, not for hope of reward but purely for its own sake. Another common theme is courage and how anyone is capable of it, even the least likely. I always return to Gemmell for a little comfort reading, or when I need cheering up.

I dunno, while nice in the aspect of good triumphing and people can change and be awesome, its still a pretty depressing set of books considering how so many of them end. There are some good lines here and there for a laugh, Druss was especially good at them, but for the most part its heroes acting heroic in hopeless battles. Not the stuff giggles are made of.

[Liffguard]

I dunno, while nice in the aspect of good triumphing and people can change and be awesome, its still a pretty depressing set of books considering how so many of them end. There are some good lines here and there for a laugh, Druss was especially good at them, but for the most part its heroes acting heroic in hopeless battles. Not the stuff giggles are made of.

True, his books are neither light-hearted nor funny. In fact, they're generally quite bittersweet. But they are also triumphant and uplifting. Heroic sacrifice with the emphasis on heroic.

[Telonius]

"The Eyes of the Dragon" by Stephen King. Straight-up fantasy; imo King could be a pretty good fantasy author if he ever decided to give up horror. (Dark Tower and a lot of his other stuff has fantasy elements already).

"Sir Apropos of Nothing" by Peter David. Lots of dark comedy, but not totally depressing.

The Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin. (First book available in webcomic form thanks to the Foglios).

[Weezer]

True, his books are neither light-hearted nor funny. In fact, they're generally quite bittersweet. But they are also triumphant and uplifting. Heroic sacrifice with the emphasis on heroic.

It certainly sounds interesting but I don't think bittersweet is what I'm looking for at the moment. Usually it is right up my alley, but I'm trying to avoid that kind of thing right now.

"The Eyes of the Dragon" by Stephen King. Straight-up fantasy; imo King could be a pretty good fantasy author if he ever decided to give up horror. (Dark Tower and a lot of his other stuff has fantasy elements already).

"Sir Apropos of Nothing" by Peter David. Lots of dark comedy, but not totally depressing.

The Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin. (First book available in webcomic form thanks to the Foglios).

King has never really impressed me, I've read the Stand and the first few books of Dark Tower but they didn't do it for me.

I'll haveto look into those other two though.

EDIT: Just downloaded Oath of Swords, it's part of the Baen Free Library (which is awesome by the way) so I'll give it a whirl and see how it is. Did the same with Warbreaker, Sanderson apparently released it on his website for free. Yay for authors being awesome!

[Eldan]

Warbreaker is very good, but if you don't want dark and depressing, stay away from both the Stormlight Archives and Mistborn.

[H Birchgrove]

Old school is good, I have a soft spot for pulp sci-fi, it's always interesting looking at how the genre has changed in the past 50-60 years.

_ _ _ _ _

Read Smith, Burroughs and Verne, loved them all. Really enjoyed the Lensman series, how could I not love a series where they pulled antimatter planets from other universes and crashed them into their enemies?

A Blackadder and M.A.S.H.-esque novel about WWI? Sounds pretty awesome.

Since you like old school pulp SF I heartily recommend Alfred Elton van Vogt's novels and short stories. Along with Fredric Brown he inspired Philip K. [YouknowIcan'ttypehisnamedammit], and along with Brown, Robert A. Heinlein and others he inspired Star Trek. His prose may be a bit quirky, but if a turnip like me could enjoy it, I then hope you will then too. His short stories (often similar to John W. Campbell Jr theme-wise, at least the early ones) and his first novel Slan (about a future superman fighting an oppressive government with super-science) are the easiest to begin with. If you are prepared for some royal mind-screws, continue with his Clane of Linn stories, World of Null-A (the screwiest of them all - Matrix was easy peasy in comparison!) and his two Empire of Isher novels (if you can find them).

Remember that both Capek and Hasek were Czechs and Czech humour may be very different from what you're used to. Lots of swearing and potty humour, amongst the absurdities and satire. But I love it and their novels.

[Aotrs Commander]

As a complete shot in the dark and a departure from most of the previous suggestions, I tentatively suggest that Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet books are well worth a read if military sci-fi and/or starships are of interest to you. It really is notably an admiral's series (one only one book out of the first six do you see any scenes outside of the starship). It's not really funny or anything, but you did specify not-depressing.

Though you may want to bang your head against the wall at the sheer Stupid of some of the captains the protagonist has to deal with. The fasinating part is that these idiots are all too real, based as they are from some of the very worst commanders in military history. Indeed, if like myself (and the author), you have read Geoffry Regan's military Blunders series, you'll be picking them out.

(Actually, the Blunders series are well worth a read in and of themselves in the nonfiction department.)

It is certainly a series with a unique slant, at any rate. (Being a starship freak, I really enjoyed it, personally.)

[BiblioRook]

Tanya Huff sounds kinda like Jasper Fforde.
I'd describe him as being to literature and nursery rhymes what Pratchett is to fantasy and pulp fiction and Douglass Adams is to science fiction. I've only read two of his books - a Thursday Next and the one about Humpty Dumpty - but they're a lot of fun.

Seconding Fforde, he's pretty great. The Thursday Next series is truly a series for booklovers. The Nursery Crimes is technically a very loose spinoff, but you would only know if you read the Next books first. It's just what it sounds like, Noir mysteries involving Nursery Tale characters. He has a third series about a dystopian future where you're place in life is mandated by what colors you can see (most only see one, ranked in opposite order of ROYGBIV), this series is only one book long at the moment though.


Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger is supposed to be really good, I haven't read it yet but it's high on my list. Heck, just Alan Dean Foster in general, as he also writes alot of Sci-Fi.
Also Piers Anthony for same reasons, really punny.