"If I Liked The Naked Chef, Will I Like Naked Lunch?"

by Jude Feldman

One of my favorite (and one of the most challenging) aspects of being a bookseller is making recommendations.  Book recommendations are a tricky business, because the bookseller is frequently expected to be psychic, or at least empathic, and answer accurately the question "what will I like?"

So here are some recommendations that folks commonly ask for; please do remember that this is an art, not a science.  (Please also keep in mind that just because I think you'll like a book, I'm not necessarily saying that the suggested books are specifically similar.) Feel free to email jfeldman@borderlands-books.com if you have some suggestions to add, if you'd like some additional ideas, or if you'd like to hear further choices.  Also let me know if you're interested in seeing this feature continue.  If so, I'll bring it back, in addition to a fun little audience-participation column for next month called The Psychic Readers' Corner.

If you like George R.R. Martin's A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, you might like:
Steven Erikson's MALAZAN books
Guy Gavriel Kay - TIGANA and many of his other novels
Robin Hobb's ASSASSIN series and THE LIVESHIP TRADER books
LEGENDS (AND LEGENDS VOL. 2): SHORT NOVELS FROM THE MASTERS OF FANTASY edited by Robert Silverberg
R. Scott Bakker's PRINCE OF NOTHING series
HEROES DIE by Matthew Woodring Stover
THE CHRONICLES OF AMBER by Roger Zelazny
Steven King's DARK TOWER series

If you like Richard Morgan's ALTERED CARBON, you might like:
WHEN GRAVITY FAILS by George Alec Effinger
PASHAZADE: THE FIRST ARABESK by John Courtney Grimwood
CARLUCCI by Richard Paul Russo
THE BLUE PLACE by Nicola Griffith
PERFECT CIRCLE by Sean Stewart
MAUL by Tricia Sullivan
THE SKINNER by Neal Asher

If you like Emma Bull's WAR FOR THE OAKS, you might like:
WAR OF THE FLOWERS by Tad Williams
TITHE by Holly Black
COYOTE COWGIRL by Kim Antieau
SINGER OF SOULS by Adam Stemple
A STIR OF BONES by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
TAMSIN by Peter S. Beagle
FIREBIRDS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF ORIGINAL SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY edited by Sharyn November

If you like SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson, you might like:
SEWER, GAS AND ELECTRIC by Matt Ruff
THE CALLAHAN CHRONICLES by Spider Robinson
DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM by Cory Doctorow

Perhaps all of these titles sound familliar to you and you'd like to read something great from someone unfamilliar.  We can help.

BAD VOLTAGE by Jonathan Littell - an unheralded cyberpunk classic with a mean streak a mile wide (out of print, but we frequently have used copies.)

ULTIMATE MALLWORLD by S.P. Somtow - A bit dated, but still a clever piece of cyberpunk/tales of disenfranchised youth on an enormous space station.

VOYAGE FROM YESTERYEAR by James P. Hogan - Entertaining and thought-provoking treatment of an "innocent techno-utopia" that isn't quite as innocent as it seems.

THE KIN OF ATA ARE WAITING FOR YOU by Dorothy Bryant - A kick-ass & difficult-to-describe fantasy set in a gender-neutral utopia.  For fans of Le Guin and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

That's about all we have room for this time.  Send me your recommendation requests, suggestions and advice and I'll see you next month!