So, you can see it in the title, I'm hoping for your recommendations. Book recommendations, that is (of course), but not for me.
My brother is no reader. A couple days ago, he in fact asked me (and he was dead serious!) whether he could say he had read 5 books now that he is reading The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver for the 5th time (maybe more, but he wasn't sure). Um, no, you can't???
Anyway, he's no big reader, but something about this book made him read - so much, in fact, that I got a second copy of the book so that he could keep my first copy. With this book, I believe I have proven that he is not a "non-reader", it's more about him reading or trying to read the wrong books. Unfortunately, I have found only one other book that has slightly peeked his interest. That was a YA book by a German author about a computer hacker who found out sensitive material about a pharmaceutical company that they didn't want to be spread, as it could have meant the loss of their reputation.
This is where you come in, where I hope you can help me find some more books for my brother.
A little bit of background info for you:
* He's 22 years old.
* very much into computers and computer games
* the only books he finished were the above mentioned two books (both have computer hackers in them, maybe that's a must?)
* he liked the story line of Mort by Terry Pratchett, but never finished the book
If you need more info, let me know, otherwise, I'm really hoping you can help me with that one! I can't believe a relative of mine doesn't read!!!
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I don't know if what particular computer games he likes but my son who is 21 played a lot of Halo on Xbox and there is a whole series of books for that particular game. My 18 year old also just finished A Clockwork Orange and both of them like Bret Easton Ellis books. They are very edgy.
ReplyDeleteOk not promising anything, but some recs I can think of that might be his kind of thing are:
ReplyDeleteMystic River - Dennis Lehane (hard crime, but also about the relationships in an American neighbourhood)
Little Brother - Cory Doctrow (YA, very techy, lots of tech head descriptions of cool technology and an action packed storyline about terrorism)
Underlife - link to free download although I think you can get it in hardcopy for money as well http://www.snowbooks.com/RobertFinn/ (I started this a while ago and thought it sounded like a fab and edgy thriller featuring a con man, but I got distracted by other books)
Later Pratchett, maybe 'Soul Music', or 'Going Postal' because lots of people say they find the early stuff hard to get into at first and 'Going Postal' features a con man (I figure fictional con men are a close relation to fictional hackers, being v clever and cool)
I'd also suggest he try techno thrillers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno-thriller) and maybe those highly political spy genre novels (I can't remember the guy who is most famous for writing those kind of books but they're usually set in Africa, there's a big political crisis and multiple forces are trying to turn the situation to their advantage).
Hi Kathrin
ReplyDeleteSince your brother loved the Blue Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver, its 1 of my alltime Favorites too. I would recommend the Broken Window by Jeffrey Deaver as it features a plotline involving Hacking & information gathering. It is a series book however can be read as a standalone[The downside will be that your Bro might get interested to read the earlier 7 books in the series]
Another book would be the one recommended by Jodie, Little Brother - Cory Doctrow. I haven't read it but have heard lots of good things about it.
I can recommend another book and that is Under the Amoral Bridge by Gary A. Ballard. Its Cyberpunk set in the 2028 & is noir-ish story with lots of tech stuff & action. Plus this is the 1st book in the series & is featured free online over here http://amoralbridge.blogspot.com/2009/02/under-amoral-bridge-was-first-in-series.html
Also its sequel The Know Circuit is available entirely online as well. I liked both books however I feel your brother might like the 2nd one over the first & he could directly read that one first as well.
Lastly again like Jodie recommended he would be interested in the Techno-thriller genre, so he can try Deep Fathom by James Rollins which involves an AI program, a lost continent & spaceships[I'm being vague over here as I don’t want to spoil the plot. Another good book would be Blasphemy by Douglas Preston [involves the Hadron super collider & Ghost in the machine complex] or Relic by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. I'm going to stop now & hopefully your bro might end up liking atleast 1 of all the books which were recommended.
Mihir
Okay, I love Deaver and was going to recommend The Broken Window and someone beat me to it!
ReplyDeleteJohn le Carre is the guy who writes political spy genre books.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to thank you all a lot for your recommendations! You told me about quite some books and authors I didn't know yet and I'll definitely give them to my brother over the next few months. Wouldn't it be great if we found another book he likes? ;-)
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