18 year old man book recommendations

[WaxOnFeckOff]

DS is 18 and struggling to think of anything for Christmas. He's said he could probably do with some books. He used to go through loads of books as a child and young adult but he's not been reading so much lately but says he wants to get back into it.

last time I bought him books it was more young adult than actual adult :)

He used to like stuff like Lord of the Rings, Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, various dystopian series, Harry Potter, Darren Shan plus Manga type stuff etc. He doesn't like Terry Pratchet. He doesn't watch tv or have any particular hobbies and doesn't do non fiction really either.

Anyone read anything they think might be of interest?

Not fantasy, but the Jack Reacher thriller series by Lee Child is engrossing. Lots of women love the series, (I do), but I imagine the independent, righter-of-injustice character might appeal to a young man.

I find Julian May and Raymond E Feist tedious, but I have limited patience for fantasy sagas - lots of people love them though, so might work for a LotR fan. Stephen Donaldson is often recommended for LotR fans. I loathe his books, but he has many fans.

Patrick Rothfuss, George RR Martin and Joe Abercrombie and Brandon Sanderson might also appeal. Patrick Rothfuss is a very good and I enjoy Brandon Sanderson a lot.

I’ve recently read the entire ten books in Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniels series and they were heaps of fun. Very gory, lots of blood and scary monsters and arcane wesponry. Set in a dystopian future when magic and technology fade in and out.

Neal Stephenson is an excellent speculative fiction/cyberpunk writer, complex and challenging but fun.

Or maybe look for some graphic novels? Not a genre I’ve read much of, but there’s a good list here. Neil Gaiman is a terrific writer, of novels or graphic novels.

www.goodreads.com/list/show/8713.500_Essential_Graphic_Novels

I've got my ds 'Fire and Fury'. He's quite poltically minded, so I think he'll be interested. If he's not, it was only a fiver in the Works.

I know you said your ds doesn't do non-fiction, btw, but as a person who doesn't read non-fiction (I can only take any non-fiction in by taking copious notes), I still have no problem reading biographies/political narratives.

You could get him some of the classic science fiction novels - Heinlein, Asimov, etc and then some great classic fantasy like the earthsea series by Ursula K le Guin.
Don’t be afraid to go younger. There are some great books being written for YA which really traverse the age recommendations.

Thanks all, I'll have a look at all your recommendation later when on the PC. Lots I've never heard of. He has done a lot of graphic novels in the past but he's a fast reader so they don't last long. Definitely open to other genres and I've thought about biographies too, it's just trying to find stuff to recapture his interest. He's a bit of a closed book himself, very quiet, studying computing at uni and just hard to engage in conversation. It makes it hard to second guess.

My DS is big fan of Scott Lynch's Locke Lamora books. For Christmas he is getting Ack Ack Macaque by Gareth Powell.

How about Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series?

I’ve just got going on a good fantasy trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It’s called The First Law and the first book is called The Blade Itself. It’s quite humorous in a cynical, dark kind of way. I think it would be popular with your sons demographic.

Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy also very, very good. There’s actually about 12 books in that series so will keep him going a while if he gets into it.

Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy is very good.

Patrick Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind books are good but as yet incomplete with no news on when he will be writing the last book in the trilogy.

How about the Cormoran Sttike books?

*Strike even!

The Bone Clocks, or Rotherweird. I'm not a big sci-fi/fantasy person, but these were excellent.

Couple more come to mind there’s the Dragonlance books, starting with Darkness and Light. I read them a long time ago in my teens but really enjoyed them.

The Hunger Games and the Divergent series are young adult but both enjoyable. Divergent is much better than the film that was brought out.

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is amazing.

Although he doesn’t like Terry Pratchet there is s good one he did with Neil Gaiman called Good Omens that they are doing a film of, so might be interesting to read that in the run up. It’s very funny as I recall.

How about some urban fantasy? Steve McHugh's Hellequin Chronicles are set in modern age with lots of references to graphic novels and Japanese tropes whilst blending English mythology into the mix.
My 20 he old cousin loves them.

Thank you for even more suggestions. I'm just about to get stuck into looking through them all. He's read all the hunger games and divergent books and enjoyed them. He didn't like the Philip Pullman books. It doesn't have to be fantasy type stuff. I'd also be interested in any other books that you think might appeal to a young man with a very technology and mathsy brain. He's clever with a very dry sense of humour :)

Neil gaiman's American Gods?

Or non-fiction - Stephen fry's Mythos.

Bill Bryson’s short history of everything.

Thanks again everyone. Thanks for the reminder about American Gods as I'd already bought that for his birthday in the Summer and he'd forgotten about it (he opened it when we were on holiday and it was still in his backpack)!

I've ordered:

Rotherweird
A set of the Rivers of London books
The First Law trilogy
Fire and Fury (for DS2)

And added most of the rest to my wish list. When he gets into his reading he can go through a few books a week so might need more soon and I can suggest him all your great ideas :)

Has he read Homo Deus? It's non fiction but my 12 year loved it, first read it at 11, then again this year.

Children of Time
Dogs of War
Ender's Game
Ready Player One
The Three Body Problem trilogy
The Gospel of Loki and The Testament of Loki

These are some of the adult fiction books he has enjoyed in the last year or two. 12 is much younger than 18, I know, but they sound like they have similar interests.

Also, the Echoes of the Fall trilogy, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Children of Time and Dogs of War are by this author as well.

Probably too late for this thread but how about:

Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake - dystopian vision
High Rise - JG Ballard
The Road - Cormac McCarthy - bleak but a real page turner
The Girl with all the gifts - M R Carey - one of my reads of this year
Stephen King - I really enjoyed the Bachman Books, especially The Long Walk
Veron God Little is fantastic too