The Curmudgeon's Book List
This is a list generated by friends and acquaintances when I asked for help in keeping the First Reader busy while he is on sick duty helping out his parents. He has a lot of time on his hands in between fetching and carrying.
Thank you, everyone! This is a great list of books!
John Conroe's Demon Accords series is really good. 16 current novels plus two compendium's of short stories set in the Accords universe. New novel coming out in a few months.
I'll 2nd that. Also Conroe has a seperate trilogy in a separate world, called Zone War. SciFi-ish rather than the fantasy of Demon Accords.
Anything he can find by Gordon Dickson or Keith Laumer.
H Beam Piper, Little Fuzzy is a classic. Almost all of his work is available on Gutenberg.org
I'm a pretty big fan of Brent Week's stuff. Lightbringer and Night Angel are both good series. Also Brian McClellan is good too, Powder Mage is at two trilogies, so would be a lot for them to go through.
Try Nick Cole and Jason Anspach Galaxys Edge series
Michael Anderle is all over KU.
The Star Clipper series by Nathan Lowell
Ryan Schow has 3 post apocalyptic series on the Kindle. Pretty riveting.
If he likes humor, the Bob' Saucer Repair series by Jerry Boyd has turned into a guilty pleasure. KU lists it as "Bob and Nikki" , which makes you think that it's a romance , but it's not the main story.
Arthur Upfield, but . . . I don't see a Kindle option (there is one, Cedar’s note), let alone KULL. Dick Francis, but I don't see a KULL option.
Also Glynn Stewart's ONSET and Starship Mage series, plus the Changlings Feality books.
Just about anything Glynn Stewart writes is good.
With all the rest of the things you listed, you should consider the Black Company series by Glen Cook as well. My first intro to his work and I also love the Garrett books
Lost fleet series by John Campbell Discworld by Terry Pratchett (start with Guards Guards) (Battletech novels start with warrior trilogy by Michael stackpole)
I love Rincewind, but when I reread Diskworld, it's either the Nightwatch books or the Death books. Love them.
Wandering inn by pirateaba has two books out on Kindle. 5 million words in the web series.
John Conroe's Zone War series
Bujold's Vorkosigan series. (Cedar’s note; dear lord those covers are AWFUL. So sad).
The Starfire series, with several books written by David Weber and Chuck Gannon. Space battles, interesting characters. Internally, the first book is Crusade, with the first book published, Insurrection, the 4th or 5th book chronologically
Honor Harrington Series by David Weber will keep him occupied for a bit.
Mackey Chandler's April and Family Law series, both related (Family Law takes place about a century after April), both on Kindle Unlimited. Also pretty much everything by Laurence Dahners, also on KU.
Alpha World series by Daniel Schinhofen is a really good series if you like Game Lit. That's 8 or 9 books right there.
The Chris Nuttall books that are on KU are more than worthwhile.
Tom Larcombe Crystal trilogy has been good so far, a couple of books left to be written in it though.
Ken Lizzi has a new series started, Falchion's Company, first book is really good.
Marko Kloos terms of Enlistment series is KU.
Patrick O'Brian Master and Commander series is not KU
Oh goodness. Stiger's Tigers series and the other books in the universe by Marc Edelheit. Totally engrossing. And all are on KU. Really good reads.
Junkyard Druid series is on KU and fairly entertaining. There's also the Templeverse by Shayne Silvers and Cameron O'Connell. It's three Dresden-ish interweaving series with over 20 books, all in KU.
Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere series
If he does zombie apocalypse then Mira Grant's NewsFlesh set.
Steve McHugh's Helliquin series, and followup sets
Sharon Lee & Steve Miller's Liaden series (now being published by Baen though they weren't originally)
Drew Hayes SuperPowered series might be leaning a bit YA, but I enjoyed them alot
Honor Raconteur's The Case Files Of Henri Davenforth duo is very good
Glynn Stewart's Onset series
Carrie Hendrix’ Oh My Goodness, There Is A Haint In Hillister! (Podunk Paranormal Series)
I liked Steve McHugh's Hellequin series. Even the Avalon series (which follows/parallels, read Hellequin first) when it got a bit woke. I ignored that. Followed by first two books in Rebellion series.
I have recently gotten into Eric Thomson’s series Siobhan Dunmoore books. They have a similar vibe that David Weber’s Honor Harrington have. It great space opera. H. Paul Honsinger ‘s man of war series is another great series.
I enjoyed the Arcane Casebook series by Dan Willis. Set in the 1930s with a private investigator who can do magic. Lots of steampunk/magic themes as well. There are 4.5 books out so far.
Flashman - George MacDonald Frasier Retief Series - Keith Laumer
Gideon Quinn Adventures / The Fortune Chronicles - Kathleen McClure
Seanan McGuire. October Daye books and The Incryptid books
The Everything Box and The Wrong Dead Guy, and there is a Zombie series Slowburn that I really liked.
Let me recommend the trapped mind project and also the thread bear series
Wen Spencer 's Elfhome series
Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International. Kill monsters, get paid.
Bobiverse books. The first is "we are legion, we are Bob". I would have to look up the author. Three books in the series, so lots there.
Drew Hayes has a "superhero training academy" series called "super powereds" (years 1 through 4) ... But the story is larger than the academy. He also has a litrpg series that starts with "NPCs". Better than most, imo.
Larry Correia's 'Hard Magic" books. Think Chris Claremont meets Dashiell Hammet.
If he hasn't read Peter Nealen's books he should give them a try. Military adventure and ripping yarns.
If he likes Garrett PI, go for the stories Cook was honoring: The Lord Darcy collections.
JA Jance has two fantastic mystery series, Sherrif Johanna Brady set in Arizona, and, JP Beaumont I believe set in Seattle maybe, been a while since I read them.
I hesitate on the suggestion, but he could try the Kutherian Gambit maybe. It has vampires and werewolves but it isn't horror. There is a smattering of romance but very much small subplots. Lots of action. Basically interstellar war at the end. I love the series. Michael Anderle is the author. First book is Death Becomes Her.
Vince flynn. The wheel of time series. All the Jack Ryan novels.
Dale Brown wrote a bunch of military fiction books that's overall pretty decent.
The War in the Dark by Nick Setchfield. Sort of an arcane Cold War tangent on monster hunting. His first novel, although his second one should be out soon.
Spencer Kope's Special Tracking Unit books. Police procedural/murder mysteries with a rather unique super
Allow me to nominate Damien Boyd's police procedurals set in England, J. P. Brazee's space operas.
I strongly suggest Django Wexler too.
If he likes Glen Cook's storytelling he may also enjoy Steven Brust. I really like the Vlad Taltos books, and he's also written a number of Dumas homages in the same setting. Lots of good stuff has been mentioned but I don't recall seeing anyone bring up Chuck Gannon's Caine Riordan series which I quite like.
The Aubrey and Maturin Series by Patrick O'brian.
Kynan Waterford's system series - he's local to me, and cosplays as his own characters at cons. The next book in the series is on hold while he's writing the novelizations of a local sci-fi movie franchise.
Leo Frankowski'a New Kashubia series: A Boy and His Tank, The War With Earth
Chris Wooding's TALES OF THE KETTY JAY series is darn good and fun. James Rollins one off novels are pretty action packed and always contain some very strange adventures. Jeremy Robinson's Kaiju series are darn thrilling if he likes Godzilla type monsters. :-D
Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd is very good.
Ryan Rimmels Noobtown series
Owen Parry (aka Ralph Peters)'s Abel Jones books. First is "Faded Coat of Blue."
How about a little sword & sorcery? The Kane books by Karl Edward Wagner are superb. Two collections to give a taste are "Night Winds" and "Death Angel's Shadow," either is $3.99 on Kindle.
Galaxy’s Edge by Nick Cole and Jason Anspach is some of the best military SF / space opera out there. If he like
If he likes Dresden, he’ll probably like my Arcane Casebook series (fantasy detective noir set in 1930’s New York). Available in KU.
Sounds like someone ripe for introduction to the Hornblower novels -- if you like SF and space opera and Louis L'Amour too :)
Um... pulps? Donald Hamilton, John D. McDonald? Rex Stout? Heck. Dashiell Hammett?
Doc Savage?
He would probably like anything by James Schmitz. If he likes short stories, he may enjoy the two anthologies I co-edited: Trace the Stars (space opera/hard sf) and A Dragon and Her Girl (adventure fantasy). The latter is on KU right now.
I took another recommendation and got Will Tripp Pissed off Attorney at Law. Hysterical!
How about some Harry Harrison or possibly the Stainless Steel Ray Books? Robert Aspirin is really good as well. Odds are they are older titles and easily available. Most are comedic in some way.
The Babylon Steel series by Gaie Sebold. Kevin Hearers books. EVERYTHING written by Ryan Marshall Maresca. What about the old Alistair MacLean books? Clive Cusaler...anything written before the late 90s early oughts. Everything after that is garbage.
Kris Longknife (17 book series) Kindle Edition
Hiver's 'Not Quite SHODAN' series: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/NotQuiteSHODAN It's on both Spacebattles.com and SufficientVelocity.com
For budget watchers (like me), keep in mind Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org, where you can get ALL of Mark Twain, including stinkers like "Tom Sawyer, Detective," plus GK Chesteron's Father Brown stories, ALL of Sherlock Holmes
Tanya Huff's Torrin Kerr series.
I can recommend Mike Lunnon Wood. He writes military fiction from the British viewpoint and is quite good.
He might like to try an author I never heard of until last week, Jane Candia Coleman: The one I found is a paperback, *Moving On,* a collection of short stories (frontier, American West). Not your usual "virile cowboy/rancher's daughter" kind of western; I was impressed.
Is he interested in history of the West? One I recently read with great interest is *Life Among the Piutes* by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of Paiute Indian Chief Winnemucca, originally published in 1883
Heinlein’s future history in chronological order, not published order. The Landover series. I finished Artemis by Andy Weir, that’s decent. Also, Andy Weir’s The Martian.
Nathan Lowell's Golden Age of the Solar Clipper. First book is Quarter Share. A kid gets orphaned and runs off to space.
Glynn Stewart's Starship Mage series.
Louis L'Amour West From Singapore.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Ben Bova’s The Star Conquerors, Jack Camp Eli’s The Lost Fleet series, David Webers’s Dahak series.
If he hasn’t read any of David Weber’s Honor Harrington series, here’s the first:
Weber's Mutineer's Moon series. Anything by David Drake, S.M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove.
The Starfire series, in chronological order, not published order. Steve White, with some coauthors you might know. David Weber. Chuck Gannon. I just finished the most current one, and have no idea if there are more in the pipeline
Elmore Leonard is quite fine. So is Lee Child.
Castle Federation (6 book series) Kindle Edition. Glynn Stewart
No Honor in Death (Siobhan Dunmoore Book 1) Kindle Edition by Eric Thomson (Author)
Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series is excellent - cool fun UF
Also Kim Harrison’s “Hollow” series is excellent and my very first foray into UF
For something entirely different, the Inspector Ian Rutledge (WWI bet with PTSD) by Charles Todd is wonderful. I personally love that period, and this series has been a great favorite
Gordon R Dickson's Dorsai series.
Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth series for scifi
Kai Wai Cheah's Covenant series for alt-earth stuff
A great space opera series I read is The Frontiers Saga by Ryk Brown. They are usually on KU. The first one is called "Aurora CV-01". There's an omnibus of book 1-3 you can get as well. 15 books in series #1, and up to #13 so far in series 2. Very few have been weak, and none have been 'bad'.
Anspach and Cole's Galaxy's Edge
The Arcane Casebook series by Dan Willis is absolute fun--so far, there's 4 books out, and the whole series is available KU.
It he hasn't already read them, the James Herriot books, starting with All Creatures Great and Small.
Bob’s Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd, Hillbillies, fast cars and gun porn. Worth a try, I’m still reading after 8 books.
Sam Schall’s Honor and Duty series, up to 6 books in KU
Don’t forget Lloyd Behm’s Shadowlands, but it’s not in KU.
Multiple recommendations for the 4HU universe, so check out Christopher Woods’ Legend. Also for anthologies from the same house, the Phases of Mars, which are in KU.
And another Christopher Woods title, Soulguard.