Recommend books for action/sci-fi/comedy film fan?

BopNiblets

I was reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson earlier this year and I thought, this book has a badass main character a even badasser main villain, all kinds of crazy cool stuff happening, I want more books like this!
I realise it may be difficult, but the best way to describe the books I'm looking for is to tell you guys what other stuff in different mediums I like and maybe get some suggestions?
Amazon just doesn't suggest new stuff to me anymore it's mostly stuff I have or stuff I'm not interested in!

So!
TV: Alias, Lost, Futurama
Books/Comics: Batman, Snow Crash, Douglas Adams stuff
Films: Leon, The Matrix, Die Hard, Fifth Element, Grosse Pointe Blank, Star Wars, Pirates Of The Caribbean

Comedy Assassins, Ninjas, Pirates, Spaceships, Cops, time travel, superheores/villains, mysteries, hackers are all good!

I know there are books of some of the movies I mentioned which I might try so no point in mentioning them.
So if you can think of any books that have some of the same elements mixed in, do tell!

Eoin

This isn't a comedy one, but I really enjoyed Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. I don't know if real sci-fi fans would be as keen on it, but I like it. It's sort of sci-fi/crime thriller I suppose.

BopNiblets

Cool, looks interesting.

BopNiblets

I think I found a website that might help me (and you!): TasteKid

maninamousesuit

ok snow crash is the absolute dogs b******s..its just asking to be made into a movie. but his later books are real crap..long winded political thrillers that span decades...yawn..He did write an eco thriller called zodiac..its great.
you just need to read william gibson from burning chrome to pattern recognition...he is the king

godspal

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien


Strange book to categorize but very funny, and unfortunately I can't summarize it without giving away the plot. Certainly made me laugh out loud.

Puckoon by Spike Milligan

Once again a very funny book.

mud

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

His Dark Materiels (trilogy) - Philip Pullman.

Discworld Series - Terry Pratchett

mcgovern

eoin wrote: »

This isn't a comedy one, but I really enjoyed Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. I don't know if real sci-fi fans would be as keen on it, but I like it. It's sort of sci-fi/crime thriller I suppose.

I love sci-fi, and Altered Carbon and the rest of Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books are brilliant. Not really about the science, but the action comes thick and fast!

fitz0

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series maybe.

Dades

fitz0 wrote: »

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun series maybe.

I would have thought those books are a polar opposite to what the OP is looking for!
Slow, methodical, full of hidden depths and deeply weird in parts.

BopNiblets, a classic sci-fi book you might enjoy is The Stars My Destination. It features a great anti-hero and keeps a fast pace throughout.

Shryke

The Discworld Series by Pratchett.
A Song of Ice and Fire by Martin.
The Culture Series by Banks.
The First Law Trilogy by Abercrombie.
The Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton.

I second Altered Carbon as a good read. It's a detective story set in the near future with some pretty cool ideas.

I'd recommend against Book of the New Sun based on your criteria, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't like it! It's serious and it's heavy and once you get through it it's brilliant, but not until you've finished it.

Out of the recommendations I've listed I might as well get specific.

Discworld - Read Small Gods. All of the discworld books are stand alone but some have references to others. This one doesn't really, and it's one of his best.

The Culture Series - Read Use of Weapons. It's his best book and it's just brilliant straight through.

A Song of Ice and Fire needs to be read as a complete series. There are four books published and another three on the way so maybe you don't want to start a story you can't finish straight away, but most would agree aSoIaF are some of the best books you'll ever read, and not just in genre fiction. It starts with A Game of Thrones.

The First Law is a very good trilogy and it's fairly new. It's also by a first time author which makes it all the more shocking when you realise how good a trilogy it is. The first book is called The Blade Itself, the second is called Before They Are Hanged and the third is called Last Argument of Kings. Not enough people have read these yet and I can't rec them enough.

The Nights Dawn Trilogy is sci-fi. It starts with The Reality Dysfunction.

BopNiblets

godspal wrote: »

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien

Read that, very strange, inspired writers of Lost and it shows!

I read two of Banks Culture novels too, Excession and Consider Phlebas I think they were.

I tried reading some Discworld but didn't really get into any of them.

I think I loved Snow Crash because the protagonist (Hiro Protagonist, haha) was a samurai hacker who worked for the mafia, fantastic!