Name novels written after 1999 that don't suck.

[BrokenBoy]

It feels like literature has gone down the drain ever since the 20th century ended. 20th century novels are really amazeballs. I've only read one book from the 21th century that I would consider amazing, and that is Kafka on the Shore, which is a 10/10 masterpiece. Everything else was a 6.5/10 at best.

Can anyone name some novels in the 21th century that are better than "alright"?

 

[BrokenBoy]

Also I forgot to mention, the reason that 21th century novels aren't as good is because everything that gets published nowadays is YA garbage like Ready Player One. Even books written for a older demographic have the same kind of feeling.

 

[Misery]

The thing about all of this is that it's just too subjective for anyone to give suggestions that are necessarily going to be what you're after, even if the ones giving the suggestions think said books are the best things they've ever read.

I can think of more than a few books from this era that have been just fantastic (I do alot of reading), but that doesnt mean all that much in the realm of subjective tastes. My own interests lie in the realm of supernatural horror (think The Exorcist, or anything by Lovecraft), suspense, or mystery. Sometimes all 3 at once. A bit less often, fantasy stuff, usually diverting away from the "high fantasy" type, or some sci-fi. Occasionally I'll go for comedy or something else, but those first 3 are the ones I'm most into.

My most recent favorite is Ninth House.

Some others that I've loved in the last decade or two:

Lirael
The Dwarves
Lisey's Story
77 Shadow Street (and most other things by Koontz)
most things by Jeffrey Deaver
Dark Matter
Ninth City Burning
The Three-Body Problem

And absolutely everything that is Discworld, a series which constantly got better and better. The oldest books in that series cant compare to the later ones. I've read those so much that alot of my vocal patterns were picked up from them.

There's much more of a list than that, but my busted memory aint so good at making lists. These are just the ones that occurred to me at this moment. There are a couple of others that also immediately came to mind, yet that I just cant remember the name of.

But those are the ones that *I* think are great. Whether you would like them even a tiny bit, I have no bloody idea.

 

[BrokenBoy]

And absolutely everything that is Discworld, a series which constantly got better and better. The oldest books in that series cant compare to the later ones. I've read those so much that alot of my vocal patterns were picked up from them.

Whatdaya know, I'm reading the Color of Magic currently and I like it so far. Though, I'm not very far into because I find fantasy hard to read because of the vocab choices.

 

[Misery]

Whatdaya know, I'm reading the Color of Magic currently and I like it so far. Though, I'm not very far into because I find fantasy hard to read because of the vocab choices.

Yeah, that's one of the *really* old ones. The very first, in fact.

To be honest, the first few books in the series are almost like bizarro prototypes of the series as a whole. Certain characters werent really developed and ended up being completely changed a few books later, their original versions left on the cutting room floor. Death in particular isnt ANYTHING like what he is in the rest of the series, and there's a couple of things he does in that first book that were totally retconned later. The overall wording and phrasing of things is different too, and the world isnt very fleshed out. Heck, I think the Patrician... Lord Vetinari... doesnt even have a name, that early on.

My first exposure to the series was Going Postal, and another book that was released very shortly after, and going back and finally reading Color of Magic later on was a rather baffling experience. Felt like a whole different series that just happened to be by the same author.

 

[Kalinychta]

If you’re asking for book recommendations from within the last TWENTY YEARS, then you probably just need to read more in general. There are hundreds and hundreds of wonderful books that have been written in the last two decades. Dive in.

 

[Jeremiah]

Another fan of Murakami, I see. Kafka on the Shore is definitely good one, and I also like Norwegian Wood and 1Q84.

Recently, I found book called Chronicles of the Everfall: Shadow of the Conqueror, by Shad Brooks. It's one of the best novels I remember reading.

 

[BrokenBoy]

Good I'm sucha moron. While I wrote this I was only thinking about western books. I forgot about the good Japanese books from the 21th century aside from Kafka on the Shore. I also like the Monogatari series by Nisioisin, (Which also has a great anime adaptation) the Zaregoto series by the same author (Though the anime adaptation is really bad) and the first volume of the Boogiepop novel series by Kouhei Kodono (Which also has a bad anime adaptation)

 

[Mia]

Some that I've liked recently are:

Oryx and Crake
The Year of the Flood
Madd Adam
by Margaret Atwood

The 100 year old Man,
by Jonas Jonasson

The Martian
by Andy Weir

Little Fires everywhere
by Celeste Ng

 

[ZebraAutismo]

I can think of some excellent modern books (and some rubbish ones) but as Misery says it’s subjective.