A.K.A. “My reading list of novels for guys who don’t like to read novels.”
My 12 favorite authors and their novels for young men.
1. Steven Pressfield. “Gates of Fire”
Forget about that movie “300”. That was a comic book. Gates of Fire is the best telling of the 300 Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae you will ever read.
I’ve heard it’s virtually required reading at West Point and high up on the Marine Corp Commandant’s book list.
2. Peter Hathaway Capstick. “Death in the Long Grass”
The last of the Great White Hunters and African big game guide tells what it was like.
Exciting? Of course; but also really well written with great style and many small details of what life was like for hunting guides in Africa in the golden age of safaris.
3. C. S. Lewis. The Space Trilogy. (AKA The Cosmic Trilogy or The Randsom Trilogy).
The Chronicles of Narina is a great series, but it was written for kids. Here is Lewis’ adult series. I loved these as a young man, but I don’t know if the average teen these days will have the patience to get through them. Consider this a thinking man’s fantasy series.
Out of Silent Planet: https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Planet-Space-Trilogy-Paperback/dp/0743234901/
Perelandra: https://www.amazon.com/Perelandra-Space-Trilogy-Book-2/dp/074323491X/
That Hideous Strength: https://www.amazon.com/That-Hideous-Strength-SpaceTrilogy/dp/0743234928
(That Hideous Strength was the first novel I read of Lewis’ and it blew me away. Great read).
The Audible audio books on this trilogy are particularly well done.
4. Dean Koontz: any of his books from 1995 and on are especially good, but I enjoyed these the most.
From the Corner of His Eye http://www.amazon.com/Corner-His-Eye-DeanKoontz/dp/0553582747
Frankenstein, Book One Prodigal Son http://www.amazon.com/Prodigal-DeanKoontzs-Frankenstein-Book/dp/0553587889
Frankenstein, Book Two City of Night http://www.amazon.com/City-NightDean-Koontzs-Frankenstein/dp/0553587897
Frankenstein, Book Three Dead and Alive http://www.amazon.com/DeanKoontzs-Frankenstein-Alive-Novel/dp/0553587900
The following novels had the biggest impact on me when I was a teen (and were the first novels I put on my Kindle as an adult):
5. J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of The Rings. The Silmarillion. I read The Hobbit after reading LOTR and the Silmarillion and found that I didn’t enjoy this children’s novel when I was a young man as much as the “adult” novels: (and not nearly as much as when I was old enough to have children of my own. It’s one of those books that you either have to be a child to enjoy or be old enough to have some nostalgia for your own childhood).
6. Alexander Dumas: The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Christo
7. Edmund Rostand: Cyrano de Bergerac
8. James Fenimore Cooper: The Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer, The Pathfinder.
9. Edgar Rice Borrows: Tarzan of the Apes (his Mars and Moon series are also very good).
10. H Rider Haggard: King Solomon’s Mine, and much, much more.
11. Robert E. Howard: Yes, he is best known for Conan the Barbarian, but I enjoyed his Solomon Kane stories just as much.
For readers 21 and up:
12. Jim Butcher The Harry Dresden series. Think of this series as Harry Potter for adults. A real wizard works as a private detective in modern day Chicago. The best urban fantasy series today. Great writing and a truly moral hero. As close to the edge as you can get in the fictional use of magic without going over it. May be too close for the immature, but for all others a great series.
(Note: I wrote this review after reading the first six or so novels in the series. By the tenth novel “Small Favors” I found the elements that made it a great “guy’s read” were starting to fade. Things like the fascination with Harry’s tools, how they were made and how they were used, was lost in exchange for more emphasis on a relationships, especially with a younger female character I suspect was the same age as the series current fan base. (Perhaps it was just a business decision based on the majority of fans at that moment, but it changed the series for me. Still great books up to book ten; so it had a better run than most series). Learn more at: https://dresdenfiles.fandom.com/wiki/Dresden_Files
I can’t let you go without recommending my own novels, Asulon and Eretzel. I wrote them thinking of all the great novels I read when I was young. If you enjoyed any of the same books as I did, I believe you will enjoy mine as well.
My last recommendation isn’t a book, but an article I think every parent of a boy should read:
