Good fiction from the last 20 years? (read OP)

I would have posted this in a book recommendation thread, but the latest one hasn't been active for like 5 months, and I don't think anyone would notice if I posted this in there, so.
 
Anyway, my knowledge of modern literature is pathetic, and recently I'm trying to fix that, but it's hard to find any I like. I prefer a straightforward, sort of dry style of writing that doesn't seem to be used much anymore, which is why I gravitate towards older writers. A couple of examples: I picked up 2001: A Space Odyssey the other day and I really like Clarke's writing, but a while back I tried to read Ender's Game and the style was grating to me right away. I want to call it stream of consciousness, though I'm not sure that's the right phrase, but at any rate I hated it. I'm sure it's a great book and everything, but it's not for me.
 
I'm looking for any good novels that are written in a low-key detached style, and aren't super depressing or anything. Any sort of subject matter, but especially historical fiction or sci-fi.

DUNE. It's not within the past 20 years. However it's amazing. Snow Crash as well.
 
Vonnegut and Palahinuk are pretty awesome modern writers.
 
Scott Sigler is good too for Sci-Fi/Horror books.

I was going to say The Road, but that book is a little on the depressing side....to say the least.

Karevn Travis's series  "The Wess'har Wars" series might be what you are looking for.

I loved Hunger Games, although the last book seemed to be rushing it.

Reading 'The Dark Tower' epic form Stephen King right now. First book is all over the place (it's one of his first books), but the second one is a huge improvement storytelling-wise. If quality further increases, The Dark Tower might well turn out ot be my favorite epic fiction written in the last 20 years - actually I believe the  first book was written in the late 60s/early 70s... so it's more like 40 years old, but since the final chapter was written in the 2000s, I guess it's a valid choice.

Try "A Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murakami.  
He is the king of dry, straightforward writing.

I was going to say The Road, but that book is a little on the depressing side....to say the least.

I don't know about the books, but the HBO series 'A Game Of Thrones' is fucking amazing. The epic book tale it's based on is George R.R. Martin's 'A song of Ice and Fire'. In any case. Watch the series! I'll link the opening for 'TRANSFARRING' you some of its vibes...
 
    

ill go with the current fad : a song of fire and ice 
great fantasy series with good writing but great plot and characterization 
it can be quite a page turner once u get into it (give the first one 50-75 pages)

Shogun.  

Pillars of the Earth. Hands down may favorite book! So amazingly epic without being fantasy. Just an amazing historical fiction novel

Im enjoying Orcs by Stan Nicholls at the minute also recently finished  Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski another great read

Pillars of the Earth. Hands down may favorite book! So amazingly epic without being fantasy. Just an amazing historical fiction novel

If you're up for some Fantasy, I'd suggest you check out Neil Gaiman's work. He's not exactly what you're looking for, but he's one of my favorite writers.

Can't recommend Cormac McCarthy enough, No Country For Old Men and The Road are amazing and I've heard nothing but praise for Blood Meridian but just havn't gotten around to it. If your a sci-fi or philosophy fan Richard K. Morgan has written some great stuff particularly dealing with existentialism, and what it means to be human when people have used technology to become more than human. And while I think the sequels are total garbage Stieg Larsons The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is one of my favorites of the last few years. Excellent mystery and thriller though the sequels take the story to ridiculous places and changes the genre from mystery to practically self labeled Bourne knock off.

Thanks for the suggestions, but goddamn. McCarthy should really be introduced to the concept of quotation marks.

I'm not following your instructions here but I can't recommend Starter For Ten by David Nicholls enough. I picked it up a few days ago and finished it that same day. Not because it's super short (it's a decent length); it's just a hilarious comedy. Similarly I would also recommend Skippy Dies by Paul Murray which is a little strange but full of humour and heart.

New stuff I really dig Haruki Murakami.. Im currently going trough The Rise of the Iron Moon courtesy of Stephen Hunt, pretty fun and decent Steampunk fiction novel..

also the Original Dune is pretty good.. and I think Isaac Asimov classics should get you going for a while.

Read "The Metamorphosis"

Why are people sugguesting Mcarthy Cormac again? That guy is a hack job at best, he is the laziest writer ever. I am not joking about that fact. He is the master of run on sentences and not using any of these ',' or these '.' or finally this, 'PARAGRAPHS!' All he does it write a single line of words and presses the damn enter key to make another one, he is the most joke worthy author of all time. Just for the fact of how famous he is now for nearly killing the written word. His books are confusing, they are not poetic, being poetic involves actual talent. He does not have any talent at all. 
 
Now, Swan Song by Robert R MCcammon, THAT is a book. older sure. but damn, I cannot recommend it enough. The fallout games were somewhat based on Swan Song and Stephen Kings The Stand actually. (There is a huge debate on which book is actually better, SS or TS, Personally, it has to be SS for the fact that it has better characters and the Apocalypse is actually a Apocalypse, not just a disease. Also for the fact that it may be depressing at parts, but when the parts with hope and happiness are in, they are masterfully done. I fucking cry every time I read this book start to finish, it is a classic.

Why are people sugguesting Mcarthy Cormac again? That guy is a hack job at best, he is the laziest writer ever. I am not joking about that fact. He is the master of run on sentences and not using any of these ',' or these '.' or finally this, 'PARAGRAPHS!' All he does it write a single line of words and presses the damn enter key to make another one, he is the most joke worthy author of all time. Just for the fact of how famous he is now for nearly killing the written word. His books are confusing, they are not poetic, being poetic involves actual talent. He does not have any talent at all.  Now, Swan Song by Robert R MCcammon, THAT is a book. older sure. but damn, I cannot recommend it enough. The fallout games were somewhat based on Swan Song and Stephen Kings The Stand actually. (There is a huge debate on which book is actually better, SS or TS, Personally, it has to be SS for the fact that it has better characters and the Apocalypse is actually a Apocalypse, not just a disease. Also for the fact that it may be depressing at parts, but when the parts with hope and happiness are in, they are masterfully done. I fucking cry every time I read this book start to finish, it is a classic.  

I suggest you try reading Ray Bradbury. His books are a little depressing as he has a negative opinion of human nature, but I think his stories are very good and well written. Farenheight 451, The Martian Chronicles, and The Illustrated Man are all books that I have read that I can say are good, and I know he has other great ones. Possibly best science fiction books I have ever read.

William Gibson has some really great stuff, even if your not into hard sci-fi.

Half of the recommendations in this thread are classics. I'm not sure you all grasp the concept of "modern".

@Wrighteous86: Don't bother arguing with Jay444111. He's the guy who made those threads about being a writer a few months back and such.

@Jay444111 said:

Why are people sugguesting Mcarthy Cormac again? That guy is a hack job at best, he is the laziest writer ever. I am not joking about that fact. He is the master of run on sentences and not using any of these ',' or these '.' or finally this, 'PARAGRAPHS!' All he does it write a single line of words and presses the damn enter key to make another one, he is the most joke worthy author of all time. Just for the fact of how famous he is now for nearly killing the written word. His books are confusing, they are not poetic, being poetic involves actual talent. He does not have any talent at all. Now, Swan Song by Robert R MCcammon, THAT is a book. older sure. but damn, I cannot recommend it enough. The fallout games were somewhat based on Swan Song and Stephen Kings The Stand actually. (There is a huge debate on which book is actually better, SS or TS, Personally, it has to be SS for the fact that it has better characters and the Apocalypse is actually a Apocalypse, not just a disease. Also for the fact that it may be depressing at parts, but when the parts with hope and happiness are in, they are masterfully done. I fucking cry every time I read this book start to finish, it is a classic.

How the hell can you call Cormac McCarthy a hack writer when you can't actually spell his name? Have you ever read anything by him? The Road is considered one of the best post-apocalyptic stories and it won the Pulitzer Prize, not to mention No Country For Old Men. Don't insult great writers for grammar when your own grammar leaves much to be desired. "hai guiz Ernest Hemingway iz a bad writter cuz hiz storys dont have no endings." Come on man. McCarthy is a damn good writer and playwright (Sunset Limited is a modern classic play. Fantastic stuff, there.). It's fine if you dislike him but don't make shit up about him. I've read several of his books and "master of the run-on sentence" he is not.

Not sure if you can call it a classic but, due to the fantastic HBO show, I started reading the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin and it's a fantastic fantasy series.

Edit: OP, if you enjoy straightforward writing then I must recommend my personal favorite author, Hemingway (though he's not modern, he's still a fantastic read, but I would guess you've already read some of his stuff.)

@example1013 said:

Half of the recommendations in this thread are classics. I'm not sure you all grasp the concept of "modern".

That's OK, most of it is newer than the stuff I usually read anyway.

I really enjoyed The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.  Maybe more fantasy than sci-fi though.

philip k dick books, lolita by nabokov,  franny and zooey by jd salinger, game of thrones, richard dawkins books, and umm i dont know freakonomics.

I just realised tha Brave New World was published 80 years ago.
 
O_O

@cabelhigh said:

William Gibson has some really great stuff, even if your not into hard sci-fi.

this.

@MariachiMacabre: Guys. This is Jay444111 we're talking about. Want me to link you to some of his older threads about his "professional writing"?

@awe_stuck said:

philip k dick books, lolita by nabokov, franny and zooey by jd salinger, game of thrones, richard dawkins books, and umm i dont know freakonomics.

This is a fantastically entertaining read.

also, example1013, PLEASE link some of his old threads so I can relive them. They were all so terrible.

Chuck Palahniuk's older stuff is really good. Lullaby, in particular, is fantastic. Rant is also really good, but it's more recent and is done as an oral history. Every part of it is like the response from someone interviewed about the title character. Actually, I'd even recommend Rant over Lullaby. It has a very light sci-fi element to it: there is sensory recording/replay technology (a la Strange Days), cities have been split into 12-hour curfew periods to control traffic, and there's a super strain of rabies going around. Both books are fairly short (200 or fewer pages) and they're quick reads.

No Country For Old Men, which has already been mentioned, is really, really good. True, it has a lot of run-ons and lacks punctuation, but there's a clear reason for it. The story is one of pursuit, and the writing style gives you a real sense of urgency as you read it. That book a few hundred pages, but I read it in a couple of days on vacation, and I read slow as shit.

harry potter im listening to it now on audio book by stephnen fry

it makes me sad though when harry has to go into the forest alone and his parents tell him its okay to die, its like really moving for me so for some reason dunno why

harry potter is a really good story and people hate on it beaue its for kids but kids books dont talk about willingly wanting to die to save others and willingly wanting to lose the abllity to talk to your wife and friends and whatnot

also ahrry potter is about coping with loss like when harry loses his serius and he moarns about him for the entire book six. but he also has to come to tems that hes the chosen one and he has to give up his life in order to stop voldermort.

he was always percecuted and looked at when he didnt want any attention and whatnot and all he wanted to live life like a normal kid.

it really hit me when his god father died too it was depressing because at the endof book five he begs the ghosts to bring it back to life as a ghost but the ghost says he cant becuase his god father wouldnt want to come back as a ghost so harry has to understand that the last person who ever really loved him is gone becaue he fucked up with beign a hero

I know these don't quite follow the guidelines the OP put up, but I thought if you're looking for some great modern reads, I'd throw in my hat as far as science fiction and horror go.

Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels are pretty amazing. I really like the fact that all of them read like different sub-genres of sci-fi. Altered Carbon feels like a detective story, whereas Broken Angels feels like an action novel. It keeps his work from feeling stale. I also really liked Thirteen and Market Forces, but his recent fantasy novel left a lot to be desired.

Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch write fantasy novels, but they're fantastic reads and I'd highly recommend them as two of the best modern fantasy writers I've read. And if you're into adventure-horror novels with sprawling casts, Justin Cronin's The Passage is superb. It's the best horror novel I've read in a decade, and I hope he releases the sequel soon.

I LOVE In Cold Blood and American Psycho but they may not be what you are looking for.

I really enjoyed Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  It's about an Indian boy being stuck on a life boat with a tiger.  Great fiction is out there it is just harder to find because it is buried under a shitload of James Patterson novels and ghost written autobiographies of reality TV stars. 

@awe_stuck said:

philip k dick books, lolita by nabokov, franny and zooey by jd salinger, game of thrones, richard dawkins books, and umm i dont know freakonomics.

This is a fantastically entertaining read.

also, example1013, PLEASE link some of his old threads so I can relive them. They were all so terrible.