My top five works of fiction, which I whole-heartedly recommend:
1) Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Sublime. Mind bendingly satirical. Annoyingly frustrating at times - the whole Milo Minderbender thing just makes me angry for some reason. It's like I want him to stop doing the things that he's doing because they seem so wrong. A work of genius. The film version is pathetic and the sequel is not as good (not surprising), but is worth a look.
2) The Tempest (William Shakespeare)
Probably the most accessible of his plays. Analogy of the New World/slave trade, supposedly. I'm not a big fan of Shakespeare (4 hours of Hamlet nearly destroyed my will to live) - this is perhaps the only Shakespeare play I've seen that didn't make me want the thing to end. Although MacBeth is ok.
3) Piece of Cake (Derek Robinson)
It's Battle of France/Britain and the exploits of a Hurricane squadron. Extremely well written with superb characterization, Robinson is great at luring the reader into a false sense of security, before smacking him with an event that highlights the brutality of war. On the other hand, the book is absurdly funny in places. I believe it was a Booker Prize nominee, and has a less impressive sequel set in Northern Africa about the SAS and a P40 squadron (A Good Clean Fight).
4) Goshawk Squadron (Derek Robinson)
Royal Flying Corps, set in WW1. Piece of Cake came later and they are quite similar. Goshawk squadron is much more bitter and harsh, IMO. Not quite as light hearted as Piece of Cake. Forms a trilogy of three books that are linked; War Story starts in 1916, Hornet's Sting continues through 1917 and Goshawk Squadron finishes the story in 1918.
5) The Day After Tommorow (Can't remember)
Both critically acclaimed and a world best seller. Pacey with a gripping storyline, it revolves around the activities of a modern day Nazi organisation. The sequel was piss-poor, however. I think it was called the Day after the Day After Tomorrow or some such crap.
6) Sharpe's Rifles (Bernard Cornwell)
I first picked this up from the library when I was 11 y/o basically because the cover looked interesting. I was hooked, and have read every Sharpe novel since. Basically revolves around Richard Sharpe, British Infantry officer (promoted from the ranks and hence not popular with fellow officers, who buy their commissions). It's kind of contrived and fomulaic - he does pretty much the same thing in every book. Shags some seemingly unreachable bird, nearly dies because of some villain, vanquishes said villain. But the descriptions of the battle scenes are second to none. Rifles is set in 1809 in Galicia, but he's since filled in the early career of Sharpe (in India). Also did an American Civil War thing, which was quite good. If your into Napoleonic history it's worth a look.
