General Discussion

@Mythotix

Not sure if any of these is obscure, but that's what came to my mind:

Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey - for me it's a must-read for any dragon lover. It's basically a nice sci-fi wrapped in a fantasy sort of world. Group of people long time ago got away from the Solar System to escape the never ending wars and decided to set up a colony on the peaceful looking, Earth-like Pern. They soon realised, it wasn't as peaceful as they hoped.

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon - my personal favourite, sci-fi/dystopy about clairvoyants, Netherworld, ghosts, revolution and this kind of stuff. Aaand it's hard to say something else and not spoil the plot :P

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky - (I believe it was translated to English, not sure about the other books from this universe) it's a post-apo, so not sure, if it falls under your interests, but this one is definitely obscure. Basically the humanity was wiped out from the planet by a nuclear war; except it was not - there are survivors in a Moscow Underground, living in dark tunnels and fighting with each other for various reasons, while the bigger evil is coming for them.

^YESSS DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN

@Mythotix

Science Fiction:

• Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey (science fantasy)
• Sprawl Trilogy by William Gibson (MATURE: violence, profanity, drugs, nsfw)
• Telzey Amberon by James H. Schmitz
• The Keys To The Kingdom series by Garth Nix

NOTE NOTE NOTE: Sprawl Trilogy was basically the founding inspiration for the Matrix movies. William Gibson is also basically known as like... the great grandfather of a lot of science fiction tropes. His book Neuromancer is a classic.

Fantasy:

• Liveship Traders series and Rain Wildes Chronicles by Robin Hobb
• Game Of Thrones series (MATURE: violence, problematic nsfw)
• His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass) series by Philip Pullman
• Redwall series by Brian Jacques (TEEN: violence)

I mean I gueeesss Redwall counts as fantasy???

The mortal instruments is a very good book to read, it is also the same author of the infernal devices which is the prequel to the mortal instruments and they are by Cassandra Clare.

If you're looking for obscure/less obvious books, one of my "comfort series" is the Borderlands books by Lorna Freeman. There's nothing revolutionary in the plot: young trooper in the royal army starts coming into his mage powers and is swept into a huge adventure he doesn't really want involving magic, conspiracies, murderous plots, elves, and a talking mountain cat who's part shaman and part thiefcatcher. The first book is Covenants. Not sure how readily available it is, and unfortunately the author has disappeared, leaving us without a book 4, but I like the first three well enough and read them when I need something relaxing and good.

Wow. Thanks everyone for so many suggestions! I really really appreciate it.

I'm going to go through and add all the titles to a list and I'm going to go hunt them down at a bookstore in my area, or look some of them up online.

I'm sure I'll have more than enough books for this year. Haha!

A really amazing book based around rping and virtual reality is "Ready Player One?"

Lots of puzzles that the main character goes through without you knowing before hand, and has lots of old references to movies, games etc.

Those are my two favorite genres. I can't remember the authors for any of these I'm so horrible D:

- Discordia. A gamer gets sucked into a WoW-esque game. The ending sucks but the book itself is really good.
- Island 305. Dystopian society after the icecap has melted (thus everyone lives on islands). Can't remember much about the story other than that, but it's really good.
- The Blood of Eden series. Post-apocalyptic society after a plague has wiped out most of the human population. The remaining humans either live in cities ruled by vampires, or survive on their own against deadly undead monsters called Rabids. The main character is turned into a vampire and has to learn to survive as one.
- The Skyship Academy series. Also post-apocalyptic. A series of bombings destroyed many major cities and turned the Earth into a desert. People live in cities protected by artificial atmospheres or in floating cities with similar technology. Everything is powered by Pearls -- mysterious green orbs that fall from the sky. The main character works for an organization whose job it is to capture Pearls before the surface cities can.
- Midnight Thief. A teenaged girl in a medieval city makes her living as a thief. The royals of the city capture her on a job after she is recruited by the local thieves' guild and is made to work for them to capture the leader.
- The Looking Glass Wars. A dark twist on Alice in Wonderland. Honestly I don't remember more than that, but the characters are much darker and more realistic than in the original story.
- Interview with the Vampire and its series. Apparently this is really popular but I've never heard of it before I read it for a school project. It's about the life of a vampire in 18th century New Orleans as he struggles to live as a vampire, unable to let go of his humanity. It's very good but very dark, and written in a descriptive, romantic style so definitely not for everyone, but I for one loved it.

@Mythotix I skimmed through the books already suggested and I definitely second Ready Player One, Game of Thrones, Mortal Instruments series, Unwind, and Inheritance Cycle.

I also recommend The Martian which you've likely already heard of because of the movie. Which was really good but the book is a lot better in my opinion.

Also:

• Wool by Hugh Howey - Currently about 100 pages into. A bit slow at the moment but it has a ton of amazing reviews on Amazon so you should check it out
• 1984 by George Orwell - Really fascinating dystopian novel about a tyrannical government that manipulates and brainwashes the nation
• Dune by Frank Herbert - I have yet to finish this one but it's considered one of the best sci-fi novels of all time
• Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan - A bit of an easier read but it's one of my all time favorite series. Characters and plot are amazing
• The Enemy by Charlie Higson - It's a zombie apocalypse series! And they're written so well. Basically about how children/teens would survive if all adults died/turned into zombies. Definitely recommend.
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - Another zombie book, but it's a short novel and really interesting.

I hope you find a few books you like! ^^