Recommendation: SF Readers' Meme
Nov. 16th, 2006 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nebroadweI snagged this meme from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
evil_little_dog, in which you scan down the list of books, bold the ones you've read, strike through the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished, and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved. Commentary is optional but interesting. Here goes!
*The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
(This book is responsible for my pursuit of a Ph.D. in English literature. 'Nuff said.)
The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
(I keep meaning to try, but ... )
Dune, Frank Herbert
(Only the first book, which I found depressing enough to scare me off the subsequent ones.)
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
(Never even tempted. I'm not a fan of for-adults Heinlein; it's his juveniles I enjoy most.)
*A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
(Wonderful stuff, at least the first three books. I'm kind of disappointed that she felt she needed to go back and retcon the gender politics in the fourth and subsequent ones. I wouldn't give up my glimpse of Ged in retirement, but I did find myself wondering as I read the later pieces whether I should have enjoyed the original books as much as I did, which is annoying. They're good books. End of discussion. :-)
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
(Wouldn't have picked it up if it hadn't been required for a class; dystopic fiction does nothing for me. Well, very little, anyway ... )
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
(I read through to Morgaine and Arthur's morning after the night before and gave up, shouting, "It's all going to end in tears, I know it!" And the depiction of the milieu always struck me as just a wee bit off, somehow. Give me Rosemary Sutcliff's _Sword at Sunset_ or any of Gillian Bradshaw's Arthurian novels over this.)
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
(I like this, but not as much as I do The Martian Chronicles or, especially, Something Wicked This Way Comes, which was not served well by its film adaptation. The fun is in the prose. What's not to like about a book in which one chapter, following a huge action sequence consists solely of the sentence, "Nothing much else happened, all the rest of that night."? :-)
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
(I keep starting Wolfe and stopping. He's a bit too complex even for me.)
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
(An interesting read paired with Mary Doria Russell's Sparrow, but only if you're not suffering a depressive episode. Miller's pretty upbeat, eventually, but the Russell ends with a quotation from Aeschylus. When Aeschylus is your moment of uplift, you know you've written quite a downer.)
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
(That is, I think I read this, during one of those periods when I thought I should be reading more classic SF. It might have been another one of his, though. They run together after a while, I find.)
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish
(Sadly, the only Blish I've ever read was his ST:TOS novelizations.)
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
(Of all the books Pratchett's written, why pick this one? I only picked it up out of a sense of obligation -- I'm a completist -- and it's got NOTHING on, say, Wyrd Sisters or even Mort among the early Discworld novels. I never recommend anyone starting Pratchett with TCoM. Yuck.)
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
(I read this and its then-available sequels for the first time when I was about 11. Missed all the sex completely, but loved the pulpy action melodrama and Cinderella motifs -- I probably would have been devouring Mercedes Lackey then, had she been available. Then someone explained sex to me and reading the books became vaguely uncomfortable; some years later, when someone explained sexual politics to me, reading most of them became acutely uncomfortable and I more or less stopped. By then McCaffrey had been devoured by the Brain Eater anyway, so it didn't matter all that much.)
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
(I think I read the novella, but a long time ago and it's all gone blurry. I was following Card's Alvin Maker series for a bit, but it was taking too long to get anywhere interesting so I quit.)
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
(Twice. The second time to reassure myself that I was right in disliking most of it the first time. Although I do still appreciate the innovative end Donaldson devises for the Ultimate Evil.)
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
(Although I did, alas, read its second sequel, which was abysmal and whose title I've wiped from my brain.)
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
(I nearly missed reading this under the mistaken assumption that, because it was a pop culture fad, it couldn't be any good. Fortunately, I had to catalog a copy for the library where I work and noticed that, hey, this Rowling person seems to have a story to tell after all. Not as well as Diana Wynne Jones tells hers, but well enough to keep me reading.)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
(Handed to me by a friend in high school. We're still friends.)
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
(I'd never even heard of this one. Hmm.)
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
(Ugh. Therapy masquerading as a novel.)
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
(I prefer LeGuin's fantasy to her science fiction, usually. This was okay, though.)
Little, Big, John Crowley
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
(But none of the rest of the Amber series[es]. I just wasn't enthralled.)
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
(I intend to get around to this one someday.)
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
*The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
(And all the volumes of draft material Christopher Tolkien published afterward. It's as much fun to watch the texts develop as read the stories. Or at least it is if you're me.)
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
(I'm withevil_little_dog: what's with all the Heinlein? And none of his juveniles or _The Past Through Tomorrow_ either ... )
Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
(No, I never read anything by Michael Moorcock. No, I don't think I want to, either.)
The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
(I didn't mind it when I first read it, though I immediately recognized it as derivative -- though not as derivative as Dennis L. McKiernan's Middle-earth-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off novels. The sequels have done nothing for me. The only Brooks I keep in my personal library is Magic KingdomFor Sale Sold!, which has a not unreasonable plot and more energy than most of Brooks's work appears to do.)
Timescape, Gregory Benford
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
It's an odd list, tilted heavily toward the science fiction end of SF (no Morris, Dunsany, Cabell, Peake, Williams, Lewis, de Camp or Davidson, I note; also no Macdonald, Baum, Nesbit, Eager or Jones) and containing some odd lacunae there, too (three Heinleins, but no Anderson, Cherryh, Kirstein, Norton, Sladek or ... oh, the heck with it!). Looks like someone's personal favorites -- mine would include some of these, obviously, but also Lloyd Alexander, Louis McMaster Bujold, Diane Duane, Nancy Farmer, Alan Garner, Mary Gentle, Barbara Hambly, Katherine Kurtz (pre-Brain Eater), Madeleine L'engle, Patricia McKillip, Garth Nix, Philip Reeve, Jonathan Stroud, Charlie Stross, Evangeline Walton, Manly Wade Wellman, Patricia Wrede, and Jane Yolen ... and that's just after a quick head-swivel across the shelves in the living room ...
evil_little_dog, in which you scan down the list of books, bold the ones you've read, strike through the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished, and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved. Commentary is optional but interesting. Here goes!(This book is responsible for my pursuit of a Ph.D. in English literature. 'Nuff said.)
The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
(I keep meaning to try, but ... )
Dune, Frank Herbert
(Only the first book, which I found depressing enough to scare me off the subsequent ones.)
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
(Never even tempted. I'm not a fan of for-adults Heinlein; it's his juveniles I enjoy most.)
*A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
(Wonderful stuff, at least the first three books. I'm kind of disappointed that she felt she needed to go back and retcon the gender politics in the fourth and subsequent ones. I wouldn't give up my glimpse of Ged in retirement, but I did find myself wondering as I read the later pieces whether I should have enjoyed the original books as much as I did, which is annoying. They're good books. End of discussion. :-)
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
(Wouldn't have picked it up if it hadn't been required for a class; dystopic fiction does nothing for me. Well, very little, anyway ... )
(I read through to Morgaine and Arthur's morning after the night before and gave up, shouting, "It's all going to end in tears, I know it!" And the depiction of the milieu always struck me as just a wee bit off, somehow. Give me Rosemary Sutcliff's _Sword at Sunset_ or any of Gillian Bradshaw's Arthurian novels over this.)
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
(I like this, but not as much as I do The Martian Chronicles or, especially, Something Wicked This Way Comes, which was not served well by its film adaptation. The fun is in the prose. What's not to like about a book in which one chapter, following a huge action sequence consists solely of the sentence, "Nothing much else happened, all the rest of that night."? :-)
The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
(I keep starting Wolfe and stopping. He's a bit too complex even for me.)
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
(An interesting read paired with Mary Doria Russell's Sparrow, but only if you're not suffering a depressive episode. Miller's pretty upbeat, eventually, but the Russell ends with a quotation from Aeschylus. When Aeschylus is your moment of uplift, you know you've written quite a downer.)
The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
(That is, I think I read this, during one of those periods when I thought I should be reading more classic SF. It might have been another one of his, though. They run together after a while, I find.)
Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
Cities in Flight, James Blish
(Sadly, the only Blish I've ever read was his ST:TOS novelizations.)
(Of all the books Pratchett's written, why pick this one? I only picked it up out of a sense of obligation -- I'm a completist -- and it's got NOTHING on, say, Wyrd Sisters or even Mort among the early Discworld novels. I never recommend anyone starting Pratchett with TCoM. Yuck.)
Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
(I read this and its then-available sequels for the first time when I was about 11. Missed all the sex completely, but loved the pulpy action melodrama and Cinderella motifs -- I probably would have been devouring Mercedes Lackey then, had she been available. Then someone explained sex to me and reading the books became vaguely uncomfortable; some years later, when someone explained sexual politics to me, reading most of them became acutely uncomfortable and I more or less stopped. By then McCaffrey had been devoured by the Brain Eater anyway, so it didn't matter all that much.)
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
(I think I read the novella, but a long time ago and it's all gone blurry. I was following Card's Alvin Maker series for a bit, but it was taking too long to get anywhere interesting so I quit.)
The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
(Twice. The second time to reassure myself that I was right in disliking most of it the first time. Although I do still appreciate the innovative end Donaldson devises for the Ultimate Evil.)
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
(Although I did, alas, read its second sequel, which was abysmal and whose title I've wiped from my brain.)
Gateway, Frederik Pohl
*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
(I nearly missed reading this under the mistaken assumption that, because it was a pop culture fad, it couldn't be any good. Fortunately, I had to catalog a copy for the library where I work and noticed that, hey, this Rowling person seems to have a story to tell after all. Not as well as Diana Wynne Jones tells hers, but well enough to keep me reading.)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
(Handed to me by a friend in high school. We're still friends.)
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
(I'd never even heard of this one. Hmm.)
(Ugh. Therapy masquerading as a novel.)
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
(I prefer LeGuin's fantasy to her science fiction, usually. This was okay, though.)
Little, Big, John Crowley
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
(But none of the rest of the Amber series[es]. I just wasn't enthralled.)
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
(I intend to get around to this one someday.)
Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
On the Beach, Nevil Shute
Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
*The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
(And all the volumes of draft material Christopher Tolkien published afterward. It's as much fun to watch the texts develop as read the stories. Or at least it is if you're me.)
Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
(I'm with
evil_little_dog: what's with all the Heinlein? And none of his juveniles or _The Past Through Tomorrow_ either ... )Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
(No, I never read anything by Michael Moorcock. No, I don't think I want to, either.)
The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
(I didn't mind it when I first read it, though I immediately recognized it as derivative -- though not as derivative as Dennis L. McKiernan's Middle-earth-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off novels. The sequels have done nothing for me. The only Brooks I keep in my personal library is Magic Kingdom
Timescape, Gregory Benford
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
It's an odd list, tilted heavily toward the science fiction end of SF (no Morris, Dunsany, Cabell, Peake, Williams, Lewis, de Camp or Davidson, I note; also no Macdonald, Baum, Nesbit, Eager or Jones) and containing some odd lacunae there, too (three Heinleins, but no Anderson, Cherryh, Kirstein, Norton, Sladek or ... oh, the heck with it!). Looks like someone's personal favorites -- mine would include some of these, obviously, but also Lloyd Alexander, Louis McMaster Bujold, Diane Duane, Nancy Farmer, Alan Garner, Mary Gentle, Barbara Hambly, Katherine Kurtz (pre-Brain Eater), Madeleine L'engle, Patricia McKillip, Garth Nix, Philip Reeve, Jonathan Stroud, Charlie Stross, Evangeline Walton, Manly Wade Wellman, Patricia Wrede, and Jane Yolen ... and that's just after a quick head-swivel across the shelves in the living room ...
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Date: 2006-11-17 03:43 am (UTC)Harry Potter, groundbreaking? [snortles] Ah, well -- these lists always have a tendency to confuse mass appeal with impact. Oh, dear, does that sound snobbish? :-)
I'm of your ilk, I think; my who's who's list of People I Read looks a lot like yours, including lots of YA, since I oftentime like the plots better and there's less sex to drag the story down. *laugh*
Give me a story where people are too busy figuring out their destinies and saving the world to have sex before the last chapter and I'm a happy person. :-) The sex tends to be tastefully muted or implicit then, too (e.g. Narknon letting out an offended growl and stalking away).