(no subject)

[semperfiona]

The SF & Fantasy meme

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy
novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club.

Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize
those you started but never finished, and put an asterisk beside the
ones you loved, and add a question mark if you can't remember for sure.
(R's note: That's not complicated at all!)

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien *
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
"Hated" is probably a bit unfair. I got through the whole book and a
couple of sequels back in high school, but it hasn't stuck with me and
I've never had any desire to reread it.
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury *
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr. *
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett ****
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison ?
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
I used to love the Pern books but I've gone off them these days. They
seem so repetitive. I gave all mine away a few years ago.
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card *
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever,
Stephen R. Donaldson
I can't stand Thomas Covenant as a character. He's a whiner, and
he rapes someone for no apparent reason.
After that I really didn't want to read the book anymore, but I finished
it because it was a gift from a friend.
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling ****
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams ****
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin *
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny *
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut *
Vonnegut inspires very ambivalent feelings.
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
The book's okay. The movie sucked.
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

But there's no symbol for "am actively avoiding" or for "I know I read
this but I can't remember how I felt about it" or for "never heard of
the book nor even the author" nor for "I keep meaning to read this".

Comments

[notshakespeare.livejournal.com]

Huh, Dune is the book I probably read most often as a teenager.

On the other hand, Thomas Covenant is one of the extremely few books I never finished.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

I finished the first trilogy, set it down and went "Okay, not reading that again."

The rape was bad enough, but the fact that, if I were Thomas Covenant, the series would have been far shorter was what did it for me. "Use the bloody white gold, idiot!"

I have not and have no desire to read the second chronicles, and have no desire to read the new ones.

OTOH, I did like the Mirror Duology by him.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

If you get a chance to read it, The Forever War is *fabulous*. :)

Gessi

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

I don't much care for Vonnegut's writing either. The best book he never wrote was Kilgore Trout's "Venus on a Half Shell", which, IIRC, was actully written by Phillip Jose Farmer.

Kilgore Trout was a recurring fictional scifi writer in several of Vonnegut's stories. Vonnegut described him as a terrible writer with great ideas; which also describes Vonnegut to a tee. For this reason, I usually enjoy movies made from Vonnegut's writings and I recommend the movie "Slaughterhouse 5".

[technomom]

I finished the first Covenant trilogy because my then-husband kept saying, "But it's such great writing!" and insisting that "it gets better!" I've largely blocked it out of my memory, though. The rape is still what stands out in my mind.

Donaldson is a very good writer. His short story collection Daughter of Regals was quite good. I actually gave him another chance, way back when, and read The Mirror of Her Dreams when it came out. It was a HUGE book, with NO indication that it was the first book of a new series. NONE WHATSOEVER. NO FUCKING CLUE.

The main character was a spineless git. That wouldn't so bad, except that she NEVER CHANGED. And in all 656 pages (I checked with Amazon for the exact number), Donaldson didn't manage to actually TIE UP THE PLOT. No, he started a bunch of shit and then LEFT IT ALL LOOSE. The last page told the reader to wait for the next book, A Man Rides Through.

I very nearly destroyed the book. I didn't because I couldn't afford to pay the library for it.

I didn't trust the bastard enough to read the next in the series, either. I figured it would do the same thing, and there'd be another 600+ pages of complications with an ad telling me to wait for book three of the world with no heroes.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

I read the both back to back, which mitigated that problem for me.

[technomom]

The delay, yes - but did the woman ever grow up, take charge of herself and her destiny, and become something other than a useless waste of oxygen?