(no subject)

[salinea]

The most significant SF/F novels from 1953-2006 according to Time. Bold the ones you have read, strikethrough the ones you read and hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put a star next to the ones you love.


1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien *
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov *
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
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 hate would be a strange word for this one but it did upset me considerably
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card *
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson * I still need to finish the third volume of the second trilogy. I did love it though, I guess I just ran out of steam XD
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman *
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl * I reread that one recently :)
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 * one of my favourite
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny * I adore Zelazny and this is one of his best
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick a disapointing book
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon * very good classic
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
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson * I love Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock I did read some Moorcock books, I find them to be crap. I don't remember if Stormbringer was one of them
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks the epitome of crap
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Comments

[darksumomo.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, the first person on my flist who's read more than a handful of these books. Now I will have to copy this meme.

I don't think much of Moorcock, either. Playing D&D in a world where Stormbringer and Mournblade both existed didn't help much. Bloody soul-sucking swords!

I enjoyed The Demolished Man, but the ending was disturbing, so I can understand how you felt. I think you'd like The Stars My Destination better, especially since you're a Gankutsuou fan. Both draw from the same public domain source.

More comments when I post this meme later today!

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Oh yes Moorcock is very overrated, fun when you're a pre-teen, boring as hell beyond. Elric is such a dreadful Mary Sue.


I wouldn't say that Demolished Man was a bad book, it did mark me considerably even though it's more than 10 years I read it. But the ending really upset me. I was in tears :)

Stars My Destination? Okay, i'll try ^^

I'm waiting for someone to call me up on Dune ^_^

[darksumomo.livejournal.com]

The one book of Moorcock's I read in its entirety was "Behold the Man" about a time traveler who wanted to meet Jesus, but became Jesus instead. I can't say that I'd ever read it again or recommend it--not even to an atheist.

Demolished Man was good--Bester didn't write crap--but I had the same reaction to it. Get back to me on The Stars My Destination. May you run away to join the Fourmile Circus!

I don't agree with you about about Dune, but I can understand why. The book is pretentious and too full of forced exposition of the universe it inhabits (). At least JRRT had the good sense to put all of that in appendices! However, I still enjoyed the first book, although I never got past Dune Messiah. BTW, it says something that the TV miniseries was better than the movie. The movie looked as if all the money was spent on casting, costumes, sets, and special effects, with nothing left over for a decent scriptwriter to adapt the story. Oh, well, what should I expect from the same producer as the Conan movies?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I've read a couple of semi-descent Moorcock books as well. It was faux-19th century timetravel stories with uchronic elements IIRC.

Re Dune :
I didn't mind the exposition, but the pretention did. As well as the misogyny. But my biggest grip was characterization, the cold, alien nature of the characters made it difficult to connect with anyone. I felt cheated at the end of it, by which i mean the end of the serie (was it the fifth or sixth book ?), because I felt that it stopped right at the moment when it started being interesting, that is when Idaho (only sympathetic character) emancipated himself from the Atrides.

And given how hyped that book is, I like trashing it ^_^ I mean it's good, but it's not that good. I do appreciate the world building, though.
The only good thing about the movie was Sting XD