Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Books => Topic started by: fuzzyoctopus on November 22, 2005, 09:24:58 PM
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I'm back in an odd situation in life where I do have quite a bit of time to read, and some ways to procure cheap books. So, what ought I be reading? I'd like some classic stuff to read I think, and I know there are "classic" sci-fi authors I've never read. Case in point - C.J. Cherryh. Had never read anything by her before. Why had I never heard of her works? (Because no one I know in locally reads sci-fi, anymore. The major drawback of moving to Ohio.) Her stuff is hard for me to read, btw - I really have to force my way through the prose, because my instinct is to scan and skip ahead and she seems to take a really long time to get things going. Or for another example, I'd never read any Robin McKinley until this year when stacer and Chimera talked about a few titles that sounded interesting.
So recommend me some really fabulous books to read. I don't mind working through some slow prose if the book itself is good.
I'm not off fantasy or anything, just coming to the dark realization that I've read a lot of the fantasy out there and not a lot of the sci-fi.
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If you do fancy some fantasy, look up China Mieville someday. A british author, he mixes cyberpunk, fantasy and politics in a very powerful and fascinating fashion. He's written 3 books in one setting, i've only read one (Iron Council). Very bleak stuff, but the city he sets out in his books, New Crobuzon, is amazingly detailed and vivid.
As for Sci Fi, try Schismatrix Plus. I reviewed it here (http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=783). It remains one of my favourites, for the main characters personality is so well done and (for me, i guess) easy to identify with.
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The World at the End of Time by: Frederick Pohl IV
I found this on the floor while I was cleaning my room; it interested me because the main character is a god like plasma being who lives in a sun. It is a dual storyline book, one storyline is the plasma being having a war with his clones, and the other is how this war affects a human colony on a new planet. I found it very mentally involving (I learned what Tachyons were because of this book). One word of caution, this book has moderately sexual themes. By this I mean that the general attitude is 'we only have two thousand or so colonists and lots of people died in stasis so have sex as much as you want'. I found it good to just skip these parts because the overall novel is very cool.
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Hit this thread for books to avoid:
http://www.timewastersguide.com/boards/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=books;action=display;num=1122164596
And this thread for what people have read and enjoyed:
http://www.timewastersguide.com/boards/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=books;action=display;num=1112295274;start=0
Personally, I recommend My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. It's not SF/F, though.
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Yes, but that thread is more of a "recent things I've read". I'm wanting to hear about all the books everyone read when they were teenagers that I missed. Should I slog through the Foundation trilogy? Should I give Edgar Rice Burroughs a try? Should I ignore my prejudice against late Heinlein and read Stranger in a Strange Land?
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The World at the End of Time is not something I've read recently, I only thought of it because it was a good book (overall) that I think people would enjoy.
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Thanks, that's actually exactly the kind of recommendations I want - I've heard of Pohl, but never read anything by him.
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My sister reccomends Farenhiet 451 by: Ray Bradbury.
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I think everyone interested in Sci-Fi should read Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers. They're very different books, and there is much to disagree with either one for most people, but they have interesting ideas and what I think is rather skillful writing. You'll disagree with one or both, but it's worth the thoughts that go into it.
I also recommend Dragon's Bane by Barbara Hambly. And, believe it or not, Jeffe once gave me a book called Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill that turned out to be a very good book, and not a silly one either. It's not a classic, but it's a good read.
There's also the ever popular Narnia series (you've probably read it), but C.S. Lewis also did a sci-fi trilogy, the first of which was called Out of the Silent Planet which, while curious in approach to technology and even more overt in it's Christianity than Narnia, was a really good read.
Finally, Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, starting with The Book of Three. These are the first books I read several times. So I recommends them if you haven't read them.
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Classics ay?
To e's list of Heinlein I would add "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
Beyond that,
Kieth Laumer was a great golden age SF writer. My absolutes favorites of his are "Galactic Odyssey" and "Trace of Memory"
Jack Vance. I love his stuff. Start with "Lyonesse" ,or "Maske:Thaery" ,or "Araminta Station". Maske:Thaery is a standalone while the other two are the beginnings of trilogies. If you like those he wrote plenty more.
Roger Zelazny. Amber series. Book 1 is: "Nine Princes in Amber" or a standalone by him, "Lord of Light"
Now, if you want to get into real pulp Robert E. Howard (the inventor of Conan, and not the conan you see in the movies either) wrote the best there ever was. Any from his Conan series is good, as well as anything else he ever wrote. " Almuric" is one of my favorite by him.
Neal Stephenson. He's writing modern classics. I recommend most highly, "The Diamond Age" "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon". While I really enjoyed his "Baroque Cycle" it's very different in that it's historical fiction written like good hard SF. Very focused on the characters, who are in turn very focused on developments new to their time and whose lives are changed by those new developments. So someone mostly focused on SF and F may find the Baroque Cycle hard to take. But, again, I loved it.
I'll end my list here, although I could recommend many more.
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Take a break from novels and read short stories: the collected works of Phillip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury are among the finest literature in any genre.
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My sister reccomends Farenhiet 451 by: Ray Bradbury.
Good classic book--one of the ones I liked in high school that was required. Along with that, you should read the classic 1984 by George Orwell if you haven't. Then you'll finally know why Big Brother is always watching.
A silly sci-fi book I loved in junior high was Interstellar Pig, about a kid and how he must save the universe by beating aliens at a boardgame. Ah, nostalgia.
Oh, and I hadn't read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card until last year. I recommend it if you haven't read it either.
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Along with that, you should read the classic 1984 by George Orwell if you haven't. Then you'll finally know why Big Brother is always watching.
I read that in high school on my own choice, because I was in the Academic Quiz team and we had a whole year where there was at least one question about 1984 every match, and no one on the team had read it or remembered it if they had. Regardless I really liked it, but was horrifically disappointed in the movie.
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There was a movie?
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Have you read Mama Day yet? I've recommended it like 5 times on this site, but I figured I'd give it another plug. It's "literary" fantasy, in that it gets shelved with mainstream, and it's awesome.
Also, Kitty and the Midnight Hour just came out, and it's great. Despite the terrible title. Well, at least, I think it is.
Those are both fantasy, and neither are classics. Oh well.
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There was a movie?
Of course there was. They were pretty much obligated to put one out in 1984. It really sucked.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/
Fish, thanks for the recommendations; I hadn't heard of either of those, actually.
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Not all CJ Cherryh books are the same. She writes in a few different styles.
If you want a fast starter, read The Pride of Chanur. Short book. Then there's a trilogy after that and a final 5th book that happens a few years later. They're my favorite series among things she's written.
Of course THE "classic" Cherryh book is Hugo-winner Downbelow Station, which is definitely a slow-starter. It's even got an infodump at the beginning, something I believe her editor wanted. None of her other books do the infodump thing, just going in media res. Her fantasy Fortress in the Eye of Time is also a very slow starter; the first 100 pages won't give you any sort of idea what the rest of the series is like. ;)
But anyway, the definition of "classic" in this thread is rather unclear.
Right now I'm reading Asimov's The Gods Themselves. I haven't read it before, and I was almost to the end of the 2nd part before I realized one of the songs on one of my filk CDs is based on it. I was like, "whoa." It's the novel he wrote in his huge novel-writing gap years. Quite good so far.
We started reading Heinlein's big story collection The Past Through Tomorrow, which has his whole future history timeline, including fantastic stories like The Man Who Sold the Moon. Definitely a book to read, good old hard sci-fi from the 30s/40s and a bit later. In bite-sized pieces! (Though some of the stories are pretty long.)
I just finished listening to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell on CD in the car. Just came out last year, but it's an instant classic. It reads like it was written in the middle of the 19th century, and it's set from about 1807-1816. Neil Gaiman called it the best speculative fiction book of the last 70 years, and it's certainly a contender for that title.
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Of course THE "classic" Cherryh book is Hugo-winner Downbelow Station, which is definitely a slow-starter. It's even got an infodump at the beginning, something I believe her editor wanted.
That's the one I just finished, for the please-don't-make-fun-of-me reason that I was dying to know what all the filk songs were about. I picked up a couple of her Union-Alliance books, (I have a copy of 40,000 in Gehenna, SOMEWHERE that I never read) and some of the mystical russian one, whatever that is.
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But anyway, the definition of "classic" in this thread is rather unclear.
Oh gosh don't even get me started on that. The argument of what should be considered a "classic" creates conflicting emotions as it revives memories of my theory class. I definitely had a love/hate relationship with it--I loved the deep philosophical discussions but hated when I felt like everything got so deep and profound my head was ready to explode. All the essays were written in a manner to make it nearly impossible to understand what the author was saying. Except for the Feminists. Which may be why I am partial to some aspects of Feminism--their authors tried to make their essays comprehensible.
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Right now I'm reading Asimov's The Gods Themselves. I haven't read it before, and I was almost to the end of the 2nd part before I realized one of the songs on one of my filk CDs is based on it. I was like, "whoa."
Anything I know? (The song, I mean.)
I quite liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, though it took me a very, very long time to get through it. Loved the footnotes. (I'd be curious to know how the audio version handled those.)
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Getting off the subject of classics totally, I don't suppose any of our YA people can tell me anything about K.A. Applegate's new series. The Animorphs never appealed to me, but I found the first book in the Remnants series at the thrift store today and picked it up.
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Haven't read them. I believe they are mass market, like RL Stine's Goosebumps. Now I am showing my literary snob side (which supposedly I should have been purged of in my theory class) when I admit that now I avoid most mass market fiction.
But speaking of YA reminds me of my favorite YA soft science fiction book--House of the Scorpions by Nancy Farmer. I've recommended it several times and will recommend it again. It deals with cloning in a very interesting manner. READ IT!!!
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Getting off the subject of classics totally, I don't suppose any of our YA people can tell me anything about K.A. Applegate's new series. The Animorphs never appealed to me, but I found the first book in the Remnants series at the thrift store today and picked it up.
I've read Remnants. It's basically the best YA series I've read, I'd definately read it. Even if you don't like the first one that much keep reading, the second's one of the best of the series. While the series has quite a few flaws, such as earth getting wiped out by a giant meteor we can't divert and that we only found out about a month in advance (which is scientifically unsound in so many ways) But the good without question outweighs the bad.
The Animorphs never appealed to me
how so?, I can understand why it wouldn't, I'm just curious what about it
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I'd reccomend The Transall Saga by: Gary Paulsen if you are looking for good YA books. I read it in fourth grade and thought it was really cool, though I can't really point out why. It is basically a sort of SF Hatchet, with the exception of the fact that the main character (Mark) meets people and is inducted into thier society. And has to kill their leader because he is blasphemous (not reallly but I don't feel like taking the time to explain).
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hey you! read Remnants too!
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how so?, I can understand why it wouldn't, I'm just curious what about it
Two main reasons 1) the same as Chimera above. Less that I feel I'm a snob and more that mainstream stuff tends to water down the good fantasy/sci-fi parts. Mainstream tends to be totally urban fantasy - this world, normal people. I like to go one step further than that. In this case, the premise didn't interest me.
2) It seemed aimed at a younger age than I'm willing to read.
I'm about halfway done with The Mayflower Project now and it's pretty good so far. I'd put it up there with Monica Hughes.
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Me?
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Two main reasons 1) the same as Chimera above. Less that I feel I'm a snob and more that mainstream stuff tends to water down the good fantasy/sci-fi parts. In this case, the premise didn't interest me.
2) It seemed aimed at a younger age than I'm willing to read.
That's the thing with Animorphs, if you can make it through the first few it gets a LOT less childish, not glossing over the fact they're killing innocents, with moral dillemas and that sort of stuff. By the end, although you probably wont believe me, it get's to the point where Elantris is literally more childish then it.
I'm about halfway
Through Remnants, right?
Me?
Yeah you, OneEyedGreenPerson!
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I've already read some of a couple of them, I suppose I should go finish them.:-/
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I've already read some of a couple of them, I suppose I should go finish them.:-/
cool, which ones?
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#1, #2, and about half of Mother May I? (#8 I think)
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I didn't wan't to toss around spoilers here, so I tried to send you an instant message, I'm not sure how they work, though, so tell me if you didn't get the message or if I messed something up when I made it.
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I didn't get it. Whats your IM adress? I'll try sending you one.
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I think we have different IM things, like I use msn messenger, while I think you have something else.
Just to make sure, you know where to see if you have any messages, you've probably noticed it, but here, it says in an area at the bottom of the main forum page
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Okay, yah. I have both yahoo and msn. I'll change my email to be viewable for a couple of minutes and you can just do it from there.
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So it occurred to me that i should probably look up a list of Hugo winners and read all of them that I have not read. That would be a good place to start. I tried to do the same thing with Nobel Prize winners once, but once I saw that Coetze's "Foe" had won a Nobel Prize I was too busy throwing up to want to read.
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Yeah that would probalby be a good idea, since the Hugo isn't a YA award it *should* be worth your time. (all I really know is that Ender's Game won it.)
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Yeah that would probalby be a good idea, since the Hugo isn't a YA award it *should* be worth your time.
Hey, what's that supposed to mean? >:(
YA literature--the good stuff--is always worth your time, in my opinion. But I am biased.
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Hey he said it not me. Find me the correct award for YA fiction and I'll add that to my list of things to do.
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The YA fiction award is the Newbery.
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberywinners/medalwinners.htm
Here's a list of winners. :)
Oh, and interestingly enough, starting next year there will apparently be an award called the Andre Norton award that will recognize excellent science fiction and fantasy for the YA market.
http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2005/02/science-fiction-writers-association.html
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Oh, and interestingly enough, starting next year there will apparently be an award called the Andre Norton award that will recognize excellent science fiction and fantasy for the YA market.
http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2005/02/science-fiction-writers-association.html
That's awesome! It will be cool to have one for just fan/scifi, even though they sometimes fall under the other awards (Printz and Newbery).
Not to be a stickler, but ALA actually created an award for excellent YA fiction--the Printz (http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/printzaward/Printz,_Michael_L__Award.htm) award. The Newbery tends to be for Middle Grade fiction. It started in 2000 and they created it so there could be more of a distintion between MG and YA fiction, because there was such a wide range of reading levels the Newbery covered. (at least that is what Chris Crowe, my YA Lit professor, said). From my reading of them, I've determined that books that receive the Printz award can be "edgy"--and the Newbery seems to try to stay away from that.
Which reminds me of my favorite Printz book--either a winner or a nominee (I tried to read all of the ones that appealed to me at one time). It is Kit's Wilderness by David Almond. His Skellig is very good as well. They are both light fantasy, kind of dark. David Almond writes beautiful, simple prose--like a poet. I'd read his books for the writing alone--but the story and characters are awesome too.
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That's the one I just finished, for the please-don't-make-fun-of-me reason that I was dying to know what all the filk songs were about. I picked up a couple of her Union-Alliance books, (I have a copy of 40,000 in Gehenna, SOMEWHERE that I never read) and some of the mystical russian one, whatever that is.
Remember who you're talking to...!!
"She's captain of the Norway, and a thorn in Union's side..."
I only read one and a half of the Russian ones. Those are pretty dense. I can't actually remember if I've read all of 40,000 in Gehenna. I think I did once...
Have you heard the Chanur filks? like "We are the Pride of Chanurrrrrrrrrrr..." and Kanefsky's "We are the thieves of the Kif / We'll turn you into a stiff..."
Anything I know? (The song, I mean.)
"Meltdown" by Kanefsky, on the Roundworm CD.
I quite liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, though it took me a very, very long time to get through it. Loved the footnotes. (I'd be curious to know how the audio version handled those.)
Whenever a footnote came up, a new track would start that was just the length of the footnote, so you could skip them if you wished. I never did.
It's on 26 CDs. Very long.
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Remember who you're talking to...!!
I know, I was talking to everyone else. ;D
Have you heard the Chanur filks? like "We are the Pride of Chanurrrrrrrrrrr..." and Kanefsky's "We are the thieves of the Kif / We'll turn you into a stiff..."
No, but I'm tempted to read a few of Dickson's Dorsai novels after listening to about a million songs about them, and having 'The Green Hills of Harmony' stuck in my head for approximately two weeks straight.
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Only one I read was the Final Encyclopedia or something like that. It was pretty good. But now he's dead...
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Hey, what's that supposed to mean? >:(
YA literature--the good stuff--is always worth your time, in my opinion. But I am biased.
That's not what I meant. I agree, the good stuff is worth your time. I was remarking that she showed displeasure with one of the books to receive the award. This might signal that other books that have won it may not have been up to par. I meant no offense. ;)
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Well, of course, just winning a Hugo does not necessarily mean it's good. Case in point: Sawyer's Neanderthal book.
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Ugh, I read that too, it won a Hugo?
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The first one was. The 2nd or 3rd one was nominated, but thankfully didn't win!!
I read the runner-up book the year that first one won, Brin's book about dittoes...clay people...something like that. It was much better.
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Alas, Babylon
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I am starting my expedition with "Dreamsnake" by Vonda McIntyre. Or rather I will be, once I'm done looking at her website, and enjoying the "writing pitfalls" section.
http://www.sff.net/people/Vonda/
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Jules.
Verne.
Honestly, people.
FO, If you're in UT, I have a copy of 20,000 Leagues you could borrow. It's an excellent translation with great illustrations.
And of course, Frank Herbert. I've only read his Dune books, but they are very good.
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Does anyone know any great books that i should read. (dont have to be classics)