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10-06-2011, 09:21 AM   #16
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QuoteOriginally posted by MRRiley Quote
Like some others here I have read just about every book/series on the chart as well as a plethora of others that failed to make the grade.

Unfortunately I haven't found any really worthwhile original "literary" sci-fi in the last ten to twenty years (I don't count books based on movies here). Supernatural fantasy has done better in the last 10 years, but it seems that today everything has become witches vs vampires vs werewolves. Anne Rice popularized that genre with her great "Interview with a Vampire" series and since then has been copied poorly a thousand times. Rowling did the same with the wizarding world and we'll be seeing thousands of derivatives before long. Unfortunately many authors believe that "imitation is the sincerest for of flattery" as well as the quickest way to make a few bucks.

Mike
There's been some great 'literary' sci fi in the last 20 years. Off the top of my head I would suggest Iain M Banks' Culture series (I'm amazed Player of Games didn't make the chart above), Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, and Stephen Donaldson's Gap trilogy.

10-06-2011, 09:36 AM - 1 Like   #17
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QuoteOriginally posted by thoughton Quote
There's been some great 'literary' sci fi in the last 20 years. Off the top of my head I would suggest Iain M Banks' Culture series (I'm amazed Player of Games didn't make the chart above), Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, and Stephen Donaldson's Gap trilogy.
Will have to check them out. Harder to find pearls among the slop than it used to be. Plus I'm an old fart. Few things less than 30 years old get my attention. LOL

Mike
10-06-2011, 09:38 AM   #18
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goodreads.com is a cool site for this kind of thing. Lots of recommendations based on what genre you like, and how you rated books you've already read.
10-07-2011, 06:39 AM   #19
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QuoteOriginally posted by Rondec Quote
I really liked a lot of Orson Scott Cards early work (his later material isn't nearly as good
I dunno, I think that Enders shadow complements Enders game very well. I'll admit that the rest of the Shadow series has pretty well jumped the shark.

Pat

10-07-2011, 05:19 PM   #20
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Incidentally, about the first time I'd bought a new sci fi book on impulse turned out fairly interesting, though not one for the ages: Lauren Beukes' 'Moxyland.' I admit I was drawn by the analog photog in a Cyberpunkey world, but it's a pretty good thing out of South Africa, actually.

Kind of glad Amber got a mention, though. I always found it inspirational in some ways... especially as 'Amnesia fiction.' Having been subject to that in the past, I always thought Corwin was pretty inspirational there, "This dude bluffed his way to the center of a universe of infinite illusion,, having no idea what it was about but what he picked up along the way, all narrated in that old-school 60's way. " Very cool. Especially cause all of Corwin's siblings just all have so much going on. And are more interesting than Corwin, truth be told. )
10-08-2011, 05:26 AM   #21
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QuoteOriginally posted by ve2vfd Quote
I dunno, I think that Enders shadow complements Enders game very well. I'll admit that the rest of the Shadow series has pretty well jumped the shark.

Pat
I didn't really like it. Sort of took the legs out from under Enders Game, making Bean into the real hero behind the scenes.

I more meant his books like Enchantment, Tales of Alvin Maker (I actually liked the first couple of books in this series), and the Redemption of Christopher Columbus (or whatever it was called). Card's writing was never particularly great, more about the ideas beneath the surface and seemed like he ran out of ideas.
10-08-2011, 06:10 AM   #22
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I am SO going to print this out and hang it next to my book shelf!

i'm sick and tired of trying to find good books for my friends to read...perhaps this chart will make the choices easier, there are some very respectable book selections on the chart.

10-08-2011, 10:16 AM   #23
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QuoteOriginally posted by jsherman999 Quote
.

Lotsa books left off of course, but funny and good (click twice to expand twice) :

I'm very surprised Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger) isn't on this list.

Plus anything by Zelazny is good, but "Lord of Light" is better than his "Amber" books.
10-10-2011, 01:50 PM   #24
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QuoteOriginally posted by MRRiley Quote
Will have to check them out. Harder to find pearls among the slop than it used to be. Plus I'm an old fart. Few things less than 30 years old get my attention. LOL

Mike
Mike, have you read Varley's latest trilogy? Red Thunder, Red Lightening and Rolling Thunder. The first one was described as the novel Robert Heinlein would have written had he lived in George Bush's America under Homeland Security. The second was decent and the third, even though I liked it, was just finishing off the trilogy. Also, they are older but if you haven't read them, Titan, Demon and Wizard are great.
10-10-2011, 03:36 PM   #25
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I'm old school enough to complain about the term "Sci Fi" being used to describe anything other than movies. Which is a sure sign this is going to be one of those curmudgeon posts, isn't it?

Personally I find this chart too cute for its own good, and mostly inaccurate. For example, The Foundation Trilogy is about history in the same way Astrology is about plotting satellite orbits. The Culture series is in the humour sphere? WTF? It's mostly straight-forward action adventure with some intriguing ideas thrown in. (I'm a big fan, BTW.) Furthermore, recommending Animal Farm for someone who thinks the "world is bleak enough already" might inspire a suicide or two.

Besides all that, recommending the execrable (and largely plagiarised) Handmaid's Tale to anyone is doing them a disservice. Not to mention the typical dreck from Heinlein and Stephen King -- possibly the worst best-selling writer ever. The Sword of Shannara is third-rate poppy-cock. I read it when it came out and remember actually waiting for the second and third books. But I was young and foolish. Dune was rubbish after the first book -- and only just bearable for that length. And yeah, I know A Canticle For Leibowitz is well written, but it's only a classic because it was taught in schools that wouldn't dare anything slightly less boring. The Silmarillion is obviously just sketchy notes alongside the magisterial Lord of the Rings.

Given the inclusion of these titles in the list, I don't feel any need to seek out the books I haven't read. Besides, SF was the literature of the twentieth-century. It's irrelevant now.

My biggest complaint is that this list is conservative, limited and imagination-challenged... exactly those things SF should not be. Ray Bradbury might deserve a few hits, but give others a chance fer Christ's sake! I also notice an overwhelming bias towards American writers.

I could not countenance a list of essential fiction missing Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Moorcock's Cornelius Chronicles, Zamyatin's We, Kate Wilhelm, John Crowley, Steve Erickson, John Wyndham, Keith Roberts, Thomas Disch, James Blish, John Brunner, Brian Aldiss, Christopher Priest, William Burroughs, Evangeline Walton, Jorges Luis Borges, Thomas Pynchon and Julio Cortazar.

Plus every short story from J.G. Ballard and about six more PK Dick entries.
10-10-2011, 03:40 PM   #26
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P.S. Thanks for posting this Jay! You have forced me to get up and peer at my bookshelf!

QuoteOriginally posted by jsherman999 Quote
Something wicked this way comes
Rendezvous with Rama
The Forever War
Read these. Excellent all, even the Clarke.

QuoteOriginally posted by jsherman999 Quote
Childhood's End *
Animal Farm *
Hitchhiker's Guide (3) *
These three I would rate significantly higher, especially Adams. And even the Clarke.

(Besides Clarke's two above I would rank the rest very low. Hence my bitchy comments.)
10-10-2011, 04:00 PM   #27
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QuoteOriginally posted by rparmar Quote
I'm old school enough to complain about the term "Sci Fi" being used to describe anything other than movies. Which is a sure sign this is going to be one of those curmudgeon posts, isn't it?

Personally I find this chart too cute for its own good, and mostly inaccurate. For example, The Foundation Trilogy is about history in the same way Astrology is about plotting satellite orbits. The Culture series is in the humour sphere? WTF? It's mostly straight-forward action adventure with some intriguing ideas thrown in. (I'm a big fan, BTW.) Furthermore, recommending Animal Farm for someone who thinks the "world is bleak enough already" might inspire a suicide or two.

Besides all that, recommending the execrable (and largely plagiarised) Handmaid's Tale to anyone is doing them a disservice. Not to mention the typical dreck from Heinlein and Stephen King -- possibly the worst best-selling writer ever. The Sword of Shannara is third-rate poppy-cock. I read it when it came out and remember actually waiting for the second and third books. But I was young and foolish. Dune was rubbish after the first book -- and only just bearable for that length. And yeah, I know A Canticle For Leibowitz is well written, but it's only a classic because it was taught in schools that wouldn't dare anything slightly less boring. The Silmarillion is obviously just sketchy notes alongside the magisterial Lord of the Rings.

Given the inclusion of these titles in the list, I don't feel any need to seek out the books I haven't read. Besides, SF was the literature of the twentieth-century. It's irrelevant now.

My biggest complaint is that this list is conservative, limited and imagination-challenged... exactly those things SF should not be. Ray Bradbury might deserve a few hits, but give others a chance fer Christ's sake! I also notice an overwhelming bias towards American writers.

I could not countenance a list of essential fiction missing Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Moorcock's Cornelius Chronicles, Zamyatin's We, Kate Wilhelm, John Crowley, Steve Erickson, John Wyndham, Keith Roberts, Thomas Disch, James Blish, John Brunner, Brian Aldiss, Christopher Priest, William Burroughs, Evangeline Walton, Jorges Luis Borges, Thomas Pynchon and Julio Cortazar.

Plus every short story from J.G. Ballard and about six more PK Dick entries.
.


Only slightly curmudgeonly ^^ (and well stated)

My personal rules re Science Fiction -



1) Don't take it too seriously. (most of it.)

2) Suspend disbelief, and you'l enjoy it more. If something is far-fetched, not well explained.... but evocative and pleasing - fill in the blanks yourself. Come up with the details the author left out that would make that thing/setting/event/dependency more fleshed out, more explainable.

3) Read wide-ranging stuff. Don't fall into a sub-genre and live there.



.

Last edited by jsherman999; 10-10-2011 at 04:09 PM.
10-10-2011, 04:12 PM   #28
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QuoteOriginally posted by rparmar Quote
These three I would rate significantly higher, especially Adams. And even the Clarke.
I should note that my star ratings showed my personal enjoyment level - and some of these were read when I was in my young teens. If I read them all now with a critical eye, I'd probably rate them differently. (But what's really more important then enjoyment level, when you think about it? )

.
10-10-2011, 06:00 PM   #29
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QuoteOriginally posted by jsherman999 Quote
I should note that my star ratings showed my personal enjoyment level - and some of these were read when I was in my young teens. If I read them all now with a critical eye, I'd probably rate them differently. (But what's really more important then enjoyment level, when you think about it? )
I can't separate the two. When I was young I enjoyed the juvenile writings of, say, Asimov, but he was a wretched fiction writer with no characterisation or descriptive capacity. I have a fondness for him still, and would recommend The Foundation Trilogy for its plotting and historical significance, but that is all. (He did much better with non-fiction.)

By the way, I just noticed four other writers criminally missing from this chart:
Samuel Delany
Harlan Ellison
Stanislaw Lem
James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon)

And these on the slipstream:
Italo Calvino
Lewis Carroll
10-10-2011, 09:32 PM   #30
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Oh, I'm so excited that sci-fi/fantasy is popular in here haha. I saw this chart pop up on reddit.com a few days ago. I've read a decent chunk of the right side and some of the left. Let's see...

Snow Crash,
Stranger in a Strange Land,
The Time Machine,
Red Mars,
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
Dune,
The Forever War,
Ender's Game,
War of the Worlds,
The Thrawn Trilogy,
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
Foundation Trilogy (actually all of them =D),
Rendezvous with Rama,
Childhood's End (well, the original short story, before he extended it into a novel),
Contact,
Animal Farm,
Slaughterhouse 5,
Cat's Cradle,
more of the Wheel of Time series than it deserved,
The Lord of the Rings,
The Silmarillion,
Dark Tower
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