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Friday, August 12, 2011

npr Top 100 Sceince-Fcition, Fantasy Books--how many have you read?

npr Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

I didn't really follow this, and thus didn't vote on anything.  I did look at the results, and thought I would at least figure out which ones I had read.  Their rules on series is a little odd, and so there's cases where I had read one or two of a group.

For the listing below, those in red are ones that I've read, those in blue are series where I've read some, while those in black are unread.

 
1
 The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy J.R.R. Tolkien
2 The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Douglas Adams
3 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
4 The Dune Chronicles Frank Herbert
5 A Song Of Ice And Fire Series George R. R. Martin
61984 George Orwell
7 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
8 The Foundation Trilogy Isaac Asimov
9 Brave New World Aldous Huxle
10 American Gods Neil Gaiman
11 The Princess Bride William Goldman
12 The Wheel Of Time Series Robert Jordan
13 Animal Farm George Orwell
14 Neuromancer William Gibson
15 Watchmen Alan Moore
16I, Robot Isaac Asimov
17 Stranger In A Strange Land Robert Heinlein
18 The Kingkiller Chronicles Patrick Rothfuss
19 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut
20 Frankenstein Mary Shelley
21 Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
22 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
23 The Dark Tower Series Stephen King
24 2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke
25 The Stand Stephen King
26 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson
27 The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury
28 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut
29 The Sandman Series Neil Gaiman
30 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
31 Starship Troopers Robert Heinlein
32 Watership Down Richard Adams
33 Dragonflight Anne McCaffre
34 The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress Robert Heinlein
35 A Canticle For Leibowitz Walter M. Miller
36 The Time Machine H.G. Wells
3720000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne
38 Flowers For Algernon Daniel Keys Moran
39 The War Of The Worlds H.G. Wells
40 The Chronicles Of Amber Roger Zelaznz
41 The Belgariad David Eddings
42 The Mists Of Avalon Marion Zimmer Bradley
43 The Mistborn Series Brandon Sanderson
44 Ringworld Larry Niven
45 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. LeGuin
46 The Silmarillion J.R.R. Tolkien
47 The Once And Future King T.H. White
48 Neverwhere Neil Gaiman
49 Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke
50 Contact Carl Sagan
51 The Hyperion Cantos Dan Simmons
52 Stardust Neil Gaiman
53 Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson
54 World War Z Max Brooks
55 The Last Unicorn Peter S. Beagle
56 The Forever War Joe Haldeman
57 Small Gods Terry Pratchett
58 The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant Stephen R. Donaldson
59 The Vorkosigan Saga Lois McMaster Bujold
60 Going Postal Terry Pratchett
61 The Mote In God's Eye Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62 The Sword Of Truth Terry Goodkind
63 The Road Cormac McCarthy
64 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke
65 I Am Legend Richard Matheson
66 The Riftwar SagaRaymond E. Feist
67 The Shannara TrilogyTerry  Brooks
68 The Conan The Barbarian Series R.E. Howard
69 The Farseer Trilogy Robin Hobb
70 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger
71 The Way Of Kings Brandon Sanderson
72 A Journey To The Center Of The Earth Jules Verne
73 The Legend Of Drizzt Series R.A. Salvatore
74 Old Man's War John Scalzi
75 The Diamond Age Neil Stephenson
76 Rendezvous With Rama Arthur C. Clarke
77 The Kushiel's Legacy Series Jacqueline Carey
78 The DispossessedUrsula K. LeGuin
79 Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury
80 Wicked Gregory Maguire
81 The Malazan Book Of The Fallen SeriesSteven Erikson
82 The Eyre Affair Jasper Fforde
83 The Culture Series Iain M. Banks
84 The Crystal Cave Mary Stewart
85 Anathem Neal Stephenson
86 The Codex Alera Series Jim Butcher
87 The Book Of The New Sun Gene Wolfe
88 The Thrawn Trilogy Timothy Zahn
89 The Outlander Series Diana Gabaldan
90 The Elric Saga Michael Moorcock
91 The Illustrated ManRay Bradbury
92 Sunshine Robin McKinlez
93 A Fire Upon The Deep Vernor Vinge
94 The Caves Of Steel Isaac Asimov
95 The Mars Trilogy Kim Stanley Robinson
96 Lucifer's Hammer Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97 Doomsday Book Connie Willis
98 Perdido Street Station China Mieville
99 The Xanth Series Piers Anthony
100
 The Space Trilogy C.S. Lewis


Some general notes/comments:

"The Thrawn Triolgy" by Timothy Zahn?  A nice addition to Lucas' Star Wars universe (and one of the last things I paid attention to, particulary after the disappointing prequels) but they aren't great literature.

Sigh...outside of the first couple, why include Anthony's Xanth series?

Is Robin McKinley's "Sunshine" held in that high of regard?

Wow, lot more Neil Gaiman books on the list than I would have expected.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

After a tasty dinner, getting ready to see Delbert Mcclinton at the Crighton in Conroe...last Sounds of Texas show for the season
Vernon's Kunty Katfish in Conroe...good eating...
Preview for another Mission Impossible movie...why does Brad Bird feel he needs to direct an entry in an exisiting action series...

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Fun but tiring weekend in Memphis. Back home, and ready for Tex-Mex at Gringo's

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Recently read: "Long Eyes and Other Stories" by Jeff Carlson

Long Eyes

This was my first introduction to Carlson.  There's three stories here:

"Long Eyes" a story about a human/spaceship hybrid, and what makes someone human.

"Planet of the Sealies" about future archaeology, and the skills necessary for survival of the species

"Pressure" about a human/sea creature hybrid.

I've said before that I don't read a lot of short fiction, and I know that it's my loss, since so much interesting work (and new authors) first show up in the shorter length.  I assume Carlson is more know for his Plague novels (Plague Year, Plague War and Plague Zone).  Based upon these shorter works, I may have to try Plague Year.

I've also heard good things about The Frozen Sky, so I should try that.

Recently read: "Moon Flower" by James P. Hogan

Moon Flower: N/A (Baen Science Fiction)

I really didn't want to read this.  I first read Hogan in high school, starting with Thrice Upon A Time.  That book, along with Inherit the Stars help cement my interest in SF.  I followed Hogan for a long time, until he starting going off the rails (my last book of his was Cradle of Saturn, which I knew was bad, but read just to see how bad it could be).

One of my book groups picked this one to read (I think partially because Hogan died last year, and this one was in print and easily found) so I read it to see how bad it was.

Ugh...Earth is a mess, being dominated by massive corporations (ok, nothing new here) and "developing" new worlds (there's a FTL drive which allows us out of the solar system).  On the planet Cyrene, Terrans from the base are disappearing.  Myles Callen, a facilitator for the Interworld Restructuring Corporation is sent to find out what is going on, and to find physicist Evan Wade, one of the humans that has left the base.

Marc Shearer, an idealistic physicist who was a colleague of Wade's, is given the chance to go to Cyrene (the corporation hopes Shearer will lead Callen to Wade).  Once there, Shearer finds that Wade has laid the groundwork for him to follow, with help from the Cyreneans.

Once on the planet, most humans find themselves becoming more like the Cyreneans, less interested in being selfish, and more about "doing the right thing".

****Spoilers****
I guess this is a spoiler, though the once you start the book the title gives a bit of it away, but there's a flower on Cyrene which somehow (handwaves quantum physics) allows some communication backward in time.  This allows people to make the "correct" decisions.  (This occurs on Earth, but is too faint for anyone to recognize.  Shearer has been doing research into this.  The flower acts as a sort of antenna for the waves).

One of my biggest problems with this story is that, given that humans are screwing up the planet, the solution is through a "magical flower".  It's very depressing.

Well, that's one problem  The book is also badly written, with most of the characters being bland, despite some background information.  There's also bad science (including a bit of Velikovsky, which really serves no purpose in the plot) including some wonky orbital dynamics of the Cyrene system.

***Spoilers over***

Hogan isn't the first author to lose his way as he got older, but really stands a an excellent example of such.  I saw him a few years ago at an ArmadilloCon, and got him to autograph a couple of books.  He asked "why none of the new books..." which I was able to laugh off (I really didn't want to go into that with him at an autograph table).