Posted on 08/01/2015 1:29:27 PM PDT by EveningStar
Science fiction and fantasy offer a rich legacy of great books--but that abundant pile of reading material can also be daunting. So sometimes, it's easier to fake it. We asked some of our favorite writers, and they told us the 10 books that everyone pretends to have read. And why you should actually read them.
From Asimov to Pynchon, science fiction contains some fantastic, ambitious works of genre fiction. But a lot of us get overwhelmed. And it's not that hard to fake a first-hand knowledge of these books, because they're everywhere, and we've heard people talk about them so many times. We SF fans are good at pretending. But these books are classics for a reason -- and they're worth reading.
(Excerpt) Read more at io9.com ...
Thanks for posting. I’ve been looking around for recommendations and I’m sure there’ll be a few titles I’ll enjoy. I love Asimov and Heinlein.
“The Lost Boys” by Orson Scott Card.
“The Stars, My Destination”
Gully Foyle lives!
The sequels to Dune don’t measure up, but the prequels written by Frank Herbert’s son are pure garbage. You would have to be seriously twisted to write something like that or enjoy reading it.
The Nantucket series is about the island of Nantucket and the Coast Guard Sailing ship the Eagle getting sent back in time to the Bronze age.
The Emberverse series is the "flipside" of that story or What happened to the rest of the world when Nantucket and the Eagle were sent back in time.
A warning though. If female characters who engage in alternative lifestyles make you angry the Nantucket series has two of the main characters who are such but it is not a focus of the story just part of the characters background.
The emberverse series though had very little of such.
Stirling's Nantucket series is steeped in Conservative/Libertarian views on government etc. While the Emberverse series has all manor of government systems that rise from the ashes of "the Event", from Feudal Lords/Aristocracy and Democracies, a cult-like Theocracy and even Scottish Clans.
Martian
My Freeper handle is from the CS Lewis space trilogy. That Hideous Strength is one of the most prescient books I have ever read. That said, there is a bunch of great Christian sci-fi besides that.
Gene Wolfe, RA Lafferty, the tragic Walter M. Miller all wrote and in Gene Wolfe’s case still write.
Freegards
I’ve read loads of SciFi but on that list, only 1984 and Dune.
Saw a few others listed that brought back memories...
Stranger in A Strange Land
Lots of Heinlin and Bradbury, no way I could list them all
Farenheit 451
Clockwork Orange
Ringworld
Riverworld
Martian Chronicles
Childhood’s End
The Mote in God’s Eye
Animal Farm ( the other Orwell book often overlooked)
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Restaurant at the end of the Universe
So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
the other 2 in that series, can’t remember the names, hilarious
Another humorous series is Roger Lynn Aspirin’s Myth Adventures series, hilarious books.
Myth Adventures
Another Fine Myth
Myth inc Link
and so on, plus Thieve’s World is a compilation by different authors, based on the idea of a Thieve’s World that was a spin off of the Myth Adventures series.
Loads of Philip Jose Farmer and Kurt Vonnegut
One everybody should read, takes under 2 hours, Illusions by Richard Bach. My all time favorite book. Get it, read it...dozens of times...I still pull it out and read it now and then and I read it the first time 30 years ago. I don’t care what kind of reading you like READ IT...
Tolkein’s Hobbit books
Loads of Roger Zelazny, great writer, several Peirs Anthony books, another great writer.
If you’re into swords & sorcery a little, my all time favorite is Zelazny’s Amber series.
What else...I can’t remember ‘em all, I’ve been a heavy reader since age 5, probably read hundreds of sci fi along with loads of educational stuff, college textbooks - Geology, Archaeology, biology, Anthropology, Sociology have a good Zoology nook now but haven’t started on it, just about anything...
Love Drake. Especially his earlier work. His more recent fantasy stuff is so absolutey descriptive it starts to bore me after a while
My reaction was like yours. Plus I wondered why is there no Heinlein or Bradbury or Clarke or Verne or Wells???
Travis Magee is the pen name of Matt Bracken which I am sure he took from those John MacDonald books.
He wrote the “Enemies” trilogy and also “Castigo Cay”.
Honestly, I am not much of a reader of fiction (the truth of every day during these times is far stranger).
However, I have to completely agree with you regarding Clarke's ability as a storyteller. I have read Childhood's End twice, and both times I totally tore through it like Sherman across Georgia to the sea.
Funny personal story... the first time I was reading that book I was young and working for the railroad, living the bachelor paradise life in a railroad caboose. The night that I was near the end of the book and all the suspense was coming to a head was a nice summer night and I had the end doors open so the breeze would blow through. Right at the very moment the book was right AT very climax of the story, 2 railroad yard stray kittehs chasing each other jumped onto the end of the caboose and RAN FULL SPEED through the car right next to me on laying on the bunk gripping the book... it scared the complete crap out of me.
Because those authors are readable and the list is giving the works that the pretentious snob sci-fi readers all would lie and say they have read to make themselves look like intellectuals, when they, in fact, have never read them because they are phonies to the core.
heck yes!
“Marx, Wood, Wei and Christ-all but Wei were sacrificed.”
I read that, I think because YOU recommended it, it was pretty good. And that Marx Wood Wei thing really sticks with you.
I also loved how the same pictures were everywhere, I can’t remember exactly now, but wasn’t there one of Wei (or whichever) addressing the scientists (or something like that)?
It was a good read, I enjoyed it!
“But it *is* one of my all time favorites.”
LOL, maybe we can watch it together one day, I haven’t seen it for ages, but it seems like it used to be on regular broadcast TV a good deal, back in the day.
“Riders of the Purple Wage”
HA! That sounds good, I’ll have to look for that, and I DO like a happy ending!
I plan to read Churchill’s history of WWII. I’m currently reading the three volume bio of Churchill by William Manchester. Is it possible to produce men like Churchill anymore?
“Illusions by Richard Bach.”
Is that the guy who wrote “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”?
ping
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