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 ...
I heard of Dune and 1984 and was not impressed with either one.
OTOH, I really like Clarke’s earlier works: 2001: a Space Odyssey, Childhood’s End, and The City and the Stars.
I am not sure where One Hundred Years Of Solitude would fit in.
Dan Simmons’ Hyperion series was awesome.
Dittos!
Free Science Fiction Novels (Good Stuff)
http://www.baenebooks.com/c-1-free-library.aspx
There are a few books about distinctly conservative value worlds in the collection...I’ll let you discover them ;)
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson.
I’ve ALL of them
I read This Perfect Day years ago and the verse Christ Marx Wood and Wei Led us to this perfect day still sticks with me.
Had a hard time getting through Infinite Jest. I didn’t even know it was considered science fiction/fantasy. Next time I go on hard drugs, I’ll give it another try.
I read that and absolutely hated it. the books got progressively creepier, and the last book, That Hideous Strength, just pushed me over the edge. It gave me the willies.
Never again.
Read seven out of the ten. Gravity’s Rainbow was real hard going but I liked the rest. I’ll have to read the other three.
Since this is for fantasy as well as SF;
Imajica
Weaveworld
Both by Clive Barker.
A much better fantasy writer than horror writer, although I did enjoy the “Books of Blood”.
Reading the Foundation Trilogy now. Currently into the second book-Foundation and Empire.
Is it website all just science fiction?
Cause I’ll bet it’s near impossible to find a copy of any of them these days.
On The Beach.
It is a real downer. I have to get in a certain mood to read it. But I do because it is so ‘final’.
“Gravity’s Rainbow - Never heard of it.”
Awesome book! Great prose style. Some really funny stuff, and some fascinating oddball Nazi stuff I’d never heard of. Pynchon at his best!
I’m always leery of someone else’s opinion of what is “essential” to read. Of this list, several were (to me) virtually unreadable. I’ll like what I’ll like and that’s all what I’ll like.
Well, I saw the movie, which was spectacularly panned, and it was a little clunky, but it did have its points, and the basic story carried it along OK.
I gave it big props for the rocket exhaust on those hover thingies. It actually convinced me that it could be holding them up. They used the same “wavy” effect throughout, for various purposes. Worth seeing just for that, IMHO.
Never heard of Gravity’s Rainbow? Tsk.
Well, you’re entitled to your opinion, but most would disagree with you!
“The novel shared the 1974 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction with A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer.[1] Although selected by the Pulitzer Prize jury on fiction for the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a single passage involving coprophilia offended the other members of the Pulitzer board, who rejected the selection. No Pulitzer Prize was awarded for fiction that year.[2] The novel was nominated for the 1973 Nebula Award for Best Novel.[3]
TIME named the novel one of its “All-Time 100 Greatest Novels”, a list of the best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005[4] and it is considered by some critics to be one of the greatest American novels ever written.[5]”
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