(no subject)

[teleidoplex]

Mostly cause I was curious. Although truth to tell, there are a lot of books on this list that flabberghast me, and others that I wonder that they were left off. Who's the arbiter, anyways? Who makes such lists? Rail against the canon-formation!!



This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey *
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card *
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson Why, oh why is this series on the list!!!
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling *
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson *
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks And again with the why!
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer But only because Alice Liddell is a main character!


So, 18 out of 50, two of which are so atrociously bad that I wonder they made the list when nothing by Mercedes Lackey did (ooh, snap!) Only one of which I started and haven't finished (but that wasn't because of a flaw in the book, more because of lack of continguous time). But even though I liked a few, none are in my favorites. I feel so alienated by my supposed fandom. Guess I'll eat some worms.

Comments

[anima-mecanique.livejournal.com]

Heh, I feel like I'm spamming kitsune_zen's journal here, but hey. Discussion!

The thing that got me about book 3 in the Vanyel series was that while people will angst for chapters and chapters about absolutely nothing, Vanyel gets raped and she glosses over the whole thing so much that he's pretty much fine in a couple of pages. I mean, here's a chance to angst about something that actually matters, and she totally misses the boat. Maybe it was too difficult to write or something.

[selenya.livejournal.com]

(Yeah, sorry kitsune_zen!)

The whole Vanyel-being-raped thing was way traumatic for me when I read it because I was like "dear god! poor Vanyel!" but then he's just magically better a chapter later because of the Tayledras. *sigh* If you're going to write something, write it. Don't shirk.

It's the Sunshine thing (kitsune_zen will know what I mean.)

[anima-mecanique.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there a talking wolf involved in that whole bit?

People could be spared years of trauma and therapy if we just found some talking wolves and magical gay hawk-people.

[selenya.livejournal.com]

Yes, there was a khree (I think that's what they're called) involved.

BWAHAHAHA. Magical gay hawk-people who greatly resemble Native Americans and who clearly smoke WAY too much peyote for their own good.

It's the magic of magic, baby. Magical-gay-hawk-people can make everything better. ;)

[teleidoplex]

See, I came to the Vanyel stuff too late. MY big thing was the Knight of Ghosts and Shadows stuff. Elves, motorcycles, renfaires, my first encounter with a kitsune. I was so hooked.

I LOVE MISTY!!! GIVE ME MORE MISTY!! A WHOLE LISTY OF MISTY!!!

[selenya.livejournal.com]

*giggles madly* I got a D in math because of Vanyel. >.>

I read the Bardic stuff very last...and kinda wished I had read those before the others. I actually enjoyed them, even though I read them late.

C'mon....elf-horses that were motorcycles? I loved it. ;-)

Now...if only she'd stuck with that instead of Valdemar so much... the Valdemar stuff just got old after a while!

[moonandserpent.livejournal.com]

My first Changeling PC (James Michael "Jimi" Hendrix) was a swordfighting Rennie who drove a psychic steed/mororcycle and fought crime (eventually with a Mind reading perky-goff Malk girlfriend).

Yeaaahhhhhhhhh......

[oddsboy.livejournal.com]

I am honestly just posting to see if I can get everyone else's posts to get skinnier. Glee.

-RC

[kniedzw.livejournal.com]

Punk.

[moonandserpent.livejournal.com]

I had a brief Elves + Psychics + Magic + Motorcycles phase. Yep, in Jr. High I thought Elves on Motorcycles were so awesome.

I think the book that snapped me out to my senses and stopped me from reading her was the first Bardic Voices book.