03-26-2008, 03:44 PM | #16 | ||
New York Editor
Posts: 6,384
Karma: 16540415
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: PalmTX, Pocket eDGe, Alcatel Fierce 4, RCA Viking Pro 10, Nexus 7
|
Quote:
Quote:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?40866 so it shouldn't be too hard to find. It won the Nebula Award in 1969, as well as the Hugo. ______ Dennis |
||
04-12-2008, 02:01 AM | #17 |
Connoisseur
Posts: 50
Karma: 374
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: San Francisco
Device: Sony Reader PRS-500
|
That list of 20 looks like it was written by someone fairly young. There's a huge gap there between the inevitable old classics that are always in print and books printed after 1979. I think the only reason I, Robot is listed is that the movie tie-in came out. I agree with the aformentioned Samuel R. Delany as one of the important ones. His Einstein Intersection certainly changed my life. Also seriously, seriously, seriously conspicuous by his absence is J.G. Ballard. On any list like that, I'd also include the Dangerous Visions anthology. Although it is a bit dated now, it shook things up at the time. Also missing is Harlan Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman. Say what you will about Ellison as a person, that story rocks. Let's not forget the books that really did change people's lives too; books like Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and Herbert's Dune. I guess familiarity really does breed contempt. I'd also put Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination on any such list as well. And how can we forget Jack Vance's The Dying Earth? One book that I would be tempted to include that I only recently discovered right her on the forum is George MacDonald's Lilith. It was written as fantasy but he discusses concepts that science didn't discover until string theory.
|
04-12-2008, 03:47 AM | #18 |
Wizard
Posts: 4,395
Karma: 1358132
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: UK
Device: Palm TX, CyBook Gen3
|
An interesting list, quite a few new to me so I look forward to checking them out.
My addition would be Huxley's 'Brave New World'. I read it in my early teens, and it really did change my life (reading the right book at the right time!). It totally altered my conception of what it was to be human, the mind-blowing potential of technological advance, and the inimical role of politics in philosophy. I put that book down a different person to the one who'd picked it up. Last edited by Sparrow; 04-12-2008 at 03:50 AM. |
04-13-2008, 08:14 AM | #19 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 10,155
Karma: 4632658
Join Date: Nov 2007
Device: none
|
Right, I'm just going to say it. It's Sunday night, and if anyone disagrees they'll hopefully only reply in a few hours time after the demons have settled down and my invisible friend, Adrian (the inadvertently violent gibbon) has stopped repeating everything I'm saying ("...everything I'm saying...") while tousling my hair like I'm the "baby brother" in this relationship and the voices that aren't in my head (they're in my fingers, and my left big toe) are no longer telling me to kill you all with bananas, and I will be normal and it will be Monday and I can apologise for my behaviour, so I'll just say...
"The Sparrow" is an interesting if slightly plain bit of "first contact" scifi covering for the fact that it's a "woe is me" tract for "like, you know, whatever"-type god-bothering teenagers who've read way too much (and yet not enough) Gerard Manley Hopkins and think "religion" means "Christianity [preferably RC like me, or at least like the RC I was born into] with a nod to Judaism" and that losing god is a worse fate that hating Him. It shows atheism only as a harmless, unthinking aside that naturally gets along with children really well, and tortures sexuality and love in twists of soap-opera-like confusion and angst and restraint (and heaven forbid "aberrant" sexuality be portrayed in anyone or in any way that is not violent, loathsome or "nobly" abstaining). Fortunately for those who loved it, the author continued the themes through "Children of God", only progressing the plot (though, admittedly in the aforementioned "interesting" manner). I read them through. I felt what I should feel. I can admire the author (and, at this point, I will cede that I can never put my own desired themes, yet alone plot, down on paper as well as her), but I still think that if "The Sparrow" changed your life, read something else and change it back. As someone once said, (or maybe it was that road sign I just passed sailing down the rampway onto the Bruce Motorway, one hand on the wheel, one hand tappin' away on the keyboard keeping up with my homies on MobileRead, singing along top-of-the-lungs-until-I-cough-up-blood my second-favourite band's - The The - Mercy Beat) "WRONG WAY. GO BACK." I'll apologise tomorrow. I did think it (and the sequel) sucked though. Cheers (mmm, cocktails.....) Marc |
04-13-2008, 09:33 AM | #20 | |
Time Enough at Last
Posts: 387
Karma: 1151316
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: New England
Device: iPad 3, iPhone 5, Kindle 3, Fire, Sony PRS-350
|
Quote:
|
|
04-13-2008, 09:43 AM | #21 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 10,155
Karma: 4632658
Join Date: Nov 2007
Device: none
|
Quote:
I confess that I too initially put it down, for different reasons (embarrassment and shame and probably (self-)disgust), but I straight away picked it up again (for similar reasons - "sixteen year old horny...teenager") and I'm glad I did. With this confession, however, must also come a professed need to read it again, without the intervening maelstrom of hormones. I hope you've since apologised to your parents (imagine a grin-and-a-wink emoticon right here). Cheers, Marc |
|
04-13-2008, 03:25 PM | #22 |
Gorosei
Posts: 421
Karma: 334
Join Date: Feb 2008
Device: Microsoft Word
|
care to list ?
|
04-13-2008, 03:59 PM | #23 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 8,478
Karma: 5171130
Join Date: Jan 2006
Device: none
|
I would add Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End to any list of life-changing books. Slightly more current would be the Beggars in Spain trilogy by Nancy Kress. And even further back: H.G. Welles' War of the Worlds (not the movies, the book).
All of those books gave me profound perspective-shifts on life and humanity, more than any of the list of twenty (or any other books mentioned by others here). Last one: Satan: His Psychoanalysis and Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. Kassler, J.S.P.S. by Jeremy Levin. |
04-13-2008, 04:06 PM | #24 |
Gorosei
Posts: 421
Karma: 334
Join Date: Feb 2008
Device: Microsoft Word
|
I think we should make a "20 supernatural horror novels" list too.
|
04-14-2008, 01:22 AM | #25 |
oink!
Posts: 44
Karma: 127
Join Date: Feb 2008
Device: Ebookwise 1150
|
For my $0.02 --
I'm sure there's more. I don't know if I'd consider Perdido Street Station on that list. It's solidly fantasy (I could do a really long fantasy list). I do want to point out about Brin's Uplift books, the first trilogy is really rock solid, and should be held in the highest esteem. The second Uplift trilogy, though, shows a marked drop-off in quality. I never could get through it. |
04-14-2008, 02:23 AM | #26 |
newbie reader
Posts: 102
Karma: 2122142
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oslo
Device: reMarkable, Boox T68, Kobo Mini, Nook STR, Sony PRS-505
|
i know i might be young and not appreciate all the old classic story's as i have not read them all (I'm working on it though) but the book that really got me reading in a big way was Ender's Game and then Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card.
They really got my imagination going and since then science fiction and science (a vague term i know) as a field of study have been my main interest. Also the way the two books are so different in settings and themes always impressed me. |
04-14-2008, 01:03 PM | #27 |
Addict
Posts: 206
Karma: 1723
Join Date: May 2006
Device: Kindle
|
Nice thread. I've been working on identifying quality SF, Fantasy books that are available for the Kindle. I base "quality" on the Hugo and Nebula awards, which most discussed here are recognized as such. I did this to A) find a good book in e-form for my kindle, and B) Get a sense of where the Kindle SF, Fantasy offerings are compared to print.
Here is the thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...870#post169870 The database has grown to 500+ books thus far (all hugo and nebula nominated books, including the "pre-hugos"), with maybe 25% available on the Kindle storefront. Ebooks aside though I had the data in my spreadsheet of these books and their awards so I wrote a quick macro to rank the authors by how many nominated or award winning books they have authored. The list is surprising: (Most awarded authors, top 10 sorted most awarded first) Lois McMaster Bujold Robert A. Heinlein Robert Silverberg Gene Wolfe Orson Scott Card David Brin Ursula K. Le Guin Isaac Asimov Joe Haldeman Poul Anderson Poul Anderson made the top-10 and I did not even count his Niven-Anderson co-authored books which won or were nominated to quite a few awards. Here are the top 19 books (I thought I had pasted 20, but oh well). Books are ranked by the number of nominations (one point each), and the number of actual wins (an extra point per win). So if a book wins the hugo and was nominated for the nebula, it gets a "3". I then sort them, highest is on top: (Most awarded books, top 19) American Gods, Neil Gaiman Doomsday Book, Connie Willis Dreamsnake, Vonda McIntyre Dune, Frank Herbert Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman Gateway, Frederik Pohl Neuromancer, William Gibson Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke Ringworld , Larry Niven Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card Startide Rising, David Brin The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin The Forever War, Joe Haldeman The Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C. Clarke The Gods Themselves, Isaac Asimov The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein Note that of the 500+ books in the database, the top 20 most certainly won both awards I just lost that data when I posted in the original thread. -d Last edited by dugbug; 04-14-2008 at 01:09 PM. |
04-14-2008, 01:20 PM | #28 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 7,452
Karma: 7185064
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Linköpng, Sweden
Device: Kindle Voyage, Nexus 5, Kindle PW
|
Quote:
|
|
04-14-2008, 01:33 PM | #29 | |
Wizard
Posts: 4,395
Karma: 1358132
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: UK
Device: Palm TX, CyBook Gen3
|
Quote:
But I could be wrong - it would be interesting to see the bottom 20 entries in such a database, and whether they are works still held in high regard. |
|
04-14-2008, 01:36 PM | #30 |
When's Doughnut Day?
Posts: 10,059
Karma: 13675475
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Houston, TX, US
Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad
|
Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five was definitely a mind-altering, and therefore life-changing, read for me. It may not classify as scifi by some people but it's a terrific and slightly bizarre book nonetheless. An amazing writer who kept me glued to his pages and constantly thinking. I could not help wondering what he would have been like if he hadn't lived through the Dresden firestorm. Sadly, Saturday was the first anniversary of his death.
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
"Ether" and other Science Fiction novels by Kristine Williams | Mickey330 | Reading Recommendations | 0 | 07-01-2010 10:59 PM |
13000 Free Fiction/Fantasy novels | Eaque | Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) | 2 | 02-27-2010 03:01 PM |
Free - Three Christian Fiction Novels on Kindle | koland | Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) | 2 | 02-17-2010 09:13 AM |
Free science fiction / fantasy novels at FictionWise.com | narve | iRex | 4 | 06-12-2007 04:21 PM |