NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
Lynn McGuire
https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
this list. I have read maybe 75%.
Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
Let the criticism begin !
Lynn
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com Blog:
http://seawasp.livejournal.com
Lynn McGuire
>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
>>
>>
>> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
>> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
>> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>>
>> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>>
>> Let the criticism begin !
>>
>> Lynn
>
> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
You were ... ignored (and I do mean that kindly).
Rowling was robbed.
Rowling has been single handedly responsible for a
new generation of SF/F readers over the last decade.
Many follow-on authors should get on their knees and
praise her name. Again, she was robbed.
BTW, I failed to mention that I stole mention of
the list from:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/08/11/nprs-top-100-science-fiction-and-fantasy-novelsseries/
I am unworthy as usual <sigh>.
Lynn
Kurt Busiek
> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>
> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
Not
>
> a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
I've only read 51, and that's allowing for three series where I read
one book and decided I didn't need to read any more. Another three of
the list are on my to-be-read shelf.
Oddly, despite my interests these days leaning more toward the fantasy
end than the SF end, the bulk of books I haven't read were probably
fantasy.
kdb
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:j20sau$js3$2...@dont-email.me:
> On 8/11/11 11:20 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-scie
>> nce-fiction-fantasy-books
>>
>>
>> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
>> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
>> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>>
>> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>>
>> Let the criticism begin !
>>
>> Lynn
>
> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>
Not at all, my friend. You're so good that it's unfair to all the
rest to allow a comparison, since they can't hope to ever measure
up. I mean, really, if your books were allowed, they'd fill all 100
slots (even though there aren't anywhere near that many, most
people would vote for your books 20 times each rather than any
other book any any other author, ever).
It's not fair to amateurs to allow professionals to compete in the
same popularity contests, you know.
--
Terry Austin
"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek
Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
> news:j20sau$js3$2...@dont-email.me:
>
>> On 8/11/11 11:20 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-scie
>>> nce-fiction-fantasy-books
>>>
>>>
>>> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
>>> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
>>> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>>>
>>> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>>>
>>> Let the criticism begin !
>>>
>>> Lynn
>>
>> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>>
> Not at all, my friend. You're so good that it's unfair to all the
> rest to allow a comparison, since they can't hope to ever measure
> up. I mean, really, if your books were allowed, they'd fill all 100
> slots (even though there aren't anywhere near that many, most
> people would vote for your books 20 times each rather than any
> other book any any other author, ever).
>
> It's not fair to amateurs to allow professionals to compete in the
> same popularity contests, you know.
>
That's so flattering, I guess I have to Tuckerize you soon.
Lonnie Clay
I've read 61 of 100, with the missed books all either fantasy or apocalyptic science fiction, for what it's worth.
Lonnie Courtney Clay
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
> On 8/11/11 1:16 PM, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy wrote:
>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
>> news:j20sau$js3$2...@dont-email.me:
>>
>>> On 8/11/11 11:20 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-sc
>>>> ie nce-fiction-fantasy-books
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
>>>> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
>>>> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>>>>
>>>> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>>>>
>>>> Let the criticism begin !
>>>>
>>>> Lynn
>>>
>>> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>>>
>> Not at all, my friend. You're so good that it's unfair to all
>> the rest to allow a comparison, since they can't hope to ever
>> measure up. I mean, really, if your books were allowed, they'd
>> fill all 100 slots (even though there aren't anywhere near that
>> many, most people would vote for your books 20 times each
>> rather than any other book any any other author, ever).
>>
>> It's not fair to amateurs to allow professionals to compete in
>> the same popularity contests, you know.
>>
>
>
> That's so flattering, I guess I have to Tuckerize you soon.
>
So long as I get to be a vile, disgusting villian who dies a well
deserved, horrible end, you know it's fine by me.
Plus, it should be effective marketing. I'm sure lots of people
will buy a copy just to read about my horrible death.
(Be careful not to confuse people with the comic book artist,
though. He's a very nice guy, who doesn't deserve to share my
name.)
Howard Brazee
wrote:
>> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>
>You were ... ignored (and I do mean that kindly).
>Rowling was robbed.
>
>Rowling has been single handedly responsible for a
>new generation of SF/F readers over the last decade.
>Many follow-on authors should get on their knees and
>praise her name. Again, she was robbed.
It depends on how they define "top".
--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."
- James Madison
Jaimie Vandenbergh
<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>On 8/11/11 1:16 PM, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy wrote:
>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
>> news:j20sau$js3$2...@dont-email.me:
>>
>>>
>>>
>> Not at all, my friend. You're so good that it's unfair to all the
>> rest to allow a comparison, since they can't hope to ever measure
>> up. I mean, really, if your books were allowed, they'd fill all 100
>> slots (even though there aren't anywhere near that many, most
>> people would vote for your books 20 times each rather than any
>> other book any any other author, ever).
>>
>> It's not fair to amateurs to allow professionals to compete in the
>> same popularity contests, you know.
>
> That's so flattering, I guess I have to Tuckerize you soon.
You've *got* to light this particular redshirt on fire while he's
barking!
Cheers - Jaimie (it just seems an appropriate epitaph somehow)
--
It's time to light the candles!
It's time to chant the rites!
It's time to summon Satan on the Muppet Show tonight!
Anthony Nance
>>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
>>>
>>>
>>> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
>>> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
>>> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>>>
>>> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>>>
>>> Let the criticism begin !
>>>
>>> Lynn
>>
>> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>
> You were ... ignored (and I do mean that kindly).
> Rowling was robbed.
>
> Rowling has been single handedly responsible for a
> new generation of SF/F readers over the last decade.
> Many follow-on authors should get on their knees and
> praise her name. Again, she was robbed.
Robbed how? Paragraph two on this page says:
A quick word about what's here, and what's not:
Our panel of experts reviewed hundreds of the
most popular nominations and tossed out those
that didn't fit the survey's criteria (after --
we assure you -- much passionate, thoughtful,
gleefully nerdy discussion). You'll notice there
are no young adult or horror books on this list,
but sit tight, dear reader, we're saving those
genres for summers yet to come.
So Rowling's books were determined to be "young adult", possibly
after much passionate, thoughtful, gleefully nerdy discussion, and
hence was simply not eligible for consideration in this survey.
Tony, who has read 36 of the top 65, but only 8 of the final 35,
using Kurt's counting method
Brian M. Scott
<jai...@sometimes.sessile.org> wrote in
<news:088847trub5rbroa0...@4ax.com> in
rec.arts.sf.written:
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:39:16 -0400, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
> <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>>On 8/11/11 1:16 PM, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy wrote:
[...]
>>> It's not fair to amateurs to allow professionals to compete in the
>>> same popularity contests, you know.
>> That's so flattering, I guess I have to Tuckerize you soon.
> You've *got* to light this particular redshirt on fire while he's
> barking!
A flaming barque drifts slowly out to sea bearing the mortal
remains of a disembowelled brolly ...
Brian
Richard R. Hershberger
> >> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>
> >> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
> >> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
> >> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>
> >> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>
> >> Let the criticism begin !
>
> >> Lynn
>
> > None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>
> You were ... ignored (and I do mean that kindly).
> Rowling was robbed.
>
> Rowling has been single handedly responsible for a
> new generation of SF/F readers over the last decade.
> Many follow-on authors should get on their knees and
> praise her name. Again, she was robbed.
She is in good company. Tolkien was omitted from the list of the top
100 books of the 20th century (which, oddly enough, was released
around 1998 or so: pessimistic or realistic: You decide).
This list is better than I would have anticipated, but it does have
the usual bias for the recent. Gaiman four times? I like Gaiman, but
the suggestion that he has written four of the best 100 SF/F books or
all time is absurd.
Oh, and counting series together is a cop out.
And any list which includes The Sword of Shannara and the Xanth books
should be taken with appropriate dietary sodium.
Richard R. Hershberger
Anthony Nance
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:39:16 -0400, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
> <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>>On 8/11/11 1:16 PM, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy wrote:
>>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
>>> news:j20sau$js3$2...@dont-email.me:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>>>>
>>> Not at all, my friend. You're so good that it's unfair to all the
>>> rest to allow a comparison, since they can't hope to ever measure
>>> up. I mean, really, if your books were allowed, they'd fill all 100
>>> slots (even though there aren't anywhere near that many, most
>>> people would vote for your books 20 times each rather than any
>>> other book any any other author, ever).
>>>
>>> It's not fair to amateurs to allow professionals to compete in the
>>> same popularity contests, you know.
>>
>> That's so flattering, I guess I have to Tuckerize you soon.
>
> You've *got* to light this particular redshirt on fire while he's
> barking!
And I think Terry would appreciate it all the more if Ryk could
work in some Daleks, and possibly goats.
Tony
James Silverton
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:14:06 -0500, Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com>
> wrote:
>
>>> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>>
>> You were ... ignored (and I do mean that kindly).
>> Rowling was robbed.
>>
>> Rowling has been single handedly responsible for a
>> new generation of SF/F readers over the last decade.
>> Many follow-on authors should get on their knees and
>> praise her name. Again, she was robbed.
>
> It depends on how they define "top".
>
to my basement archive since I only remembered the titles of some. I
checked a few that I had liked a lot in the past, Blish, Heinlein etc.,
but found them even boring!
--
James Silverton, Potomac
I'm *not* not.jim....@verizon.net
Shawn Wilson
> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-f...
>
> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>
> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>
> Let the criticism begin !
62/100 for me.
"Dune Chronicles" but only Enders Game and not the other Ender books.
Why?
Too many door stopper series. A Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time,
The Sword of Truth, etc.
Also, too heavily biased towards recent works.
Dragonflight but not the rest of the Pern Books?
The Once and Future King (which I despise) bot not Le Morte
D'Arthur???
Small Gods? Diskworld sure, but that one? I'm not disagreeing, just
questioning.
Going Postal?
Johnathan Strange& Mr Norrel is CRAP. I HATED IT.
Sword of Shanarra? Really? Top 100 of all time?
Three, no... FOUR different Stephenson?
Kurt Busiek
<jai...@sometimes.sessile.org> said:
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:39:16 -0400, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"
> <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>> On 8/11/11 1:16 PM, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy wrote:
>>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
>>> news:j20sau$js3$2...@dont-email.me:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> None of mine on the list! I've been ROBBED!
>>>>
>>> Not at all, my friend. You're so good that it's unfair to all the
>>> rest to allow a comparison, since they can't hope to ever measure
>>> up. I mean, really, if your books were allowed, they'd fill all 100
>>> slots (even though there aren't anywhere near that many, most
>>> people would vote for your books 20 times each rather than any
>>> other book any any other author, ever).
>>>
>>> It's not fair to amateurs to allow professionals to compete in the
>>> same popularity contests, you know.
>>
>> That's so flattering, I guess I have to Tuckerize you soon.
>
> You've *got* to light this particular redshirt on fire while he's
> barking!
I think pork shoulder and ham should be involved, as well.
Lynn McGuire
I was wrong. I have only read 54 of these and a couple I
am not sure of since the great flood of '89 destroyed 3/4
of my books.
Lynn
David DeLaney
>"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
>
>So long as I get to be a vile, disgusting villian who dies a well
>deserved, horrible end, you know it's fine by me.
Just, er, well, don't make him a spammer.
Dave "that would be BAD, mmkay?" DeLaney
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.
David Goldfarb
problematic, since quite a few of the entries were series of which
I'd read some but not all. If I've read _The Name of the Wind_ but
I haven't yet read _The Wise Man's Fear_ (but intend to) do I count
the Kingkiller Chronicles?
For the record, I counted the Dune series (first 3, but I'd say it's the
very first book that got the series on the list at all), A Song of Ice
and Fire (first 4), Kingkiller (first 1), Thomas Covenant (first 6),
and Culture (first 6), but not The Sword of Truth (first 1), Riftwar
(first 1), Shannara (first 1), or Xanth (first 8 -- but out of 36!).
--
David Goldfarb |From the fortune cookie file:
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu |"You think that is a secret, but it never has
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | been one."
Jaimie Vandenbergh
Goldfarb) wrote:
>I count myself as having read 78 out of 100 -- the count is a bit
>problematic, since quite a few of the entries were series of which
>I'd read some but not all. If I've read _The Name of the Wind_ but
>I haven't yet read _The Wise Man's Fear_ (but intend to) do I count
>the Kingkiller Chronicles?
I say yes, if you've read one it counts. In which case I get 69.
>For the record, I counted the Dune series (first 3, but I'd say it's the
>very first book that got the series on the list at all), A Song of Ice
>and Fire (first 4), Kingkiller (first 1), Thomas Covenant (first 6),
>and Culture (first 6), but not The Sword of Truth (first 1), Riftwar
>(first 1), Shannara (first 1), or Xanth (first 8 -- but out of 36!).
That's very similar to my part-read numbers for each. The latest
Culture is a goody, by the way.
Cheers - Jaimie
--
"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been
searching for evidence which could support this" -- Bertrand Russell
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:j2185v$8dv$1...@dont-email.me:
I like the way you think, son. (Though, Daleks are Ryk's thing, not
mine. But goats, *definitely*.)
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:slrnj487d...@gatekeeper.vic.com:
> Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taus...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
>>> That's so flattering, I guess I have to Tuckerize you soon.
>>
>>So long as I get to be a vile, disgusting villian who dies a well
>>deserved, horrible end, you know it's fine by me.
>
> Just, er, well, don't make him a spammer.
>
> Dave "that would be BAD, mmkay?" DeLaney
Somebody did do a write up of me as D&D monster once.
Will in New Haven
> I count myself as having read 78 out of 100 -- the count is a bit
> problematic, since quite a few of the entries were series of which
> I'd read some but not all. If I've read _The Name of the Wind_ but
> I haven't yet read _The Wise Man's Fear_ (but intend to) do I count
> the Kingkiller Chronicles?
Well, what about _A Song of Ice and Fire_ NO ONE has read that series.
If I am correct, the series will never be finished, so they have a
series on their list that may never be finished. And even if it is
ever finished, no one can have read it at this point.
There is a lot of crap on that list and a lot of great stuff but
basically my reaction is that it's another list, who cares. Too much
emphasis on the recent and, oddy enough, too much emphasis on the
historically important.
--
Will in New Haven
>
> For the record, I counted the Dune series (first 3, but I'd say it's the
> very first book that got the series on the list at all), A Song of Ice
> and Fire (first 4), Kingkiller (first 1), Thomas Covenant (first 6),
> and Culture (first 6), but not The Sword of Truth (first 1), Riftwar
> (first 1), Shannara (first 1), or Xanth (first 8 -- but out of 36!).
>
> --
> David Goldfarb |From the fortune cookie file:
> goldf...@ocf.berkeley.edu |"You think that is a secret, but it never has
> goldf...@csua.berkeley.edu | been one."
David Goldfarb
Will in New Haven <bill....@taylorandfrancis.com> wrote:
>Well, what about _A Song of Ice and Fire_ NO ONE has read that series.
Plenty of people have read all five extant volumes. That counts.
--
David Goldfarb |From the fortune cookie file:
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu |
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu |"You have at your command the wisdom of the ages."
Ran Garoo
Interesting, 92% for me. 100% if the non-science fiction is omitted.
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
Slightly less than 57% (I don't know how I should count "read part of it").
David DeLaney
>Ran Garoo wrote:
>> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>> <https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/
your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books>
>>> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
>>> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
>>> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>>>
>>> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>>
>> Interesting, 92% for me. 100% if the non-science fiction is omitted.
>
>Slightly less than 57% (I don't know how I should count "read part of it").
Have not read (that I know of): 1984; Brave New World; Frankenstein (don't
judge meeeee!); The Handmaid's Tale; any of The Dark Tower; The Stand; A
Clockwork Orange; 20K Leagues Under the Sea (yet); The Mists of Avalon;
Contact; World War Z; The Last Unicorn (I think); The Road; I Am Legend; the
Conan series; The Time Traveler's Wife; The Dispossessed; The Crystal Cave;
the Star Wars Thrawn books; the Outlander series; Robinson's Mars books;
possibly The Doomsday Book.
So 20 for sure not and 2 maybe.
("The Foundation Triology"? WTF,M?)
Dave
chr...@balder.sabir.com
> Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor) <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>>Ran Garoo wrote:
>>> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>>> <https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/
> your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books>
>
>>>> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
>>>> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
>>>> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>>>>
>>>> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>>>
>>> Interesting, 92% for me. 100% if the non-science fiction is omitted.
>>
>>Slightly less than 57% (I don't know how I should count "read part of it").
>
> Have not read (that I know of): 1984; Brave New World; Frankenstein (don't
> judge meeeee!); The Handmaid's Tale; any of The Dark Tower; The Stand; A
> Clockwork Orange; 20K Leagues Under the Sea (yet); The Mists of Avalon;
> Contact; World War Z; The Last Unicorn (I think); The Road; I Am Legend; the
> Conan series; The Time Traveler's Wife; The Dispossessed; The Crystal Cave;
> the Star Wars Thrawn books; the Outlander series; Robinson's Mars books;
> possibly The Doomsday Book.
>
> So 20 for sure not and 2 maybe.
>
> ("The Foundation Triology"? WTF,M?)
>
> Dave
I'm also at 92%.
My unread is pretty much a subset of Dave's: Dark Tower series, World
War Z, The Road, I Am Legend (I don't think I've read it, and I don't
own it, whereas I own all the other read books), The Time Traveler's
Wife, Legend of Drizzt series, Star Wars Thrawn series, Outlander
series.
The only one of these that I think probably belongs, and I regret not
reading yet, is the Dark Tower series. (I don't know enough about The
Road, or the Time Traveler's Wife - are they that good?)
That's counting series if I've read either half, or at least 3 of them
(I gave up on Sword of truth at 3). And how do you count reading "Conan"?
Chris
Howard Brazee
<ikono...@gmail.com> wrote:
>62/100 for me.
>
>"Dune Chronicles" but only Enders Game and not the other Ender books.
>Why?
>
>Too many door stopper series. A Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time,
>The Sword of Truth, etc.
That makes it hard to count what I've read. I have not read all of
the books in those series. Do people listing these count Dune
Chronicles if they've only read 3 or 4 books?
I had never *heard* of The Kingkiller Chronicles nor The Outlander
Series. I think I've heard of The Handmaid's Tale". I wouldn't
have been able to tell you who wrote The Legend of Drizzt Series.
Several times I was puzzled by *which* book by a given author was
picked.
Kurt Busiek
> The only one of these that I think probably belongs, and I regret not
> reading yet, is the Dark Tower series. (I don't know enough about The
> Road, or the Time Traveler's Wife - are they that good?)
I haven't read THE ROAD (yet), but I thought THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE
was great.
It's got an SF subject and a pop-literary sensibility, but it combines
the two very well.
David DeLaney
>I had never *heard* of The Kingkiller Chronicles nor The Outlander Series.
The latter sometimes gets filed under Romance instead. The former is very
recent - a trilogy only two books of which are out so far, The Name of the
Wind and The Wise Man's Fear. The first one was very good; I expect the second
one to be when it hits paperback as well. Many people seem to think it already
is.
>I think I've heard of The Handmaid's Tale". I wouldn't
>have been able to tell you who wrote The Legend of Drizzt Series.
Salvatore, but that's because there's a frightening number of books in the
series (sort of like the Dragonlance tales) and I have a good number of them.
Lemme check ... looks like there are somewhere around 27 at the moment.
Howard C
> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
Wow...who wrote the descriptions? For "The Mote in God's Eye" it
says:
"The accidental killing of a group of emissaries to Earth threatens
man's survival"
Jesper Lauridsen
> On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:53:45 -0700 (PDT), Shawn Wilson
><ikono...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>62/100 for me.
>>
>>"Dune Chronicles" but only Enders Game and not the other Ender books.
>>Why?
>>
>>Too many door stopper series. A Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time,
>>The Sword of Truth, etc.
>
> That makes it hard to count what I've read. I have not read all of
> the books in those series. Do people listing these count Dune
> Chronicles if they've only read 3 or 4 books?
I've only read the first (tried the second one twice, but gave up half
way through on both occasions), but I do count it. I have to - as it is,
I can barely claim 1/3 of the list.
As for the list, having a (well known) movie based on a book sure seems
to help it making the list.
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:j24d5u$vbm$1...@dont-email.me:
> On 2011-08-12, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:53:45 -0700 (PDT), Shawn Wilson
>><ikono...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>62/100 for me.
>>>
>>>"Dune Chronicles" but only Enders Game and not the other Ender
>>>books. Why?
>>>
>>>Too many door stopper series. A Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of
>>>Time, The Sword of Truth, etc.
>>
>> That makes it hard to count what I've read. I have not read
>> all of the books in those series. Do people listing these
>> count Dune Chronicles if they've only read 3 or 4 books?
>
> I've only read the first (tried the second one twice, but gave
> up half way through on both occasions), but I do count it. I
> have to - as it is, I can barely claim 1/3 of the list.
I consider it a beter than average list because I got to #19 before
I found one I'd never even heard of before. That's unusual.
Will in New Haven
> On 8/11/2011 08:20, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>
> > NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>
> > Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
> > say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
> > this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>
> > Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>
> > Let the criticism begin !
>
> > Lynn
>
> Interesting, 92% for me. 100% if the non-science fiction is omitted.
65% for me and I intend to read about six of the others. The rest are
books I have consciously decided aren't for me.
The blurbs are silly. The Vorkosigans have some claim to the throne
but calling Miles' parents "royal" is monumentally stupid.
Kurt Busiek
<taus...@gmail.com> said:
> Jesper Lauridsen <rors...@sorrystofanet.dk> wrote in
> news:j24d5u$vbm$1...@dont-email.me:
>
>> On 2011-08-12, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:
>>> On Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:53:45 -0700 (PDT), Shawn Wilson
>>> <ikono...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> 62/100 for me.
>>>>
>>>> "Dune Chronicles" but only Enders Game and not the other Ender
>>>> books. Why?
>>>>
>>>> Too many door stopper series. A Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of
>>>> Time, The Sword of Truth, etc.
>>>
>>> That makes it hard to count what I've read. I have not read
>>> all of the books in those series. Do people listing these
>>> count Dune Chronicles if they've only read 3 or 4 books?
>>
>> I've only read the first (tried the second one twice, but gave
>> up half way through on both occasions), but I do count it. I
>> have to - as it is, I can barely claim 1/3 of the list.
>
> I consider it a beter than average list because I got to #19 before
> I found one I'd never even heard of before. That's unusual.
You'd never heard of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE? Huh.
I'd at least heard of them all -- some I know very little about, but
nothing on the list was completely new to me.
Howard Brazee
<bill....@taylorandfrancis.com> wrote:
>The blurbs are silly. The Vorkosigans have some claim to the throne
>but calling Miles' parents "royal" is monumentally stupid.
I suppose it depends upon which definition of "royal" you are using:
Quick definitions from Macmillan (royal)
adjective
?
relating to a king or queen or the members of their family more...
?
used in the names of organizations and institutions that were
established by a king, queen, or other royal person more...
?
extremely good or impressive more...
?
used for emphasizing that someone or something is extremely bad
more...
noun
?
a member of a royal family more...
Brian M. Scott
<ku...@busiek.com> wrote in <news:j24mcd$ekk$1...@dont-email.me>
in rec.arts.sf.written:
> On 2011-08-12 16:52:49 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
[...]
>> I consider it a beter than average list because I got to #19 before
>> I found one I'd never even heard of before. That's unusual.
Nr. 15 (_Watchmen_) for me.
> You'd never heard of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE? Huh.
> I'd at least heard of them all -- some I know very little about, but
> nothing on the list was completely new to me.
A few more were completely unknown to me: Nr. 54 (_World War
Z_), Nr. 63 (_The Road_), and Nr. 73 (Legend of Drizzt
series). I've deliberately ignored Salvatore for years, so
this last one is unknown by choice; that's somehow less
unknown than the other three.
Brian
Kurt Busiek
> On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:09:17 -0700, Kurt Busiek
> <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in <news:j24mcd$ekk$1...@dont-email.me>
> in rec.arts.sf.written:
>
>> On 2011-08-12 16:52:49 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>
> [...]
>
>>> I consider it a beter than average list because I got to #19 before
>>> I found one I'd never even heard of before. That's unusual.
>
> Nr. 15 (_Watchmen_) for me.
I guess the movie left less of an impression than it'd have liked...
>> You'd never heard of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE? Huh.
>
>> I'd at least heard of them all -- some I know very little about, but
>> nothing on the list was completely new to me.
>
> A few more were completely unknown to me: Nr. 54 (_World War
> Z_), Nr. 63 (_The Road_), and Nr. 73 (Legend of Drizzt
> series). I've deliberately ignored Salvatore for years, so
> this last one is unknown by choice; that's somehow less
> unknown than the other three.
I've never read any Salavatore, but I've heard of Drizzt. Probably
here, I expect.
THE ROAD was a bestseller and a movie, and WORLD WAR Z cropped up in my
Amazon recommendations (and was mentioned here and there) enough for me
to know it's recent and about zombies.
Brian M. Scott
<ku...@busiek.com> wrote in <news:j252f8$avo$1...@dont-email.me>
in rec.arts.sf.written:
> On 2011-08-12 20:44:01 -0700, "Brian M. Scott" <b.s...@csuohio.edu> said:
>> On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:09:17 -0700, Kurt Busiek
>> <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in <news:j24mcd$ekk$1...@dont-email.me>
>> in rec.arts.sf.written:
>>> On 2011-08-12 16:52:49 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>>> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>> [...]
>>>> I consider it a beter than average list because I got to #19 before
>>>> I found one I'd never even heard of before. That's unusual.
>> Nr. 15 (_Watchmen_) for me.
> I guess the movie left less of an impression than it'd have liked...
Okay, I've Googled, and all is now clear: I'd have been
unlikely to encounter it in either incarnation. I'm just
not very keen on movies, and I've never quite been bitten by
the comics bug. Apart from the occasional dip into GG, I
don't think that I've read a comic since the 1997 collected
paperback edition of _Camelot 3000_, and I've no idea how I
stumbled across it. Oh, I have to take that back: I also
have some Modesty Blaise reissues. Going back further, I
did follow Elfquest for a while -- possibly all the way
through the original series, though I'm not sure.
[...]
Brian
Lynn McGuire
> On 8/11/11 1:16 PM, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy wrote:
>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in
>> news:j20sau$js3$2...@dont-email.me:
>>
>>> On 8/11/11 11:20 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-scie
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
>>>> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
>>>> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>>>>
>>>> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>>>>
>>>> Let the criticism begin !
>>>>
>>>> Lynn
>>>
>>>
>> Not at all, my friend. You're so good that it's unfair to all the
>> rest to allow a comparison, since they can't hope to ever measure
>> up. I mean, really, if your books were allowed, they'd fill all 100
>> slots (even though there aren't anywhere near that many, most
>> people would vote for your books 20 times each rather than any
>> other book any any other author, ever).
>>
>> It's not fair to amateurs to allow professionals to compete in the
>> same popularity contests, you know.
>>
>
>
So you are are going to give him a third eye in the middle
of his forehead ?
Lynn
Bill Reich
"David Goldfarb" <gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu> wrote in message
news:LpsKv...@kithrup.com...
> In article
<cb6a3529-308d-4e47...@f41g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>,
> Will in New Haven <bill....@taylorandfrancis.com> wrote:
> >Well, what about _A Song of Ice and Fire_ NO ONE has read that series.
>
> Plenty of people have read all five extant volumes. That counts.
I'm one of them and I disagree.
--
Will in New Haven
"I don't want to be immortal through my work; I want to be immortal by not
dying."
-Woody Allen
Raymond Daley
"Lynn McGuire" <l...@winsim.com> wrote in message
news:j20s0p$kln$1...@dont-email.me...
> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>
> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
How is Brave New World so high?
Its as dull as anything.
Ditto 1984.
And the list invalidated itself upon reaching number 15.
Its for BOOKS.
"Graphic Novels" DONT COUNT!
I'd read 21 of them. I hadn't even heard of most of them.
Raymond Daley
And is lying big time
> You'll notice there
> are no young adult or horror books on this list,
> but sit tight, dear reader, we're saving those
> genres for summers yet to come.
So why are 2 Terry Pratchett books on the list?
David DeLaney
>Kurt Busiek
><ku...@busiek.com> wrote in <news:j24mcd$ekk$1...@dont-email.me>
>>> I consider it a beter than average list because I got to #19 before
>>> I found one I'd never even heard of before. That's unusual.
>
>Nr. 15 (_Watchmen_) for me.
If you can find it at your local library, it's well worth reading.
>A few more were completely unknown to me: Nr. 54 (_World War
>Z_), Nr. 63 (_The Road_), and Nr. 73 (Legend of Drizzt
>series). I've deliberately ignored Salvatore for years, so
>this last one is unknown by choice; that's somehow less
>unknown than the other three.
I think I had heard of all of them, actually; several of the ones I haven't
read are that way because I've chosen not to, sometimes based on just how
much dreariness other people report is in them. Others I just haven't gotten
to yet.
Raymond Daley
>>A few more were completely unknown to me: Nr. 54 (_World War Z_), Nr. 63
>>(_The Road_),
World War Z is a dystopian survival horror book where the dead rise.
Its title is a misnomer on at least 1 count. The zombies aren't actually
fighting but the event does take place globally so they got that part right.
Its a story thats NEVER been done anywhere before,
(Insert radioactive traces of irony here).
Brad Pitt is currently raping the daylights out of it by shoehorning himself
into the movie version as a character who isn't even IN the fucking book.
PS. The Road was also a recent movie. Vigo Mortenson would like to know how
you haven't heard of it.
It was pretty well received by the global box offices.
Default User
Neither are horror or young adult, so what is your reasoning?
Brian
--
Day 919 of the "no grouchy usenet posts" project
Current music playing: None.
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
Misremembered. #13. (18 is the next one I've never heard of.)
Mind you, I've only read a handful of them, but I've heard of most.
--
Terry Austin
Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole. -
David Bilek
Yeah, I had Terry confused with Hannibal Lecter. - Mike Schilling
chr...@balder.sabir.com
I think you'd enjoy the GN _Watchmen_. It's got the depth,
the characterization, and the emotional impact to appeal to you.
I realize it's dangerous to infer "taste" over the internet, but given
the large overlap in books and authors we both enjoy (eg Kay,
McKillip, and a good number of books you've mentioned), there's a good
chance you'd like it.
_Watchmen_ transcends its genre, IMO. I read a handful of GN before,
and it prompted me to read a handful more, but nothing has come close
to it for me.
Chris
Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
> "Lynn McGuire"<l...@winsim.com> wrote in message
> news:j20s0p$kln$1...@dont-email.me...
>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>
>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
>
> How is Brave New World so high?
> Its as dull as anything.
> Ditto 1984.
I dunno if DULL is the way I'd describe 1984, but my description
wouldn't be positive. Still, the list isn't "Stuff one person likes".
>
> And the list invalidated itself upon reaching number 15.
> Its for BOOKS.
> "Graphic Novels" DONT COUNT!
Apparently they do not follow your rules.
Shawn Wilson
> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>
> Not a bad list. In fact, quite excellent ! I would
> say that most aficionados have read probably 2/3 of
> this list. I have read maybe 75%.
>
> Three Heinleins, a Scalzi, an Elric saga and no Rowling.
>
> Let the criticism begin !
Ok, my edits to the list-
REMOVE-
The Kingkiller Chronicles (I have never heard of it nor seen it
mentioned or discussed anywhere, nor ever heard of the author)
Mistborn Trilogy (ditto)
The Farseer Trilogy (ditto)
The Way of Kings (ditto)
The Kushiel's Legacy Series (ditto)
The Eyre Affair (ditto)
Note, these are removed not merely because I have never read them,
there are others I have never read and only barely heard of, but
because I have never heard of them at all, nor seen them discussed
anywhere and I am reasonably well 'connected'. If that make that
little impact on the world they aren't the top anything)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (because HATED it, it is BAD. There
are others here I seriously dislike but will leave alone, but not
this)
Small Gods (see later)
Going Postal (see later)
Dragonflight (see later)
OK, that's ten.
ADD
The Discworld Series. There are other series that get a collective
nod, this should definitely be one.
The Pern Series. Like Discworld the whole series, not just one or two
books.
Cthulu/Dream stories of H. P. Lovecraft. I mean, really, no Lovecraft
on this list AT ALL???
Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton (series). Simply too important and
too well known an author to be left off. I could also have gone with
The Andromeda Strain or Timeline something, but this is his best known
and most popular.
Harry Potter (series) by J. K. Rowling. Really... (I DON'T CARE that
yong adult and horror 'don't count')
Ring of Fire (series), by Eric Flint, et al. I love them all.
... Too Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. I could have gone
with The Doomsday Book, but that that's too depressing. There NEEDS
to be a Connie Willis on this list, she has too many awards to be left
off.
The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. Better than some other series on
this list. And if Stephenson can get four entries, Butcher deserves
two.
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, by H. Beam Piper. My favorite book.
The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold. My favorite fantasy
novel, and she is wrth two entries. I would not object to it being
extended to the entire Quintarian series.
Now with these modification we start to get a REAL list of the best.
Konrad Gaertner
> The Kingkiller Chronicles (I have never heard of it nor seen it
> mentioned or discussed anywhere, nor ever heard of the author)
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/browse_thread/thread/edba12938c0ca57b/
> Mistborn Trilogy (ditto)
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/browse_thread/thread/b90bd053f5641b0c/
> The Farseer Trilogy (ditto)
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/browse_thread/thread/88f6f11d6e6e35d6/
> The Way of Kings (ditto)
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/browse_thread/thread/4652b80e308f3c2b/
> The Kushiel's Legacy Series (ditto)
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/browse_thread/thread/b86a822564962034/
> The Eyre Affair (ditto)
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.written/browse_thread/thread/babdd63635a1deca/
Despite Google Groups' difficulites in searching its own archive, I
still had no trouble finding rasfw threads for every one of these
(though it's odd I couldn't find a dedicated thread for Mistborn,
just lots of people saying they recently read it). In several
cases, I first heard of the author here.
--
Konrad Gaertner - - - - - - - - - - - - email: kgae...@tx.rr.com
http://kgbooklog.livejournal.com/
"I don't mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface."
-- James Nicoll
Shawn Wilson
> Shawn Wilson wrote:
> > The Kingkiller Chronicles (I have never heard of it nor seen it
> > mentioned or discussed anywhere, nor ever heard of the author)
Snip
> Despite Google Groups' difficulites in searching its own archive, I
> still had no trouble finding rasfw threads for every one of these
> (though it's odd I couldn't find a dedicated thread for Mistborn,
> just lots of people saying they recently read it). In several
> cases, I first heard of the author here.
I stand by my changes.
Geoff Warren
27e12c...@v42g2000pri.googlegroups.com:
> ... Too Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. I could have gone
> with The Doomsday Book, but that that's too depressing. There NEEDS
> to be a Connie Willis on this list, she has too many awards to be left
> off.
The Doomsday Book is already on the list. Number 97, but on the list.
--
Geoff
Greg Goss
The court martial accepted his claim that the death was accidental
when he took measures to defend against their firing on him.
>to Earth threatens
well, to humans, anyhow.
>man's survival"
Depends on whether you can get the horse to sing. Blockades are
expensive and not leakproof.
--
"If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates" (Jim Hightower)
Howard Brazee
<ikono...@gmail.com> wrote:
>REMOVE-
>
>The Kingkiller Chronicles (I have never heard of it nor seen it
>mentioned or discussed anywhere, nor ever heard of the author)
>
>Mistborn Trilogy (ditto)
>
>The Farseer Trilogy (ditto)
>
>The Way of Kings (ditto)
>
>The Kushiel's Legacy Series (ditto)
I read the first book after it was highly recommended by Steven Brust.
But it doesn't matter how good the writing is in a fantasy world where
the protagonist is a masochistic prostitute. It's unreadable to me.
Kurt Busiek
<raymon...@ntlworld.com> said:
> "Lynn McGuire" <l...@winsim.com> wrote in message
> news:j20s0p$kln$1...@dont-email.me...
>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>
>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
How
>>
> is Brave New World so high?
> Its as dull as anything.
> Ditto 1984.
The voters probably liked 'em more than you do.
> And the list invalidated itself upon reaching number 15.
> Its for BOOKS.
> "Graphic Novels" DONT COUNT!
If by "book," you mean a codex, sure they do.
And if by "book," you mean a novel, then I, ROBOT and THE MARTIAN
CHRONICLES wouldn't count. But WATCHMEN is a single sustained narrative
that's long enough by wordcount to satisfy the definition. The SANDMAN
series is well more than long enough.
But overall, it's their list, so they set the terms. If they count
graphic novels, you don't get to declare their criteria wrong. You can
make your own list with whatever criteria you choose, though.
Kurt Busiek
<raymon...@ntlworld.com> said:
Neither of them are YA or horror.
Kurt Busiek
<raymon...@ntlworld.com> said:
>>> Kurt Busiek wrote
>>> A few more were completely unknown to me: Nr. 54 (_World War Z_), Nr. 63
>>> (_The Road_),
That quote is not from me. I responded to it, but I know both those books.
> Brad Pitt is currently raping the daylights out of it by shoehorning himself
> into the movie version as a character who isn't even IN the fucking book.
I'm sure the book will remain intact.
Kurt Busiek
<taus...@gmail.com> said:
ANIMAL FARM? You're joking, yes?
THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLES, no sweat, but ANIMAL FARM?
Wayne Throop
: The Kingkiller Chronicles
: Mistborn Trilogy (ditto)
: The Farseer Trilogy (ditto)
: The Way of Kings (ditto)
: The Kushiel's Legacy Series (ditto)
: The Eyre Affair (ditto)
: Note, these are removed not merely because I have never read them,
: there are others I have never read and only barely heard of, but
: because I have never heard of them at all, nor seen them discussed
: anywhere
Both Mistborn and Kushiel have been discussed on rec.arts.sf.written.
Mistborn is by Sanderson, and he's a fairly prominent new writer,
in particular the one who was chosen to finish the Wheel of Time series.
David Goldfarb
Shawn Wilson <ikono...@gmail.com> wrote:
>The Kingkiller Chronicles (I have never heard of it nor seen it
>mentioned or discussed anywhere, nor ever heard of the author)
I take it you never look at tor.com? There's a series of re-read posts
going on there even now.
--
David Goldfarb |"Now you're living in your own fantasy world.
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | We're into a whole weird area here."
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | -- MST3K, "Mr. B Natural"
Wayne Throop
: Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net>
: I read the first book after it was highly recommended by Steven Brust.
: But it doesn't matter how good the writing is in a fantasy world where
: the protagonist is a masochistic prostitute. It's unreadable to me.
The worldbuilding was facinating.
But I, too, found it prohibitively annoying, for that reason.
Brian M. Scott
<raymon...@ntlworld.com> wrote in
<news:pOz1q.949$bt...@newsfe03.ams2> in rec.arts.sf.written:
>>>Kurt Busiek wrote
>>>A few more were completely unknown to me: Nr. 54 (_World War Z_), Nr. 63
>>>(_The Road_),
No, as the quote chevrons show, Kurt wrote the post to which
that was a response -- my response, in fact.
[...]
Brian
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
Nope. Never heard of it before. I'm pretty picky in my reading.
>
> THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLES, no sweat, but ANIMAL FARM?
Yep.
Kurt Busiek
<taus...@gmail.com> said:
> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in
> news:j2778b$sbe$4...@dont-email.me:
>
>> On 2011-08-13 12:55:37 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>>
>>>> You'd never heard of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE? Huh.
>>>>
>>>> I'd at least heard of them all -- some I know very little
>>>> about, but nothing on the list was completely new to me.
>>>>
>>> Misremembered. #13. (18 is the next one I've never heard of.)
>>
>> ANIMAL FARM? You're joking, yes?
>
> Nope. Never heard of it before. I'm pretty picky in my reading.
I'm sure lots of people haven't read it, but I'd think it would be hard
to be around SF for an appreciable amount of time and not have heard of
it.
It's Orwell's second most famous book (admittedly, steep drop-off after
that) and one of the bestselling books of the twentieth century.
Wikipedia claims that ANIMAL FARM and 1984, taken together, have
outsold any two books by any other 20th century author, but that sounds
like a shifty statistic.
Still, all things are possible, so even if it's unlikely, that doesn't
mean it never happens.
Brian M. Scott
<ikono...@gmail.com> wrote in
<news:c6607cbf-68cb-496f...@v42g2000pri.googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:
[...]
> Ok, my edits to the list-
> REMOVE-
> The Kingkiller Chronicles (I have never heard of it nor seen it
> mentioned or discussed anywhere, nor ever heard of the author)
It's been mentioned here.
> Mistborn Trilogy (ditto)
It's been mentioned here on quite a number of occasions, and
its author, Brandon Sanderson, has been mentioned even more
often: he's one of the current crop of very popular, very
prolific, and still relatively new authors.
> The Farseer Trilogy (ditto)
It's an older trilogy, and I don't think that it's been
mentioned recently, but it's certainly been mentioned here.
> The Way of Kings (ditto)
Another Sanderson, and a fairly recent one; it's been
mentioned here more than once.
> The Kushiel's Legacy Series (ditto)
Definitely mentioned here on a number of occasions, both for
its world-building, especially its handling of religion, and
for its protagonist.
> The Eyre Affair (ditto)
I don't recall whether this particular Thursday Next novel
hs been mentioned here, but I'd bet that it has been: I
first heard of the series here.
> Note, these are removed not merely because I have never
> read them, there are others I have never read and only
> barely heard of, but because I have never heard of them
> at all, nor seen them discussed anywhere and I am
> reasonably well 'connected'. If that make that little
> impact on the world they aren't the top anything)
You're clearly not so well-connected as you think.
> Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (because HATED it, it is BAD.
Those are two independent assertions. The first we will
grant: you're the final authority. The second is a matter
of opinion, and yours seems to be in the minority.
[...]
> ADD
> The Discworld Series. There are other series that get a
> collective nod, this should definitely be one.
This was one of the examples that they used when they
explained how they handled series. In order to justify your
assertion, you must either explain why their method of
handling series is unsatisfactory or show that they applied
it improperly to the Discworld stories.
> The Pern Series. Like Discworld the whole series, not
> just one or two books.
See above.
> Cthulu/Dream stories of H. P. Lovecraft. I mean, really,
> no Lovecraft on this list AT ALL???
(That's <Cthulhu>.) The fact that they explicitly excluded
horror knocks out most Lovecraft. As for the borderline
cases -- _The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath_, perhaps --
Dunsany did the same sort of thing better.
> Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton (series). Simply too
> important and too well known an author to be left off. I
> could also have gone with The Andromeda Strain or
> Timeline something, but this is his best known and most
> popular.
From my point of view he's of no importance at all to sf.
> Harry Potter (series) by J. K. Rowling. Really... (I
> DON'T CARE that yong adult and horror 'don't count')
Clearly not an objection that anyone need take seriously.
> Ring of Fire (series), by Eric Flint, et al. I love them all.
> ... Too Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. I could
> have gone with The Doomsday Book, but that that's too
> depressing. There NEEDS to be a Connie Willis on this
> list, she has too many awards to be left off.
She belongs on the original long list, but I'd be quite
content to see her unrepresented on the final list. (I'll
take Martha Wells over Connie Willis any day.)
> The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. Better than some other
> series on this list. And if Stephenson can get four
> entries, Butcher deserves two.
I don't know that I'd put it on my list of the top 100, but
I was surprised not to see it. It appears to me that they
silently excluded urban fantasy along with paranormal
romance.
> Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, by H. Beam Piper. My favorite
> book.
> The Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold. My
> favorite fantasy novel, and she is wrth two entries. I
> would not object to it being extended to the entire
> Quintarian series.
Here, for a change, I actually agree with you.
> Now with these modification we start to get a REAL list
> of the best.
Your reasons for including Crichton have little to do with
'best'.
I thought the poll a pretty silly exercise from the
beginning and didn't bother to vote. I did, however,
comment:
I realize that the panel that compiled the list was
partly at the mercy of the people making suggestions,
but there are some surprising omissions: Bujold’s _The
Curse of Chalion_ and _The Paladin of Souls_, McKillip’s
Riddlemaster trilogy (among others), Chant’s _Red Moon
and Black Mountain_, Pangborn’s _Davy_, Kagan’s
_Hellspark_, Myers’s _Silverlock_, McKinley’s _The Blue
Sword_, Cabell’s _Jurgen_ (among others), Schmitz’s _The
Witches of Karres_ and Telzey Amberdon stories, Duane’s
_The Door into ..._ series, and Brunner’s _Shockwave
Rider_, of which more than ten are on my all-time
shortlist.
More generally, I’m afraid that I’ve a hard time taking
seriously a list of this kind that contains nothing at
all by Poul Anderson, Elizabeth Bear, Gordon R. Dickson,
Mary Gentle, Zenna Henderson, R.A. Lafferty, Elizabeth A.
Lynn, Andre Norton, and Michelle Sagara/West, to name a
few who come immediately to mind. (Please note that this
does *not* mean that I think that one or more works by
these writers ought to be in everyone’s top ten!)
Had I included some personal favorites that I'm reasonably
sure are more idiosyncratic, I could have gone on to list
Valente's _Orphan's Tales_, Rohan's Spiral trilogy, and
Ellen Steiber's _A Rumor of Gems_ at the very least.
To be fair, _The Blue Sword_ may have been excluded as YA.
On the other hand, that restriction was exceptionally silly.
In fact, I thought that the poll was badly designed in
several ways and said as much in another comment:
The poll has several serious flaws. First, it makes no
sense to have individual titles and substantial series in
the same list: the two simply aren’t comparable. In my
case, for instance, _Dune_ would rank quite high on a
list of individual novels, but the Dune books as a seris,
even when limited to Frank Herbert’s, would rank very
low. In the other direction, none of Modesitt’s Recluce
novels would make my shortlist among novels, but the
series would rank rather high. Moreover, the stated
criteria have been applied inconsistently: though it is
listed separately, Weber’s _On Basilisk Station_ is
clearly part of a continuous series.
Secondly, it makes no sense to separate out YA titles.
‘Young Adult’ is a marketing category, and a rather
flexible one at that; for example, Borders classified
Robin McKinley’s _Sunshine_ as YA for quite a while
before their recent demise. There are statistical
tendencies, but there is virtually no type of content
that is absolutely excluded from YA.
Discouraging paranormal romance is also a bit
problematic, since some of what gets classified as such
is actually urban fantasy with no more romance than might
be found in any fantasy, e.g. Patricia Briggs (Mercy
Thompson) and Eileen Wilks (Lupus).
It was even sillier if paranormal romance was interpreted so
broadly as to exclude all urban fantasy, as the absence of
the Dresden Files tends to suggest.
Brian
David DeLaney
>Ok, my edits to the list-
>
>REMOVE-
>
>The Kingkiller Chronicles (I have never heard of it nor seen it
>mentioned or discussed anywhere, nor ever heard of the author)
Well, if you've been keeping up with this newsgroup, it's been mentioned and
discussed a couple times, just not by the SERIES name. It's by Rothfuss,
and The Name of the Wind is the first book of the trilogy.
>Mistborn Trilogy (ditto)
>The Way of Kings (ditto)
Ditto here, and you almost can't have avoided hearing of Brandon Sanderson if
you've been paying attention _anywhere_ SF's discussed, cuz he also got tapped
to finish the Wheel of Time series after Jordan died.
>The Farseer Trilogy (ditto)
This one I can give you - Robin Hobb, and her works are good and readable but
somehow don't get reviewed/discussed much.
>The Kushiel's Legacy Series (ditto)
Has been discussed on and off here, as has its author Jacqueline Carey.
>The Eyre Affair (ditto)
This is another gimme for 'haven't heard of it' for some reason - J. Fforde,
also not discussed/reviewed all that much, though one of the "this is what I
read this month" guys had a paragraph about one of the sequels a few months
back.
David DeLaney
>>The Kushiel's Legacy Series (ditto)
>
>I read the first book after it was highly recommended by Steven Brust.
>But it doesn't matter how good the writing is in a fantasy world where
>the protagonist is a masochistic prostitute. It's unreadable to me.
You might pick up the first book of the second trilogy (or the third), then;
the second's protagonist is her son, and the third's is many many years later
and has no shared characters as such.
Dave, there's still sexual content of course
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
> On 2011-08-13 19:43:42 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>
>> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in
>> news:j2778b$sbe$4...@dont-email.me:
>>
>>> On 2011-08-13 12:55:37 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>>> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>>>
>>>>> You'd never heard of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE? Huh.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd at least heard of them all -- some I know very little
>>>>> about, but nothing on the list was completely new to me.
>>>>>
>>>> Misremembered. #13. (18 is the next one I've never heard of.)
>>>
>>> ANIMAL FARM? You're joking, yes?
>>
>> Nope. Never heard of it before. I'm pretty picky in my reading.
>
> I'm sure lots of people haven't read it, but I'd think it would
> be hard to be around SF for an appreciable amount of time and
> not have heard of it.
And you'd be wrong.
>
> It's Orwell's second most famous book (admittedly, steep
> drop-off after that) and one of the bestselling books of the
> twentieth century. Wikipedia claims that ANIMAL FARM and 1984,
> taken together, have outsold any two books by any other 20th
> century author, but that sounds like a shifty statistic.
>
> Still, all things are possible, so even if it's unlikely, that
> doesn't mean it never happens.
>
Now that you mention Orwell, perhaps I have heard of it, though not
in the context of it being a book to read. Wasn't it on of the
books that Amazon deleted remotely (after claiming they couldn't do
so) from a bunch of Kindles?
Kurt Busiek
<taus...@gmail.com> said:
> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in
> news:j27deq$ppj$1...@dont-email.me:
>
>> On 2011-08-13 19:43:42 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>>
>>> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in
>>> news:j2778b$sbe$4...@dont-email.me:
>>>
>>>> On 2011-08-13 12:55:37 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>>>> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>>>>
>>>>>> You'd never heard of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE? Huh.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'd at least heard of them all -- some I know very little
>>>>>> about, but nothing on the list was completely new to me.
>>>>>>
>>>>> Misremembered. #13. (18 is the next one I've never heard of.)
>>>>
>>>> ANIMAL FARM? You're joking, yes?
>>>
>>> Nope. Never heard of it before. I'm pretty picky in my reading.
>>
>> I'm sure lots of people haven't read it, but I'd think it would
>> be hard to be around SF for an appreciable amount of time and
>> not have heard of it.
>
> And you'd be wrong.
Not necessarily. I do think it'd be hard not to have heard of it. Not
impossible, of course, which is what it'd take for one example to prove
that wrong.
>> It's Orwell's second most famous book (admittedly, steep
>> drop-off after that) and one of the bestselling books of the
>> twentieth century. Wikipedia claims that ANIMAL FARM and 1984,
>> taken together, have outsold any two books by any other 20th
>> century author, but that sounds like a shifty statistic.
>>
>> Still, all things are possible, so even if it's unlikely, that
>> doesn't mean it never happens.
>>
> Now that you mention Orwell, perhaps I have heard of it, though not
> in the context of it being a book to read. Wasn't it on of the
> books that Amazon deleted remotely (after claiming they couldn't do
> so) from a bunch of Kindles?
Not sure. I think one of them was an Orwell.
But if so, then I may have been proven right, thanks to Amazon's foolishness.
Wayne Throop
:: I'm sure lots of people haven't read it, but I'd think it would be
:: hard to be around SF for an appreciable amount of time and not have
:: heard of it.
: And you'd be wrong.
How about "all animals are equal, but some animals are
more equal than others"? Ring a bell?
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
> On 2011-08-13 21:38:30 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>
>> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in
>> news:j27deq$ppj$1...@dont-email.me:
>>
>>> On 2011-08-13 19:43:42 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>>> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>>>
>>>> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in
>>>> news:j2778b$sbe$4...@dont-email.me:
>>>>
>>>>> On 2011-08-13 12:55:37 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying
>>>>> Sissy <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>>>>>
>>>>>>> You'd never heard of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE? Huh.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'd at least heard of them all -- some I know very little
>>>>>>> about, but nothing on the list was completely new to me.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Misremembered. #13. (18 is the next one I've never heard
>>>>>> of.)
>>>>>
>>>>> ANIMAL FARM? You're joking, yes?
>>>>
>>>> Nope. Never heard of it before. I'm pretty picky in my
>>>> reading.
>>>
>>> I'm sure lots of people haven't read it, but I'd think it
>>> would be hard to be around SF for an appreciable amount of
>>> time and not have heard of it.
>>
>> And you'd be wrong.
>
> Not necessarily.
Yes. necessarily. I told you I had never heard of it. I've been
"around SF," in ways you can easily verify, for at least 15 years
(and in fact, a lot longer than that) here on Usenet.
> I do think it'd be hard not to have heard of
> it.
And yet, I'd never heard of it, except as a meaningless (and I do
mean without meaning) data point in a news article that had nothing
to do with whether or not it even _was_ SF, much less classic, or
even influential, SF.
> Not impossible, of course, which is what it'd take for one
> example to prove that wrong.
And? You said you'd "think it would be hard." I didn't find it even
remotely difficult whatsoever.
>
>>> It's Orwell's second most famous book (admittedly, steep
>>> drop-off after that) and one of the bestselling books of the
>>> twentieth century. Wikipedia claims that ANIMAL FARM and 1984,
>>> taken together, have outsold any two books by any other 20th
>>> century author, but that sounds like a shifty statistic.
>>>
>>> Still, all things are possible, so even if it's unlikely, that
>>> doesn't mean it never happens.
>>>
>> Now that you mention Orwell, perhaps I have heard of it, though
>> not in the context of it being a book to read. Wasn't it on of
>> the books that Amazon deleted remotely (after claiming they
>> couldn't do so) from a bunch of Kindles?
>
> Not sure. I think one of them was an Orwell.
IIRC, both were. I believe the other was 1984 (which I *have* heard
of, and, IIRC, even read a bit of before getting bored enough to
not bother with any other Orwell, which is why I've never heard of
Animal Farm before).
>
> But if so, then I may have been proven right, thanks to Amazon's
> foolishness.
>
It didn't register enough to, well, register, and I have a good
memory for that sort of thing. It was, literally, "Book Title #2"
so far as I was concerned. Certainly, I'd never heard of it before
_as an SF book_, much less one of any significance.
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
news:13133...@sheol.org:
Not really. Sounds like Orwell ripped off a Samual Colt reference.
Badly.
Brian M. Scott
<how...@brazee.net> wrote in
<news:567e47pgp88ogll3l...@4ax.com> in
rec.arts.sf.written:
> On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:21:00 -0700 (PDT), Shawn Wilson
> <ikono...@gmail.com> wrote:
[...]
>> The Kushiel's Legacy Series (ditto)
> I read the first book after it was highly recommended by
> Steven Brust. But it doesn't matter how good the writing
> is in a fantasy world where the protagonist is a
> masochistic prostitute. It's unreadable to me.
She's considerably more than that even in the first book,
and after that 'prostitute' isn't at all accurate. She's
also a very remarkable person. (I'm not saying that this
should make it readable for you; I'm merely noting that the
description is quite misleading.)
Brian
Kurt Busiek
<taus...@gmail.com> said:
And you seem to have been wrong, as it turns out.
> And? You said you'd "think it would be hard." I didn't find it even
> remotely difficult whatsoever.
Doesn't mean it wasn't. Or that you actually hadn't heard of it.
Wayne Throop
: remotely difficult whatsoever.
Well. Maybe you have a natural talent for it.
I dunno. Animal Farm is so integrated into the background culture, I'd
think there are relatively few literate people (at least in US or England
and maybe beyond) who haven't heard of it. Which is not to say it's
"hard not to" have heard of it, just that I expect such folks are rare.
And that has nothing much to do with science fiction. I mean... I'm pretty
sure I got all the references to Napoleon's corruption and communist
allegory from non-SF sources, though it happened so long ago I can't
be sure.
Howard Brazee
wrote:
>I dunno. Animal Farm is so integrated into the background culture, I'd
>think there are relatively few literate people (at least in US or England
>and maybe beyond) who haven't heard of it. Which is not to say it's
>"hard not to" have heard of it, just that I expect such folks are rare.
>And that has nothing much to do with science fiction. I mean... I'm pretty
>sure I got all the references to Napoleon's corruption and communist
>allegory from non-SF sources, though it happened so long ago I can't
>be sure.
There are a *lot* of non-genre books that could be qualified as F&SF.
Heck, there are baseball books (Summertime, Field of Dreams, The Year
the Yankees Lost the Pennant), which the non-baseball fan I am can
quickly think of which are fantasy.
Howard Brazee
<b.s...@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>> I read the first book after it was highly recommended by
>> Steven Brust. But it doesn't matter how good the writing
>> is in a fantasy world where the protagonist is a
>> masochistic prostitute. It's unreadable to me.
>
>She's considerably more than that even in the first book,
>and after that 'prostitute' isn't at all accurate. She's
>also a very remarkable person. (I'm not saying that this
>should make it readable for you; I'm merely noting that the
>description is quite misleading.)
Oh, she's more than just a prostitute. But it is the aspect of
selling herself to sadists that makes it unreadable to me.
Howard Brazee
<b.s...@csuohio.edu> wrote:
>> Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (because HATED it, it is BAD.
>
>Those are two independent assertions. The first we will
>grant: you're the final authority. The second is a matter
>of opinion, and yours seems to be in the minority.
It did win awards.
I liked it a lot, but wouldn't recommend it to my wife.
Konrad Gaertner
>
> It was even sillier if paranormal romance was interpreted so
> broadly as to exclude all urban fantasy, as the absence of
> the Dresden Files tends to suggest.
They gave Charlaine Harris as an example of paranormal romance, so I
was afraid to nominate anything from urban fantasy.
--
Konrad Gaertner - - - - - - - - - - - - email: kgae...@tx.rr.com
http://kgbooklog.livejournal.com/
"I don't mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface."
-- James Nicoll
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
Only to a rationalizing retard who is - and this is the improtant
part - trying to argue with something nobody actually said.
>
>> And? You said you'd "think it would be hard." I didn't find it
>> even remotely difficult whatsoever.
>
> Doesn't mean it wasn't. Or that you actually hadn't heard of it.
>
Either you just called me a liar, or you are, literally, retarded
and illiterate. In act, that I didn't find it hard *does* mean it
wasn't hard. Literally.
None of that matters, however, as you are, a noted above, trying to
change the subject, as you generally do when you've said something
really stupid and are too big a pussy to admit it (and you've
realize it by now).
The point, which remains unchallenged, is that I was over 1/10th of
the way through the list before I found one I didn't recognize,
which makes is, IMO, a better list than most (for the opinion poll
popularity type of list). And no matter how small your penis (or
brain, for that matter) is, I didn't recognize it, and won't in
another week's time, either, most likely. Having grown up in farm
country in the midwest, I'm sure I've heard the words "animal" and
"farm," in that order, many, many times, without any form of
reference to that book whatsoever, and that, also, does not make
you correct (or any less an idiot). The news articles in which I
saw the title weren't about the book, they were about Amazon doing
something offensive they previously claimed they couldn't do -
again - and the titles of the books might as well have been quotes
form the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon, "Wah wah wah."
Once again, you are arguing with something nobody said or cares
about. Once again, because you misread something, because you're an
illiterate retard, as you *always* are, and too big a pussy to
admit it.
Now run away and hide, little boy, because you *can't* admit you
fucked up. Again.
Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>: Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taus...@gmail.com>
>: You said you'd "think it would be hard." I didn't find it even
>: remotely difficult whatsoever.
>
> Well. Maybe you have a natural talent for it.
Irrelevant. His claim was universal. By his own logic in the other
thread, he's lying if he did not mean it to be taken exactly as
written.
>
> I dunno. Animal Farm is so integrated into the background
> culture, I'd think there are relatively few literate people (at
> least in US or England and maybe beyond) who haven't heard of
> it. Which is not to say it's "hard not to" have heard of it,
So you agree, then, that Kurt was full of shit when he said it was?
> just that I expect such folks are rare.
I suspect you'd be appalled at how many people who are, by the
actual definition of "literate," i.e., are able to read at an 8th
grade level or better, couldn't tell you the difference between
George Orwell H. G. Wells, and Orson Wells.
> And that has nothing
> much to do with science fiction. I mean... I'm pretty sure I got
> all the references to Napoleon's corruption and communist
> allegory from non-SF sources, though it happened so long ago I
> can't be sure.
>
The only Orwell title I recognize as a) an Orwell title and b) a
book is 1984. That's because I read a little bit of it, once upon a
time, and found it was a) boring (for me), and b) Fiction With A
Message. Now, there's nothing wrong with Fiction With A Message[1],
but I don't read FWAM. I read for entertainment, and I don't find
FWAM entertaining. It is, in fact, one of the very few books I've
ever started and not finished. Furthermore, not only was it FWAM,
the message was, mostly, political, or at least politically
flavored social commentary, and on the rare occasions I read about
politics, I prefer it pure and undiluted, not masked with allegory
and metaphor (even if it's done well). It's just not something I
read. Plus, IIRC, I found Orwell's writing style dry and boring.
So, having been bitten once by it, when browing a book store (back
when I still did such things), I just skipped over that entire
section of the shelves (to the extent that Orwell even shows up in
the SF section, since he's normally, in my experience, stocked in
the Classics section).
But like I said, you'd probably be appalled at how many people
don't recognize his books, or Orwell, as being significant in any
way.
[1]And I suspect that's why Kurt has stepped on his dick on this
again, because that message meant something to him, at an
impressionalble age, and he's too fucking stupid and weak to be
able to wrap his tiny little walnut around the idea that there just
might, possibly, somewhere in the world, be a single human being
*anywhere* who sees the world the tiniest bit differently than he
does, except those who are evil on purpose as a means of tormenting
himself.
Shawn Wilson
> > ... Too Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. I could have gone
> > with The Doomsday Book, but that that's too depressing. There NEEDS
> > to be a Connie Willis on this list, she has too many awards to be left
> > off.
>
> The Doomsday Book is already on the list. Number 97, but on the list.
Oh. Ooops. Well that solves a different problem.
Add then, Le Morte D'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Mallory in its place. The
Arthur legend is pretty important to western mythology, and this is
IT. I would like to take The Once and Future King off but aside from
the specific ones I mentioned, I am reluctant to make a deletion of
that magnitude, even if I personally dislike it.
Shawn Wilson
<tausti...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > ANIMAL FARM? You're joking, yes?
>
> Nope. Never heard of it before. I'm pretty picky in my reading.
Well, that's just... bizarre. Go. Read it. It isn't long and is
worth the time.
Wayne Throop
: definition of "literate," i.e., are able to read at an 8th grade level
: or better, couldn't tell you the difference between George Orwell H.
: G. Wells, and Orson Wells.
Or between Orson Wells and Orson Bean, for that matter.
Perhaps I should say "somemody who reads more than ten books a year
for recreation" rather than merely literate. But I have no idea if my
impression wrt Animal Farm is even in the right order of magnitude.
Default User
> thr...@sheol.org (Wayne Throop) wrote in
> news:13133...@sheol.org:
> > How about "all animals are equal, but some animals are
> > more equal than others"? Ring a bell?
> >
> Not really. Sounds like Orwell ripped off a Samual Colt reference.
> Badly.
I gather you mean the one that goes something like, "God made men, Sam
Colt made them equal." That doesn't sound close enough to me to get
into the "rip-off" range. If indeed Orwell had heard it. After all, if
you haven't heard of the rather famous Orwell phrase, then it's not too
big of a stretch to suppose that he'd never heard the other.
Brian
--
Day 920 of the "no grouchy usenet posts" project
Current music playing: None.
David DeLaney
A rehearsal acquaintance, last week, let me know he'd been doing a LOT of
reading while the cast was on his arm. I said a neutral "oh?" and probed
for clarification; it turned out he was processing at a rate of six books
a month, or so.
Dave "this would have qualified for a neutral 'oh' if I'd been able to get
another word in edgewise" DeLaney
Robert Bannister
> On 2011-08-13 19:43:42 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>
>> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> wrote in
>> news:j2778b$sbe$4...@dont-email.me:
>>
>>> On 2011-08-13 12:55:37 -0700, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy
>>> <taus...@gmail.com> said:
>>>
>>>>> You'd never heard of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE? Huh.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd at least heard of them all -- some I know very little
>>>>> about, but nothing on the list was completely new to me.
>>>>>
>>>> Misremembered. #13. (18 is the next one I've never heard of.)
>>>
>>> ANIMAL FARM? You're joking, yes?
>>
>> Nope. Never heard of it before. I'm pretty picky in my reading.
>
> I'm sure lots of people haven't read it, but I'd think it would be hard
> to be around SF for an appreciable amount of time and not have heard of it.
>
> It's Orwell's second most famous book (admittedly, steep drop-off after
> that) and one of the bestselling books of the twentieth century.
> Wikipedia claims that ANIMAL FARM and 1984, taken together, have outsold
> any two books by any other 20th century author, but that sounds like a
> shifty statistic.
All the same, I find it hard to believe anybody would get through high
school without at least hearing about "Animal Farm". Whether it is SF or
Fantasy or political satire is a different question.
Robert Bannister
There are two points here:
1. We obviously can't claim we know what you have heard of or not heard
of, but
2. It is very surprising that anybody could have gone through the
education system in an English-speaking country without coming across
the the quote: "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others".
Robert Bannister
> : Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy<taus...@gmail.com>
> : I suspect you'd be appalled at how many people who are, by the actual
> : definition of "literate," i.e., are able to read at an 8th grade level
> : or better, couldn't tell you the difference between George Orwell H.
> : G. Wells, and Orson Wells.
>
> Or between Orson Wells and Orson Bean, for that matter.
Wow. Of course I know George Orwell, H.G. Wells and I know I have seen
Orson Wells - he was the fat one, wasn't he? But I had to google Orson
Wells - don't think I've ever seen him.
Kurt Busiek
And Terry says he's never heard of it and that he's heard of it but it
didn't stick, so he's a questionable statistic. Even before he went into
Terry mode, which is his way of conceding an argument.
kdb
--
Robert Bannister
> "Lynn McGuire"<l...@winsim.com> wrote in message
> news:j20s0p$kln$1...@dont-email.me...
>> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
>>
>> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
>
> How is Brave New World so high?
> Its as dull as anything.
> Ditto 1984.
I agree they are not actually gripping novels, but they had a huge
impact at the time. Even when I read them at school, I was affected by them.
Robert Bannister
> NPR's Your Picks: Top 100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Books
> https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books
Never heard of: Heard of but not read
American Gods The Stand
Neuromancer Cat's Cradle
Watchmen Cryptonomicon
Kingkiller Chronicles Neverwhere
Snow Crash (I've given up reading Stephenson) The Hyperion Cantos
The Sandman Series Wicked
Flowers for Algernon The Thrawn Trilogy
Mistborn Trilogy Perdido Street Station
Stardust
World War Z
The Vorkosigan Saga
The Road
I Am Legend
The Time Traveller's Wife
The Way of Kings
Old Man's War
The Diamond Age
The Eyre Affair
The Culture Series
Sunshine
I may have read Cryptonomicon and Perdido Street Station, but I don't
remember. I am amazed there is so much Neil Gaiman in the list or
Stephenson for that matter. I do intend to read "Wicked" soon.
Dave Hansen
wrote:
[...Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell...]
>
>It did win awards.
>
>I liked it a lot, but wouldn't recommend it to my wife.
>
I wanted to like it. I tried to read it. Tried hard. Got about 150
pages in, decided "This is boring", returned it to the library and
went on with life.
I'm not sure why I couldn't get interested. I can't even remember
much about it, except that, 150 pages in, nothing happened.
In that sense it reminds me of "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
Didn't finish that one either. Nor do I remember much about it.
Regards,
-=Dave
Brian M. Scott
<ikono...@gmail.com> wrote in
<news:1b40487c-7459-42d1...@l9g2000prd.googlegroups.com>
in rec.arts.sf.written:
[...]
> Add then, Le Morte D'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Mallory in its
> place. The Arthur legend is pretty important to western
> mythology, and this is IT. I would like to take The Once
> and Future King off but aside from the specific ones I
> mentioned, I am reluctant to make a deletion of that
> magnitude, even if I personally dislike it.
_The Once and Future King_ is, quite simply, much better
story-telling by modern standards. It's also far more
accessible, since the overwhelming majority of readers have
a hard time with this sort of language:
Thenne they auysed the kynge to send for the duke and his
wyf by a grete charge / And yf he wille not come at your
somōs / thenne may ye do your best / thenne haue ye cause to
make myghty werre vpon hym / Soo that was done and the
messagers hadde their ansuers / And that was thys shortly /
that neyther he nor his wyf wold not come at hym / Thenne
was the kyng wonderly wroth / And thenne the kyng sente hym
playne word ageyne / and badde hym be redy and stuffe hym
and garnysshe hym / for within xl dayes he wold fetche hym
oute of the byggest castell that he hath /
[...]
& somme englysshe bookes maken mencyon that they wente neuer
oute of englond after the deth of syr Launcelot / but that
was but fauour of makers/ for the frensshe book maketh
mencyon & is auctorysed that syr Bors / syr Ector / syr
Blamour / & syr Bleoberis wente in to the holy lande there
as Ihesu Cryst was quycke & deed / And anone as they had
stablysshed theyr londes / for the book saith so syr
Launcelot commaunded them for to do or euer he passyd oute
of thys world / & these foure knyghtes dyd many bataylles
vpon the myscreantes or turkes / and there they ded vpon a
good fryday for goddes sake /
Brian
Kurt Busiek
> On Sun, 14 Aug 2011 07:26:34 -0600, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net>
> wrote:
>
> [...Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell...]
>
> pages in, decided "This is boring", returned it to the library and
> went on with life.
>
> I'm not sure why I couldn't get interested. I can't even remember
> much about it, except that, 150 pages in, nothing happened.
I had a similar reaction, and gave up on the book. And then a while later,
I tried it again, and this time, perhaps because I was prepared for the
tone of it, going in, I found it delightful. Lots of humor, much more going
on than I'd per dived the first time, and it built to a very dramatic third
act.
Might be worth another try sometime.
Kurt Busiek
> tone of it, going in, I found it delightful. Lots of humor, much more going
> on than I'd per dived the first time, and it built to a very dramatic third
> act.
Apparently, my iPad's auto correct thinks "per dived" is a better choice
than "perceived."
And who knows, maybe to iPads it does.