Tuesday, April 29, 2003

More Science Fiction, and some [gasp] fantasy

Entertainment

I would agree to items #a, III and four of Johnny’s list. I’ve already explained why Snow Crash didn’t make it to my list, and the same applies to Brin’s Postman. I thought I, Robot sucked, three stupid suggestions for automata notwithstanding. Never read Pynchon, so can’t say. However, his list reminded me of a couple other books:

  • Shockwave Rider, by John Brunner
  • Voice of the Whirlwind, by Walter Jon Williams

    If I could establish a precedence in my list, Brunner’s book would be near the top. An ur-cyberpunk novel that prefigures most of the concepts later abused by Gibson and Sterling. Whirlwind is a better novel than Neuromancer.

    On to fantasy - my top five fantasy novels/series:

  • Lord of the Rings, by some guy, think his name begins with “D”
  • Freedom and Necessity, by Emma Bull and Steven Brust
  • Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
  • Age of Unreason, by J. Gregory Keyes
  • The Earthsea Trilogy, by Ursula K. Le Guin (and I do mean trilogy)

    I also enjoyed The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, by Stephen Donaldson; the Belgariad by David Eddings, Riftwar, by Raymond Feist; The Silmarillion, by Tolkien; and little else. American Gods would be on this list, were it not on the other one.


    Posted by Buckethead on 04/29/03 at 06:38 PM
    Entertainment • Permalink