Kevin's Watch

I have the opportunity at the minute to look at a very large number of books, but don't know which are worth reading. There are some I want to look at, but a lot I've never even heard of, so I was hoping I could find some people here who have read them and can recommend some or warn me away from the bad ones. I'll post a list of the authors, and I hope I can get some insight into which I should read.

There's an odd mix of genres here, with a lot of classic Sci-fi, but some fantasy and some of the classics as well, most of the stuff I'm not sure if I'll like, almost all of it books I usually wouldn't have considered reading. I haven't even looked at most of the titles, but I've got them all listed by author (I have no idea who most of them are, though).

Be warned, this will be a very long list:

• Alcott, Louisa May
  Aldiss, Brian
  Anderson, Charles D
  Asimov, Isaac
  Austen, Jane
  Bradbury, Ray
  Brenchley, Chaz
  Buck, Doris P
  Budrys, Algis
  Cadigan, Pat
  Card, Orson Scott
  Carr, Charles
  Carroll, Lewis
  Castaneda, Carlos
  Cherryh, CJ
  Clancy, Tom
  Clarke, Arthur C
  Crichton, Michael
  Davidson, Avram
  Defoe, Daniel
  Denton, Bradley
  Dick, Philip K
  Dickens, Charles
  Dostoevsky, Fyodor
  Doyle, Arthur Conan
  Dunsay, Lord
  Emshwiller, Carol
  Gibson, Sterling
  Gibson, William
  Gilman, Carolyn Ives
  Grant, Charles L
  Grisham, John
  Harrison, Harry
  Heinlein, Robert A
  Herbert, Frank
  Huxley, Aldous
  Koontz, Dean
  Lewis, CS
  London, Jack
  Longyear, Barry
  Lovecraft, HP
  Machiavelli, Niccolo
  Malzberg, Barry N
  Matheson, Richard
  McCaffrey, Ann
  Moore, CL
  Niven, Larry
  Norman, John
  Norton, Andre
  Oltion, Jerry
  Orwell, George
  Palahniuk, Chuck
  Plante, Brian
  Platonov, Andrei
  Poe, Edgar Allan
  Resnick, Mike
  Rester, Alfred
  Richerson, Carrie
  Robinson, Kim Stanley
  Rowling, JK
  Rushkoff, Douglas
  Sagan, Carl
  Salinger, JD
  Shakespeare, William
  Shaw, Bob
  Sheckley, Robert
  Simak, Cliffard D
  Smith, Clark Ashton
  Stephenson, Neal
  Sterling, Bruce
  Stevenson, Robert Louis
  Strugatsky, Arkady and Boris
  Twain, Mark
  Tzu, Sun
  Van Vogt, AE
  Verne, Jules
  Weis, Margaret
  Wells, HG
  Westlake, Donald E
  Willis, Connie
  Zelazny, Roger

I was thinking that this may be the opportunity I have been looking for to try expanding my reading into other areas.

Murrin,

Quite a list you've got there. Assuming you haven't read anything by any of these authors I'll point out the good ones by some of those that I've read:
Asimov, Isaac - Foundation, et al. obviously are classics

Card, Orson Scott - Ender's Game is a great book, but after that there aren't too many good ones, other than the book based on Bean.

Lewis, CS - Great pick here. I'm telling you "Narnia" may be for kids, but read it and don't take it all at face value. Some great allegory in heree. One of my personal favorites by him is The Screwtape Letters, written based upon "letters" written by a senior devil to his nephew, advising him on how best to get Christians to sin. Mere Christianity is a great theological work that I recommend, as well.

I'm just gonna skip down to...Zelazny, Roger - I highly recommend The Chronicles of Amber, a 10-book fantasy series. One of my absolute favorites. Knowing your tastes, Murrin, I'd recommend Lord of Light first, however. Look into that novel, it's one of science fiction's greatest.

Well, I probably should have mentioned: There are Amber books, but I checked earlier, and the first five are missing.

I've read the Narnia books - most of them more than once - as a child. I think I still have them all at home somewhere. I'll look at the Screwtape Letters, though.

Murrin,

Well, I probably should have mentioned: There are Amber books, but I checked earlier, and the first five are missing.

Ah, a shame. The first five are by the far the better of the ten.

Some of Mark Twain's books are true classics. My personal favorite is Life on the Mississippi, my older son (age 16) read Huckleberry Finn this year for literature, and said it was one of the few books he has read for school that actually had any meaning and enjoyment for him.

No Hesse??

Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is as good as it gets! Time Enough for Love is also great.

Shakespeare is as good as his hype, except I need translations. Most people seem to be able to read it with no problems, or maybe they just pretend to. I always have to ask "what's this mean???" But when I understand it, he's brilliant as can be.

Frank Herbert's Dune is as good a book as has ever been written. Amazing in all ways. The rest of the Dune series is good-to-great, but it gets REAL strange at times!

I've read two Clancy books: Clear and Present Danger and Without Remorse. I was absolutely enthralled by both, and couldn't put either down until I was done.

Some of Ray Bradbury's short story collections are great. Martian Chronicles and Illustrated Man are particularly good.

Ok, I'll list the ones I think are worth reading, based on my own having read at least something by the author.

Alcott, Louisa May

Old-fashioned stories. Nice stories, I certainly enjoyed them in my youth, but old-fashioned.

Aldiss, Brian
Generally good Sci-fi. One of the old stalwarts.

Asimov, Isaac
Classic Sci-Fi. One of the golden agers. Truly excellent.

Austen, Jane
I know LoreMaster will recommend these. More old-fashioned literature.

Bradbury, Ray
Classic Sci-Fi. Some really great stuff, some I'm not personally particularly keen on.

Card, Orson Scott
I like most of his stuff.

Carroll, Lewis
Old-fashioned fantasy. Pretty good, very familiar, and certainly classic.

Castaneda, Carlos
More "philosophical/esoteric". Enjoyable if you're into that sort of thing.

Clarke, Arthur C
Famous Sci-Fi. Helped in the popularisation thereof. Good Science.

Crichton, Michael
Not too bad on the whole, thriller/horror/fantasy/sci-fi type stuff.

Dick, Philip K
More classic sci-fi. Very good on the whole

Dickens, Charles
Old-fashioned classic lit. mostly good, if a bit long-winded/heavy sometimes.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor
Classic Russian Lit. Can be heavy going, translations sometimes lose some of the richness.

Doyle, Arthur Conan
Classic crime usually, Sherlock Holmes being most famous. Fun reads usually.

Gibson, William
Master of the Sci-fi "cyberpunk" type stuff. Coined the phrase cyberspace in the 70's. Excellent, definitely worth a read.

Harrison, Harry
Sci-fi, oldish. Not bad, not fantastic. Usually "easy reading".

Heinlein, Robert A
Awesome. Coan't recommend this enough. Especially the two mentioned by Fist, but plenty others as well, including novella's and "childrens books".

Herbert, Frank
Dune. No more needs to be said. (Except Hellstrom's Hive.) Awesome.

Huxley, Aldous
Great. Fiction wise, Brave New World is the best. Non-fiction, very good, if occasionally a bit heavy.

Koontz, Dean
Not too bad, but formulaic horror.

Lewis, CS
See Mhoram's post. Seconded. And an early sci-fi trilogy by him is good too.

London, Jack
Classic adventure, some autobiographical.

Lovecraft, HP
Original Horror from back in the early days. Call of Cthulhu most famous.

Machiavelli, Niccolo
Political advice and commentary for middle-ages Italy. Interesting, much still relevant in the way countries are ruled today, I think.

McCaffrey, Ann
Good Sci-Fi/fantasy. See the forum for her.

Niven, Larry
Familiar, but can't remember why. Sci-Fi?

Norton, Andre
One of the Sci-fi fantasy pioneers. Famous for WitchWorld series, most of her books are great, especially the "children's books".

Orwell, George
Only ones I really enjoyed were 1984 and Animal Farm. First one is a must. Seems sci-fi, but really incredible psychological horror.

Poe, Edgar Allan
Old-fashioned fantasy/horror. Damn good.

Rowling, JK
Harry Potter. Enuff said.

Sagan, Carl
Great sci-fi usually. Good science. Popularised genre.

Salinger, JD
Praised often, not that great IMHO

Shakespeare, William
Great if you're into it. May be a pain to read sometimes. Trick is to get into the flow of it.

Shaw, Bob
Good Sci-fi. Especially The Ragged Astronauts series, and short stroies. Worth reading.

Simak, Cliffard D
Good old sci-fi. Famous for Ring Around The Sun especially. Usually pretty good.

Stevenson, Robert Louis
Classic old-fashioned adventure. Some psychological horror as well.

Twain, Mark
Early American satire. Good. And doubly so if you can pick out the satire. Some seem to fail.

Tzu, Sun
Art of War. Very good. Still applicable today. Worth it.

Van Vogt, AE
Oldish Sci-fi, golden ager. Not often to my taste, but many disagree.

Verne, Jules
Old Old sci-fi. Maybe some of the first. Not bad, if old-fashioned.

Weis, Margaret
Denounced as Fluff. Personally, I enjoy them usually.

Wells, HG
Classic, and another LoreMaster favourite. Can be a bit old fashioned.

And thats it for this list. Envy your great opportunity.

--Avatar

Avatar, after that I don't need to write anything! Great post.

*bows* Thanks. I read too much.

--A

I was thinking that this may be the opportunity I have been looking for to try expanding my reading into other areas

.

A lot of these authors are straight off my own lists


And my new list is out full with comments!

My new list, 102-200 is HERE

My old list 1-101 HERE


Anyways, to your authors listed:

-Aldiss, Brian

Exceptional SF writer loved his Hellicona work which includes

Helliconia Spring
Helliconia Summer
Helliconia Winter

Sometiimes hard to egt a hold of very good, also do not sleep on on Starship

-Asimov, Isaac

Legend. I'm not an entirely huge fan of Hard SF, but that said his Foundation series is requried reading.

-Austen, Jane

Going through a bit of a revival with the popualrity of Susanna Clarke (at least in regards to getting mentioned) and her noting teh influence of Austen. I think the novel we all knwo is Pride and Prejudice.

-Bradbury, Ray

Legend. The Martian Chronciles are must read SF, Farenheit 451 utopian novel that is a classic of its ilke A Brave New World by Huxley, and 1984 by Orwell, all owing to Jack London (which I will mentioned under London)

-Card, Orson Scott

Enders' Game was huge when it came out, I haven't read his fantay stuff but I love the Ender series. Good, fun reading, that is just thoughtful enough at time to keep you hooked. Ender's Game is a classic.

Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Ender's Shadow
Shadow of the Hegemon

-Carroll, Lewis

Through the Looking Glass and Alice in Wonderland, the shrewd shopper gets the editons with Mervyn Peake's illustrations.

-Clarke, Arthur C

Read Rendevouz with Rama


-Crichton, Michael

I have heard him speak, he's a brilliant guy; his books iMHO are trash however except for Sphere.

-Dick, Philip K

Maybe the best ever IMHO. The WWII Alt/History Man in the High Castle is a absolute classic. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch may be my favortie work by PKD, and A Scanner Darkly is being made into a movie soon.

-Dickens, Charles

Trivia time who wrote the the first shared-world fantasy? Dickens, I foud nthat out and bought a first print of Mugby Junction Interesting piece for a collector.

-Doyle, Arthur Conan

Holmes obviously, after discussing him with another author recently avoid his later works when he became a philanthropist. Awful work.

-Gibson, William


Him and Sterling (hmm credit Moorcock) the masters of cyberpunk. Neuromancer, Pattern Recognition are my favorites btu I also enjoyed Idoru


-Heinlein, Robert A

I have a profound respect for Heinlien, but not as much as others, his YA titles just inhibited my total loyalty, however that aside two of his novels are IMHO exampels of the some of the greats Stranger in a Strange Land , The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

-Herbert, Frank

Dune is awesome and he still the only writer to ever write a good Duen novel. My Dune first print, is the unquestioned jewel of my collection.

-Huxley, Aldous

I mentioned him above, author of A Brave New World, utopian classic.

-Koontz, Dean

I can't admit to having comprehensive knowledge of the work, but I'm about as impressed as I am with Dan Brown, which is not at all.

-Lewis, CS

Great when I was a kid, a sure classic, now a noticable religous undertone with deep toryism elements that make this series hard to want to read.

-London, Jack

Everoen is going to mention books like The Call of the Wild, which is solid but his masterpiece was a utopian novel, that influenced Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury, and was Iron Heel. Star Rover is an interesting read as well, leave all that outdoor stuff for the birds and yuppies.

-Lovecraft, HP

Great, perhaps unparralled imagination, who wasn't as succesful at buidlign a story it implementing them. Still a genius, Just buy any collection.

-Machiavelli, Niccolo

Everyone knows about the Art of War, and The Prince (hopefully) read Discourses on Livy.


-McCaffrey, Ann

I can't deny how prolific she was nad I did enjoy Pern very much...but stared loosing interest after the 150th book or so.

-Niven, Larry

An author I am ashamed for not reading yet who gets lauded everywhere. Ringworld is supposed to be fabulous.

-Norton, Andre

Pioneer? Yes and may she rest in peace, however I never found anything exceptional about the work.

-Orwell, George

Been touched on, 1984 and Animal Farm

Poe, Edgar Allan

His Augie is the inspiration for Doyle's Sherlock Holmes!

-Rowling, JK

There is not much to expliin, fun series, doesn't take a lot to read, good entertainment. Not profoud in anyway but dam nentertaining.

-Sagan, Carl

I've only read Contact, which I loved. Isn't there a Jodie Foster movie?

-Shakespeare, William

I don't deny the talent; I just can't stand the product.

-Stevenson, Robert Louis

The supposed classic are Treasure Island and Dr. Jerkly and Mr. Hyde (which are good). His best works are his collected short stories.

-Twain, Mark

I read the bulk of Twain's work when I was younger, Tom Sawyer was good, Huckleberry Finn is a legitiamte contender for best American novel, and Joan of Arc is underappreciated.

-Tzu, Sun

I like this work to but like Machiavelli, these works are works we read it seems because were supposed to.


-Verne, Jules

I'm not discounting his imapct or significane, or even saying teh boosk are sub-par, There just not that exceptional IMHO when viewing it from a non-historicaly significant context.

-Weis, Margaret

Garbage. The mere inclusion is insulting to the others on the list.

Wells, HG

i'm sure I'm not the only person rereading The War of the Worlds right now The true masterpiece however is The Island of Dr. Moreau IMHO.

After the comprehensive lists from Avatar and Ainulindale, you don't need one from me, too. A few comments:

Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy are masters at creating and sustaining suspense.

Chuck Palahniuk might be very much to your taste. I thoroughly enjoyed FIGHT CLUB, then read one of his short stories that was so ghastly horrifying that I quit reading him completely.

JK Rowling is one of the best fantasy writers, for entertainment and imagination, that I ever read, adult or youth.

Harry Harrison's STAINLESS STEEL RAT series is just plain fun. With the possible exception of one: I'm told THE STAINLESS STEEL RAT SINGS THE BLUES is simply a rehash of others in the series, so I haven't read it.

Never mind your list,go out and buy any of Jim Thompson's novels and enjoy!

So, Murrin, what did you go for?

Not sure; I think in the end I read a few of the short ones and not much else. Long time ago now.

Murrin! No Calvino, Eco, Endo, Chekhov, or Conrad?!! Shameful!

Seriously though, the best advice would be to simply pick five at random, plus one writer from that list you've never felt compelled to read and give just one each from their works a go.

Actually, at a second glance, I noticed you had Avram Davidson there. Many, many years ago, I gave Ursus of Ultima Thule a go. After one of the best openings to a book ever (his discussion of the evolution of languages), I gave up on it after 40 pages. I really regret that decision as, on reflection, he struck me as a seriously original stylist within his genre (ie, the fantasy genre - usually the least inspired literary genre of them all). I would definitely recommend him, and would love to give him a second go myself.

I'm drunk, btw, and just noticed this list was made three years ago...

This list was of a folder full of e-books someone had in their shared folder on the computer network shared by my first-year university accomodation, so I don't have access to any of them any more, heh.

I have, however, sincebought and read If on a Winter's Night a Traveller... and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, so no need for all the chastisement there.

Murrin wrote:
I have, however, sincebought and read If on a Winter's Night a Traveller... and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, so no need for all the chastisement there.

Good man. Two great books.