Recommended: Fantasy/sci Fi


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I just started "This Immortal" by Roger Zelazny. I am thrilled to have found another one of his books that I hadn't read yet. I would definitely reccomend any of his stuff.

Have you read "Creatures of Light and Darkness"? Or the short story (well, technically a novelette I guess) "Unicorn Variation"? Both good reads, I found them in the library here. I also was able to read the rest of Richard Adam's stuff here. None of it is as good as "Watership Down", but "Shardik" comes fairly close. "The Plague Dogs" is also a good read if a bit heavy handed with the allegory.

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Have you read "Creatures of Light and Darkness"? Or the short story (well, technically a novelette I guess) "Unicorn Variation"? Both good reads, I found them in the library here. I also was able to read the rest of Richard Adam's stuff here. None of it is as good as "Watership Down", but "Shardik" comes fairly close. "The Plague Dogs" is also a good read if a bit heavy handed with the allegory.

Watership Down is probably the best animal based book ever! I really began to see things through the eyes of the rabbits and developed a real friendship with them. I was sad when this book ended and have reread it many times. Plague Dogs was different and a much harder read ...but still a fantastic book. Richard Adams has a special gift when it comes to writing from an animal's perspective.

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Watership Down is probably the best animal based book ever! I really began to see things through the eyes of the rabbits and developed a real friendship with them. I was sad when this book ended and have reread it many times. Plague Dogs was different and a much harder read ...but still a fantastic book. Richard Adams has a special gift when it comes to writing from an animal's perspective.

He avoids what I call the 'People in Fursuits' syndrome, which is to write 'animal ficiton' simply personifying the animals as acting like humans. Adams has the characters acting on realistic concerns and non-human perspectives, translated into human language.

I can't even really think of any other animal characters in any fiction that springs to mind as much as Adams'. King has some in his stuff, like Oy in DT or the dog in Insomnia, both those are just memorable portrayals from a human perspective.

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He avoids what I call the 'People in Fursuits' syndrome, which is to write 'animal ficiton' simply personifying the animals as acting like humans. Adams has the characters acting on realistic concerns and non-human perspectives, translated into human language.

I can't even really think of any other animal characters in any fiction that springs to mind as much as Adams'. King has some in his stuff, like Oy in DT or the dog in Insomnia, both those are just memorable portrayals from a human perspective.

Buy, Oy in the DT series was meant to be somewhat human, if memory serves (and it does occasionally, through the bong resin)

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Have you read "Creatures of Light and Darkness"? Or the short story (well, technically a novelette I guess) "Unicorn Variation"? Both good reads, I found them in the library here. I also was able to read the rest of Richard Adam's stuff here. None of it is as good as "Watership Down", but "Shardik" comes fairly close. "The Plague Dogs" is also a good read if a bit heavy handed with the allegory.

I read "Unicorn Variations" last summer, very enjoyable. I haven't read "Creatures of Light and Darkness" yet. I will check it out though and thanks for the tip. I have been reading William Gibson and Harry Turtledove recently. Pretty good stuff.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

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Reach for Tomorrow, published back in 1956, was Arthur C. Clarke's second collection of his short stories. I read it about forty years ago but the other day I picked up a nice new copy on the sale table at the newsagents.

And isn't it a great collection, even after all this time.

--Rescue Party, 1946. (novelette) (Astounding, May, 1946.)

--A Walk in the Dark, 1950. (Thrilling Wonder Stories, August, 1950.)

--The Forgotten Enemy, 1949. (New Worlds, #5, 1949; Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, January, 1953.)

--Technical Error, 1950. (as The Reversed Man, in Thrilling Wonder Stories, June, 1950.)

--The Parasite, 1953. (Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, April, 1953.)

--The Fires Within, 1947. (as by E. G. O'Brien in Fantasy, August, 1947; Startling Stories, September, 1949.)

--The Awakening, 1951. (Future, January, 1952.)

--Trouble with the Natives, 1951. (as Three Men in a Flying Saucer, in Lilliput, February, 1951.)

--The Curse, 1953. (short short) (Cosmos, #1, September, 1953.)

--Time's Arrow, 1952. (Science Fantasy, #1, Summer, 1950; Worlds Beyond, 1952.)

--Jupiter Five, 1953. (novelette) (If, May, 1953.)

--The Possessed, 1952. (Dynamic Science Fiction, March, 1953.)

It's a bit strange to look at these stories again after such a long time. The one I remember best is the first story "Rescue Party", which was Clarke's first sale and still one of his best. Aliens discover Earth is doomed and come to our rescue, only to find that the human race has already made its arrangements.

"The Forgotten Enemy" I remembered really well, but I sat down and re-read it anyway. A very low-key end-of-the-world story.

What I didn't remember was that some of Clarke's early stuff was horror stories. Tales like "The Parasite" and "Walk in the Dark" are far from typical Clarke, and some of the other stories (like "The Possessed") depend on the twist in the last line that was often found in genre magazines of the time.

However I really enjoyed re-reading "The Fires Within" and "Jupiter Five", which was written decades before space probes actually told us anything about this distant body. It was a cover story in IF magazine.

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  • 4 months later...

B got a book from the college library that we've been fighting over for two days. The minute he puts it down I snatch it up. Yesterday at the swimming pool, we couldn't go in the water at the same time: one of us had to be reading the book.

Short stories by Philip K Dick, collected as The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford, foreword by Roger Zelazny.

I realise he's well-known - but we are new to him (think I've read a couple in compilations). B doesn't even read SciFi/Fantasy (sez he).

Particularly good: the title story, The Infinites, The Small Movement (very sinister), and the one about the chap who believes the caterpillars are plotting against him... (they are).

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  • 2 weeks later...

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

2. The Dragonriders of Pern series

3. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

4. Ender's Game series

I've found that these books have been fantastic for getting kids interested in reading. So if you have a reluctant reader, you might want to try these books.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Someone back there mentioned Neil Gaiman. I've read Good Omens, which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, but long ago and didn't get too much into it.

Just read Gaiman's American Gods.

It's wonderful. Somewhere between Fantasy and The Great American Novel, with nods in the direction of road movies and police procedurals, and a number of other things.

Deeply strange, funny and wonderfully written.

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  • 1 month later...

I can't remember if anyone mentioned it, but because I'm rereading it I'll throw it out there. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (I can't remember how many books there are total, six I think) by Douglas Adams is great, funny, witty, though it can make your head ache out of downright strangeness. You have to have at least a passing interest in British comedy to like it though, so if you hate British comedy you shouldn't bother. The movie (if you're one of the six other people besides me who watched it) didn't do it justice.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Someone back there mentioned Neil Gaiman. I've read Good Omens, which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, but long ago and didn't get too much into it.

Just read Gaiman's American Gods.

It's wonderful. Somewhere between Fantasy and The Great American Novel, with nods in the direction of road movies and police procedurals, and a number of other things.

Deeply strange, funny and wonderfully written.

I agree completely! American Gods was a great read.

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