Speculative Fiction A-Go-go
 

The current discussion, in another thread, of Ursula K LeGuin’s Earthsea books made me think. I imagine most here on LoT are fans of the sci fi and fantasy genres, or are at least familiar with it. So… I thought I’d start a thread for us to discuss what our favorite sci fi/fantasy books are; the ones that we found the most enjoyable, and those that moved us and maybe had a profound influence on us.

I was introduced to the genre at the age of 12, when I was given a copy of a collection of short stories called Tales of Time and Space. It had stories by such luminaries as Clarke, Asimov, Laumer, Silverburg. I was hooked. In my teen years, I gorged myself on science fiction – mostly “hard” sci fi. Later, I also gained an interest in fantasy.

At some point in all this, I bought a copy of Arthur C Clarke’s short story anthology The Nine Billion Names of God. The stories in this book blew me away. In it is some of the best work he’s ever done; stories so profound and thought provoking that I had to put the book down and think and ponder, sometimes for days, before I could move on to the next story. Clarke has been my favorite genre author ever since – I’ve read everything he’s written.

He has written hundreds of short stories; too numerous to pick out my favorites. However, my favorite of his novels are:

A fall of Moondust (Tourists trapped in a lunar sightseeing vehicle after it crashes)

The Fountains of Paradise (The building of a “space elevator” from Earth’s surface)

Imperial Earth (the scion of Titan’s most important family travels to Earth to represent his colony at America’s quincentennial celebrations)

Rendezvous With Rama (A team of scientists are sent to investigate an immense alien ship that has entered the solar system)

The Songs of Distant Earth (Refugees from a dying Earth arrive at a planet that had been colonized centuries earlier, but with which all contact had been lost)

Childhood’s End (An ancient alien race arrives on Earth to lead mankind in the next step in its evolution)

Alas, though I am fascinated by the sci-fi thought-provoking genre, I pretty much hate the style of all written fiction in that group.

I started reading science fiction around 7. I was 9 when I read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I knew was "delta vee" was before I was all that sure I understood exactly what French kissing entailed.

But as an adult I've mostly grown out of reading it. I still do so I have books to read on the train when interruptions are frequent but it isn't a passion any more.

Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke were my childhood heroes and when Asimov died in 1992 it was the first (and remains the only) time I actually mourned for a person I didn't personally know. Sheri S. Tepper and David Brin are probably my favorite among authors I discovered as an adult.

I had a less intense relationship with fantasy, especially since it seemed like everything had to be an epic fantasy spanning multiple volumes and never coming to an end. I love The Sword of Shannara when that was the only book in the series (I read it before Tolkein so I must admit that I've always kind of thought of Tolkein as a Terry Brooks wannabe). The first three entries in Raymond E. Feist's Magician books. My all time top fantasy remains Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (the first trilogy, though the second is still good; I'm still trying to decide if I'll give the third one he's currently doing a chance).

I like Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series. It's about a group that crash lands on this colder, slightly darker planet (with 3 suns, go figure), that because of the crash, loses contact with Earth and is forgotten about. The planet's culture eventually develops to the point it has completely forgotten or rewritten its origins and individual cultures for different areas have developed. Then Earth re-makes contact with it. It's what I'd call fem-lit as there is definitely a feminist flavor to it, but not so much that I would find it distasteful or anything. Many books in the series too, so pretty fun to go through.

Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles (possibly the best book ever written)
Isaac Asimov - I, Robot
Arthur Clarke - Childhood's End
Clifford Simak - City (Beautiful and sadly underrated)
Pohl/Kornbluth - The Space Merchants
Robert Heinlein - Stranger
Theodore Sturgeon - Short Stories (Sadly underrated)
Harlan Ellison - Various
Richard Matheson - Various
Charles Beaumont - Various
Kurt Vonnegut - Earlier works
J.G. Ballard - Short Stories

Susan got me into Teri Pratchett. And I liked the first three or so Hitchhikers books (they got progressively less good). But other than that, not much in the fantasy arena.

I really don't see that genre as having a particular style of writting. It really depends on the author.

Oh... A little Arthur C Clarke trivia question I forgot to ask...

What important telecommunications concept is Clarke credited for first proposing in a magazine article he wrote in 1945?

geostationary satellites

He also did a lot for the idea of a space ladder in The Fountains of Paradise.

Well, as a young adult, I read a bit of Clarke, Heinlein, Asimov, and Ellison and detected a certain similar something I didn't quite like about them. I loved the stories and the concepts thrown around ... but they seemed very "Genre-ishly" apart from regular fiction, and that kinda bugged me.

I stayed away from sci-fi after that, so I have no idea if later authors came around to telling genre stories in a manner which seemed less genre-ish.


I haven't read ANY, but I loathe the entire concept of Fantasy literature. Go figure, since I adore The Lord of the Rings and other Tolkien stuff. But I can totally see why other people find Tolkien's works "gay" - and that's how I feel about the rest of the fantasy field.