I’ve only managed 5 on this list: The Twenty Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life. I’ve particularly missed most of the ones less than 10 years old, except for Cryptonomicon. How about you lot? Plus: what would you drop/add to that list?
Segueing away from classic novels, here’s a fine rant about fictional worlds, particularly in comics/TV/movies, and the rebooting that occurs as the producers seek out new audiences, especially when Hollywood gets involved: Take Your Greasy Fingers Off The Reboot Button, Hollywood!
Categories: fun & hobbies
Otterday! And Open Thread 
100 books by women in 2016 
Link OTD: DIY Feminist Cybersecurity 
Hoyden About Town 
Others that changed my life? Well, they changed my inner life: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (I think that’s his name).
I’m slightly abashed to say I’ve only read three on that list: Frankenstein, The Time Machine and The Dispossessed.
Only five for me, too – Frankenstein, The Time Machine, I Robot, Cryptonomicon (which didn’t “rearrange my brain” one bit), and Pattern Recognition. I have Glasshouse, but haven’t read it yet.
I slogged through a little Lovecraft once, but I can’t remember what; and I never could get into Iain M Banks.
Thanks for the list: I’ve added a couple to my Read One Day list. I must say it is nice to see an SF reading list that isn’t heavily male-centric. Gotta love the “No HEINLEIN?!” sputterers.
I’ve only read three myself – and I consider myself an SF fan – clearly I’m slipping. They were the Time Machine, I Robot and Cryptonomicon. I really must read some Ursula LeGuin some time.
Changing your life is a big ask for any book, but a few more that I’d put on the “made me thing about the world differently” list are the Diamond Age (by Neal Stephenson – much better than Cryptonomicon), Podkayne of Mars, by Heinlein (first time I’d consciously realised an author was being sexist and I disagreed with it), and the Gate to Women’s Country, by Sheri S Tepper (I think the Handmaid’s tale did the future sexist dystopia better, but I read Tepper’s first). Oh and Native Tongue, a linguist novel by Suzette Haden Elgin, which has better ideas than writing, but fascintating ideas about the subversive power of language.
Oops, just remembered I’ve read Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson, but it’s so far from changing my life that I’d forgotten reading it, on reading the list. Neuromancer was far more original. So if I ever finish Frankenstein I’ll be even with Lauredhel.
I must say the Heinlein one that stuck in my mind was the survivalist one about the man who’s dumped on a strange planet and has to stay alive without any knowledge of what conditions and dangers he might encounter. I read it when I was very young and it was kind of refreshing not to have the automatic ‘survivalist=Teh Bad’ reaction that I’d have now.
The Philip Jose Farmer was life-changing in the sense that it gave me a set of ideas for thinking about literary characterisation and narrative in a number of new ways. And the Miller has a wonderful moment in it where the medieval-nouveau monks of the post-apocalyptic Dark Ages value their own exquisite hand-illuminated medieval manuscript work not at all, but worship a tatty blueprint, left over from before the apocalypse, as a sacred text. Which is a lovely commentary on what/how we think about cultural artefacts and relics, and how unstable those values really are.
I’m a fantasy person, so I’m another who’s only read three on that list: Cryptonomicon; I, Robot, and The Sparrow. Like Lauredhal and Jennifer, I wasn’t overly impressed by Cryptonomicon, although it was certainly enjoyable. I recommend Sparrow like whoa. Absolutely fascinating exploration of first contact, and trying to figure out alien culture. From Asimov, I prefered the robot novels with Daneel and Elijah.
This is sci fi which acts a lot like fantasy, really, but–The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Incredible. Inscrutable. Bewildering. AMAZING. Main character, and narrator, is Sevarian the exiled torturer, who has a perfect memory but who lies to you. Never seen anything like it. There’s this brilliant scene where he absolutely tears Orwell’s Newspeak to bloody pieces. That scene alone changed my worldview.
I’ve read 7 1/2: Frankenstein, The Time Machine, I Robot, The Dispossessed, Consider Phlebas, A Fire Upon the Deep, The Sparrow and Perdido Street Station (that’s the 1/2, can’t remember why I didn’t finish it, should try again). I own Cryptonomicon but haven’t got round to reading it yet. Might have to track down a few of the others too.
mimbless last blog post..And a fun time was had by all
Wow, I don’t really think of myself as a sci-fi person, but I’ve read 4 1/2 of those (Frankenstein, The Dispossessed, Kindred, Pattern Recognition, and Cryptonomicon (which is the one I couldn’t finish–I’ve liked other Stephenson but this one bored the pants off me)). Not bad! And all quite good (exception noted). I second the rec for The Gate to Women’s Country–Tepper is a fascinating writer, although after reading three or four of her books, they started to seem rather similar. Still, TGtWC was fantastic, and a different kind of feminist dystopia from The Handmaid’s Tale (also great).
I’ve read The Time Machine, The Dispossessed, Kindred, He, She, and It, The Sparrow, Cryptonomicon, The Mount, Perdido Street Station (which I didn’t like), and Pattern Recognition.
I wouldn’t classify Cryptonomicon or Pattern Recognition as SF, personally. And I would have gone with Left Hand of Darkness and Lilith’s Brood over Dispossessed and Kindred. He, She, and It is very good and I highly recommend it. The title of the UK edition (where I read it) is something different, by the by, so the AU edition could be different too.
I’d like to see either Ammonite or Slow River, one of Nicola Griffith’s two SF novels, on there. They took the top of my head off, to paraphrase Dickinson, because they showed that books can be about queer characters without being an axe to grind. Jim Grimsley’s books are similar and broke my brane too.
Oh, and I second Native Tongue, even with its Amerocentricity. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a great place from which to construct a story, accurate or not, imo.
Oh my. I must really be slipping. Frankenstein, Cryptinomicon, and I robot. I don’t really recommend Cryptonomicon as an introduction to Stephenson unless you are just really interested in a story about cryptography theory. Which I was 😛
I got 11/20.
There should be more Iain M Banks…;p
I prefered ‘Snow Crash’ and ‘Diamond Age’ by Neal Stephanson over Cypto.
Verner Vinge is great, all his stuff is worth a read.
Cordwainer Smith wrote some bizarre and great early sci fi, plus he was a very interesting person.
Going to track down the ones I haven’t read…on a mission.
Five for me too, but some of them so long ago that it almost doesn’t count. The Dispossessed, The Time Machine, The Sparrow, Frankenstein, Consider Phlebas (duty read.
Changed my life? Not really…
Why is The Left Hand of Darkness on that list?
I agree, The Diamond Age best ever Neal Stephenson.
I’ve read Frankenstein, the Time Machine, I, Robot. I can’t believe there’s no Phillip K Dick on the list!
I’d drop Asimov (I Robot) and Lovecraft, and replace them with Phil Dick (A Scanner Darkly) and Brian Aldiss (Somewhere East of Life, or possibly Superstate).
That’s a strange summary they have of Frankenstein. Mad scientist novel? That’s judging a novel not by its own inherent qualities, but by a cliche which became connected with it in 20th century film versions.
Clearly I only ever read trashy sci-fi. 😉 Thanks though, as it reminded me that I actually have a copy of ‘The Dispossessed’ sitting on my bookshelf awaiting a read, and post-PhD time to do it in! But yeah, why no ‘Left Hand of Darkness’?
I actually really enjoyed about half of ‘Perdido Street Station’. I suspect, Mims, that you probably let it go when the world-creation stuff ended and the plot had to take over, coz that is in fact the less interesting part of the book, I think. The world creation stuff was, though, gorgeously steampunky, managing a blend of industrial, alien and vaguely magical in an intriguing way. I’m sure Cory Doctorow wanted to do some very naughty things to that world. There’s some stuff about rape at the end which I remain uncertain about, though. I’d need to go back and take another look to really speak to it.
Is ‘Pattern Recognition’ really that great? I’ve heard varying things?
But like Quixotess, I lean towards the fantasy side of things (although some fantasy just makes me want to throw the book not just across the room but at the author). I think I react badly to the hyper-tech end of sci-fi stuff (I tried, really hard, to read ‘Red Mars’. My god. I just… let us just say that a combination of boredom and pissed-off-ed-ness does not a fun book-reading time make) and so need decent recommendations. With actual characters. 😉 So thanks for this, tigtog, tis handy!
*continues to push her favorite books*
Sparrow is very character-heavy, and so to a lesser extent is New Sun. New Sun is more like…high literature than anything else, like the kind of stuff you would study in school. Only with more mind games.
And with you on the throwing things sentiment. *mutters angrily about Robert Jordan*
Book of the New Sun sort of broke my brane in the not so good way, mostly because I found myself having difficulty following every last piece of information in there. It is not a novel for those of us with ADD branes.
Pattern Recognition is…good enough, but not really SF and mostly a big commentary on September 11th more than anything else. It’s no Neuromancer or Idoru, that’s for certain.
[grins] Yeah, see, by the time I even thought about Robert Jordan, Quixotess, there were already like 9 books. I have a multiple-book issue (namely that my life tends to go on hold til I finish the series) so I never even started. ;-P I’ll count myself lucky on that front. I’ve heard his women characters leave a lot to be desired, and I get the grumps when that happens. What is it about fantasy fiction and the need to have a sassy but really sweet short red-headed girl who doesn’t understand that she can’t really take care of herself (but thank god she’s cute enough to have teh menz around)? Also with pretending that the women are different by giving them different names and that’s it ?
And thanks, Bene. Pattern Recognition can go to the ‘less urgent’ TBR list. I like many things about Neuromancer, but am so over the ‘let us escape the flesh for the flesh is evil’ thing (not least coz that Cartesian split, baby, that tends to be gendered!). Hence the hyper-tech issue. Looks like Sparrow and New Sun go on the list. I tend to do okay with multiple storylines, if it’s involving enough. We’ll see! 🙂
Yeah, WP, one of my unfortunate traits is that I tend to be pretty linear in terms of plot, or if non-linear, at least singular in storyline.
I just found the sheer amount of information that I was given, with a lack of explanation regarding the world building, to be overwhelming. I spent most of the time trying to figure out what X was in our world, or what Y meant.
I’ve heard his women characters leave a lot to be desired, and I get the grumps when that happens.
Yes, they’re generally unsympathetic whenever they have a conflict with one of the male characters, but that wasn’t the most woman-negative thing about his books. WoT makes a humongous deal, like it just will not shut up, about gender relations, and the text is constantly trying to tell us that women have all the power and can make men do whatever the women want because 1) they are sooo much smarter and more strong-willed than men 2) they can make men melt into jellies of lust and 3) men could never bring themselves to hurt the poor defenseless women. The main character literally keeps a list in his head of all the women he’s ever caused physical harm to.
And this is all UTTERLY belied given that the society is completely traditional fantasy setting, where women aren’t allowed to fight as soldiers (except in the “exotic” cultures, I shit you not), and they raise the kids and they don’t have jobs like men do and GAH.
Also! The main character is “destined” to have three girlfriends and they’re all like “oh, well I don’t like this but since it’s destiny I guess we’d better all have sex with him.” And! There is a faction of women who can do magic whose entire goal is to hunt men who can do magic down and “gentle” them.
I could go on about that series for days.
Hehe. Your summary made me giggle; especially the destiny!sex. Who knew that women were such believers in destiny? Clearly I am just more contrary than mary, but that’d be enough to make me want to *resist* the having of teh secks. It’s also good to know that even in fantasy worlds, women still take it on themselves to edjakate the poor menz into being gentler. Also that women can get their way because men are lust-jellies waiting to happen. That’s definitely equality, right there. How could we have been so foolish??
On a slightly different note, I particularly liked the way that Eddings (or Eddingses, as it turns out) covered up the fact that s/he/they ran out of ideas and started repeating storylines by having a character claim that time goes in cycles. Totally hilarious.
And oh god I am so tempted to request a special thread just for mocking the way that women (and men) get represented, just so you could go on about the series for as long as you wanted. Are there redeeming features? What kept you reading? The ludicrousness? 🙂
When I was into the series (and I was obsessed), I was in middle school (that was five years ago OH GOD). I wasn’t really fluent in the language of feminism and, not being able to articulate what was wrong with his portrayal of women, was more easily able to dismiss my own concerns. I was a total Tolkien nerd and really hungry for some more epic fantasy, and he *is* good at bringing out the epic.
Thankfully, I now have Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire to sate those needs, which is vastly superior in both the “good book” category and the “woman-positive” category.
If I read WoT again, though, I think I would be able to enjoy the ludicrousness. Because, damn. That shit is ludicrous.
I have been dying to read “Glass House.” That is probably my next read.
I wanted to share a great Novel that I just finished reading…”Pinch Hitter”, written by Dean Whitney. It is a great book written about a middle aged man who finally fulfills his childhood dream of playing big league baseball in his hometown. I am not a baseball fan at all, but I loved this book. I think what I really enjoyed the most was the author’s writing style – the way he described things was incredible. I also fell in love with the characters. I laughed, I cried- it was a huge inspirational story. I wouldn’t doubt it if it made it to the big screen- that is how much I enjoyed it!
Yeah, Ice and Fire’s fab, huh? Just a lil too slow on the output, with this last book. [sigh] Why must authors also be human beings with actual lives which cannot be put on hold for readers?! Robin Hobb also rates on both, for me. I *adore* the Liveship trilogy for the variety of women (rather than having “the woman” character with various names). Also, coz who doesn’t want to be a pirate? But wow, superior fantasy is a hard to come by, and some of the crap that is out there makes picking it hard, too. And then I get disheartened, give up on the genre and come back to it years later…
Any list that doesn’t have Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light is a bit suss, I reckon.
Any list of only twenty novels will fail to satisfy well over half the people who read it, I reckon.
Interestingly, if she’d only left “The” out of her post title there’d be fewer disjointed noses, as it then wouldn’t imply that only these twenty would in fact change one’s life.
On George Martin’s Ice and Fire etc: I devoured the first two, but by the third I was starting to get squicked – applying gritty realism to a fantasy world is one thing, but relentless degradation becomes a bit wearing (his narrative web has also got away from him, IMO). I agree that his female characters are complex, multi-layered and full of strength in their various ways, but oh boy they nearly all end up experiencing very very nasty assaults, both physical and mental. I haven’t decided whether I will read the next one or not.
Riddley Walker changed my (inner) life. I was surprised but quite pleased to see Kindred on that list. There should have been some room made for a KS Robinson book; The Years of Rice and Salt, or Forty Signs of Rain perhaps.
I really love Melissa Scott’s stuff, and Chris Priest’s although older books are getting hard to find – not in print, mostly.
That moment of recognising an author being sexist which Jennifer mentions in comment #3, I had with John Wyndham, it was most likely The Day of the Triffids, and unsurprisingly it was probabyl in relation to that uber-Heinleinian motif of how much fun the postapocalyptic fellows are going to have with their polygamous breeding programs (cf Farnham’s Freehold, probably the grossest of these.)
‘He, She and It’ was published in Australia as ‘Body of Glass’, just as an aside. I actually like that title better.
For changing-life status, I’d have to add ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’ to that list.
The recommendation (in the 20 novels post) of Glasshouse by Charles Stross actually made me pick up a different book of his this week – Saturn’s Children. A tale of robots in space after the last humans have died, and how their consciousness having been deliberately made submissive to humans distorts the society that they have created for themselves.
Definitely made me think about a few things differently, and I kept on turning those pages in three sustained stints to finish it within 24 hours. Recommended.