You're very welcome, Janalyn! I'm slowly working my way through the list. I'd read about half of them, but have now added 6 more, so I'm up to 32 of the 50. Just recently finished Mieville's The City & the City: this is one seriously weird setting framing a police procedural. Two cities occupy the same physical space, but are individual and separate entities: the residents of each city can perceive each other, but it's a crime to acknowledge them so they assiduously 'unsee' things and people who exist in the other city. The story follows the police detective of one city as he investigates the murder of a girl who was murdered in the other city, then transported through the border back into his. The dual city setting is elegantly sustained throughout the plot: it leaves you a little off-kilter but the people are so real. For those who've read Mieville's other work like Iron Council, this novel does not have the grotesqueries which make some of his other novels so discomfiting to read, and the vocabulary is a little more normal. I think I looked up only one word this time: contumely.

In addition to the Mieville book, the others I've recently finished are Kindred, Never Let Me Go, Foundation, Among Others, and Zone One. The Asimov book was a bit dated, and the Walton simply an adolescent paean to SFF literature, but the other 3 were outstandingly thoughtful!

I've read 19 of those listed, plus other books by some of the listed authors. I haven't been reading much sci-fi or fantasy lately, but this is an excellent list to get back into. I have been dipping into The Hobbit in anticipation of the next film.

One of my favorite books on the list, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, is being made into a TV series by BBC America. I'm cautiously hopeful, but we'll see.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

There are fifteen I have not read at all, half a dozen I read so long ago I no longer remember them very clearly, and several in which I read the first of a series but not the others. This is not always a bad thing. In particular I would recommend only reading the superb Dune and skipping the quite dreadful follow up novels. I stopped after one or two, because they were coming very close to destroying my experience of the first one, a book I truly loved. I would say the same thing about Ender's Game and the follow up novels to it, although there the later books were not quite as bad as the later Dune ones were.

I think I'll start working on some of the fifteen, though first I have to finish a book club book that has me dragging my feet (and I've barely started it). Also I'm re-reading the Hunger Games series, too, having just seen the second movie, which I heartily recommend.

Rosefolly

I gave up on Little, Big. As a little kid, I never liked Alice in Wonderland either, not sure why but I found it just disturbing. The former reminded me of it. So I did make it to about page 70 then decided life is too short to spend time on a book I am just not enjoying, no matter how many critical accolades there are for it.
Sheri I do remember you reading Jonathan . I should revisit that one, it was a black and white enormous book from what I remember, but I just couldnt get into it for some reason. Same thing for Gormenghast. And I know so many of you loved that book! I still have it on a shelf or a bag or a box around here. :)

I am going to buy the Octavia Butler novel because my library doesnt have it. I have read other books by her and really enjoyed them...Parable of the Sower etc. Someone from here introduced me to her books, so thank you whoever you were.

Foundation was one of the first sci-fi books I read...I didnt start reading this genre until my early 20's because I had avoided anything to do with sci-fi before that time. I am not sure but it could be because I associated it with some series books (Tom Swift?) that were next to the Hardy Boys in the library when I was a kid, and they looked awful. I picked up Dune after Foundation and was hooked by the genre.

I read Never Let Me Go after discussing Norwegian Wood at RP.. That may have been a Martin selection, but in any event, I really enjoyed it. I never did go see the movie. I think I will be skipping most movie adaptations because with the exception of LOTR, they just all fall short of my imagination or Hollywood tinkers with the story too much. For example, I read and then saw Cloud Atlas this summer (that was another Martin selection btw) and the movie was just lame; the movie ending was so much different than the book's. It made for a much weaker interpretation.

I just saw your post Rosefolly. I read all three of the Hunger Games books in about 4 days before I saw the first movie. Loved the movie and just rewatched the first one, we will definitely be going to the second. So I should add that one to the MOVE ADAPTATIONS THAT WORK list.
I think authors should stop at three books in a series. That is all that I can usually put up with and even then.... So many authors these days just keep writing and writing until things are so tired, including all the characters and the reader. Agree with you both on Dune and Ender's Game.

Just finished Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring: urban fantasy but using Caribbean mythology & traditions rather than the now-overused Celtic fairy court stuff. Set in a future decayed Toronto, the plot is set in motion by organ-stealing for the rich & privileged, but the real driver is the man who abuses the gods' power to keep himself in power and to stay young. The heroes of the story are the women; the (mortal) men are mostly corrupt bullies or weak whiners. Some horrific scenes - not for the faint of heart! But a strong fantasy, enlivened by the Caribbean slant. I'd never have found this book without this list.

A fairly new addition to the Sci Fi genre is the trilogy by Hugh Howey: 'Wool', 'Shift' and 'Dust'.

Highly recommended!

Murraymint - I read the Wool Omnibus as ebooks, and agree, they were good, great twist. Howey is an indie writer/publisher I believe. They weren't expensive either. Someone on the forum here recommended them, I think it was Pat but perhaps it was you? I haven't read Shift or Dust, are they continuations or related?

Also since I just finished a reread of Dan Simmon's Hyperion, I wanted to make sure you all know what a great writer he is. Look that one up.

Agreed: If Tolkien can write LotR in three volumes, it is a bit self-indulgent to take much more than that. I speak of series that create a single story arc. Series where the volumes each stand alone are a different issue. They can go on as long as the writer does not go stale.

I read the first Wool story some time ago and it made me sad. Interesting, and I'm glad I read it, but I decided not to go on with the stories. Too much sadness in real life. I don't need, or even want, rosy jolly fiction, but I limit to once in a while books that leave me feeling sad when I am done. Larry McMurtry does that to me. I really like his books a lot, but don't read them very frequently.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly - Larry McMurtry...we discussed Lonesome Dove years ago here, and I loved that book so much it has a special spot on my reread shelf. Yes, cried during that one.

Siobhan - That short story by A. Clarke that you linked. You do realise that from now on I will be putting the supernova on top of my Christmas tree every year? Great read but not if you are really religious, I think. :)

So we saw Hunger Games 2 last night and really enjoyed it! Very well done.

Just finished The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, which is on our list here. Now the first paragraph is the following, listen carefully:

"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea."

I read that and thought...this book is meant to be read aloud to children with imagination at bedtime. It is a lovely story and I just wish I had known about it when my kids were around 7 - 9, and still in the magic age. All of us would have enjoyed it.

In another thread Rosefolly mentioned that she had just read and enjoyed Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven. He happens to be one of my fav authors, and I actually have most of his books in hardcover and DO NOT give them away, as I usually do.

I like him best when he intertwines history with his fantasy. My favourite is Lions of Al Rassan, followed by Song For Arbonne and Tigana. His latest books deal with Chinese history, Under Heaven and one published this year called River of Stars.

Here is a description of how he related real history to Lions of Al Rassan for example. Taken from the BRight Weavings website:

"In The Lions of Al-Rassan, GGK went further than he ever had before towards history and away from traditional high fantasy. Al-Rassan is a thinly disguised Al-Andalus - the book speaks powerfully and poetically of the conflict and tragedy of a fragmenting world inspired by the history of reconquista Spain. The three peoples that inhabit Al-Rassan and its neighbour Esperana -Asharites, Jaddites and Kindath- are clear parallels of Moors, Christians and Jews. People somewhat familiar with Spanish history might realise that Rodrigo Belmonte is inspired by the legendary figure of El Cid, but they may not realise that other direct historical parallels also exist. For example, there was a Jewish chancellor to a Moorish King in one of the city states, Granada, whose name was Shmuel HaNagid (Samuel the Prince). There was also an Ibn Ammar. There may not have been a day of the moat - but there was a day of the ditch. For a brief look at the historical events that inspired the book, click here."

Copied from the January reading thread:

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood wasn't exactly a joy of a book.

Have you ever been to one of those Art Museums and stood before some enormous modern art painting, surrounded by those staring at it with beatific expressions and the only sounds are hushed, awed murmurs and the squelching of running shoes on polished marble? And there is a little sign on the wall that describes said work of art as:"man in agony reaching towards the meaning of the universe." And all you see is some amazing splotches of colour with a squiggly black thing in the middle and purple streaks on the sides.
Yep, I missed the boat on this novel. I am sure I am missing something deeply meaningful, but I did not like it, Sam I am. I realise that Atwood is being innovative in narrative forms lately (she won some kind of award for it in 2013) but this novel felt disjointed and just didnt work for me. I read the first two novels as well, they werent favs either, but at least I had some semblance of where she was going. There are numerous rave reviews out there but in my opinion Atwood doesnt do hard sci-fi speculative fiction very well. End of rant, just relieved I finally finished it and can move on.

I've read close to half of the books listed, well, some of them. I didn't read the whole series, like Dune (as Rosefolly said, the following books in the series nearly ruined the first one for me so I never finished the series). Some of these I won't read as I know I won't like them beforehand, based on the blurbs, but I may try others...expand my horizons!

Janalyn, oops I just ordered the Atwood book! Oh well! I really enjoyed the second one (year of the flood), but the set is pretty dark. What was it about this one that you didn't like (without spoilers please!)

Speaking of art museums, I think one of my favorite titles is on one of the sculptures in the Hirshhorn outdoor sculpture garden. It always makes me snicker.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nakian: Goddess of the Golden Thighs Sculpture

Cheryl - She skips around a lot, it felt very disjointed as if she didnt know how to weave it all together. I didnt enjoy the dialogues with the crakers, the piggoons made my eyes roll especially later in the novel...think taxi here. The ending felt contrived, like, ok now, i have no idea where to go next so...off with your head kind of thing. Maybe if I had chewed magic mushrooms, the novel would have been more enjoyable. Please read it and let me know what you think. Like I said I am probably missing something so help me find it. :)

OH MY! whoever sculpted that..that..that..what came out from the Goddesses thighs, was definitely on magic mushrooms. I need to show my husband this one....

This post was edited by janalyn on Fri, Jan 3, 14 at 20:42

Irked to see nothing from CJ Cherryh or Sheri Tepper - Cherryh in particular has been prolific and genre expanding for 30 years while Tepper can sometimes get a bit lost in an earnest feminist/environmental morass but there is no denying Grass and The Gate to Women's Country were seminal SF novels.

I would also be inclined to mention Joan Sloncjewski's Door into Ocean, Julie Czerneda, Linda Nagata and (of course) Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time.

Frankly, the 'official' list is boringly predictable and safe - I see no Neal Asher and only the merest glance at more contemporary books.....and the list compilers, who fail to include gems such as Cities in Flight (Blish) or any of the early Greg Bear books (before he got complacent), not to mention upcoming fantasy writers such as Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch really need to get out a bit more.

Hi Campanula - I haven't seen you on this forum before. Welcome!

I agree that early Sheri Tepper is quite good, but she got dreadfully preachy as time went on. I have stopped reading her books due to all that earnestness.

I read one CJ Cherryh which I liked very much, Cuckoo's Nest. However I was never able to get into any of her other books. I did try. Downbelow Station -- what a great title!

Campanula, I also really enjoy Julie Czerneda's SF. I've read her Trade Pact, Web Shifters and Stratification series and have a few more by her in my TBR.

Another Fantasy author I really enjoy is Carol Berg.

Please keep the titles and authors coming! I am always on the lookout for good SF/F...there is a lot out there that is NOT good...so I really appreciate your posts here.

Sheri Tepper, agreed. Grass and Gate to Womens Country are on my reread shelf. In fact, I led a discussion on Gate to Womens Country years ago on this site. I haven't checked out her books from the past several years, and think I will pass now.

CJ Cherryh - She was one of the first authors in this genre that I started reading. I have read all of her sci-fi books with the exception of the latter novels in the "er" books, you know, the Betrayer etc ones. Just lost interest there. I read all her Morgaine novels, Dreamstone and tried but didnt like the Fortress novels. I think Cherryh writes the best alien-human novels I have come across. She is so good at the culture/mythology clashes, and actually gets you inside the head of the aliens. Wonderful.

Georgia and Campanula, thanks for the new author suggestions, and hope to read some of your book reviews soon. We should get a discussion going sometime.

Finished City and the City last night. It's hard to pigeonhole that one, because although it is a fantasy it doesn't follow the usual plot line. The author is brilliant. At then end of the book there is an interview with him where he describes it as antifantasy, 'weird' and a police procedural case. It did read as a true crime novel, prose was terse but effective. It is one of the few novels lately that I have had to look unknown words up in the dictionary.
I enjoyed it a lot, lots to think about, in some ways it reminded me of Blindness.

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Do any of you visit SFF forums and if so, would you let me know. I am looking for one for book discussions. Thanks!

I read and just loved The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman last night. I didn't want it to end. He captured that imaginative period of childhood perfectly, and brought back so many memories. I had special places like that too. In the woods where I played as a 7-9 year old there was a little glade, with various ferns, deep moss, rocks and a tiny creek that just seemed to magically appear out of the boulders. I used to sit there very quietly waiting for the fairies to reappear because I knew they were shy. One time, a hummingbird hit the big window of our house - I used to think they were a type of fairy. I was so upset my mom wrapped it in a kleenex and told me bury it in a special place. Instead I took it to my magic place and placed it uncovered, in the moss. The next day, I went there and the hummingbird was gone so I knew the fairies had either brought it back to life or it was with them now. As a little kid, you believe things like that. As an adult you know that some predator had a tasty snack. Sigh.
This novel was magic.

I finally read Pratchett's first Discworld novel the other day, The Colour of Magic. It was rather silly but fun, and the sly pokes at various popular sff quite clever - the Pern dragonriders lampoon was particularly blatant & funny. This is also one of the books where I turned the page and found myself staring blankly at an expanse of white! I couldn't believe I'd come to the end, and went flipping pages looking for the next chapter. I gather The Light Fantastic picks up the story, but although I liked The Colour of Magic, it wasn't enough for me to go hunting up my copy of The Light Fantastic which has been languishing on my shelves for several years. Instead, I went for a re-read of the Tiffany Aching stories. :) They are still my favorite Pratchett books.

Janalyn, I really liked the Gaiman book too, not only for capturing the wonder of childhood, but also for the poignancy of the adult losing that wonder.

This post was edited by donnamira on Mon, Jan 20, 14 at 21:30

I read Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones over the weekend and thought it was wonderful.

I noticed that the Ender's Game movie was on cable the other day, which reminded me that the book was another one on this list. So I downloaded an e-copy to take with me on an overseas trip. I started it Friday am in the Toulouse airport, and it lasted through Frankfurt and halfway home to DC. Although disturbing in parts, I couldn't put it down, and found that after finishing it, I couldn't concentrate on anything else either!

That makes 34 of the 50. :)

I'd like to try The Female Man next, but my library doesn't have it.

I've read almost 17 of the titles in the list (I've only read the first of the Gormenghast books and the last Pern book I read was Dragonsdawn, which was such a let-down that I stopped reading the series). I have a further 8 on my TBR list.

I recently got a copy of The Mists of Avalon but feel a bit daunted by its size, which is approximately that of two bricks. I'm seriously considering buying an e-edition to avoid overstraining my hands when I read it. I am currently re-listening to my audio book of the Lord of the Rings.

A fantasy novel I enjoyed recently was Medicine Road by Charles de Lint.

I downloaded Frankenstein from Project Gutenberg, and read it on my iPhone during the daily train commutes. (i've been quite surprised at how comfortable I find reading from the Kindle app on that tiny screen) I thought the story bogged down a bit when it went back to Victor after the 'monster' completed his tale, but that may have been because by that time, i had decided that Victor was thoroughly unlikeable and I hated seeing innocents suffer from his selfishness and inability to take responsibility for what he'd done.

So now up to 35 of the 50. :)

Janalyn,
I have read almost half of the books you listed, including the two Arthurian ones and, although T.H. White's "The Once and Future King" was excellent, it took a lot of perseverance to get through The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - well worth it though for that different perspective.
However, I stumbled across another author, Jack Whyte, born in Scotland, but living in BC, who has written a fabulous series of books about the Arthurian period. There are 9 books in total. I have read 5 of them now and have ordered my next in line. For anyone interested in the fantasy surrounding Arthur I would recommend these

I've been finding some good fantasy reads in the last few years. One that I really enjoyed, and may already have been mentioned here, is "The Rook" by Daniel O'Malley. If you are not familiar with it, here is a brief description from Amazon: "Myfanwy Thomas awakes in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, her only hope of survival is to trust the instructions left in her pocket by her former self. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization and this person wants her dead."
I loved the main character's sense of humor and the creativity of the author.

Another couple of books I discovered recently are by Anne Bishop - "Written in Red" and "Murder of Crows," from a series called The Others.

I just read Stanislaw Lem's Solaris (now up to 36 of the 50), which is one seriously weird book! Definitely worth being on the list - a 'first contact' novel in which the 2 intelligences (human and the sentient planet) are so different that communication is impossible. The images of the sentient ocean are incredible.

Read Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke recently...Donnamira you might enjoy it a lot, had a lot of hard science (mainly physics), which my brain knew at one time but somehow deleted during the past few decades. Currently reading China Mieville's Railsea, but the premise is not really grabbing me. I am not far into it, but trains and Moby Dick just don't do it for me. Glad to see people still posting here, I'll be around more since Winter Is Coming.

I'm still working my way through this list! Just finished Brave New World, eeuww creepy! Of the classic dystopias, I read 1984 a long time ago, but never got around to BNW. I noticed the structured clone society of alphas, betas, etc., and made the connection to Cherryh's novels with their cloned servant classes, especially Serpents Reach - I assume this was an allusion I'd never noticed before?

Janalyn, I was about to say that I'd read the Clarke novel years ago, but now I think that I'm mixing it up with Childhood's End. Which one had the race that resembled our culture's image of the devil?