Now, see, I would have put TGB into the “time-passer” category too. Some excellent bits but distinctly uneven.
Looking at the Hugo list, mostly it tells me that I need to expand my reading list.
I’ll echo Perdido Street Station and The Curse of Chalion, which both had the misfortune to be nominated when American Gods was, which I really, really enjoyed. But I’m not sure which would have received my pick if you really asked me to choose.
I think the more interesting is to look at years when the losers are better than the winners (IMO, of course). I thought Among Others was terribly dull, so Leviathan Wakes or A Dance With Dragons would have easily been a better choice that year for me (though neither are classics, per se).
Steel Beach, an all time top ten favorite for me. I’ll also echo Perdido Street Station, such a great new twist on dystopias.
Yup. As a person, he seems pretty profoundly decent, and full credit for that; and I do think Sandman was brilliant. But his novels don’t do much for me (with the exception of Coraline, which is my favorite body horror and will FREAK YOU THE FUCK OUT, Clive Barker for the playground crowd).
heh In my piers Anthony phase I bought some of his books in a loose set and I read macroscope that was in a few xanth books … if I had only known anthony had disowned the book id of never even of cracked it open … I was like " full of shit" would be my book review and hed agree … the only thing he got remotely right is yes if you used such a scope it would be almost centuries between what you seen and when it happened in real time … I’m not even going ot discuss the human subplots…
I know there are better books on the list but Dorsai! is my favorite.
Little Fuzzy
The Planet Buyer
The Witches of Karres
The Many Colored Land
…and many more. Some great books in that list. And some clunkers, too, of course.