Second Game, by Katherine Maclean and Charles DeVet, extended from a short story by the same title.
The short’s won a hugo, so it had to be popular, even though the only other person I know who’s read it is my father. I got the book used, so someone else has to have read it.
It’s almost as good as the short, and adds a lot to it. The only two things I don’t like are only referenced only one time apiece and were easily fixed with scotch-tape and a single gum wrapper, ripped as to fit. With those in place, I can see no reason why this isn’t counted as one of the great stories of our time.
The book from my H.S. U.S. History class is something it seems not even the teacher bothered to read, and I know for a fact that no other students in my class touched it, but that’s to be expected, kinda…
I read it. It’s my favorite of Farren’s, though I don’t really like him all that much. Mrs. Evil Captor however is a huge Mick Farren fan so of course she’s read it, too.
You’re not alone! Under the Frog was hilarious. I know a lot of Hungarians, so I was able to populate the book’s characters with real accents and personalities.
A great read for anyone who’s enjoys the sardonic, almost fatalistic sense of humor of many eastern Europeans.
I’m chiming in as another person who loved The Faerie Queene.
I don’t know that anything I read is particularly obscure. They are not generally widely read, but there are plenty of scholars who do enjoy them.
I do remember one sci-fi book I came across years ago: The Sword of Rhiannon. I don’t know who wrote it, and couldn’t tell you a thing about it now, but I sure loved it back then. There was also a book I read, again years ago, called Heart of Jade. My mother (!!) recommended it to me–the best I can recall, it was a pornographic book set in the Aztec/conquistador era. I was in my late teens when she had me read it; I’m not quite sure why.
James Morrow is one of my new favorite authors - I read Towing Jehovah & Blameless in Abbadon last year, recently finished Bible Stories for Adults and have Only Begotten Daughter on the To Read List.
Did Tim Powers write Dinner at Deviant’s Palace ? That was going to be my contribution to this thread, along with Rebecca Ore’s Alien series.
I remember having that book a long time ago. Seems my dad had a garage sale while I was in the Navy and sold it along with many other books of mine.
I have read Galapagos a few times. Love Vonneguts’s work.
I have also read Dinner at Deviant’s. Good story set over the California landscape.
I have never met anyone who has heard of Jack Vance hence never read any of his books. The closet I came was while playing Dark Ages of Camelot, an online role playing game, so9meone recognized my name as a main charater from one of Vances’s series, “The Cadwal Chronicles”.
I don’t think anybody’s read this series of books about a kid named Harry Pottter.
Ok I was kidding.
Seriously though the only people I know who have read the book **A Fan’s Notes ** by Frederic Exely have done so because I lent them my copy and told them to read it. His two other books, Pages from a Cold Island and Last Notes from Home are just as good.
I tend to like books by good authors that are a bit… under appreciated. (also known as out of print, hard to find, disappeared into the black hole that is mass market paperback publishing…)
So, I’m terribly fond of Joan D. Vinge, but I can’t even remember the title of her short story collection with ‘Tin Man.’ I think it won a Nebula, but that was almost 20 years ago.
For Tim Powers, I’ve enjoyed all his books that I’ve gotten my hands on. Dinner at Deviant’s Palace reads like a continuation of H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Colour Out of Space.’ I also enjoyed his Drawing of the Dark though it’s far from his later works.
If you can find it, Jane Lindskold’s Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls is a great, and disturbing read.
I also enjoy Timothy Zahn’s earlier works, as well as his more famous ones. Spinneret is fun.
I bought Mr. singular an autographed first edition a few years ago. Took a lot of searching to find it, but the look on his face when he opened it was worth every tedious minute.
When I was about eleven, I read (over and over again, checking it out of the library on a regular schedule) a book called Sir MacHinery. The plot involves a scientist who moves to Scotland to build his prototype robot. Some brownies discover the robot, and, reading the word “machinery” off the boxes he shipped it, figure he must be a Scottish knight in armor and dub him “Sir MacHinery”. Sir MacHinery goes on to help the brownies battle ghosts and goblins of all sorts.
I’ve read both the Green Sky Trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and The Bone People by Keri Hulme. They’re great books, but I always find the latter a bit disturbing.
Personally, I love The Last Magician by Janette Turner Hospital, a surreal story about the adult lives of a group of childhood friends in Australia. Her other books are terrific too, but this one has always remained my favorite. Nobody I know has ever even heard of this author.
That’s me! That’s me! Sooo sooo frustrating… the number of times I’ve said “Sausage inna bun?” to resounding blank stares is deeply saddening. And yet, I know millions of people read the Discworld novels. Where are you all? (Any closet readers work in Stobhill Hospital?)
I read it. I’ve read all but the last two Robbins books. I tried reading the last one but just didn’t get into it. My favorite was Skinny Legs and All, followed by Still Life with Woodpecker and Jitterbug Perfume. Cowgirls was good, but it’s been a while since I read it and I don’t remember so much of it now.
Of course, the movie sucked as only a black hole can suck.