If I were to quibble (which I never do) I’d say that some of those don’t qualify, because I’ve heard of 'em. Let’s see if you know these:
Fantasy: Little, Big by John Crowley. Run out and get it now! Then cancel the cable and the phone - you’re going to be away a while. It will change you.
Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist. Before all the urban-fantasy (which is mostly wank) came along, this was a deeply scary book.
The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers. I’d like this even if I didn’t usta drink beer with the author when he was running a tobacco shop. Very engaging characters and prose. About the only “behind the scenes of a historical event” story that I liked.
Science Fistion: Making History by Stephen Fry. That’s right - the same Stephen Fry who played Jeeves, and several parts in the Blackadder series. Easily the best time-manipulation book I’ve ever read.
Expendable by James Alan Gardner. The uncool, unattractive members of society get the scut jobs - like exploration.
I’m sure more will come to me after I post this. Cheers!
It’s a line from Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress, which has provided several other titles for books. One editor, tongue in cheek, suggested that any author stuck for a title can go to that poem. (BTW, the word “quaint” in the poem is a very risque pun.)
Gerrold’s The Man Who Folded Himself was pretty good, though he drew heavily on Robert Heinlein - By His Bootstraps and at least one other short story I can’t name offhand.
I’d recommend The Doomfarers of Coramonde and sequel The Starfollowers of Coramonde by Brian Daley. I’m rereading them now - first read 10 or 12 years ago. Very interesting parallel worlds fantasy. There’s sorcery, warfare, medieval politics, good vs. evil, sex, and even a rather inventive use of an armored personnel carrier.
I like Varley’s work but the Titan trilogy was written on a downhill slide. Titan was great, Wizard was good, and Demon was bad. Varley’s problem is that when his usual inventiveness fails him, he resorts to self-parody.
I’ll second the recommendations of Replay and Bridge of Birds.
I’d also recommend seeking out Christopher Hinz, Donald Kingsbury, Kim Newman, David Palmer, and Robert Charles Wilson.
I’m trying to collect all the works of Robert Rankin, but for some reason the books are incredibly expensive. The only two I’ve found are They Came And Ate Us - Armageddon II: The B-Movie and The Antipope. Which were both excellent. The first is a completely ridiculous romp through a hallucinogenic end-of-the-world. The second is, well, let me quote from the back of the book:
“Wonderful. . . A heady mix of Flann O’Brien, Douglas Adams, Tom Sharpe and Ken Campbell, but with an inbuilt irreverence and indelicacy that is unique - and makes it the long-awaited, heavy smoker’s answer to The Lord of the Rings.” -Time Out
Or you could say Robert Rankin is what Douglas Adams would write like if he had an incredible knowledge of the occult and drank a lot. I recommend him highly.
Ohhh more books to add to my reading list! Yah! Okay here are my contributions…
The Romance of Atlantis by Taylor Caldwell She wrote this when she was 12 and it is a really interesting book about Atlantis and life there as well as how it was destroyed etc.
The Keltiad by Patricia Kenneally-Morrison It’s a series, actually several series’ that are set on a place called Keltia. One of the books starts here on Earth telling how they got to Keltia. She takes lots of old Celtic mythology and mixes some of it up. According to the storyline the Kelts were originally from Atlantis and before that from some other planet. When Christianity came to Ireland (and the other Keltic places there ie Scotland, Wales etc) they had to rediscover space travel and moved to settle out in the world. It goes from there… very fascinating if you like Celtic stuff.
The Forever King, The Broken Sword and World Without End by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy. The first two books are versions of King Arthur only they are set in our time period and assuming that Arthur has been reborn. They are chasing after the Holy Grail which is still around and Merlin is helping him and Hal who is a reincarnation of… um I forget his name but the pure Knight that sat in the seat that was supposed to be death? He is also supposedly the son of Launcelot? But it’s quite interesting to read that. World Without End is another Atlantis story but it has to do with esp the Greek gods and stuff like that. It’s a little confusing at first (at least that’s how I found it) But once you get into it it gets interesting.
Those are the ones I’ve read that I haven’t seen mentioned around here yet. Happy reading!
*God Stalk * isn’t my favorite ever, but I did enjoy it; it’s certainly the best fantasy novel I’ve read that nobody else has heard about. About as good as Robert Jordan, who’s much better known; considerably superior to Terry Goodkind, who’s also better known.
Sequels? As in plural? I didn’t know Hodgell had done any books after Dark of the Moon.
Dammit, RealityChuck you beat me to Only Begotten Daughter. I couldn’t remember the author, though. I always liked the idea that everyone goes to hell when they die.
More: 100 Short Short Fantasy Stories, edited by Isaac Asimov. It’s not in print anymore, my copy was stolen, and no used bookstores have it, so I’m assuming no one’s heard of it.
Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin. I like the linguistics aspect of it, not necessarily the feminism. It spawned its own artificial language, Laadan.
Dave Duncan. Why has nobody else read Dave Duncan? Why is it so hard for me to find his books on any shelves? Why do the mainstream bookshops not stock him? He is the coolest writer, who answers his email personally. Wonderful!
I read a couple of series by someone named Phyllis Eisenstein once. They were great! As far as I can tell, she has only written these four books. She reminds me a lot of Jack Vance, only better.
Duncan is great, and, as you say, a true gentleman who answers his e-mail. Even though he dashed my deepest fanboy hopes: I wrote to him and asked him about a plot-hole I thought I’d found in A HANDFUL OF MEN and told him I’d love to see a story set 1000+ years in the future of that world. What happened with no more source of magic?
Regarding the plot hole (it seemed to be a truck-sized hole and I was asking if I’d missed an explaination for it) he laughed and said that he hadn’t caught it and also said that he wasn’t going to be revisiting that world, which is a shame.
If Robert Jordan would just finish that damnable series, I’d consider reading it. Until then, I won’t make a comparison. I think the reason Godstalk appeals to me so much is that, disturbingly, I identify very strongly with Jame. <CRASH> Er…why did half the city just spontaneously collapse into ruin?
Seeker’s Mask came out in a limited edition from Hypatia Press around 1-1.5 years ago, and I snapped up a copy. Now Hodgell’s turned the books over to Meisha Merlin Publishing, and you can get Dark of the Gods (Godstalk and Dark of the Moon bound together) from Amazon.com. Seeker’s Mask should be available in February, 2001. SM is nearly as good as GS, and better than DotM.
To The Vanishing Point by Alan Dean Foster is a great little book. Cross-reality adventure in a RV.
David Gerrald has been mentioned before. Has anyone else noticed that he tends to reuse his good ideas? He proposed a script for the original Trek that they rejected, then re wrote into an independent novel ( forget the name) and then Re-rewrote it as Trek novel The Galactic Worldpool. He did “tribbles” then did the same thing for the animated Trek, and then wrote the exact same story for the animated Real Ghostbusters-with thousands of little slimers running around. This is not criticism, just observation. Man, does that guy know how to get mileage from an idea!
Most of you are probably familiar with his more (ahem) intellectual stuff (Jaguar Hunter, Life During Wartime, The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter), but Green Eyes is his “friendliest” book.
Yeah, I liked “Green Eyes.” Probably the second best of Terry Carr’s New Ace Science Fiction Specials (after “Neuromancer,” which doesn’t belong on this list ).
Adam H. Szantini’s THE SPIRAL UNIVERSE
Theodore Feldwebel’s FADING SUNS
William Tork’s PHASE
Gerard Weisenbacken’s OLD RULES FOR THE NEW GODS
Adrienne Culvin’s THE INNING
John Calvet’s TWILIGHT GIRL and NOT EVEN A WORLD
Cordwainer Smith’s THE CENTER DOESN’T HOLD
and last, but not least,
Bob Wolcaine’s SILENT WHITE
