Non-random list

[mrissa]

Okay, so I'm a showoff. But here's the thing: when I first started to get serious about writing SF in early college, I used these lists as reading lists. I was on Library of Congress system, which I hate for browsing, and I was adrift in a genre without much in the way of advice about what was and wasn't good. So here's what happened:



The ones I have read are bolded.

Nebula novels:

Dune by Frank Herbert
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes and Babel-17 by Samuel R Delany (tie)
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delany
Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
Ringworld by Larry Niven
A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Dreamsnake by Vonda N McIntyre
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke
Timescape by Gregory Benford
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop
Startide Rising by David Brin
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Moving Mars by Greg Bear
The Terminal Experiment by Robert J Sawyer
Slow River by Nicola Griffith
The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N McIntyre
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon

Hugo novels:

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
(no award)
They'd Rather be Right (aka The Forever Machine) by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley
Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
(no award)
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
A Case of Conscience by James Blish
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Way Station by Clifford Simak
The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
. . . And Call Me Conrad (aka This Immortal) by Roger Zelazny; Dune by Frank Herbert (tie)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Lord of Light by Roger Zelanzy
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ringworld by Larry Niven
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
Startide Rising by David Brin
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
The Uplift War by David Brin
Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge; Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (tie)
Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer
Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

I read fast, is the thing. I hated several of these. I'm even willing to say which ones, if anybody cares.

Comments

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to see the overlap--of lack of overlap--between the two lists. Which ones did you hate?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ringworm. Blerrrrrrrrg.

No Enemy But Time. Michael Bishop only has two books that don't make me want to hurl myself out a window, and that's not one.

Stations of the Tide. Depressing Michaels, take two. mmerriam, watch out!

Stand on Zanzibar. I think John Brunner's secret first name is Michael. (This may explain why Mike Ford's name really isn't Michael, too.)

Hominids. Sawyer was extremely nice to me when I met him, and not at all in a smarmy way. But I hated this book and could not make it more than 100 pages into the sequel, even though I was voting on Hugos last year and really should have made myself finish it.

There were others I didn't think were that great or that didn't seem like the best works of that particular author to me. But those are the ones I wanted to fling.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I do much worse on the short stuff. I'm horribly underread in short stories. I get periodically cranky with them and scowl over my shoulder at them. But the ones I loff, I loff, to channel buymeaclue.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I'll keep that in mind when I'm looking to read new books. Which ones did you like the best?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am a total Joe Haldeman fanatic, and his award-winners are not exceptions to that. I am a total Kate Wilhelm fanatic, too, and her award-winner is an exception to that; maybe I read it at the wrong time, but I wouldn't start Wilhelming with Sweet Birds, I'd go with one of the mysteries.

There is nothing else that does for me what Timescape does for me, but as that doing is a fairly physicist-y doing, I don't know how general that recommendation is.

Cyteen is horribly, horribly flawed, and much beloved by me.

Doomsday Book is awesome. To Say Nothing of the Dog is awesome. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is entirely differently awesome.

I liked the Bujolds, but they weren't my favorite Bujolds, but they were still really good. Except Paladin of Souls; that's my favorite Bujold fantasy so far.

Green Mars was well worth sitting through Red Mars to get to, but you can stop there, as far as I'm concerned.

I may be missing something in my cursory glance.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I shall endevour not to become the third depressing Michael.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

Why haven't you read the ones you haven't read?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Quantum Rose because I have low tolerance for Asaro's romance genre conventions even when I'm interested in other things she's doing. I've read a bunch of other Asaros and asked people whether this one was enough different to be worth a try. So far the answer has been no, it's pretty much her usual thing. Which is a fine thing but not my thing.

I just haven't gotten around to The Speed of Dark; it's pretty new. It's on the list.

I haven't found copies of They'd Rather Be Right or either of the Leibers or The Immortal. (To be fair, I haven't spent much time looking in the last few years. I had caught my balance in my field much more and had other things to read than award lists. So this is not a cue to go find me ILL or used copies of these books, librarian members of the friendslist.)

To Your Scattered Bodies Go has gotten such mixed reviews from people I respect that I haven't made it a priority. If anyone here is a big fan and has a few words about why, I'd like to hear it.

[ksumnersmith.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear what you think of The Speed of Dark when you read it. I'm the only person I know who honestly and truly disliked that book, and I did so with something of a passion. Though I'd be happy to have someone to agree with me, I'd also really like to know why it worked for others.

Also: I aspire to your reading speed. How lovely that would be.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I will let you know, but I don't think I'll be getting to it too soon. porphyrin and dd_b keep me in too many books to have to go hunting and gathering at the library very often these days.

The reading speed was a curse in college, because I was constantly out of books and especially out of the kind of books I wanted to read. Now it's thoroughly in the blessing column for everything except packing for lengthy airline travel.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh. How embarrassing. My booklog claims that I'm wrong, that I did read The Quantum Rose and finished it on 5/22/02.

It must have been awfully memorable for me, I guess.