Good Books and AuthorsThis is another work in progress. I haven't bothered to format it nicely yet.General scifi Brian Aldiss Helliconia Spring Helliconia Summer Helliconia Winter PIERS ANTHONY (Does a lot of goofy scifi/fantasy, but is capable of some really good writing) Isle of Woman (Children of Earth series) David Brin Earth Homecoming series Octavia Butler Parable of the Sower Eleanor Cameron (My first introduction to scifi. I've gone back and reread several times just for the nostalgic rush!) THE WONDERFUL FLIGHT TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET 1954 Mr. Bass's Planetoid Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet Orson Scott Card Ender's game (and sequels) Philip Jose Farmer (the only scifi novelist I know of who has done Tarzan spoofs, hard core porn scifi, Oz stories, etc.) The RiverWorld series A Barnstormer of Oz The Lovers Image of the Beast/Blown "Raymond Chandler meets DeSade at an Anne Rice cocktail party" Robert Heinlein (I love him, but sometimes his characters' witty banter gets stale) A Stranger in a Strange Land The Moon is a Harsh Mistress MADELEINE L'ENGLE (children's scifi) A WRINKLE IN TIME Walter M. Miller Jr. A Canticle For Leibowitz Sharon Shinn Archangel series (Glad I didn't find out that it is considered romance/scifi until after I had devoured the whole series!) David Wingrove Chung Kuo series - Eight or so books about future society based on Chinese culture and board game of Go(wei chi). Somewhat melodramatic, weak end game, but I enjoyed the ride. He also wrote the three Myst novels. Physicist scifi writers: (Physicists can write good scifi, but to make it lay-friendly and human takes a master) Gregory Benford Heart of the Comet Cosm Arthur C. Clarke 2001, a Space Oddysey Childhood's End The Fountains of Paradise Larry Niven Smoke Ring Ringworld Footfall Kim Stanley Robinson Mars Trilogy Antarctica Neal Donald Stephenson Snow Crash The Diamond Age (nanotechnology) Cryptonomicon The Command Line (non-fiction about computer OSes) New age: Richard Bach Jonathan Livingston Seagull "...there is such a thing as perfection...and our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth....Each of us is in truth an unlimited idea of freedom. Everything that limits us we have to put aside." Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. "Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't." http://www.chesco.com/~artman/bach.html Barbara Marciniak ("The Pleiadians are a collective of extraterrestrials from the star system The Pleiades. They call themselves our ancient family because many of us came here from The Pleiades to participate in the new experiment of Earth." - NO, NO, don't click out! Give her a chance!) Bringers of the Dawn : Teachings from the Pleiadians Earth http://www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/pleiadians-book.html Robert Monroe - broadcasting executive who started having spontaneous out of body experiences in the sixties. Created the Monroe Institute for academic research of Hemisynch and OOB phenomena. Journeys out of the Body. Far Journeys Marlo Morgan Mutant Message Down Under James Redfield Celestine Prophesy series -(Dreadfully bad writing. He really needs to hire a ghostwriter. But the ideas are worth the agony. Apparently he was screwed by the publishers with his first book and has been blatantly commercializing it to death ever since with companion books, calenders, etc.) http://www.maui.net/~shaw/celes/celestine.html Jane Roberts The Education of Oversoul Seven The Further Education of Oversoul Seven Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time Entertaining novels about a young oversoul who guides the lives of several of his mortal incarnations across the dimension of time. The collection of Seth books, channeled from Seth, her own oversoul. http://www.brassringbooks.com/store4/books.htm http://www.secretoflife.com/seth/ Neal Donald Walsh Conversation with God series (The title scared me off. I thought it was christian literature. It is anything but! I suspect that most christians would love it until their theological superiors show them the error of their ways!) ET101 - The Cosmic Instruction Manual for Planetary Evolution (An Emergency Remedial Earth Edition) by Mission Control and JHO Other (I guess this shows how important I consider science fiction!) Marie Corelli (Turn of the century supernatural melodrama) Sorrows of Satan The Soul of Lilith The Romance of Two Worlds Aleister Crowley ("wickedest man of the 20th century" Personally I think he has an undeserved reputation. It was just vicious journalistic slander that he ate babies!) Lafcadio Hearn (Dutch scholar who spent years in Japan collecting traditional stories) Fairy tales of Japan Kwaidan (Japanese ghost stories - see the movie, too) Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged Tom Robins Another Roadside Attraction Even cowgirls get the Blues Anne Rice Vampires and other gothic horror Olaf Stapleton Last and First Men Starmaker Kurt Vonnegut Cat's Cradle - end of the world novel Edward Whittemore - Jerusalem Quartet - rolicking good fiction of mythic weird guy roaming the middle east. Jerusalem Poker Sainai Tapestry Nile Shadows Jericho Mosaic Honorable Mentions: Patrick Suskind Perfume (powerful period piece of a serial killer in 18th century France) Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose (medieval mystery) William Gibson (father of modern cyberpunk) The Neuromancer Stephen King His books are like junk food. You find yourself devouring a whole bag of potato chips, are disgusted with yourself, yet can't stop! His Dark Tower series shows that when he puts his mind to it, he is capable of superior writing. George McDonald (19th century fairy tales) Tim Powers Thomas Pynchon Rudy Rucker (cyberpunk) Bruce Sterling (cyberpunk) Robert Silverberg Vernor Vinge Roger Zelazny Links http://www.strangewords.com/core1.html |
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