The 20 books from 20 years meme
Aug. 16th, 2008 11:12 amGanked from ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nhw
Bold if you've read (all of) them, italicise if you've started but not finished (inc some but not all of a series) and strikethrough if you hated them.
The Culture Novels, Iain M Banks (starting 1987) - cheating slightly as I haven't yet read the new one - Banks not someone I generally read in hardback
The Hyperion Cantos, Dan Simmons (starting 1989) - I'm assuming this is just referring to the first two, rather than the disappointing Endymion books
Grass, Sherri S Tepper (1989) - liked, didn't love
The Aleutian Trilogy, Gwyneth Jones (starting 1991) - forget the Bold as Love stuff - this is the best series Jones has written (although the final volume is a little disappointing)
The Mars Trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson (starting 1992) - agreed.
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson (1992) - agreed.
The Flower Cities sequence, Kathleen Ann Goonan (starting 1994) - the later books don't quite have the impact of the first but still good reads
Fairyland, Paul McAuley (1996) - didn't hate it, but didn't love it either
Diaspora, Greg Egan (1997) - again, didn't hate it, but it's not Egan's best; I still think he is one of sf's greatest short story writers but has yet to write a novel that worked completely.
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds (2000) - it was okay, but he's greatly improved since
The Arabesks, Jon Courtenay Grimwood (starting 2000) - agreed.
Light, M John Harrison (2002) - I got through it but I really didn't get it at all. One of those books that make me think that either everyone who loved it is much cleverer than I am or that the emperor has no clothes.
Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang (2002) - agreed.
Evolution, Stephen Baxter (2003) - I'm really behind with Baxter's stuff but this one just doesn't really appeal.
Pattern Recognition, William Gibson (2003) - didn't really leave a lasting impression.
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004) - this was okay, but not as clever as many people seemed to think it was. I enjoyed Ghostwritten more.
Air, Geoff Ryman (2004) - agreed.
River of Gods, Ian McDonald (2004) - agreed.
Accelerando, Charles Stross (2005) - I've probably read almost all of this in the original short story form (but not, Mr Previn, necessarily in the right order!) Of all the stuff Stross has written this is probably what I've liked least.
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson (2005) - I'm a fan of Wilson and I liked this one, but I'm a bit bemused why it has been put above all his other novels, many of which are equally as good, some of which are better.
nhwBold if you've read (all of) them, italicise if you've started but not finished (inc some but not all of a series) and strikethrough if you hated them.
The Culture Novels, Iain M Banks (starting 1987) - cheating slightly as I haven't yet read the new one - Banks not someone I generally read in hardback
The Hyperion Cantos, Dan Simmons (starting 1989) - I'm assuming this is just referring to the first two, rather than the disappointing Endymion books
Grass, Sherri S Tepper (1989) - liked, didn't love
The Aleutian Trilogy, Gwyneth Jones (starting 1991) - forget the Bold as Love stuff - this is the best series Jones has written (although the final volume is a little disappointing)
The Mars Trilogy, Kim Stanley Robinson (starting 1992) - agreed.
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson (1992) - agreed.
The Flower Cities sequence, Kathleen Ann Goonan (starting 1994) - the later books don't quite have the impact of the first but still good reads
Fairyland, Paul McAuley (1996) - didn't hate it, but didn't love it either
Diaspora, Greg Egan (1997) - again, didn't hate it, but it's not Egan's best; I still think he is one of sf's greatest short story writers but has yet to write a novel that worked completely.
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds (2000) - it was okay, but he's greatly improved since
The Arabesks, Jon Courtenay Grimwood (starting 2000) - agreed.
Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang (2002) - agreed.
Evolution, Stephen Baxter (2003) - I'm really behind with Baxter's stuff but this one just doesn't really appeal.
Pattern Recognition, William Gibson (2003) - didn't really leave a lasting impression.
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004) - this was okay, but not as clever as many people seemed to think it was. I enjoyed Ghostwritten more.
Air, Geoff Ryman (2004) - agreed.
River of Gods, Ian McDonald (2004) - agreed.
Accelerando, Charles Stross (2005) - I've probably read almost all of this in the original short story form (but not, Mr Previn, necessarily in the right order!) Of all the stuff Stross has written this is probably what I've liked least.
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson (2005) - I'm a fan of Wilson and I liked this one, but I'm a bit bemused why it has been put above all his other novels, many of which are equally as good, some of which are better.
Meme response the second
Mar. 15th, 2008 02:47 pmThis one from phredd:
I'm guessing you mean as in Doctor Who here, not my first physician!
I was born the year that Patrick Troughton took over, but the first Doctor I remember seeing was the third, Jon Pertwee.
In fact my earliest Doctor Who memory is, I'm pretty sure, something from Day of the Daleks, which makes it January 1972 and I would have been five years old.
Oddly we never seem to have been regular watchers of Doctor Who during that time. The next memory I have is of a small scene from The Sea Devils, two serials later and then nothing until The Three Doctors at the beginning of the following season, which is the first I am sure I saw in full. Then looking through the rest of the Jon Pertwee era, I remember seeing all of Carnival of Monsters, nothing of Frontier in Space, all of Planet of the Daleks, bits of The Green Death, all of the next season, apart from absolutely nothing of The Monster of Peladon.
Even when we get into the Tom Baker era, which was when I would have started to consider myself a fan, I think I only saw the first episode of Robot and one or two episodes of The Ark in Space. But then it was a complete run from The Sontaran Experiment through to The Face of Evil. I'm sure I didn't see all of The Robots of Death, but I did see all of The Talons of Weng-Chiang and The Horror of Fang Rock. After that there seems to be a few holes again, though I probably watched most of the stories.
So there you go, probably a fuller answer than you really wanted!
phredd:Which was your first Doctor?
I'm guessing you mean as in Doctor Who here, not my first physician!
I was born the year that Patrick Troughton took over, but the first Doctor I remember seeing was the third, Jon Pertwee.
In fact my earliest Doctor Who memory is, I'm pretty sure, something from Day of the Daleks, which makes it January 1972 and I would have been five years old.
Oddly we never seem to have been regular watchers of Doctor Who during that time. The next memory I have is of a small scene from The Sea Devils, two serials later and then nothing until The Three Doctors at the beginning of the following season, which is the first I am sure I saw in full. Then looking through the rest of the Jon Pertwee era, I remember seeing all of Carnival of Monsters, nothing of Frontier in Space, all of Planet of the Daleks, bits of The Green Death, all of the next season, apart from absolutely nothing of The Monster of Peladon.
Even when we get into the Tom Baker era, which was when I would have started to consider myself a fan, I think I only saw the first episode of Robot and one or two episodes of The Ark in Space. But then it was a complete run from The Sontaran Experiment through to The Face of Evil. I'm sure I didn't see all of The Robots of Death, but I did see all of The Talons of Weng-Chiang and The Horror of Fang Rock. After that there seems to be a few holes again, though I probably watched most of the stories.
So there you go, probably a fuller answer than you really wanted!
Meme response the first
Mar. 15th, 2008 02:16 pmFrom littlebutfierce:
littlebutfierce:You write about books not infrequently, but I don't know if I've ever seen you mention your top favorite book ever??? Ha ha, I know that's kind of a cruel question--if someone asked me that I'd be sunk. Maybe even top 5 ever, if that's easier.
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