Here are Disco Stu's five books:
Revelation Space - One of my "fed up with fantasy" first buys a few years ago. A real slow burner. Reynolds draws the story together in a way that just drew me in. Its a pleasure to read and I savor his breadth of vision. I've found it splits opinion like marmite - people either love it or hate it.
Downbelow Station - I think my first space opera type read as a teenager. Devoured it. Picked up secondhand from a market in Nottingham. Never met anyone else that has read it - if you haven't I highly recommend BUT, not read it since then so remembered through teen eyes. On my 'to read' pile now.
Forever War - (book pictured is the omnibus) - First military scifi that I read. LOVE the time travel nature of it. Remember being anxious (at about 13 years of age) whether Mandela would actually meet up again with his bint. (Watched 'Somewhere in Time' about then so I was exploring unrequited time travel romance it seems...8)...)
Nightwinds - A novel I obsessed about through my teen years! I was a big role-player (D&D, Runequest, Tunnels and Trolls, MERP etc, etc) and here was a novel that brought to life perfectly that kind of world. Wagner can be klunky in some of his work but I think this is the best of it for me. 'Undertow' STILL gives me goosebumps. Ah...happy days.
The Skinner - This book along with Revelation Space changed my reading direction. After them, I must have bored people silly by my repeated plea for them to 'start reading some of these UK authors publishing NOW- and stop telling me you once read 'I, Robot' or the Foundation series years-ago whenever I talk about scifi!!!'.....ok, I'm calm.
This book made me keep saying 'wow!' every few pages. Good money spent at Ottakars in my opinion.
These books are my five 'Desert Island Reads'.
9 comments:
Peace and war - I read that (the whole omnibus) in about 3 days - I was drawn into it so much. I had never read haldeman before but I loved that one!
The skinner was my first asher book as well and now I hang on his every word here on this blog - must be doing something right!
:-)
Love or hate his wardrobe, you can't help enjoying his prose.
Loved Downbelow Station and just about everything else by C J Cherryh. She's damned good at putting across the terror of the abyss out there. Oddly enough I haven't read Forever War, or if I have I can't remember it. Wagner I know nothing about, but Alastair Reynolds is generally a must buy every time.
Disco Stu, what, how does Haldeman dress?
You do know Wagner - you've read 'Bloodstone'. (Did that sound a bit spooky?)
Good grief man! 'Forever War' must surely be required reading?!?
My wardrobe reference was to the 2nd half of osh's post...a wardrobe slightly closer to home...ahem.
Have to join in with the people saying Forever War is a must read!
Ah, that Wagner and that wardrobe! I'll have you know I have at least ten George T-shirts and five pairs of £4 jeans!
i would grab all those classics everyone is talking about i havent read:
the Korant, Bibble, Tao Thing, The Vegas and Alistair Cooke; A Biography.
maybe not.
My 5 would be:
1. Cordwainer Smith - The Rediscovery of Man
Quite simply the most beautifully written, deeply moving, and best stories that I have ever read, in any genre, and in any format (short story, novella or novel), ever! Astonishingly beautiful prose, and incredibly weird stories, which is a wonderful combination. Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, the man behind the Cordwainer Smith pseudonym is an intriguining character himself: scholar, diplomat, spy, military man, godson of Sun Yat-sen, close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek, and author of THE Book (literally) on Psychological Warfare.
2. Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment
As relevant today as when it was first published in 1866.
3. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five
Accessible and profound.
4. Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Often copied, but never equalled in my opinion.
5. Frank Herbert - Dune
The real world fades into the background when reading this.
Duracell.
Nice choices Duracell, though I'd prefer to receive that list along with a picture via email.
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