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And the war came with all the poise of a cannonball
I just got back from a dramatic reading of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War at the Whitney Humanities Center—or at least the four speeches of the debate at Sparta and Perikles' funeral oration, as introduced in a short lecture by Donald Kagan—and it was awesome. Yay for rhetoric. I will try to present some sort of coherent reaction tomorrow; for now, I will note only that I am almost certain they used J.M. Dent's translation at least as a template, and I got this meme from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shewhomust and darcydodo.
(. . . for something completely different . . .)
Listed below are the fifty most significant science fiction / fantasy novels, 1953—2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club: bold the ones you have read, italicize the ones you started but never finished, underline the ones you own but never started, strike out the ones you hated, and put an asterisk beside the ones you love. Cut because, look, it's fifty novels!
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin*
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke (Now if The Deep Range were on this list . . .)
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley (It's not a strikeout, but I'm very ambivalent about this one. For Arthurian retellings, I much prefer Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave oreegatland's The Winter Prince.)
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury*
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe*
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett* (The asterisk is not for the novel itself, but for the series that later develops: of late and favorite, Going Postal.)
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison*
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester*
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey* (My sixth-through-tenth-grade self demands an asterisk here.)
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23.The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson (No, it wasn't the rape. It was the writing style. Blind me, thank you.)
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29.Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice (At least, I'm pretty certain I finished it . . . strange_selkie?)
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin*
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon* (Again, the asterisk is here not so much for the book as for the author: I love Venus Plus X and Some of Your Blood.)
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith*
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien (I've tried three times now. I confess that my best experience with the book was the timecaptainbutler retold Beren and Lúthien for me on the subway to the Museum of Fine Arts.)
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48.The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks (I picked it up in an English class in seventh grade, I think; the student at the next desk was reading it. And then I put it down again quickly.)
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
Reaction 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is one of the most significant sfantasy novels of the last half-century?
Reaction 2: I think a list of my fifty most significant books would look quite different.
Reaction 3: Not tonight!
shewhomust and darcydodo.(. . . for something completely different . . .)
Listed below are the fifty most significant science fiction / fantasy novels, 1953—2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club: bold the ones you have read, italicize the ones you started but never finished, underline the ones you own but never started, strike out the ones you hated, and put an asterisk beside the ones you love. Cut because, look, it's fifty novels!
1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin*
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke (Now if The Deep Range were on this list . . .)
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley (It's not a strikeout, but I'm very ambivalent about this one. For Arthurian retellings, I much prefer Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave or
eegatland's The Winter Prince.)10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury*
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe*
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett* (The asterisk is not for the novel itself, but for the series that later develops: of late and favorite, Going Postal.)
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison*
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester*
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey* (My sixth-through-tenth-grade self demands an asterisk here.)
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23.
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29.
strange_selkie?)30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin*
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon* (Again, the asterisk is here not so much for the book as for the author: I love Venus Plus X and Some of Your Blood.)
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith*
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien (I've tried three times now. I confess that my best experience with the book was the time
captainbutler retold Beren and Lúthien for me on the subway to the Museum of Fine Arts.)42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48.
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer
Reaction 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is one of the most significant sfantasy novels of the last half-century?
Reaction 2: I think a list of my fifty most significant books would look quite different.
Reaction 3: Not tonight!
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no subject
I have to take a train tomorrow; I'll try to compile one then. Be warned that you will much more likely get the first fifty books that pop into my head as historically or currently important to me, which is not quite the same thing, but I'll see what I can prune.