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You're open to interpretation, like the trapdoor underneath your tousled throne
Just got back from seeing The Prestige with my parents, and I remember a course from college that would have been delighted to include this film. All the different kinds of doubling made me happy. (Which makes it not so inappropriate, I suppose, that when I saw Roger Rees as Owens, the solicitor, my first thought was: "But Edward Everett Horton's been dead for years!") And Tesla in Colorado Springs. And the mechanism of the transported man, that must be disguised as a clever illusion; because if the revelation of a trick is a disappointment, how much more terrible is the realization that it's no trick at all—that the magic is real. No one comes to the carnival to see a real unicorn. I might have to see this movie again.
My contributor's copies of Best New Fantasy, which reprints my short story "The Dybbuk in Love," arrived this afternoon. This is happiness. I am looking forward to checking out the other stories, too.
And lastly, at the request of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
muchabstracted, I have put together a list of my fifty most significant science fiction and fantasy novels, 1953—2002. Caveat lector.
(Cut for lots of early influence. Well, and some recent.)
This is not the same thing as a list of my fifty most significant books. I'm sure there are omissions that will annoy me when I remember them. In keeping with the original parameters, I have excluded plays, poetry, graphic novels, and nonfiction, as well as collections of retold myths and folklore like the D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants (1967) or Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly (1985), no matter how much of an impression they may have left on me. Similarly, while there are several writers on this list whose entire corpora are reasonably central to my life, I have made an effort to restrict their presence here to the one or two books that either sparked my initial interest or seem to have had the most lasting effect. I have included a few short story collections and occasionally considered a series to be a single entity; I have kept to the Science Fiction Book Club's set dates, and certainly that has changed the look of this list somewhat. But so far as I can determine, here are fifty books whose existence has in some way been critical to my life—if you want the list of fifty books I consider critical to the field of fantasy and science fiction, I will have to compile another. The order is alphabetical, for simplicity's sake. Dates of publication included because I am a geek.
1. A Necklace of Raindrops (1968), Joan Aiken
2. The Haunting of Cassie Palmer (1980), Vivien Alcock
3. The Prydain Chronicles (1964—1970), Lloyd Alexander
4. A Fine and Private Place (1960), Peter S. Beagle
5. The Last Unicorn (1968), Peter S. Beagle
6. The Coming of Pout (1966), Peter Blair
7. The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), Ray Bradbury
8. The Halloween Tree (1972), Ray Bradbury
9. The Master and Margarita (1967), Mikhail Bulgakov
10. The Bloody Chamber (1979), Angela Carter
11. Wise Children (1991), Angela Carter
12. The Deep Range (1957), Arthur C. Clarke
13. The Dark Is Rising (1965—1977), Susan Cooper
14. Seaward (1983), Susan Cooper
15. So You Want To Be A Wizard (1983), Diane Duane
16. Angry Candy (1988), Harlan Ellison
17. Shatterday (1980), Harlan Ellison
18. The Owl Service (1967), Alan Garner
19. Rats and Gargoyles (1990), Mary Gentle
20. Moonwise (1991), Greer Gilman
21. A Judgment of Dragons (1980), Phyllis Gotlieb
22. Mythago Wood (1984), Robert Holdstock
23. God Stalk (1984), P.C. Hodgell
24. Howl's Moving Castle (1986), Diana Wynne Jones
25. The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988), Diana Wynne Jones
26. The Gammage Cup (1959), Carol Kendall
27. Tales of Pain and Wonder (2000), Caitlín R. Kiernan
28. A Wind in the Door (1973), Madeline L'Engle
29. Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987), Ursula K. Le Guin
30. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Ursula K. Le Guin
31. The Secret Books of Paradys (1988—1993), Tanith Lee
32. The Silver Chair (1953), C.S. Lewis
33. Dragonsinger (1977), Anne McCaffrey
34. The Stones Are Hatching (2000), Geraldine McCaughrean
35. The Riddle-Master Trilogy (1976—1979), Patricia McKillip
36. The Sorceress and the Cygnet (1991), Patricia McKillip
37. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978), Robin McKinley
38. The Integral Trees (1984), Larry Niven
39. The Darkangel (1982), Meredith Ann Pierce
40. The Perilous Gard (1974), Elizabeth Marie Pope
41. Norstrilia (1975), Cordwainer Smith
42. The Crystal Cave (1970), Mary Stewart
43. Some of Your Blood (1961), Theodore Sturgeon
44. Venus Plus X (1960), Theodore Sturgeon
45. Psion (1982), Joan D. Vinge
46. Kingdoms of Elfin (1977), Sylvia Townsend Warner
47. The Winter Prince (1993), Elizabeth E. Wein
48. The Book of the Long Sun (1993—1996), Gene Wolfe
49. Neptune Rising: Songs and Tales of the Undersea Folk (1982), Jane Yolen
50. Sister Light, Sister Dark (1990), Jane Yolen
Yes, there are a lot of children's books on this list. Or books that I read as a small child, regardless of their intended audience—I read Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences the year it came out, and God knows what that did to my brain; the same with Sister Light, Sister Dark, which I am almost sure influenced my decision to take up archery in seventh grade. Not a lot of science fiction that stayed with me, which is interesting in itself. Or there are authors that I remember I read through voraciously, like Lucius Shepard or Alfred Bester, but to whom I still don't return the same way. Hmm. I may have to re-think this list in a day. Or at least draw up another one.
What the hell: here are some of the books I listed off the top of my head, but had to cut because of publication dates or genre.
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), G.K. Chesterton
A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Charles Dickens
The Valley of Song (1951), Elizabeth Goudge
I, Claudius (1934), Robert Graves
The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr, Together with a Fragmentary Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper (1819—1821), E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Last of the Wine (1956), Mary Renault
The Mask of Apollo (1966), Mary Renault
The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), Rosemary Sutcliff
We (1924), Yevgeny Zamyatin
Questions, comments, howls of outrage . . . ?
My contributor's copies of Best New Fantasy, which reprints my short story "The Dybbuk in Love," arrived this afternoon. This is happiness. I am looking forward to checking out the other stories, too.
And lastly, at the request of
muchabstracted, I have put together a list of my fifty most significant science fiction and fantasy novels, 1953—2002. Caveat lector. (Cut for lots of early influence. Well, and some recent.)
This is not the same thing as a list of my fifty most significant books. I'm sure there are omissions that will annoy me when I remember them. In keeping with the original parameters, I have excluded plays, poetry, graphic novels, and nonfiction, as well as collections of retold myths and folklore like the D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants (1967) or Virginia Hamilton's The People Could Fly (1985), no matter how much of an impression they may have left on me. Similarly, while there are several writers on this list whose entire corpora are reasonably central to my life, I have made an effort to restrict their presence here to the one or two books that either sparked my initial interest or seem to have had the most lasting effect. I have included a few short story collections and occasionally considered a series to be a single entity; I have kept to the Science Fiction Book Club's set dates, and certainly that has changed the look of this list somewhat. But so far as I can determine, here are fifty books whose existence has in some way been critical to my life—if you want the list of fifty books I consider critical to the field of fantasy and science fiction, I will have to compile another. The order is alphabetical, for simplicity's sake. Dates of publication included because I am a geek.
1. A Necklace of Raindrops (1968), Joan Aiken
2. The Haunting of Cassie Palmer (1980), Vivien Alcock
3. The Prydain Chronicles (1964—1970), Lloyd Alexander
4. A Fine and Private Place (1960), Peter S. Beagle
5. The Last Unicorn (1968), Peter S. Beagle
6. The Coming of Pout (1966), Peter Blair
7. The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953), Ray Bradbury
8. The Halloween Tree (1972), Ray Bradbury
9. The Master and Margarita (1967), Mikhail Bulgakov
10. The Bloody Chamber (1979), Angela Carter
11. Wise Children (1991), Angela Carter
12. The Deep Range (1957), Arthur C. Clarke
13. The Dark Is Rising (1965—1977), Susan Cooper
14. Seaward (1983), Susan Cooper
15. So You Want To Be A Wizard (1983), Diane Duane
16. Angry Candy (1988), Harlan Ellison
17. Shatterday (1980), Harlan Ellison
18. The Owl Service (1967), Alan Garner
19. Rats and Gargoyles (1990), Mary Gentle
20. Moonwise (1991), Greer Gilman
21. A Judgment of Dragons (1980), Phyllis Gotlieb
22. Mythago Wood (1984), Robert Holdstock
23. God Stalk (1984), P.C. Hodgell
24. Howl's Moving Castle (1986), Diana Wynne Jones
25. The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988), Diana Wynne Jones
26. The Gammage Cup (1959), Carol Kendall
27. Tales of Pain and Wonder (2000), Caitlín R. Kiernan
28. A Wind in the Door (1973), Madeline L'Engle
29. Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences (1987), Ursula K. Le Guin
30. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Ursula K. Le Guin
31. The Secret Books of Paradys (1988—1993), Tanith Lee
32. The Silver Chair (1953), C.S. Lewis
33. Dragonsinger (1977), Anne McCaffrey
34. The Stones Are Hatching (2000), Geraldine McCaughrean
35. The Riddle-Master Trilogy (1976—1979), Patricia McKillip
36. The Sorceress and the Cygnet (1991), Patricia McKillip
37. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978), Robin McKinley
38. The Integral Trees (1984), Larry Niven
39. The Darkangel (1982), Meredith Ann Pierce
40. The Perilous Gard (1974), Elizabeth Marie Pope
41. Norstrilia (1975), Cordwainer Smith
42. The Crystal Cave (1970), Mary Stewart
43. Some of Your Blood (1961), Theodore Sturgeon
44. Venus Plus X (1960), Theodore Sturgeon
45. Psion (1982), Joan D. Vinge
46. Kingdoms of Elfin (1977), Sylvia Townsend Warner
47. The Winter Prince (1993), Elizabeth E. Wein
48. The Book of the Long Sun (1993—1996), Gene Wolfe
49. Neptune Rising: Songs and Tales of the Undersea Folk (1982), Jane Yolen
50. Sister Light, Sister Dark (1990), Jane Yolen
Yes, there are a lot of children's books on this list. Or books that I read as a small child, regardless of their intended audience—I read Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences the year it came out, and God knows what that did to my brain; the same with Sister Light, Sister Dark, which I am almost sure influenced my decision to take up archery in seventh grade. Not a lot of science fiction that stayed with me, which is interesting in itself. Or there are authors that I remember I read through voraciously, like Lucius Shepard or Alfred Bester, but to whom I still don't return the same way. Hmm. I may have to re-think this list in a day. Or at least draw up another one.
What the hell: here are some of the books I listed off the top of my head, but had to cut because of publication dates or genre.
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904), G.K. Chesterton
A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Charles Dickens
The Valley of Song (1951), Elizabeth Goudge
I, Claudius (1934), Robert Graves
The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr, Together with a Fragmentary Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper (1819—1821), E.T.A. Hoffmann
The Last of the Wine (1956), Mary Renault
The Mask of Apollo (1966), Mary Renault
The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), Rosemary Sutcliff
We (1924), Yevgeny Zamyatin
Questions, comments, howls of outrage . . . ?
no subject
I'll need to go find the Joan Aiken; I have many fond memories of her books. I found Neptune Rising for a dollar at a yard sale, which was tremendously exciting. I'd never seen it before. I gloated. Rats and Gargoyles was good, and tremendously comlicated.
My other thoughts consist of things like, "Darkangel!", "Psion, I remember that, but I don't remember having a strong reaction to it," and "Hmmm, Sylvia Townsend Warner, I liked that one short story I read by her."
no subject
It exists in two versions: it was published first as a slightly bowdlerized young adult novel and then reprinted with the preferred, original text. I'm not sure if this would make any difference to your reaction. I like all three of Vinge's novels about Cat, the others being Catspaw (1988), Dreamfall (1996), and the novella "Psiren" in Phoenix in the Ashes (1985), and have always been sorry that she seems to have abandoned the character (on a cliffhanger, no less). Her language is believably telepathic.
no subject