Showing posts with label J.R.R. Tolkien. Show all posts
Showing posts with label J.R.R. Tolkien. Show all posts

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Discuss: Amazon's 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy novels to read in a lifetime


Photo from http://www.curiositykilledthebookworm.net/p/2012-sci-fi-challenge.html

Karen: Amazon published a list of 100 science fiction and fantasy books you should read in your life. I checked it out. I have read 36 of them. It's not a bad list, as these things go. It includes many of the usual suspects -Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, Herbert, McCaffrey, LeGuin, Tolkien - along with some more recent selections (including Richard Kadrey, a personal favorite of mine). 

However, there are also some omissions -for me, the most glaring is that of Roger Zelazny, author of the Amber series and Lord of Light. Also, not a single novel by the prolific Andre Norton?

If you can muster the time, take a look at the list and share your thoughts about it. No list like this is perfect and all are subjective, but I do feel that some more worthy titles were overlooked for perhaps trendier ones.

And if you don't have the time to peruse the list, what is your own personal handful of indispensable science fiction and fantasy novels?

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Discuss: The Hobbit (the book)



Karen: Since the film is out, let's discuss the book (and let's stick with just this book, and save Tolkien's other works for later posts). I first  read The Hobbit when I was about ten years old. It was yet another book I was introduced to by my older brother. It was the first real fantasy book I'd ever read and opened the doors to a lot of others. I'll always consider The Hobbit to be the icon, the one that set the standards and conventions of fantasy fiction for the decades to come (and you can argue whether that was for good or ill). I still try to read it every few years, and I still enjoy it. 



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