Best stories & novels to never win a Hugo
As a follow-up to the Thoughts on Hugo awards post from the other day, here are some thoughts from various authors on what story and novel most deserved to win a Hugo award but didn’t. You might find something here you haven’t read that sounds intriguing. MIND MELD: What’s the Best Story to Never Win […]
Best SF & fantasy novels from the ’00s
Many lists are dominated by older works, so I thought I’d point out this list that just considers works from the first decade of the 21st century. It’s from Tor.com and has appreciations of the top 10 titles as well as statistics on the voting. Best SFF Novels of the Decade Readers Poll RESULTS I’ve […]
Neverwhere
{4.5/5} “‘Young man,’ he said, ‘understand this: there are two Londons. There’s London Above — that’s where you lived — and then there’s London Below — the Underside — inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you’re one of them. Good night.’” Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, published in 1996 What […]
The worst book I ever read
{0.5/5} The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield is not just a bestseller but a megabestseller. That is absolutely mind boggling to me, as it’s the worst book I ever read. If I were to read it now for the first time there’s no way I would finish it. The quality of the writing is shockingly […]
Project Pope
{4.5/5} “They came here because they had been denied religious experience elsewhere, had been read out of that part of human life that had a strong appeal to them. You have to know a robot well to understand his instinctive drive toward religious experience.” Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak, published in 1981 The planet […]
Ape House
{4.5/5} “He’d had a two-way conversation with great apes. He’d spoken to them in English, and they’d responded using American Sign Language… He’d looked into their eyes and recognized without a shadow of a doubt that sentient, intelligent beings were looking back.” Ape House by Sara Gruen, published in 2010 This novel tells the story […]
Redwall
I started reading Redwall by Brian Jacques because it was on the list. But I’m not going to finish it — it’s not doing it for me, so I’m moving on. There are a number of books marketed to younger readers on the fantasy list. Some of them, like The Golden Compass and Artemis Fowl, […]
Replay
{5/5} “I’ve imagined just about every possible explanation for what’s happening to me… Time warps, black holes, God gone berserk… I once had myself convinced this was all some sort of experiment being conducted by an extraterrestrial race.” Replay by Ken Grimwood, published in 1987 Jeff died of a heart attack at 43 in 1988. […]
Books & movies based on books
I don’t usually read a book and watch the movie based on the book. I find that whichever one comes second will be pretty ho hum — so I just pick one or the other. I made a couple of exceptions recently for books on Sci-Fi Lists. I read Jurassic Park and Interview With the […]
The Mists of Avalon
{4.5/5} “Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you.” The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, published in 1983 This is Bradley’s retelling of the King Arthur story from the point […]