Replies

Cryptonomnicon - Never heard of it.

Dune - Read it and liked it but have no desire to read the sequels.

Gravity's Rainbow - Never heard of it.

Foundation - Couldn't get into it.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Never heard of it.

1984 - Read it and liked it.

First and Last Men and Starmaker - Heard of them but never read them. I found Stapledon difficult to read. I've finished only Odd John.

The Long Tomorrow - Heard of it but never read it.

Dhalgren - Heard of it but never read it.

Infinite Jest - Never heard of it.

Dune is one of the greats - like many others on this thread I could not read the sequels.

Foundation was originally published as a series of stories that Asimov later stitched together - one reason why some can’t get into it. It’s also quite dated for readers of today - Asimov’s galactic future lacks technology we have today. I rejected the premise of psychohistory - there are too many variables in the population of a single planet to make the future predictable to the degree specified, let alone a galaxy of different worlds. Still enjoyed the books, but have never been tempted to reread them.

1984, of course, is a classic - Huxley just underestimated the time it would take for the rats to gain power.

Tried to read Dhalgren when I was very young, couldn’t make heads or tails of it so I never finished it. I should try to read it again. Same with Olaf Stapledon’s books.

Never heard of the others.

I would add:
SF:
Pebble in the Sky - Asimov
Riverworld - Philip Jose Farmer
The Boat of a Million Years - Poul Anderson
The Mote in God’s Eye - Niven & Pournelle
Ringworld - Niven
The Robots of Dawn - Asimov
Lest Darkness Fall - L. Sprague DeCamp
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein
Rendezvous with Rama - Clarke
Way Station - Clifford D. Simak
Earth Abides - George R Stewart
Nine Princes in Amber - Roger Zelazny
A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter M. Miller
Little Fuzzy - H. Beam Piper
First Lensman - Doc Smith
After Things Fell Apart - Ron Goulart
Witch World - Andre Norton

Fantasy:

Lord of the Rings
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan
Swords in the Mist - Fritz Leiber
The Magic of Recluse - L.E. Modesitt
Voyage of the Fox Rider - Dennis L. McKiernan
Hel’s Crucible - McKiernan
The Dragonbone Chair - Tad Williams
Arrows of the Queen - Mercedes Lackey
Conan of Cimmeria - Howard / DeCamp / Carter

Read Dune. Liked it. Barely made it through the 1st sequel and got only part of the way through the second

Foundation trilogy. Read it multiple times. Enjoyed immensely but could not say the same for the decades lapsed sequels. Asimov had lost his edge.

1984.....quite the dystopian drama. Fits right in with the current regime

Have never heard the of the others.

Cryptonomicon: read it and enjoyed it

Dune, the other two of the trilogy, the prequels written by Herbert's son: I found the first book and the prequels better reading than the second and third books of the trilogy.

The prequels are great books in their own right, imho.

Gravity's Rainbow: Read it, too, but it took a couple of tries to get into it.

Foundation: great read.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: Haven't read it. It has been turned into a series on BBC America.

1984: read it a few times, along with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited. Still worth reading, still relevant, even if the technology has changed or become commonplace in discussion, if not practice.

First and Last Men and Starmaker: Haven't read either.

The Long Tomorrow: Never read it, but would like to.

Dhalgren: Read part of it and did not finish--a rarity for me, but in that case I became separated from the copy I had been reading for a while and never picked it back up.

Infinite Jest: Nope, didn't read that one either.