(this theme was borrowed from the fantasy group...but seemed potentially fun and informative)
For science fiction - it's easier to pick authors than single books...
I regularly reread:
1. Most of William Gibson
2. most Melissa Scott
3. Snowcrash
4. Kage Baker
5. Ted Chiang (only one book..sigh)
Frank Herbert is the only author I regularly reread
Wish I had time to reread...it's hard enough getting through all the books I have yet to read ONCE.
There's only one that stands out for me, and then only if you include fantasy: The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I've read them at least a dozen times. They're like old friends, familiar and comfortable and just as interesting as the first time I met them.
I'm not really all that much of a re-reader in this genre. The one that I really have read several times, though, is
A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Cherryh re-read frequently partly because I liek to recall a series before embarking on a new episode, but mostly because she's very good.
Brin -
Earth cause it's good.
Alastair Reynolds - ditto on series and good.
haven't re-read much else recently in the way of SF.
#6 snellius - I've been thinking about rereading the Foundation series. I have so much I want to read this summer and that series is a major undertaking! I think I'll add it to my list anyway!
I've read each of these books several times:
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Rendevous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
There are many others in my list, but most are not SF.
Message edited by its author, May 23, 2008, 8:08am.
I tried rereading the Foundation trilogy. I remember loving the books as a kid. This time round, I thought they were dreadful. You can never go back...
>11 - having had the same experience, there are a number of sf books I now wouldn't attempt to re-read for that reason. I blame myself however - shouldn't have started reading outside the genre so often, it raised my standards too much.
Five worthwhile -
J. G. Ballard -
The Drowned WorldKeith Roberts -
PavaneThomas Disch -
On Wings of SongLucius Shepard -
The Jaguar HunterRobert Silverberg -
The Book of Skulls*
* although I'm still not convinced that should be published as an sf novel.
Message edited by its author, May 23, 2008, 2:03pm.
>16
The Jaguar Hunter is a wonderful story- and Lucius Shepard an underrated author (*note author, not SF author)
italics be gone!
Message edited by its author, May 23, 2008, 2:48pm.
My TRB list keeps growing and growing and growing.......
in re #14
I was VERY disappointed in Spook Country the first time i read it; to my surprise i liked it quite a bit the 2nd time...Not close to Pattern Recognition (my favorite Gibson), but certainly good enough for me to keep and not pass it on to book crossing or the library book sale.
I must try SPOOK COUNTRY again some time. I gave up after about 50 pages. I thought Gibson was trying to be overtly arty and had forgotten how to write entertaining prose and interesting characters. I liked PATTERN RECOGNITION very much but SPOOK COUNTRY just went kaput...
I don't reread too much SF, but off hand these come to mind:
1.
The Martian Chronicles2.
Red Genesis by S. C. Sykes
Sometimes I think of revisiting Blish's
Cities in Flight and
Solaris, the later after watching the recent version of it on film. Initially I read it before having seen either film. Someday maybe Dune or
Foundation trilogy.
Ooops, that's 8. There are lots of books I'm still wanting to read for the first time though.
My answers:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
I fail at re-reading, clearly. Instead I prefer to plow ever-onwards through my mounting piles of new books.
ooo, I remember another one. Now this one won't be for everyone, but I first read it in college and it just appealed...
Thrice Upon a Time by James P. Hogan. :)
1. The entire Liaden Universe series by
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.
2. The Chanur series by
C.J. Cherryh.
3. Most of the Tortall books by Tamora Pierce (especially the Trickster books).
4. The early Pern books by Anne McCaffrey.
5. Pre-1990s
Andre Norton.
6.
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.
Not to mention the Planet Pirates books by McCaffrey,
Elizabeth Moon and Jodie Lynn Nye. Which leads me on to Elizabeth Moon's Heris Serrano series.
Oh, and David Weber's Dahak series and
Path of the Fury. Unfortunately, I have never been able to get into the Honor Harrington books so I won't include those.
I guess that is a few more than five ;-)
Message edited by its author, May 24, 2008, 3:05pm.
Orson Scott Card
David Brin
Roger ZelaznyEdgar Rice Burroughs
Greg BearAt least those are the 5 off the top of my head. With the exception of some paperbacks that were never reprinted, I've read most of my library more than once.
(Edit: fixed misspelling)
Message edited by its author, May 25, 2008, 12:21am.
I reread things, but usually it's because I read it when I was a kid, and don't remember a blessed thing about it. A lot of my recent Heinlein reading is of that nature.
There are really only 2 or 3 SFF books that I read often for return pleasure:
Out of the Silent Planet,
Dream Quest of Unknown KadathSon of Man I really am overdue for another shot at
Son of Man. I reread that one every five years or so.
Message edited by its author, May 25, 2008, 1:11am.
Earlier this year I introduced my sons to the short stories of Robert Sheckley, stuff I loved in my late teens. I re-read some of the old Sheckley tales when one of my lads left
CITIZEN IN SPACE hanging about and it still provoked a smile. My sons have since gone on to other Sheckley collections and there's frequently a Sheckley book in their bag during long car trips.
Robert lives on...
I have reread very few SF novels, the exception being:
1.
The Handmaid's Tale.
There are just too many books out 'there' that I haven't read even once.
However, I might someday reread some of Leguin, Tepper, Charnas, Butler. . .
Great thread idea!
Here is my list, for what it is worth:
1.
Dune - reread thirteen times. An amazing book, I always take away something new from it, after having learnt some things about religion, ecology, politics and a great deal of other subjects.
2.
Last and First Men - reread five times. Extremely wide-ranging story about the future of humanity, and there are a lot of different human races depicted - eighteen in all. I am constantly astounded about all of the ideas expressed in this book.
3.
I Am Legend - reread four times. An excellent idea - the last human alive in the world, and the life he lives, when everyone else has become vampires.
4.
Gateway - reread four times. It's a simple premise - take a ride on a ship to an unknown destination, risking your life for huge rewards, and it's done extremely well, with an interesting depiction of a decaying world. And the fact that a lot of the relics found are left as a mystery works quite well.
5.
The Forever War - reread three times. Brilliantly executed war novel.
Message edited by its author, May 26, 2008, 8:00pm.
>20 I may try
Spook Country again one of these days. I don't know, though. I went right to
Count Zero after attempting SC, and loved it, so it's not like I just wasn't in a Gibson mood. I do have to be in the mood for him, generally (I can only take swaggering, hyper-cool superiority at certain times), but that wasn't the problem this time. I just didn't care about the characters, and the idea was not really interesting. Maybe I missed something, though...
I have to have forgotten most of the book before I will read it again. That said, for the first time in many years, I have reread some books.
Roger Zelazny's
Lord of Light, Vernor Vinge's
A Fire Upon the Deep, Neal Stephenson's
Snowcrash,
Tim Powers'
Last Call, William Gibson's
Neuromancer, and Dan Simmons'
Carrion Comfort were still terrific to at least pretty good. Robert A. Heinlein's
A Stranger in a Strange Land was practically unreadable. I think I could make it through The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and
Glory Road, but all the rest of Heinlein I would probably stay away from.
I have reread Ursula K. LeGuin and some others from time to time, but I am still trying to keep up with all current novels.
Every time I wander past my book shelves I see books I want to reread. Except... a) the To Be Read pile is near 500 books, so it's not like I can take the time to reread; and b) rereads nearly always disappoint.
I recently reread EE 'Doc' Smith's
Masters of Space, a book I loved as a kid. It was appalling. And last year I reread Asimov's Foundation trilogy, and thought it quite poor.
It seems only rereads of books I originally read no more than 10 or 15 years ago survive subsequent visits*. So, do I really want to reread
Ringworld or
The Tar-Aiym Krang or
The Dosadi Experiment or even van Vogt's Null-A books?
(*Actually, this is not entirely true: for some reason Delany's novels survive rereads quite well.)
When I was a youth I read Clarke's
The Sands of Mars, since I was about 10 or 11 and enjoyed it thoroughly I'm going to say it must have been YA Sci-Fi.
There are several reasons why I don't think it would be nearly as interesting today: I am no longer 10 or 11, we've been to Mars and know much more about it now than we did then, the central idea, civilization returns to it's home, has been done several times since then, we know that Deimos and Phobos are NOT space ships disguised as moons (or think we do). Thus, many of the basic assumptions that fifty years ago didn't seem so far fetched, now require quite a serious suspension of belief that was not anticipated and consequently not prepared for by the author in the book. All of these things render the book a "favorite" from my youth, but like viewing a dead body at a funeral, I would prefer not to reread it, I would prefer to remember it as a living, vibrant memory, rather than a corpse laid waste by time.
Message edited by its author, May 28, 2008, 11:12am.
Gene: how do you think you'd feel re-reading Bradbury's
MARTIAN CHRONICLES? None of the tales that make up the book have the slightest bearing on reality, the actual state of the Red Planet as we now see it. But the stories still have power and beauty. Don't let the real world get in the way of a great story, chum...
I thought about the
Martian Chronicles while writing the above post. I read the collection about ten years after I read
The Sands of Mars and considered using it in my example, but as I thought about it I felt many of the stories, while set on Mars, were more closely related to Serling's
Twilight Zone stories. They relied more on irony, pathos, and empathy more than most. They use sci-fi as a technique for teaching us about ourselves, more than future investigation, or space opera, or just a fun read. This tends to make for a more mature read than most sci-fi I've read recently.
Message edited by its author, May 28, 2008, 11:12am.
...and that's why CHRONICLES retains its power and relevance despite the scientific advances made since its creation. The "science" in science fiction is often over-emphasized, especially by those who are professional scientists and who write SF as a sideline. They get the tech crap right but have only a feeble grasp of characterization and story. But I've ranted about that before so...
Message edited by its author, May 28, 2008, 10:54am.
>42 - I think I mentioned this in passing on another thread but I don't consider Bradbury an sf writer; to me he's a fantasist who often has a superficial sf framework.
The Martian Chronicles is a good example of this - it's less an sf story than a modern western (substitute the Martians with Indians).
I've been calling the target of my two posts The Red Sands of Mars and wondered why there were not ouchstones for this. Now I know, the name of the book is
The Sands of Mars. I will go back and edit my two previous posts to fix this problem.
Frankly (or should that be "genely"?), I like "Red Sands of Mars" better.
If I was Gene Eric Greathouse, you could say, generically. But I'm not, so don't.
Any interest in a thread on the history of sci-fi? I suspect because of its speculative nature and tendency to forward thinking, sci-fi would naturally develop as rousing stories for boys, rather than serious literature. I think this is the case with much of Poe, Verne, Wells, etc. But it seems somewhere in the forties or fifties it began to bifurcate from simply rousing adventures and adolescent dreams to some more cerebral stuff,
Lem comes to mind here.
How, by what steps, did Sci-Fi progress (or digress, if that's your cup of tea) from Monck Mason's ballon trip across the Atlantic to the last sci fi published, whatever that may have been?
Message edited by its author, May 28, 2008, 11:41am.
Where does SF begin? The roots and shoots...
Sounds like it would make a great thread, Gene. Give it a shot. As well, it would draw some attention to the often neglected and maligned early pioneers, like Verne, et all. Maybe have some of our resident geniuises (gene-iuses?) throwing out some obscure names for us to check out.
I say go for it...
http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclo...links to "Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature’s Most Fantastic Works" - a books on tape/cd site..unfortunately not close to being free - but this particular course was excellent.
Taught by Eric Rabkin @ the UofMich.
1. The Brothers Grimm & Fairy Tale Psychology
2. Propp, Structure, and Cultural Identity
3. Hoffmann and the Theory of the Fantastic
4. Poe—Genres and Degrees of the Fantastic
5. Lewis Carroll: Puzzles, Language, & Audience
6. H. G. Wells: We Are All Talking Animals
7. Franz Kafka—Dashed Fantasies
8. Woolf—Fantastic Feminism & Periods of Art
9. Robbe-Grillet, Experimental Fiction & Myth
10. Tolkien & Mass Production of the Fantastic
11. Children’s Literature and the Fantastic
12. Postmodernism and the Fantastic
13. Defining Science Fiction
14. Mary Shelley—Grandmother of Science Fiction
15. Hawthorne, Poe, and the Eden Complex
16. Jules Verne and the Robinsonade
17. Wells—Industrialization of the Fantastic
18. The History of Utopia
19. Science Fiction and Religion
20. Pulp Fiction, Bradbury, & the American Myth
21. Robert A. Heinlein—He Mapped the Future
22. Asimov and Clarke—Cousins in Utopia
23. Ursula K. Le Guin: Transhuman Anthropologist
24. Cyberpunk, Postmodernism, and Beyond
I agree, for science fiction - it's easier with authors
In no particular order
Andre Norton
James White (sector general)
Robert Heinlein
Elizabeth Moon
Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle
There are several others who run close.
I don't typically re-read much. So, the only things I have or plan to re-read would have to be:
1.
The Diamond Age by
Neal StephensonThere have undoubtedly been many nano-tech books written by other authors, but Stephenson always has a lot of good lines and good characters. Plus, I like the different settings described.
2.
Neuromancer by
William GibsonThe world it describes is obsolete now. That's usually a bad thing in SF, but the characters are just so cool that I enjoy re-reading it.
3.
Diaspora by
Greg EganEgan writes very hard SF. This one's a mind-bender.
I reread books quite a lot. I'm not in a position, economically, to buy many new books -- so I am quite dependent on my public library system -- which, quite frankly, is not all that great. So although I usually read one or two new books a week, they are usually mysteries, since that is what the Sarasota county library's new books are skewed to.
But I have crammed bookshelves full of tried and true favorites. I reread many of my books every year -- it's like visiting with old and beloved friends.
Here are some of my favorite s/f/fantasy rereads (I get to these every year):
1)
Cetaganda,
Ethan of Athos,
Shards of Honor,
Barrayar,
A Civil Campaign, and
Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
2)
Gate of Ivory by
Doris Egan3)
Citizen of the Galaxy,
Stranger in a Strange Land,
Friday,
Farnham's Freehold,
Door into Summer,
Tunnel in the Sky,
Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
4)
Sword of Winter by
Marta Randall5)
Catseye by
Andre Norton6)
Grass and
The Fresco by Sheri S. Tepper
and a slew of others, depending on my mood. I read very quickly, so it is not difficult for me to read one or two new books a week (two or more if they're fiction, one if it is a serious nonfiction book) as well as two or three old favorites.
Great idea for a thread, by the way! It was fun reading everybody else's lists.
Message edited by its author, Jun 19, 2008, 10:24pm.
I used to read several authors works every two years:
Larry Niven's Known Space books
James White's Sector 12 General Hospital books
The Commonwealth books by
Alan Dean Foster.
Now, not so much. Although I have a hankering to read some
Hal Clement.
Some
Andre Norton (
The Time Traders series with special empasis on
Galactic Derelict, The first three few World books, The Janus books, The Solar Queen series)
Murray Leinster -
The Monster From Earth's End,
The Wailing Asteroid.
Robert Moore Williams - The Day they H-Bombed Los Angeles.
The Insect Warriors by...
Rex Dean Levie.
The
James White Hospital Station series.
I'm also very fond of some novelizations, variously, by
Murray Leinster and Keith Laumer of the "
Time Tunnel", "The Invaders", and "
Land of the Giants" TV series'.
Oh, and I have an equally inexplicable attachment to the old novel by
Dave Van Arnam and
Ron Archer, based on "Lost in Space".
Message edited by its author, Jun 21, 2008, 11:35am.
The only science fiction novels that I've read more than twice are Dune and
Ringworld. I've read lots of short stories multiple times (especially Theodore Sturgeon and Cordwainer Smith).
Re Msg 39:
I can generally handle rereading
Isaac Asimov's works and the original five books of
Roger Zelazny's Amber series. However, the time I reread the Merlin of Amber books, I basically bounced, which was a pity - I quite like Ghostwheel if no other of the murderous bunch of the Courts or Amber...
I used to reread the
Lord of the Rings series quite ofte, but I haven't tooched them since the films came out.
The latest books I have reread was actually Harry Turtledove's
The Disunited States of America, which was an easy read, and S.M. Stirling's
Conquistador which went quite well.
The last time I tried reading Asimov's Foundation I found them quite dry and boring. When I originally read them they got me hooked on sf I liked them so much.
SF/F that I re-read mainly:
Zelazny
Cherryh
Bujold
Harry Potter except for the last one
LeGuin
Rite of Passage (Alexei Panshin)
To Say Nothing of the Dog (Connie Willis)
For me its
R A Heinlein
Clifford Simak
Asimov
James Blish
to which I can now add Bujold - a joyous discovery!
The Stars My Destination AKA "Tiger,Tiger" by Alfred Bester. I re-read this approximately every 2 years and always enjoy it.
My SciFi/Fantasy rereads are (how can anyone pick only 5?):
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
And many more!
I also have to watch myself when I'm flicking through any of Lois Bujold's books as I tend to find myself rereading rather than flicking...
Honor Harrington series - David Weber
Miles Vorkosigan series - LMB
Any of the original Star Trek novels - an SF version of Harlequin romances
Phule's Company - Robert Asprin
Pern Novels - McCaffrey
by author
Zelazny
Sturgeon
Norton
Burroughs
Willis
Not by any means the only ones, but the most often reread.
68> arrr, is your Burroughs Edgar Rice or William S.? (I consider both to be sf writers, and your other authors could point either way!)
William S. He's one of those fabled SF-porn authors we hear so much about in another thread?
It's hard for me to think of William S. Burroughs' writing as pornographic, though there are explicit homoerotic passages sprinkled throughout. But that's probably because I'm hetro, and the writing itself is often experimental, more non-linear prose-poems than traditional narrative, at least during his "cut-up" period.
I have to say I reread
Ender's Game quite a bit. (My copy has tattered edges.) Though I've not reread any in the last year due to an extensive to be read list that I want to finish before 2012. Problem is I shrink it by two books, it grows by six.
This message has been deleted by its author.
This message has been deleted by its author.
Don't do too much rerading, but the following I've read more than once.
Neuromancer and Count Zero - Wm Gibson
Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Enders Game - Brother Orson
Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Dune - Frank Herbert
81> Jose, you must be a literary soulmate--those are some of my favorite books & authors. I'll have to try
Riddley Walker some time, which is the only one I'm unfamiliar with.
Just five is hard, but here goes:
1. Lois McMaster Bujold:
Vorkosigan series
2.
David Weber: Honor Harrington series, Mutineer's Moon series,
Path of the Fury3. Orson Scott Card:
Ender's Game4. Jerry Pournelle: King David's Spaceship,
Janissaries series
5. David Feintuch: Hope series
Honorable mention:
Iain M. Banks:
Excession; I'm currently reading Matter
I find myself forever re-reading the Foundation series, used to do the same for the Stainless Steel Rats (grew out of them, I think) and used to get the Riverworld series repeatedly from the library.
I find Herbert's 'galactography' and prose too dense for frequent re-immersions but I've read "
Dune" a number of times.
1.) Heinlein (all of it)
2.) Orson Scott Card -
Ender's Game, Homecoming Series (I re-read the others too but not as often)
3.) Neal Stephenson -
Snow Crash,
The Diamond Age,
Cryptonomicon4.) Kim Stanley Robinson -
Red Mars,
Green Mars,
Blue Mars5.) Isaac Asimov - Foundation Series (and others but not all)
I re-read a LOT - these are the ones off of the top of my head that I re-read annually. I'd estimate that about 1/2 of my SF gets re-read every 3-4 years.
The only fantasy books that get re-read annually are Hobbit/LOTR and OSC's Alvin Maker series.
When I was a kid I reread the original Star Wars novelization about a down times. Since then, the only (SF) stories I've reread have been short stories. Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "I, Rocket" being favorites for several decades, leftovers from reading the EC Comics adaptations.
the Crystal Singer books
The Stand
2001 series
Alas, Babylon
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91 I ran out of self-promoters to call out.
After a lot of thought, I suppose what I go back to most often is a short story by
Joe Haldeman, 'A !tangled web' (collected in
Dealing in futures). It's set in his Confederacion universe, and involves a race of rather wonderful low-tech but savvy aliens with a love of word-play, seven sexes, odd body chemistry and a clever mercantile sense. They also have a nice habit of evading difficult questions by digressing into an elaborate death-related metaphor which always ends with the words "All die. O, the embarrassment."
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Members are reminded that they must abide by the Terms of Service. These terms require that members debate things, not people. Ad hominem attacks are prohibited. Anyone can slip, but self-conscious TOS-breaking is particularly obnoxious and will not be allowed on the site. If anyone would like to lodge a complaint against a member's actions, be my guest and email me. But attacking people on Talk is not allowed, and will, if not rectified, end in suspension or removal.
Best,
Tim Spalding
Founder, LibraryThing
1. I've read most of Gene Wolfe's novels at least a couple of times, some many more. I'm still working my way through some of the more recent short story collections.
2. Bester, both TSMD and
The Demolished Man.
3. LeGuin, particularly
The Left Hand of Darkness.
4. Patricia McKillip, better known for her fantasy, wrote one SF novel that I've seen, called
Fool's Run. For some reason I read it every so often.
5. A favorite from many years ago, Walter Miller's
A Canticle for Leibowitz.
I re-read the short stories of C.L. Moore on a periodic basis, which you can find in
The Best of C.L. Moore. I also have an on-going fondness for re-reading Ursula K. Leguin, both fiction and non-fiction, although I think I've probably read
The Language of the Night the most frequently.
Dune stands up to multiple readings. I also like the works of Suzette Haden Elgin, specifically
Native Tongue and the rest of that trilogy. I'm stuck for a fifth though.
Quick follow-up to above. I just thought of the fifth author that I re-read. C.S. Lewis -- his space trilogy has stuck with me for decades. Even though it's not accurate in its science, he used the form for purposes of exploring an idea using archetypes in a modern form.
Out of the Silent PlanetPerelandraThat Hideous Strength(1.)
Dune by
Frank HerbertEvery once in a while, I reread
Dune and --- it's not that i suddenly discover something new. it's more like my, i dunmo, perspective changed and i see the book in a different light. i doubt i'm the only one.
(2.)
Conqueror's Pride,
Conqueror's Heritage &
conqueror's Legacy by Timothy Zahn
I just love Zahn's portrayals of the aliens. i hope no one minds my counting these 3 as one; my rationalization is, it tells the same story from the viewpoints of both the humans and aliens
(3.) The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by
Douglas Adamsi know i'm cheating here, since The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide is a collection of several books that were originally published separately but . . . if i had to choose, i'd take this with me to a desert island because every time i read it, i've never failed to enjoy it even though i already know the plot. and at least the laughter will get to me before the thirst or heatstroke.
(4.)
Star Hatchling by
Margaret Bechardthe book that got me hooked on sci fi, thus changing my life. i read it every now and then, and it's yet to lose its charm.
(5.)
The Light of Other Days by
Arthur C. Clarke &
Stephen Baxterbecause sometimes i need something to believe in.
#105
Wait until the yellow construction ships show up in our sky and tell us the Earth has been scheduled for removal, because it's on a designated route for travel through the galaxy.
Only the mice will be able to save us.
1. Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
2. Iron Sunrise, Charles Stross
3. Player of Games, Iain M. Banks
4. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
5. Child of Fortune, Norman Spinrad
All of the Frank Herbert Dune books
The Man Who Folded HimselfLarry Niven's Known Space stories--I periodically reread many of these stories when Niven comes out with a new Known Space/Ringworld book.
#108
All of the dune series? How recently have you read them all?
I'm going to cheat and including two separate lists. . . I just couldn't stop at five :)
top reread authors of those I first read when I was a kid:
Andre NortonMarion Zimmer Bradley
Isaac AsimovArthur C. Clarke
Robert A. Heinlein
and authors I found more recently:
Elizabeth Moon
Lois McMaster Bujold
James Alan GardnerJames White
Kristine SmithMessage edited by its author, Apr 8, 2009, 1:44am.
108: The six Dune books by Frank Herbert, not the new ones by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson.
I read the six originals about 4 or 5 years ago (shortly after Children of Dune was on the Sci Fi channel).
Looking back, I've read or reread them once through in the 70s(well just the first three); 80s(first four before reading Heretics and ChapterHouse); 90s (late 90s in anticipation of the first Brian Herbert book).
I was inspired to read them again after seeing the Children movie and reading a few of the BH/KA books. The reread of Dune helped wipe out the bad taste left by the ersatz ones.
I agree with "darrow" (read message 61) - Alfred Bester is the best - I read his book "The Stars My Destination" every year or so. It is a fasicinating and 'colourful' book.
Great to see so many
Alfred Bester fans; I agree re
Stars My Destination.
My five:
1. Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles!)
2. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (Liaden)
3. Roger Zelazny (esp. Amber)
4. William Gibson (esp. Virtual Light, Idoru)
5. Alfred Bester
I also re-read Neil Gaiman, but can't classify him as science fiction.
I re-read these books:
1.
Medea: Harlan's World edited by Harlan Ellison, Various authors
2.
Time Enough For Love by Heinlein
3.
Neuromancer by Gibson
4.
Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
5.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Authors:
Harlan Ellison
Theodore Sturgeon
Roger Zelazny
Neal Stephenson
A. E. Van Vogt
If I thought my copy wouldn't fall apart in my hands, I'd probably be re-reading, shamelessly,
The Number of the Beast.
I wanted to include Hal Clement simply because he seemed so underrepresented in this thread, but I don't myself commonly pick up his books to re-read.
Message edited by its author, Aug 18, 2009, 5:45pm.
I used to reread
Foundation trilogy every other year, when I was much younger than I am now. One joyous weekend in 1987, I reread the entire series from friday to sunday (only stopping for short periodes of sleep). Like some other posters, I found that it did not please me later in life, at it had, when I was young.
That no one else has mentioned Julian May is a big surprise to me. I must have read The Saga of the Exiles series, Intervention and Galactic Milieu Trilogy at least five times. And I always take away something new and awarding.
I adore
The Legacy of Herot by
Larry Niven et al. That will soon be up for another reread.
Off-topic (or off-genre as it were) I have reread most of Terry Pratchetts Diskworld series. Twice I have reread one of his books directly after reading it the first time (going from the last page back to the first). They were
Going Postal and
Making Money.
Not in prioritized order...
*
A Civil Campaign and quite a few other books by Lois McMaster Bujold
* The Liaden-universe books by
Sharon Lee and
Steve Miller* Alfred Bester's
The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man
* The Chanur-series by CJ Cherryh
* Quite a few science ficition books by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
*
Kristine Smith's Jani Kilian-books, but I don't know if they'll get as worn as the others in this list.
More interesting however are the books that cannot be reread. All the books I have by
Guy Gavriel Kay are like that: having read them once, I remember too much to reread them so all I have to do is glance at the first page and it all comes back.
For Sci-fi, my comfort reads are:
Lois McMaster Bujold (anything published)
Robert J. Sawyer (everything I've bought)
James Alan Gardener (league of peoples)
Dennis Danvers -
The Watch: A novelThere are a few other authors from fantasy and other genres but my 'to be read' stacks are too high to spend a lot of time re-reading.
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