SFF-KIT: October 2020, Classics

Our challenge this month is . . . Classics! This is your opportunity to read that classic sci-fi or fantasy novel (or short story collection) that's on your TBR because you've heard it's such a classic. :)

I suggest that you pick your classic SFF from one of the lists that help newbies like me select reading material in an unfamiliar genre. There are the "best" and "must-read" lists; here are some examples:

Bloomsbury's 100 Must-Read Science Fiction Novels
The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years From 1953-2002
Locus 1998 Poll, All-Time Best SF Novel Before 1990
Locus 1975 Poll, All-Time Best Novel

Maybe you'd like to read one of the award winners of the past:

Hugo Awards (given every year since 1955)
Nebula Awards (given every year since 1965)

Or perhaps you're chipping away at one of the big best-novel lists:

The Guardian's 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read, which conveniently includes a Science Fiction & Fantasy category
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Your classic doesn't have to be on one of these lists--feel free to share another list for the rest of us to enjoy!

Don't forget to update the wiki!

I'm planning to read Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and is on several lists.

I'm thinking of Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, winner of the 1969 Hugo for Best Novel. It's the next one on the SF Masterworks series which I am working my way through. https://www.librarything.com/nseries/256130/SF-Masterworks

I am going to be reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut as it appears on a number of the above lists.

I have a few (??) recommendations for those interested:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle

The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams (slow starter, but suddenly grabs you and pulls you along...does not read like a chunkster)

Child of an Ancient City (shorter but still a very good read by Tad Williams)

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey (book #2, but my favorite in the Harper Hall trilogy)

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Exile's Honor by Mercedes Lackey

Alas Babylon by Pat Frank

Friday by Robert Heinlein

Tea With the Black Dragon by R A MacAvoy

The Beast Master by Andre Norton

Merchanter's Luck by CJ Cherryh - a good stand-alone book in her Alliance Universe series

Foreigner by CJ Cherryh - complicated and intriguing first in a long but excellent series

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin

Little Fuzzy by H Beam Piper

Dune by Frank Herbert

Unicorn Variations by Roger Zelazny

E Pluribus Unicorn edited by Theodore Sturgeon (excellent and weird short stories)

I'd reread ANY of these in a heartbeat.

I think this will be the month I finally read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell! It was published in 1996, so maybe it's a bit too new to be a classic...but it did win several awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and it's on this list of Penguin Random House's best sci-fi novels of all time. (There's also a fantasy list, if you need more suggestions!)

>5 fuzzi: Great list!

>6 christina_reads: My selection is from 1992, so I don't think 1996 is too new!

I was thinking Jo Walton, but it seems all her works are from this century! So I'm thinking maybe that's not really "classic" yet.

Perhaps my best choice is The Neverending Story, which would also count double for my personal "auf Deutsch" goal -- though I do find 500 pages even of a children's book intimidating given how little I've used the language recently.

For recommendations, I also love Bujold and Card and Willis, and would add:

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Bloodchild and Other Stories or Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

>9 pammab: for those who have seen the original Blade Runner movie be advised: the book by Philip K Dick is totally different.

>7 NinieB: thank you! I count books from the 1980s or before as classics.

I'll try to get to The Forever War which for some reason I never quite seem to read.

I'll be reading parts of The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander and possibly Anne Rice's The Mummy (arguably not a "classic" but coming up often enough in conversation that I feel it is).

>12 aspirit: be sure to start with The Book of Three, or you'll be lost.

>10 fuzzi: That warning for PKD adaptaions would probably apply for all of them not just Blade Runner.

>14 AHS-Wolfy: it's the only PKD book I've read. I was surprised how different it was from the movie, WAAAAY different.

To Have and Have Not is another book that has a movie adaptation that doesn't resemble it at all.

>13 fuzzi: I'm reading the books in order this time, definitely.

>10 fuzzi: >14 AHS-Wolfy: I loved the book - way better than the movie!

>15 fuzzi: Most of the comparisons I've made were from short stories with very recognisable movie (and TV) adaptations such as Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck & Screamers to name a few. They just take the basic idea remove most of the weirdness and it seems to work out quite well.

>18 AHS-Wolfy: Screamers was based on a short story weirder than the movie? I have to find this story now. ETA: And this is how I learned of a movie called Screamers, which is not the same as The Frighteners.

>19 aspirit: The story in question was called Second Variety. It's available in various collections as detailed here.

>20 AHS-Wolfy: Thank you.

Starting Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, a classic SF work from 1966

COMPLETED Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

My review:

The story of Charlie Gordon, whose IQ soars from 68 to 180 after an experimental operation. Now that he's "smart", will he get the friends he hoped for?

Not quite the way I remembered it from reading it 40-odd years ago (I remembered it as a drug rather than an operation) but the themes of the difference between IQ and emotional growth and how people treat those they consider "less than" are timeless. Episodes throught the book might make the reader sad or angry, but the ending is heart-breaking.

>23 Robertgreaves: This is the book I will be reading too, as soon as my library hold arrives. I have not read it before although I have seen the movie.

I listened to the audiobook of Rocannon's World by Ursula K. Le Guin (1966). I am a Le Guin fan but this first book of her Hainish series didn't live up to my expectations. I found the 'sociological' sections (one of which starts the book) were hard to follow in the audio format (because it is deliberately written in a dry academic style which caused my attention to drift away). Oh well, now I know next time to get a print or ebook edition. 3*

It makes me feel old to have books that came out in my lifetime count as classics!

>25 leslie.98: I remember reading the prologue as a stand alone story and loving it much more than the full novel which I read 25 years later.

>26 Robertgreaves: I could intellectually appreciate how Le Guin was parlaying her experience into her fiction but it didn't fit my mood at the moment. Plus, as I mentioned, for me it was a poor selection for audiobook format - I find it harder to keep my attention focussed on audiobooks so anything too detailed or dry is better for me in written form.

>1 NinieB: haven't chosen my read for this month, how about a graphic novel?

I have Prince Valiant Volume 9: 1953-1954 waiting to be read, and it's from the 1950s. Would that work?

>28 fuzzi: That seems completely in classics territory! Enjoy!

>30 NinieB: thanks! I may start it tonight.

I finished The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Okay, but I don't' think it aged all that well.

>32 majkia: That was my reaction too.

I'm starting Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey. I've read and liked the fist book in the series years ago and it's high time I read this one.

>34 chlorine: while the Harper Hall trilogy remains my favorite Pern series, Dragonflight and Dragonquest are close.

I finished Ubik by Philip K. Dick which I've wanted to get to for quite a while. Won't go down as my favourite of his works that I've read so far. As always though with PKD stories it was an interesting read.

>36 AHS-Wolfy: I read Ubik when I was in my early twenties (or a bit before that) and loved it. I'm not sure I would appreciate it as much now.
The scene in the beginning with everything refusing to function because of lack of money will always be a favorite of mine though. That door was something! :)

I may decide to come back to it later but for now I'm giving up on Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey. I had chosen a book by a female author hoping to avoid the prevalent sexism that was overwhelmingly present in the books of the 70s, but I had no such luck.
The women in the book are mostly described by their looks and their interest in men. Even though Lessa, one of the main female characters, is sensible, opposed to other female characters who only think about sex, and even though as a weyrwoman, attached to a dragon queen, she suposedly has a strong role in the dragonrider hierarchy, her main activities seem to be to support her male mate and to rush to do the cooking when she notices that the servants have prepared a very bad meal. This culminates (or maybe there's worse after the point at which I've stopped reading?) in a rape scene in which the woman in the end enjoys the experience. Come on, Anne!

On top of that I found the book to be poorly written, difficult to understand, with character names difficult to remember and distinguish from one another.

>38 chlorine: I'm sorry to hear you didn't appreciate Dragonquest. I really like Lessa, whose personality is complicated by being a victim of a traumatic past and part of a patriarchal society. I see her as a strong female character who occasionally reverts to a more childlike or submissive state, possibly due to a form of PTSD. How she survived as a child, and how she winds up as a heroine has always been appealing to me.

>40 fuzzi: Those are very interesting comments. Unfortunately I've read the first book in the series many years ago (something like 20...) and I have in general poor recollection of the books I've read so in this case I have no recollection of Lessa's past at all.
I see this diminishes the attraction of the book for me.

>41 chlorine: Have you posted November's challenge yet?

>42 SilverWolf28: yes its right there:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/325433#

>43 chlorine: Thanks!

I have completed my read of Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Totally weird but strangely fascinating, although it was supposed to be about WWII, this book could only have come out of the 1960s.

Really appreciate and relate to the comments on LeGuin and McCaffery. I don't have much more to add to the conversation (too many books in the fire for me to actually get through The Neverending Story myself), but the conversations made me think and reflect on authors I haven't read recently.

Next up is my choice for the month, Prince Valiant Volume 9.

Addendum: while looking for something "light" to read in bed before sleep I came across The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert Heinlein...perfect!

I'm belatedly making my report on Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.

The "present day" in the novel is Oxford University in 2054. History faculties routinely send historians into the past for onsite work. The Middle Ages has always been closed to time travel as too dangerous, but an acting head manages to open it up, and a young woman undergraduate (Kivrin) eagerly volunteers. Many precautions are taken to ensure she doesn't get sick, because by 2054, at least one disastrous Pandemic has killed 65 million people. After she is sent back to 1320, though, another epidemic strikes Oxford: most crucially, the tech running the onsite becomes delirious with fever, and while he seems to be saying that something is wrong with the onsite work, he can't articulate what it is.

Meanwhile, back in the Middle Ages, Kivrin has herself been struck with a terrible fever soon after her arrival. When her fever reduces, she finds herself in a manor in the Oxfordshire countryside. She quickly becomes close to the family she is with. The problem is she does not know where to go to return to the present day.

Anyone who enjoys reading about the past should enjoy this book--Kivrin's experiences in the 14th century are unforgettable. The story of the present day epidemic is fascinating as well. And the suspense aspects of the story are dynamite.

If I'm going to complain about anything with this story, it's that Willis's vision of 2054 feels very much like 1992, the book's original publication date. What's missing? the internet and cell phones. I acknowledge that it's somewhat unfair to knock Willis for not anticipating how technology developed, but the absence of these technologies creates a weird kind of alt-history effect.

I will certainly read more by Connie Willis.

I'm hoping to finish my Heinlein by tomorrow, adding a second "classic" to this month's challenge, woo!

>49 fuzzi: Look at you read!

I'm not sure if the book, Imperial Lady qualifies as a classic, but the author Andre Norton certainly does. This was my first book by this author and I will certainly be looking for more by her.

>50 NinieB: I'm trying to shut off all media every evening by 8pm and just READ.

It's better for my sanity and keeps insomnia at bay.

>52 fuzzi: I am not good about turning the media off, and I know I go to sleep faster when I don't shine bright lights in my eyes! Good for you.

>53 NinieB: thanks, though I don't always succeed.

I prefer paper books for nighttime reading, to avoid the light stimulation.

I have finished The moon is a harsh mistress just before the chimes of midnight and liked it a lot.

>55 MissWatson: That's my favourite Heinlein. One I can always go back to and enjoy every time I re-read it.

>56 AHS-Wolfy: It is full of interesting ideas, and I loved the prof.

It's November. Time to read about our dystopian world-- I mean, uh, worlds!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/325433

(I hadn't yet starred the new topic so had to dig it up. This message is for anyone else who didn't have the link.)

>55 MissWatson: I have fond memories of reading that one, though I can't recall anything about it! Hahaha.

>59 fuzzi: That seems to happen to me a lot, these days.

>52 fuzzi: I am with you on turning off media and reading in the evenings. As a result, a) I'm only now catching up with October's reading list, and b) I read *4 books* in the month of October!

Yay go me!

Finally, finally posting my classic fantasy literature for October's reading challenge: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. I have read and re-read it since 1976 or so, and I still find something new in it. This time is was Molly Magrue saying to the Unicorn, "Why are you coming now, when I am like this?!" when they first meet. Then Molly changes as a result of their contact. And the walking! I had forgotten about all the walking in search of Haggard's castle.

>62 threadnsong: I love that book. And the cartoon version was pretty good, kept much of what made The Last Unicorn special.