Timescape is 1977 or something, isn't it? And is Magic for Beginners really sf?

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oopsie, you are right. Not sure why I thought it was more recent? Probably when I read it.

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Argghhh! I obviously read too much "golden age" or "classic" SF and don't go out stay in enough ...

... from your *essential* list, I think I've read two (maybe three), and own maybe four more ...

... must either find time and friendly person to lend me books, or start doing the ebook-thing :-)

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But then some people just prefer classic books. It wasn't called a golden age for nothing.

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Excellent list.

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I was going to put Native Tongue in there, because all of these books have ideas that come back to me again and again, but it fell just outside of the time range

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It's a pleasure to know that you would have put NativeTongue into such august company; thank you. And thanks for the "Torque" link; that's a site I didn't know existed. My own browser won't let me see any of the pages there, but I'm going to go read them on my husband's fancy Mac.

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Hi -- what browser are you using? We'll make the site compatible if we can!

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I appreciate your offer very much, and I thank you for it -- but I'm afraid there's no hope of making it compatible, because I'm still using Internet Explorer 5.0. I do know what a monumental undertaking it would be to make your site compatible with That Old Thing. But it turns out, serendipitously and mysteriously, that I can see quite a few of the pages with my even older (4.7) version of Netscape.

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Salt annoyed me to the point where I'm wary to read anything else by Adam Roberts.

(I agree with a lot of your choices though)

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He's a distinctive and somewhat claustrophobic writer I think, perhaps even oppressive, but I think he's important and distinctive

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I had no objection to claustrophobia or oppression. What I objected to was the rape scene. Not because it was a rape scene, per se, but because it seemed completely out of both character and what we'd been told of the "free" society up to that point, taking what had been a fascinating dichotomy and investigation of the differences between two societal approaches and fracturing it for (what seems to me to be) no good reason.

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Thanks for that reminder - I must re-read because I don't want to make a glib comment

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I'd appreciate it, actually - because if I've misread it then I'd appreciate it being pointed out to me. I thoroughly enjoyed the book up to that point, and if something can make that scene 'in character' then I'd be a lot happier.

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I've not read all of these, but I agree with quite a few of your choices and am now more inclined to read the others.
I just wanted to note for other Americans reading -- because I just went and looked it up for myself -- that Marge Piercy's Body of Glass was published in the US under the title "He, She and It." I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't a new Piercy book for me to read!

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I wonder why the change (I mean difference - I know the US title must have come first)? I think 'Body of Glass' is a more inviting title. I don't remember the plot too well - woman has a relationship with an android? A vision of post-collapse society. Yet the ideas in it, such as this highly corporate-controlled world, come back to me.

Edited at 2008-08-14 03:21 pm (UTC)

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Oh, that's He, She and It? I like Body of Glass so much better! And takes the total I've read to 4, which is pretty embarrassing considering I've got an MA in SF. Sigh.

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In that list, I've read "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "Permutation City", and I don't feel guilty at all. 8-P
I keep on meaning to read "Snow Crash" but I'm afraid I won't like it as much as "The Diamond Age" which I ended up reading instead.

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I've only read seven of these, although I've read other things by the same authors - I must try to read some of the authors I don't know. I must admit I read On by Adam Roberts and didn't get on with his style, so haven't read Salt, although I do own it. And I'm almost certain to get around to The Parable of the Sower since I've been slowly reading through a lot of her stuff this year, all the while marvelling that I'd never come across her before... She really hits my buttons in an... uncomfortable and yet strangely satisfying way. I wish she hadn't passed, I *really* want to have a good old-fashioned rant about stuff with her.

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I have to say that I think On is Roberts' worst book by some way; the only one I would describe as actively bad, I think. That said, I wouldn't describe Salt as his best, ether -- for me that's Gradisil, Swiftly, or possibly Splinter.

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Thank you! I'm keeping both lists as I need some good recs.

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