inicio email me! RSS

But what these unobservant birds

Poodlerat’s book blog

« Cardathon Challenge ReduxHomeAnd Be a Villain »

Sci-fi Classics Challenge Wrap-Up

April 24, 2008 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Books Etc

The Sci-fi Classics Challenge was a personal challenge I started July 1, 2007, to broaden my knowledge of the best-known (and best-loved) works of science fiction. I’d just realized that, although I love the genre, I didn’t know much about its roots, or have more than sketchy knowledge of its most influential writers.

A year later, I feel like I have a much richer understanding of the genre. Of course, the ten books I read are only a fraction of all the complex, rewarding, challenging works of science fiction out there, but they are some of the best.

I now know that I love Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game more than any sci-fi novel I’ve ever read, and that it and its sequel, Speaker for the Dead, fully deserved to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards in consecutive years. I’ve discovered that although I don’t agree that Dune, by Frank Herbert, is the best SF novel around, it is definitely among the best of the genre, as are Ursula K. Le Guin’s [review: The Left Hand of Darkness] and Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

I’ve read and enjoyed The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester, who I’d never even heard of before I started the challenge. I finally got around to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and realized that although it’s an interesting and inventive novel, Dick’s novels will probably never be among my favourites. I’ve sampled The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which I didn’t enjoy, but at least now I can recognize the myriad references to it that pop up in so many other books!

I even went back to the 19th century, and read some of the earliest works of science fiction. I wasn’t thrilled with either The Time Machine or Frankenstein, but they were worth reading just to experience the roots of the genre.

All in all, I read ten books, some great and some not so great, and had a wonderful time doing it!

Tags:

5 Comments »

-V- wrote, on April 25th, 2008 at 1:37 pm:

What an interesting self-challenge! I should do that, too. I read mostly mysteries and paranormal styles. Hmm…..sounds like something for a summer start. How did you figure which you wanted to read?

Mitch wrote, on April 25th, 2008 at 2:07 pm:

I’d strongly recommend John Varley as a sci-fi author, one with an absolutely delightful narrative voice. Check out “The Golden Globe,” or his much earlier work “The Ophiuchi Hotline,” both of which are set in a future where humans have been booted off Earth by omnipotent invaders, forced to survive on the junk worlds of the solar system.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy is also a decent read if you’re interested in very, very HARD sci-fi.

Poodlerat wrote, on April 25th, 2008 at 2:13 pm:

-V-, if you do decide to do it, I’d love to see what books you choose! I put together a tentative list from various sources, mostly “Best SF” lists I found by googling. A lot of them were on my tbr shelf already, so I just read the ones that I felt in the mood for at the time. I still have tons left, and I’ll probably start a similar challenge soon, with changes to make it interesting!

Mitch, thanks for the suggestions! I’m going to keep up with this challenge in a different form, so I’m glad to add some new authors to the list of possibilities.

Vickie wrote, on April 27th, 2008 at 8:48 pm:

Thanks for the info. I am going to look into a self challenge with some kind of spin, maybe all female authors or some such.

Poodlerat wrote, on April 28th, 2008 at 6:14 pm:

Oh, that sounds interesting! I’ll have to keep that in mind for myself!

Your comment