SFBRP Listeners discussion
Top Five Everything!
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Tom
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Jul 08, 2013 06:03AM
How about the five least favorite? Least remembered? Best remembered?
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Tom wrote: "How about the five least favorite? Least remembered? Best remembered?"
Tom and Bob,
You can see another thread to see what top and bottom lists I might be sharing in a future podcast here:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
For top and bottom books since I started the podcast, you can look at the ratings I give every book here:
http://www.sfbrp.com/episode-lists
Hope those links help get you up to speed on some most and least favourites of mine.
Catch you later,
Luke B.
Luke wrote: "For top and bottom books since I started the podcast, you can look at the ratings I give every book here: http://www.sfbrp.com/episode-lists
Hope those links help get you up to speed on some most and least favourites of mine."
Nice, thanks. That's what I was looking for.
I think it would be interesting to hear Luke list his favorite books in a number of different categories (e.g. "space opera", "dystopia", "indie", "tongue-in-cheek", "most under/overrated"). I feel that lists of people's top five favorite books EVER aren't all that interesting, because the choices are always so subjective. I prefer it when apples are compared to apples.Just an idea, of course. It's Luke's show, and whatever theme is cool with me.
Top Five Worst Science Fiction Books:1. Light by John Harrison
2. Double Full Moon Night by Gentry Lee
3. Cradle by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee
4. Eternity by Greg Bear
5. The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven
Top 5 Sci-Fi / Fantasy TV Series that Moidelhoff could not mention OR Top 5 Sci-Fi / Fantasy TV Series Part 2(Since I agree with the first list)1. Firefly(and I hate FOX, fuck FOX)
2. Doctor Who(2005-)
3. Fringe
4. The Twilight Zone
5. Futurama
My Top 5 Favorite Fantasy series:1. The Sandman Series(Neil Gaiman)
2. The Farseer Trilogy(Robin Hobb)
3. The Dark Tower series(Stephen King)
4. His Dark Materials(Philiph Pullman)
5. The Amber Chronicles(Roger Zelazny)
My Top 5 Favorite Standalone Fantasy Books:1. American Gods(Neil Gaiman)
2. The Night Circus(Erin Morgenstern)
3. Fevre Dream(George R. R. Martin)
4. Un Lun Dun(China Mieville)
5. Imajica( Cliver Barker)
I should say the same.When you think about it on paper Firefly sounds like sci-fi. Guy flying around in his space ship.
But yeah, its a western that just happens to take place in future space. Those are mostly an excuse to have the series on the list in all its awsometacularity.
Even thou Serenity did have a few more sci-fi elements.
That's the bummer with top five lists. You can only pick five things. Maybe you want to continue the list including things like Walking Dead etc.
And I hate FOX.
Otto wrote: "Top 5 Sci-Fi / Fantasy TV Series that Moidelhoff could not mention OR Top 5 Sci-Fi / Fantasy TV Series Part 2(Since I agree with the first list)1. Firefly(and I hate FOX, fuck FOX)
2. Doctor Who(..."
Excellent list! I must admit I have not seen any Doctor Who , might need to get it on NetFlix. Not even sure when it is on here (Midwest US). Oh yeah, and how do you REALLY feel about Fox?!?
People should treat Twilight and Fox like they have airborne aids. You just stay away or otherwise get infected with extreme douchebaggery(or lose your brain cells).
Ok, right! Let's go! Haven't read much sci-fi until lately. Ill do mostly standalone books. Top five fantasy/science fiction books:
1. 1984(George Orwell)
2. Lord Foul's Bane (Stephen R. Donaldson)
3. Deathstalker(Simon R. Green)
4. Neverwhere(Neil Gaiman)
5. Replay(Ken Grimwood)
That was hard. You can check my other lists above.
My top five dystopias!1. The Dancers at the End of Time series - Michael Moorcock
(Some might query this as a dystopia, since the "dancers" all seem pretty happy. However, a dystopia doesn't HAVE to be a totalitarian, post-apocalyptic nightmare. These characters, living in a world where everything is available at the twist of a ring face boredom and ennui that is just as soul-destroying as starvation or repression.)
2. The Hunger Games trilogy - Suzanne Collins.
Hey, don't worry it's a YA book. This series has the most fascinating, complex anti-heroine you'll ever meet. The story of Katniss and Peeta's attempts to survive in the repressive world of Panem will live with you for ever!
3. 1984 - George Orwell. Surely the classic work in this genre, and in its time set the standard by which all other such works are judged.
4. Barefoot in the Head - Brian W Aldiss. A tale of a Britain ravaged by "acid bombs", and the Slav who becomes its unlikely, accidental messiah! A brilliant work.
5. Blakes 7 (spelt correctly, there's no apostrophe in the title!) - British sci-fi TV show of the late 70s, with the scariest interplanetary dictatorship you could hope to experience, and the most intriguing band of revolutionaries, including a (falsely) convicted child-molester, a smuggler, a cowardly tea-leaf and a sarcastic white-collar criminal. Lots of episodes available at Youtube.
Limiting myself to five was a real strain here - Vincent King's "Candyman," Keith Robert's "Pavane," Asimov's "Caves of Steel" and Huxley's "Brave New World" were also pushing for inclusion.
In honor of Lukes most recent rant about the terrible audio version of the Quantum Thief...Worst 3 Audiobooks productions I have listened to (this is not the worst books, though sometimes that does marry up... but the one's that are ruined, or made worse by bad production)1) Doubleblind: BattleTech number 41
2) Beautiful Creatures
3) Death Troopers
I tried to come up with other ones, but to be honest, these one's are so much worse than any of the other's I have heard recently, they are in a category of themselves
Mod
That's the plan!
Mod
Controversial.
I've only just finished the Culture series after a ma..."
What's so controversial?
Kevin wrote: "My favorite SF guilty pleasures.1. Venus on the Half Shell. Sez it's by the infamous Kilgore Trout, so you are thinking Kurt Vonnegut but it's really Philip Jose Farmer. Smart, fun, fast.
2. P..."
Pinkwater!!!
Nothing better. Ever. Period.
Although I might put Borgel up ahead of Fat Men From Space but that's really only a mood I'm in - at other times Fat Men tops my list.
How else would you use a map of New Jersey and a bagel?
My Top 5 favorit swedish Sci fi/fantasy books translated into English. 1. "Let the Right one in"(John Ajvide Linqvist)
2. "The Circle"(Mats Strandberg & Sara Bergmark Elfgren)
3. "Harbor"(John Ajvide Linqvist)
4. "Fire"(Mats Strandberg & Sara Bergmark Elfgren)
5. "Jagannath Stories"(Karin Tidbeck)
My Top 5 favourite characters from Sci Fi / Fantasy1. Death(The Sandman series)
2. San Dan Glokta, the Torturer(The First Law Trilogy)
3. Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher(The Last Wish)
4. Roland Deschain, the Gunslinger(The Dark Tower)
5. Eli(Let the Right One In)
The Culture series is my current favorite of all SF series and books. They are also the best post-scarcity books, in my opinion. Does anyone know of other great post-scarcity books? How refreshing they are in a sea of dystopians, zombies and other negative books."Consider Phlebas" is the most "Hollywood" of the Culture books. It could make a great action film. They would probably change the ending.
I also thought "Matter" was very good, except the ending was rushed, as if he had to finish is a certain number of pages.
"Hydrogen Sonata" was also very good, except for the non-ending. I think Banks had trouble ending his novels, which might be why he killed off so many characters.
In any case, what a tragedy that he died in the prime of life (or is it yet another cover story by Special Circumstances?).
Episode 200 was excellent. Thanks for the mention of my list. The mention of the Mars trilogy reminded me that I bought all three novels on the cheap a while back and I forgot all about them. Must find them. Also, I am inspired to re-read some of the science fiction I read many years ago as a younger chap, I rated much of it very high and probably will have a different take on some of it now. Time to start thinking of a good idea for episode 300.
Jimfromvenice wrote: "The Culture series is my current favorite of all SF series and books. They are also the best post-scarcity books, in my opinion. Does anyone know of other great post-scarcity books? How refreshing ..." Permit me to put in a plug for my personal favorite SciFi trilogy, The Golden Age, by John C Wright. It's set in a far future, hard scifi "utopia" (although, to have an intricate and interesting story, there are a few dark spots in the utopia). I consider them pretty high on my personal "top 5" favorite sci fi books I've read to date. I would find it hard to narrow down to just 5, which is why I haven't put a top 5 post on here yet.
Great 200th episode, Luke. I enjoyed hearing a couple of my lists mentioned. I think you might enjoy Cloud Atlas, which you and Juliana (sp?) talked about reading. However, I should note that only portions of it are science fiction, mixed with some riffing on other kinds of literature.The back-and-forth between you and Juliana on different topics is a lot of fun. Having a second cultural and personal perspective adds to the show.
I recently read Consider Phlebas and am still a little "eh" on Iain M Banks. I enjoy his Culture books well enough, but none of them have really impressed me. I think I'll try Use of Weapons next, and if that one doesn't click, I guess I'll call it a day with him.
Number 200 was a very enjoyable episode (especially as I got a mention). I've decided to join in the Culture series read, as I've read all except the last two, so I hope the Hydrogen Sonata Kindle book has gone down in price before we get to it.Afte Luke's comments about female writers not getting into his top 5s, I decide to check how many books by female writers I have read this year. It's 8 1/6 out of 45 (the sixth is one novella in a book containing 5 novelsa and a frame-story) which is about 18%.
So I've decided to read more female authors for the rest of the year (apart from the Culture series and one book by a male author for a LibraryThing challenge). Luckily my current book club book is by a female author and I started reading it today.
Mod
I sometimes think "I sould make an effort to read more female authors" but never really make the effort in the end. I think there are just way fewer female authors writing the kind of fiction I enjoy the most.
Those I do read I enjoy no more or less than any male writers, so I don't think it's a way to make my own reading experiences better or worse.
In the course of the SFBRP I've reviewed about 15 novels by female authors and (at a guess) 170 novels by male authors. If I read paranormal romance or urban fantasy I'm sure these numbers would be swapped!
I have 188 unread books listed on my LibraryThing account and only 25 of them are by female authors, plus 6 short story collections containing 1 or more stories by female authors.The podcasts I listen to have a much higher percentage of sf and fantasy stories by female authors, but when it comes to reading, it is my big backlog of unread books that is keeping my percentage low.
So I am determined to alternate male and female authors for the rest of the year.
I'll have to try reading Banks again. I read Matter a little while ago and was very underwhelmed (I know, it is not a great one to start with, but it was the only Banks they had at my library and I picked it up on a whim). Plus a friend gave me The Wasp Factory to read and I could only get about 20 pages in. But I'm gonna try to give him another shot with Player of Games or Use of Weapons this time...The 200th show was a lot of fun! On the topic of ladies in SciFi--Luke, I felt bad when you were talking about women not getting into your top 5--like you seemed maybe a little guilty about it, or at least it gave you pause. But I think Julianna is right, there just aren't a lot of female science fiction writers out there, so if anybody's doing a top 5 odds are just gonna be much lower for a female writer to make it in. Especially if women don't tend to write the kind of science fiction you enjoy the most. You like the books you like, nothing wrong with that!
Not sure about how many books by women I have read in the past year, but if I think about my favorite scifi books of all time maybe 4 or so out of 20 are written by women. So 20%, that's close to Isabel's 18%.
For Isabel or anyone else who might be interested, my top 5 favorite female scifi authors:
1. Ursula Le Guin (Left Hand of Darkness, The Lathe of Heaven, really anything)
2. Cecelia Holland (Floating Worlds)
3. James Tiptree, jr (any short story collection)
4. Octavia Butler (Wildseed)
5. Pamela Sarget (Earthseed)
Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow is also very good.
If I am being honest though, probably only the top 4 of these would make my top 20 fav scifi authors.
If anyone else has recommendations for female scifi authors that would be great. Now I feel like I want to read more women too, my top 5 was starting to feel little weak toward the end there...
Rachel, you should read Shikasta by Doris Lessing, the only science fiction writer who have won the noble Prize in litterature. Then there's Joanna Russ the Female Man.
All books by Louis Mcmaster Bujold(can't spel her name properly).
Margarets Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale, must read classic!
thanks so much for the recommendations Otto! I will for sure check out Doris Lessing and Bujold.I did read The Female Man. It's an interesting one. I'm had mixed feelings about it overall but still definitely one of those classic books worth reading.
I never read Handmaiden's Tale but i recently read Oryx and Crake by Atwood and thought it was one of the worst scifi books i ever read. I've heard Handmaiden's Tale is good but Oryx and Crake made me very skittish about Atwood.
Octavia Butler is an author who will leave you thinking and thinking and thinking. Her Patternmaster series which starts with Wild Seed still runs through my head five years after reading it. I need to do a retread soon.
Marion Zimmer Bradley is a great female Fantasy author, best known for "The Mists of Avalon" and the great Darkover series (having some SF aspects); she's definitely worth checking out.
The Darkover series is one of the first sf series I read as a teenager. I didn't read them in order, just picked them up whenever I saw them at the library, and I'd read a few before I realised they were science fiction rather than pure fantasy.I read Shikasta and the other four books in the series a couple of years ago and agree with Otto that they are well worth reading. Shikasta has a great introduction, in which Doris Lessing defends her decision to write science fiction.
I'm thinking of re-reading the Saga of the Exiles by Julian May as I still have my old copies. They are time travel novels, and I think I have also read some of her Galactic Milieu books in the past too.
One more modern writer I really like is Liz Jensen. Her books are very varied and not all sf but I really enjoyed The Paper Eater (the world is controlled by a few big corporations), My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time (Victorian Danes time travelling to present-day London), Ark Baby (like an insane version of P.D James's The Children of Men, with added ghosts and apes) and The Rapture (precognition foreseeing ecological disaster - unfortunately with a very irritating protagonist).
Mod
I also read two of the three Rampart Worlds series books, but never found the last one for sale anywhere. They were pretty fun planetary adventures with lots of cave exploration and cloning.
Just listened to the 200 episode, and it was great, but I was disappointed that there wasn't a Top 5 Rants by Luke part...
Mod
Luke wrote: "There's a whole discussion thread here somewhere about my rants. Other people will have to rate and rank those, not me!"Absolutely! I think we should, then you should post them for you're copy 222, or 225 or 250 or something.
I stand corrected. Doris Lessing is not the only sci-fi author winning the Noble Prize. Harry Martinssons "Aniara" also count.
My Top five Sci-fi/fantasy movies you probably haven't watched.1. The City of Lost Children(probably my favorite movie of all time. A surreal french masterpiece)
2. Night Watch(vampire and shapechangers... in Russia)
3. Gormenghast(Technically a TV miniseries but this adaptiation of a lost genre classic had to be included on the list)
4. Troll Hunter(Blair Witch project in Norway and funny as hell!)
5. Strings(Danish epic fantasy, Team America style.)
I've seen all except number 5 and especially liked Troll Hunter.
Mod
Working on Luke's Top Five Weapons from the Prefect episode he and Juliane recently did, it is very similar, but has a few notable exceptions - so, in inverse order:5)The Lightsaber - because it's iconic
4)The Phaser - because it's icon and has multiple settings... plus apparently can be fired in an FTL enviromment...
3)The Lazy Gun, from Against a Dark Background because it is just so funny/
2)The Whiphound - from the Prefect... cause it is really awesome.
1) The chair from the Use of Weapons.
Mod
5)The Lightsaber - because it'..."
I can't remember our list from episode 205. I looked up my notes from that episode, and this is all I wrote down in advance:
"Encompasses all dystopias and utopias.
Alpha level vs beta level:
Alpha the only one alive?
- Alpha levels always balloon out to their highest capability.
Why not 5 stars:
redundancy of exposition and explanations."
I remember the Lightsaber, the Lazy Gun and the Whip Hound, but not the other two weapons.
Luke wrote: "I remember the Lightsaber, the Lazy Gun and the Whip Hound, but not the other two weapons. "A gun from the Peace War only fires when the cross hairs go across the target.
I think the other one was from the Fifth Element, though it might have been the gun from Beverly Hill Cop.
Otto wrote: "My Top five Sci-fi/fantasy movies you probably haven't watched.1. The City of Lost Children(probably my favorite movie of all time. A surreal french masterpiece)
2. Night Watch(vampire and shapec..."
I agree with you on City of Lost Children... brilliant film, and have had Troll Hunter on my to watch list for a while (need to bump it up), but I wasn't that fond of Gormenghast. It was okay, but so many of the scenes were shot outside, and that is in such contrast to the novel that it hurt.
Of course, I love the novel and that doesn't help one to enjoy a movie like that.
Moidelhoff wrote: "THE WORST BOOKS I HAVE READ IN 20131. STARTIDE RISING David Brin
2. READY PLAYER ONE Ernest Cline
3. RIVER OF GODS Ian McDonald
4. REDSHIRTS John Scalzi
5. NEUROMANCER William Gibson"
Neuromancer? Really? I agree it's over rated, but worst this year? I guess you've had a bit better luck in novels than I have this year.
Worst books I've Read in 20131: Chains of Antilles - Anon O
(this is perhaps the most foul excuse for misogynistic 'forced fantasy' erotica that I have ever had the displeasure of being asked to review. I couldn't finish it, it was so objectionable).
2: Spectre of Intention - Tonya Macalino
3: Germline: The Subterrene Wars Book 1 - TC McCarthy
4: The Tombs - Clive Cussler
5: Day One - J.J. Forsberg
Moidelhoff wrote: "T.L. wrote: "Moidelhoff wrote: "THE WORST BOOKS I HAVE READ IN 20131. STARTIDE RISING David Brin
2. READY PLAYER ONE Ernest Cline
3. RIVER OF GODS Ian McDonald
4. REDSHIRTS John Scalzi
5. NEU..."
Well done!
TOP 5 SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS I READ IN 2013:1. WOOL BY HUGH HOWEY
2. THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION BY PETER F HAMILTON
3. HOUSE OF SUNS BY ALASTAIR REYNOLDS
4. THE EVOLUTIONARY VOID BY PETER F HAMILTON
5. MURASAKI EDITED BY ROBERT SILVERBERG
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Julian May (other topics)Liz Jensen (other topics)
