Favorite and memorable books

[drohem]

The Majipoor series by Robert Silverberg.

[Puck]

Foucault's pendulum, by Umberto Eco: the master of contemporary italian litterature tackles the historical complot. Dan Brown can go home.

Agreed, Eco has a writing style all to himself. His stuff is so deap I never know when he is veering from history/reality. The Island of the Day Before really did my head in. All his stuff is great!

I love all the basic cannon:Tolkein, Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock, Leiber, Burroughs. Actually I originally learned about many of these from the bibliographies of role-playing games. Dune and Starship Troopers top the Si-Fi list along with the Foundation Trilogy. A less known gem is The Earth Abides by Stuart, which is definately the best "after the bomb" (actually a disease) book I have ever come across. I may get mugged for this but I also really enjoyed Battlefield Earth (The book not the movie).

Other books I have not seen mentioned are:
The Once and Future King by White.

The First Man in Rome series by McCullough (I mentioned this before on the "Rome" thread), This is an incredible series but a couple of very disturbing parts.

One of the best history books I ever read was A World Lit Only By Fire
by manchester. Gives a really gritty feel to the Dawn of the Renaissance.

One history book that I found that is a great sourcebook for role-playing is Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Life and Society in the West. If you can pick this up used and cheap it is as good as most real-world role playing suppliments and written in much the same style.

[Dredj]

Originally Posted by drohem

The Architect of Sleep by Steven R. Boyett.
An average Joe spelunker finds himself in an alternate earth where raccoons evolved into sentient creatures and humans remained apes. The raccoons communicate with a complex form of sign language.

[

That was a great book! I would also like to add The King of the Wood by John Maddox Roberts.

Also, anything by Robert E. Howard. As well as the the original Elric series.

Geeze, I haven't read any fantasy since the early 90's.

[seneschal]

H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines and She

C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series ... but also his Martian trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. It starts out as sci fi and becomes wierder and more mystical as you go along.

Madeline L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time series. Other titles include A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters.

George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie

The author's name escapes me for the moment, but The Black Cauldron series: The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Lyr, Taran Wanderer, The High King

[Puck]

The author's name escapes me for the moment, but The Black Cauldron series: The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Lyr, Taran Wanderer, The High King

That's Lloyd Alexander. I remember people reading those books back in the day when everyone was starting to role play. My students still really enjoy those books today. Great stuff. I cannot remember what happens in them very well. I may have to re-read those.

[Aycorn]

Originally Posted by Puck

That's Lloyd Alexander. I remember people reading those books back in the day when everyone was starting to role play. My students still really enjoy those books today. Great stuff. I cannot remember what happens in them very well. I may have to re-read those.

A very, very enjoyable series.

[Dredj]

Originally Posted by Puck

That's Lloyd Alexander. I remember people reading those books back in the day when everyone was starting to role play. My students still really enjoy those books today. Great stuff. I cannot remember what happens in them very well. I may have to re-read those.

I remember reading those books and greatly enjoying them--though I've forgotten everything between the covers. Are those still in print?

[rust]

Generally, all the old science fiction stuff (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein,
LeGuin, McCaffrey, etc.), with LeGuin being my all time favourite.

Currently, the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, more because of the
very detailed and interesting diplomatic and political background than becau-
se of the military action.

[Puck]

I remember reading those books and greatly enjoying them--though I've forgotten everything between the covers. Are those still in print?

Yes, I think so but the more recent covers are terrible; They look like books for two year olds. The old covers were much, much better.

with LeGuin being my all time favourite.

I only read the Earthsea trilogy(very good) and the Left Hand of Darkness.

Are there any others that are particularly good or should be read?

[rust]

Originally Posted by Puck

Are there any others that are particularly good or should be read?

I am very much tempted to write: All of them. But of course it depends on
your taste. If you are interested in political ideas, "The Dispossessed" is a
most fascinating book; if you prefer very colourful science fiction stories,
"Rocannon's World" is great; if you like true drama, "The Word for World is
Forest" is hard to beat.

You could take a look at the descriptions of the various novels in the Wiki-
pedia entry on Ursula LeGuin to see if one of them could interest you:

Ursula K. Le Guin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia