Favorite Novels (Sci Fi, Fantasy)

[kevusher]

A good Asimov that doesn't normally get mentioned is The Gods Themselves, and as an alternative to Pratchett I really like Robert Rankin.

[jonesthecurl]

I read one years ago and can't remember the name, it was set on an alien planet (possibly called Flora, as there was only plant-life) and basically the main protaganist, a woman, got it on with some kind of funky orchid and after she left the planet to return to Earth realised she was pregnant. With some kind of walnut-like thingy! Anyone know the name perchance?

I think you'll find that's John Boyd and The Pollinators of Eden.

Thank you for reminding me of a remarkably good book. I wonder if I've still got it?

[vodean]

What?

your avatar. you are a fan of it. YOU ARE A TREKIE. more than that i cannot say without dirtying my lips(or, in this case, my fingertips).

My good sir, I have no idea what you mean.

Yes, that is definitely what I've been thinking. <chuckle>

please. someone who is not afraid to promote his blasphemy, tell him

What?

*sigh*
*takes a deep breath*
The first word is Star. The next word begins with a T. more i cannot say
oh and this too:

well, theres no way to put this nicely. youre a goddam trekkie!

[Incandenza]

Greg Bear's The Forge of God is one of my favorites.

That was a good one, a thinking man's apocalypse.

Oh, and for some reason that brings to mind another cool scifi classic, "The Long Afternoon of Earth" (in some markets I think it's called "Hothouse") by Brian Aldiss. Great far-far-future shit.

[Lord and Master]

I read one years ago and can't remember the name, it was set on an alien planet (possibly called Flora, as there was only plant-life) and basically the main protaganist, a woman, got it on with some kind of funky orchid and after she left the planet to return to Earth realised she was pregnant. With some kind of walnut-like thingy! Anyone know the name perchance?

I think you'll find that's John Boyd and The Pollinators of Eden.

Thank you for reminding me of a remarkably good book. I wonder if I've still got it?

Yes that was it! Thank-you Sir, now I know what it's called I can track it down again
I think I lent my copy to some bird in uni and never saw it, or indeed her, ever again...

[jonesthecurl]

I read one years ago and can't remember the name, it was set on an alien planet (possibly called Flora, as there was only plant-life) and basically the main protaganist, a woman, got it on with some kind of funky orchid and after she left the planet to return to Earth realised she was pregnant. With some kind of walnut-like thingy! Anyone know the name perchance?

I think you'll find that's John Boyd and The Pollinators of Eden.

Thank you for reminding me of a remarkably good book. I wonder if I've still got it?

Yes that was it! Thank-you Sir, now I know what it's called I can track it down again
I think I lent my copy to some bird in uni and never saw it, or indeed her, ever again...

That's what you get for trying to cross-pollinate her.

[Aradhus]

Anybody read Robert Asprin? I really enjoyed his myth series when I was younger.

[Woodruff]

your avatar. you are a fan of it. YOU ARE A TREKIE. more than that i cannot say without dirtying my lips(or, in this case, my fingertips).

My good sir, I have no idea what you mean.

Yes, that is definitely what I've been thinking. <chuckle>

please. someone who is not afraid to promote his blasphemy, tell him

What?

*sigh*
*takes a deep breath*
The first word is Star. The next word begins with a T. more i cannot say
oh and this too:

well, theres no way to put this nicely. youre a goddam trekkie!

Why, whatever do you mean?

[Woodruff]

Anybody read Robert Asprin? I really enjoyed his myth series when I was younger.

Yes, that's a good series for the silly-minded (which I am).

Also, the Thieves World series/anthology by him (and others) is VERY good for the first several books (but then got really weird after that).

[jonesthecurl]

Anybody read Robert Asprin? I really enjoyed his myth series when I was younger.

Yes, that's a good series for the silly-minded (which I am).

Also, the Thieves World series/anthology by him (and others) is VERY good for the first several books (but then got really weird after that).

Seconded. It also made for a great roleplay game (tabletop, not electronic)

[Woodruff]

Anybody read Robert Asprin? I really enjoyed his myth series when I was younger.

Yes, that's a good series for the silly-minded (which I am).

Also, the Thieves World series/anthology by him (and others) is VERY good for the first several books (but then got really weird after that).

Seconded. It also made for a great roleplay game (tabletop, not electronic)

I didn't realize it was a roleplaying game...interesting. I was very disappointed in it, simply because the early books were SO good and the later ones were...SO...strange. It just became...bleh.

[Aradhus]

The Thievesworld books were not easy to find when I was younger. I get a sense of what woodruff is talking about. The first two I read were great, the third one, which was later on in the series, was just bizarre.

I just read that he died in 2008, I had no idea, what a shame. According to wikipedia.. apparently he died, in bed, reading a Terry Pratchett novel. A rather fitting way to go.

[jonesthecurl]

Anybody read Robert Asprin? I really enjoyed his myth series when I was younger.

Yes, that's a good series for the silly-minded (which I am).

Also, the Thieves World series/anthology by him (and others) is VERY good for the first several books (but then got really weird after that).

Seconded. It also made for a great roleplay game (tabletop, not electronic)

I didn't realize it was a roleplaying game...interesting. I was very disappointed in it, simply because the early books were SO good and the later ones were...SO...strange. It just became...bleh.

Actually, it's an odd story: a campaign of the roleplay game Thieves Guild, I believe, inspired the idea of the books. Then the books inspired a new roleplay game from the Greg Stafford stable. Chaosium only made a few RPGs, all of them classic - Runequest, Thieves World, Ringworld, Call of Cthlulhu. I think there was a superhero one too, and of course my all-time favourite, King Arthur Pendragon.

I agree that the series deteriorated as it went on. Many series do.

[jonesthecurl]

There was also one of my favourite boardgames set in the Thieves World - Sanctuary from Mayfair games.

[jonesthecurl]

Oh, and (triple post) they also did a game based on the Myth series. Its name escapes me for the moment.

[oVo]

Frank Herbert's Dune

An excellent read and a typically so-so movie.

I've always enjoyed Kurt Vonnegut Jr . . . Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)...
The Sirens of Titan (1959) and a mix of short stories in Welcome to the Monkey House (1968).

1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that.
1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.
Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

[ser stiefel]

Ovo, I tried some Kurt Vonnegut and couldn't motivate myself to finish... I still have a copy of Timequake and may pick it up again.

[oVo]

I've never read Timequake, generally speaking, I always found Vonnegut to be thought provoking,
humorous and entertaining. Breakfast of Champions was also a good read, but it also contains
a few encounters with characters from previous writings.

Slaughterhouse-Five is the bargain paperback (or library book) to find.

[jonesthecurl]

My favourite Vonnegut was Cat's Cradle.

[Woodruff]

Frank Herbert's Dune

An excellent read and a typically so-so movie.

You mean "brutally awful in a disease-infecting-the-world sense of awful movie". Though I suppose I should say "which one?", except...that description applies to all of the Dune movies.

[Lord and Master]

My favourite Vonnegut was Cat's Cradle.

Was that the one about ice-nine? If so yes, that's a good 'un, also liked the sirens of titan, and the short story harrison bergeron was good but became a f'ing rubbish film...

[BigBallinStalin]

[BUMP]



I was wondering:

Does anyone recall the title of this book?

There's this constant situation in it where after you kill someone you take one of their best attributes but you also have to take one of their worst.

I think it was in a Middle Ages setting, but I could be mistaken.

[edocsil]

No idea. Any other details? Google may be your friend

[BigBallinStalin]

My aunt told me about it?

Does anyone know right off hand a good forum for my previous question?

[Jennybh]

I like "From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne. He's definitely one on my favorite authors. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was a good one too.