I loved the Earthsea books when I read them as a kid. When I tried to reread as an adult? They bored me to tears and I couldn't even get through the first one. But I'm not a huge SF/Fantasy reader either.
Well, if we followed the recipe...should be cake. A demon-violence-free-zone cake.
Lorne ,'Why We Fight'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
megan walker - Aug 11, 2011 1:10:36 pm PDT #15926 of 28342
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
-t - Aug 11, 2011 1:23:54 pm PDT #15927 of 28342
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I couldn't get into the Earthsea books (only tried to read them as an adult) but I generally love LeGuin. Try The Dispossessed or The Left Hand of Darkness, zuisa. Or Those Who Walk Away From Omelas if a short story will do. Hey, you said you needed to read more SF, I'm helping!
I'm on a fantasy novella and short story kick right now and it is convincing me that I am definitely not a hardcore fantasy fan. What I like of the genre I like a whole lot, but what I don't like really irritates me.
Strega - Aug 11, 2011 1:29:09 pm PDT #15928 of 28342
I think it's very good for an internet poll.
It is a great list of the SF books most likely to be popular among people who'd visit the NPR website. I'm not saying I hate the books. Well, I do hate some of them, but I like a lot of them too. But I already know what books the internet likes. I don't know why it's interesting to keep rediscovering the same things about the same people over and over -- are people online normally so reticent about expressing what they are fans of that we need to draw them out?
I like having ways to discover new things. A curated list, where I know who is recommending things and whether we have similar tastes, is of some use to me when I am looking for new things. A vaguely defined "poll" of an unspecified number of anonymous people just tells me... that a website wants to drive up their traffic.
Gris - Aug 11, 2011 1:29:16 pm PDT #15929 of 28342
Hey. New board.
I don't love LeGuin. I would rank McCaffrey and MZB above her too, though I also don't love McCaffrey. My favorite female fantasy/SF writer (and possibly favorite fantasy writer full stop, though there's competition) is Sharon Shinn. Octavia E. Butler would compete, but she's pretty much all SF.
DavidS - Aug 11, 2011 1:30:44 pm PDT #15930 of 28342
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I would rank McCaffrey and MZB above her too,
No fucking way! McCaffrey is a massive hack.
§ ita § - Aug 11, 2011 1:34:06 pm PDT #15931 of 28342
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
In my opinion MZB and and McCaffrey are talented hacks. I don't regard most of their work as quality, although much of it is entertaining. I think of Le Guin as thoughtful and wordsmith, and I'd apply neither of those words to Anne and Marion. Not that I'm a connoisseur, or anything.
Octavia Butler is also high on my thoughtful and wordsmithy list. She wrote a fair amount of fantasy--Kindred, the Patternist series (right?), Fledgling...
-t - Aug 11, 2011 1:35:55 pm PDT #15932 of 28342
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I liked MZB's Fantasy Magazine. I think I prefer her as an editor over as a writer.
Consuela - Aug 11, 2011 1:41:13 pm PDT #15933 of 28342
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix
In my opinion MZB and and McCaffrey are talented hacks.
MZB and McCaffrey were good at pleasing readers with entertaining, wish-fulfillment-type of stories. Even MZB's overtly feminist work was very wish-fulfillment.
Which is not to say that The Dispossessed isn't wish-fulfillment, too, but it's a hell of a lot more thoughtful. And LeGuin's prose is much better. She's got more going on thematically than either MZB or McCaffrey, even in her earliest work.
Or, basically, what ita ! says.
Connie Neil - Aug 11, 2011 1:56:25 pm PDT #15934 of 28342
brillig
Patricia McKillip is probably my favorite fantasy female writer. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld rocks hard.
DavidS - Aug 11, 2011 1:59:43 pm PDT #15935 of 28342
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld rocks hard.
It really does. After reading The Last Unicorn I was desperately searching for something else that would scratch that itch, and that's the only book that came close. Though, of course, it has its own distinct flavor and should not simply be compared to Beagle's masterpiece.