I actually read that before I read Cold Equations (it was about 20 years ago, btw).
Illyria: We cling to what is gone. Is there anything in this life but grief? Wesley: There's love. There's hope...for some. There's hope that you'll find something worthy...that your life will lead you to some joy...that after everything...you can still be surprised. Illyria: Is that enough? Is that enough to live on?
'Shells'
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."
-t - Dec 21, 2011 8:24:48 am PST #17109 of 28289
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
Kathy A - Dec 21, 2011 8:27:40 am PST #17110 of 28289
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
Does anybody really like reading Asimov? I think he's an incredibly shitty writer. His characterizations are weak. I know he's in the canon, but I would never recommend him.
I really haven't read him in decades, which is why I'm loving the recommendations so I can both catch up on stuff that's new to me, and revisit stuff I haven't read since college. When I picked up Canticle last year, I really appreciated finding out that it holds up to rereading after the end of the Cold War.
(And rereading Watership Down five years ago after only reading it once in 1980 was one of the best things I've read in the past decade--I'd forgotten how damn good that book is!)
Ginger - Dec 21, 2011 8:27:44 am PST #17111 of 28289
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I haven't seen that. It would certainly be a much different story.
-t - Dec 21, 2011 8:31:39 am PST #17112 of 28289
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
It's called The Cold Solution by Don Sakers (I was right, published in 1991).
DavidS - Dec 21, 2011 8:37:11 am PST #17113 of 28289
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
but the Foundation trilogy was so influential (including inspiring Paul Krugman to be an economist) that it's de rigueur for an overview of the genre.
Yeah, but do you enjoy reading him? Is it pleasurable?
Kathy A - Dec 21, 2011 8:38:18 am PST #17114 of 28289
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
And Joanna Russ, if you feel like having your brain fucked with.
I read The Female Man in my feminist lit class in college (where I was also introduced to Tiptree and CL Moore--the entire reading list was SF/F written by women), and remember it being quite good.
Typo Boy - Dec 21, 2011 8:42:47 am PST #17115 of 28289
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
When I was 11 I enjoyed the Foundation series. I have not tried the foundation as an adult, but I do think many of his short stories hold up. As I remember,the foundation novels were really collections of short stories and novellas in any case.
-t - Dec 21, 2011 8:43:18 am PST #17116 of 28289
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I find Asimov uneven (he published SO MUCH some of it was bound to be awful), but I certainly have enjoyed reading him.
Kathy A - Dec 21, 2011 8:44:20 am PST #17117 of 28289
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
I don't think it qualifies as SF/F, but if you go with Gothic Horror as being somewhat in the general genre, that college class also included "The Yellow Wallpaper" in its reading list, which made a huge impact on me at the time.
Ginger - Dec 21, 2011 8:45:20 am PST #17118 of 28289
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I'd include The Female Man in any list of important/influential SF.
I have reread the Foundation series as an adult, but not recently. There's a lot more tell than show, but there's also a grand sweep of ideas.