Tuesday, May 27, 2003
A friend asked for some book rec's for a younger brother who loved Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Anybody have other suggestions for a 20-year old who is just discovering the joy of reading and likes great sci-fi stories? Email me....
Ender's Shadow: one of the Ender's Game sequels, and a more exciting story than the true sequel (Speaker for the Dead).
Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. One of my favorite trilogies. This is going to be a young adult classic and has already broken into a large adult reading audience. You'd love this one too. Lyra is a 12 year old orphan living in an Oxford-like university setting among academic scholars. The world is sci-fi/fantasy, but eerily similar to ours in some aspects. Through a series of events, she has to leave her home to track a mystery of missing children. Her journey/quest takes her through many adventures, culminating in a dark northern trek to the arctic. Pullman knows how to grip a reader, and throws in a lot of Milton references to make it a stimulating read (but never dry). The third book (Amber Spyglass) is a masterpiece of religious critique hidden in a great story.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. I just a read an essay about this one, so it's on my mind. I read it when I was younger and thought it was a much more exciting story than many of Twain's other works (not that his other books aren't great). Young Harry Morgan travels back to King Arthur's court and ends up trying to modernize the world of knights with his late nineteenth century "magic."
The Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks. One of the better post-Tolkien worlds. I spent a lot of time reading this author.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Everyone with a quirky sense of humor should read this book. It's Monty Python between covers.
Neuromancer by William Gibson. The story isn't as easy to follow, but if you use the Internet you should read this book. Gibson created a world where people "jack" in to a Matrix-like virtual reality world where hackers chase each other and digital cowboys make a living. Neuromancer (circa 1983) is widely hailed as the birth of cyberpunk, a style that led hacking culture directly to the web. This book is what some people envision when they think of men merging with machines.
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Ender's Shadow: one of the Ender's Game sequels, and a more exciting story than the true sequel (Speaker for the Dead).
Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. One of my favorite trilogies. This is going to be a young adult classic and has already broken into a large adult reading audience. You'd love this one too. Lyra is a 12 year old orphan living in an Oxford-like university setting among academic scholars. The world is sci-fi/fantasy, but eerily similar to ours in some aspects. Through a series of events, she has to leave her home to track a mystery of missing children. Her journey/quest takes her through many adventures, culminating in a dark northern trek to the arctic. Pullman knows how to grip a reader, and throws in a lot of Milton references to make it a stimulating read (but never dry). The third book (Amber Spyglass) is a masterpiece of religious critique hidden in a great story.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. I just a read an essay about this one, so it's on my mind. I read it when I was younger and thought it was a much more exciting story than many of Twain's other works (not that his other books aren't great). Young Harry Morgan travels back to King Arthur's court and ends up trying to modernize the world of knights with his late nineteenth century "magic."
The Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks. One of the better post-Tolkien worlds. I spent a lot of time reading this author.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Everyone with a quirky sense of humor should read this book. It's Monty Python between covers.
Neuromancer by William Gibson. The story isn't as easy to follow, but if you use the Internet you should read this book. Gibson created a world where people "jack" in to a Matrix-like virtual reality world where hackers chase each other and digital cowboys make a living. Neuromancer (circa 1983) is widely hailed as the birth of cyberpunk, a style that led hacking culture directly to the web. This book is what some people envision when they think of men merging with machines.
