Recommended Reading

To my amazement (although I shouldn't have been surprised) someone tonight asked for reading suggestions on Advicenators. And not just any kind of reading, but science fiction and fantasy particularly.

It's a miracle that my head didn't literally explode with possibilities.

But I collected myself and spewed out the following list:

SF/genre fiction:
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
The Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart
The Foundation series (just the first three books) - Isaac Asimov
The Instrumentality of Mankind (short story collection) - Cordwainer Smith
Norstrila - Cordwainer Smith
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
The Amber series - Roger Zelazny
Cities in Flight - James Blish
The Devil's Day - James Blish
Dune - Frank Herbert (the other Dune books are good - although all of them are terribly complicated. Avoid ANYTHING written by his son - Brian Herbet he's done some "Dune" books - and they're beyond bad)
anything by Fredric Brown
The Vlad Talos series by Steven Brust (but make sure to read them in order)
Lord Valentine's Castle - Robert Silverberg
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame - volume 1 (probably the best collection of classic short stories available)
The Dorsai series - Gordon R. Dickson
The Dragon and the George - Gordon R. Dickson
The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers - Harry Harrison
Time and Again - Jack Finney
The God Box - Barry Longyear
Superstoe - William Borden

I also quite like almost anything by Lawrence Watt-Evans, Robert Sheckley (particularly his short stories), Ron Goulart, David Brin, Lyndon Hardy, Anthony Boucher, Michael Moorcock, James White, and Lord Dunsany.

Some non-genre books you might enjoy (I do):
Kim - Ridyard Kipling
Shogun - James Clavell
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
I, Claudius - Robert Graves
The Catcher In the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Almost anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (you might want to start with Welcome to the Monkey House)

I know as soon as I'm done with this I'm going to think of 20 other books and authors I should have included, and I'm going to kick myself.

Recommended Reading

To my amazement (although I shouldn't have been surprised) someone tonight asked for reading suggestions on Advicenators. And not just any kind of reading, but science fiction and fantasy particularly.

It's a miracle that my head didn't literally explode with possibilities.

But I collected myself and spewed out the following list:

SF/genre fiction:
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
The Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart
The Foundation series (just the first three books) - Isaac Asimov
The Instrumentality of Mankind (short story collection) - Cordwainer Smith
Norstrila - Cordwainer Smith
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
The Amber series - Roger Zelazny
Cities in Flight - James Blish
The Devil's Day - James Blish
Dune - Frank Herbert (the other Dune books are good - although all of them are terribly complicated. Avoid ANYTHING written by his son - Brian Herbet he's done some "Dune" books - and they're beyond bad)
anything by Fredric Brown
The Vlad Talos series by Steven Brust (but make sure to read them in order)
Lord Valentine's Castle - Robert Silverberg
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame - volume 1 (probably the best collection of classic short stories available)
The Dorsai series - Gordon R. Dickson
The Dragon and the George - Gordon R. Dickson
The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers - Harry Harrison
Time and Again - Jack Finney
The God Box - Barry Longyear
Superstoe - William Borden

I also quite like almost anything by Lawrence Watt-Evans, Robert Sheckley (particularly his short stories), Ron Goulart, David Brin, Lyndon Hardy, Anthony Boucher, Michael Moorcock, James White, and Lord Dunsany.

Some non-genre books you might enjoy (I do):
Kim - Ridyard Kipling
Shogun - James Clavell
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
I, Claudius - Robert Graves
The Catcher In the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Almost anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (you might want to start with Welcome to the Monkey House)

I know as soon as I'm done with this I'm going to think of 20 other books and authors I should have included, and I'm going to kick myself.

Sebastian at Arisia

I neglected to include any photos of Arisia; not surprising, I guess, since the whole thing was such a big disappointment that I didn't want to think about it afterwards.

But Sebastian enjoyed himself, and here's a photo of him that includes the Park Plaza's Castle in the background. This was at a Fast Track craft event, making dragons or castles.

Sebastian at Arisia

I neglected to include any photos of Arisia; not surprising, I guess, since the whole thing was such a big disappointment that I didn't want to think about it afterwards.

But Sebastian enjoyed himself, and here's a photo of him that includes the Park Plaza's Castle in the background. This was at a Fast Track craft event, making dragons or castles.