

Daniel Keys Moran's Book Recommendations




 Daniel Keys Moran's Book Recommendations

Rather than make links for all the authors mentioned here, I'd
suggest you use the Science Fiction 
Resource Guide.

From: Daniel Keys Moran
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 14:43:12 -0400
Subject: Who does DKM read? (I'm sure this has been asked before)


On the non-SF side, Larry McMurtry, John D. MacDonald, Raymond Chandler,
Gregory McDonald, Carl Hiassen, and Hunter S. Thompson. This is a very
incomplete and off-the-top-of-my-head listing. (Throw in Louis L'Amour,
though that was mostly as a teenager; I'm not sure I'd enjoy him as much
today.)


The following is a partial list I  put together for a friend who wanted
a recommended SF reading list, a while back.


Isaac Asimov, The Foundation Trilogy
              The Caves of Steel
              The Naked Sun

Greg Bear, The Forge of God
           An Anvil of Stars
           Blood Music

Gregory Benford, Great Sky River
                 Across the Sea of Stars
                 Timescape

Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man
               The Stars My Destination

Ray Bradbury, Green Shadow, White Whale
              The Martian Chronicles

Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Heritage of Hastur
                       Sharra's Exile

David Brin, Startide Rising
            The Uplift War
            The Postman

Fredric Brown, What Mad Universe

Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
                  Speaker for the Dead
                  The Tales of Alvin Maker

C.J. Cherry, The Pride of Chanur series

John Christopher, The Tripods Trilogy
                  The Prince in Waiting Trilogy

Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End
                  2001: A Space Odyssey
                  Rendezvous With Rama
                  Fountains of Paradise

Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising sequence

Samuel R. Delaney, Dhalgren

Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle

George Alec Effinger, When Gravity Fails

Sylvia Louis Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars
                      The Far Side of Evil

Philip Jose Farmer, Riverworld stories

David Gerrold, When Harlie Was One
               The Chtorran Series

Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
              All My Sins Remembered
              Worlds

Harry Harrison, Make Room! Make Room!
                The Stainless Steel Rat (first 3 novels)

Robert Heinlein, Red Planet
                 The Pupper Masters
                 Citizen of the Galaxy
                 Have Space Suit, Will Travel
                 Starship Troopers
                 Stranger in A Strange Land
                 The Moon is A Harsh Mistress

Zenna Henderson, Pilgramage: The Book of the People
                 The People: No Different Flesh

Frank Herbert, The Dune Series
               Whipping Star
               The Dosadi Experiment

Alexander Key, The Forgotten Door
               Escape to Witch Mountain

Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot
              The Dead Zone

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
                   The Left Hand of Darkness
                   The Lathe of Heaven
                   The Earthsea Trilogy
                   Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea

Fritz Leiber, The Big Time
              The Wanderer

C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
            Perelandra
            The Chronicles of Narnia

Patricia McKillip, Riddle of Stars Trilogy
                   The Forgotten Beasts of Eld

Walter M. Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz




These are all books I admire a great deal. Going past the Ms, I have to
take notice of Roger Zelazny; his early novels were as imaginative as
anything anyone in the field has ever done. More recently, Dan Simmons
kicks ass; I loved his Hyperion novels.


Honorable mention for Stephenson's "Snow Crash." I dislike cyberpunk,
but this is the best of the bunch, and it's funny.


The five best SF novels ever written, by the way, are:



Childhood's End, Clarke

Great Sky River, Benford

The Demolished Man, Bester

A Canticle for Leibowitz, Miller

Lord of Light, Zelazny



In case you were wondering. <G>


You won't go wrong with about 95 of the Top 100 novels on the
 Internet Top 100 List, IMHO.


From:  Daniel Keys Moran
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 1995 02:07:00 UTC


"Lonesome Dove," by Larry McMurtry. I urge you to read this book,
if you haven't.


From:  Daniel Keys Moran
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 1995 22:51:00 UTC


"Mithras, Apollo, Arthur, Christ -- call him what you
       will," I said. "What does it matter what men call the
       light? It is the same light, and men must live by it or
       die."



It's from either Mary Stewart's "The Crystal Cave," or "The Hollow
Hills." I think the first, but I wouldn't swear to it. Her three novels
about Merlin, CC, HH, and "The Last Enchantment," are among my all-time
favorite novels. I expect I'll be re-reading them until I'm an old man.



From: Daniel Keys Moran
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 1995 21:17:00 UTC
Subject: Jack Vance


Vance was a great influence on me; I've been hearing people for any
number of years now tell me that William Gibson is the greatest stylist
SF has ever produced. I don't like Gibson's stories much, but I concede
the man writes beautifuly ... but "greatest stylist?" A comment that can
only have come from individuals who've never read Dying Earth, or
Showboat World, Moon Moth or The Last Castle.


Mohammed Vance was named for Jack Vance, yep.

~~~~~~~~~~

James Millar, now I'll *definitely* go and look up the Culture novels [by
Iain Banks].
 

From: Daniel Keys Moran
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 05:30:00 UTC


Hm.  For some reason, I am reminded of the Neanderthals (or, rather,
the false Neanderthals) in Neverness, by David Zindell...



Hell of a book. Neverness and Broken God are major league kick ass
writing. They remind me of me except with less action and more Deep
Thoughts -- which is not a bad thing but has probably impacted his
sales. He and I are certainly working with the same stuff.


From: DM@usa.pipeline.com (Daniel Moran)
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 17:37:16 -0500
Subject: Kevin Anderson


"Kevin Anderson is the heir apparent to Arthur C. Clarke"

I hope not, this is the man who wrote in a Star Wars novel that a child
picked up a gem (found already sharp and able to cut through the
hardest substances known) puts it in their boot (unwrapped), walks
around, then pulls it out to cut his way out of a locked room.
I don't remember Clarke doing anything like this.



Pick up the book for which I gave Kevin that quote -- Climbing Olympus
-- and you'll see why I gave it to him. After that he went off and did
all those Star Wars novels and things that he wrote in a very short
period. I liked them better than the other Star Wars stuff I read, and
at that I didn't like them much. (I didn't even like my own Star Wars
stories particularly; the restraints they put on you in that universe
make it difficult to tell good stories)


When he writes slowly and carefully, Kevin is one of the most promising
of the current generation of SF writers. Unfortunately he tends to write
hastily -- but we all have flaws; I don't write quickly enough, and on
balance his flaw may be less damaging, career-wise, than mine.
 

From: Daniel Keys Moran 
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 00:51:40 -0700 (MST)


Imho, Roger Zelazny peaked with Lord of Light -- one of the 3 or 4 best
sf novels I've ever read, even today. Other work was less ambitious and
less well written, but I'd recommend Isle of the Dead and the first
Amber series as wel -- if you can read "Nine Princes in Amberl," which
is a quick read, and feel no desire to continue with the next four, then
Zelazny is not for you.


I do wonder sometimes what causes SF writers (moreso than most other
genres) to distintegrate as they age. It happens so frequently it's
almost not worth noting -- Niven, Zelazny and Heinlein are great
examples; Asimov and Herbert are to somewhat lesser degrees. But what
SF/Fantasy writer's best work was done later in life? Anyone?


Grim thought, if you do what I do.


OTOH ... Larry McMurty had been writing 30 years already when he gave us
Lonesome Dove. And Fred Pohl had been writing roughly that long when he
gave us the Heechee stories. So it's not set in stone, but it is
nonetheless discouraging.


Week ago I finished "Sailing Bright Eternity," by Greg Benford. It's the
last of his "ocean" novels -- "Ocean of Night," "Across the Sea of
Stars," and "Great Sky River," which still gets my vote for second best
SF novel ever. Benford plainly has not lost a step in all of this
(reading him gives me the same feeling I get watching Babylon 5; I'm
aware of the bar being raised in front of my eyes.)

 
From: Daniel Keys Moran 
Date: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 00:50:43 -0800


The family that sent me a check and
informed me that they were spending the baby's diaper money on TF is
getting their check back. If it's a joke, I didn't get it, and if true,
I don't need that kind of karma ... and if anyone else who sent me a
check is in that situation, for God's sake, get a grip -- many fine
Terry Pratchett novels are available in paperback for a lot less than TF
costs.



