Vatican admits
To liking Harry Potter.
Who would have thought it?
Anyways, today I bring you the full answers to my First Liners quiz from last week. This should give you a feel for my eclectic reading tastes - Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Historical, Thrillers and a large dose of Junior Fiction,
The primroses were over. Towards the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and a brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury and oak-tree roots.
Richard Adams / Watership Down
Classic tale of bunny rabbits with Bright Eyes. Probably the best of the "talking animals in the real world" genre. William Horwood's Duncton books perhaps have more breadth and depth, but are somehow less fun.
His name was Gall Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before.
Isaac Asimov / Foundation
Space opera with grand scope, over numerous sequels and prequels, tying into much of Asimov's other SF, such as the robot tales. Many a memorable moment and quote, but this one seems particularly pertinent: "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent"
It has been said that every great man deserves a biographer. I have therefore taken it upon myself to keep a private record of my employer's activities during his career in the Space Legion.
Robert Asprin / Phule's Company
Entertaining sci-fi comedy with Multi-billionaire (and butler) commanding in the equivalent of the Foreign Legion.
The naked child ran out of the hide-covered lean-to towards the rocky beach at the bend in the small river.
Jean M. Auel / The Clan of the Cave Bear
First in the Earth's Children series, while always interesting speculation on Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man, ranks pretty darn low on the plausibility scale. Later books are much with the angst and what my Mum once described as "Prehistoric Bodice-Ripper".
This is the good part. Hassan Sulari loves this one. When the magnetic catapult on the mothership throws his little spaceplane forward and he kicks in the scramjet, somewhere over Afghanistan, he'll sail up and away into a high suborbital trajectory over the Pole.
John Barnes / Mother of Storms
A cracking story with a large cast of memorable characters in an incredibly detailed vision of the future positively brimming with interesting (and plausible) ideas.
"I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one.
Orson Scott Card / Ender's Game
Gifted kids train to fight the wars of the future. You need to read this. I was somewhat underwhelmed by the sequels, but have only read them once.
They moved swiftly, silently, with purpose, under a crystalline, star-filled night in western Siberia.
Tom Clancy / Red Storm Rising
OK, so I'm a fan of the big, chunky techno-thriller. If you're going to object to detailed descriptions of all things military, then this may not be for you, but it's a cracking yarn and gives a plausible look at how a non-nuclear WWIII might have happened. Topically, it's all about oil.
Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. On 30 June 1908, Moscow escaped destruction by three hours and four thousand kilometres - a margin invisibly small by the standards of the universe.
Arthur C. Clarke / Rendezvous with Rama
First contact. With a large, apparently uninhabited, alien spacecraft. Fascinating stuff. The (co-written) sequels sadly go rapidly downhill.
The gale tore at him and he felt its bite deep within and he knew that if they did not make landfall in three days they would all be dead.
James Clavell / Shogun
A whopper of a historical novel, set in 17th century Japan. Absolutely fascinating stuff. Read Tai-Pan and Noble House too.
This book recounts the five-day history of a major American scientific crisis.
Michael Crichton / The Andromeda Strain
This is classic Crichton - heavy on the science, written as if it's a report on something that really happened. Top stuff.
These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket.
Roald Dahl / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
What can you say about Roald Dahl? He was the author when I was a kid, a new book almost as much of an event as the Harry Potter ones are today. Oh, and "Willy Wonka" - 'nuff said.
The storm had broken. Pug danced along the edge of the rocks, his feet finding scant purchase as he made his way among the tide pools.
Raymond E. Feist / Magician (revised edition)
Top fantasy. Yes it borrows from the Tolkein mythos, but is not a shameless rip-off like some (*cough*Shannara*cough*) and has plenty of new and interesting ideas. Yes, the sequels tail off in quality to some extent, but the parallel ... of the Empire trilogy is perhaps even better.
Space outside the attack cruiser Beezling tore open in five places.
Peter F. Hamilton / The Reality Dysfunction
Averaging well in excess of 1200 pages each, the 3 volumes of the Night's Dawn are a masterpiece of genre-bending space opera. PFH effortlessly juggles dozens of plot threads and major characters in a varied and detailed universe. Admittedly the conclusion is somewhat of a deus ex machina, but under the circumstances this is eminently forgivable. And you've got to love a story that spends 700+ pages setting up the worlds and characters rather than rushing into the Big Plot Action.
There's not much call for private detectives in Fulham.
Anthony Horowitz / The Falcon's Malteser
As its title suggests, this kids book is a brilliant pastiche of the Maltese Falcon and the genre it resides in. With the smart-alec kid hero and a nasty good guy by the name of Snape, what more could you ask for? (Some sequels, of course)
A squat grey building of only thirty-four storeys. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.
Aldous Huxley / Brave New World
See below.
Matthias cut a comical little figure as he wobbled his way along the cloisters, with his large sandals flip-flopping and his tail peeping from beneath the baggy folds of an over-sizes novice's habit.
Brian Jacques / Redwall
The first, and among the best, from a long running series in the "Animals as People" genre. Has species very much as stereotypes - but very well done, down to distinctive ways of speaking (e.g. searats are bloodthirsty pirates, matey, hares are the stereotypical British army chaps, wot, and the hard-working moles have broad rural speech, etc). Good and Evil are pretty clearly defined by species, and there's plenty of "good giving evil the right royal bashing it deserves". Oh, and lots of loffley food. Yum!
In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.
Diana Wynne Jones / Howl's Moving Castle
A wonderful tale in a world where every fairy-tale cliché comes true.
Having no personal commitment to either of the new consuls, Gaius Julius Caesar and his sons simply tacked themselves onto the procession which started nearest to their own house, the procession of the senior consul, Marcus Minucius Rufus.
Colleen McCullough / The First Man in Rome
The first volume in what is best termed a "fictionalised history" of Rome from 110 B.C. onwards. While there are clearly not historical records to anything like the detail of this story, the author is striving for historical accuracy, making these books educational as well as entertaining.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
George Orwell / Nineteen Eighty-Four
I always lump this together with Brave New World as the futures they portray are so similar and yet so different. In the one, Big Brother is watching you, re-writing the past to serve the propaganda of the present, and wile free will exists, the penalties for exercising it (or having any fun) are stiff. In the other, humans are engineered to be happy with there lot and given all the sex & drugs they could want - which is just another way of enforcing conformity by force-feeding slogans to the drug-addled masses. Which of these two futures would you prefer to live in?
After making sure that the shopping for Auntie Bina and his folded jacket were safely stowed in the saddle bag, Pidge wheeled his bike through the crowded streets.
Pat O'Shea / The Hounds of the Mórrígan
A magical journey into the realms of magical folklore. Tremendous fun throughout, but be careful or you'll find yourself Up The Amazon On A Rubber Duck. No, really.
"That is my decision. We need not discuss it," said the man at the desk.
Tamora Pierce / Alanna: The First Adventure
Swords and Sorcery teenfic. The first in a trilogy of quartets, each featuring a different, strong, female lead and a host of supporting characters. More "the middle ages with magic" than Tolkeinesque fantasy (although there is a chapter entitled At the Sign of the Dancing Dove) and all the more interesting for it.
Roger, aged seven, and no longer the youngest of the family, ran in wide zigzags, to and fro, across the steep field that sloped up from the lake to Holly Howe, the farm where they were staying for that part of the summer holidays.
Arthur Ransome / Swallows and Amazons
Pure escapism. Who wouldn't have wanted to have summer holidays like these?
Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
J. K. Rowling / Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Simply the best. I need my copy of Order of the Phoenix now!
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
J. R. R. Tolkien / The Hobbit
Need I say more? I think not.
February 5 2003, 20:24:37 UTC 18 years ago
--J, who still lacks Red Rabbit, but is considering Ryan/Clark slash
Re: Ryan/Clark
February 6 2003, 01:10:42 UTC 18 years ago
Am wating for the paperback before getting Red Rabbit.