Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Doris Lessing had her sci-fi/fantasy phase, during which she wrote the Canopus in Argos: Archives series.  I was one of the loyal fans of her earlier work (and a fan of hard-science science fiction) who cringed at the thought of her wasting her talents on fantasy fiction - but I've always wondered about the books in the back of my mind.  Anyone read them?

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>Sent: Aug 15, 2011 3:28 AM
>To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books
>
>James Kyllo  wrote:
>> The books that stand out in my memory are "The Left Hand of Darkness"
>> and "The Word for World is Forest" (I see there is a novel version of
>> this - it's the novella, in "Again, Dangerous Visions" that I've
>> read).  Some of the others don't really transcend their eco-wimmin-sf
>> genre, but are doubtless still better than the other inhabitant of
>> that genre which comes to mind - Marge Piercy's "Woman on the Edge of
>> Time"
>>
>
>I dunno why anybody would want to transcend the eco-wimmin-sf
>genre...it's got everything needed to sustain life...
>
>but anyway:
>
>1976 was when I read the LHoD - I liked the snowy world, the cult of
>ignorance, and I seem to remember she did something interesting with
>gender.  Plus the edition I had, had an intro by her that I remember
>as being worthwhile, in terms of introducing new ideas or helping to
>grok the book, and sort of made me like her if that makes sense
>
>there is a series of sorcery and sorcery (maybe a little bit of sword
>too) that she wrote which was pretty fun.  Tales of Earthsea -- I read
>those as an over 40 adult and still enjoyed them - a teen or preteen
>who read those instead of or alongside Tokien would be well served,
>fictionwise, I opine!
>
>the Dispossessed is supposed to be really great, there was this
>anarchist dude in the Infoshop bookstore in Kansas City with a
>Lenin-looking beard who chose his email name from that book - ie,
>people like it.  I haven't read it.
>
>Always Coming Home had a table or insert at the end or beginning of
>the book where ruling metaphors of life were the independent variable
>and then for each it would list the respective variables - so like if
>your ruling metaphor is business then yada yada -- anyway, great chart
>- the rest of the book was great for noodling around in which was
>perfect for me in the late 80s when I read it...actually I still do a
>fair amount of noodling
>
>That's really all I've read of hers or have to say about that although
>I rate her pretty high.  I wouldn't mind rereading any of her books
>that I've read (although  I didn't like the Lathe of Heaven movie very
>much.)
>
>There was a whole issue of the Fifth Estate, an anarchist magazine,
>recently devoted to her and she contributed to it.
>
>Last but not least: there's apparently a set
>http://www.amazon.com/Always-Coming-Home-Ursala-Guin/dp/B0014EW6EE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313393026&sr=8-2
>with a cassette tape which I'd like to hear
>
>Wikipedia's bibliography shows there are a lot of her books that I
>haven't read.  Cool!