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[lanithro]

I voted on the Top 20 Geek Novels poll in the Guardian.

What's Orlando doing there? How is that a geek novel?

And what is the definition of a "geek novel" that they're working with to construct this list? Why wasn't Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory there in the list? That's a lovely geek book.

Anyway, in no particular order:

Mushishi continues

Comments

[lanithro]

They chose the list in a really weird way- they got people to send in their nominations over a week or two and chose the ones with most votes. I thought they ought to have had an "other" box at the bottom of the list where a voter could suggest another geek book.
And the "before 1923" bit bothers me. Did they do that specifically so "Call of Cthulhu" wouldn't automatically bag top scores?
Neal Stephenson might not deserve to win everything, but he deserves to win quite a lot. Snow Crash was ace. but I still haven't managed to get through boring-boring Quicksilver

[lanithro]

But it had hackers and the mafia and robot dogs!

Yeah, Snow Crash has about as much depth as a theme park ride. A good theme park ride though.

Hey, I forget if you ever ended up reading Perdido Street Station?

[heron61]

Why wasn't Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory there in the list? That's a lovely geek book. I've never read any of his non-SF, but I'm puzzled that Consider Phlebas was on the list, when most of his other (and later) Culture novels are considerably deeper and more complex. I loved Consider Phlebas, but by any remotely objective standard Use of Weapons is a significantly better novel. In general, that was a rather odd list, and I still remain puzzled as to why anyone likes Neal Stephenson's work.

[lanithro]

Neal Stephenson's a bit hit and miss, in my opinion. Snow Crash was a fabulous four-colour comic-book style novel, which I guess gloried a bit in its fanservicey special effects. It's funny too. But Quicksilver and subsequent historical novels have proved dull going- or maybe they just have dull beginnings that don't involve way cool action sequences.

I haven't actually read any of Iain Banks' SF. I do keep meaning to give it a go, as I loved The Wasp Factory and was entertained by most of his other non-SF that I've read. Which novel is good to start with for his science-fiction novels?