"Dune"! It's the start of the series, the quality decreases with each subsequent book, and falls off a cliff once the author's son gets involved. You could just read the first book and pretend that the rest don't exist, and you won't miss a lot of great fiction, in my ever-humble opinion.
Elizabeth Moon is somewhere in my to-read pile, as is Jo Walton.
Elsewhere, you asked why I liked "The Left Hand of Darkness" so much. Part of it was its consideration of identity and sexuality, and how the ambassador came to terms with his own binary assumptions around them. (Also the author's later note that if she were writing the novel now, she wouldn't use "he" as the generic pronoun.) The trek also resonated with me, in how we learn so much about ourselves and each other when we travel with someone else.
Dune: I actually have little desire to read Dune except I'm slowly working on reading every joint Hugo/Nebula winner. Plus almost everyone I know seems to have read it so the cultural knowledge would be handy. In other words, I'm perfectly happy to take your advice and only read the first one. :)
Elizabeth Moon: I read the first book for one of her space operas (Trading in Danger / Vatta's War) and enjoyed it. My friend clashfan recommended The Speed of Dark, and she usually steers me well when suggesting books. Plus Moon meets my personal challenge to read more speculative fiction by female authors.
Jo Walton: meets same challenge, plus the title I picked is a Hugo/Nebula winner, so it satisfies two challenges in one! I'm such a book geek. Is there an emoticon for a happy geek face?
Wanted to read Varieties of Disturbance, by Lydia Davis. Library doesn't have it, but all those stories are contained within The Collected Stories. May just read stories from Varieties of Disturbance or may read all of them.
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(plantgirl / gmail)
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I meant I'll send it physically to you. As a book. With pages! :-)
Point me to your Earth address or send it to me via email and I'll get on it.
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Elizabeth Moon is somewhere in my to-read pile, as is Jo Walton.
Elsewhere, you asked why I liked "The Left Hand of Darkness" so much. Part of it was its consideration of identity and sexuality, and how the ambassador came to terms with his own binary assumptions around them. (Also the author's later note that if she were writing the novel now, she wouldn't use "he" as the generic pronoun.) The trek also resonated with me, in how we learn so much about ourselves and each other when we travel with someone else.
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Elizabeth Moon: I read the first book for one of her space operas (Trading in Danger / Vatta's War) and enjoyed it. My friend clashfan recommended The Speed of Dark, and she usually steers me well when suggesting books. Plus Moon meets my personal challenge to read more speculative fiction by female authors.
Jo Walton: meets same challenge, plus the title I picked is a Hugo/Nebula winner, so it satisfies two challenges in one! I'm such a book geek. Is there an emoticon for a happy geek face?
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