You always post such detailed and thoughtful book reviews, explaining both what did and did not work for you. Do you have books that work all the way? That is, do you have "comfort" novels/non-fiction you return to repeatedly? I have that kind of relationship with Austen, of course, but also with much of Stephen King and a few odd entries, like The Secret History, which shouldn't be comforting but is, if only for the graciousness of its prose.
That's a great question--because I'm such a sf/f geek, they're all books I discovered when I was young and still enjoy. So: Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, Barbara Hambly's ST novel Ishmael and Diane Duane's ST novels My Enemy, My Ally and The Wounded Sky (in which Mary Sue is a glass spider!), David Palmer's Emergence (in which Mary Sue is named Candy), Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, and, yes, a bunch of Stephen King--It may well be my favorite, but I could list ten I'd happily reread right now. Obviously prose graciousness is not my criterion, though I might go with David Foster Wallace; certainly rereading his works wouldn't be a chore.
I find myself reading The Shining when I'm depressed. Always cheers me up.
My favorite Diane Duane is Spock's World. Must have read it a dozen times in junior high. I still find ideas from it showing up in my own writing from time to time.
Pardon me for jumping into the middle of your conversation, but I just had to say that I haven't reread it in a while, but when I was about 16 I thought The Wounded Sky was the best novel ever written (and I still think it's the best ST novel ever), and I also really really loved Ishmael and My Enemy, My Ally.
Thanks for the scoop on The Engineer Trilogy. I recently read an advance copy of Parker's The Company, which was definitely an interesting read, and no one did anything for love ever, so very different from what you describe. Having finally discovered (in the early 90s) that there are good books with interesting female protagonists, I find my patience for stories all about men to be much less, and this was definitely one of those books. Cool worldbuilding yes, and I wouldn't turn down another of Parker's books, but I have not sought them out either.
I have The Company but have yet to crack it open. And it may be that people doing everything (scheming, killing, stealing, etc.) for love produces the same results, at least in Parker's fiction, as people doing nothing for love. Certainly Parker is not poetic about love. And the Engineer Trilogy is also fairly light on female characters, so it probably wouldn't change your opinion.
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Just curious.
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My favorite Diane Duane is Spock's World. Must have read it a dozen times in junior high. I still find ideas from it showing up in my own writing from time to time.
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