[mplspm]: Dude, who sole my perl book?

[Dave Rolsky]

On Thu, 28 Nov 2002, Chris Siegler wrote:

> One of my favorite authors! A good resource for SF/FAN books is
>
> http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6113/top100.html
>
> where you'll probably find a few gems that you've never read (I'd never
> heard of Alfred Bester, who is amazing).

I remember this list from way back when I read newsgroups.  There's some
odd rankings on here.  Ken Grimwood's Replay at #21?  I like the book, but
it's not _that_ good!  George R. Martin at #1?  Never read him but I can't
imagine that he's better than some of the authors a bit down the list.
OTOH, Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos at #9 seems just about right, as I'd
consider this one of the greatest, most well written (in the sense of
wordcraft) and intelligent pieces of SF ever written.

Gene Wolfe is on there, but a bit low.  Of course, I'd place him at #1,
obviously.  Ursula Le Guin is _way_ too low with only one appearance at
#71.  Same with Iain Banks at #59 (and #87).  The only PK Dick book on
there is Ubik, at #80.  Odd.

No Jack Vance, who certainly had a unique style.  And where's Jonathan
Lethem?  No Elizabeth Hand?  Walter Jon Williams?  Octavia Butler?
Jonathan Carroll?

I could go on.  I would say that the list is a bit weighted towards
"popular" books and fairly lacking in more "literary" authors, like some
of the ones I just mentioned.


-dave

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