Best NON-SF/Fantasy Novels

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by nostromo
That's because most people here are nerds

Is that you?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by nostromo
He wrote a novel?

I dunno, what do you call the things he wrote? Say, A Midsummer Night's Dream?

[Nostromo]

He wrote plays and poems

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


I dunno, what do you call the things he wrote? Say, A Midsummer Night's Dream?

... wait. You're serious?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I dunno, what do you call the things he wrote? Say, A Midsummer Night's Dream?

I'd call it many things (almost all positive), but I'd certainly never call it a novel, since it's a play.

[MrFun]

Unto This Hour by Tom Wicker was excellent reading.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Another good one is The Killer Angels.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Autobiography != novel

With Clinton's propensity for being unable to tell fact from fiction in his own life, yes....


Mr. Swift's anticipation of farcical 'scientific projects':


" CHAPTER V.

The Author permitted to see the grand Academy of Lagado. The Academy largely described. The Arts wherein the Professors employ themselves.


HIS ACADEMY is not an entire single Building, but a Continuation of several Houses on both Sides of a Street; which growing waste, was purchased and applyed to that Use.
I was received very kindly by the Warden, and went for many Days to the Academy. Every Room hath in it one or more Projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five Hundred Rooms.

The first Man I saw was of a meager Aspect, with sooty Hands and Face, his Hair and Beard long, ragged and singed in several Places. His Cloathes, Shirt, and Skin were all of the same Colour. He had been Eight Years upon a Project for extracting Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers, which were to be put into Vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the Air in raw inclement Summers. He told me he did not doubt in Eight Years more he should be able to supply the Governors Gardens with Sun-shine at a reasonable Rate; but he complained that his stock was low, and intreated me to give him something as an Encouragement to Ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear Season for Cucumbers. I made him a small Present, for my Lord had furnished me with Money on Purpose, because he knew their Practice of begging from all who go to see them.

I went into another Chamber, but was ready to hasten back, being almost overcome with a horrible Stink. My Conductor pressed me forward, conjuring me in a Whisper to give no Offence, which would be highly resented; and therefore I durst not so much as stop my Nose. The Projector of this Cell was the most ancient Student of the Academy. His Face and Beard were of a pale Yellow; his Hands and Clothes daubed over with Filth. When I was presented to him, he gave me a close Embrace (a Compliment I could well have excused.) His Employment from his first coming into the Academy, was an Operation to reduce human Excrement to its original Food, by separating the several Parts, removing the Tincture which it receives from the Gall, making the Odour exhale, and scumming off the Saliva. He had a weekly Allowance from the Society, of a Vessel filled with human Ordure about the Bigness of a Bristol Barrel.

I saw another at work to calcine Ice into Gunpowder; who likewise shewed me a Treatise he had written concerning the Malleability of Fire, which he intended to publish.

There was a most ingenious Architect who had contrived a new Method for building Houses, by beginning at the Roof, and working downwards to the Foundation; which he justified to me by the like Practice of those two prudent Insects, the Bee and the Spider.

There was a Man born blind, who had several Apprentices in his own Condition: Their Employment was to mix Colours for Painters, which their Master taught them to distinguish by feeling and smelling. It was indeed my Misfortune to find them at that Time not very perfect in their Lessons; and the Professor himself happened to be generally mistaken: This Artist is much encouraged and esteemed by the whole Fraternity. "

http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk3/chap3-5.html

[St Leo]

Originally posted by Verto

Anything by Michael Crichton.

I love Michael Crichton as well, but I figured most of his books (Jurassic Park, Lost World, Sphere, Prey, etc, would be classified as sci-fi, and thus excluded from this "poll".

Crichton writes it-was-all-a-dream technothrillers that are filed under general literature rather than genre stuff in bookstores and libraries.

[St Leo]

Catch-22 is an awesome book all-around. Funny, insightful, and engrossing. If there was a way to categorise it as science fiction, I would, but unfortunately it's general literature.

I found it very enjoyable Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf into modern English free verse. I guess it counts as fantasy, though.

Generally, you should avoid Man Booker prize winners. I read Yann Martel's Life of Pi and Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things. Each paragraph was fun, but the books reduced to extreme characterization tacked onto a cardboard plot. That's probably a problem with most literary fiction. It tends to be intellectual bubble gum ****ing. Avoid the whole damn non-genre literary fiction genre.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by JohnT


... wait. You're serious?

[Verto]

Originally posted by St Leo

Originally posted by Verto

Anything by Michael Crichton.

I love Michael Crichton as well, but I figured most of his books (Jurassic Park, Lost World, Sphere, Prey, etc, would be classified as sci-fi, and thus excluded from this "poll".

Crichton writes it-was-all-a-dream technothrillers that are filed under general literature rather than genre stuff in bookstores and libraries.

There is no difference between his ideas and those of Julese Verne. I suspect the only reason they aren't under science fiction is because sci-fi has been taken to mean space fiction.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


... wait. You're serious?

Do you know how to say 'play', or novel in Chinese? Or any foreign language?

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Verto
There is no difference between his ideas and those of Julese Verne. I suspect the only reason they aren't under science fiction is because sci-fi has been taken to mean space fiction.

Crichton isn't science fiction? Since when?

I find his books in the scifi section of the bookstore...

[JohnT]

Despite the disdain professed in the first post for SF/Fantasy threads on this forum, one can easily see why: it has almost been universally crap listed above me as "best novels."

Please, oh Master, tell us all about your arcane knowledge of non-"crap" and why it is that we should read the recommendations of a man who starts out his post by insulting nearly everybody who posted before?