Fiction Recommendations

[Nostromo]

Have you read Lem's Solaris? One of the most interesting and bizarre Alien ever created.

[Jon Miller]

I liked Solaris.

JM

[TCO]

You want a good alien, check out World of Ptaavs (use ILL)

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Have you read Wicked, Gregory Maguire's reworking of The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the witch? It's extraordinary; clever, complex, richly imagined and beautifully written. Don't let the annoying cult that's grown up around the musical dissuade you; the musical gutted everything good about the book, particularly its complexity. Also, if you've read something else by Maguire, don't let that dissuade you either; all his other books are crap, but Wicked really is a brilliant work.

[TCO]

Clement was a HS chemistry teacher at a prep school: Mission of Gravity, Ice World, Needle.

Dickson: Wolf and Iron, Way of the Pilgrim, Time Storm, several more (after 1990 unreadable though).

[Jon Miller]

Have you read Wicked, Gregory Maguire's reworking of The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the witch? It's extraordinary; clever, complex, richly imagined and beautifully written. Don't let the annoying cult that's grown up around the musical dissuade you; the musical gutted everything good about the book, particularly its complexity. Also, if you've read something else by Maguire, don't let that dissuade you either; all his other books are crap, but Wicked really is a brilliant work.

I have seen Wicked in stores (not the musical)... I might not have read Wizard of Oz, would you recommend that first?

JM

[Jon Miller]

Clement was a HS chemistry teacher at a prep school: Mission of Gravity, Ice World, Needle.

Dickson: Wolf and Iron, Way of the Pilgrim, Time Storm, several more (after 1990 unreadable though).

I have read a lot of Dickson, I agree that his later stuff did not live up to the earlier promise, he was old though. Final Encylpedia was good... but after that...

I need to look into Clement.

Who writes this
"World of Ptaavs"

I plan on looking into more nonSF as well, like Crime and Punishment or A Good Man is Hard to Find. But those don't really give me alien.

JM

[TCO]

Niven's first novel. Best one imho.

[The Mad Monk]

I have seen Wicked in stores (not the musical)... I might not have read Wizard of Oz, would you recommend that first?

JM

Oh hell yes.

The Integral Trees is pretty strange, if you have never read that; no aliens, but some pretty alien humans. If you like like Cherryh, you might like it.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I have seen Wicked in stores (not the musical)... I might not have read Wizard of Oz, would you recommend that first?

JM

Well, my wife and I both loved Wicked, and I knew the original Baum Oz books very well while she did not know them at all. So I'd say you could go either way. Wicked references several of the Baum books; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz most extensively but also the next two he wrote, The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz. They're all quick reads, but not necessary; you cauld also just rent The Wizard of Oz and Return to Oz and be up to speed on Oz mythology in about 4 hours (plus, they're both really good movies; the first is well-known, of course, but the second is unjustly neglected).

[Naked Gents Rut]

Will The Wiz work as a substitute?

[-Jrabbit]

I have heard of Dragon's Egg. Also, I should look up teh Wee Folk.

I don't actually favor hard science fiction, I view it as the weaker part of science fiction. Science fiction is best when it is turning a warped mirror on ourselves... not when it is trying to show a real possibility.

Pretty much all my favorites are 'soft' science fiction. It is alien personalities I like, not alien physics.

JM

Dragon's Egg is largely about the development of Cheela society and culture on the neutron star. The fact that the science "works" is just a bonus. Somewhat reminiscent of Flatland, with a heretic hero being a genetic mutant who gains the ability to see above the surface of this high-grav environment.

[The Mad Monk]

No.

[-Jrabbit]

Oh, and Wicked might indeed be right up your alley. Very witty and well written.

[snoopy369]

Snoopy, none of your suggestions were at all what I was looking for. Well, I didn't find Peter David and Nightwalker might be interesting some other time.

I don't like Urban Mythology either. I really think you are bad at this. I said I wanted books about otherly fairies or very alien aliens. Not about fairies behaving like humans or urban fantasy or angels. I think you are trying to troll me. Did you even read my OP? Or my posts after?

And I have repeatedly said that I wasn't impressed by American Gods, and I love Neverwhere and Stardust. For fairies, how could you be thinking the other two?

You are just clueless.

Yeah, I have read Niven and Dickson, I generally like Dickson better. I think I have read Clement also... would have to check.

JM

I don't generally troll, JM. I was attempting to expand your wish to a more general concept, because there simply aren't THAT many books with Faeries in them; and there must be something you like in those books beyond simply 'faeries'. What sort of themes you are looking for, etc. Fairies and Aliens seems to indicate you want something about characters that don't fit into society, but as that's the better portion of the Fantasy genre isn't very specific...