Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site unc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!unc!wfi From: wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) Newsgroups: net.books Subject: Re: what do _you_ think of sf? Message-ID: <286@unc.UUCP> Date: Sat, 25-May-85 16:58:17 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.286 Posted: Sat May 25 16:58:17 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 27-May-85 02:50:47 EDT References: Reply-To: wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) Distribution: net Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill Lines: 33 Summary: > Has anyone taken a look at net.sf-lovers? There is a vast number of > postings, and a good number of them are ridiculous. One poster says > that he reads science fiction because most of the the great writers > active today are in the field. You think that's ridiculous, you should have caught the exchange a few months ago on the 'greatest book in the English language in the 20th century.' Want to guess the genre? > I read sf, but rarely find anything > more than bare entertainment. Any comments on different genres? Don't judge all readers of net.sf-lovers by the rantings of a few, or the whole SF genre by the books you've read. Here are a few SF books that may alter your opinion of the genre: The Crystal World, by J. G. Ballard Engine Summer, by John Crowley Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, by Samuel Delaney The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin The Cyberiad, by Stanislaw Lem Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, by Kate Wilhelm The Fifth Head Of Cerberus, by Gene Wolfe I hope you can find some of these books, and that you enjoy them. Several of them are probably out of print, so you'll have to dig around in used book stores and libraries for them. A couple of additional works by Stanislaw Lem worth looking at are Mortal Engines, a book of imaginary introductions to imaginary books, and A Perfect Vacuum, a book of imaginary reviews of imaginary books. -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly