David Saunders

Sci-fi, Dark Fantasy & Prose page



  '...the fall of the towers, O ancient Christ, the fall of
    the towers, and the bared knife belly-buried and streaming,
the fall of the towers, I can hear her screaming, I can
       see her hands twisting to get free, her body arched backwards,
 skin split, bladder loose, dust and crumbled masonary, a
  flood of refuse in the street, screaming, her small hands
   coming out to meet my larger hand, brick and iron twisting
     to get free, the fall of the towers, my standard and support
 shattered, my heart jarred loose, her violence looped in
   a thick noose of struts, electric cable, mortar, brick...'

Nonik, City Of A Thousand Suns - Samuel R Delany

          I enjoy reading descriptive, literate novels. Novels pictureque, full of imagery. I also like reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, more so when they are full of the above elements. Some of the best books I've read involve social interactions between peoples (alien/human or a mix of the two) set in unusual environments or societies. Books that epitimizes this, that spring immediately to mind, are 'Dhalgren' by Samual R Delany and 'Titus Groan/Ghormengast' by Mervyn Peake. Here is a list of authors who I admire and who write with Beauty, Elegance and Eloquence. Some staggeringly so......

Sci-Fi & Fantasy - the enchanting

Tanith Lee

Recomended readings:

Angela Carter: 'The Magic Toyshop', 'Nights At The Circus', 'The Bloody Chamber'
Mervyn Peake: 'The Ghormenghast Trilogy', 'Mr Pye'
Ray Bradbury:'Dandelion Wine', 'The Silver Locusts (Martian Chronicles)', 'The Day It Rained Forever', 'The Illustrated Man', 'The Golden Apples Of The Sun'
Tanith Lee: The Birthgrave trilogy', 'Drinking Sapphire Wine', 'The Secret Books Of Paradys Tetrology', 'Sabella (The Blood Stone)', 'Red As Blood (Tales From The Sisters Grimmer)', 'The Gorgon And Other Beastly Tales' ...& many more. Soon coming...my TANITH LEE PAGE
Samual R Delany:'The Einstein Intersection', 'The Fall Of The Towers', 'Triton', 'Driftglass', 'Dhalgren', 'The Jewels Of Aptor', 'Nova', 'Babel - 17', Soon coming...Aspects of DHALGREN
Ursula K LeGuin:'The Dispossessed', 'The Lathe Of Heaven', 'Threshold', 'The Left Hand Of Darkness', 'The Compass Rose', 'The Eye Of The Heron', 'The Word For World Is Forest', '
Michael G Coney:'Hello Summer, Goodbye', 'Mirror Image', 'Syzygy', 'Brontomek', 'The Celestial Steam Locomotive', 'The Gods Of The Greataway', 'Cat Karina' ..the last three are from the 'Song Of Earth Tetrology .
Theodore Sturgeon:'The Dreaming Jewels','To Here And The Easel', 'More Than Human', 'A Touch Of Strange','Venus Plus X', 'Case And The Dreamer', 'The Joyous Invasions'
Philip K Dick:'Valis', 'The Divine Invasions'
Mikhail Bulgakov: 'The Master And Margarita'
Orson Scott Card:'Ender's Game', 'Speaker For THe Dead', 'Xenocide'
Ian Watson:'The Embedding', 'The Book Of The River', 'Salvage Rites'
Joanna Russ:'And Chaos Died'
Salman Rushdie:'Grimus', 'Midnight's Children', 'Satanic Verses'
J G Ballad:'The Unlimited Dream Company', 'Myths Of The Near Future'

Sci-Fi Classic Authors - the great, the visionary..and the unusual

Robert Silverberg

Recomended readings:

Larry Niven: 'Ringworld', 'Ringworld Engineers', 'The Mote in God's Eye', ' Dream Park', 'Lucifer's Hammer', 'Protector', 'The World Of The Ptavvs', 'Footfall'
Isaac Asimov: 'The God's Themselves', 'I Robot', 'The Rest Of The Robots', ' Foundation', 'Foundation & Empire', 'Second Foundation', 'The Caves Of Steel', 'The Currents Of Space', 'Buy Jupiter'
Robert Sheckley:'The People Trap', 'Dimensions Of Miracles', 'Mindswap', 'The Robot Who Looked Like Me', 'The Alchemical Marriage Of Alistair Crompton', 'The Tenth Victim', 'Untouched By Human Hands'
Robert Heinlein: 'Stranger In A Strange Land', 'Methuselah's Children', 'Time Enough For Love'
Kim Stanley Robinson:'Red Mars'
Robert Silverberg:'Dying Inside', 'Nightwings', 'Vornan19 (The Masks Of Time)', 'The Book Of Skulls'
E E 'Doc' Smith:'The Lensman Series'
Bob Shaw:'Other Days, Other Eyes', 'Ship Of Strangers', 'A Wreath Of Stars', '1 Million Tomorrows', 'Tomorrow Lies In Ambush','The Two Timers'
Arthur C Clarke:'2001 A Space Odyssey', 'Rendezvous With Rama'
John Wyndham:'Chocky', 'The Crysalids','The Midwich Cuckoos'
David Lindsey 'Voyage To Arcturus'
Aldous Huxley:'Island'
Clifford Simak: 'Way Station', 'Ring Around The Sun'
A E Van Vogt:'The Voyage Of The Space Beagle'
Fredrick Pohl (with Jack Williamson):'The Starchild Trilogy'
Barry N Malzberg:'Beyond Apollo', 'Herovit's World'
Bruce Sterling:'Involution Ocean'
Frank Herbert: 'Dune', 'Dune Messiah', 'The Eyes Of Heisenberg'
Brian Aldiss: 'Helliconia Spring', 'Hothouse'

Other Authors - selection

Alice

Recomended readings:

Isabel Colegate: 'The Shooting Party', 'A Glimpse Of Sion's Glory'
Mikhail Sholokhov: 'And Quiet Flows The Don', 'The Don Flows Home To The Sea'
Fyodor Dostoyevsky: 'The Brothers Karamazov I & II', 'The Idiot ', 'Crime And Punishment'
Oscar Wilde: 'The Picture Of Dorian Gray', 'Short Stories'
Christina Rossetti: 'Goblin Market'
Jane Austen: 'Sense And Sensibility', 'Pride And Prejudice', 'Emma', 'Northanger Abbey', 'Mansfield Park'
Virginia Woolf: 'The Waves', 'To The Lighthouse', 'Between The Acts', 'Orlando'
Thomas Hardy: 'Far From The Madding Crowd', 'Tess Of The d'Urbervilles', 'Jude The Obscure'
Barry Hughart: 'Bridge Of Birds', 'The Story Of The Stone'
Lewis Carroll: 'Alice In Wonderland', 'Alice Through The Looking Glass'
Mark Twain: 'The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn'
Cervantes: 'Don Quixote'
Ovid: 'Metamorphoses'
Virgil: 'The Aeneid'
Homer: 'The Iliad', 'The Odyssey'
John Steinbeck: 'The Grapes Of Wrath', 'Of Mice And Men'
Mark Helprin: 'A Winter's Tale'
W. Somerset Maughan: 'Of Human Bondage'

Background with kind regards to Marie