Tuesday 26 October 2010

Me me me

I couldn't partake in the 15 games in 15 minutes thing because, really, I don't think I could actually even think of 15 games off the top of my head. But Scott has started a newer and more relevant-to-my-interests meme (10 fantasy books you would take to a desert island, no more than one by a single author) so hey, why not? Mine would be, in no particular order:
  • Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber omnibus edition.
  • Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun omnibus edition.
  • Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth omnibus edition.
  • Tolkien's Lord of the Rings omnibus edition (noticing a trend here?).
  • China Mieville's The Scar (not an omnibus edition).
  • M. John Harrison's Viriconium omnibus edition.
  • George R. R. Martin's A Clash of Kings. (I can't go with the entire Song of Ice and Fire to date, and I think the second one was probably my favourite volume so far...)
  • John Grant's The Sacrifice of Ruanon. (Probably my favourite "young adult" fantasy book.
  • Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. (People complain about this series but I've only read the first volume and thought it was rather good, actually.)
  • C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia omnibus edition.
What? Including omnibuses (omnibi?) is cheating? Well I'm fucked if I'm going to decide which single volume from each one I'd take - you think I have all day?


6 comments:

  1. A large portion of my collection of my favorite authors (and the books on my list) is in omnibus editions. I was not aware, though, that there was a Book of the New Sun omnibus other than the two-volume books. I will have to hunt that down.

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  2. It might be a UK only thing. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Severian-Guild-Torturer-Conciliator-Gollancz/dp/0575081309/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288114600&sr=1-2

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  3. Just as you couldn't think of 15 games I can barely think of 10 fantasy books, let alone ones by different authors I'd want to bring to a desert island. I mean, without Terry Pratchett's Discworld books my list of favorite fantasy books of all time would only be about three or four. With Pratchett I could make 10 easy.

    Science Fiction books? Well that's a different story...

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  4. The Book of the New Sun is one of my all-time favorite reads of all time. I just finished reading them for the third time this summer and they really hold up.

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  5. Yeah, omnibus editions really do help things along. I wonder as e-tech gets better/bright if that trend will continue? Page size won't necessarily be a limiting factor anymore.

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  6. Gene Wolfe's series is hands down my favorite group of fantasy books. Such a complete world he creates and such writing. Personally, I would've gone with Mieville's Perdido Street Station, but again, such a good writer.

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