geek novels?

[firecat]

From serenejournal via supergee, someone's idea of the top 20 geek novels. I've bolded the ones I've read. I've removed the percentages and numbers 'cos I don't know what they mean.

I'm willing to listen to arguments why I should read the ones I haven't read.

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
Read, listened to the bbc radio show, watched some of the bbc tv show, played the adventure game, glanced at the graphic novel yesterday, haven't seen the movie yet, and will totally hold off on the stew. The radio show is the definitive version. It's brilliant.

2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
I don't know why either of those is a "geek novel".

4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
Not yet, but I just bought a copy a couple of weeks ago. Incidentally, I've tried mightily to like Blade Runner but I just don't.

5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson
Liked the writing style, thought the plot was really derivative.

6. Dune -- Frank Herbert
Why is this a "geek novel"?

7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov

8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
Didn't like it as a teenager - my take on it was "Okaaay, so mankind inhabits thousands of galaxies many millennia from now - and acts just like 1950s Americans. Riiiiight." I still think that's true, and annoying, but I overlooked it the second time around and liked what else there was to like about the book.

9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
I just don't much like Terry Pratchett. He's funny, but I guess to me the funny overshadows what other cleverness there is to the plots and ideas. I'm willing to give him another try one of these days, because I've heard there is worthwhile plot and idea to be found.

10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
Never heard of it.

11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson

12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Why is this a "geek novel"?

13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson

14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
Never heard of it.

????15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
Although I THINK I read this, I can't remember a damn thing about it. So I probably didn't read it and just glanced at my father's copy. I don't know why it's considered a "geek novel".

16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
I don't see why this is a "geek novel" either.

17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
Or this.

18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
Loved it!

19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson

20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham
Never heard of it.

Comments

[tedesson.livejournal.com]

Orwell and Huxley are often linked, but they really are very different.

I went on a Huxley reading marathon in University, after I heard a radio interview with a retiring politician talking about how he was influential in the introduction of socialized medicine in Canada, and the closing of the psychiatric hospitals in favor of return to their communities with help in the form of new psychotropic drugs and dropin centers.

I was quite enthralled by _Doors of Perception_ ("the dharma body of the buddha is in the bush at the bottom of the garden").

Huxley was precient about the currents pushing us towards our current society. Including things like socialized medicine, teenagers trading psychotropics among friends (from the NYTimes this weekend), the rise in importance of meditation and Buddhism in the west (_Island_), and other topics which I'm not recalling at the moment.

I'd definately call many of his works science fiction.

Orwell, I would have to say was also writing science fiction, and would, in my opinion, fit right in with the current crop of scottish socialist science fiction writers, even though he wasn't scottish. Even his reporting (_Down and Out in Paris and London_) was so far removed from what the ordinary literate person was likely to have experienced at that time (or in our time), it had the same deep questioning of premises that the best science fiction has.

Stylistically, I'd have to say that A.Huxley was a better writer than Orwell. I just loved the shape of his languange a lot more. That may be related to their personal styles. They were both interested in experiencing all of life first hand, but I believe that Huxley was more likely to step over the bounds of convention at any moment than Orwell.

Sad, sort of, that they are lumped in our minds together, though it is a wonderful thing that both _Animal Farm_ and _Brave New World_ made the list.

[firecat]

Thanks, really good analysis! I have only read Brave New World by Huxley but I was impressed by the "prescient about current trends" more than anything. Maybe I'll try some more of his stuff.