Books that stay with me
Apr. 16th, 2009 20:27![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillThis is a post that's been brewing for quite some time... the list of books which altered my perception in some way or another, or were otherwise so memorable for unclear reasons that I keep thinking about them. This isn't the list of books that I love reading, or which I would recommend to others -- while there is some overlap, there are books here which I wish I hadn't read, or I'm done after one read. They all crop up in my thoughts from time to time, however.
Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce - much like the other book of hers on this list, it's a truly alien culture which is strangely haunting. I read it as a small child entranced by unicorn myths, and its dreamlike quality has an odd appeal.
The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia McKillip - I managed to read it through once, and I really wish I had the mental leisure to do it again. It's the literary equivalent of really good fudge: dense and rich and very, very good in small doses of a page or so at a time. It's a novel done in prose poetry, essentially, with a vision only McKillip could articulate. The images stick with me.
The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip - Her books tend to have a spell-like quality, but this one resonated with me more than most. The sense of being the only person awake in a town of entranced people is something which is handled more delicately than in the old Grimm fairy tales.
The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce - actually the whole trilogy, which starts weird and gets weirder. I guess it's the puzzle of trying to figure out what happened in the unmentioned past of this world that draws me, but it's also the strange mix of fairy tale and futuristic technology, with her McKillip-quality imagery and a dollop of grim darkness. I don't read it often, but the first time I did I was listening to Depeche Mode's "Violator", and the two have melded inseparably for me.
The Death's Gate Saga by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - This set of seven books created by the Dragonlance chroniclers could probably just go on a list of "books I like to re-read", but it's more than that. The vision of the world, and the epic battle between good and evil, is enough to make me plow through the first two (somewhat dull) books to get to the horrors of the third... and then I can't put it down until the revelations of the fifth and sixth, where the story of redemption speaks deeply to me. It's a good read, but that's not what has me thinking about it in the middle of the night sometimes.
Deerskin by Robin McKinley - As much as I love The Blue Sword, this is the one that haunts me. It's violent, and touches on sexual assault in a way I haven't seen anywhere else. It's also a journey of healing and finding new life. It has a happy ending, which is fortunate, as it makes me willing to read it again. She's a superb writer, and did this myth well.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - This was my first clue that movies based on Dick novels are never, ever true to the books. It was weird, and very disturbing, and gave me nightmares for a couple of years from scenes that were inexplicably horrific. Part of the horror was from not even understanding why I was disturbed. Not going to read that again, but it certainly did warp my worldview.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip - There's a reason she's on this list so many times. I've had a broken heart many times in my life, and this book speaks of the rending pain of having one's soul torn apart by conflicting desires. The Boar Cyrin makes it a good read, but the lead character's pain is what draws me.
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper - It remains the only Tepper I've read. Social messages aside, it's a fascinating "what if" and made me look more deeply at the interrelationships of men and women. Besides, the idea of finding quiet love in the midst of all that desperation appeals to the romantic in me.
The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage by Greg Bear - The weirdness gets to me. So Fairyland is a dying dystopia, okay. The idea that a mage can do magic via music... and poetry... and wine? It just keeps getting grittier, and drastically changed my concept of what magic is and how it's done, and the role of the creators of worlds.
The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb - Why, why, why did I read these? The idea was interesting, but it's like she has this gruesome hobby of trying to find out exactly how scarred and embittered she can make her characters by having them hurt each other. No happy endings here, only ashes and hatred and pain. It'll take a lot of convincing to get me to read anything else of hers -- images from this set still haunt my dreams years later.
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny - It changed the way I think about religion in general, and it also spurred my education in the basics of Hinduism. The fact that there's an enormous shaggy dog story buried in the middle of the book also made me trust authors' motivations just a little bit less. :)
The Madness Season by C. S. Friedman - There are books of hers I like better (she's a favorite of mine), but this is the one that sticks. It's the simple feeling of "I always knew I was different somehow"... the journey of self-discovery takes a form that I can't forget. I end up thinking about scenes from this book surprisingly often.
Rats and Gargoyles, by Mary Gentle - The only book I know of written in a world with hyperbolic geometry (there are five compass points separated by 90 degrees). There are a whole lot of things which the people treat as normal that make me blink, and the world is so, so different from anyone else's that I find myself thinking of it when I run across all sorts of weird things. It also spurred my interest in the Difference Engine and alchemy, while adding some chillingly apocalyptic visions to my imagination. I picked it up when I read the first sentence -- "In the raucous cathedral square the crowd prepared to hang a pig." -- and I can't imagine my world without it now.
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner - I grew up reading British young-adult fiction, and this was a classic example that fueled daydreams for years. I still read it occasionally.
Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce - much like the other book of hers on this list, it's a truly alien culture which is strangely haunting. I read it as a small child entranced by unicorn myths, and its dreamlike quality has an odd appeal.
The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia McKillip - I managed to read it through once, and I really wish I had the mental leisure to do it again. It's the literary equivalent of really good fudge: dense and rich and very, very good in small doses of a page or so at a time. It's a novel done in prose poetry, essentially, with a vision only McKillip could articulate. The images stick with me.
The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip - Her books tend to have a spell-like quality, but this one resonated with me more than most. The sense of being the only person awake in a town of entranced people is something which is handled more delicately than in the old Grimm fairy tales.
The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce - actually the whole trilogy, which starts weird and gets weirder. I guess it's the puzzle of trying to figure out what happened in the unmentioned past of this world that draws me, but it's also the strange mix of fairy tale and futuristic technology, with her McKillip-quality imagery and a dollop of grim darkness. I don't read it often, but the first time I did I was listening to Depeche Mode's "Violator", and the two have melded inseparably for me.
The Death's Gate Saga by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - This set of seven books created by the Dragonlance chroniclers could probably just go on a list of "books I like to re-read", but it's more than that. The vision of the world, and the epic battle between good and evil, is enough to make me plow through the first two (somewhat dull) books to get to the horrors of the third... and then I can't put it down until the revelations of the fifth and sixth, where the story of redemption speaks deeply to me. It's a good read, but that's not what has me thinking about it in the middle of the night sometimes.
Deerskin by Robin McKinley - As much as I love The Blue Sword, this is the one that haunts me. It's violent, and touches on sexual assault in a way I haven't seen anywhere else. It's also a journey of healing and finding new life. It has a happy ending, which is fortunate, as it makes me willing to read it again. She's a superb writer, and did this myth well.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - This was my first clue that movies based on Dick novels are never, ever true to the books. It was weird, and very disturbing, and gave me nightmares for a couple of years from scenes that were inexplicably horrific. Part of the horror was from not even understanding why I was disturbed. Not going to read that again, but it certainly did warp my worldview.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip - There's a reason she's on this list so many times. I've had a broken heart many times in my life, and this book speaks of the rending pain of having one's soul torn apart by conflicting desires. The Boar Cyrin makes it a good read, but the lead character's pain is what draws me.
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper - It remains the only Tepper I've read. Social messages aside, it's a fascinating "what if" and made me look more deeply at the interrelationships of men and women. Besides, the idea of finding quiet love in the midst of all that desperation appeals to the romantic in me.
The Infinity Concerto and The Serpent Mage by Greg Bear - The weirdness gets to me. So Fairyland is a dying dystopia, okay. The idea that a mage can do magic via music... and poetry... and wine? It just keeps getting grittier, and drastically changed my concept of what magic is and how it's done, and the role of the creators of worlds.
The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb - Why, why, why did I read these? The idea was interesting, but it's like she has this gruesome hobby of trying to find out exactly how scarred and embittered she can make her characters by having them hurt each other. No happy endings here, only ashes and hatred and pain. It'll take a lot of convincing to get me to read anything else of hers -- images from this set still haunt my dreams years later.
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny - It changed the way I think about religion in general, and it also spurred my education in the basics of Hinduism. The fact that there's an enormous shaggy dog story buried in the middle of the book also made me trust authors' motivations just a little bit less. :)
The Madness Season by C. S. Friedman - There are books of hers I like better (she's a favorite of mine), but this is the one that sticks. It's the simple feeling of "I always knew I was different somehow"... the journey of self-discovery takes a form that I can't forget. I end up thinking about scenes from this book surprisingly often.
Rats and Gargoyles, by Mary Gentle - The only book I know of written in a world with hyperbolic geometry (there are five compass points separated by 90 degrees). There are a whole lot of things which the people treat as normal that make me blink, and the world is so, so different from anyone else's that I find myself thinking of it when I run across all sorts of weird things. It also spurred my interest in the Difference Engine and alchemy, while adding some chillingly apocalyptic visions to my imagination. I picked it up when I read the first sentence -- "In the raucous cathedral square the crowd prepared to hang a pig." -- and I can't imagine my world without it now.
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner - I grew up reading British young-adult fiction, and this was a classic example that fueled daydreams for years. I still read it occasionally.
