So hard to choose just one!
Since they haven't been mentioned yet I'll throw in:
The Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood and Thunder
Conqueror by the same band is also good...Drat! That's two!
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foliations?
I'd recommend C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry tales, an anthology of which is available right here. And no, I don't work for Paizo :-).
If you're looking for gritty space opera you really need to check out the works of Ian Banks. His novel 'Use of Weapons' is probably one of the darkest things you'll ever read and is unequivocally space opera.
I'll vote for The Black Cauldron as most obscure disney movie ever. Seriously, it seemed to vanish from the face of the earth. I'm not entirely sure that it's not an urban legend.
Just flipping through I don't see Gene Wolfe mentioned here, but his work is made for this thread. "New Sun" is one of those polarizing books, sort of like "Finnegan's," that is either the best thing you have ever read or deadly dense, opaque, abstruse, and almost unreadable. I vacillate/oscillate. I'm with you there brother. I made it through the first two New Sun books and just couldn't make it any further. They are just about the only fantasy series that has completely defeated me, and I've managed to read Gravity's Rainbow cover to cover and kinda sorta almost understood it ;-).
It takes Perdido St. Station about 100 pages to really get going. Once you get into the groove, though, it's a remarkable book. And if you've read the sequel - 'The Scar' - he overused "pugnacious" as well.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant books are a perfect candidate for this list. They were lavished with praise and awards by fans AND critics despite being a perfect storm of awfulness. I labored through the first and second trilogies back in High School after a friend had told me that they were the best fantasy books he had ever read. This guy had cleared out the local library's sci-fi/fantasy section so I thought these books must be something truly special. WRONG! I slogged through page after page of Thomas Covenant's (and later Lynden Avery's) histrionic whining and complaining waiting for a big payoff that never came. Both main characters managed to be completely unsympathetic and developed no redeeming qualities throughout the entire proceedings. About the only benefit I derived from suffering through 6 books of turgid navel-gazing was that I learned the meanings of the words 'gelid' and 'roynish' which has come in handy when solving crossword puzzles in later years. Coming across the first book of a THIRD TRILOGY in a Barnes and Noble recently shook my faith in a benevolent Providence to its very core.
Would love to see something like this. I'd like a hardback rulebook filled with Sword and Planet goodness even more :-).
It pains me to say it, since it was recorded by my favorite band of all time, but I nominate: On Earth My Nina by They Might Be Giants. John Linnell's voice is something of an acquired taste at the best of times. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those times (shudder).
Excellent. Thank you for the quick response.
Hi. I'm afraid that the order in the subject line above is still a no show. |