Take My Breath Away...

[Mistral]

As an avid reader I have covered the gamut from absolute escapist crap to "classic literature" to mainstream novels to obscure works. After many years and thousands of books, when I look back on everything I've read I find that a choice few still shine brightly in my memory. These special stories stayed with me because they were just magical, they stood above the morass of common tales. They took my breath away. What books did this for you? Listed before are a few examples that I've found.

Time and Again by Jack Finney. A time traveler to the late 1800s gets involved with a murder mystery that remained unsolved in his own time. Finney wove actual photos, news stories, drawings and events into his story in a way that made the reader feel like they, too, had time traveled.

The Mote In God's Eye by Niven/Pournelle. Alien life meets Humanity in a way that could only be described as sideways from the typical "alien encounter" story.

Santiago: A Myth of The Far Future by Mike Resnick. A bounty hunter pursues a criminal so legendary people tremble at the mention of his name. The people he meets along the way are what make the tale different, a mix of unique personalities that include gamblers, minstrels, preachers and whores.

 

[ebusinesstutor]

The Mote in Gods Eye was definitely one of those books for me. I think it was the best portrayal of aliens and alien culture I had ever seen.

The original Foundation series by Isaac Asimov also did this but the later books didn't have the same impact. I was really shocked when the Mule seemed to have totally ruined the patch of psychohistory.

Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch: The Reeemption of Christopher Columbus was truly amazing in its scope.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

I have a few:

1. Taipan, by James Clavell -- Good read, I've gone through it easily dozens of times.

2. A Gift From Earth, by Larry Niven -- The idea of Mount Lookitthat, its culture, etc. is/was great. Granted, the story isn't that big a deal (psi powers & caste rebellion), but there's just something... there, that makes one come back to it.

3. Ringworld, by Larry Niven -- Self-explanatory.

4. A Song of Ice and Fire series, by George R. R. Martin -- great reads all of them, but I particularly enjoy the first two (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings), mainly from his style of writing. As the series continues, though, I'm getting worried that he's adding TOO much to it, and it'll collapse under its own weight/number of characters into a singularity.

Cheers,
-CM-