tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post8097105193642684335..comments2024-02-18T00:11:11.490-08:00Comments on Heroines of Fantasy: My favorite Alien CultureHeroines of Fantasyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07169664399606524540noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-38189485203572494252015-06-02T14:48:41.189-07:002015-06-02T14:48:41.189-07:00I've read some Wolfe: very intense. I've a...I've read some Wolfe: very intense. I've always been a fan of good historical fiction, so I will have to look up Leckie. Sounds great!Heroines of Fantasyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07169664399606524540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-22002771801593851162015-06-02T13:46:20.451-07:002015-06-02T13:46:20.451-07:00I really don't read much scifi, but remember U...I really don't read much scifi, but remember Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea books fondly.Terri-Lynnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11468004163467894720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764159777348916628.post-73933170895444890562015-06-02T13:11:09.860-07:002015-06-02T13:11:09.860-07:00Okay, I'll play. I'm defining 'alien&#...Okay, I'll play. I'm defining 'alien' loosely as 'other' and simply running with the first books which come to mind. <br />1) Ross Leckie's 'Hannibal'. Historical fiction about the Carthaginian general, not to be confused with his more recent, rather less interesting namesake. You've got two cultures, Carthage and Rome, and each has values which differ from the other's (hence the conflict) and ours. Much historical fiction depicts modern people in togae. This doesn't. It's short and intense. Not an easy read but a worthwhile one. <br /><br />2) Gene Wolfe's 'The Book of the New Sun'. Again an utterly alien culture and mindset even if traces of more familiar times can sometimes be glimpsed. Actually I'd say it beats Tolkien for world-building (Lewis's world-building never feels believable to me, much as I love the Narnia series; too many disparate elements). Anyhow there is an immense imagination at work in tBotNS but one that is always under control. Internal consistency, that's the thing. This has it.<br /><br />3) Doris Lessing's 'Canopus in Argos' novels. Aliens from the inside, and truly the building of worlds is what it's all about. There's a moment, about a third to halfway through 'Shikasta' when the lightbulb suddenly lit up in my head and I realised what and where the narrator was describing. It's big picture stuff thinking in enormous timespans. 'My favourite is 'The Marriages between Zones Three, Four and Five', which probably operates on the smallest scale of the five books.<br /><br />4) The realisation of faerie in Susanna Clarke's 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell'. It's not exactly original - which isn't a criticism: it's why it works so well - but it does convey the sense of the otherness and the utter amorality of such characters, not evil nor even wicked but entirely selfish and self-satisfied, better than any other book I've read. It's an aspect the current telly series has missed entirely.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com