October 28, 2005

The Color of Law by Mark Gimenez:

A poor-boy college football hero turned successful partner at a prominent Dallas firm—who long ago checked his conscience at the door—catches a case that forces him to choose between his enviable lifestyle and doing the right thing in this masterful debut legal thriller.

Clark McCall, ne’er-do-well son of Texas millionaire senator and presidential hopeful Mack McCall, puts a major crimp in his father’s election plans when he winds up murdered—apparently by Shawanda Jones, a heroin-addicted hooker—after a tawdry night of booze, drugs, and rough sex.

I wonder if Mark Gimenez remembers the terrific old James Garner movie from Cameron Hawley’s novel CASH McCALL. That would be an interesting cross-over…

What are the top 20 “geek novels”? from Guardian Unlimited: Technology:

Time magazine has produced a list of the all-time 100 great novels published in the English language since 1923, and it seems a reasonable collection, as these things go. What’s interesting is that it includes a few “geek novels” such as Philip K Dick’s Ubik, William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. I’d expect any self-respecting geek to have read these books, but have they really reached an “all time greats” market that includes Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind and Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire?

So, what are the top 20 greatest “geek reads” since 1923? I think they have to be brain-challenging, but do they have to have a science fiction or fantasy element? Do they have to have any literary merit?

Here’s my quick dozen suggestions, in alphabetical order:

Brave New World — Aldous Huxley
Giles Goat-Boy — John Barth
The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams
The Illuminatus! Trilogy — Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
The Left Hand of Darkness — Ursula K Le Guin
Neuromancer — William Gibson
Nineteen Eighty-Four — George Orwell
Orlando — Virgina Woolf
The Shockwave Rider — John Brunner
Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson
Stranger in a Strange Land — Robert Heinlein
The Man in the High Castle — Philip K Dick

Yes, I know (say) Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan is incomparably better than Heinlein, but is it geeky enough?

Add:

Isaac Asimov’s FOUNDATION series
DUNE by Frank Herbert

Technorati Tags: science fiction, geeks, books

The Commonplace Book: Occasional notations of beautiful writing noted in passing.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Source: Francis Thompson (1859-1907), from “The Hound of Heaven” via Bruderhof.org

Dan Brown on Abraham Lincoln and Scarlett O’Hara:

If Dan Brown wrote a book claiming that Abraham Lincoln escaped his assassination and ran off with Scarlett O’Hara, would it change society’s perception of history? According to Dr. Joseph Kelly, one of the nation’s leading experts on The Da Vinci Code, the answer is no. By the same reasoning, he contends people should not alter their views on religion because of a work of fiction.

Dan Brown on Abraham Lincoln and Scarlett O’Hara:

If Dan Brown wrote a book claiming that Abraham Lincoln escaped his assassination and ran off with Scarlett O’Hara, would it change society’s perception of history? According to Dr. Joseph Kelly, one of the nation’s leading experts on The Da Vinci Code, the answer is no. By the same reasoning, he contends people should not alter their views on religion because of a work of fiction.

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Posted by wfzimmerman to The Solomon Key and Beyond: Dan Brown News at 10/28/2005 06:16:51 AM