Comments on: MIND MELD: Speculative Fiction Books Worth Reading Twice

By: Donna

Donna — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:37:26 +0000

I would love to have time to re-read everything that Philip K. Dick ever published,

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 05:46:01 +0000

Too many to mention. I agree with Mr. Gunn. I am re=reading the classics that got me started in SF to see how they hold up. Surprisingly after 30 + years of reading many of them do especially:

Robert Silverberg - 1966-1976 - all novels and short fiction

Clifford Simak - WAY STATION, CITY, TIME IS THE SIMPLEST THING

Arthur C. Clarke - CHILDHOOD'S END

Ray Bradbury - FARENHEIT 541, MARTIAN CHRONICLES

Gene Wolfe - FIFTH HEAD OF CEREBUS

Samuel R. Delany - BABEL 17, NOVA, all his short fiction

Roger Zelazny - LORD OF LIGHT, THIS IMMORTAL, all his short fiction

Others did not hold up as well and I was bummed, but the above held up after all my time reading SF.

By: Antonio Maspero

Antonio Maspero — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:31:03 +0000

Surely I've read twice (or more)

. The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle

. The left Hand of Darknes By LeGuin

. The City and the stars by Clarke

. City By Simak

. the Stand By King

By: bloginhood

bloginhood — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:07:33 +0000

No matter how great the backlog of new books to read gets, I usually find myself doing one to three re-reads a year, and there are some favourites that I come back to every couple of years or so.

The Hyperion books by Simmons
LOTR by Tolkien
The War of the Worlds by Wells
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Quicker than the Eye by Bradbury

By: TheAdlerian

TheAdlerian — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:27:11 +0000

Iain Banks:

Most all of his SF books, especially Use of Weapons, Consider Phlebas, and The Player of Games. I say that because there's a lot of modern political and social concepts discussed in the subtext.

Matthew Hughes:

The Hengis Hapthorn novels/stories. These have the most wacky and hilarious dialogue I've seen in a long time. I bet many writers would be challenged to duplicate him.

I usually demand a narrative in a story, which he has, but because the dialogue is so witty and amusing I could read a ten thousand page book from the guy with no point.

I have no idea he isn't more famous.

By: Colleen Lindsay

Colleen Lindsay — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:19:02 +0000

SF/F that I've read twice and could probably read again, happily:

DARK WATER'S EMBRACE by Stephen Leigh
CALLANISH by William Horwood
AMMONITE by Nicola Griffith
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
PERDIDO STREET STATION by China Mieville
ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
40,000 IN GEHENNA by C.J. CHERRYH
MOCKINGBIRD by Walter Tevis
THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
THE REVOLVING BOY by Gertude Friedberg

I'm sure I could think of more if I tried. :-)

By: A_Z

A_Z — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:45:00 +0000

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler was great.

By: John

John — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:33:40 +0000

Thanks, Stefan. Fixed.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:48:35 +0000

The single SF book I've re-read most often is "Tuf Voyaging" by George RR Martin. I can't explain why --- it's just comfort reading for me like some people have comfort food. I'll second "Book of the New Sun" as a book that bears re-reading. I enjoy re-reading the older Discworld books by Pratchett for sheer fun. Finally, I'm going to sound insane when I say this, but I plan to re-read the entire Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson once the whole thing is published in the US (including the forthcoming books by his friend set in the Malazan universe)

Also - the first respondent wrote "A Chronicle for Leibowitz" instead of "Canticle".

By: Bob Lock

Bob Lock — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:52:36 +0000

Donaldson’s Epic Thomas Covenant Series.
Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn Trilogy
Yep, I agree on Perdido Street Station and would add The Scar too, nice one China
Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon
Abercrombie’s First Law Series

But the only thing is TIME! Will I ever have enough of it?

There are so many good books I have yet to read, do I read them first or re-read my favourites?

By: Rob B

Rob B — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:44:16 +0000

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun considering most mentions of the book I see say just how rewarding the book is upon a second (third, fourth) reading.