Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Glorious Wikipedia! - Top Ten Tuesday #3


Today's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is "Top Ten Series I'd Like To Start but Haven't Yet".  If perchance this is your first experience with Top Ten Tuesday, you can find more information about it here.

Doubtless, without the creation of Wikipedia, this would be a very difficult topic indeed.  Not because I can't think of any series I'd like to start, but because I can't remember their names half the time.  Now, one would think that the library would be a suitable alternative but... well... you see, the only connection between words like "voluminous" and our library is that they have a dictionary that contains them.  That is, if they have room for one.  If I had to work off of what they had, all you'd have to read would be a list of items mostly consisting of "the guy (or girl) who does the thing, the name's on the tip of my tongue, honestly". This would not only be highly embarrassing, but also fairly boring, and driving my readers to boredom is fairly low on my list of goals for this blog. Luckily, with the assistance of the Internet, I was not only able to find the names of the series, but I found ten. Huzzah!

Therefore, without further ado, my list:

1. Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McAffrey
For most of my life, a collection of these books has been sitting on the shelves in my sister's room (and several other rooms as well, I think). I have technically started this as I found a portion of one of them within a textbook my dad brought home one day. Dragons are generally interesting, and dragon riders more so (see Eragon, How to Train Your Dragon, etc).

2. The Ender Saga - Orson Scott Card
As this series has been recommended to me several times, I suppose that at some point I will have to pick up one of them and read it. Only knowing what I've been told (and what I've read about them online), there is a certain worrying similarity (at the surface at least) to Starship Troopers, but I am hopeful the similarities end there because, frankly, that film was terrible.

3. The Tales of Alvin Maker - Orson Scott Card
As is going to become readily apparent, I haven't read much by Orson Scott Card.  In fact, I haven't read anything. This one I found while researching Ender, and I find the concept intriguing.

4. The Pathfinder Series - Orson Scott Card
This series I discovered via a friend's Amazon wish list.  It's also what I ended up getting him for Christmas since it seemed interesting enough that he wasn't going to hate it and thus associate me with bad gifts. Therefore, I suppose it is only fair that I should trust in my gift-giving choices and read it for myself.

5 & 6. The Sword of Truth - Terry Goodkind; The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Frankly, I know almost nothing about these two series beyond the fact that they follow the "The _______ of the _______" title format (Lord of the Rings, Return of the Jedi, March of the Penguins, etc).  However, as they're often trotted out as examples of "must read" series, I intend to find out why.

7.  Dune - Frank Herbert
After Twilight, Dune is probably the series I've heard the most about, either through television, friends, or the Internet, which has spawned countless memes about "the spice," most of them involving cats.  Even without the cats, I am intrigued to find out more about it, and reading seems to be the best route to do so.

8. The Prydain Chronicles - Lloyd Alexander
When I was little, I remember seeing Disney's The Black Cauldron for the first time and not getting it.  Years later, I saw it again and, while I enjoyed it more that time, I still didn't understand it all that well.  I've long known that the film was based on a book series, but have yet to read it.  However, I intend to, at least to find out how that story was supposed to go.

9. Allan Quatermain - H. Rider Haggard
A long time ago, I attempted to read King Solomon's Mines but never really managed it.  I got about five pages in, put it down, and never picked it up again.  The time has come to find out what I missed (or narrowly avoided).

10.  The Robot Series - Isaac Asimov
Similarly to The Black Cauldron, my desire to read this series is based on a film "adaptation" and my curiosity to see the story as the author intended.  This is doubly true in this case as I, Robot was originally not written with any connections to the Asimov stories at all and what elements of the stories they did include were only added in later.

And that's my list!  I didn't talk as much about the series themselves as I originally intended, but that's okay.  While I do hope to enjoy all of these books, the primary reason I want to pick them up is often relational rather than rooted in their content (see #4, for example).  With that in mind, I'm going to do something I haven't really attempted yet - I'm going to ask a non-rhetorical question!

When you discover a new series, what has (or would likely have) greater influence on your decision to read it - the plug on the back (or inside if it's a hardcover) or other's opinions/recommendations of it?

3 comments:

  1. Usually the plug on the back/inside. There are so many books out there that people love that I hate (Graceling) and vice-versa, so I'm wary of recommendations, unless they're from people who know me and what I like. That doesn't mean I'm never influenced by others' opinions (The Hunger Games is a great example), but for the most part, I rely on the book description. If it sounds like something I'll like, I'll read it.

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  2. All great series! Except Sword of Truth. Don't let your experience of bad sci-fi movies taint your expectations. Starship Troopers was actually a pretty good book so the Ender comparison is not nearly as worrying as it seems. Also don't get me started on the I Robot fiasco of a movie.

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    Replies
    1. Well, having not read Sword of Truth, I will give it as fair a chance as any other series I have read.

      My primary problem with the I Robot film isn't so much the elements that are supposedly based on Asimov's works as it is with Will Smith. The interesting parts of the film (artificial intelligence and morality) are shoved to the side in order to have more of Will Smith beating up robots.

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