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Last Update: January 1, 2001

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By the Numbers

The numbers in () next to each title indicates a score on a scale of 1 to 10 for the book. If there is an "r" next to the score, it means that this is a "retroactive" review. When I first set up this reviews page back in 1994, I went back through my collection and typed up capsule reviews of all the books I've read, and I made estimates of how well I liked each book. Since my memory isn't perfect, these reviews are typically brief and the scoring a little less accurate.

Introduction

This page was inspired by an experience I had in a bookstore back in 1992. I was 24 at the time, and a 16-year-old kid and I had each been sitting there browsing for about an hour. I had picked out 3 or 4 titles by authors who had been recommended to me by friends, but he was just picking up book after book, scanning the cover art and story blurbs, and never really settling on any choices. Being the sanctimonious and nosy person that I am, I finally broke down and asked, "Having trouble finding something?" He said, "Yeah, I just don't know what's good." He and I went on to have a 15-minute conversation about our favorite authors (I gave more than I got), and he walked out of the store with Brust, Rosenberg and Donaldson in his sack.

I never saw him again, so I don't know if he curses me to this day or what, but at the time, I thought, "It sure would be nice if I could meet someone who could give ME some good recommendations." Finally, the Web gives me a chance to do both, share my opinion about some good books (mostly speculative fiction, but I have a pretty big list of other kinds of books) and get some feedback from others with a variety of opinions. I also give some credit to the Good Reading Guide, which let me connect the idea of book reviews with my own web pages.

This page contains a list of books along with brief reviews to give you an idea of what the book is about and/or whether it is any good (imho, of course). For the most part, I try to rate books by whether or not I *enjoyed* them rather than by some abstract sense of "literary merit", but sometimes "merit" creeps in and so I end up sounding like my high school English teacher, who was just *convinced* that I really would be happy I read "Tess". You have been warned. In some cases, there are links to full-length reviews I've posted to rec.arts.sf.reviews embedded in the mini-reviews.

The collection is in alphabetical order, currently listing only Speculative Fiction books (this includes eveything from Tolkien to Clancy) plus some non-Fiction books, though not nearly as many. Please note that this is NOT intended to be a complete list of SF books out there (not even close!). It simply reflects what I currently own and have read. Suggestions on what else I should read and review would be very welcome (email d.ingram@tcu.edu). In fact, that is the main POINT of this page!!! I save all such mail on my mailbox page.

In going through this list of reviews, you may find that we are "kindred spirits" in what we've read and liked. If you find yourself agreeing with me about a lot of books (or even if you don't), you might find it interesting to see if your personality type has anything to do with it. I don't know if it does or not, but you might have fun wasting time trying to find out. My type is INFJ. In any case, if you tend to agree with my reviews, I'd be very anxious to hear your recommendations for future reading. Heck, I'm interested anyway. Send 'em. On the other hand, if you really dislike my treatment of some book(s)/author(s), you might want to read this before firing off an angry email.

If an author I like has written something, I generally buy it as soon as it comes out in paperback. I never buy a series until the whole thing is out in paperback...I got nailed several years ago by Donaldson, who made me wait about a year between all the books of the Second Chronicles, which I had to buy in hardback 'cause I couldn't wait! This means I won't touch Jordan until it's all out. No need to recommend it to me. I WILL read it all, but not until it is all out in paperback. I make no apologies for liking certain authors...like King or Clancy... sometime I just want to read something pulpish and really long, and they're the best at it. The only exceptions to my rule are authors whom I started reading before I came up with the rule, like Brust.

My top three favorite authors are, in order: Stephen R. Donaldson, Steven Brust, Dan Simmons.

Other authors whose books I tend to read the moment they come out in paperback: Lawrence Watt-Evans, Tom Clancy, Guy Gavriel Kay, John Steakley, Greg Bear, David Brin, Michael Crichton and Stephen King. I also am a big fan of the whole Star Wars genre, so I have a page devoted to that.

Addendum to introduction, May 2000: Since early 1999, with the address change of this page and the onset of many commercial book review sites (Amazon being the most effective, but there are countless other booksellers doing the same thing), readership of this page has declined from about 500 visitors/month to more like 100, and input via email has dwindled to virtually nothing (maybe 2-3 letters per month). I have many other pursuits vying for my attention, but I will still continue to update this page when I have (rare) long stretches of free time, 2-3 times/year, and I will add new sections to the mailbag as incoming letters warrant. From input received since 1994, I have a "to read" list that is literally as long as my arm when printed up in a very tiny font (I carry this with me on my occasional bookstore raids), and it will take me years to get through it all. In the meantime, a lot of my reading time is taken up with great magazines such as Newsweek, the New Republic and Brill's Content, so my pace has slowed. But I will always continue to keep this page up-to-date, just slowly.

The Mail Bag

Here is a page containing most of the mail I've received from readers who have browsed my site. The page has links to the best individual letters I've received in response to this page as well as a file containing a large selection of other good letters I've received. Lots of good suggestions here for books!

SF Poll Votes (by author or by number)

If I had to assign a single numeric value between 1 and 10 for all the books on this page, here is the list that would result. If I had to do it again from scratch, each of these votes would probably vary by +/- 1 (1 sigma). Just depends on what mood I'm in. Anyway, I guess this gives a quick look at what authors I like and dislike. If you're interested in the Top 100 List yourself, then check it out by all means. I hope you'll come back when you're done, though, because I really think that the top 100 list is stacked with a lot of bad books. :) I've also done a tiny bit of statistical analysis and sorted my votes by value (10 down to 1), creating a rank-ordered book listing if you want a quick glance at my favorites. I update these votes as I read and review new books.

Brief list of all available full-length reviews:

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