Your favourite SF and Fantasy?

I haven't discussed books much in years.  It is intriguing to into several people who've read the same books I have.

And you are right Fred, my friend, I probably do remember far too much about those books.

I may pick one up again and see how they read to my "adult" brain.

Let's not forget Brian Lumley or Charles deLint!

Oh yeah I like Brian Lumley!  I heard he was classed as 'high fantasy' because some of his stuff is very excitable! and the vampires attacked! and Harry Keogh struggled to defeat them! so I decided to check him out and read him religiously for years  
 
I also like Algernon Blackwood, I suppose you could class him as fantasy.  And Thomas Ligotti, in the same vein.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over the last couple of days. It's probably one of the best books I've ever read.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over the last couple of days. It's probably one of the best books I've ever read.

-wgwolford

Sir Raymond of Bradbury is my hero

I have his autograph framed on my desk

That's pretty cool, man. The only autographed thing I have is a Dan Marino signed football, which I also find pretty cool.

Are there any other of Bradbury's works that are comparable to 451 as far as how good they are? 'Cause I really like his writing style.

One of my all time SciFi favs is The Mote in God's Eye, and the sequel, The Gripping Hand, great stuff.

That's pretty cool, man. The only autographed thing I have is a Dan Marino signed football, which I also find pretty cool.

-wgwolford

I got Ken Foree at Horror Realm.... wheeeeeet!!!!

That's pretty cool, man. The only autographed thing I have is a Dan Marino signed football, which I also find pretty cool.
Are there any other of Bradbury's works that are comparable to 451 as far as how good they are? 'Cause I really like his writing style.

-wgwolford

I personally would recommend Something Wicked This Way Comes.  It's AMAZING!

I personally would recommend Something Wicked This Way Comes.  It's AMAZING!

-reverendaustin

The Day After scared me witless as a kid cuz I lived about 5 miles away from a nuclear power plant.

If "The Day After" freaked you, please watch "Threads", "Testement" and "Miracle Mile". Wow.

Let's not forget Brian Lumley or Charles deLint!

-tws99jaw

Love Lumley's books, but I think I've only read one Charles deLint.  On your recommendation I will rectify that---Thanks!

That's pretty cool, man. The only autographed thing I have is a Dan Marino signed football, which I also find pretty cool.
Are there any other of Bradbury's works that are comparable to 451 as far as how good they are? 'Cause I really like his writing style.

-wgwolford

There are quite a few great Bradbury books:  The Illustrated Man; Long After Midnight; R is for Rocket;  S is for Space;  A Medicine for Melancholy; the Martian Chronicles and quite a few more.

Some of his stories still haunt me to this day. 

I'd definitely get all his short story collections, like Stephen said. Martian Chronicles is amazing!!!
My favourites are The October Country and The Golden Apples of the Sun.

If you liked those you will like the others. 

I saw the Illustrated Man for a couple bucks at the bookstore today. I'm going back next week-ish so I'll probably pick that up. Thanks for the rec.

I have a book called "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" with about 100 of his best short stories in them.  He did great novels and also had some really spectacular short stories as well.  Ones like 'The Veldt', 'A Sound of Thunder' (and please don't watch the attrocious movie with Edward Burns in it that is loosely based on the story), and 'I Sing the Body Electric!' are just a small mentioning of some great short stories he wrote. 

ok so my computer is doing a massive virus scan, I am hoping against hope that what ever took it over and would not let me log in this morning will go away after this full system scan and let me resume working on my book if in fact I still have a book once the scan is done.. (oh please don't let me newly attained 45,000 word count be for naught)  anyhow the scan is only 3% done after over an hour now which I am hoping means it is finding things for real and getting rid of them so I can use my computer again.  I promise you will never click on a streaming movie link again hahahah, no matter how broke i get I can wait for netflix to send it to me. ok back to my reason for posting.
scifi/fantasy.

So i was digging through a box looking for a book and I found a book that has long been in storage that a friend got me for my birthday ages ago and i truly meant to read.  so i started reading it.  it is called "How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction"  so far it is pretty cool but almost immediately, in the foreward in fact, there is a point brought up that made me think, then it made me agree because it is very true.
As a reader we are often asked to believe in something that could never happen in our lives. In our line of horror we are fairly assured of that and frankly some of us hope it doesn't ever happen anyways.  Because most folks and just not set up mentally to deal with walking around a corner and seeing your family, neighbors and loved ones being eaten by zombies. ( I am the opposite in this mind set though for me the zombpocalypse cannot happen soon enough, I anticipate it daily and hope for it during each and every minute)
The point is this. 
In fantasy we are asked to believe in dragons, in trolls and in wizards and all sorts of things and no one bats an eye, it is simply accepted as part of the genre and frankly it is encouraged.  But in Sci-Fi if you don't have your pseudo-science explanation ready to explain how your technology works or if your explanation isn't complete enough you get bashed by critics and tossed aside by readers who expect believable sci-fi (hello oxy-moron of sorts). its like ok you have no trouble with void travelling aliens who are battling in space during an intergalatic war, but only so long as their ships and weapons are run with a massive degree of technical complexity and are at least partially explained so that we the reader can understand that you've thought it through and will at some point explain it to the detail we are after.
We don't  have to explain why the killer in our story picks up an axe and hacks apart a family of five, we don't have to explain how the dragons evolved on our world to become the terror to all before them that they have become. it is only in sci-fi that we need that fully developed logic train to follow.  anyhow that got me thinking about some of my favorite sci-fi and fantasy an that in turn reminded me that I hadn't posted a few of my favorites up here on this thread...so.. I am logging in over here on Laura's computer to give you a few of my favorites, while this apparently endless virus scan is running on mine. 
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H.P. Lovecraft
Robert E. Howard
both of whom I have read over and over again pretty much since I was introduced to them in my teens for Lovecraft and when I was 9 years old for Howard. I cannot get enough of these guys, I love their stories completely.
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Brian Lumley
I was 16 years old working in the Butchers martket of my local grocery store when I fist saw the necroscope sitting on the stand by the cash registered when I clocked out one night, that skull on the cover draw me in, so I grabbed it an read it, wow I absolutely love the necroscope series and his titus crowe series kicks fucking ass too, there is another series I have not read yet that stephen north recommended and I need to get my hands on and i am very eager to do so.
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George R R Martin
song of ice and fire, wow... just wow heart wrenching betrayals and devious political backstabbings galore along with an amazing world of lush lands filled with truly great characters, i love it.
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Robert Jordan
The Wheel of Time is perhaps the only set of books I have read anywhere near as much as I have read Lovecraft and Howard, I have read the series 15 times now, all of them. I love them very much.

so anyways there you go looks like the scan is done now so I must go back to my now hopefully restored zombie novel and keep plugging away.

also i am shoving my flash drive in there to back that bitch up for god sakes..