The Page of Favourites

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None of these lists should be considered to be in any order whatsoever and all are subject to change without notice, although the list has been fairly solid for a couple of years now.

Books

  1. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
  2. Mort - Terry Pratchett (Death takes an apprentice)
  3. Sundiver - David Brin
  4. Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
  5. When Worlds Collide/After Worlds Collide - Wylie & Balmer
  6. Fuzzies and Other People - H. Beam Piper (the 2nd and 3rd in the trilogy were nearly as good)
  7. The Kruton Interface - John DeChancie (Oh, it is to laugh!)
  8. Talion: Revenant - Michael A. Stackpole
  9. Breed to Come - Andre Norton
  10. The Future In Question - Isaac Asimov, editor

 

Series

  1. The Dragonriders of Pern (first three books, although I've read them all) - Anne McCaffrey
  2. The Belgariad - David & Leigh Eddings
  3. Miles Vorkosigan - Lois McMaster Bujold
  4. Sten - Cole & Bunch
  5. The Axis Trilogy - Sarah Douglas
  6. The Hope Series - David Feintuch (although I think that the last several haven't been quite up to the same level)
  7. Discworld - Terry Pratchett
  8. Dragon Prince/Dragon Star (two trilogies) - Melanie Rawn
  9. Honor Harington - David Weber
  10. The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay
  11. Spellsinger - Alan Dean Foster

Yeah, so there are 11 here.  I'm not saying that any tie, but I also can't eliminate any of them right now.

 

Authors

  1. J.R.R. Tolkien
  2. David & Leigh Eddings
  3. Terry Pratchett
  4. Anne McCaffrey
  5. Robert A. Heinlein
  6. Raymond E. Feist
  7. Michael A. Stapole
  8. Robert J. Sawyer
  9. Alan Dean Foster
  10. Melanie Rawn

 

My favourite genre magazines are Analog and On Spec, although my collection of old stuff boasts at least a dozen other titles with multiple issues.

 

Favourite Genre Movies

  1. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
  2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn
  3. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  4. The Princes Bride
  5. Metropolis
  6. Forbidden Planet
  7. The Day the Earth Stood Still
  8. Galaxyquest
  9. 2001: A Space Odyssey
  10. Mystery Men

 

Favourite Genre Television

  1. Star Trek - The original series.  TNG had good and bad times, but I never got to be a fan of Deep Throat 9 or Love Boat, the Next Generation.  Enterprise has potential that will probably mostly go unrealized.
  2. Babylon 5
  3. Red Dwarf
  4. Farscape
  5. Battlestar Galactica (but only the first series)
  6. Dr. Who (the Tom Baker years)

This is a hard list to make bigger.  I watch every science fiction or fantasy series that airs for at least a half dozen episodes (although I don't have cable right now, and haven't for a while, so that makes some stuff hard to get), but so much of it is complete crap.  Andromeda, for example, was fun the first season, not bad the second and rather boring for the first half of the third so I stopped watching.  Firefly?  I need to ask how that one got to be a pilot, never mind made it to air.  Earth: Final Conflict?  Come on, Gene, what were you smoking?  Buffy the Vampire Slayer?  How does it stay on the air?

Anyone remember Seaquest DSV?  Not bad for a while, but died rapidly with the departure of Roy Schieder.  And that sequel to Babylon 5 that ran for maybe a dozen episodes?  I have vague recollections of Wizards and Warriors when I was a young sprout of no more than 11 or 12.  I remember watching Space: 1999 as a small child, sitting in my father's lap.  Today, I catch on episode on tape or DVD now and again as much for schlock value as anything else.  You could put the old UFO (pronounced you-fo) series in the same bucket.  Galactica: 1980?  Put it next to Star Trek V and try to minimize the flashbacks.  Blake's 7?  Good for a few seasons, but then also screwed up by the writers and departure of key cast members.  The Twilight Zone?  Hit and miss, although more hits than misses, on the first series.  Didn't need to be resurected so many times.  Lost in Space?  Don't even go there.

I could go on and on and on and on, but I won't.  I may save it for another page entirely.  Perhaps a large rant of its own or a detailed rundown of the crap in the guise of SF/F that Hollywood (and others) has tried to ram down our throats over the past few decades.

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Page last updated: 11 Apr 2003.