Comments on: Ringworld Review

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:44:32 +0000

I had have to say that many of those books may not have aged well (as for the YPU, too soon for it to be analyzed in such a fashion). Ringworld, Forever War, Gateway, and The God’s Themselves in particular are more of a reflection of the world in which the work was written and/or the state of SF literature that year.

I do hope you enjoy Startide Rising. David Brin was one of one of my favorite authors from the 1980s-1990’s span of SF. If you do, you might find reading the Uplift War and the Sundiver (which make up a loose trilogy) as well (as if you haven’t enough to read!)

I do think Speaker for the Dead is a fantastic work, makes up for much of what Orson Scott Card has done to radically diminish himself as a person through his politics and public commentary (actually that in itself makes the book even more astonishing).

By: Tadhg

Tadhg — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:11:33 +0000

Actually, I hadn't seen than news, it'll be pretty interesting to see what they do with it. Of course, I still don't think it's a science fiction novel, but yes, if it were to win an Oscar, that would put it on an even more exclusive list. This is the full list of triple winners; your list above is only missing Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. Gateway, Dreamsnake, Startide Rising, and Doomsday Book are the ones I hadn't read before starting to go through them in order; I read both The Forever War and The Yiddish Policemen's Union last year but I think I'll read them again as I go through the list.

By: unkiedave

unkiedave — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:45:50 +0000

I'm sure you've seen the news that the Cohen Bros are bringing "Yiddish Policeman's Union" to the big screen (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/feb/12/books.news1), which means that this could end up being the only Oscar winner on the Triple Crown list.

By: unkiedave

unkiedave — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:54:18 +0000

Interesting idea. Doing a quick check I think the following are all triple crown winners:

Ringworld by Larry Niven
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre
Startide Rising by David Brin
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon

Of these it turns out that I have only not read “The Gods Themselves” and “Dreamsnake”, and in fact have read 4 (Yiddish, Startide, Forever and Gateway) of them in the last 24 months. I might just go back and read the others now.