h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The purpose of this thread is to vote on a book that will be adopted by the Atelier as our World Book for 2003, effective 4 March.

The salonistas have agreed that our selection should
1. be a work of science fiction or historical fiction
2. not be too long.
3. be chosen as follows:

Everyone will either nominate a book or agree with someone else's selection, on this thread. Once it looks as if everone has cast a vote, I will tally up and list the nominations. There will then be a second vote and nobody can vote for their own book! We will pick the top ten from that, and vote again under the same rules, then reduce the list to 5, and then to 3. From the final three, our world book selection will be named.

Unlike the College of Cardinals, you will be allowed to come and go during the process.

Let the voting begin!

Three Men in Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Poetic prose - Buttercup quoted some of it at the Lake. Out of copyright therefore online or £1 at good bookshops. Mercifully short.

Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carrol (or if you wanted to play the chess puzzle Alice's Adventures Through The Looking Glass by the same author).

Armor by John Steakley. $8 from Amazon, $3 used. Excellent Science Fiction novel.

Courtesy

Amy and Courtesy, could you say a little more about your nominations? I haven't read either of them and would like to know why you've singled out these books.

Alice I know.

Armor is the story of Felix. It is broken into two intertwined parts. One part is of an individual who is in the space army and deals with mind numbing violence *however it isn't really written about, more alluded to*. The second part is about two scientists who have found Felix's "armor" and have been able to tap into the recorder.

It's a great tale about duty and honesty, with interesting side trips into philosophy and the human condition.

Think Starship Troopers with a much more human angle.

It might be best to check out the summary on Amazon.

I nominated the book because it's been long enough since I have read it that I'm starting to forget some of the story, and yet I still love the book.

Courtesy

Three Men in Boat is a classic of English literature. It's one of those books that everyone should read. Written in 1889 it describes, in beautiful and hilarious detail, a journey along the River Thames.

Here's an exerpt:

"You can never rouse Harris. There is no poetry about Harris - no wild yearning for the unattainable. Harris never ‘weeps, he knows not why.’ If Harris’ eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions, or has put too much Worcester over his chop."

I wish to nominate "The Outpost" by Mike Resnick.

From the flyleaf...........

On the planet Henry II, orbiting the twin suns of Plantagenet and Tudor, at the very edge of the great black hole at the center of the Milky Way, there is a tavern, the OUtpost. Through the doors of the Outpost have come the greatest heros, villains, and adventurers of the galaxy - to drink, to brag, and to swap tales.

the Outpost is neutral territory, where fighting is forbidden and blood enemies can have a drink together and tell stories of battles past. Bopunty hunters, con men, itinerant preachers, thieves, and assassins, they have more in commonwith each other than they do with the rest of the mundane galaxy.

But their pleasant life recalling murder and mayhem is interrupted by an alien invasion, and to save their way of life, these rugged individualists myust try to work together for a change.

383 pages, but the print is big and it reads quickly. May 2001 from TOR.

I go for Three Men in Boat.

Good book and - not less important for me - even available here.

Hmmm, after much thought, probably the best book I have read in the last year or two would be The Last English King by Julian Rathbone. It is the tale of a survivor of the Battle of Hastings (1066 and all that) on a pilgramage to Jerusalem. It covers the rise of Harold, the battles for England and the Norman Conquest whilst also giving a very interesting flavour of what the rest of Europe was like at the time, including a visit to Constantinople under the Romans.

While that sounds lovely, Munch (I do so love history), I don't know that I could do much more British history!! After much thought, I finally found a stand-alone book that I would like to nominate:
Silverlock, by John Myers Myers.

This book is one of those inside the trade books that no one knows about (although I suspect a few of us do!). What's it about? Well, take Australia, a shipwreck, and every mythological personage you have and throw them in a blender. Robin Hood, the Mad Hatter, Circe, and Don Quixote are all here, albeit in slightly altered forms, along with our hapless protagonist, A. Clarence Shandon.

Larry Niven sums it up this way in his intro:

"So here it comes again: an allegory. Go ahead and flinch, but you're going to have fun. You'll get drunk on Silverlock. When you finish reading, it will feel like you got monumentally drunk with your oldest frieds, you sang songs and told truth and lies all night or all weekend, and you'll sit there grinning at nothing and wondering why there isn't any hangover."

So, that's my .02!

I plan on contributing to this thread just as soon as I think of a suitable book. I'm mulling over Madeline L'Engle's 'A Wrinkle in Time' from 1963. It's the story of a girl, Meg Murry, and her offbeat family of scientists, who travel through time and space to learn the nature of love and what it means to become an adult.

[Side note to MR]

I (slightly) remember the cover of the book, 'Silverlock', from when a couple of my friends in High School toted it around. It was even offered to me on loan after I listened with rapt attention to a short synopsis of the reading-in-progress by my best friend. I may have dabbled at starting it, though I know I never finished it, because I had other things calling my attention.

At one point in my early adult life away from home, I got involved with some very 'colorful' folks who liked to play Dungeons & Dragons. Their focus was always the storyline, not just hacking and slashing your way to treasure. A couple of our DM's were very good at painting the environments for the characters, and all of our players were just askew enough to make every adventure a thrilling time.

When I left the US for my first overseas assignment with the Air Force, I ran into another group of D&D players, and proceeded to stockpile all the paraphernalia I could; from dice to character sheets, TSR game manuals to lead figurines. Little did I realize how disappointed I'd be when I found out that, for these folks, "the play's the thing" had no meaning. Hack and slash. No substance. No real 'acting', just trying to outwit the DM, who usually was very vindictive if the players got anything resembling the upper hand.

The character I'd taken pains to nurture to a respectable stature began to suffer and his statistics plummeted. I gave up the game and sold all my materials to the highest bidder. To get the exposure I needed for the sale, I wrote a 4-5 page story and attached it, and some pictures from a fantasy art compendium, to a large posterboard and arranged to have it displayed in the All Ranks Club.

The main character was Laren Silverlock, a good swordsman with some magic abilities. His familiar was a large black panther named Onyx, and they were able to communicate telepathicly--though the cat sounded somewhat like Purr in Boots, or Furr Purrfikt (depending on whether you catch me in the Panto or H2G2F4). [Come to think of it, it's funny how this seems to be a recurring theme for me throughout the years. ] So, anyway, Laren goes after this wizard who has tracked down several volumes of an arcane set of books that could change the course of the world. As he finally closes in, the wizard snares first the panther, then Laren. The wizard's final soliloquy details how he bested Laren by defeating his magic, and sums up the reason I chose to give up D&D: "You see, Silverlock, you've become dis-enchanted..."


I hope I haven't bored anybody with another 'slice of life', just because I'm up late with nothing else to do.

What's my point?
I vote for Silverlock by John Myers Myers.
(Now maybe I'll actually read it.)

I cast my vote for Armor (the book Courtesy mention). While I have not read it, it does sound interesing. I am in a mode of popcorn scifi at the moment and am enjoying a series called Sten, but it is not really suitable as I do not believe that it has been published in teh US. The copies I am reading are from teh UK.

B4, I'm flattered!

MR,
Your suggestion sparked a memory. (Obviously, or I wouldn't have rambled on so much.) Then I did a search and found that Amazon had some excellent reviews on this wonderful 'tour de farce'. There's even a website dedicated to this literary gem, The Commonwealth of Letters, @ http://www.speakeasy.org/~anitra/commonwealth/. Thanks for the tip. Even if we don't partake of this one as a group, I definitely will get a copy for our library.

B4iODonprose

Hey, Lil!

Your thread on the World Book Selection is doing about the same thing John Myers Myers did with his story of 'Silverlock'!!! It's bringing forth references to a multitude of other works of prose and causing us to delve into areas we might not otherwise have ventured into.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

B4

I was going to recommend Machiavelli's Prince, for reasons which I can't be bothered to go into, but I don't feel like that at the moment.

So I'm seconding 3 Men in a Boat, followed by Silverlock (is that on the net?).

I nominate "Chess With A Dragon" by David Gerrold.

It's short, about 170 pages, and it would be a fast read at any length. It's the story of Earth's first initiation into galactic with aliens, and we have gotten ourselves into trouble. We have been downloading information from Library, with the understanding that we are allowed a period of indebtedness. Our bill, however, is coming due. What has never been explained is that the dept will be paid back in indentured servitute.
All the older races offer to help. The forms of service they require make for horrifying and hillarious reading.
We have been set up. Our heroes are the unhappy team of Terran diplomates who have to find a way out for humanity.
It's a very funny comedy of manners, with very high stakes (extinction).
The main problem is I'm not sure how available the book is.

Mac, that sounds like a riot! (B4 scratches the pug dog and watches it wriggle) I'm glad you mentioned David Gerrold in particular. I'm currently diving into his book, 'Worlds of Wonder', that he wrote to help aspiring writers hone their craft. He subtly drops hints and names of other works he's done, so I may check those out later. The last book I read by him was eons ago--'The Man Who Folded Himself'--and it was a real send-up of the problems and advantages of time travel. Obviously the most widespread PR for him was his script for 'The Trouble with Tribbles' for Star Trek, the original series.

Good suggestion,
B4