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For anyone who cares, my short list of great fiction
1) Gotta start it off with one of my all-time favorites, A Canticle For Liebowitz. Unca Steve has this book on his list of recommendations at the end of On Writing (and when I saw it there, I jumped up and shouted "Yeah!). The book is a little dated- it was published in, IIRC, 1959. But, since it deals with a future history after a nuclear war (that sort of theme was popular at the time), that's largely irrelevant. Lots of unexpected humor (the scene at the beginning where Brother Francis meets the pilgrim is especially funny). There is, unfortunately, a bit of philosophical pondering that weighs the book down in places, but some might even find those bits fun. And I defy anyone who reads the book to get the image of Mrs. Grales and her "immaculate conception" at the end to get that image out of their heads.
2) Still in science-fiction land, but more hard science fiction, are the Heechee novels by Frederik Pohl. The series starts with Gateway, but doesn't, in my opinion, get really cranked until the next book, Beyond The Blue Event Horizon. What's the series about? A hint- Unca Steve, in 11-22-63, says "what if you could go back in time and change history?" The Heechee series asks "what if you could go all the way back to the Big Bang, and change the very constants that shape our universe?" There's a lot of hard science in these books, but it's not hard hard science, if you get my drift- it's done well enough that the basic non-science-geek can learn some of that stuff. Also noteworthy by Pohl, are Jem, which won the National Book Award in 1980, and Starburst (which introduces Chandra's other limit- read the book to see what that means).
3) The Thomas Harris Hannibal Lecter series, most especially Red Dragon, and, of course, The Silence Of The Lambs. Harris does almost as good a job as Unca Steve in giving his characters actual human depth- I almost sympathized with the monster in Red Dragon.
4) More science fiction- The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, and Rendezvouz With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke. If you want good science fiction, with more depth than just Star-Wars cartoonery, you cannot go wrong with Arthur C. Clarke (or, for that matter, with any of the other names I've mentioned in that context).
5) A Simple Plan, by Scott Smith. Unca Steve liked it- wrote a blurb for it. Another good simple story with loads of depth in human character- in fact, the plot turnson human character. And if you've seen the movie- no, it's not the same. There are a lot of plot differences, although the general outline is the same- enough differences to make a big difference. And while I thought Billy Bob Thornton did a great, almost Oscar-worthy, job with Jacob, the book really called to my mind more someone like John Candy. And if that isn't enough to make you want to read the book, I don't know what will.
6) Gore Vidal's American History series, beginning with Burr, through 1876, Hollywood, and beyond. Vidal is obviously not to everyone's taste, in literature, politics, or otherwise (if you're a Michele Bachmann fan, you won't like Vidal- she at least partially credits him with turning her from a Democrat into a Republican). His writing is a little too snarky sometimes, and a little too overly concerned with elegance for the pace of the story. I like the books, and overlooked the faults, because I'm a history buff (I don't like the word buff, but I'm certainly not a professional, so I guess it will have to do). If you are, too, I think you will enjoy them, as long as you can accept them on their own terms as just stories.
Well, enough for now. I'm sure I missed many of your favorites, but that's okay, because I'm equally sure I've forgotten many of my own. Input (as we computers say) welcome.
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