The Sword and Laser discussion

Since Go Set a Watchman was released today, I know that To Kill a Mockingbird has been a favorite for many readers over the years. I can assume that a lot of readers have become an evangelist for that novel.

It got me to thinking about my reading life and what novels have I become an evangelist for. I'm defining "evangelist" as a term used in a religious context.

The first novels I became an evangelist for in my early reading years was Little Country by Charles De Lint & The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson.

Currently, I've become an evangelist for The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber and The Book of Strange New Things, and the Retrieval Artist Series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/4224...

I have bought copies of those books for friends and co-workers recently and I talk about them anytime a book conversation comes up.

What novels have you become an evangelist for in your reading life?

Marion

Protector by Larry Niven. It's a fabulous treatise on evolution and the human condition, done with realistic space travel. All the way down to getting the emission spectra for fusion ramjets correct. And a space battle done over lightyears that actually takes years to fight, as all information travels at lightspeed.

I think I'm on my third or fourth physical copies of the three books of The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay because I've loaned it to so many people that they have quite literally fallen apart.

Kay has a long career of brilliant books, but I still love this portal fantasy/high fantasy series that he started with.

I'm generally an evangelist for Gene Wolfe, but if people know his work, they're usually familiar with The Book of the New Sun.

I like to promote The Latro Series (which starts with Soldier of the Mist).

I also find myself recommending The Dispossessed often.

Marion wrote: "It got me to thinking about my reading life and what novels have I become an evangelist for. I'm defining "evangelist" as a term used in a religious context."

Maybe it is a cultural thing, but I have no idea what you mean by 'evangelist' in the context of this thread.

Ruth (tilltab) wrote: "Marion wrote: "It got me to thinking about my reading life and what novels have I become an evangelist for. I'm defining "evangelist" as a term used in a religious context."

Maybe it is a cultural..."

It literally refers to "good news". Any time you spread good news with the aim of getting people to take an action, you are evangelizing. I'm not quite sure what the original poster meant.

When I bought CryoBurn, it came with a CD of text files of the rest of the Vorkosigan series. I've given that away 8 or so times. I think it's near enough to the perfect scifi series.

I am always trying to get anyone I know who likes to read to read Brandon Sanderson's work. I don't think I have ever bought a book for someone, but I do try to talk them into reading his stuff.

Ruth,

Let me clarify what I meant about evangelizing. The term means spreading of the "good news" in a religious context. And over the years in my reading life and as a bookseller, I've had books that made me feel the same way. I've mentioned those in my original post.

I know that long-time readers have a book or books they have wanted to spread the good news about to everyone they know.

I would like to see what are those books from readers. I hope that clarifies what I meant in the OP about being an evangelist.

The Martian by Andy Weir. Not that it needs much hype from me but I recommend it to anyone looking for something fun and sciencey.

I have given away Rivers of London to Londoners several times now. They all loved it and proceeded to read the rest of the (ongoing) series afterwards.

I also recommend Ian Irvine to anyone who listens long enough for me to say "read" and "book" in a single sentence.

So is this thread, the list of books/authors that you bug all your friends to read over and over again until they do it?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - More often now it's the radio play because everyone has read the book.
The Warrior's Apprentice I might vary what book I tell them to start on(or skip) based of their interests. But basically everyone will love at least some books in this series
騎士基本理論 - Still my favorite lighthearted fantasy comedy series.
Brandon Sanderson - Extremely consistent/solid author that has very universal appeal among nerds at least.
Wildbow - Best web serial author, and only really Correia competes with him on action scene quality.
Path of the Fury/The Excalibur Alternative - I love these 2 books, probably more then I should, and I have forced many a friend to read them, thankfully most people have really enjoyed them.

I have plenty more books I may bug individual friends to read, but those are all books/authors that I'm constantly bugging friends to read if they havn't already. I havn't really bought books for anyone except my dad(and he dislikes fiction), but I have forcibly loaned many a book to friends. It's fairly common for me to be short around a dozen books from loaning that many out to friends, most of those aren't a forced loan of course.

Foucault's Pendulum is pretty awesome, but I can't evangelize for it. The Tres are watching!

Marion wrote: "Let me clarify what I meant about evangelizing. The term means spreading of the "good news" in a religious context."

Thanks for your explanation. I think it was the use of 'religious context' that was throwing me, as I have a negative connotation of evangelism thrusting a set of beliefs onto people who do not care, or might even actively think otherwise. No idea if this is a common connotation, but that word was a stumbling block for me for some reason...huh!

Ahem, in answer to your question.... I can't actually think of a single book I have recommended in this way, probably for the same reason I can never decide on favourites - I'm far too fickle! I guess I've recommended The Martian to more than a couple of people.

I really only had two books I pushed on people. Those are, The name of the wind, and The Warded man.

I share book recommendations with my brother and my father but my only real evangelism is with my kids (who are 13 and 11).

I pushed hard and was very happy when I got my younger son into Space Cadet and my older one a few years ago into Another Fine Myth and then A Wizard of Earthsea, and Nine Princes in Amber.

Also The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy turned out to be a great book for reading aloud to little kids.

Ruth (tilltab) wrote: "Marion wrote: "Let me clarify what I meant about evangelizing. The term means spreading of the "good news" in a religious context."

Thanks for your explanation. I think it was the use of 'religiou..."

No problem, Ruth. :)

Marion wrote: "Since Go Set a Watchman was released today, I know that To Kill a Mockingbird has been a favorite for many readers over the years. I can assume that a lot of readers ha..."

You had me at Thomas Covenant... If I had to pick a book the I evangelize for, it is Never Let Me Go. It is destined to be a classic. A true masterwork and intelligently written. Very subtle and when you finally figure out what is actually happening, you are left speechless. A novel that never actually talks about what is happening, but talks all around it so you figure it out, eventually. Take the time to read it and you will thank me.

How was that for evangelizing? :)

I've given away many copies of Watership Down over the years. For a few years, the new paperback copies available to purchase were badly made, and would fall apart (covers would fall off, the book falling into sections), so I would pick up older paperback copies in used book stores when I ran across them, just to make sure I had a few extra copies to give away.

In more recent years, I've given away probably a half dozen copies of Leviathan Wakes. And I've nagged/preached about it to people I knew would enjoy it until they read it.

I've given away many copies of The Ugly Little Boy, as an introduction to SF for non-SF readers.
Another one I've recommended to many people is Stranger in a Strange Land - I think it's almost a cliché, how much this book influences readers, but what can I say? It's the truth.
If I can add something outside the sf/f field: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is another book I've evangelized. It can be a real eye-opener.

The Last Policeman by Ben Winters, looming apocalypse police procedural, except way more awesome than my pitiful description, the main character is amazing and absolutely unforgettable. The whole trilogy is great.

Nowadays I tend to push authors more than single books. Christopher Moore, Robert Sawyer, Terry Pratchett and Spider Robinson are my most frequent topics lately.
For books, Time Enough for Love and Ender's Game are the ones I've most often "forced" others to read.

For the past few years, I have been evangelizing for R. Scott Bakker; I think he's an incredible and important writer, thinker and critic.

Besides Scott Bakker's work, I've been known to evangelize for House of Leaves which is one of my all time favorites. The way Mark Z. Danielewski tells a story (or in the case of House of Leaves, tells multiple stories) is utterly unique.

As soon as Joss Whedon publishes his first novel, I will be on street corners spreading the good word. :)

The ones I recall evangelizing most are Ishmael and Hitchhiker's Guide and the Kushiel's Dart series. I try to limit my book-pushing to people I think would appreciate a specific book tho, these three are just the ones I feel appeal to the widest audiences.

^^ Spider Robinson is great. I have an uncle from New Jersey who moved to Key West. I sent him a copy of the book where the group moves to Key West. He recognized many of the street performers in the book and sent me links to some of their performances.

The Lord of the Rings

Off genre, but "The consolations of philosophy" by Alain de Botton I frequently give as gifts, since its the most useful "manual for life" I have ever read.

Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword, certainly.

Also Jack, the Giant Killer. And all of Jane Yolen's oeuvre. Most of Guy Gavriel Kay's, as well.

For the past few years, I have been evangelizing for R. Scott Bakker; I think he's an incredible and important writer, thinker and critic.

He's also having weird problems with his publisher, apparently?

and

I generally don't evangelize a lot of books, as most of the popular ones already have a pretty good following.

One book/author that I do evangelize (and I would indeed use that word) is M.A. Foster who wrote a book called The Gameplayers of Zan that I consider to be one of the best presentations of a non-human perspective that I have ever read.

I believe this is one of the most under-rated SF books ever, and as far as I know it is out-of-print.

I think the series I've most successfully evangelized is the Sword of Ice and Fire series. I started reading it 1997 and got my sister, brother in law, two close friends (heck I even gave A Feast for Crows in 2007 to one of them as part of a groomsmen's gift since I knew they hadn't gotten around to reading it yet), my parents (they read it in prose and would listen to it on audiobooks I gave them on their trips back and forth to Florida , and my father in law all well before the TV series was even a thought it anyone's mind. I gave my future wife a copy of Game of Thrones back in 2003 a month into dating her too. (Probably not the best of ideas considering how graphic they are, but she still married me).

I'm late comer to Brandon Sanderson (even after reading all of the Wheel of Time stuff he did and that may be why since it didn't really show me the greatness of "brandon sanderson") and he is probably the #1 author I'm pushing right now, particularly to my wife since he's something of an anthesis to George R.R. Martin. She has yet to take the bait.

I've been pushing the Expanse series for awhile too, got my brother in law into it. I think I got him into Malazan too.

Ender's Game, where I give it anybody and everybody I see. I go and purchase it every time I see it at used book sale to give it away. I feel like everybody in the whole world to read it.

I push Black Company to show people that Grim Dark has been going around for 30 years, its not something of a recent fad started with Song of Ice and Fire.

I don't evangelize, mostly because individual tastes vary so much, and sometimes pushing a particular book on someone can be criminally irresponsible. Giving an incest or rape survivor Martin's opus is only something you would do if you hated that person and were an asshat of Donald Trump proportions. (Recognizing the only book he's ever read is his ghostwritten biography. And I'll bet real money he only skimmed that.)

But for people who really like A Song of Ice and Fire, I'd give them Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series, because everything Martin is doing she did 40 years ago.

If someone likes Star Trek, I'd give them Niven's Known Space series or Banks' Culture novels. If a kid really liked Eragon, I'd give them McCaffrey's Dagonriders of Pern.

But there's no such thing as One Size Fits All, so I avoid that.

@tom - you got me curious and after some research, I found that Foster's books have been reissued. Here's the Ler trilogy as one volume: The Book of the Ler

Rick wrote: "@tom - you got me curious and after some research, I found that Foster's books have been reissued. Here's the Ler trilogy as one volume: The Book of the Ler"

That is awesome! And they got them in the right order too, because the order in which you should read them is different than the order they were published.

For me it would be the Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde. I've lost count of the number of times I've recommended them to various folks.

A Princess of Mars. The Shattered World. The Man of Gold. Nifft the Lean. The Mask of the Sorcerer.

I really liked the Barsoom books despite the obvious dated aspects. It's both a history lesson and a great adventutre.

John (Taloni) wrote: "I really liked the Barsoom books despite the obvious dated aspects. It's both a history lesson and a great adventutre."

And the entire series is shorter than, well, maybe two Ice & Fire or Malazan books?

(My one suggestion to a new reader would be to stop around book 7 or 8 at the absolute outside -- there's a serious drop-off in quality in those last few books. Me, I can't stop myself from slogging along to the bitter, bitter end.)

Trike wrote: "I don't evangelize, mostly because individual tastes vary so much..."

I ask prospective recomendees what they enjoy now and recommend accordingly.


Misti wrote: "For me it would be the Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde. I've lost count of the number of times I've recommended them to various folks."

My number one push is a toss-up between Jasper and the various iterations of Phil Foglio's Girl Genius series.
Any time I meet a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan (similar styles of writing and humor), I immediately ask if they are familiar with Jasper and his work. Jasper would have been a much better choice for the final HHGTTG book than Eoin Colfer was.
Girl Genius is my first recommendation for any steampunk fan.

Started with anything by Michael Crichton back in the day.

Then Dean Koontz.

Then Discworld.

Now, mostly individual books depending on the person and what I know about them.

Eric wrote:
Now, mostly individual books depending on the person and what I know about them."

Ditto.

But I have a few constant ones.

For fantasy readers: A Song of Ice and Fire, First Law, Gentleman Bastard, Discworld's Watch arc.

For more general audience I guess I've always recommended anything George Orwell.

Silvana wrote: "

But I have a few constant ones.

For fantasy readers: A Song of Ice and Fire"

I keep seeing this over and over and it makes me think, "Man, you guys don't know anyone who has suffered any trauma, do you?" Because ASoIaF is like one long trigger warning.

Trike wrote: "Silvana wrote: "

But I have a few constant ones.

For fantasy readers: A Song of Ice and Fire"

I keep seeing this over and over and it makes me think, "Man, you guys don't know anyone who has suffered any trauma, do you?" Because ASoIaF is like one long trigger warning."

LOL, right!?!?

Trike wrote: "Silvana wrote: "

But I have a few constant ones.

For fantasy readers: A Song of Ice and Fire"

I keep seeing this over and over and it makes me think, "Man, you guys don't know anyone who has suffered any trauma, do you?" Because ASoIaF is like one long trigger warning."

That's why I don't recommend it. Hell, I tried re-reading it and I can't get through it. I stalled halfway through the 2nd book. It's so unceasingly violent and casually sexist (I'm not sure how else to phrase it. I don't think the series is entirely misogynistic but it's not kind to women at all).

Definitely sexist in the sense that Martin, regardless of how progressive he may be, is still of that generation where all secretaries are women and they're all called "girls." That sort of thing is hard to be aware of when it has permeated your entire life since you were a kid.

There are any number of times when he describes how the breasts of the female characters move under various types of clothing. He doesn't give men's testicles the same treatment, simply because it's never occurred to him. I agree that he's not being misogynistic, but he's definitely internalized the attitudes of the patriarchy.

Trike wrote: "Definitely sexist in the sense that Martin, regardless of how progressive he may be, is still of that generation where all secretaries are women and they're all called "girls." That sort of thing is hard to be aware of when it has permeated your entire life since you were a kid.

There are any number of times when he describes how the breasts of the female characters move under various types of clothing. He doesn't give men's testicles the same treatment, simply because it's never occurred to him. I agree that he's not being misogynistic, but he's definitely internalized the attitudes of the patriarchy. "

Great points. That second one really bugs me in books. In no way is it important to mention how a woman's breasts move under clothing unless it's a sex scene (well, leading up to).

In my opinion, depictions of misogyny, racism, homophobia and violence are crucial. It is my opinion that our fiction (art) needs reflect who we are, who we were or who we might become, even if the reflection is monsterous and ugly. I don't want my stories to suggest that the past, present or future is all puppy dogs and rainbows. I don't want the nastiness of the human to be glossed over in fear that someone might be upset or because of political correctness.

The single novel I recommend to others, especially those working on leadership issues, is Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep.

The series I recommend is Discworld. Each arc has something to recommend it, but my favorites are Vimes, for his "I don't care who you're momma is; can you hit what you're aiming at?" attitude, and Granny Weatherwax, for her minimalist approach to magic.

I usually recommend my favorite book series: Frank Herbert's Dune. It touches upon so many aspects of human existence while also having an engrossing story. It's a staple of the sci-fi genre and I think it's worth reading even if you end up not liking it.

As others have also mentioned, Discworld is another series I recommend because I find the books to be a great gateway into fantasy for people who don't usually read in the genre.

Where do you start on discworld? It's so big