Books I Recommend

• I just read Dan Simmons' Endymion, a sequel to his famous science fiction books Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. It was good, but be warned: it ends in a way that clearly points to more sequels.

• Fritz Leiber wrote an incredible series about characters named Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. The world of Nehwon and city of Lankhmar are stirring fantasy creations. I can't recommend the short stories about these characters strongly enough. I especially like the stories "Ill Met in Lankhmar" and "Lean Times in Lankhmar."

• Gene Wolfe wrote some books about a torturer named Severian living in something that is supposed to be the far future, but feels a lot more like the distant past. Together, the four novels are called The Book of the New Sun. The world created in these novels is intricate and awesome.

• Richard Dawkins wrote a famous popular-science book called The Selfish Gene. This is one of the most compelling science books I have ever read. Dawkins makes his case so convincingly that I had to cool down after reading it and reconsider his arguments again to see if they made sense. They hold up pretty well.

• Harlan Ellison has written a lot of fiction, television, and is famous as a science fiction writer. I highly recommend his non-fiction and commentary. Ellison is an incredible egomaniac, but also a great writer. I loved his collection of columns from the now-defunct LA Weekly, called Harlan Ellison's Watching.

• Robertson Davies has written a number of excellent novels. My favorite is a book called The Fifth Business, the first of a trilogy often called The Deptford Trilogy. Davies novels are mostly set in Canada. His trilogies are actually trilogies-three separate novels that weave together into a whole, not a long book divided into three volumes. The Deptford Trilogy is about art, magic, and how different the world looks to each person in it. Each book in the trilogy is from the point of view of a different character.

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