Long, Complex, Challenging Novels
January 23rd, 2011I’m not a fast reader. I might spend a week or ten days reading in the evening before I finish off a typical novel. So it’s ironic how much I can enjoy long, complex, challenging novels. Do you?
Here are some that have stuck in my mind over the years:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville- I keep hearing people say how boring this is, but I read it at thirteen or fourteen, so I guess the boring parts went right over my head. To quote from the novel How I Became a Famous Novelist “Instead of loving perfectly good books like Moby Dick, where a ***ing whale eats everybody, these ***s insisted on pretending to like excruciating books like . . .†Yeah.
The Broken God by David Zindell- I think I read this at least twice, and yet I never tell anyone “You have to read this book.†It’s so dense with detail I just know the readers I’m personally acquainted with wouldn’t be into it. Are any of you?
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson- Long, dense, fascinating. I read this one twice too. I even know other people who’ve read it and like it. And yet I’ve never gone on to read the follow ups. I don’t know why.
The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien- Despite my utter adoration for The Lord of the Rings, I didn’t read this until much, much later in life. I’ve since read it two or three times, and then picked up The Children of Hurin when that came out, and read it again. It is, of course, classic tragedy.
Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin- I was tricked into reading this. Evidently it was a big deal when it came out, though I had never heard of it. Someone loaned me a copy, implying she had read it and it was a wonderful book. And it is a wonderful book! Rather like a fever dream can be wonderful and engrossing (although this is a bad analogy, since everything in the story is cold). I liked it so much I bought my own copy. The person who gave me the book seemed surprised I had gotten through it, and confessed she’d never read it at all.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad- Okay, this isn’t a long novel, but it is complex in the way it’s written, so I include it here. I’m not usually a fan of stories that focus on the sheer awfulness of people, but this one works for me. I had it on my nightstand for a couple of years and would read it at random. The use of language is astonishing, as in: “The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse.†And “There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies—which is exactly what I hate and detest of the world—what I want to forget. It makes me miserable and sick, like biting something rotten would do.â€
Has anyone else read and admired any of these books?
What are your “long and complex†favorites?
Posted on: Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Categories: Reading.
January 23rd, 2011 at 4:51 pm
I’ve read Cryptonomicon and The Silmarillion. I would have classified The Silmarillion as a collection of stories rather than as a single story, but I certainly read it obsessively. However, I was fourteen at the time, and had also read the Lord of the Rings obsessively, so part of my motivation for rereading The Silmarillion was to try to understand how it connected to the Lord of the Rings, which affected me deeply.
Cryptonomicon was a great book. By no means his best, but definitely one of his best. I never finished the System of the World series. They’re a bit grueling, although the favor Stephenson does of immersing us in the day to day life of the beginnings of the Age of Reason is immense. It’s just hard to take.
Have you read Anathem? This is without question my favorite of Stephenson’s novels.
Other “long and complex” favorites? Dune, of course. The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge. The Revelation Space series, by Alistair Reynolds. David Brin’s Uplift Trilogy.
January 23rd, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Anathem was just recommended to me over on twitter, so I’ve added it to my goodreads.com list. Dune: yes of course! I always felt like I was getting only about 25% of what Frank Herbert was trying to communicate, but I loved those books. I read the first of the Alistair Reynolds, and the Brin, long ago.
January 23rd, 2011 at 7:52 pm
I’ve also read CRYPTONOMICON and THE SILMARILLION.
A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE by George R.R. Martin – The world is massive and the political alliances and family houses are endless. Even the most minor of characters seem to have a unique and interesting history. Despite all of this, the plot moves along at a perfect pace. By far the most interesting cast of characters I’ve read about.
THE GOLDEN AGE trilogy by John C. Wright – The best combination of science fiction and philosophy possible. Who thought that the exploration of the Law of Identity could be so intense?
THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN by Gene Wolfe – The first book is easily the greatest literary achievement of science fiction. I’ll admit though that I was utterly confused during most of the final book. Gene Wolfe is too smart for me.
ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand – I devoured this book in about ten days. The author has very strong opinions, so you’ll either love it or hate it. Either way, it is very thoughtful and complex.
FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE by Dean Koontz – My all time favorite author, and one of my favorite books. The quantum mechanics angle and large cast of characters was handled so deftly by Koontz that the complexity is overlooked.
CHAINFIRE by Terry Goodkind – Brilliant study on the nature of epistemology. You have to read the entire SWORD OF TRUTH series to appreciate it fully.
I could add a bunch more, but those are my favorites. I’ll just list a few more:
HYPERION/ENDYMION by Dan Simmons, THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION by Peter F. Hamilton, THE WAY OF KINGS by Brandon Sanderson, OTHERLAND by Tad Williams, FIRESTAR by Michael Flynn
January 23rd, 2011 at 8:14 pm
HYPERION/ENDYMION, yes! I liked those a lot. THE REALITY DYSFUNCTION I just put on my reading list. I was sampling Sanderson last week, but got distracted by Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, which I’m reading now. Most of the others I haven’t tried, except I did read the first volume of THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, but will admit I wasn’t swept away. I seem to be alone in this. 🙂
January 23rd, 2011 at 9:44 pm
I have loved some books in forty years of reading, and read almost everything in the Kapaa Library growing up… but nothing comes to mind lately but American Gods by Gaiman (loved it, Tawny’s recommendation) and A Good Wife. I also love the sedate and mannerly myseries of Anne Perry, which while not huge epics, require attention.
January 23rd, 2011 at 10:47 pm
I went through a phase of reading all Gaiman novels a few years back. American Gods was one. I will have to try more mysteries!
January 25th, 2011 at 10:21 am
Unfortunately, I haven’t read any of books mentioned in Your post, though Cryptonomicon is on my soon-to-read list (which means even few following years ahead).
I’ve read almost everything by Reynolds, but though I love his works, I don’t find them complex. Btw, it was Reynolds who brought You to my attention mentioning Your works in few of his interviews. I’m reading Bohr Maker now (Polish translation), and planning to get Vast afterwards.
You want complexity? Go for Greg Egan, hard-sf writer from Australia. Science in his books is sometimes very mind challenging.
And if You want to get to know some new and complex fantasy world go for Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. It will blow Your mind (but You’ve probably read it already).
January 25th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
I’ve never met Alistair Reynolds, but he seems like a very nice person indeed!
And Greg Egan, yes–Permutation City is one of the novels I keep planning to go back and read again.
February 14th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
I too have always been struck by Conrad’s mastery over English prose. What’s amazing is that English was his third language (after Polish, his native language, and French) and apparently he did not speak it fluently til he was in his twenties. Most (99+%) writers in English who are native speakers never attain anything like his skill.
February 22nd, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Late to the party (as usual without RSS feeds) but I’ve been a total fan, Linda, since THE BOHR MAKER appeared in a SF Bookclub hardcover, long ago.
It was fascinating when Joan Slonczewski’s BRAIN PLAGUE came out and you came up with LIMIT OF VISION.. instead? I just found MEMORY on the shelf and may reread that.
Forget about Greg Egan’s PERMUTATION CITY and read his INCANDESCENCE, if you haven’t: Any novelist would admire its crystalline elegance. I think of it as a worthy sequel to VAST.. Best wishes, Mark
February 22nd, 2011 at 9:47 pm
Hi Mark–thanks much for the kind words! And I’ve downloaded a sample of Incandescence on my Kindle, which is how I remember the books people have recommended.
By the way, my son-in-law gently nudged me into using Google reader, which is a really simple way of keeping track of the blogs that interest me, many of which I would probably forget to visit otherwise: reader.google.com