The Basics Challenge – Exploring Speculative Fiction

(Click on the Badge to access the actual challenge site.)

Emily Cross has created this challenge to help writers, and readers to understand the basics within a specific genre(s). To further an understanding within that genre for the writer or reader.

It is a flexible challenge which you can shape to your needs or wishes. Here are the  guide lines for The Basics Challenge.

 My Goal:

To attempt to read 100 books within a 5 year span, less 25% forgiveness rate, which is a total of 75 books. Divided down it’s 15 books per year. Which ultimately translates to a little over 1 book per month.

This challenge will be an overlap with The Fill in the Gaps Challenge listed here.

I have chosen to use a “reading pool” method. All the books are within the Speculative Fiction Genre – Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

Overlapping Challenge Books

Science Fiction:

1. Dune - Frank Herbert
2. Children of Dune - Frank Herbert
3. Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert
4. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
5. Foundation - Isaac Asimov
6. Foundation Empire - Isaac Asimov
7. Second Foundation - Isaac Asimov
8. Do Androids Dream of Sleep - Phillip K. Dick
9. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
10. 1984 - George Orwell
11. Animal Farm - George Orwell
12. Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clark
13. Ringworld - Harry Niven
14. Time Machine - H. G. Wells
15. The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
16. The Island of Doctor Moreau - H. G Wells
17. The World Treasury of Science Fiction - David G. Hartwell
18. The Day After Tomorrow - Robert Heinlein
19. Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
20. Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham
21. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham
22. Chrysalids - John Wyndham
23. The Godmakers - Don Pendleton
24. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harllan Ellison

Feminist Science Fiction:

1. Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
2. New Eves - ed Janrae Frank
3. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
4. The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood

Horror:

1. Interview with a Vampire - Anne Rice
2. The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice
3. The Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice
4. Cry to Heaven - Anne Rice
5. The Locus Awards - ed Charles N. Brown
6. Great Tales of Horror - Edgar Allen Poe
7. The Hunter of the Dark - H. P. Lovecraft
8. Dracula - Bram Stoker (completed but needs to be posted)
9. The Inferno - Dante
10. The Metamorphosis - Frank Kafka (completed and linked below)
11. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostava

Fantasy:

1. The Middle Window - Elizabeth Goudge
2. The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
3. Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkien
4. Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers - J. R. R. Tolkien
5. Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King - J. R. R. Tolkien
6. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
7. Dragon Flight - Anne McCaffrey
8. The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart
9. The Last Enchantment - Mary Stewart
10. The Hollow Hills - Mary Stewart
11. Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
12. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone - J. K. Rowling
13. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
14. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Ascaban - J. K. Rowling
15. Green Mansions - William Henry Hudson

Books will be reviewed, and linked below:

1. The Things That Keep Us Here - Carla Buckley (adult apocalyptic)
2. The Magic Warble – Victoria Simcox (children’s fantasy)
3. RELEASE by Nicole Hadaway – (horror, vampire)
4. Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan – (dark fantasy, fairytale retelling )
5. Soulless by Gail Carrigan – (urban fantasy, steam punk, vampire, werewolf)
6. The Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka (horror, classic, literature)
7. The Stupidest Angel - by Christopher Moore (horror, humor, zombie)
   - needs to be posted.
8. Life As We Knew It
9. The Dead and The Gone
10. This World We Live In (all linked here in one post) – (apocalyptic, young adult)
11. Inside Out by Maria Snyder (young adult – girls science fiction)
12. Cursed by Jeremy Shipp (horror- bizarro)

12 completed, 63 more to go.