I often quip that I was raised by books, but it's no joke. I learned to read young. I inhaled stories off the shelves, not limiting myself to children's books. I was seeking my place in the world, eager to understand what it meant to be part of human society. Who was I? Who did I want to be? Here are five of my earliest influences, powerful teachers in the library that helped raise me. I'll mention some of the key lessons I took from each, lessons that helped me become who I am. These books are part of the DNA of everything I write.
In this
immersive high fantasy tale, we travel alongside Amarta, the famous Seer of
Arunkel, through lands of magic and danger. Hunted for her incisive ability to
predict events, she constantly sidesteps deadly pursuit. With her past never
far behind, it is not enough to see the moments to come; she must learn to
create them.
From
where will she draw her wisdom? Who can teach someone who sees the future? In a
world that wants her, fears her, and misunderstands her, where does she belong? Unmoored
is a story of magic, power, identity, and love.
This classic, powerful SF saga leads with the message that we human beings can train ourselves to be deeply perceptive and in control of our emotions. There are many, many lessons in this book, but perhaps the most famous is about fear, how it blinds and disables sensible thought. As a child, this taught me that my fear and my self were not one thing, that I could move through fear to another place. That changed me.
Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender's Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune: winner of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, and widely considered one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.
Melange, or 'spice', is the most valuable - and rarest - element in the universe; a drug that does everything from increasing a person's lifespan to making interstellar travel possible. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world of Arrakis.
Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.
Who does not know the prophetic poem that opens this famous trilogy?
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
I still feel chills as I read these words and speak them aloud. As a child, I felt their urging to look beyond what first catches the eye, to listen to the meaning behind words. I resolved to refrain from discounting the wanderer, the elder, and the forest, because each could be far more than it seemed.
I learned to look beyond the obvious, and the skill has served me well.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
The
Princess Bride was a novel long before it was a movie. Both book and subsequent
screenplay were written by this brilliant master storyteller. As is often the
case, the book contains depths the movie only dips its toes into.
"Life
is not fair, but adventure is worth having," says the narrator to his
grandson, to whom he is telling this tale. That is a profound bit of wisdom if
one chews on it. But the
key thing I took from the book is this: if you're willing to put your fist in
your wound--to refuse to be a victim--and give everything you have to your
mission, no one can stop you.
William Goldman’s beloved story of Buttercup, Westley, and their fellow adventurers.
This tale of true love, high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts was unforgettably depicted in the 1987 film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Fred Savage, Robin Wright, and others. But, rich in character and satire, the novel boasts even more layers of ingenious storytelling. Set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin, home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest…
This
children's book is beloved by all ages and filled with Le Guin's lyrical power.
The tale inspired my child's imagination and was one of my earliest fantasy
influences, encouraging me to dream and create stories of my own.
One of
the wisdoms I gained here was this: our darkest parts are essential to us, and
to be whole, we must know them, name them, and accept them.
The first book of Earthsea in a beautiful hardback edition. Complete the collection with The Tombs of Atuan, The Furthest Shore and Tehanu
With illustrations from Charles Vess
'[This] trilogy made me look at the world in a new way, imbued everything with a magic that was so much deeper than the magic I'd encountered before then. This was a magic of words, a magic of true speaking' Neil Gaiman
'Drink this magic up. Drown in it. Dream it' David Mitchell
Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth.
Written
in 1961, this novel is still provocative today. This story pushed me to examine
my cultural assumptions, wrenching my certainty about many things that were
easy to take as given.
Heinlein
coined the word "grok" in this story, which had the (fictional)
literal meaning "to drink," or to know a thing so well that you could
love, hate, fear, and nearly merge with it, whether it was a concept, a person,
a culture, or anything else.
That word
is now in the zeitgeist, as well as the Oxford English Dictionary.
The original uncut edition of STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Hugo Award winner Robert A Heinlein - one of the most beloved, celebrated science-fiction novels of all time. Epic, ambitious and entertaining, STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND caused controversy and uproar when it was first published and is still topical and challenging today.
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Born on the doomed spaceship and raised by the Martians who saved his life, Valentine Michael Smith has never seen a human being until the day a…
Neuroscience PhD student Frankie Conner has finally gotten her life together—she’s determined to discover the cause of her depression and find a cure for herself and everyone like her. But the first day of her program, she meets a group of talking animals who have an urgent message they refuse to share. And while the animals may not have Frankie’s exalted human brain, they know things she doesn’t, like what happened before she was adopted.
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Frankie Conner, first-year graduate student at UC Berkeley, is finally getting her life together. After multiple failures and several false starts, she's found her calling: become a neuroscientist, discover the cause of her depression and anxiety, and hopefully find a cure for herself and everyone like her.
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