Great Great Books

[zgirnius]

> I'd love to hear what you all think are the "Great Books".  Maybe I 
> can broaden my horizons, or at least figure out why these books 
grab 
> me like they do.
> 
> Anxious to hear your ideas,
> Bonnie

zgirnius:
As far as series I can go back and reread any number of times and 
still enjoy them, because they are still that much fun even when I 
know exactly what is going to happen...I would recommend the 
Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold. 

They are SF, not fantasy, set in a future in which the human race has 
settled a large number of planets. I love the books for many reasons. 
One is the characters. The main character, Miles Vorkosigan, is a 
brilliant creation in my opinion. (Though two books in the series are 
backstory, dealing with Miles' parents and how they come to be 
together.) He is very complex character. He is well-intentioned and 
wants to be nice to people, but can be quite manipulative, which gets 
him into trouble at times. He is also extremely bright/creative, with 
the downside that he can get carried away with his plans. He has also 
had a very difficult life because of a physical abnormality which 
would tend to make him a target of hatred and suspicion on his 
technologically and socially backward homeworld. The series is also 
littered with lots of interesting recurring secondary characters. In 
the first book in which Miles is the main character ("The Warrior's 
Apprentice") he is seventeen, and reading the books you can see him 
grow and mature.

Like the Potter books, the series has some genre-crossing sublots. 
One of the books is rather reminiscent of a Regency Romance (while 
still having an exciting action/suspense/political intrigue plot, 
hard to describe but touching and extremely funny at times). Spy 
story and mystery elements occur in other books of the series. Though 
overall the books tend to get classified as 'Space Opera'.

Unlike the Potter books, the series does not have a definite start 
and end, there is no overarching enemy a la Voldemort. There are 
villains, even really nasty ones, but they are wholly human. The 
books are important episodes in the life of the characters.

Another charm of the books is how the author uses the science 
fictional elements to write about universal issues facing our world. 
(Not at ALL preachy, but if you think about it, she's doing this). 
Her space travel technology permits there to be enough isolation that 
there are distinct cultures and levels of technology, and she has 
characters coming from different cultural backgrounds interacting. 
Miles' homeworld is technologically backward but undergoing a rapid 
development which is having an impact on the society. She pays 
special attention to medical and reproductive technologies and their 
implications (including a truly creepy life-extension technology that 
is morally rather equivalent to Voldemort's method, now that I think 
about it...)

Anyway, I'll cease gushing. I love those books.