My Top 5 "Desert Island Reads"

Over on Neal Asher's blog he asked for fans to tell him their top 5 reads and send a picture. 

This got me thinking and necessarily meant a good hard bookshelf peruse. The results take me right from those early important teenage books that stay with you, through to more up to date faves. Here's the pic...

Revelation Space - One of my "fed up with fantasy" first buys a few years ago. A real slow burner. Reynolds draws the story together in a way that just drew me in. Its a pleasure to read and I savor his breadth of vision. I've found it splits opinion like marmite - people either love it or hate it.

Downbelow Station - I think my first space opera type read as a teenager. Devoured it. Picked up secondhand from a market in Nottingham. Never met anyone else that has read it - if you haven't I highly recommend BUT, not read it since then so remembered through teen eyes. On my 'to read' pile now.

Forever War - (book pictured is the omnibus) - First military scifi that I read. LOVE the time travel nature of it. Remember being anxious (at about 13 years of age) whether Mandela would actually meet up again with his bint. (Watched 'Somewhere in Time' about then so I was exploring unrequited time travel romance it seems...8)...)

Nightwinds - A novel I obsessed about through my teen years! I was a big role-player (D&D, Runequest, Tunnels and Trolls, MERP etc, etc) and here was a novel that brought to life perfectly that kind of world. Wagner can be klunky in some of his work but I think this is the best of it for me. 'Undertow' STILL gives me goosebumps. Ah...happy days.

The Skinner - This book along with Revelation Space changed my reading direction. After them, I must have bored people silly by my repeated plea for them to 'start reading some of these UK authors publishing NOW- and stop telling me you once read 'I, Robot' or the Foundation series years-ago whenever I talk about scifi!!!'.....ok, I'm calm.

This book made me keep saying 'wow!' every few pages. Good money spent at Ottakars in my opinion.

These books are my five 'Desert Island Reads'.

Wonder if they are in anyone else's top 5?