On My Top 5 Favorite Science Fiction Books

This year, I am participating in OWS CyCon, a completely online and free book convention. I've been having a lot of fun designing my digital "booth," participating in blog-hops, setting up for cover wars, and interacting with the other authors. Many of them are indie-publishing like me!

One of the questions which I've been frequently asked over the years is: "What are your favorite books?" I have far too many to ever be able to answer without a long hesitation as my brain goes through the list, and I stumble through picking five at random. So, I thought I'd narrow it down to "What are Holly's top 5 favorite Science-Fiction books?" However, even that needed a "twist" to make it work... My indoctrination into the wide world of Sci-Fi came in the form of three Hammermill paper boxes, full of books ranging from War of the Worlds to dozens of Star Trek and Star Wars books. A family friend learned of my blossoming interest and had handed me his entire collection! Nearly thirty years later, I still own most of them and all have had some kind of influence. However, here's the closest thing I'll get to a Top 5

Number 5 This is a book no longer in print, but it was my introduction to "Sci-fi other than Star Trek and Star Wars" and has stood the test of time for me.  "100 Great Science Fiction Stort Stories" is one I've kept hold of from those original boxes handed to me. I've honestly lost track of how many times I've read it!

Number 4 I fought over this one, as there really are three which qualified, based on how much I enjoyed reading them and how it ended up affecting me as a writer. However, I'm going with the middle book of an unofficial trilogy. Many know of Lois Lowry's book "The Giver," but did you know it had two sequels? "Gathering Blue" is my number four, as I can clearly see its influences in some of my writing. The third in that series was called "The Messenger" for anyone interested in the rest of the story. She ties in characters from both books, making it quite clear it is a trilogy after all!

Number 3 Though it wasn't on the top five until recently, George Orwell's 1984 has secured its place. After hearing numerous mentions of it over the past few years, I re-read it - not having picked it up for around twenty years. Oh, the difference time and maturity makes on the mind!

Number 2: And now for the twist! My number two choice would be... almost all of the original expanded universe Star Wars books starting with "Splinter of the Minds Eye" and up to "Showdown at Centerpoint" when you line the books up chronologically from when they happened in the universe. Geeky, I know. I'm not sorry, though.

Number 1: I'm a Trekkie and proud of it! Not only am I a Trekkie, but I'm absolutely fascinated by a minor character named Saavik... to the point where I've based one of my characters in Star Trek Online off of her- making Saavik T'kayeda's mentor. It's no surprise then that "The Pandora Principle" by Carolyn Clowes is my number one favorite book. She took the few little glimpses we had of Saavik and weaved and entire history out of the mystery. It is fabulous!

*OWS CyCon officially runs May 17-19 with the CyCon website and Facebook events acting as the hub for all of our events.