Check out the Lorax by Dr. Seuss Gary
Prof. Gary A. Beluzo Systems Ecologist Holyoke Comm College 303 Homestead Ave Holyoke, MA. 01040 On Aug 27, 2009, at 2:23 AM, Edward Frank <[email protected]> wrote: > Jennifer, > > I have an extensive fantasy and science fiction book collection. I > could likely write a forty page essay on the place of trees and > forests in the fantasy and science fiction genres. I will restrain > myself here to a handful of recommendations. Certainly among > fantasy novels, J. R. R. Tolkien's trilogy The Lord of the Rings is > the epitome of a story featuring forests and trees. Prior to this > time the forests were simply a vague, ill defined background into > which the other elements of the story were set, or would pass > through. With LOTR the forests and trees are fleshed out and > developed until they become a character in their own right. The > introduction of the animated trees - the Ents -mealy adds to this > element of the novels. Beyond the LOTR three are fragments and > continuations of stories featuring these elements in the > Simalrillion and in the Unfinished Tales. These are another source > I would recommend. > > Another fantasy novel worth reading is the second book of Terry > Brooks' Shannara seriesentitled "The Elfstones of Shannara." A > blirb about the book reads as follows: "Ancient, ultimate evil > threatened the Elves and the Races of Man. For the Ellcrys, the > tree of long-lost Elven magic, was dying, loosing the spell of > Forbidding that locked the hordes of Demons away from Earth. Already > the fearsome Reaper was free. Only one source had the power to stop > it: the Elfstones of Shannara. And the valiant companions must ride > again in an impossible quest to find them." > > On the science fiction front two books come to mind to recommend. > the first is "The Word For World is Forest" by Ursula K. LeGuin. > A reader review states he following: The basic scenario is isolated > earth colonists destroying a native planet whose inhabitants learn > to fight back. It is very well executed and is quite deep and > philosophical if you really engage with it, yet it also has a great > story and great drama. > > The other I would recommend in "The Integral Trees" by Larry Haven. > A review of the book reads: Surrounding a decaying neutron star is > a torus of breathable air, the Smoke Ring, wherein - in near- > weightless conditions - float some unusual flora and fauna: gigantic > trees shaped like mathematical integration signs; cubic-mile > globules of water ("ponds"); globular jungles; creatures large and > small; and. . . some tree-dwelling people, attenuated descendants of > a space survey team who fled into the Smoke Ring half a millennium > ago to escape ill-defined but apparently totalitarian Earth > government. > > Both the LeGuin book (actually a novella, but available as a short > book) and the Niven novel won the Hugo Award and Nebula Award for > best science fiction novella and novel when they were published. > LeGuin is perhaps best known for her Earthsea Trilogy which was > somewhat mutilated as a mini-series on the SciFi channel a couple > years ago. Niven is a multiple award winner known for his hard > science fiction stories.His best known work is the novel > "Ringworld." There are several more I would recommend, but these > are a good start. > > Ed Frank > > > > > > > "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. > It is the source of all true art and all science." - Albert Einstein > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
