Book meme, via oursin

[white_hart]

James Nicoll's list of 100 SF/F books You Should Consider Reading In the New Year:

Italic = read it. Underlined = not this, but something by the same author. Strikethrough = did not finish. Starred = in the To-Read Pile of Doom

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (2014)
The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken (1981)
Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa (2001-2010)
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō by Hitoshi Ashinano (1994-2006)
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
Stinz: Charger: The War Stories by Donna Barr (1987)
The Sword and the Satchel by Elizabeth Boyer (1980)
Galactic Sibyl Sue Blue by Rosel George Brown (1968)
The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989)
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (1987)
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (1980)
Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey (2010)
The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter (1996)
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (2015)
Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant (1970)
*The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas (1980)
Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh (1976)
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (2015)
Diadem from the Stars by Jo Clayton (1977)
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973)
Genpei by Kara Dalkey (2000)
*Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard (2010)
The Secret Country by Pamela Dean (1985)
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany (1975)
The Door into Fire by Diane Duane (1979)
On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis (2016)
Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott (2006)
Enchantress From the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl (1970)
Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle (1983)
The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss (1997)
A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein (1987)
Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1995)
Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly (1988)
Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand (1990)
Ingathering by Zenna Henderson (1995) (possibly not under this title)
The Interior Life by Dorothy Heydt (writing as Katherine Blake, 1990)
God Stalk by P. C. Hodgell (1982)
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson (1998)
Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang (2014)
Blood Price by Tanya Huff (1991)
The Keeper of the Isis Light by Monica Hughes (1980)
*God’s War by Kameron Hurley (2011)
Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta (2014)
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (2015)
Cart and Cwidder by Diane Wynne Jones (1975)
Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones (2014)
Hellspark by Janet Kagan (1988)
A Voice Out of Ramah by Lee Killough (1979)
St Ailbe’s Hall by Naomi Kritzer (2004)
Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz (1970)
Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (1987)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962)
Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier (2005)
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2013)
*Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee (Also titled Drinking Sapphire Wine, 1979)
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (2016)
Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm (1986)
Adaptation by Malinda Lo (2012)
Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn (1979)
Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy (1983)
The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald (2007)
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh (1992)
Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre (1978)
The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip (1976)
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees (1926)
Pennterra by Judith Moffett (1987)
The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe (2010)
Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore (1969)
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2016)
The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy (1989)
Vast by Linda Nagata (1998)
Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton (1959)
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (2006)
Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara (1993)
Outlaw School by Rebecca Ore (2000)
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (2014)
Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (1983)
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (1976)
*Godmother Night by Rachel Pollack (1996)
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti (1859)
My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland (2011)
The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975)
Stay Crazy by Erika L. Satifka (2016)
*The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1988)
Five-Twelfths of Heaven by Melissa Scott (1985)
*Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
*A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski (1986)
*The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart (1970)
Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree, Jr. (1978)
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (1996)
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge (1980)
All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2017)
The Well-Favored Man by Elizabeth Willey (1993)
Banner of Souls by Liz Williams (2004)
*Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (2012)
Ariosto by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1980)
Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga (2005-present)

So, 28 read, 9 in the to-read pile, 12 authors I've read other works by; just under 50% familiarity and lots more books to add to the list. (It's possible I read a few others in my teens and have forgotten the names, too.)

Comments

[mountainkiss]

It seems to me extraordinary to pick Naamah’s Curse, which is either book two of a trilogy or book eight of a nine book series, depending on one’s perspective. Am I missing something important?

[alithea]

If you are so am I, because I was just wondering the same thing!

[alithea]

Mind you, I'm wondering if The Mountains of Mourning would work as a stand along either...

[mountainkiss]

And I also was pondering that.

[james_davis_nicoll]

It does because it's what got me hooked on Bujold and I encountered it on its own.

[mountainkiss]

TBF the same is also true of me, so yes your point is definitive. I'm not certain that's where I'd start recommending. I haven't given it sufficient thought for my view to be worthy of attention, though.

[white_hart]

The original article is at https://www.tor.com/2018/12/27/100-sf-f-books-you-should-consider-reading-in-the-new-year/, though I’m not sure it clarifies anything (and doesn’t much sell me on the book or the author, either, to be honest).

[mountainkiss]

Thank you! I will look at some of the others too.

[lokifan]

Interesting, cos I just commented elsewhere that I found some of the choices of book (as opposed to author) surprising - Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is her most famous work for a reason. And Diana Wynne Jones' Cart and Cwidder is good because it's her, but honestly doesn't hold a candle to most of her other work, esp in originality.

[mountainkiss]

I thought that about DWJ too. Deep Secret would be my choice but there are many others.

[lokifan]

SO MANY. ethelmay tells me the guy makes a point of not including the same book on more than one list, which partly explains it, but I'm just like... this is just individual taste, I know, but I'd get through fifteen DWJ books easy before I turned to Cart and Cwidder.

[white_hart]

It probably isn't the first I'd recommend, unless I was particularly thinking of the Dalemark Quartet. I think I'd normally suggest the Chrestomanci books for first-time DWJ readers, though.

[celestialweasel]

I was amused by James doing his own list with all hundred in italics

[white_hart]

Well, that's much less work on the formatting!

[mountainkiss]

I like to think he italicised each one separately.