Locus 2009 Recommended Reading Lists

[danlo]

Novels - Science Fiction

* The Empress of Mars, Kage Baker (Subterranean Press; Tor)
* Transition, Iain M. Banks (Little Brown UK; Orbit)
* Ark, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
* The Devil's Alphabet, Daryl Gregory (Ballantine Del Rey)
* Buyout, Alexander C. Irvine (Ballantine Del Rey)
* Under the Dome, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton; Scribner)
* Steal Across the Sky, Nancy Kress (Tor)
* Chronic City, Jonathan Lethem (Doubleday)
* Gardens of the Sun, Paul McAuley (Gollancz; Pyr 2010)
* The Walls of the Universe, Paul Melko (Tor)
* Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)
* Yellow Blue Tibia, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
* Galileo's Dream, Kim Stanley Robinson (HarperVoyager; Ballantine Spectra 2010)
* The Sunless Countries, Karl Schroeder (Tor)
* This Is Not a Game, Walter Jon Williams (Orbit UK, Orbit US)
* Julian Comstock, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)

Novels - Fantasy

* The Price of Spring, Daniel Abraham (Tor)
* Last Days, Brian Evenson (Underland Press)
* Dragon in Chains, Daniel Fox (Ballantine Del Rey)
* Gears of the City, Felix Gilman (Bantam Spectra)
* Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales, Greer Gilman (Small Beer Press)
* Avilion, Robert Holdstock (Gollancz)
* The High City, Cecelia Holland (Forge)
* The Red Tree, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
* Green, Jay Lake (Tor)
* Madness of Flowers, Jay Lake (Night Shade Books)
* Audrey's Door, Sarah Langan (Harper)
* The City & The City, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Ballantine Del Rey)
* Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; Harper)
* Spell Games, T.A. Pratt (Bantam Spectra)
* Canticle, Ken Scholes (Tor)
* Drood, Dan Simmons (Little, Brown)
* The Revolution Business, Charles Stross (Tor)
* Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
* Finch, Jeff VanderMeer (Underland Press)
* Lifelode, Jo Walton (NESFA Press)
* The Painting and the City, Robert Freeman Wexler (PS Publishing)
* In Great Waters, Kit Whitfield (Jonathan Cape; Del Rey)

[Orlion]

Hmm... I haven't read any of those! ( not surprising, really...)

[danlo]

I haven't either. Heard good things about; This Is Not a Game, Transitions, Gardens of the Sun and have read rave revues of Drood-which, apparently comes very close to the 'horror' genre...

[Avatar]

* Transition, Iain M. Banks (Little Brown UK; Orbit)
* Under the Dome, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton; Scribner)
* Galileo's Dream, Kim Stanley Robinson (HarperVoyager; Ballantine Spectra 2010)
* The City & The City, China Miéville (Macmillan UK; Ballantine Del Rey)
* Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; Harper)

Well, at least I've heard of (and read) stuff by these authors. I'll probably keep an eye out for all those in the quote, except the KS Robinson one. As I was telling Duchess the other day, those mars books put me off him.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

I've read Finch (as people may have noticed), and I'm partway through The City & The City atm. Both very good.

Boneshaker is on a list to buy, as is Palimpsest (love Cat Valente, amazing lyrical prose).
The first couple volumes of Daniel Abraham's series and Jay Lake's first Flowers book (Trial of Flowers, iirc) are in my big pile as-yet-unread.

[Mr. Broken]

Ive read Under The Dome, but thats the only one on the list so far its acceptable, but not in the class of his great works. Im curious about the Empress of Mars, is it in anyway attached to the Edgar Rice Burroughs storyline?

[danlo]

From what I've read in the sample pages at Amazon Empress appears to be set in the future with a decided British tint. It's subtitled 'The Company". Apparently society has become so meek and 'clone-ish' that individualists are placed in psychiatric facilities. 'The Company' seeks to recruit these 'psychos' to settle and explore Mars.