Science Fiction

08 Sep 2021 13:07

---

I pledge allegiance to the form
of science fiction and fantasy
and to the promise for which it stands:
one world,
polycultural,
genetically engineered,
with Internet access for all.

--- Tonio Roque

I've spun off my list of recommendations into a separate page.

The distinction between science fiction and fantasy, like that between animal and plant, is sometimes unclear; still, it doesn't do to call Dunsany SF any more than it does to give your true love a bouquet of hippopotami.

On-line SF resources (author's pages are on the recommendations page):
• Infinite Matrix
• David Langford and Ansible
• SFF Net
• John van Sickle maintains lists of science fiction cliches and really dumb, over-used ideas.

To read:
• Carl Abbott, Frontiers Past and Future: Science Fiction and the American West
• Brian Aldiss
  • Helliconia Summer
  • Helliconia Winter
  • Hothouse
  • Trillion Year Spree
• Paul K. Alkon, Science Fiction Before 1900: Imagination Discovers Technology
• Poul Anderson
  • A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows
  • Tau Zero
• Patricia Anthony
  • Conscience of the Beagle
  • Happy Policeman
• Eleanor Arnason
  • The Sword Smith
  • Mammoths of the Great Plains
  • To the Resurrection Station
  • A Woman of the Iron People
• Madeline Ashby, vN [sequels if I end up liking that one]
• Isaac Asimov
  • Caves of Steel
  • The Naked Sun
• A. A. Attanasio
  • Last Legends of Earth
  • Radix
• Camille Bacon-Smith, Science Fiction Culture
• Kage Baker, The Empress of Mars
• Iain M. Banks
  • Against a Dark Background
  • The Algebraist
  • Feersum Endjinn
  • The Culture:
    2. The Player of Games
       4. The State of the Art
       5. Excession
       8. Matter
          10. The Hydrogen Sonata
• John Barnes [Memo to self: Kaleidescope Century and Mother of Storms are both reported to be pointlessly unpleasant by Reliable Sources...]
  • Finity
  • A Million Open Doors
  • Orbital Resonance
• Elizabeth Bear
  • All the Windwracked Stars <.i>Ancestral Night
  • Carnival
  • Dust
  • Hammered
  • Undertow
• Greg Bear
  • Dead Lines
  • Eon and Eternity
  • Moving Mars
  • Strength of Stones
• Chris Beckett, Holy Machine
• K. A. Bedford, Hydrogen Steel
• Lloyd Biggle, Monument [Humanity as the stupid alien invader with superior weaponry...]
• Terry Bisson, Bears Discover Fire
• John Boyd
  • The Pollinators of Eden
  • The Rakehells of Heaven
• Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
• Mark Brake and Neil Hook, Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science
• John Brizzolara, Empire's Horizon
• Damien Broderick
  • Godplayers
  • The Spike [nonfiction]
  • Transcension
  • The White Abacus
  • X, Y, Z, T: Dimensions of Science Fiction [criticism]
• John Brunner
  • Age of Miracles
  • Bedlam Planet
  • Catch a Falling Star
  • To Conquer Chaos
  • The Crucible of Time
  • The Dramaturges of Yan
  • From This Day Forward
  • The Jagged Orbit
  • Listen!
  • The Long Result
  • The Maze of Stars
  • Muddle-Earth
  • Players at the Game of People
  • The Polymath
  • The Sheep Look Up
  • The Stars
  • Timescoop
• Steven Brust, Cobwoy Feng's Space Bar and Grill
• Tobias Bucknell, Crystal Rain
• M. M. Buckner, Watermind
• Lois McMaster Bujold, Dreamweaver's Dilemma
• Jeffrey Carver, The Infinity Link
• Adam-Troy Castro, The Third Claw of God
• Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
• Suzy McKee Charnas
  • Motherlines
  • The Furies
• C. J. Cherryh
  • 40,000 in Gehenna
  • Tripoint
  • The Faded Sun
  • Collected Short Fiction
  • Port Eternity
  • Finity's End
  • Brother to Earth
  • Wave without a Shore
  • Serpent's Reach
  • Regenesis
• Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life
• Deborah Christian, Mainline
• Seo-Young Chu, Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation
• Frank L. Cioffi, Formula Fiction? An Anatomy of American Science Fiction, 1930--40
• Arthur Clarke [You'll spare yourself a good deal of boredom if you don't read any of his "collaborations."]
  • 1984: Spring --- A Choice of Futures [Nonfiction]
  • 3001
  • Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiography
  • Collected Stories
  • The Exploration of Space [Nonfiction]
  • Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! Collected Essays, 1934--1998
  • The Lions of Comarre
  • Profiles of the Future
  • Report on Planet Three
  • The Snows of Olympus: A Garden on Mars
  • The Wind from the Sun
• Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl, The Last Theorem [an exception to the rule above]
• Hal Clement, Mission of Gravity
• Brenda Clough
  • How Like a God
  • The Doors of Death and Life
• John Clute, Appleseed
• Michael Cobley, Seeds of Earth
• Alfred Coppel, Glory
• Richard Cowper, The Road to Corlay
• Sara Creasy, Children of Scarabaeus
• Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction
• Maurice G. Dantec, Babylon Babies
• Avram Davidson
  • The Enemy of My Enemy
  • Masters of the Maze
  • The Redward Edward Papers
  • Mutiny in Space
• Bradley Denton, Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede
• Marianne de Pierres, Peacemaker [Review at Tor.com]
• Thomas M. Disch, The Dreams Our Stuff is Made of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World
• Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, The Rapture of the Nerds
• Terry Dowling, Wormwood
• Gardner Dozois (ed.), The New Space Opera
• Geo. Alec Effinger, What Entropy Means to Me
• Greg Egan
  • Axiomatic [Review by Danny Yee]
  • The Dark Integers, and Other Stories
  • Diaspora
  • Incandescence
  • Luminous [No US edition; contains stories from first collection, Our Lady of Chernobyl]
  • Quarantine [Review by Danny Yee]
  • Schild's Ladder
  • Teranesia
  • An Unusual Angle [1st novel, out of print]
• Harlan Ellison
  • Approaching Oblivion
  • The Deadly Streets
  • Edgeworks
  • I, Robot [Screenplay based on Asimov's robot stories; unfilmable.]
  • Slippage
• Carol Emshwiller, The Secret City
• M. J. Engh, Arslan
• Joe Clifford Faust, A Death of Honor
• Sheila Finch, The Guild of Xenolinguists
• Peter S. Fisher, Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic
• John M. Ford
  • From the End of the Twentieth Century
  • Fugue State
  • Heat of Fusion
• Karen Joy Fowler, Sarah Canary
• Valerie J. Freireich
  • Becoming Human
  • Testament
• C. S. Friedman, Madness Season
• Randall Garrett
  • Earth Invader [a.k.a. Anything You Can Do]
  • Starship Death
  • Unwise Child
  • Takeoff!
  • Takeoff Two!
• Mary Gentle
  • Golden Witchbreed
  • Ancient Light
• Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
• William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, The Difference Engine
• Kathy Ann Goonan, Queen City Jazz
• Phyllis Gotlieb
  • Blue Apes
  • Doctor Umlaut's Earthly Kingdom [!?]
  • Heart of Red Iron
  • Sunburst
  • Why Should I Have All the Grief?
• Nicola Griffith
  • Ammonite
  • The Blue Place
• Jon Courtenay Grimwood
  • Effendi
  • Pashazade
  • The End of the World Blues
• Karl S. Guthke, The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds, from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction [Review in Isis]
• Joe Haldeman
  • Forever Free
  • Marsbound
• Elizabeth Hand
  • Winterlong
  • Aestival Tide
  • Icarus Descending
  • Glimmering
• M. John Harrison, Light
• Zenna Henderson, The People: No Different Flesh
• Jim C. Hines, Terminal Uprising
• Russell Hoban
  • The Lion of Boaz-Jachim and Jachim-Boaz
  • Ridley Walker [Read it in high school, can't remember a damn thing about it except that I'd probably like it better now]
• Ernest Hogan, High AzTech
• Holdstock, Earthwind
• Ceceilia Holland, Floating Worlds
• Kameron Hurley
  • Geek Feminist Revolution [Criticism]
  • The Stars Are Legion
  • Nyx series
    3. Rapture
    4. Apocalypse Nyx
• Alexander Jablokov
  • Carve the Sky
  • Deepdrive
  • A Deeper Sea
  • Nimbus
  • River of Dust
• K. W. Jeter
  • The Glass Hammer
  • Farewell Horizontal
  • Infernal Devices
  • Moorlock Night
• Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds
• Gwyneth Jones
  • Bold as Love
  • Flowerdust
  • North Wind
  • White Queen
• Richard Kadrey, Metrophage
• Janet Kagan, Hellspark
• James Patrick Kelly, Burn
• Patricia Kerslake, Science Fiction and Empire
• John Kessel
  • Good News from Outer Space
  • Corrupting Dr. Nice
• Caitlin R. Kiernan
  • A Is For Alien
  • The Dry Salvages
• Nancy Kress
  • Dogs
  • Steal Across the Sky
• Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes
• Brooks Landon, Science Fiction after 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars
• David Langford
  • Different Kinds of Darkness
  • The Leaky Establishment
  • The Space Eater
  • Up Through an Empty House of Stars
• Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Left Hand of Darkness
  • The Wind's 12 Quarters
  • The Lathe of Heaven
  • A Fisherman of the Inland Sea
  • The Telling
  • Voices
  • The Word for World Is Forest
• Fritz Leiber
  • The Green Millennium
  • The Wanderer
• Stanislaw Lem
  • The Chain of Chance
  • Eden
  • Fiasco
  • Hospital of the Transfiguration
  • Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
  • Mortal Engines
  • Highcastle
  • Return from the Stars
  • Microworlds
  • The Investigation
  • A Stanislaw Lem Reader [Review by Danny Yee]
• Doris Lessing, Mara and Dann
• Jonathan Lethem
  • Amensia Moon
  • Girl in Landscape
  • Gun, with Occasional Music
  • As She Climbed Across the Table [about really falling in love with your experiment]
• Jane Lindskold, Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls
• Kelly Link, Stranger Things Happen [now available under Creative Commons]
• Elizabeth A. Lynn, The Sardonyx Net
• Ken MacLeod
  • The Bright Command [To be written: "an addition to the still small sub-genre of Dark Lord revisionism... where the multiracial horde with lowly accents and ugly faces who build noisome factories all over fantasyland are the good guys.... It won't be fantasy. It'll have some fantasy look-and-feel, at least at first, but it's straight SF. The setting is a planet elsewhere in the infinite universe that is another Earth with a different history and geography, but with enough similarity in languages that I don't have to make up funny names."]
  • The Corporation Wars
    1. Dissidence
    2. Insurgence
    3. Emergence
  • Descent
  • The Execution Channel
  • Giant Lizards from Another Star
  • The Human Front
  • Intrusion
  • Newton's Wake
  • The Night Sessions
  • The Stone Canal
• George R. R. Martin
  • The Armageddon Rag
  • Dying of the Light
  • Nightflyers
  • Portraits of His Children
  • Sandkings
• David Marusek, Counting Heads
• Paul J. McAuley
  • Austral
  • Cowboy Angels
  • Eternal Light
  • Evening's Empires
  • Four Hundred Billion Stars
  • The Invisible Country
  • The King of the Hill
  • Players
  • Mind's Eye
  • Of the Fall
  • Red Dust
  • Secret Harmonies
  • Strange Angels
  • A Very British History
  • The White Devils
  • The Whole Wide World
• Ian McDonald
  • Brasyl
  • The Broken Land [=Hearts, Hands and Voices]
  • Cyberabad Days
  • Desolation Road
  • Empire Dreams
  • Evolution's Shore [=Chaga]
  • Kirinya [Sequel to Chaga]
  • Luna: New Moon [J. D. Nicoll is isn't taken with it, but McDonald has a lot of good will built up with me]
  • River of Gods
  • Sacrifice of Fools
  • Speaking in Tongues
  • Terminal Cafe [=Necroville]
• Sandra McDonald
  2. The Stars Down Under
  3. The Stars Blue Yonder
• Maureen McHugh
  • Mission Child
  • Nekropolis
• Sean McMullen, Eyes of the Calculor
• China Mieville, Embassytown
• Walter Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz
• Laura Mixon, Glass Houses
• James Morrow, This Is the Way the World Ends
• Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark
• C. L. Moore, Judgment Night
• Derryl Murphy, Wasps at the Speed of Sound
• Pat Murphy
  • Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell
  • The City, Not Long After
• Ramez Naam, Nexus
• Linda Nagata
  • The Last Good Man
  • Light and Shadow: Eight Stories
  • Limits of Vision
  • Memory
  • Pacific Storm
  • The Red: Going Dark
  • Skye Object
  • Tech-Heaven
  • Vast
• Jamil Nasir
  • Distance Haze
  • Tower of Dreams
  • The Houses of Time
• Eric S. Nylund, Signal to Noise
• Annyn Atanielle Noel
  • The Duchess of Kneedeep
  • Speaker to Heaven
  • Murder on Usher's Planet
• Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon
• Megan E. O'Keefe, Velocity Weapon
• Malka Older, Infomocracy
• Patrick O'Leary, Door Number Three
• Rebecca Ore, Becoming Alien et seq.
• Ada Palmer
  2. Seven Surrenders
  3. The Will to Battle
• Alexei Panshin, Heinlein in Dimension [Full text free online, along with other critical writings by Panshin on Heinlein]
• Alexei and Cory Panshin, The World Beyond the Hill: Science Fiction and the Quest for Transcendence [Review by Danny Yee]
• Paul Park
  • Celestis
  • The Cult of Loving Kindness
  • The Sugar Festival
• Julie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon
• Marge Piercy, He, She and It
• Doris Piserchia
  • A Billion Days of Earth
  • The Spinner
• Frederik Pohl
  • Platinum Pohl
  • The Way the Future Was
• Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, Gladiator-at-Law
• Manu Saadia, The Economics of Star Trek
• Adam Rakunas, Windswept
• Robert Reed
  • Beneath the Gated Sky
  • An Exaltation of Larks
  • Marrow
  • Sister Alice
• Alastair Reynolds
  • Absolution Gap
  • Blue Remembered Earth
  • Chasm City
  • Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
  • Elysium Fire
  • Galactic North
  • House of Suns
  • Pushing Ice
  • Revenger
  • The Six Directions of Space
  • Terminal World
  • Zima Blue and Other Stories
• K. Richardson, Blood Orbit
• John Rieder, Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction [Review by Danny Yee]
• Keith Robertson, Pavane
• Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Antractica
  • Forty Signs of Rain et seq.
  • Galileo's Dream
  • Three Californias trilogy
  • Red Mars trilogy
  • 2312
  • Ministry for the Future
• Justina Robson
  • Silver Screen
  • Natural History
• Joanna Russ
  • The Adventures of Alyx
  • And Chaos Died
  • The Female Man
  • The Hidden Side of the Moon
  • Picnic on Paradise
  • Souls
• Richard Paul Russo
  • Carlucci [= omnibus of Destroying Angel, Carlucci's Edge and Carlucci's Heart]
  • Ship of Fools
• Geoff Ryman
  • Air
  • The Child Garden: A Low Comedy
• Nick Sagan, Idlewild
• Scott R. Sanders, The Engineer of Beasts
• William Sanders
  • The Ballad of Billy Badass and the Rose of Turkestan
  • Journey to Fusang
• Pamela Sargent
  • Venus of Dreams
  • Venus of Shadows
  • Earthseed
  • Shore of Women
  • Watchstar
• Robert Sawyer
  • Frameshift
  • Terminal Experiment
• John Scalzi
  • The Android's Dream
  • Lock In
• Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
  • Nothing Sacred
  • Last Refuge
• Hilbert Schenck, Steam Bird
• Karl Schroeder
  • Ventus
  • Permanence
  • Lady of Mazes
• Melissa Scott, Dreamships
• James H. Schmitz
  • A Pride of Monsters
  • The Eternal Frontiers
• Carolyn See
  • Making History
  • Golden Days
• Carol Severance ["anthropological" sf]
• Sheckley, Options
• Lucius Shepard
  • Beast of the Heartland, and Other Stories
  • Kalimantan
  • Life During Wartime
• Joel Shepherd, Kill-Switch
• Will Shetterly, Chimera
• Martin L. Shoemaker, The Last Dance
• Susan Shwartz, Second Chances
• Robert Silverberg
  • The Alien Years
  • Born with the Dead
  • The Face of the Waters
  • The Gate of Worlds
  • Hot Sky at Midnight
  • The Man in the Maze
  • The Mountains of Majipoor
  • Thorns
  • Tower of Glass
• Clifford Simak
  • City
  • Ring Around the Sun
  • Cemetary World
  • Time Is the Simplest Thing
  • Time and Again
• Dan Simmons
  • The Hollow Man
  • Ilium and Olympos
  • Muse of Fire
  • Phases of Gravity [Well, not really SF, he says]
• The Best of John Sladek
• Joan Slonczewski
  • Daughter of Elysium
  • The Wall Around Eden
  • The Children Star
  • Brainplague
• Cordwainer Smith (pseud. of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger)
  • Norstrilia
  • The Rediscovery of Man
• Kristine Smith
  2. Rules of Conflict Law of Survival
• Michael Marshall Smith, Only Forward
• Brian Stableford, The Werewolves of London
• Olaf Stapeldon
  • Odd John
  • Sirius
  • Star Maker
• Allan Steele, The Tranquility Alternative
• Neal Stephenson, Anathem
• Bruce Sterling
  • The Artificial Kid
  • Gothic High-Tech
  • Globalhead
  • Involution Ocean
  • Visionary in Residence
  • (ed.), Mirrorshades
• Caroline Stevermer, River Rats
• John E. Stith, Manhattan Transfer
• Peter Stockwell, The Poetics of Science Fiction
• Charles Stross
  • Accelerando
  • Missile Gap
  • Neptune's Brood
  • Toast
• The Brothers Stugartski
  • The Final Circle of Paradise
  • Noon: 22nd Century
• Theodore Sturgeon
  • E Pluribus Unicorn
  • The Golden Helix
  • Venus Plus X
  • The Dreaming Jewels
• Tricia Sullivan, Maul
• Michael Swanwick
  • Bones of the Earth
  • Dancing with Bears
  • The Dog Said Bow-Wow
  • Gravity's Angels
  • In the Drift
  • Tales of Old Earth
• Judith Tarr, Forgotten Suns
• Jeffrey Thomas, Monstrocity
• Joyce Thompson, Conscience Palace
• "James Tiptree, Jr." (pseud. of the late Alice Sheldon)
  • Brightness Falls from the Air [Review by Danny Yee]
  • Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
  • Up the Walls of the World
• Wilson Tucker
  • Ice and Iron
  • The Year of the Quiet Sun
• Jack Vance [gets his own page]
• Jeff VanderMeer, Borne
• John Varley
  • The Golden Globe
  • Mammoth
  • Millennium
  • The Ophiuchi Hotline
  • The Persistence of Vision
  • Steel Beach
• Carrie Vaughn, Martians Abroad
• Joan Vinge
  • Eyes of Amber, and Other Stories
  • The Outcasts of Heaven's Belt
  • Snow Queen et seq.
• Vernor Vinge
  • A Fire Upon the Deep [Review by Danny Yee]
  • Collected Stories
  • A Deepness in the Sky
• Elisabeth Vonarburg, The Silent City
• Howard Waldrop
• Sage Walker, Whiteout
• Patricia S. Warrick, The Cybernetic Imagination in Science Fiction
• Andy Weir, The Martian
• Kate Wilhelm
  • The Best Defense
  • Crazy Time
  • The Killing Thing
  • Welcome, Chaos
  • Where Late the Sweet Bird Sang
• Walter Jon Williams
  • Frankensteins and Foreign Devils
  • The Green Leopard Plague
• Connie Willis
  • All Seated on the Ground
  • Blackout
  • D.A.
  • Inside Job
  • Lincoln's Dreams
  • Miracle
  • Passages
• Robert Charles Wilson
  • The Affinities
  • The Chronoliths
• Gene Wolfe
  • The Book of the Long Sun
  • The Book of the Short Sun
  • Endangered Species
  • The Fifth Head of Cerebrus
  • Urth of the New Sun
• Dingbo Wu and Patrick Murphy, eds., Science Fiction from China
• John Wyndham
  • Chocky
  • The Chrysalids
  • Consider Her Ways
  • The Hidden People
  • Jizzle
• Jim Young, Armed Memory
• Roger Zelazny
  • Today We Choose Faces
  • Bridge of Ashes
• Sarah Zettel
  • Kingdom of Cages
  • Playing God
  • Reclamation
• Joe Zieja, Communication Failure
• David Zindell