In the Before Time, the Long Long Ago (i.e., before I started this blog), I would ask The Vast Wisdom of Usenet (i.e. rec.arts.sf.written) what books I should read this year. Now that I have the blog, I’m posting the question here.
Below are 100 books (or a more, counting multiple titles by a single author) of fiction I’m considering reading in 2010. With a few exceptions (like forthcoming books), they’re all books I already own in first editions. Most likely I’ll get to considerably less than 100. The first few are books I’ll probably get to (or have already read), whereas the rest are a little vaguer (and in alphabetical order by author). That’s where you come in. Tell me which of the books below I should or shouldn’t read, and why. If a book’s not on the list, it’s probably because I’ve already read it, or have no interest in it, won’t get to it this year, etc., so save your electrons instead of suggesting alternates (there are plenty of other places for that). And if I list Book #2 in a linear series, rest assured I’ve already read Book #1.
I don’t promise I’ll read all the highest rated works, but those most highly praised are considerably more likely to be added to the reading stack, which is what’s happened the previous years I’ve done this.
- Gene Wolfe: The Sorceror’s House
- John Scalzi: The God Engines
- Joe R. Lansdale: Vanilla Ride
- China Mieville: King Rat
- Steven R. Boyett: Elegy Beach
- Joe Hill: 20th Century Ghosts
- Philip K. Dick: Collected Stories Volume II or Radio Free Albemuth
- Michael Moorcock:The War Hound and the World’s Pain or The Final Programme
- Greg Egan: Crystal Nights
- Peter Ackroyd: Hawksmoor
- J. G. Ballard: Crystal World
- Iain Banks: Against a Dark Background or Matter
- John Barnes: Kaleidoscope Century or Mother of Storms
- Stephen Baxter: Traces or Mayflower II
- Peter S. Beagle: A Fine and Private Place
- Greg Bear: The City at the End of Time
- Poppy Z. Brite: Plastic Jesus
- Tobias Buckell: Sly Mongoose
- Octavia Butler: Fledgeling
- Jack Cady: The Night We Buried Road Dog
- Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
- John Christopher: No Blade of Grass
- Susanna Clarke: Ladies of Grace Adieu
- Hal Clement: Iceworld
- Avram Davidson: The Adventures of Dr. Esterhauzy or Limekiller
- L. Sprague de Camp: A Gun for Dinosaur
- Bradley Denton: Laughin’ Boy
- Paul Di Filippo: Lost Pages or Fractal Paisleys
- George Alec Effinger: What Entropy Means to Me
- Harlan Ellison: Deathbird Stories
- John M. Ford: The Dragon Waiting
- Neil Gaiman: Fragile Things or The Graveyard Book
- John Gardner: Freddy’s Book or The Wreckage of Agathon
- Ray Garton: Night Life or Nids
- Jane Gaskell: The Serpent
- Joe Haldeman: The Accidental Time Machine
- Peter F. Hamilton: Mindstar Rising
- Robert E. Howard: Conan the Barbarian
- Nalo Hopkinson: Brown Girl in the Ring or The Salt Roads
- Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived in the Castle or The Lottery
- M. R. James: More Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary
- K. W. Jeter: Noir or Dark Seeker
- Ha Jin: Waiting
- James Patrick Kelly: Strange But Not a Stranger
- Stephen King: Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass or The Colorado Kid
- Russell Kirk: The Surly Sullen Bell (and yes, I’ve read the 2 Arkham House collections)
- Henry Kuttner and/or C. L. Moore: Mutant, Fury, Black God’s Shadow or No Boundaries
- R. A. Lafferty: Archipelago or The 13th Voyage of Sinbad
- Fritz Leiber: Night’s Black Agents
- Stanislaw Lem: Solaris
- Jonathan Lethem: Motherless Brooklyn
- Thomas Ligotti: Grimscribe, Noctuary, or The Shadow at the Bottom of the World
- Ian MacLeod: Breathmoss and Other Exhalations
- Ken MacLeod: Giant Lizards from Another Star or The Execution Channel
- Gregory Maguire: Wicked
- Barry Malzberg: Hervoit’s World
- Richard Matheson: Duel or What Dreams May Come
- Ian MacDonald: River of Gods
- Maureen McHugh: Mission Child or Nekropolis
- Sean McMullen: The Miocene Arrow
- Larry McMurtry: Lonesome Dove
- Ward Moore: Bring the Jubilee
- Pat Murphy: The Falling Woman
- John Myers Myers: Silverlock
- William F. Nolan: Things Beyond Midnight or Wild Galaxy
- Naomi Novik: Throne of Jade
- Patrick O’Leary: Other Voices, Other Rooms
- Chad Oliver: The Shores of Another Sea or The Winds of Time
- Susan Palwick: The Fate of Mice
- H. Beam Piper: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen
- Tim Powers: Three Days to Never or Pilot Light
- Alastair Reynolds: Redemption Ark
- Rudy Rucker: Master of Time & Space or The Secret of Life or White Light
- Matt Ruff: Fool on the Hill
- Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children
- Joanna Russ: The Female Man
- Karl Schroeder: Permanence or Lady of Mazes
- David J. Schow: Crypt Orchids
- Michael Shaara: The Herald or The Killer Angels
- Michael Shea: A Quest for Simbilis
- Lucius Shepard: Floater or Aztechs or Viator
- Lewis Shiner: The Edges of Things or Black and White
- Dan Simmons: The Terror or Hard as Nails
- Robert Sladek: Roderick
- Neal Stephenson: Zodiac or The Big U
- Charles Stross: The Fuller Memorandum (forthcoming)
- Theodore Sturgeon: Microcosmic God: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon Volume 2
- Steph Swainston: The Year of Our War
- Thomas Burnett Swann: The Day of the Minotaur
- Karl Edward Wagner: Darkness Weaves
- Howard Waldrop: The Moone World (forthcoming)
- Manly Wade Wellman: The Sleuth Patrol, The Last Mammoth or Fastest on the River
- Martha Wells: The Element of Fire
- John Whitbourne: To Build Jerusalem or Binscomb Tales
- Liz Williams: The Demon and the City
- Jack Williamson and James E. Gunn: Star Bridge
- Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog
- Jack Vance: Star King, The Languages of Pao, or Ports of Call
- Roger Zelazny: Wilderness or DonnerJack
