60 Essential Science Fiction & Fantasy Reads

How many have you read? Mine are bolded below, with links to reviews where available.

• Grimspace by Ann Aguirre
• Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro
• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear
• Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg
• Chime by Franny Billingsley
• Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
• Tithe by Holly Black
• The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
• Cordelia’s Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
• War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• Synners by Pat Cadigan
• Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
• Survival by Julie E. Czerneda
• Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
• King’s Dragon by Kate Elliott
• Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman
• Slow River by Nicola Griffith
• Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
• Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge
• Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
• The God Stalker Chronicles by P.C. Hodgell
• Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
• Valor’s Choice by Tanya Huff
• God’s War by Kameron Hurley
• The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• Daggerspell by Katharine Kerr
• The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
• Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress
• Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
• Ash by Malinda Lo
• Warchild by Karin Lowachee
• Legend by Marie Lu
• Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
• Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
• Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
• The Thief’s Gamble by Juliet E. McKenna
• Sunshine by Robin McKinley
• His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
• Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
• Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• The Female Man by Joanna Russ
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
• The Grass King’s Concubine by Kari Sperring
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
• City of Pearl by Karen Traviss
• Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
• The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
• Farthing by Jo Walton
• The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
• To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

So it looks like I read roughly a third of the books listed here and that only because I realised a few years ago that I was sorely lacking in reading female SFF writers and set out to correct myself. It’s an interesting list, biased towards the recent and what you might call “fluffy” side of things, rather than the usual worthies. Having Scalzi’s debut novel as the only male entry is high level trolling and it raises an interesting contrast with e.g. Tanya Huff’s Valor’s Choice. Both are well written, entertaining mil-sf, but one was treated like the second coming of Heinlein and the other was …not.

Slightly off tangent, going to Amazon and looking up the ebook versions of some of these books was an exercise in frustration. Who decided that eight bucks was an acceptable price for an ebook, barely cheaper than the paperback version, if not higher? Even when the book in question was first published years or decades ago? They think I’m made of money?