twenty-eight books I'd try to lend to you

[ursula]

I found one of those bold-the-books-you've-read memes floating around and remembered that a while back, I composed a list of science-fiction and fantasy books I would recommend to any casual observer, either for genuine quality of writing or for their qualities as junk fiction of a particularly satisfying variety.

Mirror Dance, Lois Bujold
War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
Heavy Time, C.J. Cherryh
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Bridge of Birds, Barry Hughart

The Lives of Christopher Chant, Diana Wynne Jones
Bold as Love, Gwyneth Jones
Divine Endurance, Gwyneth Jones
Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress
The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin

Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Tehanu, Ursula K. Le Guin
Perelandra, C.S. Lewis
Lens of the World, R.A. MacAvoy
The Third Eagle, R.A. MacAvoy

Arachne, Lisa Mason
Five Children and It, E. Nesbit
N-Space, Larry Niven
Anubis Gates, Tim Powers
Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson

The Laughing Sutra, Mark Salzman
Burning Bright, Melissa Scott
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge

The Weird Colonial Boy, Paul Voermans
Enchanter's Glass, Susan Whitcher
Doomsday Book, Connie Willis

Comments

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

V. interesting. Esp. Lives of Christopher Chant as the DWJ pick. 13 out of 28 for me and Anubis Gates is On My List - perhaps I should add some of the rest of this as the 13 are pretty much all good picks.

[ursula]

Which DWJ book would you pick?

And have you read Weird Colonial Boy? It's one of the harder-to-find books on the list, but it's well worth the effort. (It's very dark, very funny fantasy about an alternative Australia. Think Phantom Tollbooth abuses Ritalin.)