Great Science-Fiction
& Fantasy Works

science-fiction & fantasy literature:
a critical list with discussions

Some Candidates For the Science-Fiction & Fantasy Book Lists

"'The Observer will decide,' I said."

--Kiteworld,
Keith Roberts

Why These Are Not Yet in the Lists

Regrettably, I have been spared little time of late for the development of this site. While I hope and expect that I will be returning to a heavier commitment to it soon now, in the meantime I thought to augment the site a bit with a list of some yet-unlisted (here) books by authors already in the lists.

The attentive visitor to this site will have noticed that the main lists already contain books not yet read by me--all duly marked with a # sign before the title--and so may wonder why the particular unread books here are not also in those lists. Well, there are some authors who are so good that anything by them can be trusted; and there are others who, if not "for the ages", are both acceptably good and consistent. Works by either sort may, in my opinion, be recommended unread, subject to two provisos: first, that the recommender--me, in this case--makes it clear that the recommendation is based on repute, not an actual reading; and second, that the book eventually be read and, if regrettably it be necessary to remove it, it be removed. Such, in my opinion, are the # books now in the lists.

There remain quite a number of authors who can at least on occasion rise to acceptable quality, as evidenced by their being represented in these lists at all, but whose output shows significant variations in quality ("quality" always, of course, meaning "quality as I perceive it"). That category naturally includes a number of writers of middling ability, who can now or then hit the bell; but it also includes a nontrivial number of authors of presumed excellence who nevertheless--to me--seem capable of producing occasioanl potboilers or worse along with their better work.

Let us get one thing clear: This is emphatically not a list of "marginal" works of dubious quality. It is simply a list of works not yet read and evaluated, and (so far as I can tell) of unpredictable quality. So, while it doubtless contains a deal of marginal work, and even some drek, it likely also contains not a few wondrous gems. I put it forth simply so that should anyone come to this site looking for some thoughts on where to expand their current reading acquaintance they can have the regular lists--necessarily limited by what one man can read in a given span--augmented by at least plausible suggestions about authors who have already proved, whether once or repeatedly, that they are capable of producing worthwhile reading. Note also that these are by no means complete bibliographies of these writers, even just with the field of speculative fiction.

I have, in a few cases, included some limited comments about the author, but only as an aide-memoire, not as any sort of definitive analysis.

And I say yet again: I really don't know much about any of these books save that their respective authors have produced at least some work of merit.

The List

In these listings:

The standard marks on this site also apply, notably that a * after a book title indicates that it is a collection of tales, not a novel.

The key distinction in these lists is that a title that is not boldfaced is a work that I am not sure qualifies as either science-fiction or fantasy. (It may also happen that a title that is boldfaced is not either, since I am going by general repute, not actual rading experience.)

Ackroyd, Peter

• Hawksmoor
• The House of Dr. Dee
• English Music
• The Plato Papers

Adams, Richard

• The Plague Dogs
• Traveller

Aiken, Joan

Aiken wrote numerous novels, most YA, and frankly the "YA" as pect gets tedious. But her short fiction--whether for children, young adults oer not-young adults--simply sparkles, at least based on a couple of books' worth so far. Obviously, some are better than others, but none descend to tedium. Because my sample is still small, I am keeping these here for now, till I read one or two more; but I suspect this entire list will be moved to the main lsts at that time. (These are all short-story collections, and omit a couple of omnibus editions; there are also variant British/American editions of some.)

• All You've Ever Wanted *
• More Than You Bargained For *
• A Necklace of Raindrops *
• Armitage, Armitage, fly away home *
• A Small Pinch of Weather *
• Girl's Choice *
• The Windscreen Weepers *
• Smoke from Cromwell's Time *
• The Kingdom Under the Sea *
• The Green Flash *
• A Bundle of Nerves *
• A Harp of Fishbones *
• Not What You Expected *
• The Faithless Lollybird * *
• The Far Forests *
• Tale of a One-Way Street *
• A Touch of Chill * *
• A Whisper in the Night * *
• A Fit of Shivers *
• Fog Hounds, Wind Cat, Sea Mice *
• Give Yourself a Fright *
• Up the Chimney Down * *
• The Last Slice of the Rainbow *
• Past Eight O'Clock *
• A Goose on Your Grave *
• The Haunting of Lamb House *
• A Foot in the Grave *
• Shadows and Moonshine *
• Haunting Christmas Tales *
• A Creepy Company *
• The Winter Sleepwalker *
• Moon Cake *
• Ghostly Beasts *
• Snow Horse *

Amis, Kingsley

• The Anti-Death League

Arnason, Eleanor

• Daughter of the Bear King
• Ring of Swords

Attanasio, A. A.

• Dominions of Irth (as by "Adam Lee"):
  
  • The Dark Shore
  • The Shadow Eater
  • Octoberland
• Beast Marks
• Hunting the Ghost Dancer
• The Moon's Wife: A Hystery
• Solis
• Silent (with Robert S. Henderson)
• Centuries
• Killing with the Edge of the Moon

Auster, Paul

• Moon Palace
• The Music of Chance
• Timbuktu
• Travels In The Scriptorium

Barker, Clive

Barker has a much larger oeuvre, but most of it is "horror", which this site does not deal in.

• The Art:
  
  • The Great and Secret Show
  • Everville
• Imajica (omnibus edition)
• Abarat

Barrett, Neal

Some of these may be "mainstream" rather than speculative fiction. Also, Barrett evolved tremendously as a writer, so his earlier work is often not as impressive as his later usually is.

• Kelwin
• The Gates of Time
• The Leaves of Time
• Highwood
• Stress Pattern
• The Karma Corps
• Barb Wire
• Warrior's Revenge
• Day the Decorators Came
• Piggs
• Prince of Christler-Coke
• Perpetuity Blues: And Other Stories *
• A Different Vintage *

Bisson, Terry

• Bears Discover Fire *
• Voyage to the Red Planet
• Pirates of the Universe
• The Pick-up Artist
• Greetings & Other Stories *
• Numbers Don't Lie

Bryant, Edward

• Phoenix without Ashes (with Harlan Ellison)
• Trilobyte
• Among the Dead: And Other Events Leading Up to the Apocalypse *
• Wyoming Sun *
• Particle Theory *
• Darker Passions *
• The Thermals of August *
• The Man of the Future *
• Neon Twilight *
• The Cutter *
• Fetish *
• Flirting With Death *

Bulgakov, Mikhail

• Diaboliad: And Other Stories *
• The Heart of a Dog and Other Stories *
• The Fatal Eggs: And Other Soviet Satire *

Cady, Jack

• The Hauntings of Hood Canal
• Ghostland *
• The Night We Buried Road Dog *
• The Off Season
• Street
• Inagehi
• The Sons of Noah *
• The Man Who Could Make Things Vanish
• Mc Dowell's Ghost
• Singleton
• The Well
• Tattoo *
• The Burning and Other Stories *

Card, Orson Scott

• Enchantment
• Songmaster
• Wyrms
• Magic Street

Chapman, Stepan

• Dossier *
• Danger Music *

Charnas, Suzy McKee

• The Ruby Tear

Cherryh, C. J.

• Finisterre:
  
  • Rider at the Gate
  • Cloud's Rider
• Goblin Mirror

Compton, D. G.

• Katherine Mortenhoe:
  
  • The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe aka The Unsleeping Eye aka Death Watch
  • Windows
• The Quality of Mercy
• Farewell, Earth's Bliss
• The Silent Multitude
• Synthajoy
• The Palace
• The Missionaries
• A Usual Lunacy
• Ascendancies
• Deathwatch
• Radio Plays
• Scudder's Game
• Ragnarok (with John Gribbin)
• Nomansland
• Justice City

Conway, Gerard F.

• Mindship

Cook, Glen

• The Heirs of Babylon
• A Matter of Time
• Sung in Blood
• Starfishers:
  
  • Shadowline
  • Starfishers
  • Star's End

Cooper, Louise

This is supposedly all of her "adult" fiction--as distinguished from "young adult" and children's books by her--as listed on her own site; but the list is patently incomplete. Nonetheless, it's a starting point for anyone wanting to see more of her output.

• Time-Master:
  
  • Lord of No Time [earlier version of what became the three books below]
  • The Initiate
  • The Outcast
  • The Master
• The King's Demon
• Sacrament of Night
• Our Lady of the Snow
• The Summer Witch
• The Spiral Garden *

Cooper, Susan

• Seaward
• King of Shadows
• Green Boy
• Victory

Cover, Arthur Byron

I now feel fairly confident that all of these will make the lists, but let me try one or two more to be sure.

• Autumn Angels:
  
  • The Platypus of Doom and Other Nihilists *
  • An East Wind Coming
• Planetfall:
  
  • Planetfall
  • Stationfall
• The Red Star

Dahl, Roald

None of Dahl's children's books are likely to be less than pleasing, but how many, and which, will make the full lists is hard to say; these are the current contenders.

• The BFG
• The BFG, Matilda, and George's Marvelous Medicine
• Danny, the Champion of the World
• The Enormous Crocodile
• Esio Trot
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• George's Marvelous Medicine
• The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
• The Gremlins
• The Magic Finger
• Matilda
• The Minpins
• The Twits
• The Vicar of Nibbleswicke
• The Witches

Dahl also wrote distinctly adult work--some creepy, some sexy, all (or most) well-regarded--which I have yet to sample. Here are the contenders in that arena, though as almost all are story collections there is probably some--possibly much--overlap in contents.

• My Uncle Oswald
• 5 Bestsellers *
• Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life *
• The Best of Roald Dahl *
• The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl *
• Completely Unexpected Tales *
• Further Tales of the Unexpected *
• The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories *
• Kiss Kiss *
• Lamb to the Slaughter and Other Stories *
• The Mildenhall Treasure *
• More Tales of the Unexpected *
• The Roald Dahl Omnibus *
• Over to You *
• Selected Stories of Roald Dahl *
• A Roald Dahl Selection: Nine Short Stories *
• A Second Roald Dahl Selection: Eight Short Stories *
• Skin and Other Stories *
• Someone Like You *
• Switch B***h *
• Tales of the Unexpected *
• Tales of the Unexpected (Volume 1) *
• Tales of the Unexpected (Volume 2) *
• Taste and Other Tales *
• Twenty Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl *
• Two Fables *
• The Umbrella Man and Other Stories *

Dalkey, Kara

• Sagamore:
  
  • The Curse of Sagamore
  • The Sword of Sagamore
• Mitsuko:
  
  • Little Sister
  • The Heavenward Path
• Blood of the Goddess:
  
  • Goa
  • Bijapur
  • Bhagavati
• The Nightingale
• Steel Rose
• Crystal Sage
• Genpei

Davies, Robertson

Caveat: it is unclear which of these, other than the story collection, is or might be speculative fiction. Substantial reading of articles about Davies and his various works does not, for me, lessen the difficulty: one reviewer refers to Davies' work as "novels suffused with something awfully close to magic."

• The Deptford Trilogy
• Fifth Business
• The Manticore
• World of Wonders
• The Cornish Trilogy
• The Rebel Angels
• What's Bred in the Bone
• The Lyre of Orpheus
• The Toronto Trilogy
• The Cunning Man
• (left incomplete at Davies' death)
• High Spirits *

Davis, Kathryn

While most of her novels have a fantastic element, it rarely dominates; in Versailles, for example, Marie Antoinette's ghost is summoned merely as a device to give us a fictional autobiography. But In the other three books here, the fantastic is more strongly present, though never the focus.

• Labrador
• Hell
• Walking Tour
• Versailles

Dexter, Susan

• The Ring of Allaire
• The Sword of Calandra
• The Mountains of Channadran
• Moonlight

Dickinson, Peter

Dickinson is almost exclusively a "young adult" author. I have tried some other work by him, which is passable reading but not up to the standard I hope these main lists represent. This is the sole potential candidate yet unevaluated here.

• The Ropemaker

Disch, Thomas M.

• The Genocides
• Mankind under the Leash
• Echo Round His Bones
• Black Alice (with John Sladek)
• 334
• Clara Reeve (as by "Leonie Hargrave")
• On Wings of Song
• Neighboring Lives (with Charles Naylor)
• Fun with Your New Head *
• White Fang Goes Dingo and Other Funny SF Stories *
• Getting into Death *
• The Businessman
• Fundamental Disch *

Dowling, Terry

• Rynosseros:
  
  • Blue Tyson
  • Twilight Beach
• Beckoning Nightframe
• His Own, The Star Alphecca
• The Ichneumon and the Dormeuse
• Wormwood *
• The Man Who Lost Red *
• An Intimate Knowledge of the Night *
• Antique Futures: The Best of Terry Dowling *
• Blackwater Days *

Duncan, Dave

• Alfeo:
  
  • The Alchemist's Apprentice
• Dodec:
  
  • Children of Chaos
  • Mother of Lies
• King's Blades:
  
  • Chronicles:
    
    • Paragon Lost
    • Impossible Odds
    • Jaguar Knights
  • Tales:
    
    • The Gilded Chain
    • Lord of the Fire Lands
    • Sky of Swords
  • Blades:
    
    • Sir Stalwart
    • The Crooked House
    • Silvercloak
• Longdirk:
  
  • The Demon Sword
  • The Demon Rider
  • The Demon Knight
• Handful of Men:
  
  • The Cutting Edge
  • Upland Outlaws
  • The Stricken Field
  • The Living God
• A Man of His Word:
  
  • Magic Casement
  • Faery Lands Forlorn
  • Perilous Seas
  • Emperor and Clown
• The Cursed
• Hero!
• Strings
• West of January
• Shadow
• A Rose-Red City

Ducornet, Rikki

• The Butcher's Tales *
• Tetralogy of Elements:
  
  • The Stain
  • Entering Fire
  • The Fountains of Neptune
  • The Jade Cabinet
• The Word "Desire" *

Eco, Umberto

• Foucault's Pendulum

Effinger, George Alec

• Relatives
• Nightmare Blue (with Gardner Dozois)
• Those Gentle Voices: A Promethean Romance of the Spaceways
• Death in Florence aka Utopia 3
• Heroics
• The Wolves of Memory
• Time:
  
  • The Nick of Time
  • The Bird of Time
• Shadow Money
• The Old Funny Stuff
• Look Away
• Schrodinger's Kitten
• Trinity: Hope Sacrifice Unity
• Thousand Deaths

Eisenstein, Phyllis

• In the Hands of Glory

Findley, Timothy

• The Butterfly Plague
• Not Wanted on the Voyage
• Headhunter
• Dust to Dust *

Ford, John M.

• Web of Angels
• The Scholars of Night
• Fugue State
• Growing Up Weightless
• The Last Hot Time

Foster, M. A.

• The Book of The Ler (trilogy)
  also available individually, as:
  
  • Warriors of Dawn
  • The Gameplayers of Zan
  • The Day of the Klesh
• Owl Time *

Friesner, Esther

• Twelve Kingdoms:
  
  • Spells of Mortal Weaving
  • The Witchwood Cradle
  • The Water King's Laughter
• New York:
  
  • Elf Defense
  • Sphynxes Wild
• Harlot's Ruse
• The Silver Mountain
• Ecce Hominid
• It's Been Fun
• The Wishing Season
• The Sherwood Game

Gemmell, David

I have already sampled a few of the books below, and it is my feeling that Gemmell was slipping somewhat, unable to maintain the standard he set with the "Drenai" books. Possibly that is a consequence of his having had the pedal to the metal--his production rate was exceeding high. His segment of the speculative-fiction field is one that requires care and effort in the writing if it is not to quickly degenerate into generic thud-and-blunder, and I suspect he had started been skimping that care; he was well entitled to write as he pleased in order to make money from his work (as did, for example, Michael Moorcock), but we as readers need to be selective in evaluating his work. Caveat emptor . . . .

• Lion of Macedon:
  
  • Lion of Macedon
  • Dark Prince
• Hawk Queen:
  
  • The Ironhand's Daughter
  • The Hawk Eternal
• Rigante:
  
  • Sword in the Storm
  • The Midnight Falcon
  • Ravenheart
  • Stormrider
• Troy:
  
  • Lord Of The Silver Bow
  • The Shield of Thunder
• Knights of Dark Renown
• The Lost Crown
• Morning Star
• White Knight, Black Swan
• Dark Moon
• Echoes of the Great Song

Goldstein, Lisa

• A Mask for the General
• Tourists
• Summer King, Winter Fool
• Walking the Labyrinth
• The Alchemist's Door
• Daughter of Exile

Gray, Nicholas Stuart

Gray specialized in "young adult" work. Some of his output manages that elusive but pleasing charm that makes it pleasant adult reading, but I suspect that one cannot look for that quality in all of his substantial output. What here is bearable adult reading I simply cannot guess.

• Beauty and the Beast
• Imperial Nightingale
• Other Cinderella
• Down in the Cellar
• The Stone Cage
• Mainly in Moonlight
• The Apple-Stone
• New Lamps for Old
• The Boys (with Robin Adler)
• Over the Hills to Fabylon
• Further Adventures of Puss in Boots
• The Edge of Evening
• Killer's Cookbook
• A Wind from Nowhere
• The Wardens of the Weir
• The Garland of Filigree
• Hunters and the Henwife
• The Tinder Box
• The Sorcerer's Apprentices

Hoban, Russell

Hoban is maddening: he can produce works of genius and works of trash with equal facility. (His biggest problem seems to be keeping a rein on his hebephrenic sense of humor.) These books might all be immortal wonders or all be rubbish. One can only try them one by one.

• Fremder
• Mr. Rinyo-Clacton's Offer
• Amaryllis Night and Day
• Her Name Was Lola
• Come Dance with Me
• Linger Awhile

Hansen, Eric Fosnes

Regrettably, neither Falcon Tower nor The Lion Woman have yet been translated into English, so I cannot even determine if they qualify as speculative fiction (Hansen's only other translated work, while well received, is not speculative.

Holdstock, Robert

• Eye Among the Blind
• Earthwind
• Necromance
• In the Valley of the Statues *
• The Fetch

Irwin, Robert

Irwin is a noted expert on the Orient, and has written respected non-fiction books on the topic. He also writes lush (yet crisply written) fantasy fiction with Oriental settings.

• The Limits of Vision
• The Mysteries of Algiers
• Exquisite Corpse
• Prayer-Cushions of the Flesh
• Satan Wants Me

Jerrold, Douglas #

In his time, Jerrold was accounted the equal of Thackery and Dickens; there is a long, interesting contemporary homage to Jerrold from the very first issue of The Atlantic Monthly magazine available online. He wrote more novels than just the two listed below, but whether any of the others constitute speculative fiction I don't know yet.

• A Man Made of Money
• The Chronicles of Clovernook

Jackson, Shirley

There's not much doubt of her writerly qualities; it is the question of whether these books are speculative fiction, horror, or mainstream that keeps them (while yet unread) out of the main lists.

• The Road Through the Wall
• The Hangsaman
• The Bird's Nest
• The Sundial
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Jones, Diana Wynne

• The Homeward Bounders
• Archer's Goon
• Fire and Hemlock

Joyce, Graham

• Dreamside
• Dark Sister
• House of Lost Dreams
• Requiem
• The Tooth Fairy
• The Stormwatcher
• Indigo
• Smoking Poppy
• Leningrad Nights
• The Limits of Enchantment

King, Stephen

King's work is, first off, hard to segregate as between fantasy and horror (see this Salon ezine article on one of his books). Second, but almost as important, while King at his best is the right stuff, in his later years his reputation was so huge that--by common report--he evaded some very, very badly needed editing. The "Dark Tower" series, which started full of promise, seems to at some point have collapsed under its own weight, King piling Pelion upon Ossa in trying to bring virtually all of his past work into orbit around the tower (a trend often thought to be a clear symptom of "brain-eater disease", Isaac Asimov being frequently cited as another case study).

• The Dark Tower:
  
  • The Gunslinger
  • The Drawing of the Three
  • The Waste Lands
  • Wizard and Glass
  • Wolves of the Calla
  • Song of Susannah
  • The Dark Tower
    
    
• Territories:
  
  • The Talisman (with Peter Staub)
  • The Black House (with Peter Staub)

Le Guin, Ursula K.

Ursula K. Le Guin (I guess the initial is to distinguish her from all the other Ursula Le Guins who write) is famous, or notorious, in speculative-fiction circles for maddening inconsistency, to the extent that the clever phrase "good Ursula, bad Ursula" (coined by Doug Muir) has acquired considerable currency. "Bad Ursula" shows up when Le Guin lets her do-good impulses over-ride her writerly ones, and produces a tract rather than a story. She truly is the little girl with the curl ("When she was good / She was very good indeed / But when she was bad she was horrid." -- H. W. Longfellow). The list below doubtless includes samples of both Ursulas.

• The Dispossessed
• The Lathe of Heaven
• The Wind's Twelve Quarters *
• Buffalo Gals *
• A Fisherman of the Inland Sea *
• Four Ways to Forgiveness *
• The Birthday of the World *

Lee, Tanith

The contents of the various listed story collections probably overlap a fair bit. There is available a complete online bibliography of her work that is an absolute model of how to do a useful online bibliography.

• Eva Fairdeath
• Companions On The Road and The Winter Players: Two Novellas
• Day By Night
• Sometimes, After Sunset [2 novellas]
• Sung In Shadow
• Tamastara, Or, The Indian Nights
• The Gorgon And Other Beastly Tales
• Dreams Of Dark And Light: The Great Short Fiction Of Tanith Lee *
• A Heroine Of The World
• Forests Of The Night *
• The Blood Of Roses
• Reigning Cats And Dogs
• Vivia
• When The Lights Go Out
• White As Snow
• Mortal Suns
• Lionwolf:
  
  • Cast A Bright Shadow
  • Here In Cold Hell
  • No Flame But Mine

Lewis, C. S.

• Till We Have Faces

Lindholm, Megan

• Cloven Hooves

Lively, Penelope

Lively (quite a name for a writer) has a prodigious output of fiction, including both books for adults and for children; she has seven different literary awards to her name, with some in both areas. Regrettably, none of her explicitly adult fiction seems--so far as I can tell--to be speculative. Curiously, a good deal of her children's work apparently is; but it also seems that much of her children's work is for very young children, and so below the level at which even a wise adult might find pleasing. I have nonetheless listed books here without trying to definitely make an age-based cutoff, because one doesn't know all that much from short reviews. All in all, this woman can write.

• Astercote
• The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy
• The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
• The Voyage of QV66
• The Cat, the Crow and the Banyan Tree
• The Whispering Knights
• The Revenge of Samuel Stokes
• Good Night, Sleep Tight
• Uninvited Ghosts and Other Stories
• Debbie and the Little Devil
• Judy and the Martian
• A Martian Comes to Stay

Lindsay, David

Lindsay's lesser works (after Voyage to Arcturus) share the same vices and virtues--powerful ideas and grand visions struggling to escape from pedestrian prose--but the balance is, by general report, not as favorable in these; nonetheless, they have their articulate defenders, and are worth at least trying.

• The Haunted Woman
• Sphinx
• The Violet Apple
• Devil's Tor
• The Witch

Lupoff, Richard

Lupoff writes wildly diverse material, much of it humorous or even sarcastic. What quality level is present in the works below is impossible to guess, but when he sets himself to it, he can be impressive.

• Sacred Locomotive Flies
• Into the Aether
• The Crack in the Sky aka Fool's Hill
• Sandworld
• Lisa Kane
• Space War Blues
• Lovecraft's Book
• The Forever City
• The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer (with Steve Stiles)
• Claremont Tales *
• Claremont Tales II *

MacAvoy, R. A.

• The Book of Kells
• The Grey Horse

Mark, Jan

• Divide and Rule
• Aquarius
• They Do Things Differently There
• The Eclipse Of The Century
• Riding Tycho
• Useful Idiots

Marks, Laurie J.

• Children of the Triad:
  
  • Delan the Mislaid
  • The Moonbane Mage
  • Ara's Field
    
    
• Elemental Logic:
  
  • Fire Logic
  • Earth Logic

McDonald, Ian

• Terminal Cafe aka Necroville
• River of Gods

McIntyre, Vonda N.

• Starfarers:
  
  • Starfarers
  • Transition
  • Metaphase
  • Nautilus
• The Exile Waiting
• The Entropy Effect
• Superluminal
• Fireflood & Other Stories *

McKiernan, Dennis

• The Dragonstone
• Voyage of the Fox Rider
• Hel's Crucible [2-novel omnibus]
• Dragondoom
• Tales from the One-Eyed Crow: The Vulgmaster
• Tales of Mithgar
• The Eye of the Hunter
• Silver Wolf, Black Falcon
• Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar
• Caverns of Socrates
• Once Upon a Winter's Night
• Once Upon a Summer Day
• Once Upon an Autumn Eve
• Once Upon a Spring Morn
• Once Upon a Dreadful Time

McKillip, Patricia

• The House on Parchment Street
• The Night Gift
• Stepping From the Shadows
• The Moon and the Face
• Fool's Run

Modesitt, L. E.

I have in fact read some of the works listed below--but I can't remember just which, so little did each leave with me. Modesitt can pretty well be counted on to be readable, but it is as Nero Wolfe's cook, Fritz Brenner, said of a certain dinner: Mangeable, mais pas mémorable. Well, just in case, here is Modesitt's considerable output.

• The Corean Chronicles:
  
  • Legacies
  • Darkness
  • Scepters
  • Alector's Choice
  • Cadmian's Choice
  • Soarer's Choice
• Johan Eschbach:
  
  • Of Tangible Ghosts
  • The Ghost of the Revelator
  • Ghost of the White Nights
• Recluce:
  
  • The Magic of Recluce
  • The Towers of Sunset
  • The Magic Engineer
  • The Order War
  • The Death of Chaos
  • The Fall of Angels
  • The Chaos Balance
  • The White Order
  • Colors of Chaos
  • Magi'i of Cyador
  • Scion of Cyador
  • Wellspring of Chaos
  • Ordermaster
• Spellsong Cycle:
  
  • The Soprano Sorceress
  • The Spellsong War
  • Darksong Rising
  • The Shadow Sorceress
  • Shadowsinger
• The Ecolitan Institute:
  
  • The Ecologic Envoy
  • The Ecolitan Operation
  • The Ecologic Secession
  • The Ecolitan Enigma
• The Forever Hero:
  
  • Dawn for a Distant Earth
  • The Silent Warrior
  • In Endless Twilight
• Parafaith Universe:
  
  • The Parafaith War
  • The Ethos Effect
• Timegod's World:
  
  • The Fires of Paratime aka The Timegod
  • Timediver's Dawn
• Archform:
  
  • Archform: Beauty
  • Flash
• Gravity Dreams
• The Octagonal Raven
• The Eternity Artifact
• The Green Progression (with Bruce Scott Levinson)

Monaco, Richard

• Leitus:
  
  • Runes
  • Broken Stone
• Journey to the Flame
• Unto the Beast

Nathan, Robert

Nathan is not much remembered today, save perhaps for Portrait of Jenny, and he is especially conspicuous by his absence from most lists of speculative-fiction writers--despite which (as with Portrait) he regularly used fantastic elements in his work. Perhaps it is that today we do not much value light, pastel-toned tales: which is a shame, and arguably an indictment of our times, and us. Regrettably, with only a very few exceptions, I have no idea which of Nathan's many books are speculative and which not; those I am unsure of are the ones not in boldface below. (Digging the Weans is a masterly little gem of uproarious humor--I first encountered it as a Peter Ustinov recital: true rotfl.)

• Peter Kindred
• Autumnn
• The Puppet Master
• Jonah
• The Fiddler in Barly
• The Woodcutter's House
• The Bishop's Wife
• There is Another Heaven
• The Orchard
• One More Spring
• Road of Ages
• The Enchanted Voyage
• Winter in April
• Journey of Tapiola
• They Went Together
• Tapiola's Brave Regiment
• The Sea-Gull Cry
• But Gently Day
• Mr. Whittle and the Morning Star
• Long After Summer
• The River Journey
• The Innocent Eve
• The Married Look
• The Train in the Meadow
• Sir Henry
• So Love Returns
• The Rancho of the Little Loves
• The Color of the Evening
• Digging the Weans [chapbook]
• The Wilderness-Stone
• A Star in the Wind
• The Devil With Love
• The Fair
• The Mallott Diaries
• Stonecliff
• Mia
• The Elixir
• The Summer Meadows
• Heaven and Hell and the Megas Factor

Nichols, Ruth

• The Left-Handed Spirit
• The Burning of the Rose
• A Walk Out of the World
• The Marrow of the World

Norwood, Warren

His oeuvre is substantial, but this is the only work not yet listed holding any promise.

• True Jaguar

Offutt, Andrew

Offutt wrote with no great pretensions, and though one of his series managed to make the lists, most of what appears here is all too likely to be sludge (but one doesn't know till one tries it, which is why it's tabulated here). I have at least omitted his actual sf-pornographic works (written under a pseudonym).

• Cormac Mac Art:
  
  • Sword of the Gael
  • The Undying Wizard
  • The Sign of the Moonbow
  • The Mists of Doom
  • When Death Birds Fly (with Keith Taylor)
  • The Tower of Death (with Keith Taylor)
    
    
• War of the Wizards:
  
  • Demon in the Mirror (with Richard K. Lyon)
  • The Eye of Sarsis (with Richard K. Lyon)
  • Web of the Spider (with Richard K. Lyon)
    
    
• The Galactic Rejects
• Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards
• The Great 24-Hour Thing
• My Country, Right or Wrong
• The Castle Keeps
• Ardor on Aros
• Messenger of Zhuvastou
• The Black Sorcerer of the Black Castle
• Genetic Bomb (with D. Bruce Berry)
• Chieftain of Andor aka Clansman of Andor
• My Lord Barbarian

Ore, Rebecca

• The Illegal Rebirth of Billy the Kid
• Slow Funeral
• Alien:
  
  • Human to Human

Palmer, Thomas

• The Transfer

Park, Paul

• Coelestis
• The Gospel of Corax
• If Lions Could Speak *
• Three Marys
• The Roumainian Quartet:
  
  • A Princess of Roumania
  • The Tourmaline
  • The White Tyger
  • The Hidden World [forthcoming]

Pierce, Meredith

• The Woman Who Loved Reindeer

Pinkwater, Daniel

Pinkwater's books are nominally not even "young adult" but actually "children's books"; well, so were Alice and Looking-Glass. Pinkwater is a serious danger to the health, in that one could asphyxiate from laughter reading his stuff. He is prolific, but most of his better work of the sort that belongs on this site has been collected in omnibus editions, which are what are listed below.

• Five Novels
• Young Adults

Piserchia, Doris

• Blood County (as by "Curt Selby")
• I, Zombie (as by "Curt Selby")

Powers, Tim

These are very early works by Powers, and so are listed here rather than being automatically included unread in the main lists.

• The Skies Discrowned aka Forsake the Sky
• An Epitaph in Rust aka Epitaph in Rust

Priest, Christopher

• Fugue For a Darkening Island
• Inverted World
• Real-Time World *
• The Space Machine
• A Dream of Wessex
• An Infinite Summer *
• The Affirmation
• The Glamour
• The Quiet Woman
• The Extremes
• The Dream Archipelago *
• The Separation

Resnick, Mike

Resnick's output is almost comically copious. He is definitely offbeat, and I for one would need to see a lot more before reaching a definite overall-worth conclusion. I have already read a few of the things listed here, but so long ago now that I need to repeat them.

• The Complete Tales of the Galactic Midway [omnibus]
• The Complete Tales of the Velvet Comet [omnibus]
• The Oracle Trilogy:
  
  • Soothsayer
  • Oracle
  • Prophet
• Lucifer Jones:
  
  • Adventures
  • Exploits
  • Encounters
  • Lucifer Jones
• The Galactic Comedy [omnibus]
• The Widowmaker:
  
  • The Widowmaker
  • The Widowmaker Reborn
  • The Widowmaker Unleashed
  • Widowmakers
  • A Gathering of Widowmakers
• Legends of Santiago [omnibus]
• Starship:
  
  • Mutiny
  • Pirate
  • Mercenary
• Ganymede:
  
  • The Goddess of Ganymede
  • Pursuit On Ganymede
• Stalking the Unicorn: A Fable of Tonight
• The Dark Lady: A Romance of the Far Future
• Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future
• Redbeard
• The Soul Eater
• Birthright: The Book of Man
• Walpurgis III
• The Branch
• Second Contact
• Bwana/Bully!
• A Miracle of Rare Design
• Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia
• A Hunger in the Soul
• The Outpost
• Lady With an Alien
• Dragon America
• A Club In Monmartre [forthcoming]
• The Moebius Trip [forthcoming]
• Unauthorized Autobiographies *
• Through Darkest Resnick With Gun and Camera *
• Stalking the Wild Resnick *
• Pink Elephants and Hairy Toads *
• The Alien Heart *
• Will the Last Person to Leave the Planet Please Shut Off The Sun? *
• A Safari of the Mind *
• Solo Flights Through Shared Worlds *
• An Alien Land *
• Magic Feathers: The Mike and Nick Show (With Nick Dichario)
• In Space No One Can Hear You Laugh *
• Hunting The Snark and Other Stories *
• With a Little Help From My Friends *
• New Dreams For Old *

Roberts, Keith

Roberts is a heavyweight writer, and I suspect that most or all of these will make the list. Still, when some works of a given writer remain immensely popular while others are almost utterly neglected, I want to make sure.

• Kiteworld
• Machines and Men *
• The Grain Kings *
• Grainne
• The Inner Wheel
• Anita *
• Kaeti and Company *
• Kaeti on Tour *
• Kaeti's Apocalypse [chapbook]
• Ladies from Hell *
• The Lordly Ones *
• Molly Zero

Rushdie, Salman

Rushdie's reputation is not a guarantee: his fantasy Grimus was one of the worst books trees ever died for. But let's see.

• Midnight's Children
• Shame
• The Satanic Verses

Salmonson, Jessica Amanda

• The Swordswoman
• Anthony Shriek, His Doleful Adventures; or, Lovers of Another Realm
• Tragedy of the Moisty Morning [chapbook]
• Hag's Tapestry *
• A Siver Thread of Madness *
• John Collier & Fredric Brown Went Quarreling Through My Head *
• Harmless Ghosts *
• Mystic Women: Their Ancient Tales & Legends Recounted by a Woman Inmate of the Calcutta Insane Asylum *
• The Mysterious Doom & Other Ghostly Tales of the Pacific Northwest *
• Wisewomen & Boggy-Boos: A Dictionary Of Lesbian Fairy Lore co-authored with Jules Remedios Faye *
• The Eleventh Jaguarundi & Other Mysterious Persons *
• Phantom Waters: Northwest Legends of Rivers, Lakes & Shores *
• Mister Monkey & Other Sumerian Fables *
• Twenty-one Novels *
• The Dark Tales *
• The Deep Museum: Ghost Stories of a Melancholic *

Shea, Michael

• A Quest for Simbilis
• I, Said the Fly [chapbook]
• Polyphemus *

Shepard, Lucius

• Green Eyes
• Life During Wartime
• The Jaguar Hunter *
• The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter
• The Father of Stones
• Nantucket Slayrides: Three Short Novels * [with Robert Frazier]
• The Ends of the Earth *
• The Golden
• Sports & Music *
• The Last Time
• Barnacle Bill the Spacer and Other Stories * [aka Beast of the Heartland and Other Stories]
• Valentine
• Aztechs
• Colonel Rutherford's Colt
• Louisiana Breakdown
• Floater
• Trujillo * [aka Trujillo and Other Stories]
• Liar's House
• A Handbook of American Prayer
• Two Trains Running *

Shetterly, Will

• Cats:
  
  • The Tangled Lands
• Dogland

Shinn, Sharon

Shinn is, sad to say, another author who blossomed in promise and now seems to be going sideways or even backwards. Well, maybe she's just catching her breath.

• Angel-Seeker
• The Safe-Keeper's Secret
• Mystic and Rider
• The Truth-Teller's Tale

Silverberg, Robert

Silverberg is one of the Old Hands at the science-fiction game. He is generally held in high repute; while I think he is a decent writer who occasionally rises to something better than just "good", I also think he is--in common with many writers who first made their names forty and fifty years ago, when the overall standard of quality was awful--somewhat over-rated, as I have put it elsewhere, one deemed a giant because he walked among pygmies. Even extracting just the nontrivial novels from his awesomely prolific bibliography leaves the long list below, all of which are at least worth an examination. (I've read several of these, but ages ago, so I do not deem my thin recollections sufficient to rate them now.)

• Thorns
• The Time Hoppers
• To Open the Sky
• The Man in the Maze
• The Masks of Time
• Downward to the Earth
• To Live Again
• Up the Line
• Hawksbill Station
• Tower of Glass
• The Second Trip
• The World Inside
• A Time of Changes
• The Book of Skulls
• Dying Inside
• The Stochastic Man
• Shadrach in the Furnace
• Homefaring
• Gilgamesh the King
• Sailing to Byzantium
• Tom O'Bedlam
• Project Pendulum
• At Winter's End
• The Queen of Springtime - sequel to At Winter's End
• To the Land of the Living
• The Face of the Waters
• Kingdoms of the Wall
• Hot Sky at Midnight
• Starborne
• The Alien Years
• The Longest Way Home
• Roma Eterna

Simak, Clifford

Simak is not a millennial author, but his best is good; unfortunately, that means his less-than-best is only fair, sometimes worse. The books on this huge laundry list will just have to be evaluated one by one.

• Empire
• Time and Again aka First He Died
• City
• Ring Around the Sun
• Time is the Simplest Thing
• The Trouble With Tycho
• They Walked Like Men
• All Flesh Is Grass
• Why Call them Back From Heaven?
• The Werewolf Principle
• The Goblin Reservation
• Out of Their Minds
• Destiny Doll
• A Choice of Gods
• Cemetery World
• Our Children's Children
• Enchanted Pilgrimage
• Shakespeare's Planet
• A Heritage of Stars
• The Fellowship of the Talisman
• Mastodonia aka Catface
• The Visitors
• Project Pope
• Where the Evil Dwells
• Special Deliverance
• Strangers in the Universe * [revised edition]
• The Worlds of Clifford Simak *
• Aliens for Neighbours * aka The Worlds of Clifford Simak *
• All the Traps of Earth and Other Stories * [revised edition]
• Worlds Without End *
• Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford Simak *
• So Bright the Vision *
• The Best of Clifford D. Simak *
• Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak *
• Brother And Other Stories *
• The Marathon Photograph and Other Stories *
• Off-Planet *
• The Autumn Land and Other Stories *
• Immigrant and Other Stories *
• The Creator and Other Stories *
• Over the River and Through the Woods: The Best Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak *
• The Civilisation Game and Other Stories *

Smith, Thorne

Very unlike his other works, this one is a children's book; but by report, it carries Smith's characteristic whimsical wit.

• Lazy Bear Lane

Snyder, Midori

• Oran:
  
  • New Moon
  • Sadar's Keep
  • Beldan's Fire
• The Flight of Michael McBride

Somtow, S. P.

Somtow is capable of good to excellent work, but also of not-so-good work. (I do wish contemporary authors would recover from their acute vampirrhea, fantasy's answer to the hula hoop and the pet rock.)

• Riverrun [omnibus; also as]:
  • Riverrun
  • Forest of the Night
  • Yestern
• Forgetting Places
• Moon Dance
• Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes
• The Wizard's Apprentice
• Forests of the Night
• Jasmine Nights
• Armorica
• Vanitas: Escape from Vampire Junction
• Yesterday
• Darker Angels
• The Vampire's Beautiful Daughter
• The Fallen Country
• Bluebeard's Castle
• The Pavilion of Frozen Women *
• Chui Chai: Short Fiction by S P Somtow *
• Nova: Short Fiction by S P Somtow *
• Tagging the Moon *
• Dragon's Fin Soup: Eight Modern Siamese Fables *
• The Ultimate Mallworld *
• Other Edens *

Spinrad, Norman

When he forgets to keep telling us how great sex and drugs are, and how screwed power structures are, he actually writes surpassing well; but he rarely forgets.

• Agent of Chaos
• The Solarians
• Agent of Chaos
• The Men in the Jungle
• Bug Jack Barron
• The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde *
• The Iron Dream
• Passing through the Flame
• No Direction Home *
• Riding the Torch
• A World Between
• The Star-Spangled Future *
• Songs from the Stars
• The Mind Game
• Little Heroes
• Other Americas *
• Children of Hamelin
• Russian Spring
• Pictures at 11
• Vampire Junkies *
• Journals of the Plague Years
• Greenhouse Summer
• He Walked Among Us
• The Druid King
• Mexica

Stevermer, Caroline

• The Serpent's Egg
• River Rats

Stewart, Sean

• Passion Play
• Nobody's Son
• The Night Watch
• Mockingbird
• Perfect Circle
• Cathy's Book

Sucharitkul, Somtow

(As you probably know, this is "S. P. Somtow" under his actual name.)

• Starship and Haiku
• Mall World
• Fire from the Wine Dark Sea
• The Fallen Country

Tepper, Sheri S.

Tepper reminds me in some ways of Ursula Le Guin: I'm surprised no one has yet referred to "good Sheri, bad Sheri".

• After Long Silence aka The Enigma Score
• Beauty (revised UK edition is author's preferred text)
• Gibbon's Decline & Fall
• Family Tree
• Six Moon Dance
• Singer from the Sea
• The Fresco
• The Visitor
• The Companions

Theroux, Paul

Theroux is an esteemed writer of both nonfiction travel books and novels; these books constitute all of his work not yet listed that is, or might be, speculative fiction.

• The Black House
• A Christmas Card
• O-Zone

Wangerin Jr., Walter

Wangerin is a preacherman, and these may be good (like his powerful barnyard duology) or they may be kiddypap.

• The Orphean Passages
• Potter, Come Fly to the First of the Earth
• Branta and the Golden Stone

Wells, Martha

I have in fact read the first item listed below, which is #2 in a trilogy. I am hoping against hope that #3 will rescue it from the mediocrity this otherwise-fine writer has fallen into here.

• Fall of Ile-Rien:
  
  • The Gate of Gods

Williams, Walter Jon

Some writers are just much better at humor than solemnity, and I suspect Williams may be one, but his other works deserve their turn.

• Ambassador of Progress
• Knight Moves
• Hardwired
• Voice of the Whirlwind
• Angel Station
• Facets *
• Elegy for Angels and Dogs
• Days of Atonement
• Aristoi
• Metropolitan
• City on Fire
• The Rift (as by "Walter J. Williams")
• Destiny's Way
• Dread Empire:
  
  • The Praxis
  • The Sundering
  • Conventions of War

Wolf, Gary K.

I am afraid--very afraid--of the Roger Rabbit sequel, but I suppose one must look.

• Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?
• The Resurrectionist

Wrede, Patricia C.

• The Mislaid Magician

Wyndham, John

• The Day of the Triffids
• Jizzle *
• The Chrysalids
• The Seeds of Time
• Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter
• The Midwich Cuckoos
• The Outward Urge (as by "John Wyndham and Lucas Parkes")
• Trouble with Lichen
• Consider Her Ways and Others
• The Infinite Moment
• The John Wyndham Omnibus
• Chocky
• The Best of John Wyndham aka The Man from Beyond and Other Stories *
• Sleepers of Mars (as by "John Beynon")
• Wanderers of Time (as by "John Beynon")
• Exiles on Asperus (as by "John Beynon")
• The Web
• No Place Like Earth

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