Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works
science-fiction & fantasy literature: a critical list with discussions
Particular Science-Fiction & Fantasy Books By Author: The Master List
Notes:
· This is not a complete bibliography of each of the listed authors. It is a list of the books of each that I know and like. Omission of a
given book may mean I didn't think highly enough of it to include it or may simply mean that I haven't read the book.
· Each author name below is a link to a page here about that author. That page will contain the same list of the author's books as does this page, plus a brief
discussion of the author and those books. Those discussions are introductory, not profound analyses: they are only meant to help you rank the author and the books on your personal
"to-read" list. (Right now, though all the author pages are there, the discussions are missing from some; I am completing them as I can.) The "stars" after each author name
indicate my rough assessment of that author's overall literary merit.
· Each book title below is, in turn, a link to a page here showing all editions of that book currently available new (if any), through any
Amazon national division (I am an affiliate of all six), and from which page you can--obviously--buy a copy of any such edition from whichever division or divisions have it, plus,
in all cases, a one-click link to an Abebooks search for used copies. (The layout and
content of those individual-title pages is explained in detail on the Buying New Books
page of this site.)
· All listed books are novels or collections of stories each about the same few characters unless the listing is followed by an asterisk(*), in which
case they are collections of unrelated stories.
· For a few authors--those of high quality with many works--I have included some books that I have not myself read, purely on the strength of authorship; each such
book is marked with a "hash sign" (#) in front of the title. I intend to get to those books as quickly as resources--such as time--allow, though many are
unavailable or available only at extortionate prices. (I am in a rural area with limited library resources.)
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You might want to also look at the listings on the two pages bullet-listed below, which are of authors and books not yet read here but which appear, for various
reasons--typically, many strongly positive reviews by sources I consider credible--to be plausible candidates for these lists:
The Authors:
-
Ackroyd, Peter *
-
Adams, Douglas ***
- The Hitchhiker "Trilogy":
- The Dirk Gently Duo:
-
Adams, Richard ***
-
Aldiss, Brian W. ****/***
-
Aiken, Joan *
-
Amis, Kingsley *
-
Amis, Martin ***
-
Andrews, Allen *
-
Arnason, Eleanor **
-
Attanasio, A. A. **
-
Auster, Paul ***
Auster is a fine writer with many other books so very close to being speculative--though probably "surreal" is closer--that he, like a few other authors here, is also listed separately in
the article "The Book on the Borderland" section on the obter dicta page.
-
Banks, Iain M. ***
-
Barker, Clive ***/**
(not considering "pure horror" tales outside our field)
-
Barnes, John *
-
Barrett, Neal ***/*
-
Barrie, J. M. # **
- The Peter Pan Tales:
The character "Peter Pan" first appeared in an 1902 adult novel by Barrie titled "The Little White Bird", in which Peter Pan is described in a story told to a child. In 1904, Barrie
wrote the famous play, "Peter Pan"; in 1906, a prose text--like the original description but quite unlike the play--was published under the title Peter Pan in Kensington
Gardens; in 1911, he turned the play into a book called Peter and Wendy, which is now usually just called Peter Pan and is the widely known form of the tale. As
with most "children's books", publishers repeatedly show their veneration for a classic by chopping it up or dumbing it down, or both; don't ask me how, or why, you "dumb down" a
book meant for, and very successful with, small children--ask a publisher.
-
Barth, John *
-
Bauer, Steven # ****
-
Baum, L. Frank *****
-
Beagle, Peter S. ****
Conlan Press has announced that it is beginning a "Definitive Edition" series of Beagle's work, the first item of which will be Beagle's forthcoming new adult fantasy novel
Summerlong; reisues of older works will then follow from time to time. Beagle perenially has multiple works listed on various sites as "forthcoming", but with no dates, and
several have been so listed for very long times now. The Green Man Review has an entire page listing "upcoming" Peter S. Beagle publications; I will add works here when they seem definitely scheduled.
-
Bell, Douglas # ***
(were I using half-stars I'd have added one)
-
Bellairs, John ****
Bellairs was primarily an author of "juveniles" (or perhaps "young adult" books); most or all of those have some charm, but only a couple--the first two, written directly after his adult
works--really capture the strengths of his best writing, and only those two are listed below.
- Adult Books:
- "Young-Adult" Books:
-
Benary-Isbert, Margot # **
-
Bester, Alfred **/*
-
Billias, Stephen **
-
Bisson, Terry ***/*
-
Blaylock, James ****
- The Twombley Town Trio:
- The Langdon St. Ives Trio:
- Other Novels:
- Collections & Miscellaneous:
-
Thirteen Phantasms *
(includes many stories previously published as chapbooks, which I thus no longer list separately above)
-
# In For a Penny *
(includes some stories previously published on the net, which I thus no longer list separately here)
-
# The Devils in the Details *
(co-authored with Tim Powers)
-
Borges, Jorge Luis *****
No links are given for the individual-collection books because they are now usually published together in a single collection (Andrew Hurley's translation is excellent).
- Individual Short-Story Collections:
- A Universal History of Iniquity *
- Ficciones *
- The Aleph *
- The Maker *
- In Praise of Darkness *
- Brodie's Report *
- The Book of Sand *
- Shakespeare's Memory *
-
Collected Fictions *
(contains all prose works from those individual collections)
(That is the preferred edition of these works.)
-
Bradbury, Ray ***/**
This listing omits the seemingly innumerable collections cobbled up out of the contents of the books shown, which are--I believe--all his original editions. It also omits a number of
good Bradbury books that are mainstream, and so not appropriate for listing on this site.
Bradbury was primarily a short-story writer: there are only four novels in the list below, two of which (The Halloween Tree and Switch On the Night) are nominally
"juveniles".
As with too many authors, publishers have muddied the waters by issuing short-story collections with identical titles but differing sets of story content; the web site
Ray Bradbury Online provides excellent bibliographical notes on the many
and various editions of each Bradbury title. As usual, there is much overlap in many of the story collections.
-
Bramah, Ernest *****
-
Brunner, John ***/*
-
Bryant, Edward **
-
Bulgakov, Mikhail **
-
Byatt, A. S. **
-
Cabell, James Branch *****
- The "Biography" Cycle:
The full cycle is a mix of fantasies, historical romances, essays, verse, and plays. Although some of the component works are, in and of themselves, not exactly in our fields, they
are integral parts of a larger whole that most assuredly is, and so are all duly noted in the list. The
"Storisende
Edition", an integral set of the Biography--published over the years 1927 to 1930--had special introductions and notes. The numbers after the titles below are their volume
designation in the Storisende set (a number of the form 4a means the title was one of two or more published as one volume in the set).
-
Beyond Life, #1
(nominally fiction but essentially an essay on life and fiction-writing)
- Figures of Earth, #2
- The Silver Stallion, #3
-
Domnei, #4a
(an earlier version of this was published as The Soul of Melicent)
- The Music from Behind the Moon, #4b
- Chivalry, #5
- Jurgen, #6
- The Line of Love, #7
- The High Place, #8
- Gallantry, #9
- Something About Eve, #10
- The Certain Hour, #11
- The Cords of Vanity, #12
-
From the Hidden Way, #13a
(verse)
-
The Jewel Merchants, #13b
(a play)
- The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck, #14
- The Eagle's Shadow, #15
- The Cream of the Jest, #16a
-
The Lineage of Lichfield, #16b
(a pseudo-genealogy of the Biography)
-
Straws and Prayer-Books, #17
(essays, plus one fantasy story)
-
Townsend of Lichfield, #18a
(essay)
- The Way of Ecben, #18b
- The White Robe, #18c
-
Sonnets of Antan, #18d
(verse)
-
Taboo, #18e
(a thinly veiled fantasy-style recounting of the Jurgen obscenity trial)
The #18 Storisende volume also contains several more essays and appendices.
-
The Witch-Woman
(an omnibus of three related books--The Music From Behind the Moon, The Way of Ecben, and The White Robe--extracted from the
Biography, plus a discursive introduction); not part of the Storisende set.
(There is a preferred edition of this work.)
-
Preface to the Past
(prefaces & notes extracted from the Storisende Edition)
- The "Heirs and Assigns" Trio:
These are nominally related to the "Biography of Manuel", though how is not obvious.
- The Florida Trio:
- The Nightmare Trilogy:
-
Between Dawn and Sunrise
(Cabell selections edited and annotated by John Macy)
-
These Restless Heads
(a mix of fantastic and biographical reflections on life in general and the Biography in particular)
-
Cady, Jack ***
-
Calvino, Italo *****
Calvino has written much that is fantasy; he has also written much that is not, but which--though not listed below--is superbly rewarding reading. Seek it out.
-
Card, Orson Scott **
-
Carlyon, Richard # *
-
Carr, Terry # **
-
Carroll, Jonathan ****
(a "plus a half-star" case)
-
Carroll, Lewis *****
-
Chambers, Robert W. *
-
Carter, Angela ***
-
Chabon, Michael # ****
-
Chapman, Stepan ***
-
Charnas, Suzy McKee ***
-
Cherryh, C. J. ***
-
Chesterton, G. K. # ****
Several of Chestertons's "mainstream" fictions are rather fantastic, if not actual fantasy; things like The Club of Queer Trades, Manalive, and The Napoleon of Notting
Hill are highly recommended.
-
Chiang, Ted *
-
Cisco, Michael **
-
Clarke, Susanna ***
-
Clayton, Jo *
- The Drinker of Souls Trilogy:
- The Wild Magic Trilogy:
-
Collier, John *
There have been several collections of Collier's stories published under the same name, but with varying contents. Apparently the later the edition, the more the stories in it. The
current edition is thus the preferred edition.
-
Collodi, Carlo *
There are countless bastardizations of the original tale; seek out only an authentic translation of Collodi's actual work--no more, no less. (There is an incomplete but useful list of
some acceptable versions on the preferred editions page--I will do more later.)
-
Compton, D. G. *
-
Conway, Gerard F. *
-
Cook, Glen ***
- The Dread Empire Septet:
- The Black Company Saga:
- The Black Company: Annals of the Black Company Trilogy--
- The Black Company: Books of the South Trio--
- The Black Company: Glittering Stone Tetralogy--
- The Garrett Books:
- The Swordbearer
- The Tower of Fear
- The Dragon Never Sleeps
-
Cook, Hugh *
This is a ten-volume "series", but the author asserts that the books can be read as individual stand-alones. To preserve the series list, I have listed, but not linked to, those few I
have actually found that are not up to snuff.
- The "Chronicles of an Age of Darkness" Dexad:
-
Cooper, Louise **
-
Cooper, Susan *
(her books are all classed as "juveniles" but they are fine adult reading)
- The Dark is Rising Pentalogy:
- The Boggart Duo:
-
Cover, Arthur Byron **
-
Crawford, F. Marion *
-
Crowley, John ***
-
Dahl, Roald *
-
Dalkey, Kara *
-
Davidson, Avram ****
(yet another "plus a half-star" case)
-
Davies, Robertson ***
-
Davis, Kathryn **
-
De Bernieres, Louis *
- The Latin American Trilogy:
-
DeMarinis, Rick # **
-
Dexter, Susan *
-
Dickinson, Peter **
-
Disch, Thomas M. **
-
Dowling, Terry **
-
Dorsey, Candas Jane *
-
Duncan, Dave *
- The Seventh Sword Trilogy:
- The Omar Duo:
- The Great Game Trilogy:
-
Dunsany, Lord *****
A Dunsany bibliography can be confusing, for three reasons: first, many of his original titles are quite similar; second, some of his books are known under two titles; and third--and
most serious--many later-assembled collections of his tales, containing a few stories each from a number of his original works, have titles confusingly similar to those original works.
I have tried below to sort out some of the mess, though I'm not sure whether I have helped or made it more confusing yet. I have omitted all books composed entirely of poetry or of
plays, which is arbitrary on my part but there it is.
- The Original Short-Story Books:
(There is a preferred edition collecting six of the first seven of these.)
- The Novels:
- The Jorkens Sextet:
These are all collections of short stories featuring Jorkens.
(There is now a preferred edition collecting the entire lot.)
- Later Edited Collections:
(There is much overlap in the contents of the books listed below, which contain no tales not in the books listed above.)
-
Ducornet, Rikki *
-
Eco, Umberto **
-
Eddison, E. R. *****
-
Effinger, George Alec **
-
Eisenstein, Phyllis ***
-
Findley, Timothy **
-
Finney, Charles G. ****/***
-
Finney, Jack *
-
Ford, John M. *
-
Foster, M. A. **
-
Friesner, Esther **/*
(Some of the books below are parts of series--no two the same series--but I am including, at least for now, only what is shown here.)
-
Gaiman, Neil **
-
Gardner, John ***
Do not confuse this John Gardner--John Champlin Gardner--with the chap who continued the James Bond novels; this John Gardner is one of the major figures of American literature
(the books below are only those few of his that lie in our fields--his complete oeuvre is much wider and larger).
-
Gemmell, David *
- The Drenai Books:
- The Tenaka Khan Duo--
- The Waylander Trio--
- Winter Warriors
(a one-off Drenai tale not linked with any sub-series)
- The "Stones of Power" (or "Sipstrassi") Books:
Gentle, Mary ***/*
- The White Crow Quartet:
-
Ash
This single novel was also published in four individually named volumes:
Gilliland, Alexis A. *
Goldstein, Lisa *
Grahame, Kenneth ****
Grant, Richard ***
(Some of these books are related, though I'd hesitate to call them a "series"; but I'm thinking about it.)
Gray, Nicholas Stuart **
Green, Simon R. *
Hancock, Niel **
- The Windameir Books:
- The Circle of Light Tetralogy--
- The Wilderness of Four Tetralogy--
- The Windameir Circle Tetralogy--
- Dragon Winter
Hanratty, Peter # **
Hansen, Erik Fosnes # ***
Harrison, M. John ****
Some of Harrison's books stride that grey border between speculative fiction and mainstream, but they are all close enough (and good enough) to fit here.
Hickman, Stephen # ***
Helprin, Mark # ***
Hoban, Russell ****/**
Hodgell, P. C. ***
- The Kencyrath Chronicles:
Hodgson, William Hope ****
Hoffman, Alice **
Hoffmann, E. T. A. ***
Holdstock, Robert **
Holt, Tom ***
Hood, Daniel *
Houarner, Gerard Daniel # **
Hughart, Barry **
Jacob, Max # *
Irwin, Robert # **
Jackson, Shirley **
Jeffries, Michael **
(not yet rightly rated)
- The Elundium Books:
I am just starting to make my way through these; the series looks promising,
but I hesitate to suggest it until I see if the quality bears up.
Jerrold, Douglas # *
Jeter, K. W. **
Jones, Diana Wynne *
(her books are all classed as "juveniles" but they are fine adult reading)
Joyce, Graham **
Karr, Phyllis Ann **
Kathryns, G. A. # ***
(based only on releases under the name G.A. Kathryns)
Killus, James *
King, Gabriel ***
"Gabriel King" is a pseudonym for the collaborative team of
M. John Harrison and Jane Johnson. I list and review "King" separately from Harrison because it is my fixed
opinion that when authors adopt pseudonyms, they intend their writings under each name to be evaluated distinctly.
King, Stephen ***
(this does not include his horror/terror tales)
Kingsley, Charles # *
Knight, Damon *
Knight was a prolific science-fiction writer; he is almost always readable, but the little work below is about all that rises above the "readable" level.
Kress, Nancy **
Lafferty, R. A. *****
Lafferty, like other prolific yet under-appreciated authors, is hard to sort into a coherent bibliography--this is the best I could do. Anything you find by him--anything--read
and enjoy. The occasional "series" listed below don't fully convey Lafferty: certain characters (like "the eminent scientist Willy McGilly") recur, often as "cameos," throughout all
his tales.
The world is not always ready for genius: a shockingly high fraction of Lafferty's published works were never printed in more than a few hundred copies each and remain shamefully
rare (and correspondingly expensive); fortunately, John Betancourt at Wildside Press has been doing a yeoman
job of bringing Lafferty (and several other fine authors scandalously under-represented by reasonably available editions) back into print--they have a good bit of Lafferty already,
including previously limited-quantity works). Note: the limited-edition copy counts are from Dan Knight's 1991 R. A. Lafferty Checklist, and are shown only for works not
currently in print.
- The Novels:
- Past Master
- The Reefs of Earth
- Space Chantey
-
Fourth Mansions
- The "Argo" Mythos:
- Argo: The Devil is Dead Trilogy:
- Archipelago
[only 1000 copies printed]
-
The Devil is Dead
- More Than Melchisedech:
(One novel published, for economic reasons, as three books; I don't know,
but would bet, that these three are all limited-quantity printings.)
- Episodes of the Argo
[only 335 copies printed]
(Also contains some material erroneously omitted from The Devil is Dead, but not the "interglossia"; the main story, a part of the
Argo mythos, should have been subsumed into the novel Argo, but I don't know yet if it was.)
- How Many Miles to Babylon?
[only 500 copies printed]
(Includes the "interglossia" from the novel The Devil is Dead, not printed in that book, and a short tale in the Argo mythos
cycle.)
- Argo: Coscuin Tetralogy:
(Only those first two of the tetralogy were ever published; the other two reportedly exist, but each only as single-copy unpublished manuscript in the
possession of Mr. Greg Ketter, once of Corroborree Press--which published much Lafferty--but now at Dreamhaven Books.)
- Dotty
[only 330 copies printed]
- Arrive at Easterwine
- Not to Mention Camels
- Aurelia
- The Annals of Klepsis
- Serpent's Egg
-
East of Laughter
[only 1010 copies printed]
-
The Elliptical Grave
[only 300 copies printed]
-
Sinbad: The Thirteenth Voyage
- The Story Collections:
(There may well be some overlap in the contents of the books listed below; moreover, some of them contain other, smaller works not listed separately
here.)
Laumer, Keith *
Laumer was a prolific sc |