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Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works

Science-fiction & fantasy literature: a critical list with discussions.

Welcome to the Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works web site!

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“‘The Observer will decide’, I said.”

– Kiteworld,
Keith Roberts

Why These Are Not Yet in the Lists

Regrettably, I have in recent years been spared little time for further 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 books yet-unlisted here but 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, 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 occasional 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 some marginal work (possibly 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 also want to make a second thing quite clear: this is also emphatically not a complete bibliography of each of the authors listed here. Some of these authors have huge numbers of works in our fields, and I have not tried to list each and every yet-unread work by those authors. Rather, I have tried to present a reasonable-length sampling of their yet-unread (by me) output as a suggestion (both to you and to myself) of what of theirs to try next. If you want complete bibliographies, go to the Internet SF Database site.

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.

(Remember also that there is also a page here about other candidate authors, not yet represented here but pending consideration.)

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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 reading experience.)

• Ackroyd, Peter
  (It is hard to tell without a full reading—reviews are little help—which, if any, of the novels listed below contain material that would justify their inclusion as “speculative fiction”.)
  • The Plato Papers
  • The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein
  • The Death of King Arthur
  • Hawksmoor
  • English Music
  • The House of Dr. Dee
  • The Fall of Troy

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• Adams, Richard
  • Tales From Watership Down *
  • The Plague Dogs
  • Traveller

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• Aickman, Robert
  • Original Collections:
    • We Are For The Dark *
    • Dark Entries *
    • Powers of Darkness *
    • Sub Rosa *
    • Tales of Love and Death *
    • Intrusions *
    • Night Voices *
    • The Strangers and Other Writings *
  • Reprint Collections:
    • Painted Devils *
    • The Wine-Dark Sea * (New York edition)
    • The Unsettled Dust *
    • The Collected Strange Stories * [set of two volumes]
    • The Late Breakfasters and Other Strange Stories *
    • Compulsory Games *
  • Novels:
    • The Late Breakfasters
    • The Model

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• Aiken, Joan
  (Aiken wrote numerous novels, most YA, and frankly the “YA” aspect in them sometimes gets tedious for adults. But her short fiction—whether for children, young adults or not-young adults—simply sparkles; obviously, some are better than others, but none descend to tedium. There is, so far as I can see, no sharp line between her work for children and her work for adults, except the so-called “magic and mystery” books—not listed here—which are for very young children: the rest share a delightful charm, so the category labels below are largely irrelevant (but are included because the Joan Aiken site’s excellent bibliography table is so coded).)
  • Omnibuses:
    • All and More *
      • All You’ve Ever Wanted *
      • More Than You Bargained For *
  • Fantasy:
    • All You’ve Ever Wanted * [see omnibus, above]
    • More Than You Bargained For * [see omnibus, above]
    • A Small Pinch of Weather *
    • Smoke from Cromwell’s Time *
    • A Harp of Fishbones *
    • Not What You Expected *
    • The Winter Sleepwalker *
    • A Handful of Gold *
    • Moon Cake *
    • Ghostly Beasts *
    • Snow Horse *
  • Supernatural:
    • The Windscreen Weepers *
    • A Bundle of Nerves *
    • Dead Man’s Lane *
  • “Picture Books” (children’s fantasy):
    • Kingdom Under the Sea *
    • Mice & Mendelson *
    • Tale of a One-Way Street *
    • The Kitchen Warriors *
    • Fog Hounds, Wind Cat, Sea Mice * aka Fog Hounds & Other Stories *
    • Past Eight O’Clock *
    • Helena and the Wild Man *
    • Serve Me Stefan *
    • Wise Girl *
    • The Wooden Dragon *

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• Amis, Kingsley
  (This may or may not qualify as speculative fiction.)
  • The Anti-Death League

  Return to the page top. ↑

• Amis, Martin
  • Einstein’s Monsters *

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• Arnason, Eleanor
  • Daughter of the Bear King
  • Big Mama Stories *
  • Hwarhath:
    • Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens *
    • Ring of Swords
  • Lydia Duluth:
    • Stellar Harvest
    • The Cloud Man
    • Lifeline
    • Moby Quilt
    • Tomb of the Fathers
    • Tunnels

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• Attanasio, A. A.
  • Dominions of Irth (as by “Adam Lee”):
    • The Dark Shore
    • The Shadow Eater
    • Octoberland
  • Brave Tails
    • The Moon’s Prophecy [YA]
  • Hunting the Ghost Dancer
  • The Moon’s Wife: A Hystery
  • Solis
  • Silent (with Robert S. Henderson)
  • Centuries
  • Killing with the Edge of the Moon
  • The Conjure Book
  • Collections
    • Beast Marks *
    • Twice Dead Things *

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• Auster, Paul
  (Auster also has produced some excellent fiction that is nearly but not quite “speculative” as I understand that term; it is listed elsewhere on this site, under the general heading that collects such things, “The Book on the Borderland”.)
  • Moon Palace

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• Baker, Frank
  (The tantalizingly little information generally available suggests that a fair bit of his oeuvre may well be of interest. His complete fiction oeuvre is 15 novels and a story collection; how many are speculative is difficult to ascertain, as several are virtually invisible on the web. The list below is based in good part on Tartarus Press’s Baker entry of their Guide to Supernatural Fiction, and also on the ISFDB list for Baker [which I think somewhat less reliable].)
  • Speculative:
    • The Birds [possible inspiration for the Hitchcock movie, the DuMaurier story notwithstanding]
    • Sweet Chariot
    • Mr Allenby Loses the Way
    • Before I Go Hence: Fantasia on a Novel
    • The Downs So Free
    • Stories of the Strange and Sinister *
  • Speculative Nature Unknown (to me):
    • The Twisted Tree
    • Full Score aka Allanayr
    • Embers: A Winter Tale
    • Talk of the Devil
    • Teresa: A Journey Out of Time

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• Ballard, J. G.
  • Elementals:
    (The first of these, The Wind from Nowhere, is not listed here since Ballard himself has disowned it as a “piece of hackwork”.)
    • The Drowned World
    • The Burning World aka The Drought
    • The Crystal World
  • Hello America

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• Barker, Clive
  (Barker has a much larger oeuvre, but most of it is “horror”, which this site does not deal in.)
  • The Books of the Art:
    • The Great and Secret Show
    • Everville
    • A third (and concluding) volume is in preparation.
  • Imajica [two-book omnibus edition]
  • The Books of Abarat [YA]:
    (Be sure to get editions with the original artwork included!)
    • Abarat
    • Days of Magic, Nights of War
    • Absolute Midnight
    • Kry Rising [forthcoming; title tentative]
    • Until the End of Time [forthcoming; title tentative]
  • Chilead [two-book omnibus edition]
  • Galilee
  • The Adventures of Mr Maximillian Bacchus and His Travelling Circus * [scarce and expensive]

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• 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.)
  • Finn, the Master Lizard Maker [YA]:
    • The Prophecy Machine
    • The Treachery of Kings
  • Through Darkest America:
    • Through Darkest America
    • Dawn’s Uncertain Light
  • Novels:
    • Kelwin
    • The Gates of Time
    • The Leaves of Time
    • Highwood
    • Stress Pattern
    • The Karma Corps
    • Prince of Christler-Coke
  • Story Collections:
    • Day the Decorators Came *
    • Perpetuity Blues: And Other Stories *
    • A Different Vintage *
    • Way Out There *
    • Other Seasons: The Best of Neal Barrett, Jr. *

  Return to the page top. ↑

• Beerbohm, Max
  • The Dreadful Dragon of Hay Hill [children’s]

  Return to the page top. ↑

• Benson, Stella
  • Collected Short Stories * [includes several fantasy tales]
  • Kwan-Yin [chapbook]

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• Bisson, Terry
  • Novels:
    • Voyage to the Red Planet
    • Pirates of the Universe
    • The Pick-up Artist
    • Any Day Now
  • Story Collections:
    • Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories *
    • In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories *
    • Greetings & Other Stories *
    • Numbers Don’t Lie *
    • The Left Left Behind *
    • TVA Baby and Other Stories *
  • Chapbooks:
    • Dear Abbey
    • Planet of Mystery
    • Catch ’Em in the Act
    • TVA Baby
    • The Cockroach Hat
    • Where the Lost Things Are

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• Bramah, Ernest
  • The Mirror of Kong Ho

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• Brunner, John
  (Brunner’s oeuvre is enormous and of variable quality; the four listed below are generally thought to be his best novels—but if you like them, there’s lots more where those came from.)
  • Stand on Zanzibar
  • The Shockwave Rider
  • The Sheep Look Up
  • The Jagged Orbit

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• Bryant, Edward
  (Some of these will be horror, not speculative fiction, but it’s hard to know which is what; generally, the later the book—the list is in chronloogical order—the more likely it is that the stories in it are horror.)
  Note: as of 15 March 2021, we read: “Arkham House is presently preparing a huge retrospective of four decades of his work.”
  • Story Collections:
    • Among the Dead: And Other Events Leading Up to the Apocalypse *
    • Wyoming Sun *
    • Particle Theory *
    • Neon Twilight *
    • Darker Passions *
    • The Baku: Tales of the Nuclear Age *
    • Trilobyte *
    • Predators and Other Stories *
  • Chapbooks:
    • The Man of the Future
    • The Cutter
    • Fetish
    • The Thermals of August *
    • Aqua Sancta

  Return to the page top. ↑

• Bulgakov, Mikhail
  • The Heart of a Dog and Other Stories *
  • Diaboliad: And Other Stories *

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• Cady, Jack
  (Cady’s books all tend to the supernatural, but most seem to transcend the “horror” genre.)
   Fairwood Press is in process of issuing all of Cady’s works in a uniform set, “The Jack Cady Collection”, which I recommend.
  • Novels:
    • The Well [more straight “horror” than his others]
    • McDowell’s Ghost
    • The Man Who Could Make Things Vanish
    • Dark Dreaming [as by “Pat Franklin”]
    • Embrace of the Wolf [as by “Pat Franklin”]
    • Inagehi
    • Street
    • The Off Season
    • The Hauntings of Hood Canal
  • Story Collections:
    (The “Collected Writings” series will presumably expand to one or two more volumes; they also contains some stories not collected elsewhere.)
    • The Burning and Other Stories *
    • Tattoo *
    • The Sons of Noah and Other Stories *
    • The Night We Buried Road Dog *
    • Ghosts of Yesterday *
    • Phantoms: Collected Writings, Volume 1 *
    • Fathoms: Collected Writings, Volume 2 *

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• Carrington, Leonora
  • The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington *
    (This cheats a little by omitting two novellas, Little Francis, & The Stone Door. Are not novellas “stories”?)
  • The Milk of Dreams * [nominally children’s stories, not included in the collection above]

  Return to the page top. ↑

• Carter, Angela
  • Novels:
    • Shadow Dance aka Honeybuzzard
    • The Magic Toyshop
    • Several Perceptions
    • Heroes & Villains
    • The Passion of New Eve
  • Story Collections:
    (The volume below anthologizes all of Carter’s short stories, including some unique to it.)
    • Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories *

  Return to the page top. ↑

• Chabon, Michael
  • The Yiddish Policemen’s Union [more alternate history than sf/fantasy]

  Return to the page top. ↑

• Chambers, Robert W.
  • The Maker of Moons *
  • The Mystery of Choice *
  • The Tree of Heaven *

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• Chapman, Stepan
  (Sad to say, each of these works by Chapman is now rare to the vanishing point; sorry.)
  • Danger Music *
  • Common Ectoids of Arizona [chapbook]
  • Life on Earth [chapbook]

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• Cherryh, C. J.
  (These—plus the main listings—are nowhere near all of Cherryh’s work. I have omitted much of her “Alliance-Union” set [I am not fond of books largely based on political intrigue], the entire “Foreigner” set, and the “Gene Wars” duology, and some other things; I do not thereby disparage anything omitted, but just feel that they are likely not her best work, albeit some of it quite popular work. If you want to see Cherryh’s full bibliography, it is at her entry at the ISFDB.)
  • Finisterre:
    • Rider at the Gate
    • Cloud’s Rider
  • Goblin Mirror
  • Faery in Shadow

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• Cisco, Michael
  • The Narrator
  • The Great Lover
  • Celebrant
  • Member
  • Animal Money
  • The Wretch of the Sun
  • Unlanguage
  • Do You Mind If We Dance With Your Legs? [chapbook]
  • Antisocieties *

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• Cokal, Susann
  • The Kingdom of Little Wounds [YA]
  • Mermaid Moon [YA]

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• Collier, John
  • His Monkey Wife: or Married to a Chimp
  • No Traveller Returns [chapbook]
  • Tom’s A-Cold aka Full Circle

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• Collodi, Carlo
  • The Adventures of Pipì the Pink Monkey [translated and “expanded” by Alessandro Gallenzi]

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• Compton, D. G.
  • The Quality of Mercy
  • Farewell, Earth’s Bliss
  • The Silent Multitude
  • Synthajoy
  • The Palace
  • The Steel Crocodile aka The Electric Crocodile
  • The Missionaries
  • Katherine Mortenhoe:
    • The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe aka The Unsleeping Eye aka Death Watch
    • Windows
  • A Usual Lunacy
  • Ascendancies
  • Scudder’s Game
  • Ragnarok [with John Gribbin]
  • Nomansland

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• Connolly, John
  • Nocturnes:
    • Nocturnes *
    • Night Music: Nocturnes Volume 2 *
  • Samuel Johnson vs the Darkness: a Trilogy [YA]:
    (an omnibus comprising the three novels listed separately below)
    • The Gates
    • Hell’s Bells
    • The Creeps

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• Cook, Glen
  • The Heirs of Babylon
  • Star Fishers:
    • The Starfishers Trilogy
      (This is an omnibus comprising the three books linked individually below.)
      • Shadowline
      • Starfishers
      • Star’s End
    • Passage at Arms
  • A Matter of Time
  • The Darkwar Trilogy
    (This is an omnibus comprising the three books linked individually below.)
    • Doomstalker
    • Warlock
    • Ceremony
  • Sung in Blood
  • The Complete Instrumentalities of the Night Series
    (This is an omnibus comprising the four books linked individually below.)
    • The Tyranny of the Night
    • Lord of the Silent Kingdom
    • Surrender to the Will of the Night
    • Working God’s Mischief

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• Cook, Hugh
  • The Shift
  • Plague Summer
  • To Find and Wake the Dreamer
  • Bamboo Horses
  • Oceans of Light:
    • West of Heaven
    • East of Hell
    • North of Paradise

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• Cooper, Louise
  (This is a smattering of her prodigious output; it is what reviews suggested as the most likely of her works to eventually make this site. If you try some and like them, there’s plenty more where these came from—visit the link in the previous sentence—but of what quality deponent sayeth not. Note that much of her work is Young Adult—and possibly not the sort of YA also suitable for adults—or else “supernatural romance”.)
  • Time-Master:
    (There are three other trilogies, including a young-adult spinoff, set in the same world as this one; whether any are plausible candidates here is hard to tell just from reviews.)
    • The Initiate
    • The Outcast
    • The Master
  • The Summer Witch

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• Cooper, Susan
  (Her work, with the one exception noted below, are young adult or children’s books, but—so far as I have seen—quite palatable for adults.)
  • Mandrake [science fiction; for adults]
  • Seaward [YA]
  • King of Shadows [children]
  • Green Boy [children]
  • Victory [children]

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• Crawford, F. Marion
  • The Complete Wandering Ghosts *

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• 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 some contenders.)
  • Works for Young Readers:
    • Roald Dahl Collection: 16-Book Box Set
      (A boxed set of 16 Dahl books for young readers, comprising the novels linked individually below; it’s not all his young-reader work—there are 3 other books—but it’s a big chunk of it. It’s not cheap, but on a per-book basis it’s quite reasonable. There are other omnibus editions of varying contents, not listed here.)
      • James And The Giant Peach
      • Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
      • The Magic Finger
      • Fantastic Mr. Fox
      • Charlie And The Great Glass Elevator [a disappointing sequel to Chocolate Factory, but it’s in the set]
      • Danny The Champion Of The World
      • The Twits
      • George’s Marvelous Medicine
      • The BFG
      • The Witches
      • Boy: Tales Of Childhood
      • The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
      • Going Solo
      • Matilda
      • Esio Trot
      • The Minpins
    • Uncollected Books:
      • The Enormous Crocodile
      • Revolting Rhymes
      • Dirty Beasts
  • Works for Adult Readers: (Dahl also wrote distinctly adult work—some creepy, some sexy, all (or most) well-regarded—which I have yet to sample; here is a nice sampler collection with which to get started.)
    The Roald Dahl Omnibus: Perfect Bedtime Stories for Sleepless Nights * [28 short stories]

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• Dalkey, Kara
  • Sagamore:
    • The Curse of Sagamore
    • The Sword of Sagamore
  • Blood of the Goddess:
    • Goa
    • Bijapur
    • Bhagavati
  • Mitsuko:
    • Little Sister
    • The Heavenward Path
  • Steel Rose:
    • Steel Rose
    • Crystal Sage
  • Water:
    • Ascension
    • Reunion
    • Transformation
  • The Nightingale
  • Genpei

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• Davies, Robertson
  (Caveat: it is unclear which of these 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 ISFDB lists the Deptford and Cornish trilogies, but not the Salterton, which is omitted here. Caveat lector.
  • The Deptford Trilogy
    (An omnibus containing the works individually linked below.)
    • Fifth Business
    • The Manticore
    • World of Wonders
  • The Cornish Trilogy
    (An omnibus containing the works individually linked below.)
    • The Rebel Angels
    • What’s Bred in the Bone
    • The Lyre of Orpheus
  • The Toronto Trilogy
    • The Cunning Man
    • (left incomplete at Davies’ death)

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• Davies, Tod
  (She started this series with a readable book, Snotty Saves the Day, but—for me—it remains to be seen if she carried that level into the successor books.)
  • The “History of Arcadia” Series:
    • Lily the Silent
    • The Lizard Princess
    • Report to Megalopolis

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• Davis, Kathryn
  (Davis continually walks the line between realism and fantasy, but each of these has qualities that qualify it for these lists, some more, a few less—for example, in Versailles Marie Antoinette’s ghost is summoned merely as a device to give us a fictional autobiography. But In the other books here, the fantastic is more strongly present.)
  • Labrador
  • Walking Tour
  • Versailles
  • Duplex: A Novel
  • The Silk Road

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• Dexter, Susan
  • The Calandran Tales:
    (It is unclear whether some or all of these are YA; it’s anyone’s guess so far as I can tell.)
    • Moonlight
    • The Wizard’s Destiny Cycle:
      • The Ring of Allaire
      • The Sword of Calandra
      • The Mountains of Channadran

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• 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. These are the sole potential candidates yet unevaluated here.)
  • Ropemaker:
    • The Ropemaker
    • Angel Isle

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• Disch, Thomas M.
  (Disch was a prolific writer, and much praised. I suspect that most—possibly all—of the works listed below belong on the lists, but we shall see.)
  • Supernatural Minnesota:
    • The Businessman: A Tale of Terror
    • The M.D.: A Horror Story
    • The Priest: A Gothic Romance
    • The Sub: A Study in Witchcraft
  • Novels:
    • The Genocides
    • Mankind under the Leash
    • Echo Round His Bones
    • On Wings of Song
    • The Word of God: Or, Holy Writ Rewritten
    • The Brave Little Toaster: A Bedtime Story for Small Appliances [children’s; said to be good adult reading]
  • Story Collections:
    (These are many in number, with a lot of content overlap; the list below is an incomplete sampling that includes most of his better-regarded work.)
    • The Early Science Fiction Stories of Thomas M. Disch *
    • Under Compulsion *
    • Fun with Your New Head *
    • Getting Into Death and Other Stories *
    • 334 *

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• Dorsey, Candas Jane
  • Black Wine
  • Machine Sex and Other Stories *
  • Vanilla and Other Stories *
  • Ice & Other Stories *

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• Dowling, Terry
  • Clowns at Midnight [perhaps more horror than speculative]
  • Wormwood * [perhaps more horror than speculative]
  • An Intimate Knowledge of the Night * [perhaps more horror than speculative]
  • The Man Who Lost Red * [2 novellas]
  • Antique Futures: The Best of Terry Dowling * [only 3 stories not in any of the works listed above]
  • Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear *
  • Make Believe: A Terry Dowling Reader * [no stories not in any of the works listed above]
  • Amberjack: Tales of Fear and Wonder *
  • The Night Shop: Tales for the Lonely Hours *

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• Ducornet, Rikki
  • The Alchemy Quartet:
    • The Stain
    • Entering Fire
    • The Fountains of Neptune
    • The Jade Cabinet
  • The Complete Butcher’s Tales *
  • Gazelle [It is unclear if this is speculative fiction, despite the appearance in it of a “magician”.]

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• Duncan, Dave
  • The Pandemia Cycle:
    • A Man of His Word:
      (An omnibus comprising the four novels linked individually below.)
      • Magic Casement
      • Faery Lands Forlorn
      • Perilous Seas
      • Emperor and Clown
    • A Handful of Men:
      (An omnibus comprising the four novels linked individually below.)
      • The Cutting Edge
      • Upland Outlaws
      • The Stricken Field
      • The Living God
  • The Years of Longdirk [as by “Ken Hood”]
    • Demon Sword
    • Demon Rider
    • Demon Knight
    • [A fourth and series-concluding novel was intended but never written.]
  • The King of Chivial’s Blades:
    • Tales of the King’s Blades
      • The Gilded Chain
      • Lord of the Fire Lands
      • Sky of Swords
      • One Velvet Glove
      • The Ethical Swordsman
    • The Monster War: A Tale of the King’s Blades [YA]
      (An omnibus comprising the three novels linked individually below.)
      • Sir Stalwart [YA]
      • The Crooked House [YA]
      • Silvercloak [YA]
    • Chronicles of the King’s Blades:
      • Paragon Lost
      • Impossible Odds
      • Jaguar Knights
  • Dodec:
    • Children of Chaos
    • Mother of Lies
  • The Brothers Magnus:
    • Speak to the Devil
    • When the Saints
  • The Starfolk:
    • King of Swords
    • Queen of Stars
  • The Enchanter General:
    • Ironfoot
    • Trial by Treason
    • Merlin Redux
  • Standalone Novels:
    • A Rose-Red City
    • Shadow
    • West of January
    • Strings
    • Hero!
    • The Cursed
    • Daughter of Troy [as by “Sarah B. Franklin”]
    • Ill Met in the Arena
    • Pock’s World
    • Against the Light
    • Wildcatter
    • The Eye of Strife
    • The Adventures of Ivor * [YA]
    • Irona 700
    • Eocene Station
    • Portal of a Thousand Worlds
    • Pillar of Darkness

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• Effinger, George Alec
  (This is a selected list, not a complete bibliography.)
  • Heroics
  • Death in Florence aka Utopia 3
  • Budayeen:
    • The Audran Sequence
      • When Gravity Fails
      • A Fire in the Sun
      • The Exile Kiss
    • Budayeen Nights *
  • Time:
    • The Nick of Time
    • The Bird of Time
  • Story Collections:
    (There will be some overlap in contents between these various collections.)
    • Mixed Feelings *
    • Irrational Numbers *
    • Dirty Tricks *
    • Idle Tricks *
    • Idle Pleasures *
    • The Old Funny Stuff *
    • George Alec Effinger Live! From Planet Earth *
    • A Thousand Deaths *

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• Eisenstein, Phyllis
  • Alaric the Minstrel:
    • Born to Exile
    • In the Red Lord’s Reach
  • In the Hands of Glory
  • Night Lives: Nine Stories of the Dark Fantastic * [with Alex Eisenstein]

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• Emmons, Josh
  (It is unclear from published descriptions as to whether either of these is “speculative”, but it seems possible, so I list them.)
  • Prescription for a Superior Existence
  • A Moral Tale and Other Moral Tales *

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• Fessier, Michael
  • Fully Dressed and in his Right Mind

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• Findley, Timothy
  • Not Wanted on the Voyage
  • Headhunter

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• Finney, Jack
  • The Woodrow Wilson Dime
  • Marion’s Wall
    (The collection About Time extracts the time-travel tales from the two books below, which are likely worth getting on their own.)
  • The Third Level *
  • I Love Galesburg in the Springtime *

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• Ford, Jeffrey.
  • Novels:
    • Vanitas
    • The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque
    • The Girl in the Glass
    • The Shadow Year
    • Ahab’s Return: or, The Last Voyage
  • Story Collections:
    • The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant & Other Stories *
    • The Empire of Ice Cream *
    • The Drowned Life *
    • Crackpot Palace *
    • A Natural History of Hell *
    • A Primer to Jeffrey Ford *
    • The Best of Jeffrey Ford *
    • Big Dark Hole * [forthcoming, due 6 July 2021]
  • Chapbooks:
    • The Cosmology of the Wider World
    • A Meeting in Oz [part of the multi-author Oz Reimagined series]
    • A Terror
    • Rocket Ship to Hell
    • The Thyme Fiend
    • The Twilight Pariah
    • Out of Body

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• Ford, John M.
  • Web of Angels
  • The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History
  • The Scholars of Night
  • Growing Up Weightless
  • The Last Hot Time
  • From the End of the Twentieth Century *
  • Heat of Fusion and Other Stories *

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• Frayn, Michael
  • The Tin Men
  • A Very Private Life

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• Friesner, Esther M.
  (Friesner has a bibliography as long as your arm. Selecting, from reviews, which of her works might be as good as the few that made the main lists here is virtually impossible, so I list none here. You can examine that bibliography at her ISFDB entry.)

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• Gaiman, Neil
  • Collections: (There is probably overlap in the contents of these books.)
    • Angels and Visitations: A Miscellany *
    • Warning: Contains Language *
    • On Cats & Dogs: Two Tales *
    • Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions *
    • Two Plays for Voices *
    • Speaking in Tongues *
    • Telling Tales *
    • A Little Gold Book of Ghastly Stuff *
    • A Portfolio of Stories *
    • Norse Mythology *
    • The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction *
  • Chapbooks: (Some of these may be included in some of the Collections listed above.)
    • Day of the Dead
    • The Last Temptation
    • Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar
    • Marvel 1602
    • Click-Clack the Rattlebag
    • How to Talk to Girls at Parties
    • The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains
    • A Calendar of Tales
  • Children’s Books: (Many—possibly all—of these are probably good entertainment for adults. At least several will be in Chapbook format.)
    • The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
    • Melinda
    • MirrorMask
    • Odd and the Frost Giants
    • The Dangerous Alphabet
    • Blueberry Girl
    • Crazy Hair
    • Instructions
    • Chu’s Day
    • Fortunately, the Milk
    • Chu’s First Day of School
    • Hansel and Gretel
    • The Sleeper and the Spindle
    • Chu’s Day At The Beach
    • Cinnamon
    • Pirate Stew

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• Gardner, John
  • In the Suicide Mountains
  • Vlemk the Box-Painter

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• 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 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: (an omnibus of the two books listed below)
    • 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
  • Morning Star
  • Dark Moon
  • Echoes of the Great Song
  • Rhyming Rings

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• Gentle, Mary ***
  (Some of the stories in each of the two collections fit into the “White Crow” cycle.)
  • Scholars and Soldiers *
  • 1610: A Sundial in a Grave
  • Cartomancy *
  • Ilario:
    (An omnibus comprising the two novels listed below.)
    • The Lion’s Eye
    • The Stone Golem
  • Black Opera

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• Geston, Mark S.
  • The Books of the Wars
    (an omnibus containing the three novels linked separately below)
    • Lords of the Starship
    • Out of the Mouth of the Dragon
    • The Siege of Wonder
  • Mirror to the Sky

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• Goldstein, Lisa
  • The Dream Years
  • A Mask for the General
  • Tourists
  • Daily Voices *
  • Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon
  • Summer King, Winter Fool
  • Travellers in Magic *
  • Walking the Labyrinth
  • The Alchemist’s Door
  • Daughter of Exile:
    • Daughter of Exile [as by Isabel Glass]
    • The Divided Crown [as by Isabel Glass]
  • The Uncertain Places
  • Weighing Shadows
  • Ivory Apples

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• Gray, Alasdair
  • 1982, Janine
  • Poor Things
  • A History Maker

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• Gray, Nicholas Stuart
  (As noted in the main list, Neil Gaiman has written that Gray “is one of those authors I loved as a boy who holds up even better on rereading as an adult.” He also said “he’s the kind of author someone definitely ought to bring back into print,” and that is because most of his work is now scare and pricey. I have divided the list below into three categories, based on prices [including shipping to the U.S.] as I type in spring of 2021: Reasonable, meaning under $50 for copies in at least “very good” condition; Expensive for anything over $50—and some go into the three-digit range—and a basket for books for which no VG or better copies are available [again, as I type: those things change by the day]. Whether all of these will hold up on reading remains to be seen, but I suspect most or all will.)
  • Reasonable:
    • The Seventh Swan: An Adventure Story
    • The Sorcerer’s Apprentices [chapbook]
  • Expensive:
    • The Apple-Stone
    • The Garland of Filigree
    • Over the Hills to Fabylon
    • Down in the Cellar
    • The Stone Cage
    • Further Adventures of Puss in Boots [chapbook]
    • The Wardens of the Weir
    • The Edge of Evening *
    • A Wind from Nowhere *
  • No “Very Good Condition” (Or Better) Copies Found:
    • New Lamps for Old
    • Mainly in Moonlight *

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• Green, Simon R.
  • Drinking Midnight Wine

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• Hansen, Erik Fosnes
  • Falcon Tower [Falketårnet: not yet translated]

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• 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, the residue of some extensive review-checking—might all be immortal wonders or all be rubbish. One can only try them one by one. This list omits his numerous children’s books, at least some of which are—some say—readable for pleasure by adults.)
  • Fremder
  • Amaryllis Night and Day
  • The Bat Tattoo
  • Soonchild [[YA]

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• Hoffman, Alice
  (The “speculative” element in some of Hoffman’s books is significant, while in others it sems—by descriptions, these are unread here—to be light window dressing. So far as I can tell, there is at least some of what reviewers call “magic realism” in each of the books listed below, though to what extent it matters is hard to say. Also, this list omits her numerous YA/childern’s books.)
  • Practical Magic:
    • The Rules of Magic [prequel to Practical Magic]
    • Magic Lessons [s second prequel to Practical Magic]
    • The Book of Magic
  • Seventh Heaven
  • Turtle Moon
  • The River King
  • The Probable Future
  • Blackbird House
  • The Ice Queen
  • Skylight Confessions
  • The Third Angel
  • The Red Garden
  • The Dovekeepers
  • The Museum of Extraordinary Things
  • Faithful
  • The World That We Knew

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• Holdstock, Robert
  (This omits some series published under pen names.)
  • The Merlin Codex:
    • Celtika
    • The Iron Grail
    • The Broken Kings
  • Novels:
    • Eye Among the Blind
    • Legend of the Werewolf
    • Earthwind
    • The Satanists
    • Necromancer
    • The Emerald Forest
    • Death Angel
    • The Fetch aka Unknown Regions
  • Story Collections:
    • In the Valley of the Statues *
    • The Bone Forest *
    • The Ragthorn *

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• Houarner, Gerard Daniel
  (Houarner specializes in horror tales (not covered on this site), but this seems to be an exception—somewhat of an exception, that is.)
  • In the Country of Dreaming Caravans

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• Hughes, Rhys
  (Hughes is a fantasy absurdist, so it will likely take several books read before I feel I have a reasonable handle on him: I have done only one so far. And, as you see, he is stunningly prolific.)
  • Novels:
    • The Percolated Stars: An Astro-Caffeine Romp in Three Cups Featuring Batavus Droogstoppel Merchant and Scientist and Bourgeois Monster: One Lump or Two?
    • Engelbrecht Again! * [Being a sequel to Maurice Richardson’s famous comedic work The Exploits of Englebrecht.]
    • Mister Gum; Or: The Possibly Phoney Profundity of Puerility
    • Twisthorn Bellow
    • The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange
    • The Young Dictator
    • Captains Stupendous or: The Fantastical Family Faraway
    • Cloud Farming in Wales
    • The Honeymoon Gorillas
    • The Nostalgia That Never Was
  • Novelllas & Novelettes:
    • Rawhead and Bloody Bones & Elusive Plato
      (a mini-omnibus comprising the two works listed below)
      • Rawhead and Bloody Bones
      • Elusive Plato
    • Bottled Love Story
  • Collections:
    (This list excludes works included in the omnibus collections listed farther below.)
    • Worming the Harpy and Other Bitter Pills *
    • The Smell of Telescopes *
    • Stories from a Lost Anthology *
    • Journeys Beyond Advice *
    • A New Universal History of Infamy *
    • At the Molehills of Madness *
    • The Less Lonely Planet (Tales of Here, There & Happenstance) *
    • The Brothel Creeper: Stories of Sexual and Spiritual Tension * [includes all of The Fanny Fables]
    • Link Arms with Toads! *
    • Sangria in the Sangraal: Tucked Away in Aragon * [The link is to the updated edition with two more stories.]
    • The Truth Spinner: The Complete Adventures of Castor Jenkins *
    • Tallest Stories *
    • More Than a Feline: Cat Tales & Poems *
    • Flash in the Pantheon *
    • Rhysop’s Fables * [link is to preferred revised edition]
    • The Lunar Tickle *
    • Bone Idle in the Charnel House *
    • Orpheus on the Underground *
    • Thirty Tributes to Calvino *
    • Mirrors in the Deluge *
    • Brutal Pantomimes *
    • The Seashell Contract *
    • Salty Kiss Island *
    • World Muses *
    • Yule Do Nicely *
    • How Many Times?: Experimental Fictions *
    • The Early Bird Catches the Worm but the Wise Worm Stays in Bed *
    • Mombasa Madrigal *
    • Slap-on-the-Wrist Stories *
    • Arms Against a Sea *
    • Facets of Faraway *
    • Crepuscularks and Phantomimes: Gothic, Ghostly & Lovecraftian Tales in the Ironic Mode *
    • A Rhys Hughes Sampler * [author-recommended as a starting point for his short fiction]
    • The Pilgrim’s Regress *
  • Omnibuses:
    • Better the Devil * [link is to preferred revised edition]:
      (an omnibus comprising the following shorter works)
      • Romance with Capsicum
      • The Skeleton of Contention
      • Madonna Park
      • Plutonian Parodies
      • Young Tales of the Old Cosmos
      • To Err is Divine
      • The Devil You Don’t [revised version]
      • The Dangerous Strangeness
    • Omnibus #One:
      (an omnibus comprising the following shorter works)
      • Eyelidiad
      • The Postmodern Mariner
      • The Sticky Situations of Zwicky Fingers
      • The Just Not So Stories
      • The Crystal Cosmos

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• Hunt, Samantha
  • The Seas
  • Mr. Splitfoot
  • The Dark Dark: Stories *

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• 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, often with Oriental settings.
  Note that in some of the books below, it is hard to decide if the fantastic things are happening, or are just imaginings of the protagonist.)
  • The Limits of Vision
  • Satan Wants Me
  • Wonders Will Never Cease
  • The Runes Have Been Cast

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• Jackson, Shirley
  • The Sundial

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• 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.)
  • A Man Made of Money

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• Jeter, K. W. **
  (A lot of Jeter’s work is horror rather than speculative, but it is difficult to sort one from the other in unread books, so I show all.)
  • Seeklight
  • The Dreamfields
  • Soul Eater
  • Dr. Adder
    • Dr. Adder
    • The Glass Hammer
    • Death Arms
    • Alligator Alley [with Timothy MacNamara: as by “Dr. Adder and Mink Mole”]
  • Dark Seeker
  • Mantis
  • George Dower
    (This is—so far—a three-book series; see the author link above for more.)
    • Fiendish Schemes
    • Grim Expectations
  • In the Land of the Dead
  • The Night Man
  • Madlands
  • Wolf Flow
  • Noir
  • The Kingdom of Shadows
  • Grimm City
    • Death’s Apprentice [with Gareth Jefferson Jones]

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• Jones, Diana Wynne
  (Again: her books are all technically “young adult” or, in some cases, classed “juvenile”; I think many reasonably entertaining to adults, but have not sampled these. This list is not a complete Jones bibliography: there are 15 other novels and 7 more story collections.)
  • Derkholm:
    • The Dark Lord of Derkholm
    • The Year of the Griffin
  • Magids:
    • Deep Secret
    • The Merlin Conspiracy
  • Diana Wynne Jones’s Fantastical Journeys Collection:
    (an omnibus comprising the three novels listed below)
    • The Islands of Chaldea [with Ursula Jones]
    • A Tale of Time City
    • The Homeward Bounders
  • Diana Wynne Jones’s Magic and Myths Collection:
    (an omnibus comprising the four novels listed below)
    • The Game
    • Power of Three
    • Eight Days of Luke
    • Dogsbody

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• Joyce, Graham
  (Joyce’s adult fiction is top-notch, and I am sure that all of the adult novels below will wind up on the list; but I have not sampled any of his young-adult works.)
  • Novels:
    • Dreamside
    • Dark Sister
    • House of Lost Dreams
    • The Tooth Fairy
    • The Stormwatcher
    • Indigo
    • The Limits of Enchantment
    • The Silent Land
    • The Year of the Ladybird aka The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit
  • Story Collections:
    • Partial Eclipse and Other Stories * [9 short stories & a novella]
    • Black Dust & Other Tales of Interrupted Childhood * [3 short stories]
    • 25 Years in the Word Mines: The Best Short Fiction of Graham Joyce * [includes all his published short fiction from the two books above, but expensive]
  • YA Novels:
    • TWOC [YA]
    • Do the Creepy Thing aka The Exchange [YA]
    • Three Ways to Snog an Alien [YA]
    • The Devil’s Ladder [YA]

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• Karr, Phyllis Ann
  • Frostflower:
    • Frostflower and Thorn
    • Frostflower and Windbourne
  • The Follies of Sir Harald

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• King, Stephen
  (King’s work is, first off, hard to segregate as between fantasy and horror—see this Salon ezine article [archived]. Second, but almost as important, while King at his best is interesting, all too often—by common report—he evaded some very, very badly needed editing. The “Dark Tower” series I started and gave up on, in doing which I am, I believe, scarcely alone. If you want to try something to see if you want more, you could begin with the novel listed below.)
  • 11/22/1963

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• Knight, Damon
  (Knight as an author was at his best with short stories; the list below is said to be a good sampler.)
  • Far Out *
  • In Deep *
  • Off Centre * [expanded version of earlier Off Center: note spelling]
  • Turning On: Fourteen Stories * [expanded version of earlier Thirteen Stories]
  • Rule Golden *

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• Kotzwinkle, William
  (Kotzwinkle has written numerous popular children’s books (with titles like Walter the Farting Dog) and novelizations” of some major movie scripts (such as E.T.), both of which sorts I omit here. The list below is a review-based selection from his works; I believe all are speculative, but not all of his that is speculative is here.)
  • Novels:
    • Doctor Rat
    • The Bear Went Over the Mountain
  • Story Collections:
    • Elephant Bangs Train * [These are apparently more parables or fables than actual specfic.]
    • Jewel of the Moon *
    • The Hot Jazz Trio *

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• Kress, Nancy
  (Kress’s early works—three novels—are fantasies; everything after that is hard sf.)
  • The Golden Grove [fantasy]
  • The White Pipes [fantasy]
  • Trinity and Other Stories *
  • An Alien Light
  • Brain Rose
  • The Aliens of Earth *
  • Sleepless:
    • Beggars in Spain
    • Beggars & Choosers
    • Beggars Ride
  • Oaths and Miracles:
    • Oaths and Miracles
    • Stinger
  • Maximum Light
  • Beaker’s Dozen *
  • Probability Universe:
    • Probability Moon
    • Probability Sun
    • Probability Space
  • Nothing Human
  • Greentrees:
    • Crossfire
    • Crucible
  • Dogs
  • Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories *
  • Steal Across the Sky
  • After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall
  • Flash Point
  • Future Perfect: Six Stories of Genetic Engineering *
  • The Body Human: Three Stories of Future Medicine *
  • AI Unbound: Two Stories of Artificial Intelligence *
  • The Best of Nancy Kress *
  • Yesterday’s Kin Trilogy:
    (An omnibus comprising the three novels linked separately below.)
    • Tomorrow’s Kin
    • If Tomorrow Comes
    • Terran Tomorrow
  • The Eleventh Gate
  • Sea Change

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• 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, which is just a scattershot sampling from her huge bibliography, 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 *

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• Lee, Tanith
  • Ghosteria:
    • Ghosteria Volume 1: The Stories [ghost-themed: all but 4 are reprints]
    • Zircons May Be Mistaken
  • Novels & Novellas:
    (This is a relatively small selection from her copious output, comprising what seem, from reviews, the most promising of her works, but I may have inadvertently omitted some good things—or included some duds.)
    • Day By Night
    • Companions On The Road & The Winter Players [2 novellas]
    • Lycanthia, or The Children of Wolves
    • Sung in Shadow
    • The Blood of Roses
    • Heart-Beast
    • When the Lights Go Out
    • A Different City [3 novellas of Marcheval, an alternate Marseilles]
    • At the Court of the Crow [novella]
  • Story Collections:
    (The contents of the various listed story collections probably overlap a fair bit. These are by no means all collections of her stories: just what reviews suggested might be the better ones; there is available a complete online bibliography of her work that is an absolute model of how to do a useful online bibliography.)
    • Red As Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer *
    • Dreams Of Dark And Light: The Great Short Fiction Of Tanith Lee *
    • Forests Of The Night *
    • Women As Demons: The Male Perception of Women through Space and Time *
    • Nightshades: Thirteen Journeys into Shadow *
    • Tempting the Gods: The Selected Stories of Tanith Lee Volume One *
    • Hunting the Shadows: The Selected Stories of Tanith Lee, Volume Two *
    • Sounds and Furies *
    • Animate Objects *
    • Space Is Just a Starry Night *
    • Phantasya *
    • Dancing Through the Fire: A Collection of Stories in Five Moves *
    • Redder Than Blood *
    • The Weird Tales of Tanith Lee *
    • Venus Burning: Realms *
    • Strindberg’s Ghost Sonata and Other Uncollected Tales *

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• Leiber, Fritz
  • Novels:
    (Leiber wrote something like ten novels; many were popular, and some won awards, but the one below seems the likeliest—besides the “Change War” works—to be literate)
    • Our Lady of Darkness
  • Story Collections:
    (There are over three dozen Leiber story collections, but the few below—besides the one in the main lists—are said to capture his best work.)
    • The Worlds of Fritz Leiber *
    • The Ghost Light *
    • The Leiber Chronicles: Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber *

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• Lewis, C. S.
  • Till We Have Faces

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• Lightman, Alan
  • Ghost
  • Mr g: A Novel About the Creation

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• Lindholm, Megan
  • Ki and Vandien:
    • Harpy’s Flight
    • The Windsingers
    • The Limbreth Gate
    • Luck of the Wheels
  • Cloven Hooves
  • Alien Earth
  • The Gypsy [with Steven Brust]

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• 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 [now quite expensive; also see The Witch, below]
  • Devil’s Tor
  • The Witch [only available packaged with The Violet Apple, and now quite expensive]

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• Lively, Penelope
  (Lively—quite a name for a writer—has a prodigious output of fiction, including books for both adults and 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—probably best classed as YA—apparently is. Mind, I say “YA”—“young adult”—but the nominal target readership seems usually at the lower end of that range; but I include them all here based on the adult-readability of what is in the main lists here. All in all, this woman can write.)
  • Astercote
  • The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy aka The Wild Hunt of the Ghost Hounds
  • The Whispering Knights
  • The Driftway
  • The Ghost of Thomas Kempe
  • A Stitch in Time
  • The Voyage of QV66
  • Treasures of Time
  • The Revenge of Samuel Stokes
  • Uninvited Ghosts and Other Stories *
  • The Five Thousand and One Nights *

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• Lupoff, Richard
  (Lupoff wrote wildly diverse material, much of it humorous or even sarcastic. What quality level is present in each of the works below is impossible to guess.)
  • Series:
    • Twin Planets:
      • Circumpolar!
      • Countersolar!
    • Sun’s End:
      • Sun’s End
      • Galaxy’s End
      • [A projected third volume was apparently never produced.]
  • Novels & Novellas:
    • One Million Centuries
    • Sacred Locomotive Flies
    • Into the Aether
    • Lisa Kane
    • Sandworld
    • The Triune Man
    • Space War Blues [related stories]
    • The Crack in the Sky aka Fool’s Hill
    • Lovecraft’s Book aka Marblehead: A Novel of H. P. Lovecraft
    • The Forever City
    • Hyperprism & The Digital Wristwatch of Philip K. Dick [2 novellas]
  • Story Collections:
    • Before…12:01…and After *
    • Claremont Tales *
    • Claremont Tales II *
    • Terrors *
    • Deep Space *
    • Visions *
    • The Compleat Ova Hamlet *
    • Dreams *
    • Dreamer’s Dozen *
    • The Doom That Came to Dunwich *

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• Lustbader, Eric Van
  • The Pearl Saga:
    • The Ring of Five Dragons
    • The Veil of a Thousand Tears
    • The Cage of Nine Banestones aka Mistress of the Pearl
  • The Testament:
    • The Testament
    • The Fallen
    • Four Dominions
    • The Sum of All Shadows
  • French Kiss
  • Dark Homecoming

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• MacAvoy, R. A.
  • The Book of Kells
  • The Grey Horse
  • The Third Eagle
  • Death and Resurrection

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• Mark, Jan
  (Marks’s specfic books are all nominally YA; but, as John Clute et al. put it in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, “her sf stories – which are more complex, dark-hewed and longer than her non-fantastic work – are almost certainly her best work, and are very nearly indistinguishable, except for the age of their protagonists, from adult fiction.”)
  • Ennead:
    • Divide and Rule [YA]
    • Aquarius [YA]
  • They Do Things Differently There [YA]
  • The Sighting [YA]
  • The Eclipse Of The Century [YA]
  • Useful Idiots [YA]

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• Marks, Laurie J.
  • The Watcher’s Mask

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• Martel, Yann
  • Self
  • The High Mountains of Portugal

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• Mayhar, Ardath
  (She has a vast output of books; I list here only those few in a series some parts of which are on the main list, which is not to disparage by implication any of the others.)
  • Tales of the Triple Moons
    • Warlock’s Gift
    • Lords of the Triple Moons

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• McDonald, Ian
  (McDonald is another author with a long, long bibliography; these are some likely works for further exploration of his oeuvre.)
  • Series:
    • Shian:
      • Sacrifice of Fools
    • Chaga:
      • Evolution’s Shore aka Chaga
      • Kirinya
      • [A third novel was widely expected, but has never materialized…]
    • India 2047:
      • River of Gods
      • Cyberabad Days *
  • Novels:
    • King of Morning, Queen of Day
    • The Broken Land aka Hearts, Hands and Voices
    • Terminal Cafe aka Necroville
    • Brasyl
  • Story Collections:
    • Speaking in Tongues *
    • The Best of Ian McDonald *

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• McIntyre, Vonda N.
  (This is just a sampling of her other works.)
  • The Exile Waiting [same setting as Dreamsnake]
  • Fireflood & Other Stories *
  • Starfarers:
    • Starfarers
    • Transition
    • Metaphase
    • Nautilus
  • The Moon and the Sun

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• McKiernan, Dennis
  • Mithgar:
    • Dragondoom
    • The Eye of the Hunter
    • Voyage of the Fox Rider
    • Tales of Mithgar *
    • The Dragonstone
    • Silver Wolf, Black Falcon
    • Red Slippers: More Tales of Mithgar *
    • City of Jade
    • Stolen Crown
    • Hel’s Crucible
      (a two-novel omnibus containing the novels listed below)
      • Into the Forge
      • Into the Fire
  • Caverns of Socrates
  • Once Upon:
    • 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
  • At the Edge of the Forest

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• McKinley, Robin
  • A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories *

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• Meynard, Yves
  • Chrysanthe
  • Angels & Exiles *

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• Miéville, China
  • The Tain [chapbook]
  • This Census-Taker
  • The Last Days of New Paris
  • The Worst Breakfast [chapbook: children’s]

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• Millet, Lydia
  (Millet has also written some works for younger readers, which I do not list here; but if you like her work, look them up.)
  • Mermaids in Paradise
  • Sweet Lamb of Heaven
  • A Children’s Bible [It is uncertain whether this qualifies as “speculative”, but it sounds well worth the effort of finding out.]

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• Mills, Magnus
  • Explorers of the New Century
  • A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In
  • The Field of the Cloth of Gold
  • Tales Of Muffled Oars
  • The Trouble With Sunbathers
  • Screwtop Thompson * [Includes the contents of two prior collections, Only When the Sun Shines Brightly and Once in a Blue Moon.]

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• Mitchell, David
  • Horologists:
    • The Bone Clocks
    • Slade House
  • Utopia Avenue

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• Modesitt, L. E.
  (Modesitt’s output is, to put it mildly, voluminous: the ISFDB has his full bibliography. Besides the book in the main lists, I have actually read quite a bit of Modesitt; 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. If you are interested, hit that bibliography and—figuratively, of course—throw a dart at it.)

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• Moers, Walter
  (Some of Moers works await translation into English. With his current surge in popularity, they will probably be forthcoming before long.)
  • Zamonia:
    • Ensel und Krete [not yet translated]
    • Princess Insomnia and the Nightmare-Colored Nightmare [not yet translated]

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• Monaco, Richard
  • Leitus Sixtus:
    • Runes
    • Broken Stone

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• 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. Trying to pick out which of Nathan’s many books have a fantastical element was much eased by the fine capsule summaries at The Robert Nathan Library (but beware spoilers!).
  • The Puppet Master
  • Jonah:
    • Jonah
    • Jezebel’s Husband
  • The Woodcutter’s House
  • Profesor Wutheridge:
    • The Bishop’s Wife
    • There is Another Heaven
  • Tapiola [children’s]:
    • Journey of Tapiola
    • Tapiola’s Brave Regiment
  • But Gently Day
  • The River Journey
  • The Married Look
  • The Innocent Eve
  • The Train in the Meadow
  • The Rancho of the Little Loves
  • So Love Returns
  • The Snowflake and the Starfish [children’s]
  • The Weans
  • The Wilderness-Stone
  • The Devil With Love
  • The Mallott Diaries
  • Stonecliff
  • Mia
  • The Elixir
  • The Summer Meadows
  • Heaven and Hell and the Megas Factor

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• Nesbit, E.
  • Arden Family:
    • The House of Arden
    • Harding’s Luck
  • The Wonderful Garden
  • The Magic World *
  • Fairy Stories *
  • Adult Works:
    (These are usually dark tales, often supernatural, sometimes sf or fantasy)
    • The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Edith Nesbit: Volume 1 *
    • The Collected Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Edith Nesbit: Volume 2 *
      (Those two volumes comprise all the works listed separately below, and possibly more.)

      ---

    • Grim Tales *
    • Something Wrong *
    • Man and Maid *
    • Fear *
    • E. Nesbit’s Tales of Terror * aka In the Dark: Tales of Terror * [a selection from the four above, edited by Hugh Lamb]
    • Dormant aka Rose Royal [a novel]

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• Nichols, Ruth
  (Nichols’ works are all YA.)
  • A Walk Out of the World
  • The Marrow of the World
  • The Left-Handed Spirit
  • The Burning of the Rose

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• Norwood, Warren
  • Shudderchild
  • True Jaguar
  • The Double-Spiral War:
    • Midway Between
    • Polar Fleet
    • Final Command
  • The Seren Cenacles [with Ralph Mylius]
  • Time Police (co-written by Mel Odom):
    (A fourth novel in this series, Refugee—original working title Twisted—exists in unedited manuscript, but was never published.)
    • Vanished
    • Trapped!
    • Stranded

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• Ore, Rebecca
  (This is not all of her other works, just what seemed most likely.)
  • The Illegal Rebirth of Billy the Kid
  • Gaia’s Toys
  • Time’s Child

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• Park, Paul
  • Coelestis aka Celestis
  • If Lions Could Speak *
  • The Roumainian Quartet:
    • A Princess of Roumania
    • The Tourmaline
    • The White Tyger
    • The Hidden World
  • All Those Vanished Engines
  • Other Stories *
  • A City Made of Words *

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• Pierce, Meredith Ann
  (It’s not always clear which of her works are nominally “YA”—so none of those below are so labelled—but adults seem to like it all.)
  • The Woman Who Loved Reindeer
  • The Firebringer Trilogy:
    (an omnibus comprising the three books listed separately below)
    • Birth of the Firebringer
    • Dark Moon
    • The Son of Summer Stars
  • Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood
  • Waters Luminous and Deep *

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• 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; the remaining yet-unlisted one is listed below, along with his only adult novel.)
  • Once Upon a Blue Moose *
  • The Afterlife Diet [his one adult fantasy]

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• Piserchia, Doris
  • Blood County [as by “Curt Selby”]
  • I, Zombie [as by “Curt Selby”]

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• 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

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• Priest, Christopher
  (This list omits a couple of movie novelizations written under pen names: Short Circuit [as by Colin Wedgelock] and eXistenZ [as by John Luther Novak].)
  • “The Dream Archipelago”:
    • The Affirmation
    • The Dream Archipelago * [link is to preferred edition: updated & expanded]
    • The Islanders
    • The Gradual
  • Novels:
    • Fugue For a Darkening Island
    • A Dream of Wessex
    • The Glamour
    • The Quiet Woman
    • The Extremes
    • The Separation
    • The Adjacent [has some connections with the Dream Archipelago cycle]
    • An American Story
    • The Evidence
  • Story Collections:
    • Real-Time World * [very early works]
    • An Infinite Summer *
    • Ersatz Wines - Instructive Short Stories * [very early works]
    • Episodes: Short Stories *

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• Resnick, Mike
  (Resnick’s output is almost comically copious. Besides the book in the main lists, I have read some other things by him, but so long ago now that I would need to repeat them, and possibly more, before reaching a definite overall-worth conclusion. Generally, though, Clute et al. put it that “the novels and stories themselves are sometimes told with an almost slapstick vigour that can drown out his serious purpose…[but]…[t]hat he was a consistently entertaining author is attested by the esteem granted his short work in particular”. So look at his ISFDB bibliography and—figuratively of course—throw darts at it to pick some samples.)

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• 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.)
  • Novels:
    (Many of Roberts’ books comprise a series of linked short stories, and are so tagged below; but they are generally classed “novels”.)
    • Anita [related stories]
    • The Inner Wheel * [related stories]
    • Molly Zero
    • Kiteworld [related stories]
    • Gráinne
  • Story Collections:
    • Machines and Men *
    • The Grain Kings *
    • The Passing of the Dragons * [selected stories from Machines and Men and The Grain Kings]
    • Ladies from Hell *
    • The Lordly Ones *
    • Winterwood and Other Hauntings * [ghost stories]

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• Ruff, Matt
  • Lovecraft Country
  • 88 Names

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• 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. Note that some of these are only marginally “speculative fiction”.)
  • Midnight’s Children
  • The Satanic Verses
  • The Ground Beneath Her Feet [alternate history]
  • The Enchantress of Florence
  • Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights

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• Russell, Sean
  • Initiate Brother
    (an omnibus of the two novels linked separately below)
    • The Initiate Brother
    • Gatherer of Clouds

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• Ryman, Geoff
  • The Warrior Who Carried Life
  • The Child Garden
  • Lust: or No Harm Done
  • Air: Or, Have Not Have
  • Paradise Tales *

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• Salmonson, Jessica Amanda
  • Story Collections:
    (Some of these are rare—because issued in limited numbers—and thus expensive. There may well be overlaps in contents.)
    • The Complete Weird Epistles of Penelope Pettiweather, Ghost Hunter *
    • On the Shores of Eternity *
    • Feigned Death & Other Sorceries *
    • Hag’s Tapestry *
    • A Siver Thread of Madness *
    • John Collier & Fredric Brown Went Quarreling Through My Head *
    • Harmless Ghosts *
    • Mystic Women: Their Ancient Tales and Legends, Recounted by a Woman Inmate of the Calcutta Insane Asylum, with Notes and Commentaries *
    • The Goddess Under Siege *
    • The Mysterious Doom & Other Ghostly Tales of the Pacific Northwest *
    • The Eleventh Jaguarundi & Other Mysterious Persons *
    • The Dark Tales *
    • The Deep Museum: Ghost Stories of a Melancholic *
    • Daisy Zoo and Other Punk-Ass Nonsense *

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• Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann
  (This is by no means all her work; follow the link for a full bibliography. This is what looks most promising.)
  • Songs from the Seashell Archives:
    • Songs from the Seashell Archives, Volume 1:
      (an omnibus comprising the books linked individually below)
      • Song of Sorcery
      • The Unicorn Creed [in the main lists here]
    • Songs from the Seashell Archives, Volume 2:
      (an omnibus comprising the books linked individually below)
      • Bronwyn’s Bane
      • The Christening Quest
    • The Dragon, the Witch, and the Railroad
    • The Redundant Dragons
  • The Godmother Cycle:
    • The Godmother
    • The Godmother’s Apprentice
    • The Godmother’s Web
  • The Healer’s War

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• Shea, Michael
  • Novels:
    • In Yana, the Touch of Undying
    • A Quest for Simbilis [set in Jack Vance’s “Dying Earth” world]
    • I, Said the Fly [could be classed a novella]
  • Story Collections:
    • Polyphemus * [now somewhat expensive]
    • The Autopsy and Other Tales * [includes the contents of the other two collections above, but rare and hideously expensive]
    • And Death Shall Have No Dominion: A Tribute to Michael Shea * [includes three previously unpublished stories & several tribute essays]

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• Shepard, Lucius
  (This is effectively a Shepard bibliography, because it is quite likely that most or all of it will qualify for the main lists. Pick some and try them.)
  • Griaule:
    • The Dragon Griaule *
    • The Skull
    • Beautiful Blood
  • Novels:
    • Green Eyes
    • Life During Wartime
    • The Golden
    • Valentine
    • Colonel Rutherford’s Colt
    • Louisiana Breakdown
    • Floater
    • Viator
    • Trujillo
    • A Handbook of American Prayer
    • Softspoken
  • Story Collections:
    • The Jaguar Hunter *
    • Nantucket Slayrides: Three Short Novels * [with Robert Frazier]
    • The Ends of the Earth *
    • Sports & Music *
    • Barnacle Bill the Spacer and Other Stories * aka Beast of the Heartland and Other Stories *
    • Two Trains Running *
    • Trujillo and Other Stories *
    • Eternity and Other Stories *
    • Dagger Key and Other Stories *
    • Skull City and Other Lost Tales *
    • The Best of Lucius Shepard *
    • Vacancy & Ariel *
    • Viator Plus *
    • Five Autobiographies and a Fiction *

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• Sherman, Delia
  (She also has several YA books that might be of interest.)
  • Young Woman in a Garden *
  • The Fall of The Kings (co-authored with Ellen Kushner: set in Kushner’s Swordspoint world)

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• Shetterly, Will
  • Cats:
    • The Tangled Lands
  • Dogland [this had a quasi-sequel not, I think, worth listing here]
  • Chimera

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• Silverberg, Robert
  (Silverberg is one of the Old Hands at the science-fiction game, and his books total is well over 100 even just in the specfic field. He is generally held in high repute; I think he is a writer who, at his peak, produced some fine work, but he also—especially in his early years—produced a lot of mediocre or worse stuff. The list below, leaning heavily on Clute et al. in “The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction”, seems to me most of his better works. I’ve actually read several of these, but ages ago, so I do not deem my thin recollections sufficient to rate them now.)
  • Novels:
    • Thorns
    • The Masks of Time
    • The Man in the Maze
    • Times Three
      (an omnibus of the three novels listed separately below, each to do with time travel)
      • Hawksbill Station
      • Up the Line
      • Project Pendulum
    • Downward to the Earth
    • Tower of Glass
    • A Time of Changes
    • The World Inside
    • The Book of Skulls
    • Dying Inside
    • The Second Trip
    • The Stochastic Man
    • Shadrach in the Furnace
    • Lord of Darkness
    • Gilgamesh the King
  • Story Collections:
    (These are seemingly countless. Subterranean Press issued a chronologically ordered series, “The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg”, in 8 volumes; the two listed below probably capture most of his best work.)
    • Something Wild Is Loose: 1969-72 * [The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume 3]
    • Trips: 1972-73 * [The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume 4]

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• Simak, Clifford D.
  (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 listed below are probably—once again leaning on Clute et al. in “The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction”—likely to be among the best of Simak’s considerable total output.)
  • Novels:
    • City
    • Time and Again aka First He Died
    • Time is the Simplest Thing
    • They Walked Like Men
    • All Flesh Is Grass
    • Why Call them Back From Heaven?
    • The Werewolf Principle
    • The Goblin Reservation
    • A Choice of Gods
    • A Heritage of Stars
    • The Fellowship of the Talisman
    • The Visitors
  • Story Collections:
    (There are, to date 20 such collections; choosing is difficult. Here are my suggestions—besides the one on the main list.)
    • Strangers in the Universe * [beware other like-named editions— stories were cut]
    • The Worlds of Clifford Simak * [beware other like-named editions— stories were cut]
    • All the Traps of Earth * [beware other like-named editions— stories were cut]
    • Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction *

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• Smith, Thorne
  • The Bishop’s Jaegers
  • Skin and Bones
  • Lazy Bear Lane [children’s book]

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• Snyder, Midori
  • Soulstring
  • The Queens’ Quarter aka Oran:
    • New Moon
    • Sadar’s Keep
    • Beldan’s Fire
  • The Flight of Michael McBride
  • Except the Queen [with Jane Yolen]

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• Spinrad, Norman
  (When he forgets to keep telling us, with sledgehammer subtlety, how great sex and drugs are, and how screwed power structures are—cf. Bug Jack Barron—he actually writes quite well; but he rarely forgets. Here are a few possibilities from his large oeuvre.)
  • The Iron Dream [a weird and controversial book]
  • He Walked Among Us
  • The Star-Spangled Future *
  • Other Americas *
  • Deus X and Other Stories *

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• Starrett, Vincent
  • Coffins for Two: Stories of Life, Death, Love, and Other Mysteries * [“grotesque, fantastic, bizarre”]
  • The Quick and the Dead * [“macabre tales”]
  • The Great All-Star Animal League Ball Game [for children, but possibly of amusement for adults]

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• Stevermer, Caroline
  (These are all classed “YA”, but may be readable by literate adults.)
  • The Serpent’s Egg
  • River Rats
  • The Glass Magician

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• Stockton, Frank R.
  (Stockton wrote a few novels classifiable as speculative fiction, but his real forte was the short story; the collections below—plus the one in the main list—seem, by report, to be the best of his work.)
  • Amos Kilbright: His Adscititious Experiences with Other Stories *
  • The Christmas Wreck and Other Stories aka A Borrowed Month and Other Stories *
  • The Watchmaker’s Wife and Other Stories *
  • A Story-Teller’s Pack *
  • The Science Fiction of Frank R. Stockton * [rare and expensive]

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• Stoddard, James **
  • The Animonean Chronicles
    • The Back of the Beyond
  • Liberty Bell and the Last American [expanded from the short story “The Battle of York”]

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• Sucharitkul, Somtow
  (Sucharitkul/Somtow is capable of good to excellent work, but also of not-so-good work. A lot of his fiction is—whether or not explicitly so labelled—“young adult”, and another lot is horror stuff (I do wish contemporary authors would recover from their acute vampirrhea, fantasy’s answer to the hula hoop and the pet rock). This list is thus far from all his work—just a smattering of what looks plausible.)
  • Riverrun
    (an amnibus comprising the three novels listed separately below)
    • Riverrun
    • Forest of the Night
    • Yestreen
  • Another Avatar
  • Fire from the Wine Dark Sea *
  • Dragon’s Fin Soup *
  • Other Edens *
  • Alien Heresies *

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• 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”; Bad Sheri is she who wields The Great Hammer of Obviousness.)
  • After Long Silence aka The Enigma Score
  • Six Moon Dance

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• Theroux, Paul
  • The Black House
  • A Christmas Card [YA]
  • O-Zone

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• Thurber, James
  (Thurber, the urbane writer and cartoonist of New Yorker fame, also wrote some children’s books that seem to receive unanimous praise. Neil Gaiman has, probably whimsically, called The Thirteen Clocks “probably the best book in the world”.)
  • The Thirteen Clocks [children’s book]

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• Tournier, Michel
  • The Fetishist and Other Stories *

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• Travers, P. L.
  (These two are outliers to the Mary Poppins saga: one teaches the alphabet with appropriate Mary Poppins vignettes, the other teaches cooking basics with an associated short Mary Poppins story. They might be of interest to completists.)
  • Mary Poppins From A to Z
  • Mary Poppins in the Kitchen

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• Wells, Martha
  • Murderbot:
    • The Murderbot Diaries
      (an omnibus of the 4 books listed individually below; the omnibus also includes a short story and an author’s introduction)
      • All Systems Red
      • Artificial Condition
      • Rogue Protocol
      • Exit Strategy
    • Network Effect
    • Fugitive Telemetry
  • The Raksura:
    • The Books of Raksura
      (an omnibus of the 3 books listed individually below)
      • The Cloud Roads
      • The Serpent Sea
      • The Siren Depths
    • The Edge of Worlds
    • The Harbors of the Sun
    • Stories of the Raksura, Volume 1: The Falling World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud *
    • Stories of the Raksura, Volume 2: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below *

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• White, E. B.
  • Charlotte’s Web [children’s book, considered enjoyable by adults]
  • Charlotte’s WebThe Trumpet of the Swan [children’s book, considered enjoyable by adults]

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• White, T. H.
  • Earth Stopped:
    • Earth Stopped: or Mr. Marx’s Sporting Tour
    • Gone to Ground
  • The Maharajah and Other Stories *

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• Whitehead, Colson
  • Zone One
  • The Underground Railroad

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• Wilhelm, Kate
  (Kate Wilhelm is another of those few authors considered here who are both prolific and consistently good. Of her full bibliography, I have read more than just what made it to the main list here, but of the rest it has been decades since I last read any; but, even after hours of scanning reviews, I could find no excuse for omitting anything in that bibliography, so I don’t list any particular works here. If you tried and liked anything of hers in the main list, try anything else whatever by her.)

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• Williams, Michael
  • From Thief to King
    • A Sorcerer’s Apprentice
    • A Forest Lord
    • The Balance of Power
  • City Quartet
    • Trajan’s Arch
    • Vine: An Urban Legend
    • Dominic's Ghosts
    • Tattered Men
  • Tales with a Twist *

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• Williams, Tad
  • Story Collections:
    (There is much overlap in these collections’ contents, but each has at least some material not in the others.)
    • Rite: Short Work *
    • A Stark and Wormy Knight *
    • The Very Best of Tad Williams *
  • Shadowmarch:
    • Shadowmarch
    • Shadowplay
    • Shadowrise
    • Shadowheart
  • Osten Ard:
    • Memory, Sorrow & Thorn:
      • The Dragonbone Chair
      • Stone of Farewell
      • To Green Angel Tower [do not confuse this single volume with the two-volume edition of this novel]
    • The Last King of Osten Ard:
      • The Heart of What Was Lost
      • The Witchwood Crown
      • Empire of Grass

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• Williams, Walter Jon
  • Knight Moves
  • Aristoi
  • Implied Spaces
  • Quillifer:
    (Some writers are just much better at humor than solemnity, and I reckon Williams is one such.)
    • Quillifer
    • Quillifer the Knight

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• Wolf, Gary K.
  • The Resurrectionist
  • The Late Great Show!
  • Typical Day

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• Wyndham, John
  • Novels:
    • The Chrysalids
    • The Midwich Cuckoos
    • Trouble with Lichen
    • The Day of the Triffids
    • Chocky
  • Story Collections:
    (This is just a sample—representative, one hopes—of his short-story collections.)
    • Jizzle *
    • The Seeds of Time *
    • Consider Her Ways and Others *
    • The Best of John Wyndham aka The Man from Beyond and Other Stories *

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• Zelazny, Roger
  • Novels:
    • This Immortal aka …And Call Me Conrad
    • Jack of Shadows
  • Story Collections:
    • Four for Tomorrow * aka A Rose for Ecclesiastes *
    • The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth and Other Stories *
    • My Name Is Legion *
    • The Last Defender of Camelot *
    • Frost and Fire *

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• Zindell, David
  • Ea Cycle:
    • The Lightstone
      [The publishing history is confusing. The original all-in-one Book 1 of the cycle was called “The Lightstone”. It was later revised and split into two volumes as “The Lightstone: The Ninth Kingdom” and “The Lightstone: The Silver Sword” (UK editions), and into “The Lightstone” and “The Silver Sword” (US editions). The link is to the 2006/2007 US editions titled “The Lightstone”.]
    • The Silver Sword
      [See the notes above: the link is to the US editions of “The Silver Sword”.]
    • Lord of Lies
    • Black Jade
    • The Diamond Warriors

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