What Lawrence Person Should Read This Year

I've spent about two hours today working on the first of two "Reviewing the Mail" posts for Monday, so I'm not terribly inclined to blog activity that requires actual thinking. (Such as reviewing any of the four books and four movies that I'm behind right now. Maybe tomorrow.)

On the other hand, here's something I wrote on rec.arts.sf.written on January 2nd, in response to Lawrence Person, who wanted many opinions on the books that he might be reading this year. The actual Usenet post is also archived here, for anyone who wants to check me, or see what other people thought about these books:

> Kelly Link: Stranger Things Happen

I think it's actually better than Magic for Beginners; it's certainly more diverse. And Link is clearly one of the best short-story writers currently active.

> Alistair Reynolds: Chasm City

Still Reynolds's most ambitious novel, and one of my favorites of his. Well worth reading.

> Peter Ackroyd: Hawksmoor

I read this ages ago, and it fled from memory almost immediately. My general lasting impression is that its not as great as it's considered.

> Charles Stross: Halting State or Missile Gap

A vote for "Missile Gap," or for "Missile Gap" first. But Halting State is awfully good, too.

> J. G. Ballard: The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard

You have to read this.

> John Barnes: Kaleidoscope Century or Mother of Storms

I have problems with the protagonist of Kaleidoscope (mostly in that I think Barnes means the reader to identify with him, and I think that is vile), but it's compulsively readable and interesting. I haven't read Mother.

> Lois McMaster Bujold: Mirror Dance

One of the best novels in a fine sequence; I'd personally put this at about the bottom of the upper third of the reading pile.

> Jonathan Carroll: A Child Across the Sky or Outside the Dog Museum

All Carroll novels are basically the same; Child is probably a bit better than Dog, so if you're reading one this year, I'd suggest going that way.

> Philip K. Dick: Collected Stories Volume II or Confessions of a Crap Artist

Confessions is incredibly dull; Dick's prose isn't all that great (it never was), and his plots are plodding and bland without the eruptions of abnormality. I'd avoid it.

> George Alec Effinger: What Entropy Means to Me

I haven't read this in more than a decade, but I loved it when I did read it. It may be awfully "'70s" now.

> Harlan Ellison: Deathbird Stories

Don't read them straight through -- only a teenager can read a bunch of Harlan stories in a row -- but make time to read them.

> John M. Ford: The Dragon Waiting

I never found this all that wonderful. It's slow-moving and also doesn't go anywhere.

> Neil Gaiman: Snow Glass Apples

It's very short (not even a novellette, I think), and one of the best fantasy stories of the past twenty years. Read it.

> Chris Genoa: Foop!

Is this the "fluid's running out of my brakes" book? If so, you MUST read it, and report on it here. I've never known anyone else who's seen a copy of it, and I didn't get the chance to read it myself.

> Nalo Hopkinson: Brown Girl in the Ring or The Salt Roads

Haven't read Salt; Brown is OK but very much the first-novel-as-sublimated-autobiography thing.

> Fritz Leiber: Rime Isle

Late F&GM, and short -- if you've made it this far, you might as well read it. (And I think putting on a list like this that you own a first edition consisitutes bragging, as well.)

> Jonathan Lethem: Motherless Brooklyn

It's a very quick read, but it isn't as great as people were saying. It's certainly worth reading; it's just not transcendently wonderful or anything.

> Gregory Maguire: Wicked

Very disappointing, in a very first-novel way. Maguire shows very little knowledge or understanding of even Baum's first novel, and misremembers the movie as well. It's a muddled mess. Unless you have a reason to read it, avoid it.

> David Marusek: Counting Heads

It has massive structural problems (the ending is a mess, and the novella doesn't belong bolted onto the front), but what's in between is excellent. If you don't expect it to have the shape of a novel, it's wonderful.

> Maureen McHugh: Mission Child or Nekropolis

I think I've read most of the pieces of Mission Child when they were being published as novellas, and I read Nekropolis. I find McHugh a terribly dull, spinach sort of writer: the kind that people tell me I should read for my own good. And life's too short for that.

> China Mieville: King Rat or Looking for Jake

Avoid Looking for Jake; Mieville will do a "Best Short Stories" collection in about twenty years, which will be the one to have. King Rat isn't as good as his later novels but is still worth reading.

> Michael Moorcock: Gloriana

One of the great fantasy novels of the 20th century. Read it ASAP.

> Richard Morgan: Broken Angels

Eh. Morgan wrote one very good SFnal mystery, and then fell to blander, more cookie-cutter leftist MilSF. There are plenty of better books than this to read.

> Naomi Novik: Temeraire

Best for those of us who wish Patrick O'Brian weren't dead; a nice piece of worldbuilding and evocation of a different time. Plus, you know, battles with dragons and tall ships.

> H. Beam Piper: Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen

It holds up OK, but it was always a minor classic.

> Tim Powers: Three Days to Never or Pilot Light

Three Days isn't top-rank Powers, but it's still quite good. I haven't read Pilot Light.

> Rudy Rucker: Master of Time & Space or The Secret of Life or White Light

The last time I purged, the one I kept myself is White Light. But Master is probably the most gonzo-entertaining.

> John Scalzi: The Ghost Brigades

As others have said, this trilogy gets more interesting as it goes, but I think Ghost Brigades is the best novel of the three. It's not a must-read, but it's good modern SF; I recommend it.

> Michael Shea: A Quest for Simbilis

I don't remember it all that well, but I liked it when I read it.

> Robert Sladek: Roderick

You haven't read Roderick yet? OK, then this goes right after Gloriana. (Though it may be dated at this point.)

> Neal Stephenson: Zodiac or The Big U

They'e both minor, but I found The Big U more interesting, though less obviously a Stephenson book.

> Martha Wells: The Element of Fire

Liked it when I read it fifteen years ago; but that was fifteen years ago.

> Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog

As funny and pleasant as SF gets. Save it for right after something worthy and depressing (like a Peter Watts novel).

> Gene Wolfe: Pirate Freedom

It's wonderful and tricky; I just made it one of my favorite books of 2007. It should be on your shortlist.

> Roger Zelazny: Wilderness or DonnerJack

Never read Wilderness, which is very odd Zelazny. Donnerjack is minor and goes on much too long; I think Lindskold finished it up by writing more, when Zelazny would have finished it by cutting it down.

--
Andrew Wheeler
who spent the '90s reading a lot of this junk