Yep, UKL had a new book last year. I want to say it was “Tales from Earthsea” oh, wait, two actually. the other was called… “The Other Wind” (it was an Earthsea novel).
More authors, all of whom are living, to make your collection a bit current (Many of these are ferriners but in print in the US):
-China Mieville: King Rat, Perdido Street Station, The Scar)
-Iain M. Banks: Player of Games, Excession, Feersum Enjinn(without the M he’s a general fiction author)
-Juliet Marillier: Daughter of the Forest, Son of Shadows, Child of the Prophecy (will appeal to Mists of Avalon readers)
-Terry Brooks: everything with “Shannara” in the title.
-Catherine Asaro: Last Hawk, Primary Inversion, Spherical Harmonic, The Quantum Rose (won the Nebula this year).
-Elizabeth Haydon: Destiny, Rhapsody, Prophecy
-Philip K. Dick’s entire backlist is being re-released. I’d start with The Man in the High Castle, and the 4 volume set of the Collected Stories of Phiip K. Dick.
Yep, UKL had a new book last year. I want to say it was “Tales from Earthsea” oh, wait, two actually. the other was called… “The Other Wind” (it was an Earthsea novel).
More authors, all of whom are living, to make your collection a bit current (Many of these are ferriners but in print in the US):
-China Mieville: King Rat, Perdido Street Station, The Scar)
-Iain M. Banks: Player of Games, Excession, Feersum Enjinn(without the M he’s a general fiction author)
-Juliet Marillier: Daughter of the Forest, Son of Shadows, Child of the Prophecy (will appeal to Mists of Avalon readers)
-Terry Brooks: everything with “Shannara” in the title.
-Catherine Asaro: Last Hawk, Primary Inversion, Spherical Harmonic, The Quantum Rose (won the Nebula this year).
-Elizabeth Haydon: Destiny, Rhapsody, Prophecy
-Philip K. Dick’s entire backlist is being re-released. I’d start with The Man in the High Castle, and the 4 volume set of the Collected Stories of Phiip K. Dick.
Andre Norton (No one named her yet?)
If you can find them, books by Alan E. Nourse.
Debra Doyle and James Macdonald
S. M. Stirling
Raymond E. Feist
Steven Brust
Joel Rosenberg
Barbara Hambly (She also does some great historical mysteries.)
No one else likes Roger Zelazny? Or is my eyesight finally going? I would also reccommend C.S. Friedman, Mary Gentle (well, I recomend Golden Witchbreed), Donald Kingsbury, and Robert Don Hughes.
How nice to see that others appreciate Jack Vance!
Ammonite - Nicola Griffith
The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany
Barrayar - Lois McMaster Bujold
Blind Voices - Tom Reamy
The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller
Carrion Comfort - Dan Simmons
A Child Across the Sky - Jonathan Carroll
China Mountain Zhang - Maureen F. McHugh
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Courtship Rite - Donald Kingsbury
Cyteen - C. J. Cherryh
Dangerous Visions - Harlan Ellison
Deathbird Stories - Harlan Ellison
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
The Door into Summer - Robert A. Heinlein
Doorways in the Sand - Roger Zelazny
Dorsai! - Gordon Dickson
Dreamsnake - Vonda N. McIntyre
Drowning Towers - George Turner
Dune - Frank Herbert
Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
Earthquake Weather - Tim Powers
Elric of Melnibone - Michael Moorcock
Emergence - David R. Palmer
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
The Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons
The Female Man - Joanna Russ
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
The First Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said - Philip K. Dick
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Gateway - Frederik Pohl
Gloriana - Michael Moorcock
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
The Gormenghast Novels - Mervyn Laurence Peake
Green Eyes - Lucius Shepard
Harpist in the Wind - Patricia A. McKillip
Helliconia Spring - Brian W. Aldiss
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Islands in the Net - Bruce Sterling
The Last Unicorn - Peter Beagle
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Little, Big - John Crowley
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Man Plus - Frederik Pohl
The Many-Colored Land - Julian May
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn - Tad Williams
The Merlin Trilogy - Mary Stewart
A Midsummer Tempest - Poul Anderson
The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
More than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Neutron Star - Larry Niven
1984 - George Orwell
No Enemy But Time - Michael Bishop
Norstrilia - Cordwainer Smith
On Wings of Song - Thomas M. Disch
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
Our Lady of Darkness - Fritz Leiber
The Prestige - Christopher Priest
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Rendezvous With Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Roadside Picnic - A & B Strugatsky
The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe
Slan - A.E. Van Vogt
The Snow Queen - Joan D. Vinge
Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson
Something Wicked this Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
The Sparrow Mary - Doria Russell
Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card
A Spell for Chameleon - Piers Anthony
The Stand - Stephen King
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
Startide Rising - David Brin
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
Sunglasses After Dark - Nancy A. Collins
Tea with the Black Dragon - R. A. MacAvoy
A Time of Changes - Robert Silverberg
Timescape - Gregory Benford
Titan - John Varley
To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip José Farmer
Towing Jehovah - James Morrow
Waking the Moon - Elizabeth Hand
Watership Down - Richard Adams
Way Station - Clifford Simak
When Gravity Fails - George Alec Effinger
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
The White Dragon - Anne McCaffrey
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
The Year of the Quiet Sun - Wilson Tucker
[ul]
[li]Patricia McKillip[/li][li]Robin McKinley[/li][li]Glen Cook[/li][li]Michael Stackpole[/li][li]Mike Resnick[/li][li]Patricia Wrede[/li][li]Diane Wynne Jones[/li][li]Emma Bull[/li][li]John Brunner (Shockwave Rider is a MUST)[/li][li]Charles de Lint[/li][li]L. Sprague de Camp[/li][li]Gordon Dickson (how has he NOT been mentioned before?)[/li][li]Randall Garrett[/li][li]M. A. Foster[/li][li]Kevin O’Donnell[/li][li]C. J. Cherryh[/li][/ul]
and seconds on Andre Norton, Heinlein, Asimov (who also wrote some fair non-SF mysteries and lots of good non-fiction), Bradbury, Zelazny, Clarke, Guy Kay, Delaney, errrr . . . and most of the others already listed.
Many many excellent authors here. Another suggestion (if someone already said it and I missed it, I apoligize) is to find a list (probably easy enough to find online) of Hugo award winning novels and novellas and try acquiring a good portion of those.
If I were in charge of a library, I’d be concerned with getting together materials that will be difficult to find in the future. As far as Sci-Fi is concerned, the author whose books are most rapidly disappearing is Robert Silverman. Some of his series are already out-of-print and almost impossible to find. Additionally, anybody who was on DelRey and has since switched to Tor, like Piers Anthony, should be collected for the DelRey books. Anything printed after 1990 isn’t worth stockpiling right away, the first priority should be getting ahold of the works that will be unavailable soon. BTW, also make sure to get the two post-trilogy Foundation books by Asimov (Foundation and Earth, Foundation’s Edge) as they are probably not being printed again and I had to secure my copies used.
My purpose was not to endorse any choice, since obviously ANYONE in print must have an audience of people who think they’re wonderful, but a number of folks such as Enderw24 and Little Nemo have named several of my favorites.
However, as an occasional librarian, I’d encourage doing two things:
Figure out what will bring in the patrons, and buy accordingly. I live in a very cultural area, and bless me, that’s what they’re doing. Ohmigod. (Inhales deeply, calmly.) I think their notion is that readers, once hooked, will gravitate toward their natural reading level. (Breathes calmly. Not upset.)
Read the Hugo and Nebula award winners, and decide for yourself what you’d like to encourage people to read.
I’d like to recommend that you get a few good anthologies. It gives you good “bang for the buck” (not to mention shelf space). I notice that these are all “older” SF, but that’s a way to guarantee that you get in a lot of the seminal classics. Maybe someone can recommend more recent collections:
**The Science Fiction Hall of Fame ** – Volumes I, IIA, and IIBB. (for my money you can ignore the others)
Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions Harlan Ellison’s wonderfully dark anthologies
Adventures in Time and Space The first and best of the anthologies
A Treasury of Great Science Fiction
The series “The Best of __________” published between about 1973 and 1980 by Ballantine/Del Rey was an excellent collection of short stories by important but often not fully appreciated SF writers. They came out in hardcover (rare) and paperback. The only one currently in print (to my knowledge) is The Best of Lester Del Rey".
And I’df strongly recommend the classic authors:
Edgar Allan Poe
Jules Verne (who has a lot more works than most people know)
H.G. Wells (ditto)
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert A. Heinlein
Isaac Asimov
Ursula K. LeGuin
and too many others to list.
Finally, see Nichols and Clute’s Science Fiction Encyclopedia, which would be an excellent addition to your collection, as well as a great reference to help you in picking out books and authors.
Ursula K. LeGuin has been mentioned several times already. Yes, she is still writing and, in fact, has released another book after The Other Wind. Tinkertoy, be aware that LeGuin writes in a lot of different genres: sci-fi, fantasy, both, neither. She is very much a genre unto herself. (Genre *sui generis?)
Robert Silverberg, esp. his Majipoor books (sci-fi)
Katherine Kurtz, her Deryni novels; and the Adept fantasy series co-authored with…
…Deborah Turner Harris, who has several written several fantasy novels on her own.
Katherine Kerr (fantasy)
Storm Constantine, esp. her Wraeththu trilogy and Stalking Tender Prey
Elizabeth Lynn, sci-fi and fantasy. Chronicle of Tornor (trilogy) and The Sardonyx Net (sci-fi)
David Eddings (fantasy) deserves mention, though I am not a big fan.
Austin Tappan Wright’s Islandia, if you can find a copy. This is a half-forgotten classic from the early 1940s.
I’'d like to endorse the votes for Heinlein and Clarke, also Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series and Anne McCaffrey’s Dragons of Pern books. Mary Gentle’s Golden Witchbreed (sensational!) and Joan D Vinge’s Snowqueen and Summer Queen. Also C J Cherryh’s Hani stories (Pride of Chanur and sequels).
Definitely, definitely everything of Terry Pratchett’s, including Good Omens which he co-authored with Neil Gaiman.
Earlier stuff if still in print - John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids is his best known but also get The Chrysalids, Midwich Cuckoos and The Kraken Wakes. Richard Cowper (who died recently) Bird of Kinship series and Twilight of Briareus. CS Lewis Perelandra series. If still in print - Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay - said to have inspired both CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.
I have the Science Fiction and the Fantasy encyclopedias, and agree they are excellent. So good it’s hard to imagine how they were written, as a matter of fact.
(I also agree with Poe, Verne, Wells, Heinlein, and LeGuin.)
The thing about their references, though, is that many of the tantalizing books cited are out-of-print. Apparently, as I’ve been told, a huge part of the American book buying public only wants to read from the NY Times bestseller list. So, thanks to Stephen King, and other mediocre authors like Jordan, Mitchner, Applegate, and Steele who write to a low-end formula, the majority of the better sci-fi and fantasy works are unavailable. Also, no thanks to A. C. Clarke, Spider Robinson, etc., for publishing books under their name which were partly written by somebody else. (Oh, so it’s ok that their good friend, wife, etc. wrote their books for them?)
Thanks Folks! You’ve given me some great suggestions. I plan to start working on this right away. We just ordered all the Douglas Adams books. Can you believe my former boss pulled them all from the shelves because “They are of no importance”.
She also got rid of most of the Piers Anthony books. But by Hell we have every Danielle Steel book.
Can’t believe Fred Saberhagen (Berserker series) has not been mentioned yet. As well as Peter F. Hamilton (Night’s Dawn trilogy), Damon Knight, Jack L. Chalker (Well World series), and Harry Harrison (Stainless Steel Rat series among many others). Contact by Carl Sagan was pretty good also.
