Writing and Sci-Fantasy Lists and Links
Sep. 9th, 2019 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Been tired most of the day, as if I'm trudging uphill somehow and dragging a few boulders up that hill with me. Work as frustrating.
Lando went and got acupuncture to heal his sleep apnea. And...well, apparently the acupuncturist put a need through his neck, and showed him the ingredients that go in his herbal medicines -- including dried scorpion and snake venomes. (I'd have run screaming out the door. But Lando was rather pleased with the results, and said his sleep apnea was no more -- he got the rec from Russian co-worker.
2. On Twitter someone asked for books on writing by established writers mid-career, not Stephen King (who he'd already read). So if you like this stuff, here's a few links..
* Chuck Wendig
* Dean Koontz - How to Become a Best-Selling Writer
When reading how-to tips from any writer, always remember that what technique or attitude works for him or her might be so alien to your creative nature that to adopt it unthinkingly will do you no good and might hamstring you. While grammar, syntax, and craft can be taught, writing fiction is--or should be--such an intensely personal enterprise that the story and its meaning comes from a place deep inside yourself and involves approaches that are unique to you. Take advice, yes, but think it through thoroughly and be sure it works for you.
He did publish a book on it. I know, I read it a very long time ago.
* Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing
Or go HERE for the list.
What's Leonard's secret to being both popular and respectable? Perhaps you'll find some clues in his 10 tricks for good writing:
Never open a book with weather.
Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said"…he admonished gravely.
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
* John D. MacDonald
* Ursula Le Guinn - Conversations on Writing
* Bird by Bird - Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
* Negotiating with the Dead - Margaret Atwood on Writing
* John Scalzi on Writing
*Neil Gaiman on Writing Well
2. Because I despised the NPR Sci-Fi List with the force of a 1000 suns, I went and found another, better ones -- much much better ones, I think most of you will agree?
MEME: Bold what you read. Italicize what you own or tried but haven't finished.
First -- this one: Penguine's List of The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
A while ago, we came up with a list of the Best Fantasy Novels of All Time. Now we’re doing the same with science fiction! Some of these are classic tales you will surely know, but others are excellent works of science fiction that may have been flying under the radar. So, dear readers, as you make your way down the list, congratulate yourselves on the books you’ve read and add the unfamiliar ones to your TBR list. Note: This list is organized alphabetically.
1. 1984 by George Orwell
2 Altered Carbon (Netflix Series Tie-in Edition) by Richard K. Morgan
3. Amatka by Karin Tidbeck
4 Ammonite by Nicola Griffith
5. The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
6. The Big Book of Science Fiction by
Anthologies rarely make “Best Of” lists, but this one belongs on here — because it contains stories by many of the great science fiction writers we are discussing in our list. Le Guin, Asimov, Doctorow, Liu, Wells, Clarke, Butler, Vonnegut, and the list goes on and on!
7, The Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret Cavendish
8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
9. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
10. The Children of Men by P. D. James
11. The City & The City by China Miéville
12. Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear
13. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
14. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
15. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
16. Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
17. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
18.Dune by Frank Herbert
19. Dust by Elizabeth Bear
20. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
21. The Fold by Peter Clines
22. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
23. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
24. The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
25. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
27. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
28. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
29. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
30. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
31. The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
32. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
33. Legend by Marie Lu
34. The Martian by Andy Weir
35. Neuromancer by William Gibson
36. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (For someone who struggles as much as I do with Atwood, I've certainly tried her a lot -- also read two of her books.)
37. Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams
38. Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton
39. Planetfall by Emma Newman
40. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
41. The Real Story by Stephen R. Donaldson
42. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
43. Ringworld by Larry Niven
44. Shikasta by Doris Lessing -- not an easy book to read. Sort of akin to reading technical scopes of work for pages and pages on end.
45.Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
46. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
47. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
48. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
49.The Stand by Stephen King
50. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
51. Arrival (Stories of Your Life MTI) by Ted Chiang
52. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
53. Survival by Julie E. Czerneda
54. Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
55. Valor’s Choice by Tanya Huff
56. Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer
57. Viriconium by M. John Harrison
58. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
59. Watchers by Dean Koontz
60 Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
61 World War Z by Max Brooks
As an aside? I think this is just cobbled from the list of books published from Penguin/Random House.
[Best Fantasy Novels added here]
62. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
63. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
64. Assassin's Apprentice (The Illustrated Edition) by Robin Hobb
65. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
66. The Belgariad (Vol 1) by David Eddings
67. The Blue Sword Book by Robin Mckinley
68. The Broken Crown by Michelle West
69. The Changeling by Victor LaValle
70. City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
71. Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
72. The Devourers by Indra Das
73. The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
74. The Dreaming Tree by C. J. Cherryh
75. The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany
76. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
77. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
78. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
79. His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
80. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
81. The Bloody Crown of Conan by Robert E. Howard
82. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
83. The Book of Jhereg by Steven Brust
84. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
85. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
86. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
87. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
88. Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
89. Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist
90. The Magicians by Lev Grossman -- couldn't stand Owen in either the book or the series for some reason.
91. Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey
92. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
93. My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
94. The Name of the Wind: 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition by Patrick Rothfuss
95. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
96. Night’s Master by Tanith Lee
97. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
98. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
99. Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente
100. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville - both have writing styles that don't quite work for me.
101. Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
102 Redwall by Brian Jacques
103. Riddle-Master by Patricia A. McKillip
104. Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
105. Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks
106. Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
107. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
108. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
109. Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
110. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
111. Wildwood Dancingby by Juliet Marillier
Now Reedsy's List:
100 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
These are ranked by date, and this is the best list I've seen. I haven't read or heard of a lot of them, but I want to read them. And various ones, I've read about or own.
MEME: Bold what you read. Italicize what you own or tried but haven't finished.
1. The Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret Cavendish (1666)
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
3. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)
4. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1897)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
6. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)
7. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (1950)
8. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950)
9. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
10. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954)
11. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959) -- hmmm, I thought this was written later.
12. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (1961)
13. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (1961)
14.A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962) (Thought this was written in the 1970s for some reason.)
15. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
16. The Man in the High Castleby Philip K. Dick (1962)
17. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)
18. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966) -- also thought these were 1970s. I read them in the 1980s.
19. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
20. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (1968)
21. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
22. Ringworld by Larry Niven (1970)
23. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (1972)
24. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
25. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1974)
26. The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975)
27. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany (1975)
28. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (1976)
29. The Stand by Stephen King (1978)
30. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
31. Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta by Doris Lessing (1979)
While it’s usually just referred to as Shikasta, the full title of this book, including the subtitle, is Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta: Personal, psychological, historical documents relating to visit by Johor (George Sherban) Emissary (Grade 9) 87th of the Period of the Last Day. The first installment in the Nobel laureate’s ‘Canopus in Argos’ series, it’s not just the title that’s unusual.
32. Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh (1981)
33. Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
34. Contact by Carl Sagan (1985)
35. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1985)
36. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
37. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
38. Watchmenby Alan Moore and David Gibbons (1986)
39. Watchers by Dean Koontz (1987)
40. Dawn by Octavia Butler (1987)
41. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (1988)
42. Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor (1989)
On the surface, this is an adaptation of the first season of a beloved British sitcom. However, the show’s creators have crafted a funny, affecting novel that marries some of the best parts of the series with the spirit of Douglas Adams.
43. Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1989)
44. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (1990)
45. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr. (1990)
46. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992)
47. Ammonite by Nicola Griffith (1992)
48.The Children of Men by P.D. James (1992)
49. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
50. The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)
51. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (1996)
52. Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card (1999)
53. Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear (1999)
54. Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff (2000)
55. Probability Moon by Nancy Kress (2000)
56. Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson (2000)
57. number9dream by David Mitchell (2001)
58. The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson (2001)
59. Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams (2001)
60. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (2002)
61. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (2002)
62. Feed by M. T. Anderson (2002)
63. Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer (2003)
64. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003)
65. Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton (2004)
66. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
67. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2005)
68. World War Z by Max Brooks (2006)
69. Anathem by Neal Stephenson (2008)
70. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)
71. The City & The City by China Miéville (2009)
72. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
73. Redemption of Indigo by Karen Lord (2010)
74. Death's End by Cixin Liu (2010)
75. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (2010)
76. The Martian by Andy Weir (2011)
77. Legend by Marie Lu (2011)
78. The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (2012)
79. Amatka by Karin Tidbeck (2012)
80. Redshirts by John Scalzi (2012)
81. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2013)
82. Dust by Hugh Howey (2013)
83. The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (2013)
84. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
85. Red Rising by Pierce Brown (2014)
86. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (2014)
87. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2015)
88. Planetfall by Emma Newman (2015)
89. The Fold by Peter Clines (2015)
90. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman (2015)
91. Infomocracy by Malka Older (2016)
92. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (2016)
93. Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (2016)
94. Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016)
95. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (2016)
96. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel (2016)
97. Scythe by Neal Shusterman (2016)
98. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (2017)
99. Exo by Fonda Lee (2017)
100. The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch (2018)
Reedsy Ltd. © 2019
I've actually read more on that list. It's by publication date. Which is cool, because I didn't realize so many of them were published in the 1960s.
Lando went and got acupuncture to heal his sleep apnea. And...well, apparently the acupuncturist put a need through his neck, and showed him the ingredients that go in his herbal medicines -- including dried scorpion and snake venomes. (I'd have run screaming out the door. But Lando was rather pleased with the results, and said his sleep apnea was no more -- he got the rec from Russian co-worker.
2. On Twitter someone asked for books on writing by established writers mid-career, not Stephen King (who he'd already read). So if you like this stuff, here's a few links..
* Chuck Wendig
* Dean Koontz - How to Become a Best-Selling Writer
When reading how-to tips from any writer, always remember that what technique or attitude works for him or her might be so alien to your creative nature that to adopt it unthinkingly will do you no good and might hamstring you. While grammar, syntax, and craft can be taught, writing fiction is--or should be--such an intensely personal enterprise that the story and its meaning comes from a place deep inside yourself and involves approaches that are unique to you. Take advice, yes, but think it through thoroughly and be sure it works for you.
He did publish a book on it. I know, I read it a very long time ago.
* Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing
Or go HERE for the list.
What's Leonard's secret to being both popular and respectable? Perhaps you'll find some clues in his 10 tricks for good writing:
Never open a book with weather.
Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said"…he admonished gravely.
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
* John D. MacDonald
* Ursula Le Guinn - Conversations on Writing
* Bird by Bird - Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
* Negotiating with the Dead - Margaret Atwood on Writing
* John Scalzi on Writing
*Neil Gaiman on Writing Well
2. Because I despised the NPR Sci-Fi List with the force of a 1000 suns, I went and found another, better ones -- much much better ones, I think most of you will agree?
MEME: Bold what you read. Italicize what you own or tried but haven't finished.
First -- this one: Penguine's List of The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
A while ago, we came up with a list of the Best Fantasy Novels of All Time. Now we’re doing the same with science fiction! Some of these are classic tales you will surely know, but others are excellent works of science fiction that may have been flying under the radar. So, dear readers, as you make your way down the list, congratulate yourselves on the books you’ve read and add the unfamiliar ones to your TBR list. Note: This list is organized alphabetically.
1. 1984 by George Orwell
2 Altered Carbon (Netflix Series Tie-in Edition) by Richard K. Morgan
3. Amatka by Karin Tidbeck
4 Ammonite by Nicola Griffith
5. The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
6. The Big Book of Science Fiction by
Anthologies rarely make “Best Of” lists, but this one belongs on here — because it contains stories by many of the great science fiction writers we are discussing in our list. Le Guin, Asimov, Doctorow, Liu, Wells, Clarke, Butler, Vonnegut, and the list goes on and on!
7, The Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret Cavendish
8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
9. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
10. The Children of Men by P. D. James
11. The City & The City by China Miéville
12. Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear
13. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
14. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
15. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
16. Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
17. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
18.Dune by Frank Herbert
19. Dust by Elizabeth Bear
20. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
21. The Fold by Peter Clines
22. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
23. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
24. The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
25. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
27. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
28. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
29. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
30. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
31. The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
32. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
33. Legend by Marie Lu
34. The Martian by Andy Weir
35. Neuromancer by William Gibson
36. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (For someone who struggles as much as I do with Atwood, I've certainly tried her a lot -- also read two of her books.)
37. Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams
38. Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton
39. Planetfall by Emma Newman
40. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
41. The Real Story by Stephen R. Donaldson
42. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
43. Ringworld by Larry Niven
44. Shikasta by Doris Lessing -- not an easy book to read. Sort of akin to reading technical scopes of work for pages and pages on end.
45.Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
46. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
47. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
48. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
49.The Stand by Stephen King
50. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
51. Arrival (Stories of Your Life MTI) by Ted Chiang
52. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
53. Survival by Julie E. Czerneda
54. Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon
55. Valor’s Choice by Tanya Huff
56. Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer
57. Viriconium by M. John Harrison
58. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
59. Watchers by Dean Koontz
60 Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
61 World War Z by Max Brooks
As an aside? I think this is just cobbled from the list of books published from Penguin/Random House.
[Best Fantasy Novels added here]
62. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
63. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
64. Assassin's Apprentice (The Illustrated Edition) by Robin Hobb
65. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
66. The Belgariad (Vol 1) by David Eddings
67. The Blue Sword Book by Robin Mckinley
68. The Broken Crown by Michelle West
69. The Changeling by Victor LaValle
70. City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
71. Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith
72. The Devourers by Indra Das
73. The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
74. The Dreaming Tree by C. J. Cherryh
75. The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany
76. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
77. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
78. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
79. His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
80. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
81. The Bloody Crown of Conan by Robert E. Howard
82. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
83. The Book of Jhereg by Steven Brust
84. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
85. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
86. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
87. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
88. Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson
89. Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist
90. The Magicians by Lev Grossman -- couldn't stand Owen in either the book or the series for some reason.
91. Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey
92. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
93. My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
94. The Name of the Wind: 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition by Patrick Rothfuss
95. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
96. Night’s Master by Tanith Lee
97. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
98. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
99. Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente
100. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville - both have writing styles that don't quite work for me.
101. Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
102 Redwall by Brian Jacques
103. Riddle-Master by Patricia A. McKillip
104. Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
105. Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks
106. Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
107. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
108. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
109. Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
110. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
111. Wildwood Dancingby by Juliet Marillier
Now Reedsy's List:
100 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
These are ranked by date, and this is the best list I've seen. I haven't read or heard of a lot of them, but I want to read them. And various ones, I've read about or own.
MEME: Bold what you read. Italicize what you own or tried but haven't finished.
1. The Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret Cavendish (1666)
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
3. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)
4. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1897)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)
6. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)
7. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (1950)
8. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (1950)
9. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
10. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954)
11. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959) -- hmmm, I thought this was written later.
12. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (1961)
13. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (1961)
14.A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962) (Thought this was written in the 1970s for some reason.)
15. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
16. The Man in the High Castleby Philip K. Dick (1962)
17. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965)
18. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966) -- also thought these were 1970s. I read them in the 1980s.
19. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
20. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (1968)
21. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
22. Ringworld by Larry Niven (1970)
23. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (1972)
24. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
25. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1974)
26. The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975)
27. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany (1975)
28. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (1976)
29. The Stand by Stephen King (1978)
30. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
31. Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta by Doris Lessing (1979)
While it’s usually just referred to as Shikasta, the full title of this book, including the subtitle, is Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta: Personal, psychological, historical documents relating to visit by Johor (George Sherban) Emissary (Grade 9) 87th of the Period of the Last Day. The first installment in the Nobel laureate’s ‘Canopus in Argos’ series, it’s not just the title that’s unusual.
32. Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh (1981)
33. Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
34. Contact by Carl Sagan (1985)
35. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1985)
36. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
37. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
38. Watchmenby Alan Moore and David Gibbons (1986)
39. Watchers by Dean Koontz (1987)
40. Dawn by Octavia Butler (1987)
41. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (1988)
42. Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor (1989)
On the surface, this is an adaptation of the first season of a beloved British sitcom. However, the show’s creators have crafted a funny, affecting novel that marries some of the best parts of the series with the spirit of Douglas Adams.
43. Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1989)
44. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (1990)
45. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr. (1990)
46. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992)
47. Ammonite by Nicola Griffith (1992)
48.The Children of Men by P.D. James (1992)
49. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)
50. The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)
51. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (1996)
52. Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card (1999)
53. Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear (1999)
54. Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff (2000)
55. Probability Moon by Nancy Kress (2000)
56. Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson (2000)
57. number9dream by David Mitchell (2001)
58. The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson (2001)
59. Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams (2001)
60. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (2002)
61. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (2002)
62. Feed by M. T. Anderson (2002)
63. Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer (2003)
64. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003)
65. Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton (2004)
66. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)
67. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (2005)
68. World War Z by Max Brooks (2006)
69. Anathem by Neal Stephenson (2008)
70. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)
71. The City & The City by China Miéville (2009)
72. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
73. Redemption of Indigo by Karen Lord (2010)
74. Death's End by Cixin Liu (2010)
75. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu (2010)
76. The Martian by Andy Weir (2011)
77. Legend by Marie Lu (2011)
78. The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters (2012)
79. Amatka by Karin Tidbeck (2012)
80. Redshirts by John Scalzi (2012)
81. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2013)
82. Dust by Hugh Howey (2013)
83. The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (2013)
84. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
85. Red Rising by Pierce Brown (2014)
86. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (2014)
87. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (2015)
88. Planetfall by Emma Newman (2015)
89. The Fold by Peter Clines (2015)
90. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman (2015)
91. Infomocracy by Malka Older (2016)
92. All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (2016)
93. Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (2016)
94. Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016)
95. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (2016)
96. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel (2016)
97. Scythe by Neal Shusterman (2016)
98. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (2017)
99. Exo by Fonda Lee (2017)
100. The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch (2018)
Reedsy Ltd. © 2019
I've actually read more on that list. It's by publication date. Which is cool, because I didn't realize so many of them were published in the 1960s.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-10 01:09 pm (UTC)1. Hey, I can't start with: "It was a dark and stormy night"? Shucks.
2. Many a great book has a prologue, just don't call it that.
3. Never use a verb other than "said." I'd disagree to the point of saying it's a bad habit to conclude a question in dialog with "said so-and-so" always use "asked." You don't not want to do what the author of a book I was reading recently did, liberally replacing perfectly good "said" with "pronounced" over and over again. Ugh.
4. Don't modify "said with adverbs: I think that's a personal choice. If you *never* do it, sometimes you will be misunderstood. But, it's fair enough to warn against Tom Swifties.
5. Avoid exclamation points in narrative altogether. Use them as needed in dialog. She screamed, "For God's sake help me." with a period seems a little silly, doesn't it?
6. Avoid over using anything. Like with "very," it's easy to over do it. You can probably get away with a couple "suddenlys" in a chapter, but no more than one "all hell broke loose" per every two or three books.
7. Go easy on dialect: I'd agree. But some writers have been very good at it, and I wouldn't want to stifle them. You need a good editor to tell you yes or no.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters: I don't think he means avoiding describing characters. Just don't let it interrupt the flow.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places: As much as I don't like going into detail in place descriptions, there are folks who love reading that kind of thing. Dan Brown may not qualify as "respected," but I don't think Leonard could deny he's both popular and successful while blithering on about places.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. That's a skill most would-be authors are never going to master.
>>>>
Edgar Allen Poe's list is more fun.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-10 03:19 pm (UTC)Haven't read Poe's.
Dean Koontz has a nice counter-point, that is echoed by MacDonald regarding Leonard:
"When reading how-to tips from any writer, always remember that what technique or attitude works for him or her might be so alien to your creative nature that to adopt it unthinkingly will do you no good and might hamstring you. While grammar, syntax, and craft can be taught, writing fiction is--or should be--such an intensely personal enterprise that the story and its meaning comes from a place deep inside yourself and involves approaches that are unique to you. Take advice, yes, but think it through thoroughly and be sure it works for you."
Timothy Zahn -- the best-seller of the Star Wars novels -- notoriously overuses adverbs for "said", such as " he said slyly. Or she queried wryly. Or she replied amusingly. To the point, I wanted to smack him. It also got into my own writing and it took me five years to get rid of it. There's a lot people who hate the use of adverbs, yet some best-selling novelists use them in their text. JK Rowling did (Stephen King critiqued Rowlings for her overuse of adverbs).
But, it's what works for the writer and reader. Some people, like my father prefer a minimalist style -- similar to Elmore Leonard and Hemingway. Others, prefer a more detailed, poetic, descriptive style like Steinbeck, Atwood, Wharton, James and Faulkner. Others want something in between.
And dialect can be done rather well -- depends on the writer. I have a conversational style -- it's not for everyone. But I despise the formalistic or academic style utilized by the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norris, or Dorothy Dunnett. It feels stilted to me and distancing, as if the writer is writing stereo instructions, a contract, or a technical scope of work as opposed to a story. But other people love it to pieces. A lot of Leonard's tips are indicative of his sparse, almost screen-writer style. He doesn't believe in using dialogue tags at all, unless absolutely necessary. (I actually agree with him -- because I hate them and find them distracting. They should only be used in group discussions or if it is impossible to tell without them. The reader's mind skips over them anyhow. )
It also depends on how you think. Some think with sound, some with visuals, some with both. If you are a linguist, you will write and read very differently than someone who isn't.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-10 03:54 pm (UTC)I don't mind Rowling's use of adverbs. Criticizing it is a bit pedantic, I think. You don't want adverbs on every "said." But I wouldn't be afraid to use them personally. No need to gild the lily, but that's not something I tend toward, anyway.
"Throw the switch!" cried Tom electrically.
I was thinking of dialect in terms of Mark Twain where it's thick, but not inappropriate. Since I posted the reply I thought of Rowling, I think we'd miss something if Hagrid wasn't done in dialect.
I agree that dialog tags on every line or every other line of speech is a mistake. Something else that bothers me is repeatedly having characters address each other by name in the same conversation over and over, even when it's clear who is saying what to whom.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-10 05:32 pm (UTC)I'm replying by email, so forgot I had included Poe in there. LOL! I did? Cool.
I don't mind Rowling's use of adverbs. Criticizing it is a bit pedantic, I think
I found it bit ironic coming from King. But no, it didn't bother me either. Her style worked fine for me. Outside of it reminding me a lot of Ronald Dahl light, I can't say I found it memorable.
I was thinking of dialect in terms of Mark Twain where it's thick, but not inappropriate. Since I posted the reply I thought of Rowling, I think we'd miss something if Hagrid wasn't done in dialect.
Can't remember much of the Harry Potter books or the style, to be honest. (Harry Potter amnesia -- I'd read the book and promptly forget it. Nothing against the books -- this has happened with classical writers as well. For some reason, certain books and narratives stick in my memory, while others don't. )
Twain it was appropriate but difficult to read at times. Also appropriate with Morrison and Zora Neal Hurston. I'd say the rule is -- that unless you can think rhymatically or in dialect and reproduce it on page, without being jarring or offensive or silly, you can do it. A lot of genre writers (specifically romance novelists) and fanfic writers break that rule.
I agree that dialog tags on every line or every other line of speech is a mistake. Something else that bothers me is repeatedly having characters address each other by name in the same conversation over and over, even when it's clear who is saying what to whom.
Writers often go to extremes on it. There's writers, and alas playwrites, who remove them entirely -- so you sort have to figure out on your own whose speaking. It works only if each speaker speaks in their own distinct way and doesn't sound the same. Then there's writers who feel the need to put it with every piece of dialogue no matter what.
And, oh yes, the need to have the characters address each other by name all the time -- is annoying. Using someone's name is generally used to direct attention to that person, put them on the spot, or acknowledge them. It also is used for emphasis. Otherwise, not needed.
Something that used to annoy me a lot when I read fanfic was..."said the blond" or "the brunette whispered". The fanfic writer felt they were being repetitive using the person's name, so wanted to spice things up a bit and use physical traits or descriptives instead. So in a scene with Buffy, Willow and Spike....they'd say, "Spike, get off," the blond said. Or "Buffy, really," said the redhead. Or the blond fell for him. And I'd think -- okay how did this person pick up this habit? And why hasn't anyone pointed it out to them that it gives the reader a headache?