geekyBecause every group is essentially a sociological tide pool, shifting slightly whenever the tide comes in but still cross-contaminating itself at a remarkable rate, we also tend to have a somewhat distorted view of "everybody." I bet if you polled a sample size of, say, the readership of this journal, you'd discover that Rosemary and Rue was one of the best-known books of 2009. Why? Because I wrote it, and talk about it constantly, and you read this journal, hence exposing you to it on a constant basis. I'm a literary pathogen!
On a more localized scale, we loan books to our friends, talk books up to our friends, and constantly infect each other with our literary passions. In the last year, I have caused my friends to read I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Shivers, A Madness of Angels, the complete works of Kelley Armstrong, The Mermaid's Madness, The Enchantment Emporium, and Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded. These aren't the only good books I've read in the last year; they're just the ones new enough to still be available, and to have excited me with their sudden existence.
So here is today's challenge: Infect us with books we may not have heard of, but which are so damn AWESOME that it verges on a crime that more people don't know about them. Go for out-of-print things (that's why libraries and used bookstores exist), or the first books in series that started eight years ago. Bring enlightenment to the heathen, in the form of literary smallpox.
I'll start with five of my favorites, books I honestly think everyone should read (whether you enjoy them is up to you):
Hellspark, by Janet Kagen.
Mermaid's Song, by Alida Van Gorres.
Emergence, by David Palmer.
The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, by Tim Pratt.
Paper Moon, by Joe David Brown.
Authors, feel free to pimp your own work here; just get the word out, and let's see what we're not reading!
May 22 2010, 16:17:50 UTC 7 years ago
The Saga of Pliocene Exile by Julian May. Includes The Many Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Nonborn King, and The Adversary. Grand, outsized adventure.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 edited by Robert Silverberg. Hands down, the single best anthology I know of.
Quarantine by Greg Egan. Absolutely mind-blowing. His Permutation City is also right up there.
Davy by Edgar Pangborn. Will both break and uplift your heart.
Ingathering by Zenna Henderson. The complete book of The People, who you really need to meet.
Anything (seriously, anything) by Theodore Sturgeon.
May 22 2010, 16:23:24 UTC 7 years ago
May 22 2010, 16:27:05 UTC 7 years ago
May 22 2010, 16:31:49 UTC 7 years ago Edited: May 22 2010, 16:33:56 UTC
ETA: Personally, I trust Robert Silverberg's taste implicitly and will read any anthology he edits. Look for a volume called Epoch which is a "state of the art at this moment" collection he edited with Roger Elwood, back in 1975. Excellent stuff there.
May 22 2010, 16:43:31 UTC 7 years ago
I'd forgotten about Epoch. I agree, it's excellent.
May 22 2010, 17:19:16 UTC 7 years ago
I've never heard of them. Or Julian May.
May 22 2010, 16:35:04 UTC 7 years ago
May 22 2010, 16:51:24 UTC 7 years ago
May 26 2010, 16:14:50 UTC 7 years ago