...And, Just for Completeness' Sake

The other half of Paul McAuley's "Essential Books" meme, this one dealing with Fantasy & Horror. Same rules as before. Again, thanks to SFSignal for the link.

1. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus MARY SHELLEY 1818
2. Tales of Mystery and Imagination EDGAR ALLAN POE 1838
3. A Christmas Carol CHARLES DICKENS 1843
4. Jane Eyre CHARLOTTE BRONTE 1847
5. The Hunting of the Snark LEWIS CARROLL 1876
6. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ROBERT LOUIS STEPHENSON 1886
7. The Well At The World's End WILLIAM MORRIS 1896
8. Dracula BRAM STOKER 1897
9. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary MR JAMES 1904
10. Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things LAFCADIO HEARN 1904
11. The Wind in the Willows KENNETH GRAHAME 1908
12. Jurgen JAMES BRANCH CABELL 1919
13. A Voyage to Arcturus DAVID LINDSAY 1920
14. The King of Elfland's Daughter LORD DUNSANY 1924
15. The Trial FRANZ KAFKA 1925
16. Lud-in-the-Mist HOPE MIRRLEES 1926
17. Orlando VIRGINIA WOOLF 1928
18. The Big Sleep RAYMOND CHANDLER 1939
19. The Outsider and Others HP LOVECRAFT 1939
20. Gormenghast MERVYN PEAKE 1946
21. Night's Black Agents FRITZ LEIBER JR 1947
22. The Sword of Rhiannon LEIGH BRACKETT 1953
23. Conan the Barbarian ROBERT E HOWARD collected 1954
24. The Lord of the Rings JRR TOLKEIN 1954-5
25. The Once and Future King TH WHITE 1958
26. The Haunting of Hill House SHIRLEY JACKSON 1959
27. The Wierdstone of Brinsingamen ALAN GARNER 1960
28. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase JOAN AIKEN 1962
29. Something Wicked This Way Comes RAY BRADBURY 1963
30. The Book of Imaginary Beings JORGE LUIS BORGES 1967
31. Ice ANA CAVAN 1967
32. One Hundred Years of Solitude GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ 1967
33. Earthsea URSULA LE GUIN 1968-1972
34. Jirel of Joiry CL MOORE collected 1969
35. Grendel JOHN GARDNER 1971
36. The Pastel City M JOHN HARRISON 1971
37. Carrie STEPHEN KING 1974
38. Peace GENE WOLFE 1975
39. Gloriana, or the Unfulfill'd Queen MICHAEL MOORCOCK 1978
40. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories ANGELA CARTER 1979
41. Little, Big JOHN CROWLEY 1981
42. The Anubis Gates TIM POWERS 1983
43. The Colour of Magic TERRY PRATCHETT 1983
44. Mythago Wood ROBERT HOLDSTOCK 1984

And here we see the *problem* with focusing on classics for the last couple of years: 7 books from before WWII, and only 4 books from after? Whoops. Well, time and a chronological reading plan will eventually solve that problem.

I'm Obviously a Sucker for a List Meme

Via SFSignal and Andrew Wheeler, (bold means I've read it, italic means it's on my to-read list, etc.):

Paul McAuley's List of Essential SF Titles

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus MARY SHELLEY 1818
Journey to the Centre of the Earth JULES VERNE 1863
After London RICHARD JEFFRIES 1885
The Time Machine HG WELLS 1895
The House on the Borderland WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON 1912
We YEVGENY ZAMIATIN 1924
Brave New World ALDOUS HUXLEY 1932
Star Maker OLAF STAPLEDON 1937
1984 GEORGE ORWELL 1949
I, Robot, ISAAC ASIMOV 1950
The Martian Chronicles RAY BRADBURY 1950
The Dying Earth JACK VANCE 1950
Childhood's End ARTHUR C CLARKE 1953
The Space Merchants CM KORNBLUTH & FREDERIK POHL 1953
Tiger! Tiger! ALFRED BESTER 1956
The Death of Grass JOHN CHRISTOPHER 1956
The Seedling Stars JAMES BLISH 1957
The Midwich Cuckoos JOHN WYNDHAM 1957
Starship Troopers ROBERT A HEINLEIN 1959
A Canticle for Liebowitz WALTER M MILLER JR 1959
Solaris STANSLAW LEM 1961
Hothouse BRIAN ALDISS 1962
A Clockwork Orange ANTONY BURGESS 1962
Cat's Cradle KURT VONNEGUT JR 1963
Martian Time-Slip PHILIP K DICK 1964
Dune FRANK HERBERT 1965
The Crystal World JG BALLARD 1966
Flowers For Algernon DANIEL KEYES 1966
Lord of Light ROGER ZELAZNY 1967
Nova SAMUEL R DELANY 1968
Pavane KEITH ROBERTS 1968
The Left Hand of Darkness URSULA K LE GUIN 1969
Roadside Picnic ARKADY AND BORIS STRUGATSKI 1969
334 THOMAS M DISCH 1972
Dying Inside ROBERT SILVERBERG 1972
The Fifth Head of Cerberus GENE WOLFE 1972
Ten Thousand Light Years From Home JAMES TIPTREE JR 1973
The Forever War JOE HALDEMAN 1974
Inverted World CHRISTOPHER PRIEST 1974
The Female Man JOANNA RUSS 1975
Arslan MJ ENGH 1976
The Ophiuchi Hotline JOHN VARLEY 1977
The Final Programme MICHAEL MOORCOCK 1968
Kindred OCTAVIA BUTLER 1979
Engine Summer JOHN CROWLEY 1979
Timescape GREGORY BENFORD 1980
Neuromancer WILLIAM GIBSON 1984
Divine Endurance GWYNETH JONES 1984

Pretty good list. I might have made some substitutions (perhaps Helliconia instead of Hothouse for Aldiss?), and I'm not sure there's *nothing* essential after 1984. But certainly the quality of works and authors is very high. I'm also happy to see that my program of reading the classics means I can fill in more of the first half of this list than I could've before.

2008 Locus Meme

Wow, the Locus Recommended Reading List is long. I got it from Andrew Wheeler, a surprisingly regular meme vector.

It's the usual rule: bold for things one has read, italics for things one has in a pile but hasn't read yet. I'm cheating on italics, including books on my to-read list that may not be on my physical to-read stack (i.e. that I haven't bought yet).

This year I'll be heavier on short fiction than novels due to my magazine reading project.

SF novels

• Matter, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK)
• Flood, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz, Roc '09)
• Weaver, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz, Ace)
• City at the End of Time, Greg Bear (Gollancz, Del Rey)
• Incandescence, Greg Egan (Gollancz, Night Shade)
• January Dancer, Michael Flynn (Tor)
• Marsbound, Joe Haldeman (Ace) [I really didn't think this one stood up, but YMMV]
  
• Spirit, Gwyneth Jones (Gollancz)
• Escapement, Jay Lake (Tor)
• Song of Time, Ian R. MacLeod (PS Publishing)
• The Night Sessions, Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
• The Quiet War, Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
• The Company, K. J. Parker (Orbit)
• House of Suns, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz, Ace '09)
• Pirate Sun, Karl Schroeder (Tor)
• Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow)
• Saturn's Children, Charles Stross (Orbit, Ace)
• Rolling Thunder, John Varley (Ace)
  
• Half a Crown, Jo Walton (Tor)
• Implied Spaces, Walter Jon Williams (Night Shade Books)

Fantasy novels

• An Autumn War, Daniel Abraham (Tor)
• The Love We Share Without Knowing, Christopher Barzak (Bantam)
• The Knights of the Cornerstone, James P. Blaylock (Ace)
• The Ghost in Love, Jonathan Carroll (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• The Island of Eternal Love, Daina Chaviano (Riverhead)
• The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
• Shadowbridge/ Lord Tophet, Gregory Frost (Ballantine Del Rey)
• The Memoirs of a Master Forger, William Heaney (Gollancz) ; as How to Make Friends with Demons, Graham Joyce (Night Shade Books '09)
• Varanger, Cecelia Holland (Tor/Forge)
• Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
• The Bell at Sealey Head, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
• The Hidden World, Paul Park (Tor)
• The Engine's Child, Holly Phillips (Ballantine Del Rey) [I abandoned this after a few chapters, I'll assume it got much better later on]
  
• The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie (Jonathan Cape)
• The Alchemy of Stone, Ekaterina Sedia (Prime Books)
• The Dragons of Babel, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
• An Evil Guest, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

First novels

• The Ninth Circle, Alex Bell (Gollancz)
• The Painted Man, Peter V. Brett (HarperVoyager); as The Warded Man (Ballantine Del Rey)
• A Curse as Dark as Gold, Elizabeth C. Bunce (Scholastic)
• Graceling, Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)
• Alive in Necropolis, Doug Dorst (Riverhead)
• Thunderer, Felix Gilman (Bantam Spectra)
• Black Ships, Jo Graham (Orbit US)
• Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Ballantine Del Rey)
  
• The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann, Knopf)
• Last Dragon, J.T. McDermott (Wizards of the Coast/Discoveries)
• Singularity's Ring, Paul Melko (Tor)
• The Long Look, Richard Parks (Five Star)
• The Red Wolf Conspiracy, Robert V. S. Redick (Gollancz, Del Rey '09)
• The Cabinet of Wonders, Marie Rutkoski (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

Young Adult Books

• City of Ashes, Cassandra Clare (Simon & Schuster/McElderry)
• The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)
• Monster Blood Tattoo, Book Two: Lamplighter, D. M. Cornish (Putnam; Omnibus Books Australia)
• Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor)
• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury)
• Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, Alison Goodman (Viking); as The Two Pearls of Wisdom (HarperCollins Australia)
• Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
• How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier (Bloomsbury USA)
• Ink Exchange, Melissa Marr (HarperTeen)
• Chalice, Robin McKinley (Putnam)
• The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness (Candlewick Press)
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt)
• Nation, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK, HarperCollins)
• Zoe's Tale, John Scalzi (Tor)
• Flora's Dare, Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt) [I've been looking for it, more or less, but I don't have a copy.]
  

Collections

• The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories, Joan Aiken (Small Beer Press/Big Mouth House)
• Pump Six and Other Stories, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)
• The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives, James P. Blaylock (Subterranean Press)
• Works of Art, James Blish (NESFA Press)
• The Wall of America, Thomas M. Disch (Tachyon Publications)
• Dark Integers and Other Stories, Greg Egan (Subterranean Press)
• The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
• The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories, James Patrick Kelly (Golden Gryphon Press)
• The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, John Kessel (Small Beer Press)
• Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Other Stories, Nancy Kress (Golden Gryphon Press)
• Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters, John Langan (Prime Books)
• Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link (Viking)
• H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction, H. P. Lovecraft (Barnes & Noble)
• Binding Energy, Daniel Marcus (Elastic Press)
• Ten Sigmas and Other Unlikelihoods, Paul Melko (Fairwood Press)
• The Collected Short Fiction: Where Angels Fear / The Gods Perspire, Ken Rand (Fairwood Press)
• The Ant King and Other Stories, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Small Beer Press)
• Long Walks, Last Flights, and Other Strange Journeys, Ken Scholes (Fairwood Press)
• Filter House, Nisi Shawl (Aqueduct Press)
• The Autopsy and Other Tales, Michael Shea (Centipede Press)
• The Best of Lucius Shepard, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press)
• The Best of Michael Swanwick, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean Press)
• Other Worlds, Better Lives, Howard Waldrop (Old Earth Books)
• Crazy Love, Leslie What (Wordcraft of Oregon)
• Gateway to Paradise: The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Six, Jack Williamson (Haffner Press)

Anthologies - Original

• Clockwork Phoenix, Mike Allen, ed. (Norilana Books)
• Fast Forward 2, Lou Anders, ed. (Pyr)
• Sideways in Crime, Lou Anders, ed. (Solaris)
• Dreaming Again, Jack Dann, ed. (HarperCollins Australia; Eos)
• The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Ballantine Del Rey)
• Galactic Empires, Gardner Dozois, ed. (SFBC)
• Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology, Nick Gevers, ed. (Solaris)
• A Book of Wizards, Marvin Kaye, ed. (SFBC)
• The Solaris Book Of New Science Fiction Volume Two, George Mann, ed. (Solaris)
• Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, William Schafer, ed. (Subterranean Press)
• Eclipse Two, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books)
• The Starry Rift, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Viking)
• Fast Ships, Black Sails, Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Night Shade Books)
• Celebration: 50 Years of the British Science Fiction Association, Ian Whates, ed. (NewCon Press)

Anthologies - Reprint

• Wastelands, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Night Shade Books)
• A Science Fiction Omnibus, Brian W. Aldiss, ed. (Penguin Modern Classics)
• The Black Mirror and Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany and Austria, Franz Rottensteiner, ed. (Wesleyan University Press)
• Poe's Children: The New Horror, Peter Straub, ed. (Doubleday)
• The New Weird, Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Tachyon Publications)
• Steampunk, Ann Vandermeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Tachyon Publications)

Anthologies - Best of the Year

• The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: Twenty-first Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin's Griffin)
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's)
• Year's Best Fantasy 8, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Tachyon Publications)
• Year's Best SF 13, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Eos)
• Fantasy: The Best of the Year: 2008 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime Books)
• Science Fiction: The Best of the Year: 2008 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime Books)
• The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume Nineteen, Stephen Jones, ed. (Robinson; Running Press)
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books)

Non-Fiction

• Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle, Second Edition, Michael Andre-Driussi (Sirius Fiction) [I did read, and still have, the first edition, though -- actually, what I have is an ultra-rare comb-bound advance proof of the first edition.]
  
• Miracles of Life, J. G. Ballard (HarperCollins/Fourth Estate UK)
• An Unofficial Companion to the Novels of Terry Pratchett, Andrew M. Butler (Greenwood)
• The Vorkosigan Companion: The Universe of Lois McMaster Bujold, Lillian Stewart Carl & Martin H. Greenberg (Baen)
• H. Beam Piper: A Biography, John F. Carr (McFarland)
• The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute 1908-2008, Stephen Haffner, ed. (Haffner Press)
• Basil Copper: A Life in Books, Stephen Jones (PS Publishing)
• What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, Paul Kincaid (Beccon)
• Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography, Jeffrey Marks (McFarland)
• Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press)
• The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller (Little, Brown)
• Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman, Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden & Stephen R. Bissette (St. Martin's Press)

Art Books

• Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
• Paint or Pixel: The Digital Divide in Illustration Art, Jane Frank, ed. (NonStop Press)
• P. Craig Russell, Coraline, Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins)
• J. Allen St. John, The Paintings of J. Allen St. John: Grand Master of Fantasy, Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock (Vanguard)
• Shaun Tan, Tales from Outer Suburbia (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic '09)
• A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P.L., Jerad Walters, ed. (Centipede Press)

Novellas

• Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key, Kage Baker (Subterranean Press)
• "The Overseer", Albert E. Cowdrey (F&SF 3/08)
• The Word of God: Or, Holy Writ Rewritten, Thomas M. Disch (Tachyon Publications)
• “The Political Prisoner", Charles Coleman Finlay (F&SF 8/08)
• "Arkfall", Carolyn Ives Gilman (F&SF 9/08)
• The Luminous Depths, David Herter (PS Publishing)
• "Mystery Hill", Alex Irvine (F&SF 1/08)
• "The Erdmann Nexus", Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 10-11/08)
• "Pretty Monsters", Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters)
• "The Surfer, Kelly Link (The Starry Rift) "
• "The Hob Carpet", Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov’s 6/08)
• "The Tear", Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
• "Tenbrook of Mars", Dean McLaughlin (Analog 7-8/08)
• Once Upon a Time in the North, Philip Pullman (Knopf)
• "The Man with the Golden Balloon", Robert Reed (Galactic Empires)
• "Truth", Robert Reed (Asimov’s 10-11/08)
• "True Names", Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2)
• "Wonjjang and the Madman of Pyongyang", Gord Sellar (Tesseracts Twelve)
• "The Philosopher’s Stone", Brian Stableford (Asimov’s 7/08)

Novelettes

• "The Gambler", Paolo Bacigalupi (Fast Forward 2)
• "Pump Six", Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories)
• "Tangible Light", J. Timothy Bagwell (Analog 1-2/08)
• "Radio Station St. Jack", Neal Barrett, Jr. (Asimov’s 8/08)
• "The Ice War", Stephen Baxter (Asimov’s 9/08)
• "Turing’s Apples", Stephen Baxter (Eclipse Two)
• "The Rabbi’s Hobby", Peter S. Beagle (Eclipse Two)
• "The Tale of Junko and Sayuri", Peter Beagle (InterGalactic Medicine Show 7/08)
• "Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel", Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
• "Shoggoths in Bloom", Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s 3/08)
• "The Golden Octopus", Beth Bernobich (Postscripts Summer ’08)
• "If Angels Fight", Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
• "From the Clay of His Heart", John Brown (InterGalactic Medicine Show 4/08)
• "Jimmy", Pat Cadigan (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
• "Catherine Drewe", Paul Cornell (Fast Forward 2)
• Conversation Hearts, John Crowley (Subterranean Press)
• "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away", Cory Doctorow (Tor.com 8/08)
• "Crystal Nights", Greg Egan (Interzone 4/08)
• "Lost Continent", Greg Egan (The Starry Rift)
• "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story", James Alan Gardner (Asimov’s 2/08)
• "Memory Dog", Kathleen Ann Goonan (Asimov’s 4-5/08)
• "Shining Armor", Dominic Green (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
• "The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm", Daryl Gregory (Eclipse Two)
• "Pride and Prometheus", John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)
• "The Art of Alchemy", Ted Kosmatka (F&SF 6/08)
• "Divining Light", Ted Kosmatka (Asimov’s 8/08)
• "Childrun", Marc Laidlaw (F&SF 8/08)
• "Machine Maid", Margo Lanagan (Extraordinary Engines)
• "The Woman", Tanith Lee (Clockwork Phoenix)
• "The Magician’s House", Meghan McCarron (Strange Horizons 7/08)
• "An Eligible Boy", Ian McDonald (Fast Forward 2)
• "The Dust Assassin", Ian McDonald (The Starry Rift)
• "Special Economics", Maureen F. McHugh (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
• "Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarsköe", Garth Nix (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
• "Infestation", Garth Nix (The Starry Rift)
• "Immortal Snake", Rachel Pollack (F&SF 5/08)
• "The Hour of Babel", Tim Powers (Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy)
• "Five Thrillers", Robert Reed (F&SF 4/08)
• "Fury", Alastair Reynolds (Eclipse Two)
• "The Star Surgeon’s Apprentice", Alastair Reynolds (The Starry Rift) "
• "The Egg Man", Mary Rosenblum (Asimov’s 2/08)
• "Sacrifice", Mary Rosenblum (Sideways in Crime)
• "Days of Wonder", Geoff Ryman (F&SF 10-11/08)
• "Lester Young and the Jupiter’s Moons’ Blues", Gord Sellar (Asimov’s 7/08)
• "Gift from a Spring", Delia Sherman (Realms of Fantasy 4/08)
• "An Alien Heresy", S.P. Somtow (Asimov’s 4-5/08)
• "Following the Pharmers", Brian Stableford (Asimov’s 3/08)
• "The First Editions", James Stoddard (F&SF 4/08)

Short Stories

• "Don’t Go Fishing on Witches Day", Joan Aiken (The Serial Garden)
• "Goblin Music", Joan Aiken (The Serial Garden)
• "The Occultation", Laird Barron (Clockwork Phoenix)
• "King Pelles the Sure", Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
• Boojum", Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
• "Private Eye", Terry Bisson (F&SF 10-11/08)
• "Offworld Friends Are Best", Neal Blaikie (Greatest Uncommon Denominator Spring ’08)
• "The Man Who Built Heaven", Keith Brooke (Postscripts Summer ’08)
• "Balancing Accounts", James L. Cambias (F&SF 2/08)
• "Exhalation", Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
• "The Fooly", Terry Dowling (Dreaming Again)
• "Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose", Terry Dowling (Eclipse Two)
• "Awskonomuk", Gregory Feeley (Otherworldly Maine)
• "Daltharee", Jeffrey Ford (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
• "The Dismantled Invention of Fate", Jeffrey Ford (The Starry Rift) "
• "The Dream of Reason", Jeffrey Ford (Extraordinary Engines)
• "The Seventh Expression of the Robot General", Jeffrey Ford (Eclipse Two)
• "Reader’s Guide", Lisa Goldstein (F&SF 7/08)
• “Glass”, Daryl Gregory (Technology Review 11-12/08)
• "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss", Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08)
• "The Voyage Out", Gwyneth Jones (Periphery)
• "Evil Robot Monkey", Mary Robinette Kowal (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
• "The Kindness of Strangers", Nancy Kress (Fast Forward 2)
• "The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue into the Black", Jay Lake (Clarkesworld 3/08)
• "The Fifth Star in the Southern Cross", Margo Lanagan (Dreaming Again)
• "The Goosle", Margo Lanagan (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
• "The Thought War", Paul McAuley (Postscripts Summer ’08)
• "[a ghost samba]", Ian McDonald (Postscripts Summer ’08)
• "Midnight Blue", Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 9/08)
• "Fallen Angel", Eugene Mirabelli (F&SF 12/08)
• "Mars: A Traveler’s Guide", Ruth Nestvold (F&SF 1/08)
• "The Blood of Peter Francisco", Paul Park (Sideways in Crime)
• "The Small Door", Holly Phillips (Fantasy 5/08)
• "His Master’s Voice", Hannu Rajaniemi (Interzone 10/08)
• "The House Left Empty", Robert Reed (Asimov’s 4-5/08)
• "Fifty Dinosaurs", Robert Reed (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
• "Traitor", M. Rickert (F&SF 5/08)
• "Snatch Me Another", Mercurio D. Rivera (Abyss & Apex 1Q/08)
• "The Film-makers of Mars", Geoff Ryman (Tor.com 12/08)
• "Talk is Cheap", Geoff Ryman (Interzone 6/08)
• "After the Coup", John Scalzi (Tor.com 7/08)
• "Invisible Empire of Ascending Light", Ken Scholes (Eclipse Two)
• "Ardent Clouds", Lucy Sussex (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy)
• "From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled", Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s 2/08)
• "The Scarecrow’s Boy", Michael Swanwick (F&SF 10-11/08)
• "Marrying the Sun", Rachel Swirsky (Fantasy 6/08)
• "A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica", Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 5/08)
• "Fixing Hanover", Jeff VanderMeer (Extraordinary Engines)
• "The Eyes of God", Peter Watts (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two)
• "Ass-Hat Magic Spider", Scott Westerfeld (The Starry Rift) "

Now, I can't endorse everything in Bold; some of them weren't terribly memorable. But there's some really amazing stuff in that list, and I'm hoping to have a very thorough Hugo recommendation list up in a bit less than two weeks. Final magazine reviews to come next week--only two left, and they're both drafted!

Obscure Book Meme

Via Andrew Wheeler, this seems the perfect way to chew up a few minutes between classes.

What ten books do you own that you think no one else on your friends list does?

• All Fishermen Are Liars: True Adventures at Sea by Linda Greelaw
• The Book of the Sword, Richard Burton
• The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them), Peter Sagal
• The Complete Tightwad Gazette, Amy Dacyczyn
• Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War, Tony Horwitz
  
• Doctor on Everest: Emergency Medicine at the Top of the World, Kenneth Kamler
• Don't Call Me Brother: A Ringmaster's Escape from the Pentacostal Church, Austin Miles
• Ghost of the Hardy Boys, Leslie McFarlane
• How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders, Bill Fawcett
• I Watched A Wild Hog Eat My Baby: A Colorful History of Tabloids and Their Cultural Impact, Bill Sloan
• On Fencing, Aldo Nadi

OK, that's eleven. So sue me. Prove me wrong! Do you have any of these?

A Wiki Meme

Courtesy of Andrew Wheeler: Look up your birthday in Wikipedia. Pick 4 events, 3 births, 2 deaths, and 1 holiday.

For Sept. 21

Events:
1792 - The French National Convention votes to abolish the monarchy.
1827 - According to Joseph Smith, Jr., the angel Moroni gave him a record of gold plates, one-third of which Joseph translated into The Book of Mormon.
1937 - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.
2003 - Galileo mission terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes.

Births:
1866 - H. G. Wells, English writer (d. 1946)
1912 - Chuck Jones, American animator (d. 2002)
1947 - Stephen King, American author

Deaths:
19 BC - Virgil, Roman poet (b. 70 BC)
1832 - Sir Walter Scott, Scottish writer (b. 1771)

Holiday:
International Day of Peace

Sorry for the brain-dead post; I'm afraid I've been cleaning house & vegging out on the Olympics this week--good R&R before going back to school. Should have a Wodehouse review/essay up tomorrow.