Yoon Ha Lee

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Recommended Sf/f Novels

"Never judge a book by its movie."--J.W. Eagan

This list is alphabetical by author, then series title (if any), then title. These are recommended books, although the occasional non-positive review may appear with regards to individual books in a series.

Lloyd Alexander

WESTMARK: Westmark; The Kestrel; The Beggar Queen. YA Ruritanian fantasy examining abuses of power and the ethics of war. Indeed, The Kestrel is my favorite war novel, period. Don't be fooled by the fact that these are YA. Alexander's prose is honed and elegant, and he looks at difficult situations with wit and sympathy.

Kevin J. Anderson & Doug Beason

Lifeline. Hard sf. After war ravages Earth, the survivors in three orbiting colonies--Filipino, American and Soviet--must negotiate their own existence and coexistence with the others, despite mistrust, rivalries, and stress. Gripping storytelling, with a panoply of interesting characters and difficult decisions. However, the showcased future technologies, as with much good hard sf, are as much protagonists as the human characters, who are drawn compassionately and who offer a kaleidoscopic view of the events. The faults are those common to hard sf: a tendency to default to character archetypes and a plot that sometimes feels too convenient. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride, and the ending satisfies. Thanks to Greg.

Poul Anderson

Operation Chaos. Alternate-world/historical fantasy. A fixup novel: Werewolf Steve Matuchek meets charming witch Virginia Grayson during the Second World War, but as it turns out, their real Adversary continues to meddle with them--and their world--through an incubus, a salamander, and other mishaps. Dazzlingly entertaining fantasy-version-of-real-world worldbuilding with lots of humor: goetics (magic) is worked out rigorously as a science-alternate (a polarized flash for lycanthropes, basilisk victims produce radioactive isotopes, and so on), and non-Euclidean geometries prove to be the keys to Hell itself. (It was also one of the major sources of my vocabulary building in middle school.) Unfortunately, I can't recommend the sequel, Operation Luna, which has interesting ideas but a plodding plot, and suffers from the fact that the narrator--Steve Matuchek--is involved in almost none of the real action.

Sarah Ash

Songspinners. An intriguing high fantasy with fall-of-Western-Rome influences. Orial is a young woman whose mother Iridial, a famed singer, died of a mysterious malady called l'Accidie. While her father forbids her music in an attempt to save her from the malady, she falls in with unlikely revolutionaries--a crippled composer and a eunuch singer--from a neighboring country. In the meantime, an elderly museum curator, one of Orial's friends, delves into the city Sulien's mysterious past. The plot is predictable and the ending unsatisfying, but Ash evokes the culture and setting beautifully.

Isaac Asimov

FOUNDATION: Foundation; Foundation and Empire; Second Foundation. Hard sf. When I read this for the first time, I was blown away: psychohistory (the statistical prediction of history via masses of people), social trends, politics, fascinating people. Not to mention plot twist after plot twist. Psychohistorian Hari Seldon foresees the fall and decline of the Empire and proposes a grand experiment--Foundation--to serve as the repository of the Empire's knowledge so humanity's recovery from the coming Dark Ages will be swifter. As later generations discover, however, neither Foundation nor its principles are what they seem to be at first.

The trilogy does suffer some faults in plausibility (why is gold such a valued commodity, under the conditions depicted?). Prose and especially dialogue are plain, sometimes stiff, as is common with Asimov. But it's worth persevering for the ideas.

Thanks to Joe for not ruining the plot twists even though he read it way before me and more thanks to Alex Kay for lending me the book.

For the curious, Mark Rosenfelder wrote a fascinating re-interpretation of Foundation: Psychohistory: Was Hari Seldon Pulling Our Leg? (Warning: Major plot spoilers are involved. Read the book first!)

Sequels to this trilogy exist, some written after Asimov's death; I haven't read any of them.

John Barnes

Orbital Resonance. Bildungsroman sf. Not for the faint of heart, though it isn't graphic, unlike his Kaleidoscope Century, another sf novel set in the same future-of-humanity. An entertaining tale reminiscent of Heinlein's juveniles. Melpomene Murray, one of several teenagers born and living on the orbiting ship/habitat Flying Dutchman, thinks life is tough: Earth Horror Hour (otherwise known as current events groundside), partial differential equations, and a bully of a math-whiz classmate, Randy Schwartz. Fortunately, she has her father, brother, and best friend Miriam. Unfortunately, when a new kid joins them--from Earth, of all places--she discovers that her problems have only begun, and in fact aren't just juvenile politics, but extend to the socioengineering of life on the Flying Dutchman itself. The characters are convincingly engaging and precocious; this book impresses me with its humor and depth more each time I reread it.

Greg Bear

Queen of Angels; (Slant). Hard sf with a thoroughly imagined near-future Earth featuring pervasive nanotechnology. There are four major plot strands as the "binary millennium" draws closer: the attempts of Jane, an artificial intelligence, to achieve "I"; a probe sent to Alpha Centauri in search of intelligent alien life; the ethically questionable efforts of a pariah, pioneer psychologist, Martin Burke, to explore the haunted depths of a poet-murderer's soul; and the efforts of a nanotechnologically modified cop, Mary Choy, to unlock both her own past struggles and a series of murders. By the end, although no single character understands the totality of the plot, the reader is left with a seamless braiding of all the plot-strands into a single overarching theme. Bear's quasi-stream-of-consciousness style in the first half is heavy going, but it's worth sticking with it to view the breathtaking scope of the story.

Alfred Bester

The Stars My Destination. Sf. A fascinating fable of a far-future society shaped by the prevalence of telepathy and "jaunting" (teleportation), and the social-climbing, revenge-seeking efforts of Gully Foyle. (Plus, the concrete poetry and suggested synesthesia are just fun.)

Holly Black

Tithe; Valiant. YA fantasy. What happens when teenagers encounter a sharp-edged Faerie. Valiant is frighteningly good at depicting the dangers of Faerie glamour.

Holly Black & Tony DiTerlizzi

SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES: The Field Guide; The Seeing Stone; Lucinda's Secret; The Ironwood Tree; The Wrath of Mulgarath. Children's fantasy.

Marion Zimmer Bradley

DARKOVER: Too many to list in full, but the ones I enjoyed follow: Hawkmistress!; The Shattered Chain; Thendara House; The Heritage of Hastur; Sharra's Exile. World science fantasy spanning centuries and generations, concerning a human-colonized planet called Darkover. Earlier entries tend to read more like sword and sorcery, while later entries explore the uneasy relationship between Darkover's feudal society, dominated by the telepathic Comyn caste with their knowledge of "matrix mechanics," and the technologically-advanced Terran Empire. My reading of the series has been spotty, but the quality of the books varies.

Hawkmistress! can be read as a bildungsroman fantasy concerning Romilly MacAran, who has the MacAran laran, a parapsychic gift involving affinity with animals. When she runs away from her domineering father, she finds herself embroiled in a civil uprising even as she struggles to bring her newly-awakened laran under control.

The Heritage of Hastur and Sharra's Exile are almost one novel in two volumes, and should probably be read as such. (For the curious, their story appeared in a less mature form in The Sword of Aldones.) The Comyn's distrust of the Terran Empire is embodied in Lew Alton, the bastard half-Terran son of the powerful Lord Kennard Alton; and Lew's tortured loyalties to both sides of his heritage lead him to take up with the rebel Aldaran family, who are pursuing rapprochement with the Terrans, and becomes involved with experiments using the dangerous but powerful Sharra matrix. Meanwhile, Regis Hastur struggles with the demands of his grandfather, regent to Derik Elhalyn-Hastur, as well as those of Darkover's society. The confluence of events and interests domestic and foreign leads both to unprecedented tragedy and a path for Darkover's future. If you read no other DARKOVER novels, these are two good candidates.

Marie Brennan

Midnight Never Come. Historical fantasy. Queen Elizabeth makes a bargain with faerie Invidiana in order to win her freedom and, eventually, her throne; years pass and Invidiana's reign over the Onyx Court is causing harm to the realm. Once you hit the 200-page mark, the plot takes off like a rocket, and the payoff is wondrous.

Patricia Briggs

Moon Called; Blood Bound. Urban fantasy/paranormal romance about a coyote skinwalker auto mechanic. The books aren't flawless, but they're fun.

David Brin

The Postman. My sister calls this "feel-good post-apocalyptic science fiction," and strangely, she's right.

Steven Brust

VLAD TALTOS: Jhereg; Yendi; Teckla; Taltos; Phoenix; Athyra; Orca; Dragon; Issola. Fantasy. Strangely, these "feel" like the ANITA BLAKE novels by Laurell K. Hamilton (don't flame me!), but without the charged sexuality. When I first read Jhereg years ago, I enjoyed it, but found it too flippant: Easterner assassin Vlad Taltos and his wisecracking jhereg ("winged lizard") familiar Loiosh get tangled in politics in the Dragaeran Empire, where Easterners are a despised minority; and Vlad belongs to House Jhereg, which is despised by the other Dragaerans. The second is much in the same vein, but the third starts approaching the uglier issues of loyalty and racism that are hinted at earlier. The fourth and fifth continue to develop these themes. The sixth and seventh take a look at Vlad's ethics through his encounters with Savn, a Teckla apprentice-physicker, and an old friend. I'm hooked. Note that the books are not in chronological order, but rather in order of publication.

Lois McMaster Bujold

Ethan of Athos. Sf, connected to the VORKOSIGAN SAGA by means of the formidable mercenary Elli Quinn. This is a lighthearted romp from the viewpoint of Ethan, an obstretician from an oddball backwater planet settled entirely by men who reproduce through biotechnology involving ovarian cultures. When the founding cultures begin to fail through age, Ethan is given the task of going out into the wider galaxy to acquire replacements. However, he runs afoul of both Elli Quinn, who is on a mission from the Dendarii mercenaries, and threats to his life by Cetagandans who are convinced that he has information about a mysterious project. While I wouldn't call this deep, Ethan is a likable protagonist, and the action moves along with plenty of pauses for humor.

VORKOSIGAN SAGA: Shards of Honor; Barrayar; The Warrior's Apprentice; The Vor Game; Cetaganda; Borders of Infinity; Brothers in Arms; Mirror Dance; Memory; Komarr; A Civil Campaign; Diplomatic Immunity. Note that the earlier volumes are currently available in omnibuses. Space opera and adventure. The first two are about Cordelia Naismith, who leaves the scientifically advanced and enlightened Beta Colony for Barrayar's labyrinthine politics, genetic paranoia, and the love of Lord Aral Vorkosigan, the Butcher of Komarr. The later books are witty, often (but not always) lighthearted (mis)adventures centered around Miles Vorkosigan, Aral and Cordelia's son, Imperial Security agent for Barrayar, and as "Admiral Naismith," leader of a mercenary army. A Civil Campaign is a hilarious Regency-style comedy/romance-of-errors about Miles' attempts to woo a woman...plus other political and personal entanglements; it's also arguably the least stand-alone in the series. Diplomatic Immunity, the latest entry, is a relatively light-hearted intrigue/mystery. Start at the beginning. Despite the humorous flavor of her narrative, Bujold is very good at what she does, especially once she hits her stride in Barrayar. Many thanks to Francine Taylor, my sister, and Carlos for lending/sending me the books.

Octavia Butler

XENOGENESIS: Dawn; Adulthood Rites; Imago. Sf. Available as the omnibus Lilith's Brood. Humanity, having destroyed itself, finds itself rescued by the Oankali, "traders" driven to seek out life in all its diversity. Lilith Iyapo, one of the few that the Oankali salvaged, learns that their rescue, and the restoration of a ruined Earth, carries a price that many will find unbearable: interbreeding with the Oankali, who read and manipulate genetic information as naturally as humans speak. Butler's exploration of Oankali psychology, humans' altered sexuality and the "Human Contradiction"--intelligence and hierarchy paired to destructive effect--is both sensitive and unflinching.

Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game; (Speaker for the Dead; Xenocide; Children of the Mind;) Ender's Shadow; (Shadow of the Hegemon; Shadow Puppets). Military sf involving the consequences of putting a boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin--and I do mean boy--in charge of an army to defeat a misunderstood alien menace. The rest of the series (through Children of the Mind) is also worth looking at, but the books become progressively more metaphysical and less science-based; they emphasize relations with aliens, family dysfunction, and the ethics of human intervention, so don't read them expecting more Big Space Battles.

Ender's Shadow is a companion-volume to the excellent Ender's Game, told from the viewpoint of Bean, a supporting character in that novel. I would strongly suggest reading Ender's Game first, as I think the effectiveness of this book lies in the way that it illuminates events in Ender's Game from a different perspective. By and large, however, Card avoids the potential pitfalls of retelling the same essential events, and develops Bean as a strong character in his own right. My understanding is that Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets continue to follow Bean and happenings on Earth. Thanks to Ed Ochoa and my sister for recommending this.

Hart's Hope. Fantasy. Not for the faint of stomach. A just, but not necessarily compassionate, lord named Palicroval finds himself leading a rebellion against the realm's corrupt king. In the name of legitimacy, Palicroval conquers the city of Hart's Hope and rapes the king's daughter Asineth, which sets in motion a long chain of revenge (hers), suffering (his), and injustices great and small. But the gods of the realm, chained as they are, have some small influence left; and Palicroval's illegitimate son Orem, unknowing of his heritage and the years of grief he is heir to, goes to Hart's Hope to find a poem, which leads both to redemption and destruction for those involved. The magic system, while gruesome, is clever, and the mythology of Hart's Hope is equally interesting. The narrator is unknown until the end, which leads up to an ending that captures the heart of the ethical questions Card raises in this stark, moving fantasy.

C.J. Cherryh

ALLIANCE-UNION: Too numerous to list them all. Cyteen. Hard sf. Ties in especially with 40,000 in Gehenna, itself a fascinating sf novel of an abandoned human colony's contact with aliens. Ariane Emory is a ruthless, brilliant, well-intentioned-in-some-ways-less-in-others scientist and politician whose unexplained death leads to a plan to clone her and create a "duplicate" to fill her shoes. But the duplicate is clever, less twisted, and has plans of her own. Not only must she deal with her clone-mother's old enemies, who see Ariane Senior in her face and voice, she must deal with her clone-mother's past victims--some of whom control vital information and skills that she needs. Some may find the rape scene early in the novel objectionable, and the ending begs for a few more chapters of explanation. However, Cherryh's exploration of psychogenesis and a society that has embraced genetic engineering is endlessly fascinating. Now available in a 3-in-1 volume (as intended); previously published as a "trilogy."

THE FADED SUN: Kesrith; Shon'jir; Kutath. Alien sf concerning humans and two alien species, the mri and the regul. A lone human, Sten Duncan, finds himself in league with the last of the mri when he--and the mercenary mri, who are in the regul's hire--are betrayed by the regul in the resolution of a human-regul war. Beautiful cultures here--the mri could be human (and seem to be based at least somewhat on the Tuareg), but I fell in love with their society anyhow. The regul with their relentlessly eidetic memory and corresponding aversion for lies were much more "alien." I picked up the French version, published as Soleil Mort, same titles for the individual books. Now available in English in a one-volume edition, The Faded Sun (the cover is Michael Whelan's illustration for Kutath).

FOREIGNER: Foreigner; Invader; Inheritor; Precursor; Defender; Explorer; Destroyer. Alien sf. A fascinating set of two trilogies. The first concerns a human island-settlement on a world inhabited by the atevi, humanoids whose psychology is dangerously, subtly different: the humans, blundering into the system by accident (or catastrophe), split into two factions: the Pilots' Guild, whose home and concern is the starship Phoenix; and those shut away from privilege, who opt to make planetfall and blunder into the atevi's complex political relationships. 200 years after Phoenix disappears in search of another system, Bren Cameron is the paidhi, one of three humans fluent in the atevi language and, by a Treaty negotiated after a war generations ago, the sole interface between the aiji, who rules the atevi's Western Association, and the human enclave of Mospheira. Bren is jolted out of comfort in his role when he is targeted by an assassin's bullet, and finds himself sinking in a morass of betrayal, mixed signals, and political destabilization. The first book, despite some fine tense moments, is slow going, and I wasn't convinced the atevi were all that alien. Unusually for a trilogy, the pace picks up in the middle book, when the implications of the atevi's numerical bent comes into fruition (think Pythagoreans on steroids). (As an aside, some of the numerical associations are close to Korean numerological prejudices.) Many thanks to David Dror.

The second trilogy continues from Bren's viewpoint, and explores the implications of the events of the first trilogy, especially the humans' past and factions, and deceits on all sides. I found the ending a touch anticlimactic, although again, there are some great moments of tension.

Storm Constantine

MAGRAVANDIAN CHRONICLES: Sea Dragon Heir; (Crown of Silence; the Way of Light). Fantasy. The series is projected to 2 or 3 more books, and the epilogue screams "sequel!" Constantine paints a lush world dominated by ritual, the grief of empire-building, and elemental forces (especially sea and fire). The tale is about Pharinet and Valraven, twin heirs to a long-conquered, sea-magic kingdom now subject to the Magravand Empire, and their incestuous relationship; it's also about Varencienne, a Magravand princess who finds herself drawn to the sea (among other things). The style was uneven, sometimes lush and sometimes gawky, but still, a fascinating read. Unfortunately, I can't recommend the sequel due to its cast of unsympathetic or uninteresting characters and less-than-inspired magical rituals. I may meander on to one of her other series, though.

Glen Cook

THE BLACK COMPANY: The Black Company; Shadows Linger; (The White Rose). Gritty fantasy about a mercenary company working for evil--which may be the lesser evil even so. Unsentimental, with moments of grace.

Kara Dalkey

Little Sister; (The Heavenward Path). Historical fantasy set in feudal Japan. (If you're not familiar with Japanese, the glossary at the back is helpful.) A young girl must travel fantastic realms in order to reclaim her older sister's soul. I got this for my own little sister. I haven't had an opportunity to read the sequel.

The Nightingale. Historical fantasy, out of print. A lovely retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale "The Nightingale," moved to feudal Japan. (Some prior knowledge of Japanese terms is helpful, but there's no glossary, alas.) A young woman with a beautiful voice captures the eye of her emperor, but must balance her growing love for him against the spiritual schemings of her ancestors. Thanks to Michelle.

WATER: Ascension; (Reunion; Transformation). YA science fantasy set in a technomagical Atlantis populated by mermyds teamed with the alien Farworlders, first of a projected (?) trilogy. Nia has longed all her life to become an Avatar, one of a small number psychically linked with the alien kings and charged with safeguarding Atlantis. Although she is a strong candidate, she finds that obstacles are thrown into her path, and that her family seems to be keeping secrets from her. Dalkey has worked out Atlantean technology and society in a fair amount of detail: the plot moves along briskly, and I found this a pleasant and intriguing YA offering.

David Day

The Emperor's Panda. Children's fantasy. A fable set in a mythical China. Kung, a young flute-player, needs Panda's help to save his uncle and, as it turns out, the Chinese Empire. Worth the price of admission for the illustrations alone.

Pamela Dean

SECRET COUNTRY TRILOGY: The Secret Country; The Hidden Land; The Whim of the Dragon. A lovely, lean, and serious trilogy about the ethics of imaginary worlds.

Peter Dickinson

Eva. Young adult sf. In a dystopian future, a young girl is in an accident, and as a pattern-identity-saving measure, she is transferred into the body of a chimpanzee. Bleak, but not entirely without hope.

Gordon R. Dickson

CHILDE CYCLE: (Tactics of Mistake; Necromancer;) Soldier, Ask Not; (Dorsai!) Sf. Although I found the other volumes annoying--for instance, the so-called tactical genius in Tactics of Mistake only succeeds because Dickson makes all his opponents too stupid to live--Soldier, Ask Not is a genuinely moving examination of the nature of faith and hubris. You will, however, have to put up with a disagreeable protagonist.

Ann Downer

SPELLKEY TRILOGY: The Spellkey; The Glass Salamander; The Books of the Keepers. Fantasy, also printed in paperback as the omnibus The Spellkey Trilogy. In The Spellkey, the Badger, a young man raised by monks, is cast out into the world to escort a witchwoman, Caitlin, to a distant nunnery. At first, he has little trust of Caitlin with her seer's eyes--one blue, one green--and Caitlin, raised by a senile witch in the Tanglewood, is likewise wary of the Badger. Nevertheless, they come to friendship and more as they evade the mysterious red-haired stranger stalking them, the fancies of a mad king, a sage dragon, and other dangers, discovering in the process what the Spellkey is and what they must give up in order for their journey to reach its fruition.

I can't say as much about the sequels for fear of spoilers, though The Books of the Keepers is not as impressive as the first two. However, Downer's eye for oddling details, deft hand with a kaleidoscope of distinctive characters, and ironic prose make the tale a delight. The sense of Story is strong, with elements of Camelot, Atlantis, and other wonders refracted at intriguing new angles, though a friend found the plot of The Spellkey too fragmented for her taste, just so you're forewarned.

Diane Duane

YOUNG WIZARDS: So You Want to Be a Wizard?; Deep Wizardry; High Wizardry; A Wizard Abroad; A Wizard's Dilemma. YA fantasy series (mainly) about two young wizards in Manhattan, Nita and Kit. Duane doesn't pull her punches, particularly in the first two books, as Nita and Kit confront the corrupted Lone Power; her descriptions of soulless worlds, Timeheart, and underwater-wizard culture are poignant and beautiful. The series goes downhill after the 2nd book (I'll never look at sharks the same way again), and the 3rd and 4th books are weak. Still if you're tired of sanitized young adult fare, give the first two a try.

Debra Doyle & Jim Macdonald

MAGEWORLDS: Starpilot's Grave; By Honor Betray'd; The Gathering Flame; The Long Hunt; The Stars Asunder. Science fantasy/space opera.

Doris Egan

THE COMPLETE IVORY: The Gate of Ivory; Two-Bit Heroes; Guilt-Edged Ivory. Science fantasy. Theodora of Pyrene, a folklorist, thought that traveling to Ivory--the only planet where magic is reputed to work--would make a splendid vacation. Unfortunately, after being waylaid and missing her ride back to university on Athena, she is forced to make a living as a street fortuneteller. Her own fortunes take an unexpected turn when Ran Cormallon, eminent sorcerer and heir to the powerful house of Cormallon, takes her on as a card-reader. Of course, Ran turns out to have troubles of his own. My description fails to do this entertaining trilogy justice: Theodora is resourceful, and her blossoming romance with the deadpan Ran Cormallon is both quirky and believable; Ivory's corrupt vengeance- and family-obsessed culture is carefully drawn. Egan has a gift for likable oddball characters, and she keeps the adventure spinning, although the third volume, a murder mystery, is a bit thinner than the previous two. Go forth and enjoy.

Jane Emerson (Doris Egan)

City of Diamond. Space opera of manners. Sadly, there's one great caveat for this book, and it's that it was clearly the first of a projected trilogy or duology that got abandoned.

Sylvia Engdahl

Enchantress from the Stars. Young adult sf with a good dose of thoughtful anthropology (?).

Elizabeth Enright

Tatsinda. Children's fairytale. You may have to look in the picture-book section for this tale of a blond-haired girl who's a misfit in a land of white-haired people...among other things.

Steve Erikson

MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN: Gardens of the Moon; Deadhouse Gates; Memories of Ice; House of Chains; and more. Gritty, massive, continent-spanning fantasy saga. The prose is clunky, but if you like big fat fantasy with a huge cast and shattering battles, here you go.

Nancy Farmer

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm. YA sf. Also the freshest science fiction work I've read for a couple years. General Matsika, one of the most powerful men in Zimbabwe, has three children: empathetic Tendai, saucy Rita, and fierce-beyond-his years Kuda. In an attempt to give them a peaceful childhood, Matsika and his wife shelter them in a splendid mansion with no human presence other than their own and that of their kind but weak-willed Mellower (combination praise-singer and psychotherapist). The children's longing for an adventure leads them to escape from their mansion, only to fall into misadventures that show them best and worst of Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, their worried parents hire the Ear, the Eye and the Arm, Africa's best detectives due to mutations that give them unusual skills. While I know very little of any African folklore (it's a big continent), Farmer's future Zimbabwe is both convincing and fascinating, and her characters are wonderfully multifaceted. The tension never lets up, but neither does the humor. Kudos to Firebird Books for reprinting this.

House of the Scorpion. YA sf. Matt is the clone of El Patrón, Matteo Alacrán, the 140-year-old druglord despot of Opium (or Dreamland). In this future, Opium lies between the United States and Aztlán (once Mexico), and it is run by an opulent elite that uses "eejits," people enslaved by having a computer chip implanted in their brains. While Matt is brutalized early on for being a clone, a "filthy animal," his caretaker/foster-mother, the stern but loving Celia; childhood friend, soft-hearted but ebullient María; and nature-loving Scots bodyguard Tam Lin not only show him kindness, but lay the foundations for his development of a conscience. Eventually, though, Matt's true place in El Patrón's plans becomes clear, and he is forced to take action outside of his sheltered world. This is good in its own right, though I can't help comparing it to her superior earlier work, The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, which is "fresher."

David Feintuch

SEAFORT SAGA: Midshipman's Hope; Challenger's Hope; Prisoner's Hope; Fisherman's Hope; Voices of Hope; Patriarch's Hope; (Children of Hope). Military sf. (I'm told it's in the tradition of C.S. Forester but haven't read any Forester. Something to be remedied.) The protagonist, Nicholas Seafort, is a nice chap with a low self-esteem despite being faced with hellish decisions and doing the best he can. Seafort rises from midshipman to captain and beyond by dealing capably with tragedies from corruption to alien attack, but is continually tormented by self-doubt and religion. Incidentally, Feintuch seems to be one of the few sf writers who deal intelligently and uncontemptuously with Christianity (albeit a very different variety than what exists today). His future Earth is ruled by the United Nations, which has also become a theocracy; society is definitely divided into haves and have-nots, as Seafort's experiences with the "trannies" (transient populations) demonstrates; and Earth herself has become overbearing toward her colonies.

I do wish Feintuch would include some female characters who aren't a) wicked and scheming, b) obvious support for a male lead, c) emotional touchy-feely types who fall apart at the slightest disaster, or d) some combination of the above. The only competent female characters I recall are quickly shunted off-stage. This also applies to The Still, below (exception: Hester). I recommend quitting after Fisherman's Hope, the high point of the series; the later books' quality is somewhat lower. Note that I haven't read the latest entry, Children of Hope.

However, Feintuch does excel in tight, suspenseful narrative and generally well-drawn male characters, even if Nicky can sometimes be an aggravating main character, protagonist and POV character. Feintuch is also very good at planting information and foreshadowing.

The Still; (The King). Fantasy. A bildungsroman about a spoiled prince, Roderick, having to take back his crown from a usurping uncle after his mother, Queen Elana, dies. (I find it interesting that in many of his books, Feintuch implies that a strong male figure is necessary for children--or midshipmen--to "grow up right.") The only problem is that Roderick is so disagreeable that I was tempted to give up halfway through. His personality flaws are a disadvantage both in trying to keep his few allies, who include his childhood friend Rustin, and nurse Hester; and in negotiating his country's treacherous politics, despite a sure instinct for statecraft. In the meantime, he must attempt to unlock the Still--the hereditary heart of the land's magic--which becomes a metaphor for his own growth as a person. Note: if you're not aware of the novel's bildungsroman nature, the ending seems abrupt--but it is a natural place to end. Also, "chastity" for the purpose of the Still references only male-female relationships, rather than male-male.

Valerie J. Freireich

Becoming Human. Sf. Not only is August a toolman probe, a "sub-human" spy/intelligence-gatherer with a genetically limited lifespan, he is the clone of the reviled Alexander, who betrayed the Harmony of Worlds. From his sheltered existence with Sanda Brauna, he is thrust into political intrigue and personal danger. Neuland, a world of people with genetic modifications--rapid healing factor and lack of physical pain--that make them less than human in the Harmony's eyes, is under attack by the Emirates and seeks Harmony military protection; and a generation ago, Neuland, with which Alexander conspired, killed millions on the Harmony world of Andia in the guise of an enemy attack in order to shift the Electors' opinion in their favor. Haunted by his predecessor's mistakes and torn between opposing loyalties and friendships, August must decide for himself what makes someone human, and if he himself is capable of becoming human.

C.S. Friedman

COLDFIRE TRILOGY: When True Night Falls; Black Sun Rising; Crown of Shadows. Science fantasy. When human colonists settled Erna, they didn't reckon on the fae, a near-magical force that responds to human desires--conscious or unconscious, for good or ill. Centuries later, the warrior-priest Damien Vryce finds himself in an uncomfortable alliance with the undead sorcerer Gerrald Tarrant in a struggle for humans' survival on Erna. The interaction between Vryce and Tarrant, two strong-willed men who don't find themselves disagreeing as much as they'd like, is superbly drawn, and given the initial premise, the world is carefully thought-out. While I've heard Friedman writes depressing tales, I found the brooding tone appropriate to the setting and story, and there are flashes of wry humor. The trilogy's major weaknesses are in the initial plot-hook of the 1st and in the lusterless characterization of a new major character in the 3rd. Nevertheless, if you're in the mood for a brooding and intelligent fantasy series, here's one to try. Thanks to Zack and Carlos.

In Conquest Born; (The Wilding). Dark space opera with linguistics.

Neil Gaiman

Coraline. Children's fantasy. A lovely, wise and uncondescending tale of Coraline, a girl who goes exploring in her family's new house and discovers her "other mother," who offers love and unending fun--at a price. There are some wonderfully creepy moments, and the characters are engaging; I'll join the bandwagon and nominate the poetic mice as my favourite.

Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Good Omens. Fantasy on the irreverent side. The Apocalypse is coming, but a demon and an angel have decided that they like humanity, and would be sorry to see it all end. Add a misplaced Antichrist, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse with Pollution among their number (since Pestilence retired after the discovery of penicillin), and other strangenesses. Quite funny. Thanks to Joy.

Alan Garner

Red Shift. A shattering retelling of "Tam Lin" from the man's perspective, spanning several eras. Garner's prose is fragmented, brutally lean, and altogether effective.

Greer Ilene Gilman

Moonwise. A quirky fantasy wherein two eccentric women, Ariane and Sylvie, are called into a world of their creation to foil a witch who collects souls. While the plot is thin, the prose is gorgeous, if thick with multilayered puns, allusions, and (Scots-inspired?) dialect. I consider this sentence alone worth the price of admission: "She ran, but he was before her, ever at the turning, like a minotaur: dark marrow, in a maze of bone."

Steven Gould

Wildside. Adventure sf. Charlie and his friends have recently graduated high school--and Charlie has a secret to share with them. He inherited his uncle's ranch, on which there is an opening to the other side--an alternate Texas devoid of humans, where there are still passenger pigeons and dire wolves. Of course, each of them has troubles, and their secret refuge may not remain secret much longer. This description doesn't do the story justice--it moves fast and it's tightly written, and it reached down into some of my otherworld wish-fantasies.

Simon R. Green

DEATHSTALKER SAGA: Deathstalker; Deathstalker War; Deathstalker Rebellion; Deathstalker Honor; Deathstalker Destiny; Deathstalker Legacy. Space opera (and one of my favourites). Green has found his niche. Owen Deathstalker, lord and heir to powers both expected and unexpected, takes on the corrupt Queen Lionstone and other leaders of the Empire, but discovers treacherous allies, honorable enemies, and the rise of malevolent and inexplicable alien forces: Hazel d'Ark, a bounty hunter whose unsavory past haunts her; a lone Hadenman, member of a cybernetic race that threatens to replace humanity; Captain John Silence, whose unbending loyalty to the Empire is his greatest tragedy; the broken hero and professional rebel Jack Random.

Larger-than-life characters (typical of Green), strong plotting, intrigue. The society is interesting, though I winced at the "science" (it's technomagic for all purposes). The first two books are the strongest; afterwards, character development slows down, and Green introduces enemy after enemy in an attempt to keep the plot going. I found the second-latest book worth reading, but not as good as it could have been. Still, I have to hand it to him for attempting an epic on this scale. I'd call it fantasy-in-space, especially with the psionics and increasingly-more-broken powers.

There are three related short novels, Mistworld, Hellworld, and Ghostworld, which give additional background on the Empire and a few supporting characters. All three were rereleased by Roc as Twilight of the Empire. They're not as good, but might be worth a look for the completist.

Drinking Midnight Wine. Surreal fantasy. A semiapocalyptic fantasy that reads a lot like his previous apocalyptic fantasy, Shadows Fall, though it's more humorous and features an interesting cosmology/mythology. Toby, a 30-something bookstore clerk who lives a grey humdrum life and dreams of the woman on the subway, who has the most perfect mouth in the world, finds his existence turned topsy-turvy when he follows her by accident from our existence in Veritie to the twin magical world of Mysterie. Godlings, fallen angels, and other strange powers abound, some hostile, some friendly, and some confusing. Enjoyable, but it felt too much like a retake, and Shadows Fall remains the superior work if you like Green. (If you don't like Green, this is unlikely to change your opinion.)

FOREST KINGDOM: Blue Moon Rising; (Down Among the Dead Men); Blood and Honor; Beyond the Blue Moon. Heroic fantasy. In BMR, the second prince of a bankrupt kingdom, Rupert, is sent to his death--to slay a dragon. But he ends up rescuing the dragon from a princess (Julia), and comes home to discover that if he thought things were bad before, he's in real trouble now. The story suffers from an unevenness of tone--it starts as a fairly lighthearted untypical fairytale, then abruptly brings in demons, plots, betrayal, with a varied and complex cast. I found it a great read, though, and it remains my favourite of Green's works. As the introduction says:

In those days there were heroes and villains, and darkness walked the earth. There were dragons to be slain, captured Princesses to be saved, and mighty deeds were accomplished by knights in shining armor.

Many tales are told of that time, tales of steadfast bravery and derring-do.

This isn't one of them.

The third is some years later, in a different land. The Great Jordan, an actor down on his luck is hired to impersonate ailing prince Victor--the best of a bad bunch, for Prince Lewis is a sadist and Prince Dominic is a psychopathic sorcerer. When the king dies, no one can find his will, which says, among other things, who his heir is; or his seal, which is necessary to inherit the powers that keep the Real and Unreal in check at Castle Midnight. Naturally, the other princes are prime suspects, but Regent William and others are not above suspicion, either. In the meantime, while the prince and his two brothers engage in increasingly more dangerous power-politics, the forces of Unreality, no longer held in check by a true king, begin to encroach upon the castle and its inhabitants. Arguably the best of Green's work, overall, although Blue Moon Rising is my favourite.

The last in the list is actually more a sequel to the HAWK AND FISHER series (see below), which occurs after Blue Moon Rising and stars Rupert and Julia as Hawk and Fisher, two cops in the magical and corrupt city Haven.

In the sequel, Rupert/Hawk and Julia/Fisher are doing their duty in Haven when they learn that [spoiler]...and they are summoned back to the Forest Kingdom to find out whodunnit. The Forest Kingdom, though, is under siege from forces political and magical, and the Blue Moon is threatening to rise again, bringing with demons and Wild Magic....Entertaining, quirky and touching. Definitely not stand-alone; knowledge of Blue Moon Rising and the HAWK AND FISHER books is practically necessary; Blood and Honor, Down Below the Dead Men, and Shadows Fall also tie in, but aren't required to figure out who's who.

HAWK AND FISHER. Sword and sorcery mysteries. Rupert/Hawk and Julia/Fisher from Blue Moon Rising, some years down the road: after leaving the Forest Kingdom, they settled in the corrupt and cosmopolitan city of Haven to become cops. Great light-hearted adventure with elements of satire. #2, concerning elections in Haven, is a riot. Roc rereleased the first three in one volume, Swords of Haven, and #4-6 followed as Guards of Haven. #6 is the weakest, and there's room for more in the series, despite Hawk and Fisher's later appearance in Beyond the Blue Moon (see above); the existing volumes are stand-alone, though reading them in order helps. Green's good about not giving spoilers in later volumes.

NIGHTSIDE: Something from the Nightside; Agents of Light and Darkness; Nightingale's Lament; Hex and the City; Paths Not Taken; Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth; Hell to Pay; (The Unnatural Inquirer). Fantasy noir, darker in tone than HAWK AND FISHER, and set in an alternate London called the Nightside. My favorite so far is Agents, although Paths Not Taken has some fine moments. I haven't yet read The Unnatural Inquirer, the latest volume.

Shadows Fall. Fantasy. A quirky, apocalyptic tale of a town at the edge of reality called Shadows Fall, where dreams go to die, which finds itself threatened by unexplained goings-on and the return of an apparently ordinary (and perplexed) man without a past from the "real" world, James Hart. Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat (familiar to DEATHSTALKER SAGA readers) make appearances. Not for everyone, but the setting intrigued me, and Green does a great job of capturing the essence of childhood dreams: cartoon animals play with real animals, and even a rock star may be seen to wave to fans. Currently out of print in the US, though it's been re-released in the UK. (Thanks to Andy Maul, without whom I'd never have seen this book.)

Barbara Hambly

DARWATH: Time of the Dark; The Walls of Air; The Armies of Daylight; Mother of Winter; (Icefalcon's Quest). High fantasy. A wandering biker, Rudy, and a medieval historian, Gil, find themselves transported to a magical, medievalesque world threatened by Cthulhuesque monstrosities. Queen Minalde and wizard Ingold Inglorion provide a home for the two "refugees" even as they enlist their help. The key to defeating the Dark seems to lie in the past, where an infant prince's hereditary memories and Gil's archeological skills may prove the keys. The ending of book 3 smells faintly of deus ex machina, but the 4th book is great: a mystery concerning a creeping fungal doom (Gil's deductive skills come in handy), the mystery of the lost king, and it ties together nicely. The 5th takes the Icefalcon, a supporting character, and pits him against Prince Altir's kidnappers, but is disappointing.

Sisters of the Raven (plus a sequel whose title I can't remember). Fantasy. In the Yellow City, the male-held magic that calls the rains has been fading for the last decade, and is turning up in women. The "sisters of the raven"--the one bird in whom females-with-magic is not an inherent linguistic contradiction--gathered by the Summer Concubine are being stalked by a killer who resents their growing mystical abilities. At the same time, the city's epicurean but astute ruler must navigate treacherous politics in an effort to build an aqueduct that is becoming necessary. It's not Hambly's best, but the world is well-crafted (the names for women have ample historical precedents) and the characters engaging, despite a few instances of sloppy prose.

SUN WOLF AND STARHAWK: The Ladies of Mandrigyn; The Witches of Wenshar; The Dark Hand of Magic. The (mis)adventures of Sun Wolf, (ex-)mercenary captain and his partner, the coolheaded lady warrior Starhawk. Hambly's depiction of mercenary life and mores is brutal, but believably so. Hambly's one of the best in the business of depicting the grittiness of life in a medievalistic society. Also, her tales are wry, beautifully described, and warmly characterized.

WINDROSE CHRONICLES: The Silent Tower; The Silicon Mage; Dog Wizard. High fantasy. In the Empire of Ferryth, the Dark Mage, Suraklin, was said to have died 25 years ago. But his mad and affable student, Antryg Windrose, is sure that Suraklin found a way to cheat death; and in our world, a programmer named Joanna Sheraton finds herself drawn into Ferryth's struggles when she discovers that Suraklin's lingering magic might mean the death of all hope in her world and theirs. While I'm told by a programmer that some of the computer jargon is BS, the characters are quirky and engaging, and Hambly writes with her accustomed deftness about a land where magic is being overtaken by religion and industrial revolution.

Laurell K. Hamilton

ANITA BLAKE: Guilty Pleasures; The Laughing Corpse; Circus of the Damned; The Lunatic Cafe; Bloody Bones; The Killing Dance; Burnt Offerings; Blue Moon; Obsidian Butterfly; (Narcissus in Chains; Cerulean Sins). More, but NiC was where I quit the series. Mystery/supernatural fantasy. Though they involve zombies, vampires, shapeshifters and more, the tone makes me hesitate to call the series horror (I usually find them in the sf/f section of a bookstore). The protagonist is Anita Blake, licensed vampire-hunter and zombie-raiser as well as detective-of-sorts in a modern-day setting where undead and lycanthropes, too, are citizens with legal protections. The problem is, something always goes wrong...and despite her principle of "never dating monsters," she finds herself involved with a master vampire and an alpha werewolf. Hamilton adroitly shows her protagonist's growing willingness to compromise on morals, though I wonder when the constant one-upmanship of Anita's powers will end. Also note that Hamilton's endings tend to be brief in relation to the issues they're tying up. Worth reading for Anita's voice, which is self-assured, humorous, and spunky.

Narcissus in Chains starts with an interesting premise (which I shan't give away for fear of spoiling the series) and further explorations of shapeshifter culture, but it rapidly devolves into Kiss of Shadows-like sexual shenanigans. (Corollary: if you enjoyed that book, which is in Hamilton's MEREDITH GENTRY series, you'll love this one.) Anita's continuing transition from an "ordinary" to supernatural life, a great potential source of conflict, is barely given a nod.

Peter F. Hamilton

The Reality Dysfunction; The Neutronium Alchemist; the Naked God. Space opera on a sprawling scale; note that you'd think it's a trilogy, but each "book," at least in paperback, is split into two volumes, Part I and Part II. Hamilton posits a human Confederation dominated by two "factions": the Edenists, who make extensive use of bitek (including sentient ships called voidhawks) and are united in consensus through the affinity gene, which allows telepathy between those who have it; and the Adamists, whose origins lie in a rejection of the affinity gene. The Confederation also includes two alien species, the apparently-benevolent and highly-advanced Kiint, and the caste-bound, unoriginal Tyrathca.

In any case, the Confederation is brought to its knees when strange events on the backwards early-stage colony of Lalonde result in a hostile "energistic virus" that takes over those it comes into contact with. The first volume sets up these circumstances, and the rest of the series is devoted to dealing with the problem. There's a lot going on, and you won't be disappointed for want of action or plot developments.

In fact, there's almost too much going on: the series suffers from an overabundance of POVs (did anyone care about the hippies?), and I suspect that the text would be improved by cutting 20%. Few of the characters are actively likable, although they are well-characterized, and villains can be heinous; you read these for the slam-bang plot and the intricate setting not so much as for individual characters. In any case, it's a lot of fun, and the high-tech premises are by no means difficult to accept.

Geraldine Harris

THE SEVEN CITADELS: Prince of the Godborn; Children of the Wind; The Dead Kingdom; The Seventh Gate.

Above him towered an ancient stone statue of Zeldin, his arms spread in blessing, his face serene and smiling. It was a young face and Kerish had always found that strange. His life was ordered by so many old people but the god they worshipped was eternally young. The features of Zeldin might have been modelled on his father but there was no such serenity in the man who hid in the Palace gardens and let the Empire rot. They might have belonged to his brothers if their faces had not been overlaid by the marks of greed and idleness, or to himself if...Kerish jerked away from the thought.

Bildungsroman high fantasy. One of the most beautiful fantasy sagas I've ever read. Though threatened from within by intrigue, corruption, and betrayal, and from without by the Brigands of Fangmere, the Empire of Galkis is ruled by an Emperor who has become indifferent to its fate since the death of his third and beloved queen, Taana. However, Galkis may yet be delivered by a prophesied Saviour, and the Emperor unbends enough to allow his and Taana's son, Prince Kerish-lo-Taan, and Kerish's half-brother Forollkin to travel into faraway lands in search of seven sorcerers' keys to free the Saviour. The catch: each sorcerer has gained immortality, which he or she will lose by relinquishing the key. In attempting to gather the seven keys they must discover Galkis' true nature as well as their own.

Along the way, Kerish and Forollkin must face a philosopher-king's ideals and a spoiled child's nightmares, learn what forbidden hope sustains a swamp-land's slaves and escape ties of blood, navigate the shoals between love and vengeance, and that's only the beginning. The cultures that Harris depicts are beautiful and richly detailed, and while the quest is conventional on the surface, it is their own hearts that Kerish and Forollkin must save along with their troubled homeland. The books were published as YA fantasy and are unfortunately out of print. Your best bet is to try the children's section of a public library or used bookstores.

Robert A. Heinlein

Have Space Suit, Will Travel. YA hard sf. One of his juveniles, fast-paced and funny, though dated. Kip Russell dreams of going to the moon, but the best he can get is a space suit that he wins in a soap jingle contest. The next thing he knows, he's kidnapped by aliens and forced to stand trial for all humanity. Heinlein made me ashamed that I didn't know how to use a slide rule in this age of calculators! (I have since acquired one, but not the know-how.) A great romp.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Sf. I'm sure Heinlein needs no introduction from me. He tends to slip in political sermons (few of which I agree with). Here, he tells the tale of the Moon colonists' rebellion against the domineering Earth. While all his characters sound alike, Heinlein was great at keeping the story moving.

Starship Troopers. Military hard sf, which explores a society at war with aliens.

Douglas Hill

LAST LEGIONARY QUARTET. Galactic Warlord; Deathwing Over Veynaa; Day of the Starwind; Planet of the Warlord. YA space opera. Keill Randor, last survivor of a nation of honorable mercenaries, is brought back from the brink of death and seeks vengeance on the mysterious warlord who was responsible for his people's death. Hill makes use of most of the hoary old sf clichés: clones, mind control, telepathic alien sidekick, and more I can't recall offhand. But to the not-yet-jaded reader, they're probably great fun. (I was jaded enough not to enjoy them fully.) A couple warnings: the plot structure is identical in each book, and you get tired of infrangibility.

P.C. Hodgell

KENCYRATH: God Stalk; Dark of the Moon; Seeker's Mask; Blood & Ivory: A Tapestry; To Ride a Rathorn.

Jame hesitated. Many of her people had such talents if not far greater ones, but those that did were feared and often compelled to enter the priesthood. Apprehensively, she recited the charm. It usually took Cleppetty half an hour to ready her bread for the oven; Jame's rose in five minutes. When the widow sliced into the baked loaf, however, they discovered that its sudden expansion had been due to the growth of rudimentary internal organs.

That was the end of Jame's apprenticeship in the kitchen....

Hodgell spins an entertaining, whimsical, and serious (yes, I mean all three) tale of Jame and her twin brother Torisen. Both are Kencyrath, a "people" forged by their hated god into a weapon against Perimal Darkling, with a tradition of sometimes suicidal honor, yet torn apart by an old betrayal and internecine strife as well as threats from their current home, a world alien to them. An unusual and beautifully written world, with wondrously detailed characters and culture.

Blood & Ivory is a collection of stories that should probably best be read after the first three. "Hearts of Woven Shadow" is genuinely chilling and shows the tortured relationship between Ganth (later Jame's father) and his family. "Among the Dead," also chilling, chronicles the events that lead to Jame's expulsion by her father. "Child of Darkness" is an odd alternate history set in a dystopian threshold world where university exams can be literally deadly. "A Matter of Honor" and "Bones" are somewhat more lighthearted tales set in Tai-Tastigon, the multifarious city that Jame roves in God Stalk, and the last related tale, "Stranger Blood," is set in the series' future, exploring the tormented relationships at a border outpost when Jame happens by.

Barry Hughart

MASTER LI: Bridge of Birds; The Story of the Stone; Eight Skilled Gentlemen. Historical (or myth-based?) fantasy. The splendid, fast-paced and humorous tale of the strong but not-too-swift Number Ten Ox, who teams up with the sage Li Kao (who has a small flaw in his character) to save his village's children from a mysterious malady. As it turns out, the children's malady is a symptom of a greater malady in the order of the universe. Hughart draws on Chinese folklore (I recognized the "bridge of birds" tale) and the flavor rings very true, though I can't speak for "mythical" or historical authenticity; and he uses wordplay to good effect.

The second in the sequence is much in the same vein, this time concerning (as Master Li declaims several times) "fraud and forgery, paint slapped over the rot of reality and gilded with lies," a mystery both old and new in the mad, murderous Laughing Prince's fate, and of course, the eponymous tale. Prior knowledge either of the prequel or of Chinese myth and history probably help, but are hardly required for enjoyment.

In the third volume, Master Li and Number Ten Ox (his assistant, a strong and good-natured peasant) investigate a murder that may involve gods and demons of yore. Although this is entertaining, it's probably the weakest of the three books, feeling curiously truncated, the mythology less explored (or perhaps abused). Still, it's a pity Hughart apparently never wrote more in the series. Thanks to Pug, who recommended the first; Beth, who sent me the second; and David, who sent me the third.

Kij Johnson

The Fox Woman.

I saw him and I loved him, my master Kaya no Yoshifuji. I say this and it is short and sharp, without elegance, like a bark; but I have no idea how else to start. I am only a fox: I have no elegancies of language.

Historical fantasy. A lovely retelling of a Japanese foxwife folktale, told through diaries kept by the fox-woman (Kitsune, which means "fox" in Japanese), a Japanese lord (Kaya no Yoshifuji) and Yoshifuji's wife, Shikujo. When Kitsune decides to become human for love of Yoshifuji, she sets in motion conflicts with her own fox-family, her chosen lover, and his wife; and learns what it means to be human. Possibly some knowledge of Japanese terms and lore would be helpful (I recognized the "rabbit in the moon" from Korean tales from my own childhood).

Fudoki.

...there were also times when she forgot her sorrow and her state and enjoyed something, the taste of pheasant, the warmth of the sun, a rain so soft it was scarcely a hissing on her face. She was learning something about grief, that it begins with a great blow, but heals with a thousand tiny strokes.

This is a gorgeous book in many, many ways: it tells the tale of a tortoiseshell cat who loses her fudoki, the litany and story and family and home of a cat-lineage--and goes on a journey. She is spoken to by a road-kami, is changed by some agency into a woman warrior, finds herself heading toward war and something like friendship. This is the story told by an aged, dying princess as she prepares for her own final journey. Johnson's prose is luminous, precise, pointed; I lingered over many a page and paragraph, savoring.

Maureen Johnson

Devilish. Young adult fantasy about Jane and Allison, two friends at a Catholic high school. Jane finds out Allison has made a deal with the devil for popularity, and is determined to save her. Some neat twists, including a fantastically charismatic villain.

Diana Wynne Jones

CHRESTOMANCI CHRONICLES: Charmed Life; The Lives of Christopher Chant; Witch Week; The Magicians of Caprona. Young adult fantasy, gentle, wry and adventurous coming-of-age novels with Jones' trademark quirky humor and methodical approach to magic.

Charmed Life focuses on Cat Chant and his sister the witch Gwendolen, two orphans who go to live with the powerful but absentminded enchanter Chrestomanci. Though Cat has depended on his sister for most of his life, their relationship darkens as she seeks world domination and pursues a vendetta against Chrestomanci, who refuses to be impressed by her. As Cat realizes that his sister is not the person he thought she was, he begins taking responsibility for himself amid an escalating series of hijinks involving frogs, apparitions, and landscaping, among other things.

The Lives of Christopher Chant (set some 25 years before the first) starts out as light-hearted wish-fulfillment as Christopher, a boy neglected by his social-climbing mother and his henpecked father, explores the "Anywheres" he can travel to in his dreams. His uncle Ralph Argent discovers Christopher's abilities and puts him to work with "experiments," continuing even after Christopher is discovered as the next Chrestomanci (a title, not a name) and taken to live with the formidable but grouchy current Chrestomanci, de Witt. Christopher matures from a self-centered and thoughtless boy when he begins realizing the consequences of his pranks and hobbies, in no small part due to encounters with the bored and lonely Living Goddess Asheth, Ralph's ambivalent courier Tacroy, and crises coming to a head.

Witch Week and The Magicians of Caprona are entertaining, but more slight than the other two. The first concerns an "unnatural" world where witches are burned; an anonymous note in a classroom claiming someone in the class is a witch touches off pranks and paranoia. The second is a humorous retake on Romeo and Juliet, as two feuding magician families in the Italian city-state of Caprona must put aside their differences to save the city, helped along by two reluctant young protagonists and a sensible pair of lovers from the families in question. Exuberant, but the plot is predictable.

Dark Lord of Derkholm. Comic fantasy. Hilarious; I heard somewhere that she wrote this after Tough Guide to Fantasyland, and it's easy to believe. Mild-mannered wizard Derk, who has two human children and several bioconstruct griffin "children," is called upon to act the role of Dark Lord for profit-grubbing Mr. Chesney's annual pilgrim tours (themselves based on tired fantasy tropes). While he's trying his best (and not doing well), other wizards and powers are attempting to sabotage the tours so Mr. Chesney will be forced to quit. A lot of fun.

Howl's Moving Castle; (Castle in the Air). YA fantasy concerning Sylvie, an eldest daughter who is cursed into cronehood and finds she doesn't mind it that much, even when she comes into the company of the wicked wizard Howl, who isn't as wicked as he'd like to be. Amusing and wry, with gentle digs at fairytale tropes.

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. Fantasy. A hilarious satire/parody of your typical fantasy epic saga, in the form of a "tour" and "Toughpick" (a glossary of terms). Probably better as browsing than to read straight through, which is what I did. Also should be required reading for would-be writers of epic fantasy, since it manages to nail 80% of the epic fantasies I've read.

Guy Gavriel Kay

A Song for Arbonne. High fantasy. The tormented relationship between two countries and their clashing cultures, Arbonne (read: medieval France or Provence) with her musicians and poets, and Gorhaut (read: "Germany") with its soldiers. The revenge of Aelis--the wife, years dead, of Duke Urte de Miraval--through her affair with Duke Bertran de Talair results in a schism that weakens Arbonne when she most needs her strength. Meanwhile, a mercenary from Gorhaut, Blaise, finds Arbonne awaking new hopes and old family conflicts. (I didn't find the "warfare" scenes convincing, but it's better-written than Tigana, though less engaging.) Do read the prologue: it's one of the few I've seen that are worthwhile.

Tigana. High fantasy. The best of Kay's work; I keep hoping he'll write another to rival it. The squabbling city-states on the Peninsula of the Palm (think Italy) were divided down the middle by two foreign conquerors, Brandin of Ygrath and Alberico of Barbadior, both sorcerers. In particular, Brandin tied up a great portion of his sorcery in erasing the name and heritage of Tigana, the conquered province whose prince killed his son. Now the conquerors watch each other with hungry eyes while one man, Alessan of lost Tigana, works to ensure their simultaneous downfall. The real treat is Dianora, who came from Tigana and became Brandin's mistress in order to assassinate him, only to discover herself falling in love with him. While the story is slow to start and his prose is sometimes pretentious, lacking the direct, often heartbreaking delivery of THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY or the smoothness of his later works, it is well worth persevering. I didn't care for the other POVs, and one particular bit of matchmaking at the end seemed forced, not to mention the veiled references to Kay's series THE FIONAVAR TAPESTRY (Finavir, or whatever it was). Still, a wrenching good read.

Kay Kenyon

Braided World. Anthropological (well, equivalent for aliens) sf.

Stephen King

Eyes of the Dragon. (Not-quite-high) fantasy. The tale of a king, his murder; and his two sons, Peter and Roland, whose rivalry is, shall we say, one-sided. Each character, major or minor, has his or her own motivations, for good or ill. King's horror background does show in a number of scenes (Dragon Sand) and one character (Flagg). There are also ingenious plot devices: handkerchiefs and a dollhouse, for example. Riveting both as a character study and as a multilayered study of murder and jealousy.

Nancy Kress

Beggars in Spain. (I believe there's a sequel to this.) Sf. Kress takes a simple premise--the existence of a strain of genetically-altered people called the "Sleepless," as none of them need sleep--and shows its many social complexities and consequences. (I couldn't help but think of it as a more sophisticated take on the sf short story "Absalom," whose author I can't remember.) This may sound dry, but Kress dramatizes the conflicts through the eyes of Leisha, one of the first Sleepless, who has a Sleeper twin Alice. Leisha struggles to become a bridge between the two increasingly alienated communities in the face of Sleepless paranoia and elitism and Sleeper paranoia and resentment. The result is deft and believable; even the "villain," a Sleepless woman who plans revenge on the world that rejected them, is sympathetic. Thanks to Yune.

Ellen Kushner

Swordspoint; The Privilege of the Sword.

Let the fairy-tale begin on a winter's morning, then, with one drop of blood new-fallen on the ivory snow: a drop as bright as a clear-cut ruby, red as the single spot of claret on the lace cuff....

Fantasy. Swordspoint is lush tale of political intrigue in the (unnamed) city, into which master swordsman Richard St. Vier and his moody lover Alec become embroiled. Worth reading for the prose alone, but the fierce depiction of joy in swordsmanship as an art is not to be missed. The recent printing includes short stories linking this book to Kushner & Delia Sherman's The Fall of the Kings, which is set in the same city a few generations afterward. The Privilege of the Sword is set a generation after Swordspoint (so, before Fall of the Kings) and follows Katherine Samantha Campion Talbert's unwilling struggles to learn the sword, and her willing struggles to champion her friend Artemisia.

Thomas the Rhymer. Adult fairytale, a retelling of the ballad. I had been looking for this for quite a while and was delighted to see it in the Somerville Public Library. Kushner tells the tale in five parts, through five POVs: those of the old couple that "adopt" the wandering minstrel, Thomas himself in Faerie, and Elspeth, the mortal girl he left behind when he vanished into Faerie; and it works. The characters are fiercely themselves, and I have a deep respect for Kushner's treatment of Faerie and the Queen's seduction of Thomas; both their relationship, and Thomas' relationship with Elspeth, are poignant and believable. And, of course, there's the prose. I could drown in the lush, sensual prose.

Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman

The Fall of the Kings. Fantasy. Sequel to Kushner's Swordspoint, set some hundred years later. Historian Basil St. Cloud becomes convinced that the wizards of the ancient northern kings did, in fact, practice true magic. The city, however, has lived for generations under the rule of a council of nobles, descendants both of those kings and the long-ago nobles who overthrew the increasingly mad kings and corrupt wizards. Meanwhile, his lover, the feckless noble Theron of Tremontaine, finds himself entangled in the council's fears of insurrection as they attempt to maintain the status quo. The tale with its political/magical twists is sensually told, though I found the ending disappointing. However, the depiction of acrimonious university politics is fascinating, and I enjoyed the book overall.

Henry Kuttner

The Dark World. Science fantasy (more fantasy with pseudoscience explanations, but it has to be considered in light of when it was written, i.e. the 1940s). Edward Bond, a former soldier on medical discharge, is haunted by visions and dreams of another world. As he discovers, he is actually Ganelon, a leader of the sorcerous cabal that rules the Dark World, twin to our own but magical; Bond, on the other hand, is a more likable fellow who has joined with the rebel woodspeople who are trying to free the land from sacrifice and sorcerous rule. Bond/Ganelon swings unpredictably between his two extremes of personality, and is forced to make some difficult choices as a result, while remaining suspicious of people on both sides.

The first half of the book is fascinating, with some lovely prose, while the second half is a letdown, as (to this more-modern reader) the buildup and mystique are revealed as familiar tropes. The final sentence, however, haunts with its implication of subtle corruption. I picked this up at Know New Books (Palo Alto) out of curiosity when I learned from a biography/literary survey by Jane Lindskold that it had been one of Zelazny's favourite books, influencing his creation of Amber; it shows. That being said, I recommend it to those who are curious about Amber's genesis or are comfortable with older sf/f, though not to all readers.

Jane Langton

The Diamond in the Window. Children's fantasy. Two children, Eleanor and Edsard, live with their worn-down but loving aunt and philosophical but loopy uncle in a house they might be evicted from any moment. Eleanor and Edward set out to rescue the household by searching for a treasure left in a mysterious poem by a Maharajah who once courted their aunt--a Maharajah who vanished along with Ned and Nora, the children Edward and Eleanor are named after. This is one of the few examples of fiction where I can see practically the entire plot coming, and I remain charmed. The opening paragraph presages the book's concluding reversals in a way that brings Edward immediately to life. The prose works as straight adventure as well as puzzle-box as well as morality play. Thanks to Andrew Plotkin.

Ursula K. Le Guin

The Dispossessed. Soft sf. I've never figured out whether this is a dystopia, utopia, or both/neither. (I was frustrated that Shevek, supposed genius physicist, never described "chronotopology." I'll give a better summary of the book when I have time to reread it.)

Tanith Lee

White As Snow. Adult fairytale. A beautiful, dark-but-never-dreary retelling of Snow White through the lens of the Persephone/Demeter myth. Lee succeeds in making queen Arpazia--raped, wed, and cast aside--a powerful, if not necessarily sympathetic, figure; her daughter Candacis/Coira follows her own tangled trajectory into indifference, and finally love.

Gail Carson Levine

Ella Enchanted. YA fantasy. A revisionist retelling of Cinderella: the spunky (and not always tactful) protagonist, Ella, is under a curse that she must obey direct commands, which lands her in trouble when her merchant father, a widow, remarries. One of my friends characterized this as "obnoxiously feminist," which I didn't notice at all, but you've been forewarned. I found it funny and enjoyable.

C.S. Lewis

CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Horse and His Boy; (The Magician's Nephew); The Last Battle. Children's fantasy and Christian allegory. #1, in which four children walk through a magical wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia and must confront the White Witch who holds it locked in unending winter, is the best; I'm also enamored of #3, in which a king of Narnia journeys in search of the world's end. #6, on the other hand, is forgettable though it does provide some insights on Narnia's origins.

Till We Have Faces. Fantasy. A retelling of the Eros and Psyche myth from the viewpoint of Psyche's loving but possessive older sister. (I wish I'd thought of that title!)

Alan Lightman

Einstein's Dreams. Sf (though probably not marketed as such). A collection of vignettes/meditations, starting from Einstein's life and going through various alternate worlds with different kinds of time. Thanks to Mrs. Miller.

Elizabeth A. Lynn

Dragon's Winter. High fantasy. If you're pining after more McKillip, this is another author to try. The tale of a good and evil twin (sigh), one seduced by dark magic, the other a lord and dragon-shapeshifter trapped in human form. My two quibbles with this book are: the evil twin, whose characterization is flat, and the ending/epilogue, which I can't figure out.

The Sardonyx Net. Sf. On the planet Chabad, alone among the Federation worlds, slavery is legal and made feasible by dorazine, an illegal narcotic. When the black market supply dries up, would-be drug smuggler Dana Ikoro is captured and enslaved. Though his master is the beautiful and intelligent Rhani Yago, one of Chabad's leaders, he discovers that there's more to freedom--or slavery--than he realized. Where this novel excels is in its depiction of Zed Yago, Rhani's disturbed--and disturbing--brother. Unfortunately, the ending is not as satisfactory as it could be.

Laurie J. Marks

ELEMENTAL LOGIC: Fire Logic; Earth Logic; Water Logic; one more projected. Fantasy with an unusual elemental magic system. Micole calls this a grand narrative of reconciliation rather than conquest (paraphrase).

George R.R. Martin

Nightflyers. A locked-starship mystery and a search for mysterious sublight-traveling aliens. At the end there's psychosis and beauty and epiphany.

SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: A Game of Thrones; A Clash of Kings; A Storm of Swords; A Feast for Crows. In Martin's fantasy land, seasons can last a generation or more, and winter is coming. Westeros has a weak king, Robert Baratheon, married to an ambitious Queen Cersei. Once a conquerer who freed Westeros from the mad King Aerys II Targaryen, Robert has grown soft. Allies such as Eddard Stark, Lord of the North, try to strengthen his rule, but rivals are everywhere: the Lannisters, Cersei's family, who eye the throne; Robert's brothers Renly and Stannis, who consider themselves heirs over Cersei's children. Meanwhile, the Others--creatures of undeath and cold magic--threaten to come over the Wall that separates Westeros from its wild northlands, but when the Brothers of the Night's Watch, the Wall's guardians, call for help in the midst of civil war, there is little to be had. And Daenerys Targaryen, who knows Robert as the Usurper who slaughtered her family, begins her return from exile to reclaim Westeros.

Martin creates a world that's far grittier than your average fantasy world. I haven't seen so many characters, including main or POV characters, get maimed or killed in a series in a long time. (This is probably a sign that certain readers should avoid this series.) People suffer; plans go awry. True, Martin doesn't cover new ground--but he covers far less trodden ground. This series isn't for everyone, but at least some of you will find it refreshing. Watch out for the rising obscenity/sexual scene count in the second book. Series is currently unfinished.

George R.R. Martin & Lisa Tuttle

Windhaven. Sf. A fascinating, tragic tale of human colonists' descendants on Windhaven, where low gravity and a dense atmosphere permit humans to fly with metalcloth wings. Maris, a girl fostered by a flyer-caste family, wants nothing more than to fly, especially since her foster-brother wants only to sing; and her desire shakes all of Windhaven's society. This is back in print after a long hiatus. Thanks to Beth for the recommendation.

Anne McCaffrey

DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN: Dragonflight; Dragonquest; various others. World sf. These two (also the first two) are the strongest books in the series. The first is an intriguing introduction to an alien world--a "lost colony," Pern, that has fallen into feudal modes and whose "knight" class (the dragonriders, complete with genetically engineered dragons) is responsible for protecting the world from ravaging spores called Thread. However, during a Long Interval when no Thread falls, the dragonrider class falls into disregard, and a ruthless conqueror named Fax has overtaken several Holds, including Ruatha, whose lord and lord's family he slaughtered. Lessa, however, survived her family's murder and plots to use the dragonriders to oust Lord Fax, little dreaming that her revenge will bring her into contact with F'lar, a charismatic dragonrider who believes the menace of Thread will return and is determined to save the Pernese from their own shortsightedness. The second deals with politics and cultural clashes between the past and present. (To say more would give away too much about the first book.) McCaffrey does well at fleshing out various characters and situations, despite a tendency (which shows up more strongly in later books) toward a black-and-white view of her world.

HARPER HALL TRILOGY: Dragonsong; Dragonsinger; (Dragondrums). YA sf. Same world as the DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN, except the trilogy centers around Menolly, a would-be Harper (musician and lorekeeper) and her struggles to be accepted despite being female. The last book is about Piemur, one of her friends, and his (mis)adventures on the rediscovered Southern Continent; I didn't find him as interesting.

Jack McDevitt

The Hercules Text.

Harry was assistant director for administration, a personnel specialist in a world of theoretical physicists, astronomers, and mathematicians. He tried hard to stay on top of Goddard's various initiatives in an effort to retain some credibility, but the effort was pointless. Cosmologists tended to sneer at particle physicists, and both groups found it hard to credit astronomers, perceived as restricted to confirming the notions of theorists. Harry's MBA was at best an embarrassment.

Sf. This is riveting storytelling that doesn't flinch from moral consequences and decisions, told from the viewpoint of Harry Carmichael, a bureaucrat amidst scientists who stumble upon a bona fide broadcast from a distant alien civilization. The Hercules Text, as it is known, invites sensation; then outrage, that the U.S. is withholding information from the international community of scientists; and finally crisis, as the technological secrets unlocked, and the psychological analysis of the alien civilization, begin to offer possibilities wondrous and terrible. Unfortunately, the ending doesn't quite live up to the rest of the story. It is not that consequence is evaded--McDevitt's tales are notable for their sense of unflinching conscience--but that, after the ride, almost any ending would be a letdown.

Infinity Beach. Sf. Dr. Kim Brandywine is a fundraiser for the Seabright Institute, which persists in searching for extraterrestrial intelligence despite no sign thereof in humanity's years in space. A call from one of her former professors, however, sets her on a search to find out what really happened to her older clone-sister, Emily Brandywine, who vanished in a cab years ago after returning from the last, and unsuccessful, SETI expedition. As mysteries converge, Kim begins to think that something happened on that expedition--and to face disapproval from those who see her quest as fruitless or worse, harmful. Part first-contact story, part mystery, McDevitt brings the tale's strands together satisfyingly, with some gripping scenes along the ride. My one complaint is that the novel's first third or so seemed uncomfortably parallel to that of A Talent for War, but perhaps that says more about me than the novel.

A Talent for War.

Millennium: it was Sim's first ally. The world that sent its ships to Chippewa and Grand Salinas and Rigel. The arsenal of the Confederacy during the great days of the Dellacondans. It was to Millenium that Sim took the refugees after his celebrated evacuation of Ilyanda.

So great is the affection on that world for Christopher Sim that the Corsarius is still carried on the rolls as an active warship. All fleet comunications show her call sign.

Sf. Though it's described as a "war novel" by some of the cover blurbs, it's really more of a future-history mystery about a "past" war (in the history of the story). It was a pleasure to read a future history written by someone who loves and understands history; McDevitt's classicist leanings are quite in evidence. After his uncle--an amateur archaeologist--dies and leaves him a mysterious message, Alex Benedict finds himself launched into the mystery of Christopher Sim, the hero of the war against the alien Ashiyyur. He unravels the truth of Sim's fatal, final battle against the Ashiyyur, which is both startling and inevitable, and the mystery of what happened to Sim's ship, the Corsarius. While the book is not flawless (characters in the present are often less vivid than the historical figures McDevitt limns), it impresses me deeply.

Patricia A. McKillip

Alphabet of Thorn. High fantasy with a grand premise, flawed by its too-neat ending.

The Book of Atrix Wolfe. High fantasy. The tale of a mage, Atrix Wolfe, whose spell goes awry, destroying the armies of two realms. After he has retreated from society, the Queen of the Wood approaches him to demand that he find her daughter, who disappeared when his spell backfired. McKillip's prose is like falling through a dream, though if you prefer plain prose you might not take to her work. I delight in it. The only thing that annoyed me here was her propensity for including words-spelled-backward.

The Changeling Sea. High fantasy. When her father disappears on a fishing trip and her mother grows ever vaguer, Peri takes to creating "hexes" out of found objects and nurses her grudge against the sea. One night, during the king's yearly visit to the village, she runs into Prince Kir, who wishes to send a message to the sea with one of her hexes. This she does, with results ranging from entanglement in an old tale of love and vengeance, Kir's tormented longings for the sea, and a sea dragon chained in gold that arouses greed in the villagers. Well worth reading, both for the characterizations (sometimes subtle, sometimes humorous) and the imagery.

Fool's Run. Sf. A luminous tale of people pulled into the heart of a terrible mystery: why Terra Viridian, apparently sane, had a vision one day and murdered 1500 people with a laser rifle, seven years ago. The prose is as beautiful as ever, apt to this world of harried prison administrators and visionary musicians, though as typical with McKillip, the plot isn't the strongest part of the book.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld.

Ogam coaxed out of the Southern Deserts behind Eld Mountain the Lyon Gules, who with a pelt the color of a king's treasury had seduced many an imprudent man into unwanted adventure. He stole from the hearth of a witch beyond Eldwold the huge black Cat Moriah, whose knowledge of spells and secret charms had once been legendary in Eldwold. The blue-eyed Falcon Ter, who had torn to pieces the seven murderers of the wizard Aer, shot like a bolt out of the blue sky onto Ogam's shoulder. After a brief, furious struggle, blue eyes staring into black, the hot grip of talons loosened; the Falcon gave his name and yielded to Ogam's great power.

High fantasy. Sybel, a woman who is heir to wizards, is content in her lonely realm with the companionship of mystical beasts. When she is given a child to care for, though, she is drawn into the world of men with its perils and promises.

In the Forests of Serre. High fantasy. Prince Ronan of Serre has sought death ever since his wife perished in a miscarriage, but his conquest-minded father engages him to Princess Sidonie of Dacia. Unfortunately, a run-in with the witch Brume curses Ronan to quest after Serre's elusive firebird, and Sidonie's safety in Serre's court may depend on Ronan's shattered will to return home. To add to the complications, the sorcerer sent to accompany Sidonie has plans of his own. McKillip's prose is at turns breathtaking and harrowing, and she explores the entwined dark and light faces of Serre's enchanted forest with deft imagery.

RIDDLE-MASTER TRILOGY: The Riddle-Master of Hed; Heir of Sea and Fire; Harpist in the Wind. High fantasy. Readers who don't relish McKillip's prose in her other works might enjoy this one, with its devious and riddling (literally) culture. Pay attention to names; they're important. Also, the plot here is easy-to-follow relative to her more lyrical works.

A Song for the Basilisk. High fantasy. Currently my favourite of hers, and the plot, though it appears deceptively simple, reveals complexities as the story goes on. Caladrius, a bard whose heritage was destroyed by the Basilisk, Ariosto Pellior, finds himself returning years later to confront his past. He did not, however, count on the appearance of his son, also a bard in the vicinity; and the Basilisk's two daughters, enigmatic, dangerous Luna and moody, lovestruck Damiet. A note to the puzzled: McKillip often characterizes through the setting and motifs (e.g. fire and ravens for Rook, colors and dresses for Damiet), rather than telling you in a more traditional manner what a character is feeling.

The Sorceress and the Cygnet; The Cygnet and the Firebird. High fantasy. In the first, the Wayfolk man Corleu is driven by his unusual yellow hair--from a non-Wayfolk grandfather he never knew--and strange signs into a quest to find the heart of the Cygnet, the Sign of Ro Holding; he is aided by Nyx Ro, the Holder's daughter, sorceress and swamp witch, for her own murky purposes. In the second, an enchanted firebird--in truth, Brand Saphier, the heir to the distant land Saphier--causes chaos in Ro Holding as he seeks help from Nyx Ro, or seeks to bring harm, no one knows which; and Brand's former friend, a mage named Rad Ilex, takes Nyx's cousin Meguet Vervaine to Saphier, where sorcery and trust are both more complicated than they seem. The characters and their quirks are varied and fascinating, and McKillip's prose works a magic all its own.

The Throme of the Erril of Sherril.

The Erril of Sherill wrote a Throme. It was a deep Throme, and a dark, haunting, lovely Throme, a wild, special, sweet Throme made of the treasure of words in his deep heart. He wrote it long ago, in another world, a vaguely singing, boundariless land that did not exist within the kingdom of Magnus Thrall, King of Everywhere....

High fantasy. McKillip's punning and wordplay grace this lovely, whimsical children's tale of a Cnite who goes questing after the mythical and perhaps nonexistent Throme of the Erril of Sherril in order to win the hand of his beloved Damsen.

The Tower at Stony Wood.

He rode alone down a road along a river. Where the black cloak he wore parted over his surcoat, she glimpsed towers of gold; the cloak fanned behind his back down the horse's golden flanks. The knight's head was bowed, his face in shadow....

High fantasy. A knight, Cyan Dag, sets out on a quest to rescue his king, Regis Aurum, from the terrible, fish-eyed, scale-footed creature masquerading as Regis's new queen. Guided by tapestries and riddles, he must wind through several towers until he can unmask the queen for what she is, as well as helping a selkie recover her birthright and a man surrender his vengeance. McKillip's writing is as lush and evocative as ever, but by the end I couldn't help but feel that the plot was too contrived.

Winter Rose. High fantasy. Rois Melior and her family are touched by an old curse when Corbett Lynn comes to reclaim the lands that his troubled father gave up after murdering his own abusive father. Rois must find a way to free Faerie's grasp upon Corbett and her lovesick, spellbound sister, as well as dealing with her own unexpected heritage. A beautiful tale with elements of "Tam Lin," a Scottish ballad.

Robin McKinley

DAMAR: The Blue Sword; The Hero and the Crown; (The Stone Fey). Young adult fantasy. The first is about Harry (Angharad), a Homelander ("Home" appears to be a British Empire analogue) who has come to love the conquered desert (Damar) where she lives, but is dissatisfied with her life among Homelander settlers--until she's kidnapped by one of the desert men, Corlath. Corlath, as it turns out, is Damar's king, moved to this apparently rash action by the often-inconvenient kelar or Gift that runs in the royal line, and is attempting to rally the hills in defense against an imminent invasion of the Northerners. In her stay with the Damarians, Harry discovers an unexpected aptitude for the hillfolk's lifestyle...and romance.

The second is a prequel-of-sorts about Aerin, a historical and legendary figure in Corlath's time, and her troubles growing up as "the witch-woman's daughter." Only marginally accepted by the people of her father the king, she finds solace in a few friends, including her cousin Tor, the heir; Talat, formerly her father's war-horse, now lame; and dragon-slaying, an endeavor that will later bring her unexpectedly in contact with her mother's past. Here the tone is darker, though not without wry humor. Despite possible confusion from McKinley's use of an extended flashback, Aerin's tale is engrossing.

Deerskin. Adult fairytale. A retelling of Perrault's "Donkeyskin." When her beautiful and much-beloved mother dies, Princess Lissla Lissar finds herself victim of her father's insanity and escapes with her hound Ash, but not before she herself has been damaged. In need of healing, she flees until she realizes she must confront the horrors of her past. Not for the faint of heart: this one involves incest, violence and trauma.

Spindle's End. Fantasy. A warm-spirited and wry retelling of Sleeping Beauty. The accursed princess, Rosie, is hidden away in a remote village and raised by two loving fairies; the girl grows up into a stubborn, strong, and good-hearted horse-leech, only gradually uncovering the secret of her birth. While the familiar storyline is well in place, the small, careful variations that McKinley offers makes this well worth the read. The animals that speak to Rosie, for instance, are never twee, and life in remote Foggy Bottom is so warmly depicted that I was sorry to leave. The only disappointing element is the fact that we never get a real sense of why the evil fairy holds her grudge, though it's hinted at.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

The Parafaith War. Military sf wherein Modesitt explores the divide between a culture based on faith in religion (the Revenants of the Prophet) and one based on faith in technology (the Ecotechs). Trystan Desoll is an Ecotech soldier and decent guy caught in the wasteful war between "revs" and "ecofreaks" (to use each side's epithet for the other). As he becomes more embroiled in the conflict, he faces the problem of how to convince an army of suicidal religious fanatics to make peace, and discovers that his solution costs him more and less than he would have thought. Good, tense depiction of combat and an interesting, though not especially original, exploration of the ethics involved.

RECLUCE SAGA: The Magic of Recluce; Towers of the Sunset; The Magic Engineer; The Order War; The Death of Chaos; Fall of Angels; The Chaos Balance; and others. World (science) fantasy. Good worldbuilding, with an original chaos/order magic system. Not to mention a gift for making ordinary things like carpentry fascinating. Some people don't like his use of onomatopoeia, shifting viewpoint, and present tense; they didn't bother me, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Elizabeth Moon

VATTA'S WAR: Trading in Danger; Marque and Reprisal. Kylara Vatta is a military cadet from a trading family who is convinced she'd do better continuing in the family business. When she's kicked out for trying to help a fellow cadet who makes trouble, however, she reluctantly accept captaincy of a worn-down tub of a Vatta Transport ship...with some handpicked officer/caretakers...on a milk run. Kylara's foray into independent trading snowballs into trouble, though, and her military training stands her in better stead than she would have guessed.

Daniel Keys Moran

TALES OF THE CONTINUING TIME: Emerald Eyes; The Long Run; (The Last Dancer). In the near future, the UN-controlled France has conquered the United States (there's backstory to this, as you might imagine). The UN genetically engineers telepaths while trying to accomplish something else, but as it turns out, the telepaths have their own agenda. Thanks to Kate Nepveu.

Vera Nazarian

Dreams of the Compass Rose.

After serving twelve years in the cities directly South of the Compass Rose, having trudged away her gleam of youth, her freshest bloom, the softness of her fingertips, Learra had earned enough to purchase one rare pearl of indigo-ebony. And cupping that pearl like her own heart in her thoroughly coarse palmss, she had taken it to the one temple in the Southern city that served a true god.

Fantasy. A cycle of interwoven, fantastic tales ("dreams") that touch upon hope and truth, redemption and madness, illusion and storytelling, with a recurring cast of characters ranging from the compassionate, desert trickster-goddess Ris to the silent Prince Lirheas, son of a tyrant conqueror. Nazarian's prose is gentle, often gem-like, although occasionally preachy; the tales run the gamut from mysterious to tragic to humorous. Altogether, a lush reading experience, though the ending stretches credibility in its attempt to tie various disparate strands together.

John Norman

Albion's Dream: A Novel of Terror. YA fantasy, not really terrorizing at all. Two British boys at a boarding school confront magic and mystery when they play a game, Albion's Dream, that begins merging with reality. Unfortunately, the ending is a let-down, but the game and its consequences are fascinating.

Andre Norton

WITCH WORLD. The Crystal Gryphon (first of a trilogy). Young adult science fantasy. Joisan, an orphaned maid of Ithkrypt, is wed to a man she's never seen--a common practice--for the sake of an alliance. The man is Kerovan, who was born with a deformity--hooves instead of feet--and the heir to Ulmsdale. When they are to meet, an invasion wracks the dales, but a mutual destiny sets itself in motion.

WITCH WORLD. Year of the Unicorn. Science fantasy romance.

Naomi Novik

TEMERAIRE: His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire in the UK); Throne of Jade; Black Powder War; (Empire of Ivory). Alternate history fantasy: Napoleonic warfare with dragons! The first book is the strongest, but note that I haven't read Empire of Ivory or its sequels yet.

Eric Nylund

Signal to Noise; (A Signal Shattered). Hard sf. Intense, fast-paced, eminently mathy. A few centuries in the future, Jack Potter is a cryptographer who's done work both for the Academé where he works and for the U.S. government. The U.S. in this future is basically owned by cutthroat corporations (the effect is rather depressing). Jack's life gets interesting when his office is broken into, he loses an opportunity for tenure, the U.S.'s black ops people (who go by some acronym I have forgotten) target him, and two separate Chinese spies contact him. But the kicker is when Jack finds a message from aliens cloaked in the noise of background radiation--and the aliens want to do business. I have the sequel, A Signal Shattered, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

Meredith Ann Pierce

The Darkangel; A Gathering of Gargoyles; (The Pearl of the Soul of the World). YA science fantasy that has the unusual property of having forgettable 1st and 3rd volumes, but a beautiful middle volume. When her mistress Eoduin is kidnapped by a darkangel, one of the "children" of the witch whose depredations are darkening the world, Aeriel braves the darkangel's realm to try and rescue Eoduin. The witch-born malaise is wider than she realizes at first, however, and Aeriel is propelled into a prophesied quest to restore the world's dwindling ecosystem. Pierce draws a beautiful, evocative picture of an abandoned lunar colony and its technomagic, but the darkangel's characterization is uninspired.

Tamora Pierce

SONG OF THE LIONESS QUARTET: Alanna: The First Adventure; In the Hand of the Goddess; The Woman Who Rides Like a Man; Lioness Rampant. YA fantasy. Alanna wants to be a knight and her twin brother Thom wants to learn sorcery, so they switch places when they are both to be sent away from home. However, Alanna's troubles at court, while alleviated by her growing friendship with other nobles, including Prince Jonathan, are complicated by having to disguise her sex, political intrigues, intimations of treason, and her brother's sorcerous ambitions. Aimed at teenage girls, but there's a fundamental honesty in Pierce's handling of topics such as crime, sex, social and racial prejudices (other cultures in the world are handled matter-of-factly, and with care), and responsibility. Don't think, from the list, that the series is preachy; it's entertaining, with an endearing mix of humor and tragedy. Teenage girls could probably be doing worse in their fantasy reading (I read this when I was in middle school).

Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Perilous Gard. A Newbery runner-up. When the strong-willed and clumsy handmaiden Kate Sutton is exiled by Queen Mary Tudor to a remote castle known as the Perilous Gard, she finds mysteries in its inhabitants: Christopher, who blames himself for the death/disappearance of his younger sister; the washer-woman who mistakes Kate for a denizen of Faerie; Master John, who knows more than he's letting on; and the mad minstrel Randal, who claims to have seen the Lady in the Green, queen of Faerie. I liked the commonsensical treatment of Faerie and the "Tam Lin" elements, but this book shines in its varied and fascinating, sympathetic characters. Watch especially for the turbulent relationship that develops between Kate and tormented Christopher.

The Sherwood Ring. YA historical fantasy. A charming American Revolution mystery and romance as encountered by Peggy, who moves to her eccentric uncle's New England house after her father dies and encounters ghosts whose unfolding stories point toward her own story. (The "Sherwood" has nothing to do with Robin Hood.) Beautifully depicted characters, all of whom I wouldn't mind meeting.

Terry Pratchett

DISCWORLD: The Colour of Magic; (The Light Fantastic); Equal Rites; Mort; (Sourcery); Wyrd Sisters; (Pyramids;) Guards! Guards!; (Eric; Moving Pictures); Reaper Man; (Witches Abroad; Small Gods; Lords and Ladies;) Men at Arms; Soul Music; Interesting Times; Maskerade; Feet of Clay; Hogfather; Jingo; The Last Continent; Carpe Jugulum; (The Fifth Elephant;) The Truth; Thief of Time; (Night Watch); and others? Humor fantasy. The most consistently hilarious books that I know of. Pratchett is funny without being nasty, though you can spot gentle satire (Macbeth in Wyrd Sisters, rock 'n' roll in Soul Music, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Phantom of the Opera in Maskerade, for starters). Discworld is an sprawling, astoundingly varied world that is carried through space on the back of the great turtle A'Tuin, where intelligent and malevolent luggage, bumbling wizards, a werewolf cop, and an ailurophile Death can all exist together. Your best bet is to pick one of the early ones and start reading (as you can tell, my own reading of this series has been unfortunately spotty). Pratchett knows of a lot of textual conceits and is not afraid to employ them for the sake of humor: coincidental cutscenes, Death SPEAKING IN UPPERCASE, and myriad footnotes. Thanks to DJ, Greg, Peter Bowman, and Beth.

Philip Pullman

HIS DARK MATERIALS: The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass. Fantasy or sf, depending on your reading (particle physics and quantum mechanics, truth-reading devices, witches and spells). I've seen this called children's fiction and I was surprised, because it deals with adult themes in an adult manner despite the children's viewpoints.

In an alternate Earth where each person's animus/anima manifests as an animal "daemon," orphan Lyra grows up half-wild at Oxford's Jordan College. She is thrust into greater events when she witnesses the Master of Jordan College attempting to poison her uncle, the ambitious Lord Asriel. By accident, she begins to penetrate the mystery of Dust, a newly discovered substance that the adults in her world are obsessed with. For some, experiments with Dust and kidnapped children suggest the key to challenging the Authority, or God; for others, Dust may be a manifestation of Original Sin. And Lyra, who may be endangered by all sides, and must remain unaware of the role she will come to play--Lyra has her wits, her daemon Pantalaimon, and the golden compass to guide her through treachery.

The world is explored thoroughly, and rarely ceases to fascinate. The trilogy can be read on the level of straight adventure: Lyra meets witches and deals with panser-bjørne, foils (and falls victim to) plots, discovers worlds beyond imagining. But it is also a subversive revisionist take on Milton's Paradise Lost, recasting the grand struggle as that between the upward yearning for wisdom and the repressiveness of blind obedience. The trilogy satisfies at both levels, unfolding its mysteries and their interconnected themes of innocence, knowledge and responsibility, despite a weaker third volume with some contrived situations and solutions.

Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson, & Kate Elliott

The Golden Key. Historical fantasy (almost). A fun read, though it would have benefitted from some trimming. It takes the idea behind Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Grey" to new depths. There's a lot of pseudo(?)-Spanish (or Italian?), but they give you a glossary and if you're familiar with Latin or a Romance language, you'll be fine. Those conversant with the history of Western art from the Renaissance onward will no doubt be bemused.

Kim Stanley Robinson

The Years of Rice and Salt. Alternate history in which the non-West becomes dominant. Impressive, although more fascinating than fun to read.

Darrell Schweitzer

Mask of the Sorcerer. A beautifully structured fantasy about the coming-into-power of a sorcerer.

Sharon Shinn

SAMARIA: Archangel; Jovah's Angel; The Alleluia Files; (Angelica). You can read this as semi-Biblical fantasy or sf--there's a sf subtext (music recordings?) but you can ignore it in the first if you want: The peoples of Samaria, whether "normals" or angels, have lived in harmony since they settled the world, guided by their god Jovah; the angels' hymns not only change the weather and bring mannah, but are necessary to assure the god once a year that they are, indeed, living in harmony and to convince Jovah not to destroy their world. However, when Archangel Gabriel learns that he must take headstrong Rachel as his angelica (human wife) to preserve the social order, he is not sure which is the more daunting task: winning Rachel's consent, or checking the schemes of another angel, Raphael. In Jovah's Angel, Archangel Delilah loses the ability to fly in an accident and must step down during a time when Jovah's responses are becoming increasingly sluggish and the advent of technology is forcing change upon Samaria's societies. Delilah's ill-prepared replacement, Alleluia, must not only navigate the increasingly treacherous currents of Samarian politics, she must find out why Jovah seems to hear no voice but hers. In the 3rd, years later, the secret of Alleluia's discoveries have apparently been lost, and may hold the key to one man's ambition--or a group's salvation. I haven't yet read the latest volume.

Robert Silverberg

Face of the Waters. Alien sf. Pockets of island-dwelling humans have lived in uneasy co-existence with the indigenous, intelligent life on the planet Hydros. However, when an entrepreneur accidentally causes the death of the nonsentient divers, the inhabitants of the island Sorve must quest for a new home willing to take them in. On some level it's a clever retelling of Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Naturally, I read this book first and only discovered the poem when I had to read it for an English class.

MAJIPOOR: Lord Valentine's Castle; and others I haven't read. World science fantasy. An entertainer with no memory goes on a search for his past and discovers a threat to his world. While much of the story is a tour of the world, there's a "sense of wonder" in exploring Majipoor and its quirky denizens.

Wm. Mark Simmons

DREAMLAND CHRONICLES: In the Net of Dreams; When Dreams Collide.

Sf (technically)/high fantasy (in "feel"). Ripley, one of the original designers/programmers of a virtual reality fantasy roleplaying gameworld, is recruited again when it turns out that people hooked into the gameworld are failing to return. He and others must enter the gameworld to find out what's going on. Light on plot, high on humor (especially puns). Recommended for rainy days, although the books suffer upon repeated rereading.

William Sleator

Interstellar Pig. A fast-paced, tense young adult sf novel about a boy who gets pulled into a game of interstellar conquest.

Wen Spencer

Alien Taste (plus sequels?). Sf set in the contemporary U.S. I was skeptical of the premise--Ukiah Oregon, once a feral child raised by wolves, is now a tracker, but begins running into strange and violent encounters that suggest his past is even stranger than he thought--and I was expecting to read, then discard, this book; it was sent to me by Roc "for your Nebula Award consideration." (I had a bad moment looking for the invoice, though I couldn't remember ordering any books by mail for the last half-year, let alone paying for one.) The alien angle is presented fairly well, if you accept the initial premise. What makes this book a keeper are the characters, from Ukiah himself to his Mom Jo and Mom Lara, Ukiah's driven partner Max, and various others. Even when events become weird or tense, there's an underlying warmth and humor. Entertaining.

Nancy Springer

Larque on the Wing. Crazy-hilarious: Larque, a woman who's (inadvertently) created doppelgangers of other-selves all her life gets one who's mouthy and won't shut up. Midlife crisis leads to all sorts of weirdness. WARNING: if you can't deal with gender issues, swear words and irreverence, don't touch this one.

Allen Steele

Coyote. Sf fix-up novel set in an alternate future.

Sean Stewart

Galveston.

In the spring of 2004 a cascade reaction began, magic kindling magic, the world awash in dreams. The bright rational day of the twentieth century was eclipsed, passing into a long night of spirits, where ghosts walked and a house or tree or road might wake to find its voice and will. In Texas, where people still knew their Bible, they called this cataclysm the Flood.

Fantasy. In analogy with the hurricane of 1900 (man, I never thought anything from Texas History would show up in fantasy...), a Flood of magic overwhelms Galveston in 2004. The survivors organize themselves into Krewes, and two "angels" are responsible for the continuance of civilization; one of them, the Recluse, guards Galveston's reality by exiling people "infected" by magic to the neverending Mardi Gras that is the realm of Momus, the magic's moon-god manifestation.

Sloane is the unwilling heir to both angels: her mother, who is declining after years of holding the Krewe of Momus together; and the Recluse, her godmother. In desperation to avoid the responsibilities that would devolve upon her in event of her mother's death, she enters the forbidden Mardi Gras to bargain with Momus for her mother's renewed health.

Josh Cane is the son of Galveston's luckiest man, who gambled away the family house--the week before it exploded and took out the unlucky winner and his family. After the Flood, Josh has been reduced to apothecary for the poor, with little access to pre-Flood medicine (itself rarer year by year, just like Dr. Pepper, nylon stockings, and other luxuries). His family's loss of status still festers within him, and when Sloane turns up needing his help, both his childhood crush on her and his yearning to lift himself out of his current low status draw him into deeper problems.

This double coming-of-age story is sometimes grimly humorous and often uncomfortable, in the sense that Stewart looks hardship and humanity right in the eye. The imagery is lush and precise, though the narrative is rarely pleasant. Nevertheless, there is a stark beauty in the story, as a man and woman entangled by their character flaws learn to mature into social responsibility. That's the overriding theme: civilization, which one of the characters memorably defines as follows: "Civilization isn't what happens in the absence of barbarity...It's what we struggle to build in the midst of it." Poker appears as a pervasive motif, representing the vagaries of life, the undeservedness of one's opening hand--the choices one has in playing it.

Charles Stross

The Atrocity Archives. You know Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos? Now take that into the age of hackers, throw in some Cthulhupunk, and you have The Atrocity Archives. Lots of fun.

Michael Swanwick

The Iron Dragon's Daughter. Science fantasy. The dark, almost dystopian tale of Jane, a changeling (stolen human) who escapes a Dickensian factory in Faery with the help of a machiavellian, mechano-magical iron dragon and ventures into iterations of failure to grasp the world around her, from a doomed May Queen to the mysteries of elven high society and the secrets of alchemy. A fascinating and brilliant though moody read that's been described elsewhere as "elfpunk." (John Clute's analysis in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy is particularly interesting for those who've already read this.)

Ursula Synge

Swan's Wing. Fantasy: fairytale retelling of a particularly melancholy character.

Sherri S. Tepper

Beauty. Science fantasy/adult fairytale. Beauty, the daughter of a duke, is the focus of two fairies' hopes for salvaging the ideal of beauty at the end of time. But plans go awry when Beauty is kidnapped by time-traveling documentarians from a dystopian future; from there she is launched into encounters with family and foes, dreams and depravity. This book manages to retell Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Noah's Ark, and a few other tales I can't recall offhand. Has a feminist subtext (well--there's not much "sub" about it), but also gripping and thoughtful reading.

James Thurber

The Thirteen Clocks. Fantasy. Thanks to Andrew Willett.

Cynthia Voigt

Jackaroo. The year is lean, and the Lords ask more and more of the people; but there are tales of Jackaroo, a mysterious man who acts as a Robin Hood-figure. And there is Gwyn, the Innkeeper's daughter, who sees the situation with a view that's that much wider, and that much more dangerous. When she discovers Jackaroo's gear in a cottage while trapped there with a Lordling by winter, possibilities open to her--and she doesn't realize that they are closing off other possibilities.

Jo Walton

Farthing. Marvelously, this book is two things in one, perfectly integrated: a one-house murder mystery and a terrifying alternate history in which England is sliding into fascism. Walton doesn't back down from the implications of any of her setup.

The King's Peace; The King's Name. Arthurian fantasy, very matter-of-fact and satisfying.

Elizabeth A. Wein

The Winter Prince. Arthurian fantasy. A haunting and brutally beautiful retake on the mythos, told by Artos' eldest son Medraut, a son of incest with Artos's treacherous sister Morgause, and never to inherit despite his skills in leadership, medicine and hunting. Medraut is tormented by his relationships to both Artos and Morgause, and resents his younger half-brother Lleu, Artos's fragile heir, when even Lleu's forthright twin sister Goewin seems better suited to the throne. The key relationships and the landscape in which they take place are starkly drawn, and there's a lovely bit of structural foreshadowing. I came away moved. I must note that a few characters, most notably Artos' wife Ginevra, never quite come alive, and that this is more noticeable in contrast with the vibrant personalities of the major characters, but this is quibbling.

Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

ROSE OF THE PROPHET: Will of the Wanderer; Paladin of the Night; The Prophet of Akhran. Fantasy. When one of the world's twenty gods, Quar, begins to scheme for greater power, only one of them, the aloof Akhran the Wanderer, sees through him--and sees hope for balance. (The pantheon, as far as I can tell, is based on a twenty-sided die, although someone tells me they got some details wrong.) Being such an aloof god, however, when he declares to his people that the wild-hearted Princess Zohra and the warrior Prince Khardan, members of enemy clans, be wed, Akhran's plan seems lacking. Add one shipwrecked foreign mage, Mathew, who becomes entangled with the two, and feuding among other powers...I've read a number of their books and these are still my favourites. Light-hearted Arabian Nights style adventure and a love story as well. Don't look hard for plot logic; the characters are where it's at.

Carl West & Katherine MacLean

Dark Wing. Young adult sf. I have no idea why this book is out of print. Having been denied his first dream--to settle another planet--Travis becomes a doctor in a future world when medicine is illegal. It's a grim extrapolation of lousy medical care and its societal repercussions. The song fragments are lovely.

Liz Williams

The Ghost Sister. Sf. The lost colony of Monde d'Isle is populated by people who are both less and more than human, bound together by the "bloodmind" of their hunter-instincts and the landsense that keeps them in balance with the world. Eleres' sister Mevennen, however, is a "ghost," landblind, subject to seizures, apart from the rest of their people; Eleres and her perhaps-grandmother Luta protect Mevennen from those who call her weak, worthless, fit only to die.

Then Mevennen meets a strange woman who claims to be a Gaian anthropologist, and promises to take Mevennen to legendary Outreven and cure her of her illness. But the Gaian is one of several on an expedition to find out what happened to the colony, and the Gaians' leader is determined to "restore" Monde d'Isle from its backward ways. Both "less than human" and "more than human" sides of Mondhaith culture are gracefully described, and Williams' tale unfolds in a similar balance of bright and dark as worldviews compete for the world's soul, focused around Mevennen's outsider status and Eleres' struggle to control the bloodmind within him rather than letting it control him. The outsiders' involvement is the least compelling aspect of the book, but the Mondhaith way of life is beautifully depicted. Thanks to Yune for loaning me this one.

The Poison Master.

All drugs had spirits attached to them; it was simply a matter of whether those allied beings were friendly or not. But Alivet had met those attached to menifew before. Obligingly, the drug's spirit whispered to her, promising visions. Last time, it had been vetony and she had had to fight it, driving it back as it threatened to swamp her rational mind, but all the menifews were a friend to the Search.

Science fantasy. Alivet Dee is an alchemist attempting to win her twin sister free of indenture to humanity's alien masters, the Night Lords. Her life becomes tangled when she is accused of murdering a wealthy client, and she falls into the care of a man claiming to be a poison master on another world, who is keeping deadly secrets from her but claims that he has an audacious plan not only to save Alivet's sister, but free humanity of the Night Lords. The societies involved and the workings of alchemy are riveting.

Two complaints: as the name and various chapters (including the first) suggest, John Dee figures in the backstory chapters, which can be skipped to no discernible loss; and the romantic tension between Alivet and the poison master is the only awkward part of the tale, though it seemed contrived mainly in contrast to the rest of Williams' storytelling. The ending may not satisfy entirely, but it's one heck of a ride. Thanks to Yune for recommending the author.

Connie Willis

Bellwether. Sf, though you'd almost never notice it. My sister describes this as "a book about the stupidity of sheep," especially when a frustrated researcher on the causes of fads decides to look at a real herd mentality. Hilarious.

Doomsday Book. Sf. Tale of a history grad student, Kivrin, who goes back in time to do research--and ends up in the middle of the Black Death, while those in the present (her present, anyway) are dealing with a plague of their own. Willis' characterizations are wry even in the face of tragedy, though her use of physics-babble irritated me. If you like this one, also look for her story "Fire Watch," which is about another history major doing his practicum during th