Locus 2003 Recommended Reading List

Embedded Geek writes "Locus magazine has published its 2003 Recommended Reading List of science fiction, fantasy, and related titles. With nearly 300 entries, it's a safe bet that even the most voracious reader will find something new. Personally, I was delighted to see Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams under non-fiction and the great listing of short fiction (so I can mine my old magazines for the gems). If you're more of a completist, check out Locus'es exhaustive listings (continued here and here). Definitely worth downloading to your PDA for your next trip to the bookstore."

Comments

Lots of Catching Up to do

[ackthpt]

Pretty sad, I've only got 2 out of the whole list, and I'm a voracious reader, though apparently not of their list.

Monstrous Regiment: OK, but not his best

Wee Free Men: Better than MR
(pTerry's next book, A Hat Full of Sky will be out in a couple months.)

Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams, M.J. Simpson (Hodder & Stoughton; Justin Charles & Co.)

Not sure I'd read this, I took a swing at Salmon of doubt but didn't find much interesting I hadn't already seen before in there. A good read from a while back, and recently re-issued in hardcover: Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I picked a paperback copy up in Cambridge, ten years ago and found it a great read.

(Currently reading The Soong Dynasty (non-fiction) by Sterling Seagrave, alternately with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (fiction) by Robt. Heinlein, interesting combination as both address revolutions.)

Re:Lots of Catching Up to do

[Embedded Geek]

Pretty sad, I've only got 2 out of the whole list

Don't fear. I haven't read any of the 2003 novels and I'm the guy who submitted the article. I find I read mostly short fiction these days: I was happy to see so many short stories from F&SF, the only magazine to which I currently subscribe. Between it, Black Gate (which I highly and selfishly recommend - see below), my day job, and my own writing, I only read 2-3 novels a year. I'm still going through 2002 paperbacks, but the Locus list will be handy come (say) June.

Shameless plug: If you want to find something that's got shorter fiction and you can find it at Borders, my first professional sale is in Black Gate #6 and excerpted here.

Sucession

[CashCarSTAR]

I'm currently reading the second part of that story (It really is one long story. It ends in a cliffhanger of sorts). I'm glad to see it make that list, it is really good.

It may be one of the first "modern" sci-fi stories. Namely that it plays forward some familiar themes from today, and not just 60 years ago. (It seemed to me that science ficition for the most part was stuck in WWII/Cold War logic). One main part of the books is how immortality begets laziness...and how intellectual property plays into that. (One of the main characters, a Senator, is in the middle of a centuries long fillibuster of even more strict IP rules.)

As well, the idea of micro-combat instead of macro-combat is extremly interesting and well done.

It really is a must read.

Asimov's, F&FS, and Analog

[harlows_monkeys]

Approximately 30 of the novellas, novelettes, and short stories on the list were published in Asimov's, approximately 20 were published in F&SF, and only one was published in Analog.

Yet, of those three magazines, Analog is the only one I find consistently good enough to subscribe to.

I wish they would publish a list of things they they recommend against reading...I suspect that would fit better with my tastes. :-)

Nothing really unexpected...

[SetarconeX]

Looking over the list quickly, there aren't a whole lot of surprises here. The usual crop of perennial big authors are here, (Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, William Gibson) and even many of the lesser authors are familiar to anyone who even occasionally reads Asimov's or Analog.

The problem here is that the list is so massive, there's actually almost no point to it. There's no plot descriptions whatsoever attached to the list, just a link to elsewhere.

If you're going to recommend a book, I think whoever a book is being recommended to deserves at least a brief explanation of "WHY?" I know that's difficult for a long list like this, but just a sentence or two would be nice, not just a links leading eventually to Amazon.

BTW: I'm finding Greg Bear's latest series a tad scientifically iffy, and his characters unbearably (no pun intended) flat and boring. The new William Gibson book, on the other hand, has enough of his signiture sarcastic view of mass-media to be entertaining, but that's just my humble opinion. Go read your own books.

7/21 Women

[bstadil]

I think it is interesting and excellent that in the SF category there is 7 women authers out of 21 titles .

I love Linda Nagata but do not know any of the other.

No Baen books?

[Blorgo]

I noticed there were no Baen books on the list - Baen (www.baen.com) has produced several bestsellers recently, including Eric Flint's "1633" (the followup to the wildly successful "1632", which is now free for the download). Baen is one of the few publishing houses to make money recently - and they are the one giving away full-length, top quality novels at their Baen Free Library. ( www.baen.com/library )

They also sell their books through "Webscriptions", which produce non-DRM e-books (They use HTML, RTF, or a variety of 'Reader' formats).

It's more than a little interesting that giving away older product, and selling current product without annoying DRM or other restrictions would produce a *positive* result - but of course the RIAA will probably continue to pay no attention.

I wonder why Locus avoided the whole publishing house? SF publishing has traditionally been a jealous, backbiting world but I don't know if that's a factor in this list, or just the taste of the reviewers.