a personal constellation

[starlady]

My sister says I only use the Moleskine she gave me (all hype aside, it's the best notebook ever) to make lists, and to appease her, I'm trying to put a stop to that habit. But in the meantime, inspired by yhlee, I wound up putting together a sort of personal top 10 of sf/f books. These are not necessarily the 10 best sf/f books I've ever read, but they are some of my favorites, and books I really wish I could write. In no particular order, then:

• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I love a) the footnotes; b) her unsympathetic protagonists; c) how the protagonists do not actually perform the great action of the story; d) her willingness to put Stephen Black front and center. 
• The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. The theology (or lack thereof) made the biggest impression on me initially, but the love story is the heart of the book, and it makes me cry every time. Bonus points for inspiring me to read Heinrich von Kleist's "On the Marionette Theatre," albeit in translation.
• The System of the World by Neal Stephenson. This one is hard to choose...is Quicksilver a better novel? In TSotW all the plot-threads of the series are resolved, to great effect. Stephenson is smarter than some professors I've known, and he can write about difficult concepts with rare clarity; bonus points for the character of Dappa, and his (Stephenson's) Whig principles.
• The Other Wind by Ursula K. LeGuin. LeGuin has written so many awesome novels it's difficult to choose just one, but as this is the one about death, but also about gender and dragons, and it makes me cry, this is the one I chose.
• Abhorsen by Garth Nix. Another author whose works I find it difficult to choose among, but Abhorsen has the narrative strength of Sabriel and the protagonist of Lirael, so I'd have to say it might be his best book yet.
• Summerland by Michael Chabon. Two words: American fantasy. And not just fantasy set in America, but fantasy arising out of some of the most uniquely American aspects of this country's cultural experience. More people need to follow in Chabon's footsteps, though I doubt they'll dance the measures half so well.
• Neveryóna by Samuel R. Delany. The first book I ever read by him, and still possibly my favorite: it's meta-fantasy, it's literary theory made literature, it's brilliant.
• Terrier by Tamora Pierce. This wouldn't be my list if she wasn't on it; again, it's hard to choose among her books, but they've only gotten better since her publisher started letting her write longer books. Half of Pierce's appeal is in the gusto with which she transforms research into living, breathing fantasy realms, and the other half is her female protagonists of real strength.
• The Broken Crown by Michelle West. Again, not someone whose works I could in conscience leave off, and another author whose works I find it hard to choose among. This is what I started her great sequence, though the novels could be started at several points. I think the most recent, The Hidden City, may be her best as a single work, but they each have different strengths, and are all excellent.
• The Wizard's Dilemma by Diane Duane. With eight books in the Young Wizards series, and a ninth appearing this year, this is another of which it is hard to choose just one, and I'm not sure I can recommend starting with this book, but at the moment its plot is quite close to my heart, and Duane's philosophy is very much in line with mine--I think I cited her works for my Philosophical Theology papers more than any other author's, unless it was Pullman. But again, brilliant American fantasy, and fiercely, passionately ethical, which I think is a rarity these days.

Most of these books that aren't standalones aren't the first in their worlds/series/sequence, which I don't think is accidental. Unless things go downhill from there, most authors get better as they continue, and publishers grow more tolerant of fatter manuscripts. All of which is to the good.