I promised lizbee that I would make a list of good/classic/popular SF authors and books after consulting my bookshelves, and so here it is. Not that I consider it exhaustive or definitive or anything, but, well, it's a starting point, anyway.
(I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, but then my computer went kaboom and I forgot.)
( speculation beyond this point )

Cross-posted to http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/597767.html.

My copy of altariel's "Never Ending Sacrifice" arrived today. Squee!

This entry was originally posted at http://kerravonsen.dreamwidth.org/585299.html.

The Joy of a Mad God

God's Grandmother

The Quill of the Gods

The Hammer of the Carpenter

Mouse Quest

The Forge of Goodness

The Way of Light

The Shadow of Remaking

One where, instead of Mary-Sue American going into a fantasy world and having an unexpected Talent for Magic, we have Our Heroine coming from a fantasy world and having an unexpected Talent for... um... pistol-shooting? (I was tempted to say "computer programming" but that's not something that one picks up in ten minutes like they seem to need to if they're Saving The World).

I have just finished reading Knife by rj_anderson! It got to the point where it was un-put-downable; I've been reading non-stop since lunchtime, because I didn't want to stop. And me having read an earlier draft, too! But a number of things about the plot worked much better this time around. And of course RJA knows how to write.

My copy of Knife arrived!

I have to rave on about the trilogy I just finished reading, the "Novels of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman" by Pamela Aidan. The three books re-tell the events of "Pride and Prejudice" from Darcy's point of view. And it works, it really works. I especially loved the third book, where the events come to a head.

1) An Assembly Such As This
2) Duty and Desire
3) These Three Remain

The person at work (S) who loaned me the "Order of the Phoenix" DVD really likes Harry Potter (has read all the books at least twice). She hates the Narnia stories (only got half way through "The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe" before she gave up because she felt she was being hit over the head with the Bible). She's just started His Dark Materials trilogy. I've just made her some recs, but I'd be interested in more. She said it isn't so much that she's interested in Fantasy as such, but the things that she loved about Harry Potter were the characterisation and the themes.

So this is what I recced to her:
- The Curse of Chalion (Lois McMaster Bujold) and the other Chalion books
- Sandman (Neil Gaiman)
- the Sime~Gen series
- Doctor Who (though she's mainly looking for book recs)

She also indicated an interest in good Star Wars books, but I couldn't help there, not really being that into Star Wars myself.

So, folks, have you got any book recs, for stuff which is thematically positive with memorable characters?

Those who are interested, might like to note that my Reading List has been updated.

I've just discovered that Doris Egan [the Ivory books] (aka Jane Emerson [City of Diamond]) has an LJ: tightropegirl.

I started off looking to see if "Flatland" was at Project Gutenberg (because someone on my flist mentioned it) and ended up burning for myself the Project Gutenberg Science Fiction Bookshelf CD! Nifty!

I also downloaded and burned the Project Gutenberg July 2006 DVD, but it isn't as convenient, since all the files are zipped, whereas the SF CD is all ready for browsing.

And, yes, "Flatland" is on the CD.

In other news, my sister-in-law helped me go furniture shopping. IKEA. I think I'm supposed to hang my head in shame for being so plebeian, but considering that a number of my bookshelves were bought from the Reject Shop, I don't really care. The actual item is still in S-I-L's car, since they were going to get a trolly to help carry it in, and since they haven't arrived, I'm hoping they'll do it tomorrow. So I'll hopefully be angsting over allan keys (how do you spell that thing?) tomorrow.