James Nicoll Reviews

Everyone loves recommendation lists. Judging by how many of them I see, people enjoy making them, too. I love to embrace new experiences so early in March I tried my hand at make a list of core SF books, chosen purely on the basis of merit and without regard for any other parameter. It was fun enough I think I will do one of these core lists, each with a different theme, every second Thursday. Except for this one, which I post out of schedule for reasons. 

Note that the entire set of core books is much, much larger than any 20 book list posted on the web.

• A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
• A Voice Out of Ramah by Lee Killough
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie 
• China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh
• Don’t Bite the Sun by Tanith Lee
• Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton 
• Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh
• Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle
• Jirel of Joiry by C.L. Moore
• Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
• Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Female Man by Joanna Russ
• The Many Colored Land by Julian May 
• The Next Continent by Issui Ogawa 
• The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge 
• Warm Worlds and Otherwise by James Tiptree, Jr.