phosfate

Nicked from nitasee, added Kage Baker.

The meme is this: go down the list and bold those writers whose work you know you've read, and list the most memorable or significant-to-you work(s) by that writer that you've read (or put "all" if the writer's that good!). Italicize those writers whose work you've tried to start reading, but have bogged down, stopped, or not gotten to it for whatever reason. Strike through those writers whose work you've read and just can't stand.

If there's a writer missing whose work is SF/F and significant to you, then add her in the appropriate alphabetical location!



Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale, the last word in American fundamentalist dystopia. Ms Atwood gets very pissy when you call it Science Fiction. This is a good reason to call it science fiction whenever possible.
Kage Baker -- Her Company novels and stories are still shamefully under the radar. On the other hand, this has kept the Sci Fi Channel from making cheap-ass TV movies of them.
Leigh Brackett -- If I've read her, it hasn't been for years and years. But we all know her as the screenwriter of The Empire Strikes Back.
Marian Zimmer Bradley – The only think of hers I've finished is The Catch Trap, because it was the inspiration for a hugely successful Professionals slash novel back in the day.
Lois McMaster Bujold -- I remember Harlan Ellison dissing her on Sci-Fi Buzz, which is a good reason to give her a try one day.
Octavia Butler - Not yet.
Suzy McKee Charnas
C.J. Cherryh
Jo Clayton
Diane Duane - I liked her Star Trek novels, and no, that's not damning with faint praise. Everybody in the world but me likes her Wizard books.
Suzette Haden Elgin
Carol Emshwiller
Charlotte Perkins Gilman -- Every women's studies class ever makes you read her. *cries*
Barbara Hambly – Those who Hunt the Night, the first book about that Templar guy. I remember liking the jacket paintings.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Nalo Hopkinson
Diana Wynne Jones – Have read most of her longer stuff. Varies from fantastically memorable to an entertaining way to pass a hot July day.
Nancy Kress -- Um...something about sleep. Or not sleeping. I forget.
Kathryn Kurtz
Ellen Kushner
Mercedes Lackey – Like the Diana Tregarde books, so of course she doesn't write them anymore. Haven't read the magic talking horses. Hate the elves with cars.
Tanith Lee – You never know what you'll get with her -- entertainment, boredom, adventure, magic, nasty sex, pure romance, fine description, overwrought prose...no way to tell until you start. Give your teenage niece The Silver Metal Lover.
Madeline L'Engle – A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door owned my childhood, and still follow me around. Most of her other stuff, including the rest of the Murray/O'Keefe cycle, disappoints.
Ursula K. LeGuin – Left Hand of Darkness seems awfully tame now, which probably makes her happy. I couldn't read the Earthsea books.
Doris Lessing - I know I read one of her books for college and liked it. I have no idea what it was.
R.A. MacAvoy
Anne McCaffrey – I've read a ton of her. Best left to people under 16.
Maureen McHugh
Vonda McIntyre
Patricia McKillip
Robin McKinley -- Always readable. Disney totally owes her a cheque for Beauty.
Judith Merril -- The Pushcart War, one of the best juvenile SF novels ever.
C.L. Moore
Andre Norton
Marge Piercy
Anne Rice – I enjoyed the first vampire book. There. I said it. Part of me hopes that she's remembered by future generations for her "Beauty" porn.
J.K. Rowling - Not the world's greatest fantasist, as everyone who isn't a massive Harry Potter fan is very anxious to tell you. I don't care.
Joanna Russ - Very much of her time, but The Female Man damn near blew my head off when I was a teen.
Melissa Scott
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein. Arguably the inventor of modern SF.
Starhawk - I think I read one of her witchin' manuals, but perhaps I dreamt it. Wouldn't touch her fiction with a bargepole.
Sherri S. Tepper -- Beauty is on my to-read pile.
James Tiptree Jr. -- I've read a ton of her short stories. Have her biography on my to-read pile
Joan D. Vinge -- Read The Snow Queen, liked it at the time, barely remember it now.
Kate Wilhelm
Connie Willis -- Thou shalt have no other god before her. Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog pwn me.
Monique Wittig
Virginia Woolf -- Read To the Lighthouse in college, which isn't SF/F, but I liked it anyway.

Dear Cthulu:

( nicked from harpie84 )

When you see this, quote a comic book.

"MERV GRIFFIN!""

When you see this in a friend's journal, you must quote Shakespeare.

Who would fardels bear?

(ETA) Left - Regular Ann doll. Right -- Ann Mary Sue doll. Her special abilities include the ability to dress and groom herself like a grown-up. Backstory, you ask? She's, I don't know, Hogwarts American exchange DADA professor who redeems Snape with True Love and hair care products. Whatever.

Man, I need a haircut.