[recs] alt history/fantasy/sci-fi(ish) books

[kaberett]

This is apparently what I do when I am asked for recs, so have some copypasta from elsenet:

ZEN CHO (most of her stuff is available for free online from her website). Ken Liu. China Mieville. John Scalzi (the Old Man's War series starts out pretty standard military sci-fi, give or take the QUEER CHARACTERS, but then turns into SOCIOLOGY and is FANTASTIC). Lois McMaster Bujold is incredibly problematic (I, er, kind of threw the most recent book in the Vorkosiverse across the metaphorical room ten pages in, and have never gone back to it). Ekaterina Sedia, with her Moscow But Dreaming. Patricia McKillip. Helen Oyeyemi. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel, obviously. MAGGIE STIEFVATER (if you can overlook the whole Everyone In Canada Is White thing; if you can't, go for The Scorpio Races, which is set on a Scottish island). Jenn Manley Lee's graphic novel series Dicebox (available online in webcomic format; it's AMAZING). Ursula LeGuin, obviously. Amal el-Mohtar. Paula Rentz (Red Tape Stories from Indian Country is a great anthology). Madeleine L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time, etc). Salman Rushdie, but ONLY the children's books (Haroun & the Sea of Stories; Luka & the Fire of Life). Susan Price (the Sterkarm trilogy).

Followed by further discussion of LMB...

I would recommend reading Vorkosigan up to Memory (9th book). From there I would recommend reading the fantastic AU-from-that-point multi-novel fanfic. :-p

Basically, it is sociology and I loved it, but the most recent book in it is geniunely so appalling transphobic (I bought an electronic ARC, wrote them an e-mail about this, and never got a response) that I am no longer willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on other gender/sex slips earlier in the series (that she DOES correct in later books). And as such I am no longer willing to give her money, but with that caveat am willing to suggest that people read her.

Also, I really like The Sharing Knife quartet, but I think the thinly-disguised magical nomadic race that lives in tribes is, um. REALLY DUBIOUS in a pseudo-US setting, when compared with the settled farming immigrant race...

The first two books [of Vorkosigan] are the ones I am most willing to give untempered recommendations for (they're bound together as Cordelia's Honour), BUT they come with massive trigger warnings for rape and violence against women (which are clearly flagged as Not Okay in-universe, but are still kind of horrible). On the plus side, one things the Vorkosigan series DOES do is have lots of key characters with disabilities, and just treats this like a thing.

Questions? Want more detail? Have at it!

Comments

[kaberett]

THAT WOULD BE THE ONE YEP

[liv]

So, uh, this AU-from-that-point multi-novel fanfic for fixing post-Memory Vorkosigan actually exists, right, it's not just something you wish existed? Could there perhaps be links? I haven't read all the way through to CVA and the transfail because I got annoyed with the way the series was going after Memory; I'm a lot less interested in Miles when he is an all-powerful Auditor with unbelievably perfect women throwing themselves at his feet, than when he had nothing but sheer chutzpah, no rank, no good looks, no political power.

Chris Moriarty's Spin cycle [sic] is something I push on people who like LMB and want something with similar strengths. The main character, Li, is a little bit like Miles, only less of a Mary-Sue (and also Queer, female and in some sense Asian though ethnic categories in the book's future aren't exactly the same as contemporary ones, which is one of the things I like about the book). She has had to undergo some pretty radical surgery to be who she is, and she deals with injury / impairment / pain / disability though again there's exploration of these categories meaning different things in the future setting, and it's not a Book About Disability. Moriarty's stuff is more like conventional hard SF and less like space opera than the Vorkosigan books (Moriarty herself has a day job as a physicist) but has strong characterization and exploration of different societies.

[kaberett]

Here is the series! Miles is an Auditor, but his political situation becomes... complicated, as does his personal situation, in ways that have (realistic, plausible, explored) impacts on his ability to Recklessly Do Shit in the way he likes. It is plotty, it has action, it has sociology, it has politics, and I LOVE IT. I have read it at least once a year since first coming across it, and am about due for my next reading...

[elialshadowpine]

Ooh. This looks interesting. I notice that it is tagged Miles/Gregor; may I ask how great a role that plays in the story? (Simply that, I don't quite see that pairing, although I suppose a good fic would make it convincing! But I am very intrigued by plot, sociology, and politics!)

[kaberett]

It does play a major role, but I started out kinda unconvinced and am now super-convinced by it. It's handled REALLY well.