2003 Recommended Reading List

This recommended reading list, published in Locus Magazine's February 2004 issue, is a consensus by Locus editors and reviewers -- Charles N. Brown, Gary K. Wolfe, Jonathan Strahan, Faren Miller, Russell Letson, Nick Gevers, Carolyn Cushman, Tim Pratt, Karen Haber, and Rich Horton -- and other professionals, including Gardner Dozois, David G. Hartwell, Michael Swanwick, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, and others. It takes at least two positive mentions to make the final list. Essays by many of these contributors are published in the February issue.

For links to descriptions, reviews, and Amazon pages for many of these books, see 2003 Book Directory pages and scan for "Best of 2003: Locus Recommended Reading" in the right column.

Science Fiction Novels

• The Line of Polity, Neal Asher (Tor UK)
• Coalescent, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz; Del Rey)
• Darwin’s Children, Greg Bear (Del Rey)
• Pattern Recognition, William Gibson (Putnam)
• Felaheen: The Third Arabesk, Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Earthlight)
• The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein (Del Rey)
• Nothing Human, Nancy Kress (Golden Gryphon)
• Omega, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
• Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon (Orbit 2002; Ballantine)
• Memory, Linda Nagata (Tor)
• Sister Alice, Robert Reed (Orbit; Tor)
• Absolution Gap, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Ace 2004)
• Natural History, Justina Robson (Macmillan)
• Ilium, Dan Simmons (Subterranean; Eos)
• Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson (Morrow)
• Singularity Sky, Charles Stross (Ace)
• Maul, Tricia Sullivan (Orbit)
• Succession: The Risen Empire; The Killing of Worlds, Scott Westerfeld (Tor - two volumes; SFBC)
• The Poison Master, Liz Williams (Bantam Spectra)
• Blind Lake, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
• The Golden Age: The Phoenix Exultant; The Golden Transcendence, John C. Wright (Tor - two volumes)

• The Anvil of the World, Kage Baker (Tor)
• Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold (Eos)
• The Crystal City, Orson Scott Card (Tor)
• 1610: A Sundial in a Grave, Mary Gentle (Gollancz)
• Fool’s Fate, Robin Hobb (Voyager; Bantam Spectra 2004)
• The Salt Roads, Nalo Hopkinson (Warner)
• Midnight Lamp, Gwyneth Jones (Gollancz)
• The Briar King, Greg Keyes (Del Rey)
• The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, Stephen King (Grant/Scribner)
• Mortal Suns, Tanith Lee (Overlook)
• The Light Ages, Ian R. MacLeod (Ace)
• In the Forests of Serre, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
• Sunshine, Robin McKinley (Berkley)
• The Skrayling Tree, Michael Moorcock (Warner Aspect)
• The Night Country, Stewart O’Nan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperColllins)
• lost boy lost girl, Peter Straub (Random House)
• The War of the Flowers, Tad Williams (DAW)

• Midwinter Nightingale, Joan Aiken (Delacorte)
• White Midnight, Dia Calhoun (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Swan Sister, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds. (Simon & Schuster)
• The Tears of the Salamander, Peter Dickinson (Macmillan; Lamb)
• Inkheart, Cornelia Funke (The Chicken House)
• New Skies, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, ed. (Tor)
• Stravaganza: City of Stars, Mary Hoffman (Bloomsbury)
• A Stir of Bones, Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Viking)
• The Merlin Conspiracy, Diana Wynne Jones (Greenwillow)
• Abhorsen, Garth Nix (Eos)
• Firebirds, Sharyn November, ed. (Firebird)
• Trickster’s Choice, Tamora Pierce (Random)
• The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)
• A Sterkarm Kiss, Susan Price (Scholastic Press UK)
• Predator’s Gold, Philip Reeve (Scholastic Press UK)
• The Amulet of Samarkand, Jonathan Stroud (Miramax)