I finally got to the website of Kelly McCullough, who writes the Web Mage series. I like it as it manages to mix science fiction, fantasy and the contemporary in a new blend of story. On his site he has a “recommended reading list“. I thought I should give it a try. The only challenge is keeping it reasonably short. 
Armstrong, Kelley. Bitten. What would you do if your fiance was a werewolf and changed you into one so you would always be together? Urban fantasy.
Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon. Absolutely a classic in the Arthurian fantasy sub-genre. Another re-imagining, whereby the “what-if” is based on the possibility that Morgan LeFay was not the evil sorceress she is often painted to be.
Brust, Steven K. Z. To Reign In Hell. Fantasy. A clever retelling of the War of the Angels.
Butcher, Jim. The Dresden Files. The books keep getting better and better! Harry Dresden, the only wizard listed as such in Chicago’s yellow pages, becomes involved in matters ordinary and arcane. Urban fantasy.
Cooper, Louise. Time Master Trilogy. A little-known British author with a great fantasy series where the major religion is one of Order and one long-lost soul is the key to restoring Chaos’ place in the pantheon.
Eddings, David (and Leigh). The Belgariad, The Mallorean. A contemporary classic fantasy series, complete with the operatic list of characters to keep straight.
Effinger, George Alec. When Gravity Fails. Hard-core SF in an Arabic-inspired future.
Herbert, Frank. Dune. The original SF classic is by far the best.
Jordan, Robert. The Wheel of Time. Incredibly dense fantasy series, with so many characters you’ll need a notebook to keep them all straight. Even though his world is at once fascinating, glamorous and deadly, you’ll wish you were part of it. (And by the end of the first five books, you’ll have figured out who you’d want to be.)
Kay, Guy Gavriel. The Fionavar Tapestry. His initial trilogy and his best. A fantasy series that weaves together elements from different sources.
Lackey, Mercedes. The Last Herald-Mage. This fantasy trilogy tackles both ordinary (adolescence) and delicate (homosexuality) issues in intelligent and accessible ways.
McCaffrey, Anne. The Dragonriders of Pern. Her original three-book fantasy series about fighting dragons and those who ride with them.
Mosse, Kate. Labyrinth. Rarely has a book affected me so much that I simply had to go and see the landscape in which it was set, to possibly absorb what I could from the very air. This is another twist on the Grail myth, with the tragic story of the Cathars woven in. A woman from our time, Alice, is somehow linked to a Cathar woman from the 13th century, Alys. Are they the same soul, reborn over time? And if so, what of Alys’ husband, Guillaume Pelletier, who only realizes his love for Alys when the evil of her sister - an evil that also echoes down through time - is revealed. Is there a vacation in the French Midi planned? Perhaps for 2009…
Rawn, Melanie. Exiles. Dragon Prince. Dragon Star. All three are trilogies, but the Exiles trilogy is yet unfinished. When I was a senior in college, my soon-to-be-boyfriend’s roommate was sick for a while and read the Dragon Prince series to pass the time. I’m pretty sure I saw them hanging around Dan’s room, picked them up and … thereyago! Michelle’s lost for another few days in a good series … but we’ll see her at 8:00am Engineering Chemistry.
Shwartz, Susan. The Grail of Hearts. This is one of my favorite Grail interpretations. Not only did I read it at a time in my life when I desperately needed a story like this, the characters are well and vividly written with enough myth and history thrown in to bring it all together. The mythos of the “Wandering Jew” resonated so strongly with me that I gave it a stab in another story you’ll find on this site.
Willis, Connie. Doomsday Book. This is intimate science fiction - not concerned with planets or galaxies or universes, just a handful of people we come to know, and some to admire. Kivrin, a medieval history scholar at Oxford from the not-too-distant future (2048), uses a time machine to travel back in time to observe the English civilization of the late 14th century. Unfortunately, she arrives in 1348, the year the Black Death also arrived in the British Isles. Paralleling her story in the “present,” an historical dig uncovers not only artifacts which set her colleagues to worrying but possibly other, more deadly remnants, of the past.
Zelazny, Roger. The Last Defender of Camelot, Unicorn Variations. Some might argue that his Amber novels should be here but frankly - a short story is difficult to write, and a good one? Nearly impossible! Yet both these collections are examples of well-done short stories in the science fiction genre. So you think you can write a short story? When yours is half as well done as any of these in Zelazny’s collections, then you can think about submissions to magazines. Otherwise, don’t bother.
