Recommended Reading from Ann Leckie

I am beginning to lose interest in reading other people's recommended reading lists. However, I was pleasantly surprised to read a recent list by Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice (which I loved) and Ancillary Sword (which was OK) and Ancillary Mercy (which I haven't read yet). The pleasant part was the fact some of the books listed were ones you typically don't see on such lists.

Her list, along with some of her comments:

1. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
2. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem.
3. The Secret of Sinharat / People of the Talisman by Leigh Brackett.
4. The Star King by Jack Vance.
5. The Zero Stone by Andre Norton.
6. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.
   
   Someone once said (maybe it was Le Guin?) that the best science fiction is social science fiction. I agree, and Leckie seems to be at least sympathetic towards this view, too: "The "science" in "science fiction" isn't just physics and engineering. It can also be linguistics, anthropology, and psychology."
   
   
7. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
   
   I have recently heard a lot about the Strugatky's and was excited to see this recommendation. Leckie:

   Sometime in the recent past, aliens visited Earth and then departed, leaving behind all sorts of mysterious and dangerous debris. Trash left behind after a roadside picnic, but the bodies and lives of the humans who come into contact with it are irrevocably affected. The man character is one of the people who make their livings scavenging the litter left over from this brief alien visit. It's an unforgettable book, particularly the ending.

8. Neuromancer by William Gibson.
9. Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh. Leckie:

   There are several other Cherryh novels I might have included on this list instead--either of the Hugo-winners Downbelow Station or Cyteen, for instance--but this one is a personal favorite. A small population of humans lives on a world that's majority humanoid Atevi. After a disastrous war, the only point of contact allowed between the two is the Paidhi, the chief Human translator, who oversees the handover of Human tech to the Atevi. Things have been going along fine for more than a hundred years, but suddenly things begin to unravel, and Paidhi Bren Cameron needs to figure out what's going on fast before he gets himself--and every other Human on the planet--killed. This is a novel where on the surface everything is small-scale--we see only from Bren's eyes, and seemingly trivial actions like choosing to drink a cup of tea (or not) have world-reaching consequences. It's also a novel deeply concerned with language.

10. Embassytown by China Mieville. Leckie:

    Another novel deeply concerned with language, with some nods to Cherryh's Foreigner here and there, in fact. The Arieki speak a language in which the map is the territory--lies or abstractions are impossible. They also have two mouths, and the only way humans can communicate with them is through identical twins who have been bred and raised for the purpose. The introduction of a non-twinned Ambassador causes chaos among the Arieki. I'm really not doing the novel justice with this short capsule. Seriously, just read it. Or check out The City and the City, also by Mieville, for an equally mind-tickling read.

    The importance of abstraction, and the implications of being unable to abstract, has always been one of the most interesting themes of Borges work, and I would be interested to read Mielville's take on it.