#telelli writes

ooh okay this is a fun one. decided to go with sff standalones because (a) my genre and (b) the place you are most likely to find series in my experience. also decided to go with ones that I don't see recced quite as often (which means I left off Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik even though I do love it very much).

(and yeah I am still working through these! just. you know. slowly. i'm on vacation, so sue me)

1. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Okay, to be fair it's been many years since I read this one (I should do a reread) but it was so formative for me in the sense of being like. "Oh you can do that" but in a very different way than, say, Sarah Monette. More like "sff as a genre is more flexible than I thought it was." I really like China Mieville as an author and I find the things he does very interesting in general, but this is the book I tend to come back to as sort of representative of what I love about his work. (I really do need to reread, though.)

2. Black Water Sister by Zen Cho. I read this one more recently and it was excellent. I sped through it but not in a way that meant it was insubstantial, just that it was really enjoyable, in a satisfying sort of way.

3. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. There is technically a sequel to this one but it isn't strictly necessary; you're just fine reading this one on its own. Always a standout to me.

4. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. I still haven't read other Guy Gavriel Kay (though I think I would like to), but this one struck me hard. It's only barely fantasy in a lot of ways (set in not!Spain during the not!Reconquista), but it was just a gorgeous piece of work and the triad of main characters and their dynamics together were delightful to me.

5. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks. Technically this is part of a "series" but the series (at least so far), while linked together, doesn't demand reading as a connected sequence. I've read three of them and this one is my favorite (though they're all interesting and I plan to continue reading them). This is the book that made me go "huh, wonder if Ann Leckie has read this" and also had the climax that made me feel kind of insane (in a good way).

there are a number of books also that I remember loving when I read them but cannot necessarily remember well enough to wholeheartedly recommend them now - I'd include Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, Benighted by Kit Whitfield, A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar, and Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord.

I would also note that you don't technically need to read more than one book of Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence - most of them stand fairly well on their own - and I remember particularly liking Full Fathom Five.