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Posting a day early since I'll be traveling tomorrow!

Do you have any hidden gem authors/books that you love, that no one else seems to know?

Well I can't say that no one knows about these because obviously they have been read by more than just me, but here are a few lesser known loves of mine.

Dragon's Egg - hey its up to 8k shelvings now! Some years back it was significantly fewer.
I absolutely adore the book and the Cheela and their society are so fascinating.

We did a group read on this a number of years ago and while participation was light, it seemed everyone involved really enjoyed it. Also has a sequel that is just as fascinating as the first.

Won a Locus award

As a runner up to the above, there's Camelot 30K by the same author. - 326 shelvings
Look at another alien society. I prefer the Cheela, but still really enjoyed this one.


Remnant Population - 5k shelvings
A lesser known book by this author, the main character is an elderly woman who chooses to stay behind when the corporation running her colony has chosen to move it to another planet. I really loved Ofelia's pov and her attitudes. She's determined that she's old and going to live the rest of her life as she sees fit regardless of the pressures and expectations of society. I find her quite inspiring.

Was Hugo nominated.


The Dark Beyond the Stars - 904 shelvings. A fascinating story of a generation ship sent out from Earth to find alien life. It spends a lot of time looking at the society that has developed on the ship after so many generations since they left earth. My husband and I have also had some fun discussions on what is actually meant at the ending.

Won a Lambda award.


A Bad Spell in Yurt - 998 shelvings. Ok I fully admit this is not high literature. But its a fun book with an interesting mix of fantasy and medieval society, including Christianity or at least a religion very similar to it. It was an accidental find in a book store when I was just wanting something different and stand alone in what was, at the time, a sea of massive epic series. It did end up becoming a series of its own, but the first book stands alone very well.

It became a comfort read and I read this so many times I couldn't even begin to count them. When the cat coughed up a hairball on the cover that sat there for at least 24 hours, I ripped it off and kept reading. When the binding started to disintegrate, I used a large rubber band to hold the pages together and read it again.

No awards, its just fun. :)

Fortress on the Sun - 84 shelvings
Found at a used book store many years ago, both my husband and myself were totally absorbed in the story.

The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron. I know it’s on a lot of shelves here at Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ but I hardly even see it mentioned or recommended. I thought it was an excellent series, 5 books, all 4 or 5 star ratings for me.

Kathi wrote: "The Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron. I know it’s on a lot of shelves here at Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ but I hardly even see it mentioned or recommended. I thought it was an excellent series, 5..."

I love that series so much. I reread every previous book as the new ones came out, and I’ve been seriously considering just going through the whole thing again. He has some other good works, including another fantasy trilogy (which I want to reread too, though I didn’t like it quite as much as Traitor Son) and even some SF. And of course a whole separate career with historical fiction, some of which is on my TBR list. Interesting guy too.

Stephen R Donaldson can write some VERY lengthly books. But I first encountered him in a much shorter duology called Mordant's Need, which includes The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through. It's a comfort read for me, and I find myself going back to it every once in a while.

I thought that The Odysseus Solution by Michael A. Banks was a good book. Dystopian with aliens and rebels.
On 33 shelves, so pretty obscure. I think I found it at a used book store.

Viewpoints Critical: Selected Stories by L.E. Modesitt Jr. is a short story collection. I love the author and these stories are up to his usual standards.
On 515 shelves.

To add to the Elizabeth Moon books, I liked Lunar Activity, another collection of short stories.
On 588 shelves.

Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat is a very inventive story with fantastic world building. A steampunk style story but more SF than fantasy.
On 4225 shelves.

Apparently I have quite a few short story collections on my shelves and those are inherently less popular. Somewhere Beneath Those Waves by Sarah Monette is on the darker side and some stories are better than others.
On 2637 shelves.

The King's Peace by Jo Walton is fantasy with a great heroine.
On 2662 shelves.

Touchstone by Melanie Rawn is an interesting story about a magical theater troupe.
On 3524 shelves.

omg people, what are you doing to my to-read shelves?!

That is why we're here right?? To suggest and be suggested to?? :)

Cheryl wrote: "omg people, what are you doing to my to-read shelves?!"

LOL!!

An old favorite series of mine that I almost never hear mentioned is the Indigo series by Louise Cooper. I recently re-read portions of it for the first time in decades and it held up pretty well.

More recently, the Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft did not get nearly as much attention as they deserved. We actually read the first book Senlin Ascends together a while back, and I loved it so much that I immediately read the rest. The ending was...weird...but still worth finishing the series for sure.