Ahira's Hangar

I thought that perhaps we could all collaborate and make up a list of novels in the science fiction/fantasy/dark fantasy genre that can be read as stand alones. So much in the genre comes as long series (and those series seem to get longer all of the time) that I thought such a list could be useful to those looking to read just one book. I know my local library will often only have some of the books in a series.

As people come up with more titles, I will add them to the master list.

And if people like the idea, maybe we can start another thread for shorter series, such as completed duologies?

Oh, if two books by an author are in the same world, but can be read independently of each other, it is perfectly fine to list them both. Heinlein, for example, has a bunch of books set in the same universe, but all (or most) can be read as stand alones.

And I will need help with this - especially with authors like Zelazny and McKillip and LeGuin (not to mention Heinlein) who write mostly standalone books and tracking down all of their titles.

If any of the other admins or mods want to help with additions to the list, please feel free! I am trying to keep the authors (though not the books) in sort of an alphabetical order).

Just a start in the half hour I have before work today:


Rudolfo Anaya:
Bless Me Ultima


Anonymous






Margaret Atwood:
The Handmaid's Tale
Oryx and Crake


Iain Banks:
The Algebraist
Feersum Enjinn

Virginia Baker:
Jack Knife


R. Scott Bakker:
Neuropath


Toby Barlow:
Sharp Teeth


Brunonia Barry:
The Lace Reader

Alfred Bester:
The Stars My Destination
The Demolished Man


Ray Bradbury:
Farenheit 451
The Martian Chronicles
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Dandelion Wine


Marion Zimmer Bradley:
The Mists of Avalon
The Firebrand


Marie Brennan:
Midnight Never Come


Patricia Briggs:
When Demons Walk
The Hob's Bargain


David Brin:
Glory Season
Earth
Kiln People
The Postman
The Practice Effect
Sundiver
Startide Rising

John Brunner:
The Whole Man

Steven Brust:
Brokedown Palace

Lois McMaster Bujold
The Spirit Ring
Falling Free
Ethan of Athos
The Curse of Chalion

Emma Bull:
War of the Oaks

Orson Scott Card:
Enchantment
Magic Street
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
Ender's Game
Songmaster
Treason
Lost Boys

Michael Chabon
The Yiddish Policeman's Union

Arthur C. Clarke
Rendevous with Rama
2001 A Space Odyssey
The Last Theorem
The Fountains of Paradise
The Songs of Distant Earth
Imperial Earth
Childhood's End

Susannah Clarke:
Jonathon Strange and Mister Norrell


Andrew Davidson:
The Gargoyle


Camille DeAngelis:
Mary Modern



Charles de Lint:
The Riddle of the Wren
Mulengro
Yarrow
Greenmantle
Wolf Moon
Svaha
The Little Country
Angel of Darkness (writing as Samuel M Key)
The Dreaming Place
Our Lady of the Harbour
Uncle Dobbins Parrot Fair
From a Whisper to a Scream (writing as Samuel M Key)
The Wishing Well
I'll Be Watching You (writing as Samuel M Key)
Into the Green
The Buffalo Man
Forests of the Heart
Seven Wild Sisters
Road to Lisdoonvarna
The Onion Girl
The Dungeon 2 (with Robin Wayne Bailey and Philip José Farmer)
A Circle of Cats (with Charles Vess)
Spirits in the Wires
Medicine Road
The Blue Girl
Widdershins
Little (Grrl) Lost
Promises to Keep
Dingo
The Mystery of Grace


Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince


Samuel Delanney:
Dhalgren
Nova
Fall of the Towers
The Einstein Intersection

Phillip K. Dick
Solar Lottery
aka World of Chance
The World Jones Made
The Man Who Japed
Eye in the Sky
The Cosmic Puppets
Time Out of Joint
Vulcan's Hammer
Dr. Futurity
The Man in the High Castle
The Game-Players of Titan
Clans of the Alphane Moon
Martian Time-Slip
The Penultimate Truth
The Simulacra
The Unteleported Man
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Dr Bloodmoney: or How We Got Along After the Bomb
The Crack in Space
Now Wait for Last Year
Counter-Clock World
The Ganymede Takeover (with Ray Nelson)
The Zap Gun
Galactic Pot-Healer
We Can Build You
Ubik
Our Friends from Frolix 8
A Maze of Death
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Deus Irae (with Roger Zelazny)
A Scanner Darkly
Lies, Inc.
In Milton Lumky Territory
Radio Free Albemuth
Puttering About in a Small Land
Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike
Humpty Dumpty in Oakland
Mary and the Giant
The Broken Bubble
Nick and the Glimmung
In Pursuit of Valis
Cantata 140
Voices from the Street




Cory Doctorow:
Little Brother



Lord Dunsany:
The King of Elfland's Daughter
The Charwoman's Shadow


Frederick S. Durbin
Dragonfly



ER Eddison


Raymond E Feist
Faerie Tale
Honoured Enemy
Murder in LaMut
Jimmy the Hand


Michael Flynn
Eifelheim


Robert M. Ford
The Dragon Waiting

Neil Gaiman:
Neverwhere
Stardust
Coraline
American Gods
Anansi Boys
The Graveyard Book
Good Omens

Mary Gentle
Rats and Gargoyles


William Gibson
Neuromancer
The Difference Engine
Virtual Light
Count Zero


Johann Goethe


William Golding
Lord of the Flies


Jo Graham
Black Ships
Hand of Isis


Nicola Griffith:
Ammonite


Lauren Groff:
The Monsters of Templeton


Joe Haldeman:
The Forever War
The Accidental Time Machine
Marsbound


Laurell K. Hamilton:
Nightseer

Robert Heinlein:
Universe
Sixth Column(writing as Anson MacDonald)
aka The Day After Tomorrow
Rocket Ship Galileo
Space Cadet
Beyond This Horizon(writing as Anson MacDonald)
The Red Planet
Farmer in the Sky
aka Satellite Scout
Between Planets
aka Planets in Combat
The Puppet Masters
The Rolling Stones
aka Tramp Space Ship / Space Family Stone
Starman Jones
The Star Beast
aka Star Lummox
Double Star
Tunnel in the Sky
Time for the Stars
Citizen of the Galaxy
The Door into Summer
Have Spacesuit - Will Travel
Starship Troopers
aka Starship Soldier
Stranger in a Strange Land
Podkayne of Mars
The Glory Road
Farnham's Freehold
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
I Will Fear No Evil
The Number of the Beast
Friday
Job: A Comedy of Justice
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs
Variable Star (with Spider Robinson)


Mark Helprin:
The Winter's Tale



Frank Herbert:
The Green Brain
Hellstrom's Hive
The Sarantaroga Barrier
Whipping Star



Robert Holdstock:
Mythago Wood

Homer:



L. Ron Hubbard:
Battlefield Earth


Tanya Huff:
Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light
The Fire's Stone

Aldous Huxley
Brave New World

Robert Jordan
A New Spring

Guy Guvriel Kay:
The Lions of al'Rassan
Ysabel
Tigana
The Song of Arbonne
Last Light of the Sun

Paul Kearney
The Ten Thousand

Steven King:
Eyes of the Dragon
Salem's Lot
The Stand
The Shining
Carrie
Christine
Pet Cemetary
Insomnia


Elizabeth Kostova
The Historian


Ellen Kushner:
Thomas the Rhymer


Mercedes Lackey:
The Black Swan
The Firebird

Madelaine L'Engle
A Wrinkle in Time


Ursula K. LeGuin:
Lavinia
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Dispossessed
The Telling
Always Coming Home
Malafrena
The Beginning Place

C.S. Lewis:
Till We Have Faces

Thomas Mallory:
L'Morte d'Arthur

RA MacAvoy:
Tea with the Black Dragon
The Grey Horse


Christopher Marlowe



George RR Martin
Tuff Voyaging
Fevre Dream
The Armageddin Rag
The Dying of the Light
Hunter's Run
Windhaven

Ann McCaffrey:
The Ship Who Sang
Black Horses for the King
The Coelura
No One Noticed the Cat
An Exchange of Gifts
Restoree

Cormac McCarthy
The Road

Ian McDonald:
River of Gods
Brasyl
The Broken Land
Evolution's Shore

Vonda McIntyre
Dreamsnake

Patricia McKillip:
Od Magic
Alphabet of Thorne
In the Forests of Serre
The Bell at Sealy Head
The Book of Atrix Wolfe
The Tower at Stony Wood
Moon Flash
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Song for the Basilisk

Robin McKinley:
Sunshine
Deerskin
Outlaws of Sherwood
Chalice
The Blue Sword
The Hero and the Crown
Beauty
Rose Daughter
Spindle's End
Dragonhaven

Ken McLeod:
Learning the World

China Meiville
Un Lun Dun
The City and the City


Stephenie Meyer:
The Host


Martin Millar:
The Lonely Werewolf Girl
The Good Fairies of New York


Walter M. Miller Jr.
A Canticle for Lebowitz


Elizabeth Moon:
The Speed of Dark
Once A Hero
Remnant Population


Toni Morrison:
Beloved


Garth Nix:
The Ragwitch
Shade's Children


George Orwell:
1984
Animal Farm

David Palmer:
Emergence

Frederick Pohl:
Gem


John Polidori



Tim Powers
The Anubis Gates

Christopher Priest
The Inverted World

Alastair Reynolds:
Pushing Ice

Kim Stanley Robinson:
The Years of Rice and Salt

Carrie Ryan:
The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Brandon Sanderson:
Elantris


Robert Sawyer
Rollback


John Scalzi:
Agent to the Stars
The Android's Dream

Mary Shelley:




Sharon Shinn:
The Shapechanger's Wife


Robert Silverberg:
Roma Eterna
The World Outside

Clifford D. Simak:
Cemetary World
City
Way Station
All Flesh is Grass
Ring Around the Sun






William Shakespeare:





Lucius Sheppard:
Green Eyes

Dan Simmons:
Song of Kali
The Terror
Drood
Muse of Fire
Carrion Comfort
Children of the Night
Fires of Eden

Neil Stephenson:
Snow Crash
Anathem

Bruce Sterling:
Islands in the Net


SM Sterling:
The Peshawar Lancers
Conquistador
The Court of the Crimson Kings

Mary Stewart:
The Crystal Cave

James Stoddard:
The High House

Bram Stoker:



Charles Stross:

Glasshouse
Halting State
Saturn's Children

Michael Swanwick
Bones of the Earth
Vaccum Flowers

Tricia Sullivan:
Lethe
Maul


Sherri S. Tepper:
The Gate to Women's Country
Grass
Beauty
The Margarets

JRR Tolkien
The Silmarillian
The Hobbit
Farmer Giles of Ham


John Varley:
Mammoth

Jules Verne:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Vernor Vinge:
Rainbows End


Peter Watts:
Blindsight


H.G. Wells:







T.H. White:
The Once and Future King

Tadd Williams:
Tailchaser's Song
War of the Flowers

Walter Jon Williams:
Aristoi
Hard Wired
Days of Atonment
Ambassador of Progress
Angel Station
Voice of the Whirlwind


Connie Willis:
The Doomsday Book

Gene Wolfe:
There Are Doors
Pirate Freedom
An Evil Guest

Jane Yolen:
Briar Rose
Cards of Grief
Merlin's Book

David Zindell
Neverness

Roger Zelazny:
The Dream Master
aka He Who Shapes
This Immortal
aka ...And Call Me Conrad
Lord of Light
Creatures of Light and Darkness
Isle of the Dead
Damnation Alley
Jack of Shadows
To Die in Italbar
Today We Choose Faces
Doorways in the Sand
Bridge of Ashes
Deus Irae (with Philip K Dick)
Roadmarks
The Changing Land
Dilvish the Damned
To Spin Is Miracle Cat
Coils (with Fred Saberhagen)
Eye of Cat
A Dark Travelling (with Lebbeus Woods)
The Black Throne (with Fred Saberhagen)
The Mask of Loki (with Thomas T Thomas)
Flare (with Thomas T Thomas)
A Night in the Lonesome October
Wilderness (with Gerald Hausman)
Donnerjack (with Jane Lindskold)
Psychoshop (with Alfred Bester)
Lord Demon (with Jane Lindskold)
The Dead Man's Brother

Well, just off the top of my head, I think the majority of Arthur C. Clarke's works are standalone novels. The only exceptions are the Rama and Space Odyssey series; but even there, the original novels Rendezvous With Rama and 2001 remained "self-contained" stories for years before Clarke decided to add sequels.

Walter M. Miller, Jr.s , although wikipedia says there was a sequel published posthumously 37 years later...

I consider both The Hobbit and The Silmarillian parts of TLotR, though...

You can definitely read "The Hobbit" as a standalone book, tho -- no prior knowledge of Middle Earth is necessary. Dunno about "The Silmarillion" as I've never read it. (Heard it was more or less impenetrable. )

You should add "Song for the Basilisk" to Patricia McKillip's list, Duchess. In fact, I think all of her books are standalones, aren't they?

These are the few I can think of at present.

Robert Jordon "New Spring" I believe to be a standalone book although it has connections to to the Wheel of time books its story was at least finished at the end.
Raymond E Feist
"Faerie Tale" ,
"Honoured Enemy"
"Murder in LaMut"
"Jimmy the Hand"

Simillarion I believe to be a standalone book.

Gods you list so much it's hard not to repeat!

I'll start with Walter Jon Williams:
Aristoi
Hard Wired
Days of Atonment
Ambassador of Progress
Angel Station
Voice of the Whirlwind
the last 3 are, sort of, set in the same universe but they stand on their own.

Of course Zindell's Neverness and Eddison's Worm Oroborous can stand on their own, but they do create worlds where trilogies have followed.

Two stand alones of authors duchy has mentioned that are must reads are:
The beleaguered The Postman by Brin
and the oozingly biologic The Broken Land by McDonald

Prime stand alones of the 'Cyberpunk' movement that will lead you to other great stand alones by the same author include:
Nueromancer-William Gibson, Iduro, Count Zero and Johnny Mnumonic being examples
Islands in the Net-Bruce Sterling
Green Eyes-Lucious Shepard
and the outstanding collaboration The Difference Engine-Gibson & Sterling

The great historical fantasy-The Dragon Waiting by Robert M. Ford

From my bookself:
Tigana & The Fionair Tapestry-Guy Caviel Kay
The High House-James Stoddard
Brokedown Palace-Steven Burst (but the man only writes trilogies, so this will change soon.)

I can think of many more-most of Delany's work, Pohl's Jem...others will come.

How about A Wrinkle In Time by Madelaine L'Engle?

Let me just say I think this database is a good idea for someone like me who likes standalone novels. I generally don't like to be dragged into a series unless it's really good. Unlike some readers, I'd refuse to continue with a bad series just for the sake of completion.

It is going to take me days to type in Danlo's suggestions. I knew he would be knowledgable as any expert.

When I get home from work I will start on the new suggestions from Danlo and Moonwatcher.

Some of these books are still part of a series, Moonwatcher - but they are all books where you can read just that and still get a complete story - like the Clarke books you suggested.

OK, I have still been working away slowly at this. Hopefully people have some more to add?

New Spring is a prequel more than a stand-alone. It's end is 20 years before Eye of the World. I don't think it'd make much sense reading it and then not reading the rest.

I haven't read those Feist books Cleburne mentions, so I have to assume that while set in the same world, they don't demand having read any of the others. Although I suspect that you wouldn't read them anyway if you hadn't.

Silmarillion too. (Quite impenetrable. )

Delany's books tend to be stand-alone. Dhalgren, Nova, Fall of the Towers(?) for example, The Einstein Intersection for another. (Oh...I see you have Dhalgren there.)

Classics like Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, Day of the Triffids, Priest's Inverted World (I know Danlo loves that one. ) Most anything written in the Golden Age, with the exception maybe of Asimov and Herbert tended toward stand-alones. And they both had plenty of them too, as well as their more famous series. Clifford D Simak's famous Ring Around The Sun and All Flesh Is Grass. (I'm just naming stuff randomly here. )

Hubbard's Battlefield Earth is a good hard sci-fi standalone, William Gibsons novels...Virtual Light, Count Zero.

As for King, with a few exceptions, like the DT series, most of his books can be read as stand-alones. Even though things like The Stand, Insomnia and Salem's Lot are connected, reading all the myriad of connections is not really necessary at all to enjoy the books. Hell, many of them were written before even he knoew they would be connected. And even completely stand-alone one's like Carrie, Christine, etc. are often mentioned in other books. Many of which afterall took place in the same "district" and even town.

--A

Technically speaking, Card writes all of his books so that they could be read as standalones if you wanted to.

But one you didn't mention that comes to mind is Songmaster.

I personally feel that Ender's Game could be read as a stand-alone. It was a standalone for years till he decided to write a sequel.

Some more Card:
Treason
Lost Boys

Thanks Av and MsMary! I will try to get your suggested books on the database list over the weekend.