An SF/F Abecedarium

Todd and I put this list together last night; it leans heavily towards authors we loved when we were young and is weak on more recent authors. We couldn't quite assemble an alphabet out of author names, so some of the entries are titles, names of characters, or places.

Inspired by an author abecedarium on the website of author Garth Nix, himself a recent favorite.

A is for Asimov, watching the stars
B is for Bradbury, walking on Mars
C's for Cordwainer and for space³ travel
D is Delany, who understood Babel
E is for Ents, who inhabit the Forest
F is for Farmer, the Riverworld tourist
G is the Gollux, who's not a device
H is for Herbert, who taught us of spice
I is The Innkeeper's Song in the night
J is James Blish, who put Cities in Flight
K is for Keyes, of Newtonian fame
L is for Lieber, or Lankhmar, the same
M is for Miles, who hides his intentions
N is for Norton, whose Gates span dimensions
O's Ouroboros, infinity's symbol
P is Pterry, whose wits are so nimble
Q is for Quintus, the crooked house-builder
R is R'lyeh, whose angles bewilder
S is for Shardik, the terrible bear
T is for tesseract, getting us there
U's Ultima Thule, sea-girt and cold
V is Jack Vance when the sun has grown old
W's Wolfe, with a sword and mnemonic
X is for Xiccarph, a land Klar-Kash-Tonic
Y is Yevaud, who's the Dragon of Pendor
Z is Zelazny, myth-breaker and mender.


References for authors not actually named:
Ents: you're kidding, right?
Gollux: The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber
The Inkeeper's Song is by Peter Beagle
Miles: Lois Bujold's excellent Vorkosigan books
The Worm Ouroboros is by E. R. Eddison
Pterry: fan name for Terry Pratchett
Quintus Teal: my namesake, from He Built a Crooked House by Robert Heinlein
R'lyeh: any of several stories by H. P. Lovecraft
Shardik is by Richard Adams
Tesseract: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Ursus of Ultima Thule is by Avram Davidson
Xiccarph is by Clark Ashton Smith, nicknamed Klar-Kash-Ton by author friends
Yevaud: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
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