Special Needs In Strange Worlds Reading List

Last month Bookworm Blues posted a series of guest blogs on a very important - and under discussed  - topic: disabilities in science fiction and fantasy.  I'd started a reading list on this topic months ago, but couldn't figure out a way of displaying it without seeming condescending.  So I put my incomplete list aside and went on to do other displays.

Then Elspeth Cooper did this post on disability in fantasy, and Bookworm Blues decided to do her amazing blog series.  And Dan Goodman suggested the amazing, and respectful, title: Special Needs in Strange Worlds.  If you haven't read her posts, they start here and end here.  She also did a half way point round up with links, here, if you don't want to scroll through all the posts.  With the suggestions offered in the posts and a wonderful title, my endcap/reading list was back in business.

A few notes on this list.  First, it's incomplete.  This is a topic that to a large extent requires having read the book in order to know if the book fits the topic.  And it's impossible to read everything.  I've tried to categorize the books I had listed into general categories and then subdivided issues that had several books each.  Even then some books fit several categories, and some categories are flexible.  I tried to leave off the 'magical cure' books, but left the books with blind characters who have second sight as a compensation for losing their physical sight.  I also recognize that some of the books deal with disability in more detail than others.

I wasn't looking for mystery books, which is why there are only two, and only mentioned general fiction books I - and those I spoke to (at work and at home) - knew.

If you have a suggestion, please leave the title of the book, author and which category it fits.  I'll try to add them to the list.  If I get too many suggestions I may just let people read the comments to find more.

I'd meant to post this list at the end of May to somewhat co-incide with the Bookworm Blues posts, but I wanted an endcap, and that takes a month (from ordering the books until it's up).  This is an important issue and I wanted to bring it to the attention of more people.

I wanted to credit those who helped bring this endcap to life, so I've mentioned them with shelf talkers on the display (at the World's Biggest Bookstore, Toronto).

Physical Issues:

The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie

Song of the Beast - Carol Berg

Young Miles - Lois McMaster Bujold

Songs of the Earth - Elspeth Cooper

The Scar - Sergey & Marina Dyachenko
Ether - Ben Ehrenreich

Miserere - Teresa Frohock

Wolfsangel - M. D. Lachlan (mute)

Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin 

Elric: Stealer of Souls - Michael Moorcock 

Galatea 2.2 - Richard Powers

Enclave - Kit Reed (epilepsy)

Scourge of the Betrayer - Jeff Salyards

Quarantine: The Loners - Lex Thomas (epilepsy) (out July 2012)

Among Others - Jo Walton

Beyond the Shadows - Brent Weeks

Shadowmarch - Tad Williams

Amped - Daniel Wilson (has technological implant that prevents seisures)

One-Armed Queen - Jane Yolen

Westlake Soul - Rio Youers (vegetative state)

Wheelchair:

Memory of Earth - Orson Scott Card 

Immobility - Brian Evenson
Heaven's Shadow - David Goyer

Dune - Frank Herbert

The Rapture - Liz Jensen

The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King

Fenrir - M. D. Lachlan

Last Hero - Terry Pratchett

Blindness:

The Daemon Prism - Carol Berg 

Eyes to See - Joseph Nassise 

Wake - Robert J. Sawyer 

Sojurn - R. A. Salvatore 

The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham 

Mental Issues:

Debris - Jo Anderton

Xenocide - Orson Scott Card (OCD)

Dragonsinger - Anne McCaffrey

Dracula - Bram Stoker (insanity)

Red Thunder - John Varley

Dyslexia:

Spellwrignt - Blake Charlton
God's War - Kameron Hurley 

Of Blood and Honey - Stina Leicht 

Autistic:

World House - Guy Adams
Winds of Khalakovo - Bradley Beaulieu

Speed of Dark - Elizabeth Moon

Depression:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K. Dick

Lord Foul's Bane - Stephen Donaldson
The Magicians - Lev Grossman

The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien 

Problems With Magic: 

A Spell for Chameleon - Piers Anthony

Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb

Forging the Darksword - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

Graphic Novels:

Birds of Prey / Batman (Oracle - wheelchair)

Daredevil (blindness)

Iron Man (heart problems)

With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child - Keiko Tobe (autism)

X-Men (Professor X - wheelchair, Destiny - blindness)

Movies/TV:

Avatar (paraplegic)

Bionic Woman (bionic parts)

Cube (mental)

Dark Angel (paraplegic)

Defendor (mental)

Dr. Who (Davros - quadraplegic)

Lawnmower Man (mental issues)

Mantis (paralysis)

Memento (memory loss)

6 Million Dollar Man (bionic parts after accident)

Star Trek (Commander Pike - quadroplegic)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (Geordi La Forge - blindness)

Star Wars (breathing aparatus, dismemberment)

Unbreakable (brittle bone syndrome)

Wizard of Oz (fear, no heart, etc.)

General Fiction: 

Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

Curious Incident of a Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon (autism)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

Last Snow - Eric Van Lustbader (dyslexia)

Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Blindness - Jose Saramago

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo 

Before I Go To Sleep - S. J. Watson (memory loss)

Mystery:

Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse - Lee Goldberg (OCD)

Divine Sacrifice - Tony Hays

SFX did a list, with several characters I missed, here.