SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Sci-Fi/Fantasy books where plot involves works of creative arts (painting, music etc) or character is an artist.

Anne McCaffrey has several stories where the arts (music mostly) featured:
The Ship Who Sang
Dragonsong
Dragonsinger
The Crystal Singer

The Soprano Sorceress by L.E. Modesitt Jr. features music based magic.

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson has a character who is an artist. Her sketching features heavily.

Also The Rithmatist also by Brandon Sanderson features drawing with chalk as the centre of the plot.

A Song for a New Day
The City, Not Long After
Bitter

The Glass Harmonica, by Louise Marley

Charles De Lint’s Newford stories often feature artists and musicians. His novel Trader has a guitarist as MC.

Black Opera, by Mary Gentle features Opera and church music.

(Sorry, on the app, so no links. I’ll try to add them later, when I’m on my Mac)

Oh and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home comes complete with a recording of the music and poetry of the Kesh.

Art features strongly in Guy Gavriel Kay's books.

Carol Berg’s Sanctuary duet, Dust and Light, features a main character who is a magical artist. He paints portraits that reveal the truth of who those people are. Although the duology is set in the same world as one of her other duologies, it features completely different characters and, a separate plot, and stands on its own. I really enjoyed both of them.

However, it might not be what you’re looking for because, while painting plays a prominent role in the story, I don’t remember there being much if any focus on the creative aspect of it. From what I remember (it’s been a while), he wasn’t entirely conscious of what he was doing while he was painting.

I think the most "on point" is one that Anna already listed: A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker. The book is focused on rock music and goes into a lot of detail about music, concerts, and instruments. It's also a post-pandemic sf story that was published just before COVID-19 hit but comes eerily close to some of the reaction to the pandemic that we have seen.

can someone link rem pop for me please?

Ellen Kushner's books Swordspoint and The Privilege of the Sword both feature theatrical productions; in the latter book it's more important to the plot.

Allison wrote: "can someone link rem pop for me please?"

Remnant Population

I felt that the creative arts played a large role in Annalee Newitz's The Future of Another Timeline. It may have been more a character of the story than a plot point though.

Oil and Dust by Jami Fairleigh was a surprisingly good story of an artist whose paintings change reality.

The excellent Steerswoman series (of course) has stories told in song that guide the characters along as they seek to solve a mystery.

Space Opera and Star Daughter are both mediocre stories (view spoiler)[of an intergalactic talent show (hide spoiler)].

Not to forget the absurd award winning novel that is Station Eleven.

I'm not sure if the use of art in The Just City meets your criteria.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. There are so many to look into and choose from.

Ryan wrote: "Not to forget the absurd award winning novel that is Station Eleven.

I'm not sure if the use of art in The Just City meets your criteria."

I liked Station Eleven, but disliked another one of her books. It's interesting how polarizing she seems to be as a writer.