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I'm reading my Steven Gould books again. Why isn't he writing more? Why do people look at me blankly when I mention him?
Jumper, his first book, deals with an abused teenager who discovers he can teleport. You know how, when you read about people with strange powers and you wonder why they don't experiment more to see what they can do? Davy does.
Wildside. What do you do when you discover a doorway into an untouched earth? If you're this group of friends, you start selling passenger pigeons and panning for gold, which works fine until other people get interested in your sources...
Helm. A dying Earth sends out a generation ship. Because they will be forced back to primitive arrangements, they've been mentally programmed with religious injunctions to enforce hygiene and literacy. A helmet containing all Earth's knowledge is sent along, to be used on worthy descendants who have prepared themselves. At least until Leland puts it on anyway.
Blind Waves. A large part of the world has been submerged. The Texas Gulf Coast is now a world of floating cities. And immigrants. A woman running a salvage mission discovers a sunken sub with dead bodies and evidence of government attack that points to the INS...
Greenwar. An eco-aware company is beset by terrorists, the FBI, competitors, and a hurricane.
Please go read these, so he'll feel encouraged enough to go write more of them. Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Yeah, all the people I know IRL that know OSC know him because of me, and one guy said Ender's Game would be very cool if it wasn't for the ants.
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Claudia J. Edwards, who wrote the start of a series about a reluctant princess named Eldrie, but as far as I know dropped off the face of the earth, never writing more than the first book. I hate that. It's been nearly 20 years and I still want to know what happens next.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I saw the title, and I immediately thought "Stephen Gould." I've read all of those except Greenwar, which I had heard of but have yet to see on a shelf. I thought with Helm that he had really come into his own, and expected him to be a force to be reckoned with now in science fiction and fantasy, and then . . . he disappeared.
Gloria Naylor is awesome. I taught Mama Day when I was an English teacher, and we got to meet her. She is really cool.
I would maybe add Charles Sheffield, though he's not that unknown.
Debra Doyle, who has one long series with her husband James McDonald, and some YA books in the Harry Potter vein. I haven't read the YA books, but her space opera is awesome. Sadly, though, she has not quit her day job, and so books from her are few and far between.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Jack Womack. If you ever want to experience Russia as it was (and still is?) just after the 'fall' of communism, buy 'Let's put the future behind us'. The prose in this work is simply incredible.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Two names came immediately to mind, and one of them was Tim Powers. So I will reiterate, even though sndrake got there first.
The other is Kage Baker. I know a couple of people here have discovered her work, but many more should. She's not only good, but she's also witty - how many people can write a book that works well on both the levels of science fiction and bodice-ripper - and she blends in social commentary without it sticking out of the narrative like a sore thumb.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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David Mack. You think comic books are just for kids? That they are all superheros who where their underwear on top of tights? Read Kabuki. It's shocking, violent, intense and the art will turn you upside down!
Helen DeWitt. She has one book, The Last Samurai and it is great for people who like books about people with 900 interests.
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Dan Simmons. The Hyperion Cantos was awesome, and Illium is one of my favorite novels of all time.
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I just read this great new book called The Lotus Eaters by some new chick named Anneke Morgan. It seems her stuff is really going somewhere...
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Ok, I've only read one of his books, so he probably doens't count as a "favorite" author, but I'm going to go with Tom Robbins because next time I read Even Cowgirls Get the Blues I'm going to have a highlighter in my hand.
Posts: 1090 | Registered: Oct 2003
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John Nichols Steve Martin (the comedian? yes)
I'm sure plenty of people have heard of these authors before, but I have yet to meet one person IRL who has read one of their books.
I really enjoyed Charles De Lint's urban fantasy books when I was a kid. Maybe I should check out his books again. Posts: 1592 | Registered: May 2000
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Mark Salzman who is funny and smart and greathearted, and writes books that are too. Try The Laughing Sutra and if you like that go on to read Iron and Silk and his latest which is maybe the best of all, True Notebooks.
Nevil Shute who writes stories of ordinary people who quietly accomplish extraordinary things. My favorites of his are Round the Bend, and Trustee from the Toolroom, but also the one originally published as The Legacy, but often now called A Town Like Alice. If all you've read of his is On the Beach, then you really haven't gotten the true flavor of his work. He's wonderful.
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Robert Campbell's Jimmy Flannery novels -- The Junkyard Dog, etc. -- about a guy low on the totem pole in the Chicago Democratic Machine. Funny and engaging, I've never met anyone else who's read these.
Ed Goldberg -- I'll be REALLY surprised if anyone here at Hatrack has heard of him, he's a local Portland author I used to hear on the Pacifica station. He wrote Dead Air and Served Cold, about a Jewish P.I. named Lenny Schneider, similar to the Jimmy Flannery books above.
Jim Munroe -- Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask, Angry Young Spaceman and Everything in Silico. Young Canadian author, good mix of humor and politics and fantasy/SF. Flyboyis a good one to start with (a guy who can turn himself into a fly teams up with a woman who make things disappear and they form the Superheroes for Social Justice).
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Spider Robinson?? Dan Simmons??
Yeah, and you know who else? Nobody's ever heard of Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, but they're really good writers. You should see if you can get a bookstore to order some of their books for you. It's well worth any extra expense. Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I'm trying to find my Diana Wynne Jones books for my 9-year-old daughter who will finish the fifth HP book tomorrow and be looking for something new to read.
My nominations are for R.A. Lafferty and Zenna Henderson, both of whom were my introduction to science fiction, which explains a lot. (Especially Lafferty.)
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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There's no reason not to read Jim Munroe's Flyboy, he gives it away free on his site. You can download it in several formats here: http://nomediakings.org/flyboy.htm .
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Tim Kennemore. An English writer who wrote (as far as I can figure) two books for the teenage market and then gave it up.
I absolutely loved The Middle of the Sandwich when I was growing up. I still have it on my bookshelves, and re-read it once a year.
The other book was called Wall of Words, featuring a dyslexic character. It had the graffiti "dyslexia rules k.o.".
Great books both of them. I'm suprised he didn't write more.
(Chris, I will look up your recommendation at my library )
Edit: This thread inspired me to re-research the author. It turns out he is a she (Tim?!) and has written at least one other book. It will be in my posession soon.
quote:Yeah, and you know who else? Nobody's ever heard of Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, but they're really good writers. You should see if you can get a bookstore to order some of their books for you. It's well worth any extra expense.
Hein-who? Asim-what? Huh? There is this guy who writes plays and poems and stuff--William Shakespear, I think his name is. Pretty obscure, but if you can find any of his stuff, it's worth a read. George Orwell. Jules Verne. H. G. Wells. Mark Twain. Sinclair Lewis. Upton Sinclair. Nathanial Hawthorn. Edgar Allen Poe. Charles Dickens....The list of unknowns is endless!
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote: Diana Wynne Jones. I'm in rehab for the third time for my Chrestomanci addiction.
I love the Chrestomanci series and 'Howl's Moving Castle' .
Sean McMullen, another science fiction author who's not obscure by any means but, by virtue of his chosen type of writing, no one's ever heard of him. His books are so dryly funny, I've never read anything like them before.
quote: Charles De Lint
He's a Canadian . I've read a short story of his, and I enjoyed that, but never any of his books. I think I picked them up aged about fourteen, went "AAaaahhh!" and put them down again. Perhaps I'll go back to them now.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Has anyone read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke? It's one of those books you'll find at the front of your bookshop. It's being called by it's distributors "the next Harry Potter for adults" but really they are nothing alike. I got it for Christmas and I am really enjoying it.
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It's been recommended to me by multiple family members, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I was going to say Mike Resnick. I've never seen him mentioned anywhere on hatrack and the only person IRL I know of who's heard of him is my boyfriend's dad, who's heard of everyone. I don't know how to descrbe his books. The closest I can come is Kipling for science fiction, but since I've never actually read Kipling I'm not sure how acurate that is.
Two children's writers that are amazing are H. M. Hoover and Grace Chetwin. I get so excited when I can find anyone else who's heard of them. They are both so good and I don't understand why they aren't more popular, though the being out of print bit might have something to do with it.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Helen DeWitt. She has one book, The Last Samurai and it is great for people who like books about people with 900 interests.
Probably a dumb question: I don't suppose that book would have anything to do with the movie, The Last Samurai? I saw the movie. 'Twas good.
Posts: 925 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I'd tell you, but then you would have heard of them and it wouldn't be true any more.
Seriously though, no one I know really reads much, or at least, not science fiction/fantasy, which is pretty much all that I'm reading right now.
Posts: 1547 | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote:So many of these seem like common authors to me. I mean, Tim Powers? Dan Simmons? Mike Resnik? Those are pretty big names aren't they?
Thing is, they're not big here. Until they came up on this thread, I hadn't heard anyone mention Tim Powers or Mike Resnick before, I think.
And very few fans of Chalker. I can understand disenchantment with some of his later work, when he kind of dug himself into a rut, but the first five books of the "Well World" are a great read and you really don't have to read any more. (The first book is a stand-alone, books 2&3 are a complete story, with 4&5 wrapping up yet another story.)
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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William Horwood anyone? The Duncton Tales series is probably his best known, but The Stonor Eagles, and Skallagrigg are my favourites, absolutely beautiful. Seems to have disappeared lately ...
Posts: 867 | Registered: Dec 2003
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John Collier. I read one of his short stories in one of my english classes, and it is still one of my three favourite short stories of all time. Unfortunately, I have searched through libraries and bookstores and have yet to find any of his books.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Frank Yerby. His books reflect the time period he wrote in by having a terribly mysogynistic outlook on life, but his historical fiction is amazing. I'm not offended by old-school mysogynists (especially since Yerby is undoubtedly dead by this point, anyway), so - as I used to argue with my parents regarding music that had offensive lyrics - "It's just good to dance to."
Posts: 7600 | Registered: Jan 2001
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Alan Dean Foster. Sure, everyone has read his fantasy and science fiction books... But his non-genre stuff is terrific, like Into the Out Of , Maori and Primal Shadows , all of which are great summer reads.
The first is set in Africa, the second New Zealand and the last in New Guinea. Some really fantastic work that has gone pretty much unnoticed because SF writers get "ghetto-ized" by the powers that be.
Posts: 2848 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I would say Sean Russel, but he's already been mentioned And I would say Arturo Perez-Reverte, but I'm sure people have heard of him. Amy Thompson is the next that comes to mind. Something about the complexity but believability of her worlds pulls me into her stories... no one else bar Tolkien, Jo Rowlings and George RR Martin could do that for me ^^
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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