Authors you read no one knows about in your suroundings

[Grimward]

Similiar story for me, too....either vacant stares or, worse....

"Janny Who?"

"Robin Hobb....you mean the "guy" who wrote Leviathan?"

"Alan Dean Foster? Love his music, but Garth Brooks is better" (can't believe I'm plugging country music here)

"Tad Williams? Greatest Red Sock to ever play the game! Crazy family froze the poor bugger...."

Ah well, at least they've heard of Tolkien and Lewis, thanks to the movies.....

 

[Nikitta]

If I don't count the group I play D&D with once a week, then pretty much all of the writers I read would qualify. If I do count them, I'd imagine that only the new sci-fi I read would.

 

[Clansman]

Similiar story for me, too....either vacant stares or, worse....

"Janny Who?"

"Robin Hobb....you mean the "guy" who wrote Leviathan?"

"Alan Dean Foster? Love his music, but Garth Brooks is better" (can't believe I'm plugging country music here)

"Tad Williams? Greatest Red Sock to ever play the game! Crazy family froze the poor bugger...."

Ah well, at least they've heard of Tolkien and Lewis, thanks to the movies.....

LOL, and bang on! Good one, Grim.

 

[Tillane]

Alastair Reynolds is the one I consistently recommend to my SF friends - and the one they've never heard of. Peasants.

 

[chrispenycate]

Well, just about all my acquaintances who read some SFF it's I who has introduced them to it. I've managed one with Discworld and 1632, another with the Belisarius series, two on Bujold and got my boss to read "Stardance" in translation, but none who experiment for themselves.

In the monthly SFF pizza-in, there are few authors in common; not only are several of them pictorial novel specialists, translation works better with some novels than others, so the optional choice shifts.

 

[Majimaune]

I think I need to re-educate some of my friends.

JRR Tolkien
Isaac Asimov
CS Lewis
George RR Martin
Neil Gaiman

Very sad list there.

 

[Connavar]

Just few examples since there are many i read that people around me dont know.

Jack Vance - greatest author i have read that it seems like its unknown outside SFF.
Richard Stark/Donald Westlake

I remember reading an introduction by Michael Moorcock to some sf book (reference I think) where he expressed shock that some college professor somewhere was teaching a class in science fiction and he (the professor) had never heard of Jack Vance!

To Richard Stark/Donald Westlake you could also add Curt Clark, a pen name Westlake used for his sf novel Anarchaos.

I didnt know Moorcock had the good taste of expressing that shock of Vance. Not surprised though.

Westlake has several nicks. I prefer the dark noir Parker books in Richard Stark name. Have you read him ?

 

[j d worthington]

I didnt know Moorcock had the good taste of expressing that shock of Vance. Not surprised though.

Moorcock has expressed high regard for quite a few writers you'd probably like Connavar: Leiber, Dunsany, CAS, Ed Hamilton, and Leigh Brackett being among them....

 

[dask]

I didnt know Moorcock had the good taste of expressing that shock of Vance. Not surprised though.

Westlake has several nicks. I prefer the dark noir Parker books in Richard Stark name. Have you read him ?

Just a story in an anthology I read a number of years ago but enjoyed it so much I pick up his short story collections whenever I come across them. The latest one I found is Tomorrow's Crimes which contains his short sf novel Anarchaos and "other stories of fantastic suspense" or as they're described on the back cover, stories "of criminous science fiction."

 

[Connavar]

Just a story in an anthology I read a number of years ago but enjoyed it so much I pick up his short story collections whenever I come across them. The latest one I found is Tomorrow's Crimes which contains his short sf novel Anarchaos and "other stories of fantastic suspense" or as they're described on the back cover, stories "of criminous science fiction."

Criminous Science fiction hahahhah

How are his SF then ?

You should read Richard Stark books. They created their own subgenre of crime that everyone has been copiying for decades.

A dark heist stories about a world where there are bad guys and just more bad guys heh.

 

[citri]

Nobody around me knows anything at all about books. The people around me only don't give me a blank stare with Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. They don't even know asimov or George R. R. Martin. They're so clueless of books that they wouldn't know about dune if the movies and shows didn't come out. They consider 500 page books so massive that it's mind boggling. I swear, at least half the people I know read 5 books max per year. I've seen people on the same book for over 4 months and considering it dedicated reading.

 

[dask]

from CONNAVAR
Criminous Science fiction hahahhah

How are his SF then ?

Haven't got to 'em yet. They're on my list but I'm still trying to finish the second book I started for Halloween and catch up on my comic reading at the same time -- I'm two months behind on those.

You should read Richard Stark books. They created their own subgenre of crime that everyone has been copiying for decades.

A dark heist stories about a world where there are bad guys and just more bad guys heh.

I've put Richard Stark on my radar. Dark heist stories sound too cool to pass up. Thanks for letting me know about them.

And now, if I did this correctly I just figured out another computer trick: how to break up one large quote into several smaller ones. Let's see if this works ---

 

[Connavar]

Heh i thought there were something about your qoutes

Speaking about Richard Stark books you are amazingly lucky.

I paid minium 30$ for each old second hand Parker books since they were so rare. But now there is a new reprint that cost as cheap as a new paperback can cost. 5 of those new paperbacks cost less than what i paid for the old paperback versions

 

[dask]

I paid minium 30$ for each old second hand Parker books since they were so rare. But now there is a new reprint that cost as cheap as a new paperback can cost. 5 of those new paperbacks cost less than what i paid for the old paperback versions

$30 for a second hand book!? You'll have to excuse me for a moment. I've just misplaced my pulse.

 

[Connavar]

$30 for a second hand book!? You'll have to excuse me for a moment. I've just misplaced my pulse.

Actually since $ is stronger now against swedish knronor i paid 35$ for every single book of my 7 Parker books

It was worth every penny !

That was also the cheapest price i found in many sites, the books was so rare that some greedy people sold them 200$ somtimes !!

 

[Prefx]

Practically all of them.

I lent A Game of Thrones to my girlfriend, and was surprised to find she was approached on campus by a fan of George Martin - pleasantly surprised.

 

[GOLLUM]

I won't start listing them but it's certainly the majority. I think J.D. said 85% plus? for me it's probably that for the geenral population and for SFF readers more like 40-50%

 

[ladyflorange]

I have a friend who didn't know Lord of the Rings was a book first... she'd never heard of Tolkien. True story.

She has now.

 

[Ross]

Basically know one knows anything about who i read.

 

[Connavar]

I won't start listing them but it's certainly the majority. I think J.D. said 85% plus? for me it's probably that for the geenral population and for SFF readers more like 40-50%

Thats really something to shoot for. The more authors you read that people dont know means your are trying to read authors of quality no matter how famous or overlooked they are outside their genre or thier own times.

When even my specialist english bookstore people dont know authors i like reading and tell me how rare my taste are i think thats nothing compared to seasons readers i know in chronos.

When its about my fantasy,SF reading people dont know 90% of what i read and im not talking classic writers that might be overlooked today.