Discovered Authors 2011

[Heather Myst]

Liane Merciel The River Kings Road: A Novel of Ithelas

Douglas Hulick Among Thieves: A Tale of the Kin
This is a mix of Lies of Locke Lamora/Riyra Revelations meets Best Served Cold/Night Angel.

 

[J-Sun]

Jack Campbell. (I was actually familiar with John G. Hemry (real name) from Analog, so I don't know if this counts, but I'd never read any of his books and nothing under this name, anyway.)

 

[Rodders]

I've just started Gavin Smith's Veteran. I've wanted to read this since reading a review in SFX some time ago.

 

[Extollager]

So far this year the new authors for me are:

Helen Fielding - I actually thought Bridge Jones the movie was better.
JM Barrie - I quite enjoyed reading Peter Pan.
Christopher Priest - really enjoyed The Prestige, and will look for more of his books.
Douglas Adams - not as overjoyed with his work as I should have been, but oh well.
Jane Austen - I'm probably one of the few people that hadn't read Pride and Prejudice yet.
Michelle Moran - Solid, but may not pick up anything else. Tried to be like Philippa Gregory, but not as good.

Don't miss J. M. Barrie's eerie drama Mary Rose, which is both a ghost story and a stolen-by-the-fairies story. It greatly interested, moved, and even distressed J. R. R. Tolkien, by the way (see his comments in the critical edition of On Fairy Stories, edited by Anderson and Flieger, and published in England but not, I believe, in the US). It also interested C. S. Lewis.

 

[Extollager]

Add Walter M Miller to the list- just read a 1954 novella called Death of a Spaceman, very touching. My only question is, is there a Walter M. Miller Jr who also writes SF, or are they one and the same?

Surely must be same guy. His story "Conditionally Human" is one of the most poignant works of masterfully contained anger that I know. He had me from when the cat says "Kiyi Rorry." I hope very much that Philip K. Dick read it. Miller's "Dark Benediction" is also outstanding. These are indispensable works of science fiction. You can find them in The Best of Walter M. Miller, Jr., but I prefer my old Ballantine paperback Conditionally Human (which was accompanied by The View from the Stars). I think a recent British paperback, Dark Benediction, contains the same content as The Best or close to it, and these two Ballantines contain content close to The Best. (I don't like the cover art on Best, which looks more like something for an Otis Adelbert Kline yarn than what I would associate with Miller.) These collect nearly all of what appear (from an article you can find online called something like "The Lost Canticles of Walter M. Miller, Jr.") to be Miller's best. Missing from the Ballantines and The Best (and I think from Dark Benediction ) is a nifty story called "Wolf Pack" that would have worked well as a show in the old Twilight Zone TV series. "The Lost Canticles" can help you track down such stories.

 

[Oskari]

Didn't read SF for years and then a mate suggested Stephen Baxter's, Ark. Having just finished it I have mixed feelings. For instance, I found the first 100 or so pages a bit plodding, but when they got into space it held me to the end. However, it's not a book that has lingered in my mind for any length of time.

Any thoughts?

 

[GOLLUM]

Didn't read SF for years and then a mate suggested Stephen Baxter's, Ark. Having just finished it I have mixed feelings. For instance, I found the first 100 or so pages a bit plodding, but when they got into space it held me to the end. However, it's not a book that has lingered in my mind for any length of time.

Any thoughts?

I can't comment specifically on that book but I was very impressed with Baxter's Time Ships, a sequel to Wells' The Time Machine. Several people consider it superior to the orignal and I
am in that camp as much as I did enjoy The Time Machine. From memory it is written in a similar style to the orginal.

I also have the Mammoth trilogy about....yep a family/herd of Mammoths. I have not read that yet but friends who have think it's very good.

Baxter to my knowledge is a well respected author of Hard SF.

Cheers.

 

[Nesacat]

Thank you to GOLLUM & JP for the introduction to Susan Hill. The book recommended was The Woman in Black. It's a wonderful piece of writing. Hill uses the language very, very well. I could feel myself sitting in that house in the middle of the marshes, hearing the wind blow and waiting for the doom that comes with seeing the lady in black. I've since also read two other books by her - A Kind Man & The Small Hand.

Another writer would be Cees Nooteboom. For some reason I was sure this was a woman and he's not. The book I started with was Lost Paradise. Nooteboom sets out to connect two seemingly unrelated strangers whom he has glimpsed on his travels -- a beautiful woman aboard a Berlin-bound flight and a haggard-looking man on a Holland train platform -- and to explore the major impact that small interactions can have on the course of our journeys. The results are very surreal and focus on how our lives are touched and its paths illuminated by external or perhaps divine forces.

One last one for now is Elizabeth Knox. I found Daylight in a remainder store. This is a lovely, lovely book. Reminded me of Susan Hill. It's like wandering in a dream ... you never know what you might encounter next but when you do; you realise you'd always known it. That this is what is supposed to happen. That this is the truth you have always known. And because the characters so naturally accept all that is happening, I as a reader felt myself doing so to and in so doing got drawn further in the book. Brian 'Bad' Phelan is a New Zealander, a policeman and a born survivor: he's walked away from a viewing-platform collapse that killed several of his friends, a flash flood in a French cave, and most recently a bomb in an underground carpark. While on holiday on the French/Italian border, Bad -- an expert caver -- helps to recover a body from a rocky, wave-swept cove. The dead woman bears a striking resemblance -- her hair is blonde at the roots and dark at the ends -- to a girl he met years ago, shortly before she disappeared in a flooded French cave. Haunted by the strange connection, Bad is compelled to investigate.Much of the tale takes place in a world of caves, secret passages and hidden cloisters. In this 'world beneath the world', Bad comes face to face with history and myth, with phantoms whose hearts are still beating and hungry and able to break.

 

[GOLLUM]

Thank you to GOLLUM & JP for the introduction to Susan Hill. The book recommended was The Woman in Black. It's a wonderful piece of writing. Hill uses the language very, very well. I could feel myself sitting in that house in the middle of the marshes, hearing the wind blow and waiting for the doom that comes with seeing the lady in black. I've since also read two other books by her - A Kind Man & The Small Hand.

Another writer would be Cees Nooteboom. For some reason I was sure this was a woman and he's not. The book I started with was Lost Paradise. Nooteboom sets out to connect two seemingly unrelated strangers whom he has glimpsed on his travels -- a beautiful woman aboard a Berlin-bound flight and a haggard-looking man on a Holland train platform -- and to explore the major impact that small interactions can have on the course of our journeys. The results are very surreal and focus on how our lives are touched and its paths illuminated by external or perhaps divine forces.

HMMM...these comments seem strangely familiar....

Nice to see a another fan of Susan Hill. As you would be aware I am just statring on Nooteboom with his most famous work The Following Story. I'm currently listening to a couple of interviews he gave...very interesting.

Cheers.

 

[rune]

Ive not discovered that many this year

Mike Carey - actually near the end of last year I found his books
A.J Walker - her first book was quite good
Matt Heppe - was a reasonably good first book too
K.E Mills - just discovered her this year too, do like her wizard series

 

[Nesacat]

I read my first book by Liz Williams this year. I actually bought the book at the Eastercon in 2010 but only read it this year. The book I have is The Banquet of the Lords of Night and other stories. I was actually drawn to this book because it has a beautifully illustrated cover. The stories are well written and I am certainly going to read more of her books. I also have The Poison Master and from Ian Whates' Newcon Press I just received her new collection of stories titled A Glass of Shadow.

Another writer whose books I picked up over the last two years but only read this year is Margo Lanagan. I have two volumes of short stories -- Red Spikes and Black Juice -- and one novel titled Tender Morsels. Her stories are actually short with most of her stories coming in under 5,000 words. They often focus on a single incident or point. For example, the opening story in Black Juice titled Singing My Sister Down is about Ikky who has killed her husband. Her punishment is to be sunk in a tar pit. The tale narrated by her brother is this final ceremony. In Red Nose Day two men assassinate clowns at a convention in revenge for being abused as kids. Sweet Pippit is told from the point of view of a herd of elephants trying to rescue a boy they love.

Finally there is Zoran Zivkovic and the first book of his that I read was Twelve Collections and the Teashop. The stories focus on our urge to collect things.

 

[GOLLUM]

Another writer whose books I picked up over the last two years but only read this year is Margo Lanagan. I have two volumes of short stories -- Red Spikes and Black Juice -- and one novel titled Tender Morsels. Her stories are actually short with most of her stories coming in under 5,000 words. They often focus on a single incident or point. For example, the opening story in Black Juice titled Singing My Sister Down is about Ikky who has killed her husband. Her punishment is to be sunk in a tar pit. The tale narrated by her brother is this final ceremony. In Red Nose Day two men assassinate clowns at a convention in revenge for being abused as kids. Sweet Pippit is told from the point of view of a herd of elephants trying to rescue a boy they love..

Margo is great. I met her least year at the writer's festival. Black juice is very good as is Tender Morsels....

 

[darkfox]

I'm jealous of UK citizens...there's just very little fantasy writer support in Canada.

 

[Tansy]

Mark Lawrence
Sue Grafton

 

[Connavar]

I read my first book by Liz Williams this year. I actually bought the book at the Eastercon in 2010 but only read it this year. The book I have is The Banquet of the Lords of Night and other stories. I was actually drawn to this book because it has a beautifully illustrated cover. The stories are well written and I am certainly going to read more of her books. I also have The Poison Master and from Ian Whates' Newcon Press I just received her new collection of stories titled A Glass of Shadow.

Another writer whose books I picked up over the last two years but only read this year is Margo Lanagan. I have two volumes of short stories -- Red Spikes and Black Juice -- and one novel titled Tender Morsels. Her stories are actually short with most of her stories coming in under 5,000 words. They often focus on a single incident or point. For example, the opening story in Black Juice titled Singing My Sister Down is about Ikky who has killed her husband. Her punishment is to be sunk in a tar pit. The tale narrated by her brother is this final ceremony. In Red Nose Day two men assassinate clowns at a convention in revenge for being abused as kids. Sweet Pippit is told from the point of view of a herd of elephants trying to rescue a boy they love.

Finally there is Zoran Zivkovic and the first book of his that I read was Twelve Collections and the Teashop. The stories focus on our urge to collect things.

Please try The Snake Agent when you read more of Liz Williams. Its her urban fantasy series ala Harry Dresden as PI like UF series. The difference is her world is much more original. It uses chinese mythology, set in east Asia and it has a fascinating hard to define mix of SF,Fantasy,mystery.

 

[Rodders]

I just started Ernest Cline's "Ready Player One" a promising start.

 

[Ian Whates]

Please try The Snake Agent when you read more of Liz Williams. Its her urban fantasy series ala Harry Dresden as PI like UF series. The difference is her world is much more original. It uses chinese mythology, set in east Asia and it has a fascinating hard to define mix of SF,Fantasy,mystery.

I'd also endorse Liz's Inspector Chen books, Conn (and Nesa) -- a couple of the stories in A Glass of Shadow are set in the same world, Singapore Three.

 

[Connavar]

A Glass of Shadow is a must buy book then.

 

[biodroid]

James Lee Burke

 

[AE35Unit]

Add Richard Matheson and Frank de Felitta to the list!