Discovered Authors 2011

[Connavar]

Marcel Proust *****
Henry James ***
Thomas Mann ****
Naja Marie Aidt *** - A young Danish Greenland writer

The stars rating are my first rating of the works i have read.

 

[nixie]

Rachel Caine, not the best but enjoyable as long as your not looking for anything to challenging.

Cassandra Clare, aimed at the younger reader but still good enough to lose yourself in.

Mark Lawerence, likely the best I've come across in the last couple of years.

 

[D_Davis]

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

Seems to be the "It" book in geek-culture this year.

 

[CyBeR]

*opens up READ excell document* Lessee here:

John Katzenbach - with Hart's War. Great book and a great start for my ear as it was the first I finished this year. Will definitely be checking out more of his works.

Andrzej Sapkowski - with Blood of Elves, courtesy of the reading challenge back in spring. I've yet to read The last wish, but have every intention to do so.

Robert Jordan - my first foray into the world of The wheel of time. Not too shabby, though I've yet to read another book, I intend to give the series more of my time next year.

Douglas Adams - started off with Dirk Gently's Holystic Detective Agency and had a great time reading it. Made a good first impression.

Joseph Conrad - wasn't that thrilled with his Heart of darkness, so not really interested in more for the time being.

Nicholas Sparks - again, not that impressed with A walk to remember, so won't be looking for his other works.

Robert A. Heinlein - for some reason I did not enjoy Starship troopers as much as I thought I would, though it was interesting in any case. I'll be reading more of his next year.

Scott Lynch - The lies of Loke Lamora was a great book and I've got the sequel lined up in my To Read list. The author is rather good, though I understand his series is stagnating for some time now without the third book.

Stephen King - just a short novel, Cycle of the werewolf, but it got me interested in him. I'll see soon enough what's there to read from this man.

A.E. van Vogt - The world of Null-A was actually very interesting, I'm currently looking for the others from the series.

And that's about half the list from what I've read this year. Most of the authors have been new for me, but I don't quite feel like typing them all down for now.

 

[Connavar]

I have had a wonderful time with new discoveries recently:

Herman Hesse - Siddharta 5/5
Toni Morrison - A Mercy 4/5
Marguerite Duras - The Lover 4/5
Sara Lidman - Tjärdalen(Swedish modern great) 5/5
George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four 5/5
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita 5/5
Edward Erdelec - Merkabah Rider 4/5

The 4,5 rating are stars of coure.

 

[GOLLUM]

Glad you liked those so much Conn.

Edward Erdelec I am not familiar with. Care to elaborate a little?

Cheers.

 

[Connavar]

Glad you liked those so much Conn.

Edward Erdelec I am not familiar with. Care to elaborate a little?

Cheers.

He is a young talented writer writes an awesome weird western collection,series based on Jewish mythology. He is one of my new fav authors who surprised me with his Merkabah Rider:Tales of a High Planes Drifter .

 

[manephelien]

Hannu Rajaniemi: The Quantum Thief

Hannu Rajaniemi is a phyisicist at the University of Edinburgh, a Finn who writes in English.

The Quantum Thief is the first book of a trilogy describing a bizarre post-human world where nothing is what it seems. A sometimes confusing story about memory, artificial life and death, and free will. And the all too human emotions of revenge and jealousy. Yet at the same time it's a bizarre tale of jailbreaks and heists!

Definitely worth a read, and there are some funny bonuses for those who speak Finnish (an intelligent spaceship named Perhonen who uses butterflies as avatars for communicating seems merely odd unless you know that "perhonen" means butterfly).

The Quantum Thief is the first part of a trilogy. I'll definitely be getting the others when they're published.

 

[Spade]

I read my first John Scalzi novels this year. I read Old Man's War and Fuzzy Nation back to back very quickly. His books aren't very philosophical, but they're definitely fun reads.

 

[Rodders]

I've just finished Neil Gaiman's "American Gods". I must confess that i've put off reading Gaimen's stuff for a while as i didn't think that it'd suit my reading preferences. (More fantasy than SF). I'm glad i finally got round to it though. American gods was a beautiful book in my opinion. (I like the sound of Anansi Boys and Neverwhere. I think i'll get them on my next haul.)

 

[GOLLUM]

I've just finished Neil Gaiman's "American Gods". I must confess that i've put off reading Gaimen's stuff for a while as i didn't think that it'd suit my reading preferences. (More fantasy than SF). I'm glad i finally got round to it though. American gods was a beautiful book in my opinion. (I like the sound of Anansi Boys and Neverwhere. I think i'll get them on my next haul.)

Speaking as a mega Gaiman fan I think American Gods is Neil's best written work of fiction (vs graphic novels). Anansi Boys is not bad, Neverwhere is good. You should check out Coraline. It's his, once again just my opinion, finest children's book along with The Graveyard Book. Neil's best story collection is probably still Fragile Things whilst his greatest achievement in the field of the graphic novel...weell a bit of a nobrainer for me, is the classic Sandman series.

I'll be interested to read your thoughts on any of his other works you happen to read and don't forget Mr Gaiman has his own thread under the authors forum.

 

[natalienoo]

Re: Rodders & Gollum.

I read my first Gaiman earlier this year (The Graveyard Book) after putting off his works for a long time. I've now read Anansi Boys and Neverwhere and am itching to pick up American Gods. Great author, wonderful storyteller. He has the ability to make his books light-hearted yet enthralling. I was genuinely sad when I read the last pages of Neverwhere - as childish as it sounds, I really didn't want the book to end.

 

[Ian Whates]

Re: Rodders & Gollum.

I read my first Gaiman earlier this year (The Graveyard Book) after putting off his works for a long time. I've now read Anansi Boys and Neverwhere and am itching to pick up American Gods. Great author, wonderful storyteller. He has the ability to make his books light-hearted yet enthralling. I was genuinely sad when I read the last pages of Neverwhere - as childish as it sounds, I really didn't want the book to end.

He's also a genuinely nice man. Neil had promised me a story for an anthology I was putting together, Fables from the Fountain. Deadline came and went, no story. I was reluctant to hassle because, I mean, this is Neil Gaiman, but eventually I did and he replied at once, apologising and explaining that he was currently on honeymoon, would be back the following Friday and that I'd have the story by the end of that weekend.

Saturday and Sunday he emailed updating me on progress, and the (brief but utterly brilliant) story duly arrived first thing Monday morning.

He then donated his fee to help support the Arthur C Clarke Award, and set aside time, during a flying visit to London to film Dr Who Confidential, to meet up with me and sign all the signing sheets for the book's limited edition.

A true gentleman.

 

[natalienoo]

Indeed! It's always lovely to hear a master storyteller is also a top bloke.

 

[GOLLUM]

Indeed! It's always lovely to hear a master storyteller is also a top bloke.

I can back up Ian's observations regarding Neil having had the opportunity to meet and chat with him on more than one occasion. I'm not sure if I've ever seen anyone better at mixing with fans withuot a single whiff or air of superiroty about his person, which gvien his sucess and standing in the field of boith Speculative and mainstream fiction, is a trait I find impressive.

He's also an excellent narrator of his own work if you ever have the chance to grab hold of a recording of him covering one of his own stories...I can recommend it.

 

[natalienoo]

Cheers for the recommendation Gollum. I've been looking at buying a couple of his audio-books for a while now, but I'll make it more of a priority.

 

[elvet]

This year I've been introduced to and impressed with:
Daniel Abraham (The Dragon's Path). On the strength of that book, I've picked up the Long Price Quartet books.
James Corey (Leviathan Wakes)
Stephen Deas (The Memory of Flames)
Mark Charon Newton (Nights of Viljamur)
Joel Shepherd (A Trial of Blood and Steel)
Chris Wooding (The Braided Path, Tales of the Ketty Jay)

 

[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.)

Actually, I forgot to mention Iain Banks - I read Consider Phlebas back in February. There were good and bad things about it, so the jury's still out, but I'm looking forward to reading the next (probably Use of Weapons, if I don't bump into Player of Games) next year.

 

[Alurny]

My discovered author for 2011 is Alistair Reynolds, after picking up pushing ice in a second hand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumbria whilst on my jollies. I have never read a book of this genre (unless the star wars and star trek books I read as a teen count) and I found it thoroughly engaging. Pretty soon after finishing pushing ice I moved onto the house of suns, which I picked up for a couple of quid second hand also, and found it tottally different to pushing ice, but a very good tale all the same. He has a great way of making things just make sense without having to explain or describe things at great length.

 

[Michael J Sullivan]

New Authors for me this year....

Mark Lawrence (Prince of Thorns)
Kevin Hearne (Hounded, Hexed, Hammered)
Douglas Hulick (Among Thieves)
Mazarkis Williams (The Emperor's Knife)