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These are some of my favourite authors, books and
links.
For now I am concentrating
on my fiction tastes which lean heavily towards Sci-Fi, some
Horror, a little Fantasy, Adventure, Mainstream, blah, blah,
blah. I am only listing a few of my favorites here(well OK,
over the last few days it's become a bit more than a few).
It is by no means complete. Some authors could be considered
sci-fi OR fantasy depending on which story you are talking about,
so I've based my categorization on the bulk of their work(a good
example of this diversity is Tim
Powers, the three
books I've read are all of a different style and would be called
sci-fi/cyberpunk, fantasy/adventure, and horror respectively).
I have included a lot of links to pages that will give you a
more complete history of a particular author.
So far this year I have only read 2 1/2 novels. But, they have
been excellent. First was Towing Jehovah by James Morrow.
It involves the 2 mile long dead body of God (not too
sorry if I offend) falling to Earth and floating around the ocean.
The dying angels carve a resting place in the Arctic and charge
a group of humans the task of transporting the holy corpse. Along
the way they have to battle off sharks, the Church, crazies of
every flavour (including a feminist who wants the body blasted
out of the water because it proves the church's doctrines of
a MALE God), and their own crises of faith. Morrow pulls
no punches here and he is irreverent, funny, and intelligent.
I have the sequel Blameless in Abaddon and am looking
forward to it. I also read The List of 7 by Mark Frost
who was also one of the creators of Twin Peaks. It is set in turn of the century England and revolves
around the adventures of doctor, author, and student & debunker
of the supernatural Arthur Conan Doyle. It is his fictional
story of a group of people involved in bringing a great evil
to Earth that brings him to the attention of just such a group
and the impossible events that follow make him question everything
he believes. He is joined in his adventures by a secret agent
of the Queen; Jack Sparks, or is he who he says he is?
Doyle possesses the keen intellect and eye for detail
of his creation Sherlock Holmes, but other than that he
more closely resembles Dr. Watson. Sparks shows
himself to be Doyle's future inspiration for Holmes.
It is a non-stop ride of chases across the English countryside,
murderous seances, and endless battles with the undead and other
evil creatures. All told in a voice reminiscent of the real
Arthur Conan Doyle. I am currently reading a sequel to
this called The 6 Messiahs that takes place 10 years later
in America of the early 1900s. Doyle finds himself famous
as the creator of and infamous as the destroyer of Holmes.
He also gets wrapped up in evil doings involving stolen religious
texts of all kinds of religions. Sparks is also back although
he is a shell of the man who was thought to have died falling
over Reichenbach Falls! HAH! Am loving it so far. Thanks
to James Morrow and Mark Frost. I will be looking
for more of your work.
Short Sci-Fi
I like to read short stories,
novellas, and novelettes. They can be incredibly powerful or just
a nice little bit of something to make your day a little brighter.
Either way you get to read some great stuff. And some... It is
also a good way to guage new authors. Most of my favourite new
authors I discovered in Asimov's and went looking for more
of their stuff. I also get to read awesome stories by some of
my long time favourite authors.
I found the premiere issue (November 1992) of Science Fiction
Age on a magazine stand or store or something. Its first issue
was dedicated to Isaac Asimov, noting the significance of launching the magazine
in the year of the good Doctor's death. I really enjoyed that
first issue. It was a good blend of fiction, columns on movies
& books & scientific debate, an author showcasing an artist, and
much more. It is a very colorful magazine with a fair amount of
advertising. It was hard to find the magazine after a couple of
issues and I had almost given up when I heard there had been a
publishing strike that might be the problem. Not a very good time
to start a magazine. Well, they seem to have weathered it OK and
I started subscribing by the sixth issue ordering the three back
issues I had missed. The quality of the fiction and the other
parts of the magazine has always been of exceptional quality and
I still subscribe today, although this damn computer is taking
a lot of my reading time.
"See what the mail
can do to a classic"
But, my favourite fiction
magazine is Asimov's Science Fiction. I have been subscribing
since May 1987 and I just received the April 1997 - 20th Anniversary
issue right about my tenth anniversary with this magazine. It
is a simple magazine with few pictures and simple text pages in
a paperback format in size and layout. And other than an editorial,
a few letters, book reviews, and poems it is fiction, fiction,
and more fiction.They have almost always been good stories (to
me) and there have been a lot of fantastic stories (pun maybe
intended). To date, stories appearing in Asimov's have
won 26 Hugos and 22 Nebulas. The editors have received
11 Hugos for Best Editor and Asimov's has received
numerous Locus awards for Best Magazine. When Isaac was
doing the editorials every month they were always a highlight
for me. His keen intelligence and not so politically correct way
of looking at things were a joy to me. Whether you agreed with
him or not, you could not fault him for the logic, compassion
and careful thought that went into even his most controversial
views. I think I can say that he would have just wanted us to
start making decisions based on more global concerns rather than
our petty, selfish ones and maybe to allow our self-awareness
to overcome our instincts and fears. I'll let all of you make
your own conclusions. I have enjoyed Robert Silverberg's
editorials since he moved his Reflections column to Asimov's
in July 1994. The book reviews have always been first rate. Most
of them have been done by Norman Spinrad and Baird Searles
(1936 - 1993){There was an "In Memoriam" for Bay
in the November 1993 Asimov's}. Theirs are (or were) opinions
I trust, and even if I don't always agree, respect. Their opinions
are consistent, so I can usually tell if I will like or dislike
a book depending on what they say about it. And when I have read
books reviewed this theory has been held up. The magazine also
has little advertising because of its cheaper format.
After finalizing which authors
I was going to concentrate on for my sci-fi and fantasy pages,
and thinking about a lot of the stories I have read over the last
ten years while writing about these authors, I decided to look
through each and every issue for all the stories by my featured
authors in Asimov's these past ten years. It was a huge amount
of story titles I ended up with. I cannot remember every single
story really clearly of course. Some more than others. In the
following sci-fi and fantasy pages I will list the short stories,
novellas and novelettes I have read by each author. Unless specified
otherwise these stories were from the last ten years of Asimov's.
A handful of the stories I haven't read yet because I am usually
a few issues behind. Of course I came across a lot of authors'
names that I really like but hadn't included on my list. Well,
for now I am going to stick to the list but will make a note of
some of these other authors, old and new, at the end of my sci-fi
pages. Certain authors kept popping up over and over. I had thought
women dominated the market for newer writers and by the number
of stories printed, in Asimov's at least, they cetainly
are prolific. The five authors that had the most stories printed
since I've been subscribing are: Mary
Rosenblum(22), Isaac
Asimov(19), Nancy
Kress(18),
Connie Willis(17), and Robert Silverberg(14).
One from the old guard, one from the middle era(?), and three
new authors who just all happen to be female. What is strange
is that while Mary Rosenblum had the most stories printed,
the first of these didn't appear until the December 1990 issue.
So those 22 stories were put out in less than 6 and a half years!
So check out both these magazines and definitely try reading some
new authors as well as old.
Sci-Fi
"My God, it's full of stars!"
- Arthur C. Clarke
(1917 - )
- 2001: A Space Odyssey - written
after the movie script which itself came from a nine page Clarke
story called "The Sentinel".
Great movie, book and sequels. Enjoyed 2010, 2061, and am looking forward to 3001.
- Rendezvous With Rama - probably
one of my all-time favourites. Also enjoyed the three sequels
written with Gentry Lee. Lee is
also the driving force behind the cool computer game Rama based
on Rama II. Arthur also appears
in video clips in the game.
- How does the story go? Clarke predicted
the synchronous communications satellite in 1945 (after being
in charge of the first ground control approach radar unit during
the war). This satellite did not actually come about until 1967.
- Isaac Asimov
(1920 - 1992)
- The Foundation Series - definitely
a classic.
- R. Daneel Olivaw/Elijah Bailey Robot Novels - some of the best mysteries ever written.
- The Robot Stories - Isaac laid
the groundwork and the Three Laws down.
- Murder At The ABA - Isaac
appearing as himself in a murder mystery at an American Booksellers
Association convention.
- Short stories: Galatea,
Flight of Fancy, I Love Little Pussy, The Smile of the Chipper,
To Your Health, Too Bad!, Fault-Intolerant, Wine is a Mocker,
The Time Traveller, Kid Brother, Robot Visions, Baby,It's Cold
Outside, Forward the Foundation, It's a Job, Cleon the Emporer,
The Critic on the Hearth, The Consort, More Things in Heaven
and Earth, March Against the Foe.
- countless more novels, short stories,
and non-fiction.
- the incredibly witty, belligerent
and endearing editorials and essays written in association with
Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine or other sources.
- 6 Hugos & 2 Nebulas.
- for more on Isaac go to the Isaac
Asimov Home Page
- Robert Silverberg (1935
- )
- -
hard to explain what's different about this fantasy. But, I loved
it. The sequels; Majipoor Chronicles
and Valentine Pontifex were
good too. Another short novel based in this world has been released
called Mountains of Majipoor.
- Tom O'Bedlam - great title,
great book.
- At Winters End/The New Springtime
- society reestablishing itself after an ice age, an amazing
portrayal of a truly "alien" culture. At Winter's
End was also a novella I read in Asimov's.
- Up The Line - one of Bob's
many great time travel books
- short stories: The Fascination
of the Abomination, The Secret Sharer, At Winter's End, Gilgamesh
in Uruk, We Are for the Dark, In Another Country, Enter a Soldier.Later:Enter
Another, Chip Runner, Lion Time in Timbuctoo, An Outpost of the
Empire, Looking For the Fountain, Via Roma, Hot Times in Magma
City, Call Me Titan.
- 4 Hugos & 5 Nebulas.
- has taken over the big shoes Isaac
left writing the editorials at Asimov's.
- for more info go to the
Robert
Silverberg Unofficial Home Page
- Larry Niven (1938 -
)
- Ringworld - another one of
"the" classics. A bunch of cool aliens from Niven's
Known Space books including the Puppetmasters and an unbelievable alien locale; the Ringworld."The
thing is roomy enough: three million times the area of Earth".
Ringworld Engineers was also
good. I haven't read the third installment that came out recently,
nobody seems to like it much.
- Dream Park(w/ Steven Barnes)
- a great mystery story in a slightly futuristic amusement park
where you can go on an adventure where you interact with holographic
characters and the rest of your team, that is until somebody
decides to "reprogram things a little". Excellent blend
of sci-fi and mystery carried on in The Barsoom Project and I haven't had time to read California
Voodoo Game.
- The Mote In God's Eye(w/ Jerry Pournelle) - our first dealings with aliens, but what
interesting aliens they are. Almost twenty years later they wrote
the sequel The Gripping Hand
and it brought us a lot more bizarreness from aliens and humans.
- The Legacy Of Heorot(w/ Barnes & Pournelle) - Larry et al show us that in studying life
on a new planet we should never assume that we know anything
about anything! How something peaceful and unassuming can become
very dangerous. A sequel has recently come out called Beowulf's
Children.
- The Integral Trees/The Smoke Ring
- An amazing world where the people live on a giant tree in space!
Sounds silly, but it is just another example of Niven's huge
talent in creating truly exotic and alien worlds and cultures
and making them totally believable.
- A Gift From Earth, World of Ptavvs, Neutron Star, Oath
Of Fealty, Footfall, Protector, and
some fantastic short stories like Madness Has Its Place from Asimov's.
- 4 Hugos & 1 Nebula.
- find a timeline and history for
the Known Space stories at
The
Up To Date Known Space Chronology.
- for more on Larry Niven go to Known Space.
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