Well, I suppose I eventually had to get around to one of the hobbies that used to keep me up late every night. (It still does do that occasionally.) That hobby is reading.

I just found out about two sites for tracking down out of print books: Interloc and (someplace I seem to have forgotten...:-( ). For in-print books, I'm told that Amazon is very good. Personally, I tend to do a pretty large percentage of my shopping at Borders, but they definitely aren't the cheapest. (Perhaps it's just that they have a browsable Linguistics section. :)

My reading tends to be mostly sci-fi/fantasy, but I've also become quite fond of historical fiction of late. I'll list my favorite authors down below, but I don't have too many web sites for them so far.

I've also started reading history books of late, but I'm not going to get into them until I've read more of them.

Anyway, on to the authors:

Orson Scott Card. He has long been my favorite author. I really first experienced his work in Ender's Game, followed immediately by Speaker for the Dead. I later found that I liked Songmaster even more. He has, unfortunately, written a couple of duds since (the sequel to Speaker, Xenocide, was absolutely terrible, IMHO), but his most recent book Pastwatch, convinced me that he hasn't completely lost his touch.
One interesting theory that I heard from him was that Science Fiction is the last remaining place for finding religious literature. While that isn't at all true in a narrow sense (I find _very_ few books that are overtly religious), in a broader sense, it is completely true. While religion might not be the main issue, the issues with which religion attempts to grapple are very much present.
I'm also hearing about a movie version of Ender. Check out this site, and you'll find out about what I know.

Paula Volsky. She hasn't written very many books (about five), but the two that I own are fantastically well written. From a technical standpoint, she might be the best writer I've run across. Even I find myself groping for the dictionary reading her books...:) The first of the two I've read, Illusion, is almost historical fiction. While it doesn't take place on earth (I would consider this a prerequisite for being categorized as historical fiction), it really depicts the horrors of the French Revolution. The second, The Gates of Twilight, takes place on the same world several hundred years later. The connection between the two is tenuous, and fairly easy to miss. I would highly recommend her books.

J.R.R. Tolkien. He isn't as much my favorite author as he once was, I still appreciate his works a great deal. My favorite (and I'm aware that many people would disagree with this opinion vehemently, but I don't care... thththtpppt :), The Silmarillion, is a long history of another world. One of the things that I appreciate most about his work is his linguistic consistency. He created several synthetic languages (I don't think he finished any of them, but...) for his non-human characters to speak, and they came across as both unique and believable. I suppose that's what happens when a philologist writes a novel. In any event, there is no denying that his is the model of the "epic" fantasy. Another one who is fantastic from a technical standpoint.

Michael Creighton. Take a doctor. Make him bored with his profession. Give him writing ability, and a penchant for taking a hard look at the "bleeding edge" of medicine. I think that about sums him up. Remember what I mentioned about religion in fiction? He covers that pretty well too. He's been fabulously successful of late, and it shows. Some of his most recent books haven't really been up to his normal level. Overall, however, I give him very high marks, especially for suspence and creativity. Don't ignore him just because he has become popular of late. I would rate The Andromeda Strain as, probably, his best book. An excellent movie was also made of it.

Dan Simmons. What to say about him? Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion were both fabulous books. They had a distinct, and not accidental, flavor in them of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. They were not, however, nearly as racy as the original. Still, they made for a fascinating read. Also, he just recently wrote a sequel to them, called Endymion. This was also very good, taking place several hundred years after the first two. It is pretty much guaranteed that there will be future installments in this series, as there were more questions asked than answered. I'm going to have to go back and reread the first two to make sure, but I think this one wasn't quite as carefully crafted as the first two. In particular, I found two inconsistensies while reading it. One of these two was significant, while the other was unimportant.
Phases of Gravity was another of his that I enjoyed greatly. My only problem with him, as a writer, is that he writes both fantasy and horror. I unreservedly recommend his fantasy, but since I'm not a horror buff, I'll keep my mouth shut about that (actually, just in case you take that the wrong way, I better clarify that I haven't read any of his horror novels). Another one thinking of pseudo-religious issues.

Tad Williams. I'm not sure, actually, that I really want to say that he is all that great. However, I really enjoyed his Dragonbone Chair trilogy. His characterizations were very good, and he also had a good deal of linguistic consistency. I wasn't all that fond of Tailchaser's Song, but won't say that it was a bad book, because I've known other people who enjoyed it a great deal. Just not quite to my taste.

David Eddings. Since I mentioned characterizations, I should bring him up. His plots are pretty weak, and he isn't that great from a technical standpoint, but his characters are fantastic. Thus far, he has managed to tell the same story three different times, and sell it each time. I guess that says something about his characterization. At least he hasn't gone to the extreme of the late Robert Heinlein, whose later stories didn't even have a plot. I guess I'll give a mixed recommendation on Eddings. Certainly, the Belgariad is worth a read. High Hunt is as well, but is much harder to find, as it has been out of print for a long time. Otherwise, I can give a mild recommendation on Guardians of the West, the first book in The Mallorean, on account of the humor and character interactions, but would not recommend the rest of that series.

Larry Niven. I did say I liked sci-fi, as well as fantasy. Niven has written a lot of hard-core sci-fi stories. He tends to explore some fairly interesting scientific theories. His "Known Space" stories are excellent. My only complaint with some of them was that, as short stories, they could have been explored in more detail. (And that is a very mild complaint.) There have been a few of his books that I was less than thrilled with, however. While Ringworld was very good, The Ringworld Engineers was one that I haven't been able to push myself through. The Integral Trees was another fascinating one. What happens to man when he lives in a world with negligible gravity for several hundred years? I read this many years ago, but found it very good.

Judith Tarr. I mentioned earlier that I'm very fond of historical fiction. Judith Tarr is a large part of the reason why. She has a doctorate in medieval history, and is able to make her medieval stories very believable. I first discovered her writing in The Hound and the Falcon trilogy. She later explored that world a little more fully with Alamut and The Dagger and the Cross, but I've been looking for a larger expostulation for quite some time. Lately, she's been getting closer to history than fantasy. By that, I mean that some of the magic has gone out of her stories. She has written a few straight fantasy books as well, though the titles escape me at the moment (Wind in Cairo is one, IIRC). Overall, I highly recommend her.

Robert Jordan. You remember my complaint with some of Niven? Not exploring fully enough? Well, Jordan is in no danger of that. His Wheel of Time series is averaging something over 600 pages per novel. And that's all one linked story. I'm actually beginning to get the impression that he's given up ever trying to start linking the threads back together in that story. The story actually started with purpose and direction, but really seems to have lost it over the last two or three books. Overall, I'd give a mixed recommendation about going past the first or second book, but I would definitely recommend that much.

Melanie Rawn. Hmm... I haven't read any of her work in even more time than it's been for Simmons. She has some of the same tendencies as Jordan. That is, long-windedness and a tendency to let the characters get in the way of the plot. Still, I would very strongly recommend her first couple of books. They had a really intricate, politically-driven plots, with some fascinating magic. Unfortunately, she really tailed off towards the end. I haven't read any of her latest series. I just reread The Dragon Prince recently, and that definitely remains on my shelf of favorites.

Steven Brust. I'm very fond of his style. His characterizations are detailed, while still having an interesting plot. With an average, per novel, of about 250 pages, he comes across as neither terse nor long-winded. His main novels center around an underworld assassin, Vlad Taltos. The story doesn't take place on earth. In fact, he made up the world, an additional race, and a mythology for that race. The first four or five were fantastic stories. I really thought they went downhill after that. Mostly, I just didn't like what he did with a couple of the characters. As always, YMMV.

Joan D. Vinge. What to say? She's another one that I haven't read much recently. Her earlier works, Psion, Cat's Paw, and Winter Queen, were excellent. Psion could, perhaps, be classified as a children's book. It's about a young psionicist in the future. He is a half-breed with an alien race (which is where he gets his powers), who is forced into trying to save the world. Cat's Paw is a sequel to that. The same person is hired by a corporation several years later to help out the ruling family of that corporation (sorry, been a while, I don't remember all the details). This one definitely isn't a children's story. She very recently wrote a third story in this series, Dreamfall. This one was also more mature than the first book. I really liked it, but the ending was very bittersweet. Caveat emptor, and all that. :)
Winter Queen also wasn't a children's story. It is about two teenagers who are in love, and need to work together to keep their world from being destroyed (after being estranged). The sequel to it, Summer Queen, tells of the aftermath. I can't say as I can really remember much of anything about the sequel. (Likely, I didn't finish it.)

I realized after writing down my favorites that I needed to talk about a couple of other authors.

Elizabeth Moon is a favorite of a friend of mine. He convinced me to read The Deeds of Paksenarrion (which I probably just misspelled). I've since recommended it to many people, and only met one person who wasn't thrilled with it. That person was a former Marine who got too many flashbacks from the first 50-100 pages of Sheepfarmer's Daughter.

Patricia McKillip is one I discovered many, many moons ago. I really liked the way she weaves her riddles together with her characters. She is also a mistress of brevity. I think the whole Riddlemaster series is under 750 pages total.

Raymond Feist is another that I discovered a long, long time ago. The two books mentioned down below have subsequently been reprinted with additional material as Magician, but I haven't read that edition. However, as you might have noticed on my pages, I am very interested in things Japanese, and these two largely take place on a world heavily based on Japan. I also really like the character Pug. I was not nearly as keen on the later books in this series, but there was another series he co-wrote with Janny Wurts, Guardian of the Empire, which I also liked very much. For some reason, however, it seems like I can never find all three books of this latter series.

I've actually liked many of Lawrence Watt-Evans' books. The Misenchanted Sword was the first of his that I ever picked up, but I also enjoyed The Cyborg and the Sorcerors, its sequel, With a Single Spell, and a couple of others. The humor in his books is fantastic, and his magic is also rather neat. Cyborg had a neat blend of sci-fi and fantasy to go with the other elements. I also own Nightside City, which I've read a little of, but could never get into.

And finally, Frank Herbert. I was talked into reading Dune, and was absolutely enthralled. There is a reason why so many people have read this book. This is one that I couldn't put down in my second and third readings. I've finally gotten around to reading the later books. I've gone through Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. I'm told that God Emperor of Dune is terrible... Guess I'll find out for myself about that very soon. Messiah and Children are both very good, but not nearly as engrossing as the original. There's an awful lot of philosophizing throughout the series (at least, as far as I've gotten). I suspect that Mr. Herbert must be an incredibly perceptive man. The details into which he delves occasionally are pretty amazing. Things about which most people would never think twice.

Actually, though, one of the things I found most interesting about the whole milieu was the fact that, although it was set in the far future (and Children, in particular, likes to keep ramming this point home), there is nothing in the way of computers, and very little in the way of advanced (read: ranged) weaponry. I'm very tempted to say that these books are just about politics and religion. Certainly they aren't about technology. I really did find myself wondering, though, at the conception of computers that Herbert had when he wrote these books. He has a group (in a categorical sense, not in a monolithic sense) called mentats, who are supposed to be people trained to compute faster than any computer ever invented in that universe.

I haven't read too many of her books (Left Hand of Darkness is the only one I can think of offhand), but here's a link to a page with a fantastic essay by Ursula K. LeGuin about fantasy and the children inside of us.

And since I briefly mentioned it earlier, I arrange my books almost in no order. Authors tend to be clustered together, but that's about all there is to organization in my shelving of books. The only exception to that is that I keep one shelf with my all-time favorite books together. If you're wondering what's on that shelf, here's all of it.

Ender's Game	Orson Scott Card	Hyperion	Dan Simmons
The Speaker For the Dead		Fall of Hyperion
Songmaster		Endymion
The Dragon Prince	Melanie Rawn	The Silmarillion	J.R.R. Tolkien
Illusion	Paula Volsky	Catspaw	Joan D. Vinge
The Gates of Twilight		Dreamfall
The Hound and the Falcon	Judith Tarr	Magician: Apprentice	Raymond Feist
Alamut		Magician: Master
Genesis Quest	Donald Moffitt	Dune	Frank Herbert
Dragonsbane	Barbara Hambly	Eye of the World	Robert Jordan
The Misenchanted Sword	Lawrence Watt-Evans	The Sleeping Dragon	Joel Rosenberg
Riddlemaster of Hed	Patricia McKillip	Sheepfarmer's Daughter	Elizabeth Moon
Heir of Sea and Fire		Oath of Gold
Harpist in the Wind		Divided Allegiance

Anyway, there you have it. My quick take of a number of authors. If you want to talk about some of them, or ask me about others, feel free. I do like to talk about them.

Send Email
Go Back
Go Home