Can you list three to five of your favourite authors? Why are they
your favourite?
Iain M. Banks (obm)
Author of the Culture Series, whisk(e)y afficionado, man once
voted most likely to burn it all to the ground. Constantly
inventive, persistently good, with a political viewpoint in all of
his writing, of whatever genre. Also a wonderful man to have a
drink with, which I managed just the once.
Ursula K. leGuin (obm)
What more need be said about leGuin? Calling her "the grand dame
of science fiction" is insulting to her memory. A lifelong
activist, a woman who fought to be treated as an equal in all
things, a towering intellect who sits bestride the genre like a
beacon for lesser lights.
Kameron Hurley
One of the most exciting writers currently active in sf/fantasy.
Hurley is unapologetic about her views and has imagination to the
back them up. Her "God's War" series has one of the most original
worlds I've read in decades, she always gives food for thought.
Can be a *little* grimdark at times, maybe ;)
James Lee Burke
I could read Burke's "Dave Roubicheax" novels forever. Hard boiled
crime fiction it may be, but lords above, the quality of the
prose. If you try him, don't start at the start or the end. Read
"Dixie City Jam" first, like I did. You can smell the delta on
every page.
China Miéville
There's just no part of genre writing that Miéville isn't good
at, he manages to do everything so brilliantly. From the "New
Weird" of Bas-Lag to YA with a hardcore socialist message of
"Railsea", he surprises and delights in equal measure. If I had to
pick just one book, I'd say "The City & The City", but there are
so many others.
What are your least favourite genres to read?
"Literary Fiction". I can't stand the artifice, the pretence that
it is something which is "better". It isn't better, its just a
genre, one who's practitioners take themselves *way* too seriously
and who delight in looking down their noses at "genre" authors
when they steal genre tropes and refuse to acknowledge it, be that
Atwood, Rowling or, lately, McEwan.
What was the last book you recommended to a friend?
Just checking my menshes and posts... I spread myself way too
thin.
Seems to be Geneveive Cogman's "Invisible Library" series. They're
so good, they're like my literary snuggle blanket. I started
reading them accidentally, (I thought I was reading Geneveive
*Valentine*) but they're so lovely and wonderful and good. Sort
of gaslight urban fantasy with leavings of portal fantasy, and a
soupçon of romance. Just great books, with the odd spot of mild
peril.
I think that's probably enough for today. TO BE FURTHER CONTINUED!
