John's recent posts

Recent public posts (showing 141-160 of 186).

Lori, I found myself go through a somewhat similar cycle, reading sf and fantasy as a kid, then going to college, majoring in literature and leaving them behind. I found myself coming back to them in my mid-20s though and realizing like you how much really brilliant stuff is being done in the genres.

I find enough overlap in our favorite authors that I feel like I have to check out the ones I don't know--anyone with your clear good taste (that is, agreeing with me!) must know something.

In any case, welcome!

Sort of a side-note to the discussion...

Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, the first several had almost cartoonish covers (Fool Moon, I though, was particularly bad), but after the series started to catch on, the covers on later volumes were darker and more mysterious (albeit a bit more dull since each was very similar to the others--they all feature the title character in a dark, gritty urban environment). When the first books went through a second run, their covers were re-done in the same style.

I don't know whether that's an author getting more control over his cover art as he gets more popular or whether that's a marketing decision about how they want the series to be portrayed, but there it is.

Sandikal, it's funny you mention His Dark Materials--I am an atheist but I was turned off by the way he brought his attacks on religion into the story, both because they weren't great attacks and because I thought it got in the way of the story. So I guess it's not just Narnia--I'm an equal-opportunity disliker of being preached at.

Although I don't really remember the specifics, I remember rather like Glory Road. Incidentally, I think the whole shoes outside her door thing is based on at least one Native American culture.

In the other Sci-Fi /Fantasy group I'm in on Goodreads, something related came up in the past day, news (from wikipedia) about a new book (or two) in the Enderverse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender_in_Ex...

Even though there is a link in the article to Card's website, nothing of the sort is listed in his "Works in Progress" or "Completed, Awaiting Publication" list, so take it with a grain of salt, I suppose.

I don't worry too much about the politics or religion of the author when I start a novel, because often a good author isn't simply writing himself or herself into the novels. No doubt their beliefs about the world inform the novel--how could they not?--but so many of our assumptions about the world are shared (or shared enough) that the rest can usually be accepted for the sake of argument. If we can accept magic and aliens and elves and ansibles, we can overlook what seems to us like a kooky belief or two, right?

It's been a while since I've read Ender's Game or the other books in the series, but my remembered sense of things is that he really writes the characters rather than simply using characters as a mouthpiece for himself.

I will say though, that there are authors with whom the beliefs are too obvious or strain credibility too for me, and that can diminish my enjoyment. There's no hard and fast line there, though, and sometimes it's enjoyable to put myself into a very different belief system from my own.. Re-reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for instance, was one where the religious symbolism and overtones were a bit much for me to really enjoy the book. But hey, that's just me, and perhaps it's also just when I happened to be re-reading it.

Ben, it's nice to see I'm not alone in preferring Speaker for the Dead, though I liked both books. I think you're the first person I've found who agrees with that assessment. I tend to agree with Michael that the series wasn't as compelling as it went on, but for me the peak is Speaker, not Ender's Game. I did give both 5 stars--though maybe Ender's Game is really 4.8 or 4.9. :)

By M.d.'s definition, it would be impossible for Fantasy and Sci-Fi to be mainstream. Now, it might be useful to redefine the question somewhat in light of that: are Fantasy and Sci-Fi drawing a significant number of readers who usually restrict themselves to mainstream fiction?

Leslie, I tried to figure out which author it might have been from a list of Booker Prize winners, but none of the recent winners jumped out at me as names I've also seen in SF, nor did the wikipedia entries highlight the crossover if it was any of the writers I glanced at. Granted, I was looking very quickly.

Anyway, as Donna said and as I tried to suggest before, we really need to define "mainstream." Perhaps we can define the genre as mainstream when most people who see you reading fantasy or Sci-Fi don't give you a funny look? Then we're probably not there yet. :)

I read this years and years ago and would kind of like to re-read it at some point. Perhaps you'll review it when you're done reading it...?

Oh, and Leslie, could you be more specific about which "literary" authors you're referring to as crossing over?

I tend to think not. I think it's fairly safe to say that it hasn't moved into the mainstream if we're talking about it being taken seriously as literature. A few pieces like Fahrenheit 451 were able to sneak in the back door as dystopian literature (alongside things like 1984 and Brave New World), but mostly sci-fi and (especially) fantasy are marginalized--but then, so is the rest of the so-called "genre" fiction categories (romance, mystery, horror, westerns). There are professors at some colleges and universities who teach courses on science fiction and there have been "literary" studies of some particular works of Fantasy or Sci-Fi, but these are fairly isolated incidences, I think.

Now, that's not to say that fantasy and sci-fi aren't more popular, but I don't think it's necessarily the case the Sci-Fi and fantasy movies being mainstream (and they are) have made the print genres mainstream as well. It may be a step in that direction, but I don't think we're there yet.

First thing that comes to mind looking at your list is Steven Brust's Agyar. It's a vampire book by a writer who isn't really known for vampire books. There's something in his style that bears a similarity to Neil Gaiman, I think.

I'm afraid I don't have any new authors to add, but as far as Octavia Butler suggestions go, my favorites were the duology Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents, and Wild Seed.

Jennifer mentioned Jacqueline Carey--I didn't know she wrote sci-fi, I only know her fantasy works, but they *are* very good.

On that note, there are some women doing great work over in fantasy as well: Sherwood Smith's Inda series and anything and everything by Robin Hobb are the first two that come to mind.

Welcome all! Liz, welcome to Bookaholics semi-anonymous! I'm currently wrestling with the results of my own buy-every-book addiction as I get ready to move. Moving box after box after box of books starts to make you wonder what you were thinking there in the dusty shelves of the used bookstore and why you felt like every coupon Borders sends your way *has* to be used....

Actually, the books are the main reason we're contemplating hiring movers!

Though mentioned earlier, I would like to throw my support behind The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson, which starts with Gardens of the Moon. It's epic fantasy largely centered--at least at first--around soldiers in the army of the Malazan Empire. Great characters, well-written stories, and all in all pretty substantive intellectually--which is to say, Erikson deals with important human concerns in his novels. The novels in the series do get progressively longer and the series isn't finished yet, though Erikson seems to be moving along at a reasonable pace.

Sean Russell's Swan's War trilogy, which starts with The One Kingdom was good. It's got your political and personal intrigue, rather like Martin, but I read this a few years before I read Martin and can't make a good comparison.

Robin Hobb has done some excellent stuff. I'd start with her Farseer Trilogy, which begins with Assassin's Apprentice.

On the massively epic side of things, you might also check out R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series, which begins with The Darkness That Comes Before. It was a little hard to get into at first, and it shows that he was working on a PhD in Philosophy, but it's an incredibly rich world and well worth reading. Three massive tomes comprise the entire series... but there's a follow-up series on its way (though it's been "on its way" for a few years now). I should mention that it's a fairly dark, brutal world (though, for that matter, so is George R.R. Martin's).

rgb, I think your analysis of our reluctance to embrace this sort of lack of individual identity is right on, both in our reaction as readers and in the reaction of the human characters in the novel, who basically just throw in the towel.

Even outside of that, it is an interesting take on evolution. It's easy enough to accept a next stage of evolution that would be "us plus," i.e. the X-Men or something like that, but it's hard to wrap our minds around--much less embrace--a sort of progress that is so utterly alien.

I found myself liking the Athens-Sparta colony and hoping for its success (in something other than ending the human race). There was a part of me that expected this to be an essential part of humanity's growth--and it was, just not in the way I'd hoped. It was the same way that when Jan stowed away, I hoped that this was part of the plan for humanity, that in the midst of a world of plenty, where leisure is the norm and hence there's a tendency to take it easy and just enjoy the easy life the Overlords have given us, to risk oneself in the hope of getting humanity to stand on its own feet and make its own discoveries and grow up, if you will--that was the direction I hoped and maybe half-expected it to go. Clarke's actual vision is, of course, much more challenging, though not necessarily any more satisfying, for all that.

I'm just waiting for the newest Dresden novel to get back to my local library and really like the series, and have from the beginning, but a part of me feels like many of the best elements of the series don't come in until later. Still, I would happily re-read it if that's the majority's will.

I'd be happy to read something new, but I'd also be interested in re-reading Roger Zelazny's This Immortal, as I recall liking it, though it's been long enough since I read it that I can't tell you much about *why* I liked it. Incidentally, it tied for the Hugo award in 1966 (with Frank Herbert's Dune).

I haven't read them in a while, but I loved the two Amber series. I thought the opening of this book was a clever way to introduce us to the reality of the series.

I'm a big Zelazny fan--for a while there, I was teaching Lord of Light to the junior AP class. I'm surprised Brad doesn't go in for Zelazny more, since he was such an influence on Brust. Oh well, no accounting for taste. :)