The read less traveled

[Patrick]

I've thought about starting this topic before but this recent post by Linda Nagata: The Sadness of Memory has finally motivated me to do it. The post made me sad too because I like most of her novels.

I've gotten a number of good recommendations from the Sword and Laser group but there are a few authors and books that consistently get mentioned. Those guys are great but this thread is not about them. I'd like to know what Science Fiction/Fantasy authors you like that are mentioned infrequently or not at all on the S&L discussion forums. As a criteria for inclusion I'm using the discussion post search feature on the main S&L page on goodreads.

I'll start...

Linda Nagata - I like the weird and unusual world of Memory.

Sean McMullen - Dueling librarians, human powered computers, post apocalyptic world and more in Souls in the Great Machine.

[Anne]

I was wondering whether anybody had even mentioned Walter Moers in the S&L forums yet, but it appears my posts were the only one mentioning him.

He's a great German fantasy author (he started writing comic books in a very distinctive style and only later moved on to writing actual novels). I've read all his Zamonia books and simply adore them, my favorite being The City of Dreaming Books. Rumo: And His Miraculous Adventures is equally awesome, though.

Since most of his novels have been translated to English, I would really recommend checking them out. They all take place in the same fictional universe of Zamonia and are loosely connected, but as far as I remember, you don't have to read them in any particular order.

[Patrick]

Thanks Anne, The City of Dreaming Books looks really cool.

[Colin]

The Nightwatch books are enjoyable/interesting reads.
Night Watch
Day Watch
Twilight Watch
Last Watch

Some technically file them under horror, but it is more dark-ish urban fantasy. European magic folks (mostly Russians) called Others, some can cast spells outright, some are shapeshifters, some can create magical artifacts, all of them can enter a magical shadow realm they call the twilight, where they can move very fast, their magic physically manifests, but slowly get their energy drained from them, limiting their time in it. There was a big war between the two sides,
Light and Dark, and they came to an tentative peace process where they created the "Watches". Light Others formed the Nightwatch, where they police and licence the Dark Others, and the Dark Others created the Daywatch to do the same for the Light Others. They have a 3rd party arbitrator group known as the Inquisition who keep the peace between the two. Very interesting stuff, very Cold War.

Some idiots call it the Russian Lord of the Rings, but i find that hard to stomach.
They made at least two movies that i know of. The books are better.

[[deleted user]]

There's two Night Watch movies? I've only ever seen the first one, and that was chock full of weird.

[aldenoneil]

Ala wrote: "I've only ever seen the first one, and that was chock full of weird."

Plus the coolest subtitles I've ever seen.

[Joe]

aldenoneil wrote: "Ala wrote: "I've only ever seen the first one, and that was chock full of weird."

Plus the coolest subtitles I've ever seen."

I agree. I pity the people who refuse to read subtitles and watched it dubbed -- they missed a cool part of the experience.