Discovered Authors 2009

[GOLLUM]

I know it's a little early but upon Lady Winterfell's request please feel free to post here any new authors you've read that have taken your fancy in 2009.

Cheers....

EDIT: I decided to sticky the thread as it will be used throughout 2009.

 

[Khale]

Since I mistakenly posted this in the 2008 thread, let me re-post here since I just started reading the series:

Having been thoroughly enjoying my first time through the Malazan novels, I decided to pick the following easier read just for a change of pace:

E. E. Knight's Vampire Earth series.

Again, it is a very easy read but very entertaining nonetheless.

 

[Lenny]

I'm sure I read a bit of The Tombs of Atuan about ten years ago, but I've only recently read the whole quartet and took it in. Which, I suppose, means that this year I've discovered Ursula Le Guin.

 

[Switchback]

Joe Abercrombie

Almost done with Before The Are Hanged and having a blast.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

Wow, well thanks for starting it Gollum, even if it is a little early. Glad to see others have found new authors already as well.

So far in 2009 I have discovered Diana Gabaldon. (I admit I started it in 2008, but finished in 2009). I read the first book in the Outlander series, and will continue it at some point, but I have a few other books I would like to tackle before picking up her next book.

 

[soulsinging]

I started reading Dragonbone Chair in December, but gave up about 150 pages in. I've just recently come back to it, and so far I'm enjoying it quite a bit... so I guess you could say Tad Williams is being discovered by me right now.

 

[DeepThought]

Only one author so far; David Anthony Durham (Acacia).

 

[Laerten]

Karen Miller - Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books. Read the first one but am having trouble getting into the second.

I did start reading Katherine Kerr(?) on a recomendation but gave up after about 20 pages as nothing was happening.

 

[Dagny]

I know i'm late to the party, but i just discovered S.M. Stirling. fabulous stuff.

 

[Connavar]

So far only Val McDermid.

Anyone else read her ?

 

[Somni]

Maria V. Snyder. I quite like her 'Study' series: poison study, mage study.

 

[Tillane]

So far only Val McDermid.

Anyone else read her ?

Read The Mermaids Singing as part of a crime fiction course back at university and thought it was very good - very dark, very macabre. The only other one of hers I've read is The Wire In The Blood (from which the TV series took it's name, if not it's plots). Wasn't as taken by that one, anyway.

 

[dask]

Daphne du Maurier. Probably wouldn't be reading "The Birds" if my wife hadn't given it as a Christmas gift. Saw the movie and liked it but didn't seem interesting enough to read in story form. BUT --- was I wrong! Du Maurier is a superb writer and the story, except for the title characters, completely different (so far -- I haven't finished it yet) from the movie. There's more Wyndham than Hitchcock here. And if you're a fledgling writer who wants to clean up your prose, read this gal. She's great.

 

[Annie B]

It isn't SF or Fantasy, but I've just discovered a great poetess. Jolen Whitworth's "Every Girl Has Her Limits" took my breath away and made me an instant fan. I will definitely be looking for more of her work!

 

[hedgeknight]

Thanks to readers on here, Scott Lynch.

 

[Connavar]

Read The Mermaids Singing as part of a crime fiction course back at university and thought it was very good - very dark, very macabre. The only other one of hers I've read is The Wire In The Blood (from which the TV series took it's name, if not it's plots). Wasn't as taken by that one, anyway.

I was taking by the darkness,the down to earth feel,the characters.
Since the tv show is my favorite crime show on tv i was worried how Tony Hill would be in the book. But apparently the great Robson Green captured the character of the book exactly.

The books strenght was that the killer was so unpredictable. Not far fetched as the typical american serial killer story in books,tv.

I even knew how the book would end since i have seen an ep that was totally based on that the first book.
But it was so good that i totally forgot about what the tv eps was about so i was as surprised as Tony in the end.

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

Hope Mirrless: Lud-in-the-Mist was one of the first novels I read this year. It kept me in thrall until the end. It breaks my heart she never wrote fantasy again.

Flan O'Brien: The Third Policeman isn't straight fantasy, but it's one of the most metaphysical novels I've ever read. It's Crime and Punishment for the 20th century, with a dash of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Homer: The Odyssey is fantasy, right?

 

[GOLLUM]

Hope Mirrless: Lud-in-the-Mist was one of the first novels I read this year. It kept me in thrall until the end. It breaks my heart she never wrote fantasy again.

Flan O'Brien: The Third Policeman isn't straight fantasy, but it's one of the most metaphysical novels I've ever read. It's Crime and Punishment for the 20th century, with a dash of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Homer: The Odyssey is fantasy, right?

You're lucky to experience Mirlees's Lud, one of the greatest fantasy novels of the 20th Century.

If you like O'brien you should try At-Swim-Two-Birds, his masterpiece.

I guess Homer is fantasy falling into the category of myths and legends.

Cheers.....

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

You're lucky to experience Mirlees's Lud, one of the greatest fantasy novels of the 20th Century.

It's a great novel, fantasy or otherwise. It pulled my mind in several different directions simultaneously. Fobidden fruit, metaphors for mind-expanding substances, a critique on the dangers of separating ordinary life from imagination, people initiated into ancient mysteries, one country living in fear of a civilization they never met. Hope Mirrless wrote something very special.

 

[GOLLUM]

It's a great novel, fantasy or otherwise. It pulled my mind in several different directions simultaneously. Fobidden fruit, metaphors for mind-expanding substances, a critique on the dangers of separating ordinary life from imagination, people initiated into ancient mysteries, one country living in fear of a civilization they never met. Hope Mirrless wrote something very special.

Totally agree.

If you want to read "thoughtful" works you simply can't go past the great Gene Wolfe. Do you know this author? Influences include Avram Davidson and Franz Kafka.

Arguably the greatest living SFF author and one of America's greatest living authors of literature in general. We have an author subforum featuring him and his works.

Many other fine modern writers of course but he's A-grade all the way.

Mut rush, nice chatting.

Cheers....