Hi! I think it should work exactly the other way around. I mean, not that you arrogantly say "I can do this much better", but the feeling is close. I don't know, maybe my family is like that; for example, my grandfather was a policeman, a sergeant in a poncho and horse in the rain, one of those skinny old men with mustaches and two blunderbuss or shotguns clipped on the chair that later became a guard of presidential palace; or everything I know about weapons and martial arts was taught to me by my older brother, who was an Army officer; for example, sometimes we would watch a movie together and he would shake his head and say, "no, that kind of explosive doesn't work like that." Worse when it was a science fiction movie: "lasers are not seen in space," he said with a smile.
Perhaps that is the main reason that I have never set a fighter fight in space and have based my entire saga on a planet where everything happens below and is even more old-fashioned. He was the one who introduced me to the first authors, Asimov, Bradbury, K. Dick. I guess now he must be smiling out there, somewhere, wherever he is. Also, he used to say that commandos only go to hell to find reinforcements and regroup. Militarys. They think so. So him often thought.
But I am getting off the thread. The point is that, based on what Harold Bloom says, it is not that we are in competition with the authors that we like or frustrate us because of their immense ability; but, whether we like it or not, in an unconscious way we will always want to overcome them; therefore, becoming aware of this process should free us from anguish and become it a creative engine. In any case, it is a desire for cultural exchange; not marketing like I said out there.
And beware for travel books, are a detail that you don't have to ignore. In fact, much of what is in Burgess's Earthly Powers is basically a travel book in the guise of a novel. A great influence, going back to Harold Bloom, who now makes me notice those details every time my characters are in a new place so that I can convey them to the reader. Or Ali Bey's travels in Morocco, also half a travel book and novel.
Perhaps, since you have a clearly more poetic and conceptual streak, as I mentioned in the Critics, William Gibson could be an author who could entertain you more and does not have such extensive books as a Peter Hamilton or a Simmons (they have easy 200K). But instead, Gibson can give you some very useful lessons on how you manage to convey a feeling or a color or an aroma to the reader with nothing more than two or three words. Amazing.
Now if you want to get hit in the head, try The Nova Express by William S. Burroughs. You know, "word falling, image falling". That book is great; nobody usually understands it, until you realize that the narrator who tells the story is actually ... (I'm not going to spoil it, no way).
Roger Zelazni: Creatures of Light and Darkness.
Another blow to the head. Enigmatic, lyrical, magnificent. To suit you, I think. Also another great conceptualizer; something is left spinning in a line you just read and you realize that the guy has just described a terrifying atomic explosion or so.
