Fantasy & Science Fiction worth Reading/Re-reading

Last night I started reading a "new" Darkover novel, The Alton Gift by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross. MZB died in 1999, but she planned out future Darkover novels with Ms. Ross.

The first Darkover novels were published in the '60's. Not only was MZB one of the earliest sucessful female science fiction writers,but she mentored young authors. Twenty-two volumes of fan fiction anthologies have been published to date. Many of the fledgling writers MZB encouraged have become established full time writers.

MZB was one of the first authors to explore homosexuality, asexuality, the lack of basic sanitation in a medieval world. Furthermore, her heroines were heroic--not simply arm candy for Manly Men.

I really can't be objective here--my long-standing adoration gets in the way.

http://mzbworks.home.att.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley

Noddy, you read a lot of Julian May? I read every word she writes. (lately more out of loyalty, I must admit)

Eorl--

Julian May is one of my favorites. During the dark days of my chemo therapy I reread the whole Pliocene Saga--past and present and future and found great comfort in the well-told stories.

I have to agree with you about Rampart Word Adventures. After the Pliocene Saga space opera seems very shallow. The Trilium sequence didn't amuse me, either.

The Boreal Moon trilogy is a step back in the right direction.

How I wish my favorite authors would continue at a pitch near madness. John Varley is another maverick who has switched to space opera instead of his wonderously complicated Gaea Trilogy.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_May

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Varley_%28author%29

Yes, I felt as though my loyalty had been rewarded with the Boreal Moon series.

On your comparison, I'll get me some John Varley. (Never 'eard of 'im)

Erol--

I thorougly recommend Varley's Gaea Trilogy: Demon, Wizard and Titan.

I've enjoyed most of his later work, but I'd never classify it as Personally Beloved.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Some days I feel like a Voice in the Asteroid Belt.

**************

Lois McMaster Bujold's "duology" The Sharing Knife: Beguilement and Legacy comes to a puzzling conclusion. Beguilement establishes two interesting characters, a solid plot and some interesting speculation about mental gifts. Legacy seems to be more of a second-volume-of-three than a concluding book, but when I checked LMB's website I didn't find any indication that a third volume is forthcoming.

LMB is best known for her Hugo and Nebula award winning books featuring Miles Vorkosigan, the most endearing homely hero since Cyrano deBergerac swaggered down the pike.

The Dendarii website below offers a number of free first chapters


http://www.dendarii.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_McMaster_Bujold

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lois_McMaster_Bujold

I seem to be in a Fat Fantasy Frenzy these days. The latest doorstop novel is 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Weber set in the "Ring of Fire" series.

The original premise was simple. "Somehow" Grandville, W. VA--the town and its people-- was transported to a corner of 17th century Germany well before German unification.

At this point all sorts of alternate histories dealing with France, Spain, The Netherlands, England, Sweden and Denmark start.

Behind the swashbuckling plots--and both Our Heroes and Our Heroines are given to feats of derring do--Flint and his various co-authors explore the notions of just what Democracy and the Industrial Revolution do to Olde Europe.

Fan fiction is popular in this alternative universe and Baen Books is doing some interesting experimentation with e-publishing.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Flint

http://www.baens-universe.com/authors/Eric_Flint

http://www.ericflint.net/

I've been re-reading Harry Potter in preparation for tomorrow's release of Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows and whether or not A2K members read fantasy and science fiction they are aware of Harry Potter.

The Tor-Forge newsletter recommended this blog:

http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/06/top_10_science_.html

Except for John Scalzi, his choices and my choices don't overlap much--which is an excellent reason for posting the link here.

Scott Lynch's second installment of The Gentleman Bastard Sequence will be published next week. I just finished reading the first volume, The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Lynch is a businessman/show biz guy who published sample chapters of LoLL on his website and was rewarded not only with a publishing
contract but with an offer from Warner Brothers to buy movie rights.

Red Seas Under Red Skies promises more adventures by alternate-universe con man. I'm definitely looking forward to it.


http://www.scottlynch.us/index2.html

I've just finished HP and the Deathly Hallows

Vivian--

I thought you'd be a Harry Potter Groupie. Discussion will be here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist

At least "here" as well as "there" and "everywhere".

Check out the Time magazine review--excellent about the differences between School Adventures and the Real World.

I've already extolled Charles deLint's urban fantasy novels. Somehow I missed reading Someplace to be Flying when it was published in 1997.

DeLint uses Indian Rights and the Irish Troubles and the Gentry and the spirits--and that terrible Canadian ice storm--to create a multi-layered Good Story.

I buy a lot of books--usually paperbacks unless I can find a second hand hardback through Amazon that is cheaper once P&H are factored into the bottom line. There are a few authors I will buy in hardback and one of them is Nalo Hopkinson. She's a black writer working from a West Indian cultural and mythic background and her prose uses the lilt of the Islands to excellent advantage.

Her blog: http://nalohopkinson.com/

Brown Girl in the Ring, Midnight Robber, Salt Roads and now The New Moon's Arms are all worth reading. Each time I pick up one of her novels, I'm hoping that she simply wrote her previous offering over again--but she never does. She keeps creating new and wonderful sub-universes.

I hadn't realized until I started this thread how much I rely on Long-Established Authors for a Good Read and how many of these Long- Established Authors create and exploit a sub-universe for their story telling.

Last weekend I reread Dragon the 8th of a projected 19 installments in the Valadimir Taltos Series. Vlad Taltos is a professional assassin and practicing witch in a world in which humans are an inferior minority.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Brust

I also reread Kage Baker's Life of the World to Come and The Children of the Company in preparation for the SFBC omnibus volume including The Machine's Child and The Sons of Heaven.

Ordinarily I have little patience with the paradoxes inherent in the concept of Time Travel. I'll make an exception for the doings of Baker's "Company", Dr. Zeus Incorporated and its thousands of cyborgs spread through time. Supposedly these cyborgs (originally human children saved from disasters and modified for immorality as well as super-human talents) are saving great works of art, music and literature as well as doomed plants and animals to be unveiled at some point in time when ordinary humans will appreciate them.

As the story unfolds, the aims of The Company seem less and less laudable and less and less ethical.


http://www.kagebaker.com/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kage_Baker

so have you read the Deathly Hallows yet Noddy?


I was right on 2 of the final storyline outcomes

Vivien--

Shapeless beat us to a discussion thread:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=100925

See you there.

Tanya Huff is another multi-volume Canadian author writing urban fantasy. I just finished the third installment of her Smoke and..... series, Smoke and Ashes.

Tony is a novice wizard with a day job as a Production Assistant for a television serial featuring a vampire detective. He's also gay, young and a bit socially uncertain. His continuing adventures with the supernatural are cheerful preposterous.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Huff

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/tanya-huff/

Great minds think alike! I picked this up yesterday. Have you read her "Quarter" series, Noddy? I also really like the Confederation novels.

Tai Chi--

I considered moving the "Quarter" series over to my To Read shelf, but I'm running out of room.

The third volume of the "Confederation" Heart of Valor was published in hardback this June and I'm waiting either for the paperback edition or for someone to remand the hardback at an unfair-to-author price. Huff has loyal readers so the paperback edition is likely to happen first.

Yeah, I'm waiting for Heart of Valor in paperback as well. (Too many books, too little shelving here, too.)

Tai Chi--

On the other hand, if either of us is marooned by a Natural Disaster, we'll be able to read contentedly while waiting for rescue.

Noddy --

A book accompanies me everywhere these days. Waiting for a haircut, dentist, doctor, you name it, I'm prepared. Dining alone? Not really!