I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I’ll do the same again here. This year has been pretty good (to me) for new SFF. The first is Blindsight by Peter Watts – a superb bit of SF. Check out his site here http://www.rifters.com/index.htm and his wonderful 'Vampire Domestication'.
The next book, which I roared through in a very short time is Scar Night by Alan Campbell. This will be out next month from Macmillan and I believe is also being released in America. An excellent fantasy that'll have many other writers of the same looking to their laurels. Alan has a blog here: http://anurbanfantasy.blogspot.com/
In their genres, both of these books are the best I've read in some years.
Here’s some more writers you might like to check out: http://www.hammerjack.net/ is the site of Marc D. Giller who is producing some excellent cyberpunkish stuff, http://www.markbudz.com/ is the site of Mark Budz whose leanings are much more biotech, then there’s Tobias S Buckell over here http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/wordpress/
To be frank, I’m not entirely sure why there’s this idea knocking about that the British are leading the SF field, unless of course it’s only a British idea…
Nice review of Prador Moon over here on Cheryl Morgan’s Emerald City: http://www.emcit.com/emcit130.php?a=18
The next book, which I roared through in a very short time is Scar Night by Alan Campbell. This will be out next month from Macmillan and I believe is also being released in America. An excellent fantasy that'll have many other writers of the same looking to their laurels. Alan has a blog here: http://anurbanfantasy.blogspot.com/
In their genres, both of these books are the best I've read in some years.
Here’s some more writers you might like to check out: http://www.hammerjack.net/ is the site of Marc D. Giller who is producing some excellent cyberpunkish stuff, http://www.markbudz.com/ is the site of Mark Budz whose leanings are much more biotech, then there’s Tobias S Buckell over here http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/wordpress/
To be frank, I’m not entirely sure why there’s this idea knocking about that the British are leading the SF field, unless of course it’s only a British idea…
Nice review of Prador Moon over here on Cheryl Morgan’s Emerald City: http://www.emcit.com/emcit130.php?a=18
8 comments:
sweet sweet sweet and sweet. you've made me next reading list, as usual, much easier to put together.
Is Brit Sci/Fi leading the field? It's hard to form an objective opinion, myself, anglophile i am shaping up to be. Since reading gridlinked i have been sharply focoused on reading "related" (thanks amazon!) writers, and there certainly seems to be a sort of feel that is recognizable that satisfies.
maybe just it's time in the sun.
though as an aside, "Blade of Tyshalle" by Matthew Stover, i thought, was pretty slick. so was the follow up, "Heroes Die"
oops. i reversed those two titles. Heroes Die was first. sorry. 8)
Interesting 'lifter' link on Alan's blog too, Neal.
You seen it? I saw a program on TV recently about the same subject and was a little skeptical but it does look pretty cool, I must admit.
However, I still think there's a way to go yet before it can be applied to anything like the mass of a flying saucer etc. But, it's a great idea and one you could experiment with in your own garage!
Oh yeah, had my prize from Macmillan today for the Neal Asher competition I came runner-up in.
1/Cowl
2/Gridlinked
3/The Line of Polity
3/The Skinner
Well pleased :)
BTW! When you going to vist my blog and leave a little something?
http://bob-lock.blogspot.com/
PS finished the book I was on and am just about to tuck into Prador Moon :)
It'll have to be the former, Bruce, since this idea was being bounced about before the Hugo list.
you've got the awful covers bit right, with out a doubt. while the same two books i mentioned, (which are a bit fuzzy on the line between SF and fantasy, i'll freely admit.) the artwork is quite nice, i note some of Stover's others did not recieve such graces.
on another note, shouldn't Gibson be putting something out soon? how long ago did pattern recognition come out anyway?
I just seem to hear about British SF authors in the news more than others. Maybe they have better publicists.. Or their publishers promote them more.
I have to admit that of my top 10 favorite SF or fantasy authors that I've discovered in the last 5 years, 9 of them are from the UK.
I did just finish Counting Heads by David Marusek and I thought it was a pretty solid debut novel from an American author.
Isn't it strange that people put so much emphasis on a book's cover and perhaps even congratulate the author over it?
Surely the old adage still applies that 'you can't judge a book by its cover'?
I can understand that an attractive cover can initially persuade a reader to choose a book for perusal but ultimately it's not going to do a thing for the story's readability, and what about the poor author who has slaved and laboured to make that same story work only to be told, wow your book's artwork is cool?
Surely a well written synopsis or précis is far more important?
Sundiver: ouch. hard to argue with that 8).
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