[Rob B]

Since we have a similar thread in fantasy, I thought it would be a good idea to keep one running in SF about SF authors.

To quote:
What can you tell me about these authors? Some are relatively new, some not so much, some may have come up in threads before, but I’m consolidating. Comparisons are fine. If you don’t like an author’s work, tell why but be kind. If you don’t like a novel because it’s in a particular sub-genre, please keep it to yourself.

Jay Caselberg
M.M. Buckner
John Varley
John Barnes
L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Just his SF stuff)
Larry Niven
John Ringo
Ian Douglass
Mark Budz
Chris Moriarty
Tony Ballantyne
Will McCarthy
Syne Mitchell
Ben Bova
Lyda Morehouse
Wen Spencer
Julie E. Czerneda
Gordon R. Dickson (again, just his SF)
Eric Nylund
William C. Dietz

[odo]

Chris Moriarty


I've read Spin State and didn't like it very much. It is long, boring in the mid part and quite predictable. It is classified as Hard SF, but I coulnd't find any hard part in it (if you don't count that, occasionally, the word "quantum" is used to qualify this or that).


Tony Ballantyne


I was quite surprised with Recursion which is a very good first novel. It reminded me a lot of PK Dick. I recommend it.


Will McCarthy


I've only read The Collapsium, but I found it very interesting and entertaining. Great ideas, lovely settings and interesting plots. I'll be surely reading the next in the series.

[ArthurFrayn]

Gordon R Dickson

I read Soldier, Ask Not a couple of years ago and was very impressed. He's an excellent writer. The novel is a part of his Dorsai! saga which is essentialy military SF. I haven't gotten around to reading the rest.
I have another novel Wolf and Iron on the TBR pile - a Post Apocalypse novel(sort of a more serious A Boy and His Dog), which sounds interesting as well. I know it's been discussed several times here.Kind of looking forward to reading that one this year.

Excellent prose stylist, at least from the one novel I read..

EDIT: Read Wolf and Iron - thought it was great :D

[Archren]

John Barnes
Mark Budz
Syne Mitchell


I've read a lot of John Barnes short fiction, and one of his earlier novels, all set in the same universe. He's very good at combining political and philosophical speculation with entertaining action plots. Characters not necessarily realistic, but very fun to read.

I read the first Mark Budz novel, "Clade," and was only marginally impressed. He had some great world building (mostly bio-tech-based), and really drilled down into issues of race and class that are often ignored in sf, but there were a lot of pacing flaws that made it less engaging to read. I figure those were new-author errors, and I've heard nothing but good things about his latest, "Idolon," which is on my to-read stack.

I also read Syne Mitchell's first novel (I think) called "Technogenesis." It was basically about an emergent AI and first contact with it. I was really underwhelmed with the story, almost nothing really engaged me. I haven't sought out any of her other work.

[Gildor]

Adam Roberts

I picked up the Snow on the cheap recently, and i've always liked the sound of Gradisil, ever since I read review of it in Interzone months and months ago.

[suciul]

Jay Casselberg: I checked the first book in his series - 4 books or so to date (detective with some paranormal sense in a near future) and it did not click for me - pass

MM Buckner: loved Hyperthought and War Surf, both are set in the same corporate dominated futures (proles and corps) at different dates; dark books, but I liked the characters
Neurolink was just ok for me, did not care for the main character (this one is in between the other 2 timewise)

John Varley: checked some of his books but never clicked for me; liked some short stories though

John Barnes: loved Million Open Doors (easy and fun) and its immediate dark and disturbing sequel Earth Made of Glass which I think is a great book, the best of his by far; the rest of the series though went downhill for me and never got into; Mother of Storms was acceptable but nothing special

LE Modesitt: hit or miss for me; loved the Ecological books, Octagonal Raven,
Eternity Artifact, Ghost trilogy (feels more like ahistory sf than fantasy) and Archform Beauty; did not care for the rest including the Elysium one. For fun fluff the Ecological books are good, for some interesting though uneven space opera Eternity Artifact

Larry Niven: loved the Mote books and the Beowulf books - the Mote books are a bit dated though still readable military space opera, the first Beowulf is a favourite of mine (colony book with some great characters), the rest are ok

John Ringo: hard right military dark humor sf - I am a big fan and read and by and large loved all of his books; 2 of his series (Prince Roger collaboration with D. Weber, and the Dragons series) are all time favourites. The closest in style though opposite ideologically I would say is R. Morgan whom I like too very much. Very, very violent, non pc, but I like his style a lot. Has lots of free e-books available in the Baen free library so it is easy to try and see if you like him.

Ian Douglass: boring, run of the mill military sf; there is much better similar stuff out there

Chris Moriarty: loved both Spin books; dark and edgy, also unconventional sexuality, but Ms. Moriarty is one of my favourite authors too. From what I saw online it's hit or miss with people

Tony Ballantyne: I sort of liked Recurssion, and Capacity has been on my reading list for a while, I start it once in a while but cannot get yet into it though I expect I will read it at some point and I intend to get Divergence too; the future is interesting but the characters kind of fell flat for me until now. Loved some of his short stories too

Julie Czerneda: I loved her first series (Clan - romantic space opera, easy, fun), so-so on the second shape changer series, never got interested in the newer books

Gordon Dickson: read the Dorsai series in the early 90's and wondered what was the fuss; it's ok, but kind of dated; the newer books try to modernize it but never cared about them too much

Eric Nylund: one book I read and liked, it was kind of zany, multiverse action (Game of Universe)

William Dietz: never got into his Legion books, read one or two a while ago, but nothing special, run of the mill military sf though better than Ian Douglass; still much better stuff out there if you want that (Weber, Ringo, Bujold, Moon, even Scalzi and Buettner for newer authors); read Prison Planet too which is a more conventional adventure, but it starts great and peters out badly

[KatG]

Oy vey! You keep track of this one then, Rob. I'm barely managing to keep a list for the fantasy one.

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Just his SF stuff) -- He can be just a lot of fun. Very clever man. Read more his short fiction than novels.

Larry Niven -- An even bigger name in sf. I've read short fiction of his and Ringworld, which I did like very much, though there were some parts that made me roll my eyes and it's very much a 1960's/1970's style book. What I like about him is that he can take complicated science material and render it very clearly, and mix in humor, adventure and other elements more effectively than many of his peers. There are several threads in this Forum on him.

John Ringo -- Read "There Will Be Dragons," which would officially qualify as either military sf or science fantasy, depending on who you talk to. I thought he had some good stuff, but the pacing and overall composition didn't quite work for me, so for now, I'm not planning to read the sequel.

Ben Bova -- One of the sf lions. Again, several threads in the Forum archives on him. Has the old-fashioned style, but pretty good at characterization. His book "Mars" I enjoyed, though the suspense part of the plot I found very predictable.

Julie E. Czerneda -- Much respected sf writer, though I've run into people who don't like her. Read only one book of hers so far, and it was a later book in a series, so I don't have a full sense of her yet, but she writes well, I feel, and is very good at characterization. I thought she was very creative in terms of coming up with alien species and their possible interactions.

Eric Nylund -- I've only read one of his, and it was a contemporary fantasy, Dry Water. It had some interesting stuff to it, involving Native American and other mythology.

[Colonel Worf]

Ben Bova:

The first sci-fi book I ever read was Orion, and I loved it. Some other great ones by him that I highly recommend are As On A Darkling Plain, Mars, Return to Mars, and Jupiter. Others that you might want to check out are Kinsman & Millennium (collected in the Kinsman Saga) and Star Watchman. I've also read Exiled From Earth and Flight of Exiles, which are ok, and finally: The Winds of Altair, which is a fun, quick read, but I think it's supposed to be juvenile fiction.

You can find his first novel, the Star Conquerers, online here: http://www.benbova.com/sc-download/starconquerors.pdf

[Eventine]

I'[m not sure if there is a thread like this here already, I know there is in the fantasy forum. Looking through a catalogue recently I saw interesting burbs for the following books. Can anyone offer an opinion on them?

Resonance, Chris Dolley
Zootsuit Black, Jon George

[Rob B]

Chris Dolley, if I'm not mistaken, started out as a self-published author who was then picked up by Baen. Resonance was his first novel. I think it is something of a suspense/mystery/future sf hybrid.

http://www.humor.me.uk/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=26