I am blown away that this guy is not listed in more recomendation and top X list threads.
His name comes up from time to time, but he should easily be in with GRRM, Bakker and other newschool monsters like Lynch, Joe A, Rothfuss etc.
I cannot be alone in this sentiment I am sure. Do I just suck at discovering awesome people? Is this guy under the radar to a certain degree compared to other mainstreamers?
Daniel Abraham is firmly within my Top 5.
I'd even go so far to say he's somewhere within my Top 3. And he is sneaky prolific, actually even more so than the higher profile Brandon Sanderson.
Yeah, after reading his Long Price Quartet last month, he has definitely moved up in my estimation. Top 5? Close, but not sure.
have you read dragons path yet?Originally Posted by Rob B
Yes, and I enjoyed it a great deal -- one of my favorite books from last year (2011). I haven't read (but own) The King's Blood.
Was my comparison between GGK and TLPQ what bumped the books for you?GGK is probably my favorite writer.
Mostly your general excitement over the books. Excitement is catchy.
I don't see Abraham as a heavyweight. I've fairly devoured the first two Dagger and Coin books, and his two Expanse books. I'll definitely read the rest of both series when they come out. I own, but haven't yet read, the first two Long Price Quartet books (Rob's recent raving bumped them up in my massive TBR). The books I've read of his thus far have been very enjoyable, fast reads, but I tend to forget them after I read them. I don't think they engage me at a much deeper level than 'fun entertainment.'
makes sense. Are you more in favour of "literary" style prose ie GGK or Mieville and those cats?
GGK is probably my favorite writer
Mieville doesn't appeal too much to me, though I have very little to base that opinion on.
Conversely, I am "blown away" that he comes up as much as he does.
I tried the first book in the Long Price Quartet and was extremely disappointed by the shallow and insubstantial characterization. I was quite unimpressed with his prose as well.
The basic plot and the world-building were interesting enough, and I honestly was hoping to enjoy the book, but I came away deeply disappointed with the final product.
Based on this, Abraham absolutely makes my worst/bottom 5.
I think there's momentum building. I hang out in a couple places that aren't specifically about SFF books, but end up having quite a few sff-book-recommendation threads. When I first picked up Dragon's Path last year, the Long Price Quartet had gone completely under my radar and I'd almost never seen him mentioned outside of boards like this one.
In the last six months, pretty much every single rec thread on those other sites has included a mention of the LPQ. If I hadn't already discovered the series retro-actively, I'd definitely be sitting up and taking notice now.
I voted yes, but with the caveat that it's just for Long Price Quartet. I struggled with the urban fantasy series before dropping it. Expanse and Dagger and Coin have been good, but haven't grabbed me as deeply yet. I'll see how I feel when both are finished.
Should the MLN Hanover and James SA Corey novels be included in this? I think the whole reason Abraham adopted such open pseudonyms was to set up certain expectations from each named author. So while I don't find the Corey novels to be quite as brilliant as the Abraham novels, that is because he is trying something completely different and not so in tune to being in my best ever list, even though he is perfectly competent at it.
And really, I don't even have much of an interest in trying the Hanover novels, because the subject matter doesn't really appeal to me. Once again, I believe it's probably competently done, I just wouldn't find anything top 5 author worthy inside of it.
I wouldnt include the expanse novels due to not knowing how much is being contributed by each author. the world itself was mostly done by mr frank i believe, but who knows for the rest.
Well, they've both written half of each book. Ty, as you already pointed out, added more of the world-building and science, and I think Daniel did more with politics and characters. I could be wrong though.
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