I've always been a fan of Mike Resnick. For a guy who has won his share of Hugos and Nebulas and all the other awards, it is surprising to me that he gets next to no attention from the regulars here at sffworld.
I've always been a fan of Mike Resnick. For a guy who has won his share of Hugos and Nebulas and all the other awards, it is surprising to me that he gets next to no attention from the regulars here at sffworld.
I love Ken Macleod's writing, and he's been compared to Banks plenty, but no one seems to discuss or know of his work.... I thought his Engine's of Light trilogy was fantastic and now he keeps shooting out new titles. I hope he keeps going with it
I think (and I could be wrong) part of the reason why Resnick isn't mentioned much is that he is known moreso for writing short stories rather than novels?
Though his Kirinyaga (sp?) sequence is fairly popular and he does have a new series of books coming out through PYR books.
Matt Stover has mentioned Daniel Keys Moran, but aren't his books out of print?
The first of Resnick's books that I ever read was from his Tales of the Galactic Midway: The Wild Alien Tamer. He had me hooked from there on. I followed that with The Soul Eater and then Stalking the Unicron and then Santiago. That one has my all-time favorite female character: Virtue MacKenzie, aka The Virgin Queen.
I've been with him ever since and he never disappoints me. There is some of his stuff that I haven't read: I don't care for Alternate Histories in general so I never picked up on what he was doing with that.hen he edits compilations I shie away. I am more interested in what he writes.
C. Smith was great, cleary underrated; but the most underrated sci-fi writter is, in my opinion, Thomas M. Disch. Camp Concentration, 334 or The genocides are among the best books of sci-fi.
Anyway, the best fantastic writter is, imo, Christopher Priest, but is difficult to say if The affirmation or The glamour are sci-fi books. I think Inverted world is the best hard sci-fi book ever written.
Quiet Vision Publishing has done some limited run reprints. It looks like three of them are currently available from amazon new (but not The Last Dancer, which is the better of the two books I have read).Originally Posted by Fitz
I guess these seems to be an appropriate place to make my first post by seconding Keith Roberts - although given that Pavane is both in Pringles's 100 best SF, and in somebody else's (non-genre) best novels book (name escapes me - & it's sitting on my shelf 150 miles away) is he really underrated? (Actually, it's Anthony Burgess' 99 Best Novels that I was thinking of - the only other genre titles in the list are the Gormenghast trilogy, 1984, The Once & Future King (?), Island, the Unlimited Dream Company, and Aldiss is featured with his non-genre Life in the West).
& I'll add:
Christopher Priest ( a sort of New Worlds contemporary of Roberts' who seems to be coming baclk to SF after lots of more mainstream work)
Richard Cowper (loved his Road to Corlay series, Twilight of Briareus (?sp), Clone etc.)
Richard Wilson - especially his 'Mother to the World' story
& second Gwyneth Jones
which should do for now.
Last edited by Pavane; August 16th, 2005 at 03:30 AM. Reason: Update title of book
Baen is publishing some collections of "forgotten masters" such as Keith Laumer (Retief!), Christopher Anvil (Pandora's Legions) and Murray Leinster (Med Ship).
These are all old-style "Space Adventure" novels, rather pulp-ish. But also rather good, I think.
Just a couple:
Zoran Zivkovic, I thought his Fourth Circle just oozes with quality.
I really like Jeffrey Thomas' Punktown, which has a horror element, as well. One of the better recent collections I have read.
You are probably right about Resnick. Personally I think he warrants more mention, as I find (in my opinion) his short fiction to be among the best out there.
I don't think Resnick is underated as much as the short fiction as a whole is not vogue by the the bulk of the populra genre audeicne.You are probably right about Resnick. Personally I think he warrants more mention, as I find (in my opinion) his short fiction to be among the best out there.
It's a shame because IMHO some of the genre's best wroks are written by practioners of shorter formats, far more so then the opposite IMHO.
Resnick just won the Hugo for best Short Story 2 weeks ago.
Good Lord. That's where I was born!According to his daughter, Cordwainer Smith was born (as Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger), on July 11, 1913, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Maybe I better have a look at his stuff.
How about John Brunner? (At least, among the well known and award-winning SF authors.)
Though I suppose the truely underrated would be authors none of us have heard of.
Let me add another voice to the chorus praising Jack McDevitt. The man rocks my socks. Intelligent, well written and interesting science-fiction. Who woulda thunk?
I agree on Jack Mcdivitt. You know what your getting with this guy, which i like a lot sometimes, hes reliable and consistantly entertaining
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks