I admit I got into Jack McDevitt completely by accident (he just happened to be on the Library bookshelf next to an author who I was reading, and I picked up one of his books ("The Engine's of God" - which I adore even though in terms of his books is the one that is never mentioned) and the blurb hooked me... and the rest is history).
Orson Scott Card.
wha huh? Is under-rated? How? He's won the Nebula and Hugo, sold a ton of books, we've discussed Ender's Game in the book club, and his name often pops up in discussions.Originally Posted by JBL
I just made a post about this guy recently and realised that he’s an underrated author.
John Meaney has written a number of books, the first I read was To Hold Infinity, a fine stand alone novel. I have recently finished his Nulaperion cycle, which I consider to be an outstanding series for its sheer depth of imagination. If you are fans of Dune then this series may well be up your street, it has many similar thematic threads. I wish to the dark gods that Meaney had written those new Dune novels instead of the hack Anderson. Meaney has a much better grasp of the style and feel of Dune that Anderson can every dream of.
A lot of people are voting for McDevitt. I don't get it. I read The Engines Of God and was greatly disappointed. So much, in fact, that I never want to read anything else by him. Did I pick the wrong novel of his to start with?
I dont think that Engines is a bad book.
It would be a poor world if we all liked the same stuff though. There are some well known and respected authors i just cant stand.
Part of the problem, as it were, with Meaney's work is that it is just NOW becoming available in the us through Pyr books. The Nulaperioin books do look quite interesting.
No I read another of McDevitt's books, Chindi and will also probably never read another book by him. It was incredibly boring and pointless for 3/4 of the book.
Anyone read Wil McCarthy?
I have read all his novels, I especially like his 'Kingdom of Sol' series which started with Collapsium and has continued with The Wellstone, Lost in transmission and To Crush a moon. I think he has a playful fun style, which contrasts well with some pretty horrific scenes and serious themes. He is also a well renowned scientist and bases many of his speculations on technology with a real world grounding. His descriptions of future technology seem utterly fantastic, but are all explainable using modern day physics. I would say that he is similar in a way of John C. Wright's, Golden Transcendence and sequels
For those interested he writes an article called, lab notes, for the Science Fiction Weekly web site. Really fun and interesting articles.
I think so. SF isn't endowed with many outstanding writers (as opposed to theoreticians, concept-crunchers, storytellers etc.) so I find it surprising Roberts' name is rarely mentioned alongside the likes of Le Guin, Wolfe, Gibson etc. That said, the word is he was very unpopular with his peers, mainly because he had little tolerance for fools - and he considered everyone other than himself to be a fool.
As for Pringle's Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, beyond providing a very rough list of quality SF (some of his selections left me scratching my head, though) I think the book is worthless. His synopses are often confusing, his reviews are too short and he spends altogether too much time lifting huge chunks of content when he should be elaborating on the subject at hand.
I can't remember precisely which entry but I know there's one in which he wanders off toward an entirely different book before getting a third in!
I much prefer Dave Langford, who says twice as much using half as many words.
Last edited by Mugwump; August 24th, 2005 at 07:21 PM.
I find I really enjoy Tepper. Although I think I have read some of her less known novels and only a couple of the better known ones. I really enjoyed Six Moon Dance and Plauge of Angels. I also felt The Visitor was good but got really preachy right at the end. As somewhat of an anthropologist I like the way she experiments with different social/cultural models. I've tried several times to read Grass but I always seem to get distracted. Maybe it's a slow start. I think I'll try again soon.
If you like anthroplogical SF you should also try CJ Cherryh, (who isn't underated). The Faded Sun trilogy recently republished in omnibus, is fabulous, and deals with a clash of cultures. She has other works where the cultures are very well developed too.
Agreed. I'd put Edgar Pangborn in the same catagory, though I might have trouble arguing he was as good as Smith.
I gave a copy of the NESFA collection, _The Rediscovery of Man_ (I'm positive that's wrong) to a friend of mine who had cancer, thinking she'd beat the disease and have a good companion book to remember afterward. She didn't but one of my better memories is getting a note from her about how thrilled she was by Smith's stories.
By the way, I believe _Nostrilla_ was a fix-up, maybe even posthumous.
Randy M.
Last edited by Randy M.; September 16th, 2005 at 02:39 PM. Reason: correcting title info
Oh good, I was hoping there was an "underrated authors" thread somewhere around here!
Some prominent ones I'd name would be:
Jack Vance - quite possibly the most underrated author ever. This guy was writing about personal computers and databases in the 50s. His "Dying Earth" novels inspired Dungeons and Dragons...
David Brin - lots of afficionados like him, but in a just Universe he'd be way more of a fan favorite than he is...
C.S. Friedman - before she got into fantasy, she wrote two really kickass sci-fi books, "In Conquest Born" and "The Madness Season".
David Zindell - tell a lot of sci-fi fans about this guy and they'll say "Who?"
Rudy Rucker - amazingly creative dude, yet never got the recognition of Gibson or Stephenson or his other contemporaries.
Who?
psik
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