Authors you like but the majority loathes!

[cervantor]

I really like Elizabeth Haydon's novels which don't seem to get a favorable shake. I also like Terry Brooks, but I wouldn't say the majority doesn't like him I can't think of any others at this point...

 

[KatG]

Jonathan Carroll's revered and in lit circles as well. He's lost a little popularity the last few years, perhaps, but still gets a lot of attention. Smith, though, does seem not to feel as much love.

 

[ben1xy]

Yeah. terry brooks and david eddings. havent read eddings for donkeys years though.

Edding and Salvatore for me. I would attribute my partialness towards Edding more because of that nostalgic feeling it brings. Salvatore's books are just plain recycled fun. Drizzt might as well be Superman! Then again even Superman's weakness is kryptonite...

 

[Randy M.]

Jonathan Carroll's revered and in lit circles as well. He's lost a little popularity the last few years, perhaps, but still gets a lot of attention. Smith, though, does seem not to feel as much love.

To a degree I can especially understand that with Smith -- the truly idiosyncratic and gleefully macabre are usually a flavor only appreciated by small audiences. I'm thinking also of Poe and Lovecraft in their lifetimes, and the perpetual but not too large readership for a writer like Ambrose Bierce. I think there's more tolerance and audience for it now than in the past, if the New Weird and its immediate precursors are any indication, but it's still not going to appeal widely. Still, without Smith, Jack Vance might have taken a different approach, or tackled different content, and if that had happened, maybe the work of Gene Wolfe wouldn't be quite what it is.

I've never seen sales figures for Carroll, though. I don't know if he sells well, or is firmly or shakily mid-list, if there still is a mid-list. But as far as I know, he's found a home at Tor and his books show up now and again. The lit. rep. helps, but until Tor took him on his books were published all over the place and he never had momentum from one book to gather an audience for the next.


Randy M.

 

[KatG]

Well, if Mr. Carroll had not been published in general fiction first, he wouldn't have the lit rep. Plus, he doesn't always write SFF stories, so it made sense for him to be published in general fiction. He's based in Europe, and so as a foreign author, sort of, he also was going to be put in general fiction.

However, in addition to his general audience, Carroll is very well known in SFF circles at this point, so it made sense for Tor to cut a deal with him. (Just as it made sense for Ballantine Books to reprint Tolkien. )

While he sells well and gets respect both in category and general fiction, I feel he should have some of the same attention being given to Paulo Coelho. There are similarities to their work. But you never know.

 

[Mithfânion]

Carroll fans might be interested in the new novel he has coming out in October, titled Ghost in Love.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374161860/ref=nosim/speculativefic051-20

Synopsis

Neil Gaiman has written: “Jonathan Carroll has the magic. He’ll lend you his eyes, and you’ll never see the world in quite the same way ever again.”



Welcome to the luminous and marvelously inventive world of The Ghost in Love. A man falls in the snow, hits his head on a curb, and dies. But something strange occurs: the man doesn’t die, and the ghost that’s been sent to take his soul to the afterlife is flabbergasted. Going immediately to its boss, the ghost asks, what should I do now? The boss says, we don’t know how this happened but we’re working on it. We want you to stay with this man to help us figure out what’s going on.



The ghost agrees unhappily; it is a ghost, not a nursemaid. But a funny thing happens—the ghost falls madly in love with the man’s girlfriend, and things naturally get complicated. Soon afterward, the man discovers he did not die when he was “supposed” to because for the first time in their history, human beings have decided to take their fates back from the gods. It’s a wonderful change, but one that comes at a price.



The Ghost in Love is about what happens to us when we discover that we have become the masters of our own fate. No excuses, no outside forces or gods to blame—the responsibility is all our own. It’s also about love, ghosts that happen to be gourmet cooks, talking dogs, and picnicking in the rain with yourself at twenty different ages.



Stephen King has said that “Jonathan Carroll is as scary as Hitchcock, when he isn’t being as funny as Jim Carrey.” Jonathan Lethem sees Carroll as the “master of sunlit surrealism.” However one regards this beguiling original, two facts are indisputable: It’s tough being a ghost on an empty stomach. And The Ghost in Love is a triumphant return.

 

[Fantasyeatergal]

I know perfectly well they aren't great bit of writing, but I couldn't help but enjoy reading the Harry Potter series (although I've been horrifyed by the 7th tome's last chapter ) and Hamilton's novels (although I can't seem to understand what all this sex is about )

*drops her gaze in shame*

 

[KatG]

Oh sounds very cool -- it's Carroll's favorite theme -- fate versus free will. Well, okay, it's the favorite theme of most fantasy writers pretty much, but Carroll always does the odd by-ways of it. I never know which way he's going to jump, and his prose is yummy.

I have not read Hamilton's other series -- haven't dared -- but I have continued to read the Anita Blake books. The really odd thing about that series is that she has all these sex scenes now -- a steady progression in the series, but they are critical for the plots of the books, for the development/transformation of Blake's character and for the relationships between the characters. If you skip them, you don't know what's going on. It's definitely unusual and clever, though not erotic.

However, I, like many of her fans, have grown weary of the repetition of details and the snail's pace progress of the series' over-arcing plotlines. So I'm probably not going to read further. I can understand that some people loathe her for the direction she took the series in, but she's done stuff nobody else has and she's had a big impact on the field. A raw and interesting series, but not enough to keep me around.

 

[Bear]

I'm very excited for the new Carroll book. I've enjoyed nearly everything he's written. And his prose is, indeed, yummy. I imagine he could describe what he had for dinner and I'd buy it. I just like the way he phrases things.

I don't know if I've ever used the word "yummy" before now.

 

[Fantasyeatergal]

I have not read Hamilton's other series -- haven't dared -- but I have continued to read the Anita Blake books. The really odd thing about that series is that she has all these sex scenes now -- a steady progression in the series, but they are critical for the plots of the books, for the development/transformation of Blake's character and for the relationships between the characters. If you skip them, you don't know what's going on. It's definitely unusual and clever, though not erotic.

However, I, like many of her fans, have grown weary of the repetition of details and the snail's pace progress of the series' over-arcing plotlines. So I'm probably not going to read further. I can understand that some people loathe her for the direction she took the series in, but she's done stuff nobody else has and she's had a big impact on the field. A raw and interesting series, but not enough to keep me around.

Although, reading the Harlequin, I retrieved optimism about the series. The tone of the book’s end made me think that maybe the way Anita deals with her power/needs will evolve above sex in the following tomes.

I’m living of hope!

 

[KatG]

Oh drat, really? Well, maybe I'll try one more book in the Blake series. (Where have I heard that before?)