authors you will buy anything from

[Lynn McGuire]

Do you have any authors that you will purchase
anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
Mine are (not in any particular order):
1. David Weber (except War God series)
2. Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant)
3. Kelley Armstrong
4. John Ringo
5. Wen Spencer
6. Tom Kratman
7. Patricia Briggs (except pure fantasy stuff)
8. Carrie Vaugn
9. Alan Dean Foster
10. John Scalzi

Lynn

[Michael Stemper]

In article <jkd1kl$65i$1...@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> writes:

>Do you have any authors that you will purchase anything from ?

Not really. I used to have some authors that I'd read anything by, but
that was back in the Golden Age of SF.

Charlie Stross comes close, however. With him, it's "buy anything as long
as it's not more Merchant Princes stuff".

>10. John Scalzi

After reading _Android's Dream_ and the first three Old Man's War
books, he is very close to being the first author on my (currently
non-existent) "buy on sight" list.

--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
The FAQ for rec.arts.sf.written is at:
http://www.leepers.us/evelyn/faqs/sf-written
Please read it before posting.

[Dan Goodman]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:03:04 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

> Do you have any authors that you will purchase anything from ?

No. Writers I really like have the annoying habit of changing to works I
don't like.



--
Dan Goodman
http://dsgood.blog.com
http://tcsfdirectory.blog.com

[Dan Goodman]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:03:04 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

> Do you have any authors that you will purchase anything from ?

[Remus Shepherd]

Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

I think Vernor Vinge is the only living author on that list for me.
Quite a few dead ones, but they're not producing much anymore.

... ...
Remus Shepherd <re...@panix.com>
New Webcomic: Genocide Man http://www.genocideman.com/
Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass slaughter can be hilarious.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:03:04 -0500, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com>
wrote:

>Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

In similarly no particular order,

Charlie Stross
Jasper Fforde
A Lee Martinez
Matthew Hughes (of this parish)
Lawrence Watt-Evans (likewise)
Terry Pratchett
Katherine Valante
Vernor Vinge

Also some webcomics, in book form:
Ursula Vernon (Digger, plus her kids books)
Tom Sidell (Gunnerkrigg Court)
The Foglios (GG etc)

Cheers - Jaimie
--
f all human productivity,
motivation and achievement is stored.
-- http://thedoghousediaries.com/3474

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> writes:

> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

Well, I seem to own everything published by Heinlein, and by Doc Smith.
Inlcuding posthumous works in both cases.

I describe much of the "late Heinlein" as "very bad", though. I'm sure,
since I've read it more than once.

Janet Kagan. John M. Ford.

All these authors have a very distressing point in common,
unfortunately.

Jo Walton, who very happily does not share that commonality.

Vernor Vinge, ditto.

I seem to be pretty solidly on the David Weber treadmill, too.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, dd...@dd-b.net; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info

[Kurt Busiek]

"Anything" is a broad brush, since I'll buy any fiction by Scalzi, but
haven't bought his blog collections.

And I'll buy any Peter S. Beagle book I don't already have, but won't
necessarily buy anthologies just to get one Beagle story.

Limiting it to book-length fiction or single-author collections, my
"buy it sight unseen list" would include:

Neil Gaiman
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Peter S. Beagle
John Scalzi
Michael Connolly
Jessica Day George
Matthew Hughes
Stephen King
Donald E. Westlake (but I guess as of THE COMEDY IS FINISHED, we're done)
Lawrence Block
Bill Willingham
Charles de Lint
Lev Grossman (haven't read his pre-Magicians books, but anything going forward)
Steven Gould
Tamora Pierce
Joe Hill
Alan Brennert
Robert Crais
Susanna Clarke
Pat Conroy
Dennis Lehane

…and others, I'm sure.

There are some specialized choices, like "Any Discworld by Pratchett"
or "Any Max Allan Collins that isn't a tie-in novel or a completed
Spillane manuscript" or "Any Jim Butcher that isn't a Spider-Man novel,
maybe."

kdb
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!

[Jacey Bedford]

In message <jkd1kl$65i$1...@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com>
writes

Not in any particular order:
Patricia Briggs
Lois McMaster Bujold
Tanya Huff
Andre Norton (still buying back catalogue that I missed)
Terry Pratchett
Elizabeth Chadwick
N. M. Browne (Nicky Browne from r.a.sf.c)
Karen Traviss (though I missed the last of the Gears of War series)
Kari Sperring

Recently discovered (not necessarily new) authors who might turn out to
be whole-catalogue-regulars on my shopping list include:
Lisa Shearin
Sherwood Smith
Joe Abercrombie
Jim Butcher
Ilona Andrews
Carrie Vaughan

Jacey

--
Jacey Bedford

[tphile2]

> Visithttp://www.busiek.com-- for all your Busiek needs!

In your case the secret word should be "buy" and not "get free copies
of" with comics, what about
Alan Moore
Ed Brubaker
Peter David
Paul Dini
Peter O'Donnell
Will Eisner
Dick Calkins (Buck Rogers)
Hal Foster
Charles Schultz
Al Capp

[slakmagik]

On 2012-03-21 Wed 14:03:22, Remus Shepherd wrote:
> Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>
> I think Vernor Vinge is the only living author on that list for me.
> Quite a few dead ones, but they're not producing much anymore.
>

Vernor Vinge is on my list, too, along with Bruce Sterling (except for
_The Difference Engine_, which I consider Gibson's fault - but I read
even that) and Greg Egan.

Proof: I even have Vinge's _Grimm's World_ and _The Witling_ despite the
partly-fantasy vibes. They turned out to be excellent anyway. I didn't
know Sterling's _Zeitgeist_ was postmodern metafictional fantasy (and
amazingly turned out to be a mostly enjoyable read anyway but ultimately
didn't work for me) but, even if I had, I'd have tried it (with
considerable hesitation). Other than the Gibson, I have every Sterling
book. And I even buy Egan stuff like _Teranesia_ (which turned out to be
pretty good, but didn't appeal to me as much as some others by
description). I am hesitant to buy "The Clockwork Rocket" stuff, though.
Something about it (not least that it's his first book series after a
career of series-less-ness) is giving me pause.[1]

For older authors:

Asimov
Proof: I have non-fiction, of course, and also mysteries, both
_Fantastic Voyage_s, the Lucky Starrs (but *not* Norby - that's
Janet's fault), _Azazel_, etc., as well as core SF.
Budrys
I have passed on _The Iron Thorn_ for some reason - perhaps a good
reason - but I may get to it someday.
Campbell
Even _The Moon Is Hell_ with "The Elder Gods" and the
still-to-be-read posthumous _The Space Beyond_.
C.L.Moore
Even _Doomsday Morning_.
Schmitz
Insofar as Baen reprinted everything and I got all seven volumes.

Except for Schmitz, I don't think any are quite complete, but they could
be. There are authors I have many more books of than some of the ones
listed but definitely couldn't be complete.

---
[1] Actually, Egan wrote one novel long before _Quarantine_ that is
apparently more of a horror which I'm unlikely to get so maybe he
shouldn't count, but I usually forget he wrote it and almost did this
time. It doesn't seem to count, so he does. But if it does, he doesn't.

[Howard Brazee]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:16:07 +0000 (UTC),
mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:

>>10. John Scalzi
>
>After reading _Android's Dream_ and the first three Old Man's War
>books, he is very close to being the first author on my (currently
>non-existent) "buy on sight" list.

He's pretty much there for me. I have a handful of authors who are
on my "buy when it's announced that the book will be out in 6 months"
list. And a few who have series on that list.


--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison

[Kurt Busiek]

> In your case the secret word should be "buy" and not "get free copies
> of" with comics, what about
> Alan Moore
> Ed Brubaker
> Peter David
> Paul Dini
> Peter O'Donnell
> Will Eisner
> Dick Calkins (Buck Rogers)
> Hal Foster
> Charles Schultz
> Al Capp

I was referring to prose fiction, not comics. But I haven't bought
absolutely everything written by any of the people you list.

Plus, if you're ruling out "get free copies of," then the fact that
I've gotten free copies of stuff by about half that list would
disqualify them anyway.

kdb
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!

[Howard Brazee]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:24:28 +0000 (UTC), slakmagik
<j...@hostname.invalid> wrote:

>> I think Vernor Vinge is the only living author on that list for me.
>> Quite a few dead ones, but they're not producing much anymore.
>>
>
>Vernor Vinge is on my list, too,

I maybe dropped Vernor Vinge off my list after his latest. We'll
see. Bujold and Brust are on my "ordered 6 months in advance" list.
But that list has shortened since I retired - I have more time, but
less money.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:17:45 +0000, Jaimie Vandenbergh
<jai...@sometimes.sessile.org> wrote:

>On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:03:04 -0500, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com>
>wrote:
>
>>Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>>anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>
>In similarly no particular order,
>
>Charlie Stross
>Jasper Fforde
>A Lee Martinez
>Matthew Hughes (of this parish)
>Lawrence Watt-Evans (likewise)
>Terry Pratchett
>Katherine Valante
>Vernor Vinge

Also,
Steven Brust
Lois Bujold
Greg Egan
Barry Hughart (I wish)
Iain M Banks
China Mieville
Alastair Reynolds
John Varley

Cheers - Jaimie
--
If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-03-21 19:44:28 +0000, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> said:

> On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:24:28 +0000 (UTC), slakmagik
> <j...@hostname.invalid> wrote:
>
>>> I think Vernor Vinge is the only living author on that list for me.
>>> Quite a few dead ones, but they're not producing much anymore.
>>>
>>
>> Vernor Vinge is on my list, too,
>
> I maybe dropped Vernor Vinge off my list after his latest. We'll
> see. Bujold and Brust are on my "ordered 6 months in advance" list.
> But that list has shortened since I retired - I have more time, but
> less money.

There's some authors who'd be on my list, but I don't actually buy
their work, I just reserve it at the library.

So getting and reading, say, the new John Sandford is reflexive on my
part, but I'm not purchasing it, I'm checking it out.

If at some point I want to reread one of the Sandfords I haven't
bought, I can either re-check it out, or buy the ebook version at
competing-with-paperback prices.

[tphile2]

On Mar 21, 2:43 pm, Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> wrote:

> Visithttp://www.busiek.com-- for all your Busiek needs!

prose fiction, not comics? but your list includes Bill Willingham
notable for comics Elementals, Ironwood, Fables and gaming etc. and
Alan Brennert also in comics and media. what prose fiction are you
talking about?

[erilar]

In article <jkd1kl$65i$1...@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com>
wrote:

Tanya Huff
Lois Bujold

Most others I get from the library 8-)

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist

[Kurt Busiek]

> prose fiction, not comics?

Yes.

> but your list includes Bill Willingham
> notable for comics Elementals, Ironwood, Fables and gaming etc. and
> Alan Brennert also in comics and media. what prose fiction are you
> talking about?

Bill's most recent novel is DOWN THE MYSTERLY RIVER, from
Starscape/Tor, and before that, he did a Fables novel, PETER & MAX.

MYSTERLY is a revamp of an earlier novel from Clockwork Storybook, a
writer's alliance/small press publisher. I have one of Bill's other
novels from that era, and there's at least one more but I've never seen
it for sale.

Alan Brennert is an amazing prose writer. His novels KINDRED SPIRITS,
TIME & CHANCE and MOLOKA'I are all terrific, and his latest, HONOLULU,
is pretty darn good. I also have a couple of short-story collections by
him, but have never seen a copy of his first novel, CITY OF MASQUES.

In both cases, if and when I see any new prose fiction (full-length or
solo collections) from them, I'll buy it.

kdb
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!

[Jessie_C]

In article <jkd1kl$65i$1...@dont-email.me>, l...@winsim.com says...

>
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ?

Pterry

Lois McMaster Bujold
Tanya Huff

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Elizabeth Moon
Raymond E Feist
Jo Claton
Steven Brust
Robert Asprin

David Weber is on the "Buy almost everything except _Out of the Dark_" list

[erilar]

In article <spbkm7980ofioeg6r...@4ax.com>,

Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:

> Bujold and Brust are on my "ordered 6 months in advance" list.
> But that list has shortened since I retired - I have more time, but
> less money.

Since I retired, I get most of mine from the library. I could afford
more, but have no room for more bookshelves 8-(

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist

[Jerry Brown]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:03:04 -0500, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com>
wrote:

Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
series)

Jim Butcher (Harry and Tavi)

Iain M Banks (but not 映)

Alastair Reynolds

--
Jerry Brown

A cat may look at a king
(but probably won't bother)

[Greg Goss]

Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:

>Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

I had those. In a temporary visit to "have a real life" in the
nineties, I pretty much stopped reading, and lost track of my
obsessions.

Since 2008, I've re-started reading again, but don't have the income
to fill in my gaps. So I'm reading my way through the Baen free stuff
keeping track of who I'm gonna buy once I have the money.

But I bought GCA last year on the basis of ravings here. And this
thread has reminded me to go (long pause... ouch - you used to get
hardcover for this year's e-price) buy last year's Vinge.
--
I used to own a mind like a steel trap.
Perhaps if I'd specified a brass one, it
wouldn't have rusted like this.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:

> There's some authors who'd be on my list, but I don't actually buy
> their work, I just reserve it at the library.
>
> So getting and reading, say, the new John Sandford is reflexive on my
> part, but I'm not purchasing it, I'm checking it out.

I should probably do that. I've enjoyed all the ones I've read, but am
mostly resisting hardcovers. I don't think they'll probably be heavy
re-reads for me. Most of my first pass were used paperbacks, which
isn't so bad, but now that I'm caught up mostly, it's harder.

(I knew him on a photo mailing list, figured I should try the books on
general principles, and found them quirky and more interesting than I
expected. We also turn out to have at least one in-person friend in
common, and his son played poker with friends of mine when he lived
here.)

> If at some point I want to reread one of the Sandfords I haven't
> bought, I can either re-check it out, or buy the ebook version at
> competing-with-paperback prices.

Yes, that kind of thing is available from the library for a while pretty
reliably.

[Andrew Plotkin]

Here, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ?

I used to, when I was young.

After a while, I realized that all of the authors on my list had
disappointed me at least once, in some respect or other. Now I have a
list of authors who I will look at anything from and buy it if it
doesn't look like a mistake.

--Z

--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 3/21/12 4:31 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
> Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>
>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>
> I had those. In a temporary visit to "have a real life" in the
> nineties, I pretty much stopped reading, and lost track of my
> obsessions.
>
> Since 2008, I've re-started reading again, but don't have the income
> to fill in my gaps. So I'm reading my way through the Baen free stuff
> keeping track of who I'm gonna buy once I have the money.
>
> But I bought GCA last year on the basis of ravings here.

Excellent. :) I'm now almost 80k into the sequel.

And this
> thread has reminded me to go (long pause... ouch - you used to get
> hardcover for this year's e-price) buy last year's Vinge.


--

Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com Blog:
http://seawasp.livejournal.com

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-03-21 20:33:24 +0000, David Dyer-Bennet <dd...@dd-b.net> said:

> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>
>> There's some authors who'd be on my list, but I don't actually buy
>> their work, I just reserve it at the library.
>>
>> So getting and reading, say, the new John Sandford is reflexive on my
>> part, but I'm not purchasing it, I'm checking it out.
>
> I should probably do that. I've enjoyed all the ones I've read, but am
> mostly resisting hardcovers. I don't think they'll probably be heavy
> re-reads for me. Most of my first pass were used paperbacks, which
> isn't so bad, but now that I'm caught up mostly, it's harder.

Yeah, if I know I'm likely to want to read something multiple times,
I'll buy it. If I just want to read it, and may never want to read it a
second time, the library's the way to go, if it's a book they're
getting in.

And I've found that if I ask my local library to get a book they hadn't
ordered, they usually will.

> (I knew him on a photo mailing list, figured I should try the books on
> general principles, and found them quirky and more interesting than I
> expected. We also turn out to have at least one in-person friend in
> common, and his son played poker with friends of mine when he lived
> here.)

I put one of his books into an issue of SUPERMAN, sort of. I had Clark
Kent reading "the new John Sandford," but I gave it a slightly
different title, and wrote text for hte couple of panels where you
could see that pages that took the original text and rewrote it as if
the story was set in the DC Universe, with references to the Joker and
other DC characters.

Clark had some mild criticisms of the book. I later heard from
Sandford's son, who had made the effort to read the teeny-tiny
rewritten text, liked it, and let me know that Sandford enjoyed the
nod, and they basically agreed with Clark's criticisms.

It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read books
I liked, that was fun.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:54:29 +0000, Jaimie Vandenbergh

And Ryk! How could I forget? You should publish more, Wasp.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
Whilst holidaying with the sprogs and watching Favourite Teddy Bear
trundling through the x-ray, I speculated on the fun that could be had
with a teddy bear containing a radio-opaque teddy-bear skeleton.
- K, asr

[Joseph Nebus]

In <jkdeeg$qed$1...@dont-email.me> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:

>It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
>I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read books
>I liked, that was fun.

`Course, now, that time you had him reading Dickens, that
got weird.

--
http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus
Current Entry: How To Multiply By 365 In Your Head http://wp.me/p1RYhY-8g
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Scott Fluhrer]

"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote in message
news:jkde8p$oeg$1...@dont-email.me...

> On 3/21/12 4:31 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
>> Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>>
>> I had those. In a temporary visit to "have a real life" in the
>> nineties, I pretty much stopped reading, and lost track of my
>> obsessions.
>>
>> Since 2008, I've re-started reading again, but don't have the income
>> to fill in my gaps. So I'm reading my way through the Baen free stuff
>> keeping track of who I'm gonna buy once I have the money.
>>
>> But I bought GCA last year on the basis of ravings here.
>
> Excellent. :) I'm now almost 80k into the sequel.

What? You're not done yet? Why are you wasting time here???

:-)

--
poncho

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:

> On 2012-03-21 20:33:24 +0000, David Dyer-Bennet <dd...@dd-b.net> said:
>
>> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>>
>>> There's some authors who'd be on my list, but I don't actually buy
>>> their work, I just reserve it at the library.
>>>
>>> So getting and reading, say, the new John Sandford is reflexive on my
>>> part, but I'm not purchasing it, I'm checking it out.
>>
>> I should probably do that. I've enjoyed all the ones I've read, but am
>> mostly resisting hardcovers. I don't think they'll probably be heavy
>> re-reads for me. Most of my first pass were used paperbacks, which
>> isn't so bad, but now that I'm caught up mostly, it's harder.
>
> Yeah, if I know I'm likely to want to read something multiple times,
> I'll buy it. If I just want to read it, and may never want to read it
> a second time, the library's the way to go, if it's a book they're
> getting in.

I do refer back to books for research sometimes, for arguments or
whatever. And I do a lot of rereading.

And stuff disappears fast these days, if I don't buy it I may not get
the chance later.

> And I've found that if I ask my local library to get a book they
> hadn't ordered, they usually will.

I can see that; though I'm not sure that's the best use of their
resources.

>> (I knew him on a photo mailing list, figured I should try the books on
>> general principles, and found them quirky and more interesting than I
>> expected. We also turn out to have at least one in-person friend in
>> common, and his son played poker with friends of mine when he lived
>> here.)
>
> I put one of his books into an issue of SUPERMAN, sort of. I had Clark
> Kent reading "the new John Sandford," but I gave it a slightly
> different title, and wrote text for hte couple of panels where you
> could see that pages that took the original text and rewrote it as if
> the story was set in the DC Universe, with references to the Joker and
> other DC characters.

Sounds like fun!

> Clark had some mild criticisms of the book. I later heard from
> Sandford's son, who had made the effort to read the teeny-tiny
> rewritten text, liked it, and let me know that Sandford enjoyed the
> nod, and they basically agreed with Clark's criticisms.

I found some interesting comments in the HTML code for the web site, too
:-); his son and I seem to agree on a number of technical things.

> It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
> I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read
> books I liked, that was fun.

Use this power only for good!

I've had considerable luck getting author responses just from my
book-log online, so I'm not surprised your MUCH more prominent platform
attracts some attention. Authors generally like being liked :-).

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-03-21 20:48:22 +0000, nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) said:

> In <jkdeeg$qed$1...@dont-email.me> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>
>> It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
>> I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read books
>> I liked, that was fun.
>
> `Course, now, that time you had him reading Dickens, that
> got weird.

I don't think I ever did -- in fact, I started throwing in references
to him reading current authors because it seemed like having him read
Dickens was the reflex choice, and I was trying to present him as a
modern thirtysomething reporter, not as an old fuddy-duddy whose taste
in fashion and entertainment hadn't changed since the audience's
grandfather's day.

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-03-21 20:48:22 +0000, nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) said:

> In <jkdeeg$qed$1...@dont-email.me> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>
>> It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
>> I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read books
>> I liked, that was fun.
>
> `Course, now, that time you had him reading Dickens, that
> got weird.

I don't think I ever did -- in fact, I started throwing in references
to him reading current authors because it seemed like having him read
Dickens was the reflex choice, and I was trying to present him as a
modern thirtysomething reporter, not as an old fuddy-duddy whose taste
in fashion and entertainment hadn't changed since the audience's
grandfather's day.

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

He's working on it. I've already blurbed one of his upcoming books,
and just added another to my to-be-read queue.




--
Now available on Amazon or B&N: One-Eyed Jack.
Greg Kraft could see ghosts. That didn't mean he could stop them...

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-03-21 20:53:32 +0000, David Dyer-Bennet <dd...@dd-b.net> said:

> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>
>> Yeah, if I know I'm likely to want to read something multiple times,
>> I'll buy it. If I just want to read it, and may never want to read it
>> a second time, the library's the way to go, if it's a book they're
>> getting in.
>
> I do refer back to books for research sometimes, for arguments or
> whatever. And I do a lot of rereading.
>
> And stuff disappears fast these days, if I don't buy it I may not get
> the chance later.

We may be simply reading different books, but my experience is that
even if something I want to read is out of print, it's almost always
available used, in good condition, for cheap.

There are exceptions, of course.

>> And I've found that if I ask my local library to get a book they
>> hadn't ordered, they usually will.
>
> I can see that; though I'm not sure that's the best use of their
> resources.

It started when I tried to use Interlibrary Loan to get something, and
they just bought the book instead.

I protested that they didn't need to buy books just for me, and was
told that they like hearing what books their patrons want to read -- if
I want it, odds are other people will want to read it too.

I still don't ask all that often, but they were pretty insistent that I
should feel free to.

>> It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
>> I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read
>> books I liked, that was fun.
>
> Use this power only for good!
>
> I've had considerable luck getting author responses just from my
> book-log online, so I'm not surprised your MUCH more prominent platform
> attracts some attention. Authors generally like being liked :-).

I had him reading a copy of JENNIFER GOVERNMENT, and we showed the cover.

Max Barry contacted DC to see if he could buy the page, and their legal
department got all flustered at the thought that we might have violated
copyright by showing the book.

Barry responded that, really, his publisher pays people to try to get
the book mentioned and shown places; they don't sue people for
spreading the word. And the idea that Superman reads his stuff? That's
worth bragging about!

In the end, we got him a color print-out of the page, since the
original didn't have the cover on it; it was digitally added in at the
coloring stage.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:

> On 2012-03-21 20:53:32 +0000, David Dyer-Bennet <dd...@dd-b.net> said:
>
>> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>>
>>> Yeah, if I know I'm likely to want to read something multiple times,
>>> I'll buy it. If I just want to read it, and may never want to read it
>>> a second time, the library's the way to go, if it's a book they're
>>> getting in.
>>
>> I do refer back to books for research sometimes, for arguments or
>> whatever. And I do a lot of rereading.
>>
>> And stuff disappears fast these days, if I don't buy it I may not get
>> the chance later.
>
> We may be simply reading different books, but my experience is that
> even if something I want to read is out of print, it's almost always
> available used, in good condition, for cheap.

True enough. No, the problem is that I still don't think of used books
as all being indexed on the Internet, even though I've bought quite a
few there.

> There are exceptions, of course.

Many of them are not things I'd expect to get a library to buy, though,
too.

>>> And I've found that if I ask my local library to get a book they
>>> hadn't ordered, they usually will.
>>
>> I can see that; though I'm not sure that's the best use of their
>> resources.
>
> It started when I tried to use Interlibrary Loan to get something, and
> they just bought the book instead.
>
> I protested that they didn't need to buy books just for me, and was
> told that they like hearing what books their patrons want to read --
> if I want it, odds are other people will want to read it too.
>
> I still don't ask all that often, but they were pretty insistent that
> I should feel free to.

Well, they're the experts on their budget. I dunno if one patron really
gives them any insight into their overall clientele, but maybe you do.

>>> It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
>>> I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read
>>> books I liked, that was fun.
>>
>> Use this power only for good!
>>
>> I've had considerable luck getting author responses just from my
>> book-log online, so I'm not surprised your MUCH more prominent platform
>> attracts some attention. Authors generally like being liked :-).
>
> I had him reading a copy of JENNIFER GOVERNMENT, and we showed the cover.
>
> Max Barry contacted DC to see if he could buy the page, and their
> legal department got all flustered at the thought that we might have
> violated copyright by showing the book.
>
> Barry responded that, really, his publisher pays people to try to get
> the book mentioned and shown places; they don't sue people for
> spreading the word. And the idea that Superman reads his stuff? That's
> worth bragging about!

Yeah, predicting that the publisher wouldn't mind is MUCH easier than
figuring out what the legal complexities are should somebody object.
Fair use might cover it.

Having a widely-loved good-guy character reading it is much safer than
having a really nasty bad-guy character cite it as the source of his
fiendish ideas :-) .

> In the end, we got him a color print-out of the page, since the
> original didn't have the cover on it; it was digitally added in at the
> coloring stage.

I know a lot of authors with original cover paintings of a few of their
books on their walls, but I wonder how often there is such an actual
object these days, there's a lot of this digital stuff going on. (A
good print might do just as well though, and might also be rather
cheaper.)

[Moriarty]

On Mar 22, 4:16 am, mstem...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper)
wrote:

> In article <jkd1kl$65...@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> writes:
> >Do you have any authors that you will purchase anything from ?
>

> Not really. I used to have some authors that I'd read anything by, but
> that was back in the Golden Age of SF.
>
> Charlie Stross comes close, however. With him, it's "buy anything as long
> as it's not more Merchant Princes stuff".

You are me, AICMFP!

And no, I don't have any such author. Honounorable mentions to:

Iain M Banks (still haven't read Feersum Enjinn)

LM Bujold (haven't read the Sharing Knife series)

GG Kay (_Last Light of the Sun_ bored me, haven't picked him up since)

Paul Kearney (yet to explore his earlier, pre-Monarchies of God stuff)

David Gemmell (I haven't read the last book he published or the
postumous sequel. I also may not have read _Echoes of the Great
Song_)

S Morgenstern (still haven't read the sequel to _The Princess Bride_)

-Moriarty

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

On 2012-03-21 17:14:47 -0400, David Dyer-Bennet said:

> I know a lot of authors with original cover paintings of a few of their
> books on their walls, but I wonder how often there is such an actual
> object these days, there's a lot of this digital stuff going on. (A
> good print might do just as well though, and might also be rather
> cheaper.)

I haven't tried to buy a cover painting in years, and I know that some
of my most recent don't exist. What really annoys me, though, was that
publishers have stopped sending out hard-copy cover proofs. I had a
complete set of every one of my books from 1981 to (I think) 2007...
and then they stopped.

(Meanwhile, I do have at least nine cover paintings on my walls, mostly
in the dining room. They range from a not-much-bigger-than-the-book
Tristan Elwell to the gigantic Bob Eggleton over the fireplace.)

[Lawrence Watt-Evans]

By the way, in case it's not obvious, I've been reading this thread
intently, with my mood soaring every time my name makes a list, and
dropping whenever it doesn't.

My own list, by the way:

Harry Connolly

I'll buy any Terry Pratchett Discworld book instantly, but not
necessarily his other work. I'll buy any Jim Butcher Harry Dresden
book, but not necessarily his other work.

And I think that's it. Short list. With everyone else, I want to know
more than the author's name.

(I'm excluding dead authors where I already have everything they wrote
-- Heinlein, for example.)

[Michael Stemper]

In article <12bkm71ro9qsgue31...@4ax.com>, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> writes:
>On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:16:07 +0000 (UTC), mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:

>>>10. John Scalzi
>>
>>After reading _Android's Dream_ and the first three Old Man's War
>>books, he is very close to being the first author on my (currently
>>non-existent) "buy on sight" list.
>
>He's pretty much there for me. I have a handful of authors who are
>on my "buy when it's announced that the book will be out in 6 months"
>list.

I only ever did that once. I'd just been out of school and gainfully
employed a few months, when I heard that _The Silmarillion_ was going
to be published the following year. I immediately advance-ordered it.
I finally finished it sometime around 2000.

Strangely, the urge to advance order has never struck again.

--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
Reunite Gondwanaland!

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-03-21 21:20:28 +0000, Moriarty <blu...@ivillage.com> said:

> David Gemmell (I haven't read the last book he published or the
> postumous sequel. I also may not have read _Echoes of the Great
> Song_)

I got them all up to and including the one his wife completed, but
never read it. The dog was young, then, and chose that book to chew up
rather spectacularly, and I hadn't enjoyed the previous volume so much
that I wanted to pay for the finale twice...

[Lynn McGuire]

Yes, he is my number 11 !

Lynn

[Catherine Jefferson]

On 3/21/2012 10:03 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

> Mine are (not in any particular order):
> 1. David Weber (except War God series)
> 2. Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant)
> 3. Kelley Armstrong
> 4. John Ringo
> 5. Wen Spencer
> 6. Tom Kratman
> 7. Patricia Briggs (except pure fantasy stuff)
> 8. Carrie Vaugn
> 9. Alan Dean Foster
> 10. John Scalzi

A list of "buy everything they write" authors, and none of mine are on
it. <wry grin> Although Scalzi comes close. Do Androids Dream... was
*funny*.

My list of living SF authors whose new works I pick up by default, in
alphabetical order by last name 'cause I can't rate one of these over
another:

*) David Brin
*) Lois McMaster Bujold
*) Orson Scott Card
*) Ted Chiang
*) Neil Gaiman
*) Ursula Le Guin
*) Ian MacDonald
*) China Mieville
*) Larry Niven
*) Kim Stanley Robinson
*) Spider Robinson
*) Vernor Vinge
*) Jo Walton
*) Connie Willis


--
Catherine Jefferson <tw8...@ergosphere.net>
Blog/Personal: http://www.ergosphere.net

[Howard Brazee]

Some authors, I will buy anything from - when I see them in paperback.
Including a couple in this forum.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison

[Howard Brazee]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:20:48 +0000, Jerry Brown
<je...@jwbrown.co.uk.invalid> wrote:

>Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
>series)

That's the 2nd post which has skipped the Sharing Knife series. I
wonder why.

She also has a stand-alone fantasy, her first.

[Greg Goss]

"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:

>On 3/21/12 4:31 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
>> Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>>
>> I had those. In a temporary visit to "have a real life" in the
>> nineties, I pretty much stopped reading, and lost track of my
>> obsessions.
>>
>> Since 2008, I've re-started reading again, but don't have the income
>> to fill in my gaps. So I'm reading my way through the Baen free stuff
>> keeping track of who I'm gonna buy once I have the money.
>>
>> But I bought GCA last year on the basis of ravings here.
>
> Excellent. :) I'm now almost 80k into the sequel.
>
>
> And this
>> thread has reminded me to go (long pause... ouch - you used to get
>> hardcover for this year's e-price) buy last year's Vinge.

How come your book didn't hurt me like the Vinge does?

[Lynn McGuire]

On 3/21/2012 4:58 PM, Howard Brazee wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:20:48 +0000, Jerry Brown
> <je...@jwbrown.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
>> series)
>
> That's the 2nd post which has skipped the Sharing Knife series. I
> wonder why.
>
> She also has a stand-alone fantasy, her first.

No spaceships. I skipped it also.

Lynn

[Lynn McGuire]

I'm very close on Orson Scott Card and Larry Niven.
Maybe Connie Willis. Spider Robinson hurt me on his
last book so he got knocked off the list.

Lynn

[Chris]

On Mar 21, 1:03 pm, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ?  In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
> Mine are (not in any particular order):
> 1. David Weber (except War God series)
> 2. Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant)
> 3. Kelley Armstrong
> 4. John Ringo
> 5. Wen Spencer
> 6. Tom Kratman
> 7. Patricia Briggs (except pure fantasy stuff)
> 8. Carrie Vaugn
> 9. Alan Dean Foster
> 10. John Scalzi
>

> Lynn

Well, if Heinlein or Asimov or Carter (who DAMMIT lived a few blocks
away from me when I was growing up and I never knew it!) ever come out
with anything again, I will be first in line. Other than that, a
couple only come close. I don't like Bujold's fantasy but I'll buy any
Vorkosigan work that isn't a rehash of stuff I've already read. And
not to kiss ass or anything, but I've bought, read and enjoyed every
_Ethshar_ work that's come out. And having finally gotten around to
_Boundary_ and _Threshold_, that guy who worked with Flint seems
pretty good. I'd drop a dime on him again.

Chris

[Chris]

On Mar 21, 1:03 pm, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ?  In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
> Mine are (not in any particular order):

You do realize that you put them into "ooh shiny" order and then said
they're in no particular order, right? Just askin'.

Chris

[Chris]

On Mar 21, 5:58 pm, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:20:48 +0000, Jerry Brown
>
> <je...@jwbrown.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
> >Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
> >series)
>
> That's the 2nd post which has skipped the Sharing Knife series.   I
> wonder why.
>
> She also has a stand-alone fantasy, her first.

Please don't start a flame war here. This is just a personal opinion.

Bujold's fantasy stuff is bad...just bad. I know some people love it
and please keep loving it. But I think it pretty much sucks.

Chris

[Helmut_Meukel]

Howard Brazee wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:20:48 +0000, Jerry Brown
> <je...@jwbrown.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
>> series)
>
> That's the 2nd post which has skipped the Sharing Knife series. I
> wonder why.
>
> She also has a stand-alone fantasy, her first.

Are you refering to _The Spirit Ring_?

Hmm, I never read any book of the Sharing Knife series, but that's
probably because I read German translations and not all books were
available. Since the early 90's I started to read the books in English
but was limited to the books I got on vacations in Scandinavia and the
UK, prizes for books in English were extremely high in Germany and hard
to get by in my small home town.
That changed and american books (from amazon.de) are now cheaper than
the German translations.

I still try to get some books from older authors never available in
German translations.
I appreciate the Baen collections of stories (James H. Schmitz,
Poul Anderson's "The Technic Civilization Saga" and "Time Patrol",...).
Stories of well known authors often were not published in German.
And I will buy most books of my favorite authers even if I own these
already in German.

But, with one exception (Heinlein), there is no auther - living or dead -
I would buy *anything* from.

OTOH, I think I own already all of Heinlein, so I'm just looking for
some of his older works that I've only in german pulp magazin issues
which are probably abridged.

Helmut.

[Robert Bannister]

On 22/03/12 3:31 AM, Howard Brazee wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:16:07 +0000 (UTC),
> mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:
>
>>> 10. John Scalzi
>>
>> After reading _Android's Dream_ and the first three Old Man's War
>> books, he is very close to being the first author on my (currently
>> non-existent) "buy on sight" list.
>
> He's pretty much there for me. I have a handful of authors who are
> on my "buy when it's announced that the book will be out in 6 months"

> list. And a few who have series on that list.
>
>

I've got a few like that, but they're not really on my all-time-great
list at all - just that I've got caught up in their current series and I
need to find out how it finishes. I was like that with "Merchant
Princes" (ended up disappointed) and with the October Daye books (not
disappointed) and am eagerly awaiting the next Allie Beckstrom book, but
this is not the same as "will buy anything they write".

I suppose I'd include Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt, but most of the
authors I really, really like are dead, which is very irritating as it
makes the wait for a new book so much longer.

--
Robert Bannister

[Andy Leighton]

Wow - I'm completely different to most.

Al Reynolds is the only one on my list that appears on multiple other
lists.

Others on my list include -
Christopher Priest
Gwyneth Jones
Greg Egan (I think someone mentioned him)
KSR and Ian McDonald (from above).
Chris Beckett (OK only four books so far)
Ken Macleod
Tim Powers


--
Andy Leighton => an...@azaal.plus.com
"The Lord is my shepherd, but we still lost the sheep dog trials"
- Robert Rankin, _They Came And Ate Us_

[Robert Bannister]

On 22/03/12 2:03 AM, Remus Shepherd wrote:

> Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>

> I think Vernor Vinge is the only living author on that list for me.

I didn't even know he was still writing. It's been years since I read a
book of his. Is Joan Vinge still alive? I was never sure whether she was
a sister, wife or no relation at all - of course, back then, there was
no Google, so now I know.


--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

On 22/03/12 4:41 AM, Kurt Busiek wrote:

> Yeah, if I know I'm likely to want to read something multiple times,
> I'll buy it. If I just want to read it, and may never want to read it a
> second time, the library's the way to go, if it's a book they're getting
> in.

This is a big problem because you don't know whether it's going to be
that kind of book or not - not even from tried and trusted authors.
Consequently, many of my favourite, read-several-times books are
tattered paperbacks, while my almost pristine hard covers are books I
may only ever read again to justify them taking up shelf space.
--
Robert Bannister

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 3/21/12 5:22 PM, Lawrence Watt-Evans wrote:
> On 2012-03-21 17:14:47 -0400, David Dyer-Bennet said:
>
>> I know a lot of authors with original cover paintings of a few of their
>> books on their walls, but I wonder how often there is such an actual
>> object these days, there's a lot of this digital stuff going on. (A
>> good print might do just as well though, and might also be rather
>> cheaper.)
>
> I haven't tried to buy a cover painting in years, and I know that some
> of my most recent don't exist. What really annoys me, though, was that
> publishers have stopped sending out hard-copy cover proofs. I had a
> complete set of every one of my books from 1981 to (I think) 2007... and
> then they stopped.

Hm. Baen's still sending them out. Just got them a few weeks ago for
the paperback of _Threshold, in fact.

>
> (Meanwhile, I do have at least nine cover paintings on my walls, mostly
> in the dining room. They range from a not-much-bigger-than-the-book
> Tristan Elwell to the gigantic Bob Eggleton over the fireplace.)

I really WISH I could buy my covers. I'd especially like GCA,
Threshold, and the forthcoming cover for Phoenix Rising by Todd
Lockwood. (And the Japanese cover for GCA, but I haven't even been able
to find out for sure who did it, let alone how to contact him or her.

>
>
>


--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com Blog:
http://seawasp.livejournal.com

[David DeLaney]

Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

>Mine are (not in any particular order):
>1. David Weber (except War God series)
>2. Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant)
>3. Kelley Armstrong
>4. John Ringo
>5. Wen Spencer
>6. Tom Kratman
>7. Patricia Briggs (except pure fantasy stuff)
>8. Carrie Vaugn
>9. Alan Dean Foster
>10. John Scalzi

I have a good many that I will purchase anything from as long as it's gotten
down to paperback. (I _thought_ Steven Erikson was in this category, except
"hardback", but then I bought _Crack'd Pot Trail_...)

I have a rather smaller number that I will buy things from in hardback. Let's
see... Michelle West / Sagara is the first to come to mind. Lemme scan my
booklist... oh, and Jenna Moran. NOT Robert Jordan, because I don't think I'd
like his Conan stuff really, but I've been hardbacking the Wheel of Time since
like book 4 or so and will snag AMoL next year in that format too.

this may take a moment or six

Much of Iain Banks (but not his horror alter-ego's books). The remaining Oz
books I don't have yet, because they're the ones that will NEVER come out in
either paperback format... Joe Bob Briggs' movie review collections. Steven
Brust. Lois McMaster Bujold. The Bulwer-Lytton Contest collections, which sadly
appear to have ceased being published. James Branch Cabell. ("Who?") Jacqueline
Carey slipped off this list with her new series, for some reason. The Year's
Best Fantasy & Horror, Datlow & Windling, before it ceased; TYBSF from Dozois,
which is still going... but those are only a fragment of those authors'
outputs. The Onion's collections of humor. Diane Duane. Probably Neil Gaiman.
Laurell K. Hamilton (oh don't make that face). Mary Ann Madden, made easier
because she only ever published/edited three books and I have two of them.
Judith Martin.

I think I _have_ just about all of Jack Chalker, mostly paperback. (STOP
JUDGING MEEEEEE!) Hal Clement, similarly, and there's some newish authors
that I think I have everything of only because there's only one or a few books
they've written yet. PC Hodgell. I believe I'd _like_ to get the chance to buy
one of everything Asimov wrote, but a great deal of it is now out of print...
And I think I have all four of Mayer Alan Brenner's novels; he's too
obscure to have a wikipedia page ... but ISFDB confirms that that's all he
ever wrote. I would buy any more Parasol Protectorate novels but there won't
be any. I'll be watching for more from Harry Connolly but will check the blurb
before buying, just in case. Etc.
More have-them-all or would-buy-on-sight-just-not-in-hardback-or-trade-
paperback-unless-necessary: David Eddings (and his secret wife collaborator).
Lynn Flewelling. Flint is collecting/editing some older SF authors, and through
him I've gotten Poul Anderson, James H. Schmitz, Keith Laumer, and Christopher
Anvil (some of them I already had some or a lot of)... Robert L. Forward.
_Probably_ Alan Dean Foster, but I think there's a few of his I don't want.
M.A. Foster. Sharon Green. Simon R. Green. The Greenberg-edited, and
Greenberg-&-, collections... Catherine-Webb-as-Kate-Griffin, so far. Lyndon
Hardy. Dawn Cook as herself, but I'm only getting her Hollows series as
Kim Harrison. Hartwell (& Cramer), Year's Best SF, YBF. Zenna Henderson.
Tanya Huff. Barry Hughart, o plz o plz. Probably Matt Hughes. Molly Ivins.
J.K. Jemisin, so far. Diana Wynne Jones. Guy Gavriel Kay, though probably not
his poetry collection. Gini Koch, so far. Mercedes Lackey, apparently. Sharon
Lee & Steve Miller, together. A. Lee Martinez, so far. Seanan McGuire as
herself, but not her Mira Grant books. L.E. Modesitt, though sometimes I'm
not sure why... Sarah Monette. Daniel Keys Moran.

Kelley Armstrong doesn't fit because I'm only autobuyinginpaperback her
Otherworld series. Various other authors I also have a "Squeeee!" reaction to
just one of their series or settings, but am specifically not buying another
series or another set of standalones or whatever. (Georgette Heyer, for
example - not buying her historical novels, just the romances and the
mysteries. Or Dave Barry - column collections / comedy books yes, the Peter
Pan fanfic no. MZBradley, all the Darkover but not the Mists of Avalon. Etc.)
This actually takes out quite a lot of candidates.

And then there's the ones where I think I have all of a given series or two,
and idly check on Wikipedia and BAM, they've written fifty other books but
they're all mysteries, or textbooks, or something. Ann Maxwell is an example
of this - I have _all_ of her SF output, all 9 books of it ... but in 1985/86
she changed over to mysteries and romance and hasn't written another word of
SF since. Leaving one series unfinished, even. I would grab any new SF output
from her, but there won't be any. Bleah. Or else I check Wikipedia and they're
a pseudonym for someone else and have another eleventy-nine books by that
person. Or vice versa.

(And, finally, there's the ones that simply Stop Showing Up in my local
bookstore, or that never did in the first place, and I'd have to go do
web-buying stuff to find them, or that change over to e-book only; I only
have so much time and effort and so many spoons.)

Thiiiiiis gets me up through M; I think I'll finish this up to-morrow in
a second post.

Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
http://www.vic.com/~dbd/ - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 3/21/12 5:27 PM, Lawrence Watt-Evans wrote:
>
> By the way, in case it's not obvious, I've been reading this thread
> intently, with my mood soaring every time my name makes a list, and
> dropping whenever it doesn't.
>
> My own list, by the way:
>
> Harry Connolly
>

Harry's GOOD enough but I could just barely make it through the first
book in the Twenty Palaces series, and I was told the others get darker,
so I avoided continuing down that path.

I don't think I have anyone on that list right now. Partly that's
simply due to the fact that since I became a writer I haven't READ
nearly as much as I used to.

(I'm staring right now at two hardcover Lawrence Watt-Evans books which
are, as far as I can tell, _Scaramouche With Magic_, and I really have
to get to reading them because there are no words to express the
coolness of that idea)

[David DeLaney]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:27:04 -0400, Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> wrote:
>By the way, in case it's not obvious, I've been reading this thread
>intently, with my mood soaring every time my name makes a list, and
>dropping whenever it doesn't.

The only reason you won't be on my "buy all of them in paperback, wherever
whenever" list is that you've written a horror novel. I'm not counting your
Nathan Archer novels. I just want to be able to FIND your last five or so
novels; Barnes & Noble has been unsatisfactory in this respect.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 3/21/12 6:16 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>
>> On 3/21/12 4:31 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
>>> Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>>>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>>>
>>> I had those. In a temporary visit to "have a real life" in the
>>> nineties, I pretty much stopped reading, and lost track of my
>>> obsessions.
>>>
>>> Since 2008, I've re-started reading again, but don't have the income
>>> to fill in my gaps. So I'm reading my way through the Baen free stuff
>>> keeping track of who I'm gonna buy once I have the money.
>>>
>>> But I bought GCA last year on the basis of ravings here.
>>
>> Excellent. :) I'm now almost 80k into the sequel.
>>
>>
>> And this
>>> thread has reminded me to go (long pause... ouch - you used to get
>>> hardcover for this year's e-price) buy last year's Vinge.
>
> How come your book didn't hurt me like the Vinge does?

Baen?

[David DeLaney]

Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> wrote:

>slakmagik <j...@hostname.invalid> wrote:
>>> I think Vernor Vinge is the only living author on that list for me.

>>> Quite a few dead ones, but they're not producing much anymore.
>>
>>Vernor Vinge is on my list, too,
>
>I maybe dropped Vernor Vinge off my list after his latest. We'll
>see. Bujold and Brust are on my "ordered 6 months in advance" list.
>But that list has shortened since I retired - I have more time, but
>less money.

I don't have an "ordered in advance" list. What I do have is a list that
combines "want to find this somewhere, period", 'watch for this, it's due
out some time in the future', and "waiting for it to show up in paperback".
It's not all THAT long, but at least I'm no longer keeping it in a notebook
with extensive crossings-out.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

Heh. Well, at the least I'd expect you'll buy _Portal_, finishing the
Boundary trilogy off. Though that won't be out until after _Phoenix
Rising_ but before _Spheres of Influence_.

[tphile2]

On Mar 21, 3:55 pm, Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> wrote:
> On 2012-03-21 20:48:22 +0000, nebu...@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) said:
>
> > In <jkdeeg$qe...@dont-email.me> Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> writes:
>
> >> It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
> >> I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read books
> >> I liked, that was fun.
>
> > `Course, now, that time you had him reading Dickens, that
> > got weird.
>
> I don't think I ever did -- in fact, I started throwing in references
> to him reading current authors because it seemed like having him read
> Dickens was the reflex choice, and I was trying to present him as a
> modern thirtysomething reporter, not as an old fuddy-duddy whose taste
> in fashion and entertainment hadn't changed since the audience's
> grandfather's day.
>
> kdb
> --
> Visithttp://www.busiek.com-- for all your Busiek needs!

What's fuddy-duddy about Dickens? Classics are classic and don't go
out of style. Besides his reading it in the movie is reason enough to
list something else. So what does a Kansas farm boy read?
Westerns? Twain? Adventure and fantasy? Something that would
influence his future super hero career?
Sometimes contemporary backfires. There was one Marvel comic issue
having Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu reading A Clockwork Orange. Which
I found hard to believe.given his monastic upbringing.
Mr Spock read fantasy aka Lewis Carroll, thanks to the influence and
interests of his mother. I wonder how his logic dealt with that. ;-)
The reading library of fictional characters would be interesting
speculation. What would Bruce Wayne or Diana Prince read? or Kimball
Kinneson? Lazarus Long?

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 3/21/12 7:44 PM, Robert Bannister wrote:
> On 22/03/12 2:03 AM, Remus Shepherd wrote:
>> Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>>
>> I think Vernor Vinge is the only living author on that list for me.
>
> I didn't even know he was still writing.

Yes, he is. Have a new hardcover of his nearby -- sequel to _A Fire
Upon the Deep_.

[David DeLaney]

Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>After a while, I realized that all of the authors on my list had
>disappointed me at least once, in some respect or other. Now I have a
>list of authors who I will look at anything from and buy it if it
>doesn't look like a mistake.

If I listed these, my post (upstream) would have been a LOT longer...

[Wayne Throop]

:: Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
:: series)

: Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net>
: That's the 2nd post which has skipped the Sharing Knife series. I
: wonder why.

Personally, I like the Sharing Knife series better than the Five Gods series.
I think most folks are t'other way 'round on that.
That's the impression I get ayways.

: She also has a stand-alone fantasy, her first.

What's all this I hear about a stand-alone Bujold fantasy?

Looking at baenebooks and amazon I only see "Proto Zoa"
(a group of five early short stories). Is it yet to come out?
Looking at dendarii.com, the latest thing actually published
is Cryoburn. The only newer book I'm aware of is the
Ivan-you-idiot book. So. Huh-wazzat?

Oh. Do you just mean The Spirit Ring? Foo. I thought you meant
something new-and-not-long-known-about. That's very different.
Nevermind.

(If I really had a buy-without-even-knowing-what-it-is author list,
Bujold would be on it. Very few others. Butcher, I guess.
Maybe Wen Spencer, maybe. But any author can write something
I'm not interested in. Even Bujold has written works of non-fiction,
which seem only somewhat-interesting, rather than drop-everything-and-
go-by-it.

[John F. Eldredge]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:53:35 -0700, Kurt Busiek wrote:

> On 2012-03-21 20:48:22 +0000, nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) said:

>
>> In <jkdeeg$qed$1...@dont-email.me> Kurt Busiek <ku...@busiek.com> writes:
>>
>>> It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
>>> I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read
>>> books I liked, that was fun.
>>
>> `Course, now, that time you had him reading Dickens, that got weird.
>
> I don't think I ever did -- in fact, I started throwing in references to
> him reading current authors because it seemed like having him read
> Dickens was the reflex choice, and I was trying to present him as a
> modern thirtysomething reporter, not as an old fuddy-duddy whose taste
> in fashion and entertainment hadn't changed since the audience's
> grandfather's day.
>
> kdb

Of course, having Dickens contact you, and give literary advice, would
give new meaning to the term "ghost-writing".

--
John F. Eldredge -- jo...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly
is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

[Howard Brazee]

On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:44:38 +0800, Robert Bannister
<rob...@bigpond.com> wrote:

>> I think Vernor Vinge is the only living author on that list for me.
>
>I didn't even know he was still writing. It's been years since I read a
>book of his. Is Joan Vinge still alive? I was never sure whether she was
>a sister, wife or no relation at all - of course, back then, there was
>no Google, so now I know.

They were married at one time. In Denvention II she won the best
novel Hugo. During that convention, I went to a reading where she
read her erstwhile husband's "True Lies", which was my introduction to
him. I told him about that at this last October's MileHiCon.

[Howard Brazee]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:32:44 -0500, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com>
wrote:

5 Gods had no spaceships either.

[Howard Brazee]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:48:06 -0700 (PDT), Chris
<chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:

>> >Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
>> >series)
>>
>> That's the 2nd post which has skipped the Sharing Knife series.   I
>> wonder why.
>>
>> She also has a stand-alone fantasy, her first.
>
>Please don't start a flame war here. This is just a personal opinion.
>
>Bujold's fantasy stuff is bad...just bad. I know some people love it
>and please keep loving it. But I think it pretty much sucks.

While my tastes are different, I'm curious why some people love the 5
Gods series but not her other fantasy.

[Howard Brazee]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:59:02 +0100, Helmut_Meukel
<Helmut...@bn-hof.invalid> wrote:

>> She also has a stand-alone fantasy, her first.
>
>Are you refering to _The Spirit Ring_?

Yes.

>But, with one exception (Heinlein), there is no auther - living or dead -
>I would buy *anything* from.

I'd put Zelazny ahead of Heinlein there. Zelazny's worst were some
collaborations he did when he knew he was terminal. Heinlein's worse
were when he got old.

[Howard Brazee]

On 22 Mar 2012 00:41:10 GMT, "John F. Eldredge" <jo...@jfeldredge.com>
wrote:

>> I don't think I ever did -- in fact, I started throwing in references to
>> him reading current authors because it seemed like having him read
>> Dickens was the reflex choice, and I was trying to present him as a
>> modern thirtysomething reporter, not as an old fuddy-duddy whose taste
>> in fashion and entertainment hadn't changed since the audience's
>> grandfather's day.
>>
>> kdb
>
>Of course, having Dickens contact you, and give literary advice, would
>give new meaning to the term "ghost-writing".

How about Jacob Marley?

[Evelyn Leeper]

On 3/21/12 1:03 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

> Mine are (not in any particular order):
> 1. David Weber (except War God series)
> 2. Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant)
> 3. Kelley Armstrong
> 4. John Ringo
> 5. Wen Spencer
> 6. Tom Kratman
> 7. Patricia Briggs (except pure fantasy stuff)
> 8. Carrie Vaugn
> 9. Alan Dean Foster
> 10. John Scalzi

Mine (at least those currently writing) are Rhys Hughes, Barry Malzberg,
Ted Chiang, and Christopher Priest (all with the exception of expensive
limited editions and such).

Older authors that I have complete (or near-complete) collections of
would include Jane Austen, George Eliot, Mark Twain, and Jorge Luis Borges.

There are also a few Latin American authors that I would buy if I could
find their stuff here at reasonable prices.

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
A classic is a book that doesn't have
to be written again. -Carl Van Doren

[Greg Goss]

"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:

>On 3/21/12 6:16 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 3/21/12 4:31 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
>>>> Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>>>>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>>>>
>>>> I had those. In a temporary visit to "have a real life" in the
>>>> nineties, I pretty much stopped reading, and lost track of my
>>>> obsessions.
>>>>
>>>> Since 2008, I've re-started reading again, but don't have the income
>>>> to fill in my gaps. So I'm reading my way through the Baen free stuff
>>>> keeping track of who I'm gonna buy once I have the money.
>>>>
>>>> But I bought GCA last year on the basis of ravings here.
>>>
>>> Excellent. :) I'm now almost 80k into the sequel.
>>>
>>>
>>> And this
>>>> thread has reminded me to go (long pause... ouch - you used to get
>>>> hardcover for this year's e-price) buy last year's Vinge.
>>
>> How come your book didn't hurt me like the Vinge does?
>
>
> Baen?

Perhaps. I don't really notice the publisher other than the free Baen
stuff, especially now that I've been told how to unlock books to read
them on my Symbian phone (no Kobo client on Symbian).

I think I paid CDN$7ish for yours and $14ish for his. Unfortunately,
I "like" yours but I'm "addicted" to his.

I buy my books through Kobo. Back when I used the Sony reader, Kobo
was willing to talk to the Sony and I liked them better than the Sony
store. Now that I'm reading on the phone, nobody provides a locked
client on symbian.
--
I used to own a mind like a steel trap.
Perhaps if I'd specified a brass one, it
wouldn't have rusted like this.

[Wayne Throop]

:: Harry Connolly

: "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com>
: Harry's GOOD enough but I could just barely make it through the first

: book in the Twenty Palaces series, and I was told the others get
: darker, so I avoided continuing down that path.

First chronolocially, or first publishedly?

I'm not sure I'd say any are darker than any others.
But yes, there's something to the notion that maybe the endings could show
at least *some* sort of optimisim, or fake it. I mean, Harry Dresden
is pretty dark, and it's harder and harder to be optimistic (I mean,
at the end of Ghost Story, ur'f va guenyy gb gur sernxvat Dhrra bs Nve
naq Qnexarff, most of his friends are horribly scarred emotionally and
seem either very near to throwing in the towel or becoming monsters,
the White Council is thoroughly infiltrated by the Black Council, and
many many many other negative things... but somehow Butcher seems to
make there seem to be light at the end of a tunnel. I mean, other than
that train that ran Harry over at the start of GS.

On the other hand... at the end of the third Twenty Palaces (in
publication order, ie, most futurewards in chronological order, which is
to say, at the end of Circle of Enemies), there *is* a sort of non-train
light at the end of a metaphorical tunnel. If he puts out another
postquel, I'd buy 'er right up, swelp me, seefidont.

Indeed, y'know... I'd have to say the books become *more* optimistic as
they go fowards in internal chronology. The TP society was on the ropes,
and now seems very interested in a mere wooden man who can take out the
likes of the highpowered variously sorcerous and predatory BigBads he
has, in fact, taken out. Plus, as I say, he's pulled a fast one at the
end of Circle of Enemies. A very interesting, very fast, one.

[Carl Dershem]

Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> typed in news:jkdh38$bfn$1@dont-
email.me:

>
> By the way, in case it's not obvious, I've been reading this
thread
> intently, with my mood soaring every time my name makes a list,
and
> dropping whenever it doesn't.
>

> My own list, by the way:
>
> Harry Connolly
>

> I'll buy any Terry Pratchett Discworld book instantly, but not
> necessarily his other work. I'll buy any Jim Butcher Harry
Dresden
> book, but not necessarily his other work.
>
> And I think that's it. Short list. With everyone else, I want to
know
> more than the author's name.
>
> (I'm excluding dead authors where I already have everything they
wrote
> -- Heinlein, for example.)

Add Steve Brust, and you've got it.

cd

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 3/21/12 8:55 PM, Wayne Throop wrote:
> :: Harry Connolly
>
> : "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com>
> : Harry's GOOD enough but I could just barely make it through the first
> : book in the Twenty Palaces series, and I was told the others get
> : darker, so I avoided continuing down that path.
>
> First chronolocially, or first publishedly?

First published: Child of Fire. That one was *JUST* on the edge of my
dark tolerance. JUST.

I was cheering for Ray in the Suvudu cage match; he did pretty well,
considering who he got stuck with for opponents.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

On 3/21/12 9:02 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>
>> On 3/21/12 6:16 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
>>> "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)"<sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 3/21/12 4:31 PM, Greg Goss wrote:
>>>>> Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>>>>>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
>>>>>
>>>>> I had those. In a temporary visit to "have a real life" in the
>>>>> nineties, I pretty much stopped reading, and lost track of my
>>>>> obsessions.
>>>>>
>>>>> Since 2008, I've re-started reading again, but don't have the income
>>>>> to fill in my gaps. So I'm reading my way through the Baen free stuff
>>>>> keeping track of who I'm gonna buy once I have the money.
>>>>>
>>>>> But I bought GCA last year on the basis of ravings here.
>>>>
>>>> Excellent. :) I'm now almost 80k into the sequel.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> And this
>>>>> thread has reminded me to go (long pause... ouch - you used to get
>>>>> hardcover for this year's e-price) buy last year's Vinge.
>>>
>>> How come your book didn't hurt me like the Vinge does?
>>
>>
>> Baen?
>
> Perhaps.

Baen always has low-cost ebooks (unless you wanna pay the premium for
the E-ARCs); you can get the entire month's releases (about 8-10 books,
maybe a couple more?) for $15 US (I think) in the Webscriptions bundle,
or pay $6-7 for individual books.

[David Johnston]

On 3/21/2012 6:43 PM, Howard Brazee wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:48:06 -0700 (PDT), Chris
> <chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>>> Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
>>>> series)
>>>
>>> That's the 2nd post which has skipped the Sharing Knife series. I
>>> wonder why.
>>>
>>> She also has a stand-alone fantasy, her first.
>>
>> Please don't start a flame war here. This is just a personal opinion.
>>
>> Bujold's fantasy stuff is bad...just bad. I know some people love it
>> and please keep loving it. But I think it pretty much sucks.
>
> While my tastes are different, I'm curious why some people love the 5
> Gods series but not her other fantasy.
>

Sharing Knife is kind of romancey.

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-03-21 23:47:51 +0000, Robert Bannister <rob...@bigpond.com> said:

> On 22/03/12 4:41 AM, Kurt Busiek wrote:
>
>> Yeah, if I know I'm likely to want to read something multiple times,
>> I'll buy it. If I just want to read it, and may never want to read it a
>> second time, the library's the way to go, if it's a book they're getting
>> in.
>
> This is a big problem because you don't know whether it's going to be
> that kind of book or not - not even from tried and trusted authors.

No, but I can generally predict pretty well, at this stage.

kdb
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!

[Wayne Throop]

: "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com>

: First published: Child of Fire. That one was *JUST* on the edge of my

: dark tolerance. JUST.
:
: I was cheering for Ray in the Suvudu cage match; he did pretty well,
: considering who he got stuck with for opponents.

Heh, yeah, Kelsier? Egad! But still... he wins that one in their
projection. Which I wouldn't have pegged. On the other hand, he needed
his powers as of the end of Circle of Enemies to do it.

Hm. Anyways, FWIW (which may not be much) IMO they get less grim.
They're still *plenty* grim, and the prequel is also quite grim,
but as I say, he's actually a paradigm-changer, wrt Twenty Palaces
Society SOP.

On the other hand, Analise seems to get scragged pretty thoroughly
in every book... I guess mainly so he gets cast on his own. That's
kind of depressing. But even then, maybe not as... dark as in Child of Fire.

I dunno. If it was close to your tolerance, then it may not be worth
pursuing. But as I say, IMO, things are getting *less* grim, not more,
as Ray starts to come into his own. (his own what? not sure... but he
starts actually planning and thinking, in longer and longer terms, and
I like it when a protagonist both a) thinks, and b) realizes he has to
trust somebody, and puts thought into whom and whym) IMO. YMMV.

[Kurt Busiek]

On 2012-03-22 00:15:12 +0000, tphile2 <tph...@cableone.net> said:

> On Mar 21, 3:55 pm, Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> wrote:
>> On 2012-03-21 20:48:22 +0000, nebu...@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) said:
>>
>>> In <jkdeeg$qe...@dont-email.me> Kurt Busiek <k...@busiek.com> writes:
>>
>>>> It's funny - whenever I had Clark Kent read a specific author's books,
>>>> I'd wind up hearing from that author. Since I was having him read book
> s
>>>> I liked, that was fun.
>>
>>> `Course, now, that time you had him reading Dickens, that
>>> got weird.
>>
>> I don't think I ever did -- in fact, I started throwing in references
>> to him reading current authors because it seemed like having him read
>> Dickens was the reflex choice, and I was trying to present him as a
>> modern thirtysomething reporter, not as an old fuddy-duddy whose taste
>> in fashion and entertainment hadn't changed since the audience's
>> grandfather's day.
>

> What's fuddy-duddy about Dickens? Classics are classic and don't go
> out of style.

I like Dickens, but if that and other classics are all he ever reads,
it detaches him from any sense of modernity. The reason it was used in
the movies was to paint him as nerdy.

Classics may not go out of style, but they're also not exactly in
style, either. If I wanted to present Clark as a modern-day
thirtysomething, Dickens isn't the kind of thing that signals it.

> Besides his reading it in the movie is reason enough to
> list something else. So what does a Kansas farm boy read?

Whatever appeals to him. Farm boys aren't interchangeable, and this
one's a big-city journalist, as well; his tastes aren't going to be
defined by where he grew up.

> Westerns? Twain? Adventure and fantasy? Something that would
> influence his future super hero career?

Current superhero career, at the time I was writing him.

And I had him read SF, mysteries and non-fiction.

> Sometimes contemporary backfires. There was one Marvel comic issue
> having Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu reading A Clockwork Orange. Which
> I found hard to believe.given his monastic upbringing.

I don't find it hard to believe, since he was all about "rising and advancing."

But I don't think the modern stuff I had Clark read backfired, and the
chance that it might strikes me as low enough (since I was using my
judgment in picking the references rather than just picking something
contemporary at random) that I'm more than willing to take the very low
risk.

kdb
--
Visit http://www.busiek.com -- for all your Busiek needs!

[Wayne Throop]

: David Johnston <Da...@block.net>
: Sharing Knife is kind of romancey.

Yeah, but at least she's got no "she/he's so hot I can't help myself
despite despising her/him" and/or "I'm so noble I'll walk away from
my One True Love because that's what's best (or other bogus reasons,
only to get together in the end anyways)" as so many "romancey
fantasy" authors got. Plus no particularly gratuitous sex scenes.
Which is very welcome indeed.

[Dave Hansen]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:43:41 -0600, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net>
wrote:

>On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:48:06 -0700 (PDT), Chris
><chris.li...@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

>>Bujold's fantasy stuff is bad...just bad. I know some people love it
>>and please keep loving it. But I think it pretty much sucks.
>
>While my tastes are different, I'm curious why some people love the 5
>Gods series but not her other fantasy.

I generally avoid (what I consider) fantasy of all stripes, though I
make exceptions now and then. And I made an exception for "Curse of
Chalion" because the local used book store has a TPB at a good price,
and I'd read (and enjoyed) almost all of the Vorkosigan novels. So I
thought I'd give it a try.

And I loved it. Or more accurately, I loved Cazaril. The story was
OK, but the characters (especially Caz) made it awesome.

And yet, and yet... I haven't read any of the others (neither Five
Gods nor Sharing Knife). I'm just not motivated. Not least because I
didn't find Ista as... interesting as most of the other characters in
CoC. And the plot just doesn't sound interesting.

Though I'd probably love it if I actually read it. Probably all it
would take is a clean TPB at a good price from the local used book
store...

Regards,

-=Dave

[Dave Hansen]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:03:04 -0500, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com>

wrote:

>Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

>Mine are (not in any particular order):
>1. David Weber (except War God series)
>2. Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant)
>3. Kelley Armstrong
>4. John Ringo
>5. Wen Spencer
>6. Tom Kratman
>7. Patricia Briggs (except pure fantasy stuff)
>8. Carrie Vaugn
>9. Alan Dean Foster
>10. John Scalzi

I don't know that I do.

Neal Stephenson used to be on that list, but I was disappointed with
The Baroque Cycle, and the last quarter of Anathem in no way lived up
to what had preceeded it.

Gene Wolfe, maybe. I found "There are Doors" at a used book store a
while back, and I didn't hate it, but it wasn't as awesome as his
<adjective> Sun books, The Wizard Knight, or the Latro books.

A number of years ago, I read Moving Mars, which put Greg Bear on my
list. Then I read Queen of Angels, which took him off again. Though
I have since read and enjoyed Eon and Eternity.

Regards,

-=Dave

[Butch Malahide]

On Mar 21, 12:03 pm, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ?  In the order of, "ooh, shiny".
> Mine are (not in any particular order):
> 1. David Weber (except War God series)
> 2. Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant)
> 3. Kelley Armstrong
> 4. John Ringo
> 5. Wen Spencer
> 6. Tom Kratman
> 7. Patricia Briggs (except pure fantasy stuff)
> 8. Carrie Vaugn
> 9. Alan Dean Foster
> 10. John Scalzi

I have read a book by Alan Dean Foster, and it wasn't bad, so I might
read another one someday. My list:

1. R. A. Lafferty

[David Goldfarb]

In article <jkd1kl$65i$1...@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

Oh, yes. Let's see:

Neil Gaiman
Lois McMaster Bujold
Charles Stross
Pamela Dean
Steven Brust
Jo Walton (and in *her* case I get to read them in manuscript, so I think
it's an even bigger testimony that I go and buy them as well)
Vernor Vinge
Kim Stanley Robinson
Tim Powers

N.K. Jemisin will probably be on the list once she's published a few
more books and I'm sure she's keeping the quality up. I thought the
Inheritance Trilogy was really good.

Sean Stewart used to be on the list except that his last few have been
YA, and I read the first one in the series and was unimpressed. Alas.

Janet Kagan and John M. Ford would have been on the list, except, y'know....

--
David Goldfarb |"Thanks for the Dadaist pep talk. I feel
goldf...@gmail.com | much more abstract now."
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

[douhe...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:03:04 AM UTC-7, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase

Few nowadays:

Ian McDonald
Walter Jon Williams
Vernor Vinge
China Mieville
Michael Flynn
Neil Gaiman
Robert Charles Wilson

Past ones in that list

Ian Banks
George RR Martin
Peter Hamilton
Neal Stephenson
Robert J Sawyer

[JRStern]

On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:03:04 -0500, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com>

wrote:

>Do you have any authors that you will purchase

>anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

Larry Niven

Cuz I want to find out what is cannonical in his worlds, even though
the latest "Worlds" books, well, suck.

--

And that's about it. Even the authors I am totally wild about for
some of their works, seem to publish their old Starbucks napkins at
some point and I just don't need them.

J.

[Greg Goss]

Greg Goss <go...@gossg.org> wrote:

>Perhaps. I don't really notice the publisher other than the free Baen
>stuff, especially now that I've been told how to unlock books to read
>them on my Symbian phone (no Kobo client on Symbian).

So Kobo's changed their tech. I can't even find the book that I'm
reading on my laptop, so I cannot treat it to be read on the phone. I
guess my next epub will have to come from Sony.

[Harri Tavaila]

21.3.2012 19:03, Lynn McGuire kirjoitti:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
> anything from ?

Arthur C Clarke
I recently found a copy of Promise of Space in an old book shop and
bought it - not even SF and woefully antiquated as an introduction to
space age, but still...

H Tavaila

[Michael Stemper]

In article <5njkm714mceko1rro...@4ax.com>, Howard Brazee <how...@brazee.net> writes:

>On Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:20:48 +0000, Jerry Brown <je...@jwbrown.co.uk.invalid> wrote:

>>Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles and 5 Gods; haven't tried the other
>>series)
>
>That's the 2nd post which has skipped the Sharing Knife series. I
>wonder why.

Some of aren't much into fantasy. I read _Paladin of Souls_ in 2004,
solely because I was going to be voting on Hugos that year. I had no
interest in reading the rest of the series.

--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
No animals were harmed in the composition of this message.

[Michael Stemper]

In contrast to: _Shards of Honor_, _Cetaganda_, _Komarr_, _A Civil
Campaign_?

[Michael Stemper]

In article <4f6a8ddd....@free.teranews.com>, id...@hotmail.com (Dave Hansen) writes:

>Neal Stephenson used to be on that list, but I was disappointed with
>The Baroque Cycle, and the last quarter of Anathem in no way lived up
>to what had preceeded it.
>
>Gene Wolfe, maybe. I found "There are Doors" at a used book store a
>while back, and I didn't hate it, but it wasn't as awesome as his
><adjective> Sun books, The Wizard Knight, or the Latro books.
>
>A number of years ago, I read Moving Mars, which put Greg Bear on my
>list. Then I read Queen of Angels, which took him off again. Though
>I have since read and enjoyed Eon and Eternity.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but there's a third novel in that series,
called _Legacy_. My advice is to skip it.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:43:13 +0000 (UTC),
mste...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper) wrote:

>In article <4f6a8ddd....@free.teranews.com>, id...@hotmail.com (Dave Hansen) writes:
>
>>Neal Stephenson used to be on that list, but I was disappointed with
>>The Baroque Cycle, and the last quarter of Anathem in no way lived up
>>to what had preceeded it.
>>
>>Gene Wolfe, maybe. I found "There are Doors" at a used book store a
>>while back, and I didn't hate it, but it wasn't as awesome as his
>><adjective> Sun books, The Wizard Knight, or the Latro books.
>>
>>A number of years ago, I read Moving Mars, which put Greg Bear on my
>>list. Then I read Queen of Angels, which took him off again. Though
>>I have since read and enjoyed Eon and Eternity.
>
>I'm not sure if you're aware, but there's a third novel in that series,
>called _Legacy_. My advice is to skip it.

_Legacy_ took Bear off my "buy on sight" list.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"The answer to the second question," said Merry, "is that we could get off
in an hour. I have prepared practically everything. There are six ponies
in the stable across the fields." -- J R R Tolkien

[Anthony Nance]

"Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <sea...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:

> On 3/21/12 5:27 PM, Lawrence Watt-Evans wrote:
>>
>> By the way, in case it's not obvious, I've been reading this thread
>> intently, with my mood soaring every time my name makes a list, and
>> dropping whenever it doesn't.
>>
>> My own list, by the way:
>>
>> Harry Connolly
>>
>

> Harry's GOOD enough but I could just barely make it through the first
> book in the Twenty Palaces series, and I was told the others get darker,
> so I avoided continuing down that path.
>

> I don't think I have anyone on that list right now. Partly that's
> simply due to the fact that since I became a writer I haven't READ
> nearly as much as I used to.
>
> (I'm staring right now at two hardcover Lawrence Watt-Evans books which
> are, as far as I can tell, _Scaramouche With Magic_, and I really have
> to get to reading them because there are no words to express the
> coolness of that idea)
>

Hm. Scaramouche...Scaramouche...

will you do the fandango?

[Chris]

On Mar 21, 1:03 pm, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
> Do you have any authors that you will purchase

> anything from ?  In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

> Mine are (not in any particular order):
> 1. David Weber (except War God series)

If you buy everything by Weber (and I admit I've read almost
everything he's written) you must:

1. Have an awful lot of bookshelf space, and
2. Be a speed-reader, in order to get to any other author- Weber
having become afflicted with "Every Word is Sacred" disease, along
with the commandment, "Thou shalt never use two words when twenty will
do".

Chris

> 2. Seanan McGuire (aka Mira Grant)
> 3. Kelley Armstrong
> 4. John Ringo
> 5. Wen Spencer
> 6. Tom Kratman
> 7. Patricia Briggs (except pure fantasy stuff)
> 8. Carrie Vaugn
> 9. Alan Dean Foster
> 10. John Scalzi
>

> Lynn

[Anthony Nance]

Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:

> Here, Lynn McGuire <l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>> anything from ?
>

> I used to, when I was young.
>
> After a while, I realized that all of the authors on my list had
> disappointed me at least once, in some respect or other. Now I have a
> list of authors who I will look at anything from and buy it if it
> doesn't look like a mistake.


You are me AICMFP.

As a bonus, I also conclude that McTaggart's the pope.

Tony

[Bill Swears]

On 3/21/2012 8:04 PM, David Goldfarb wrote:
> In article<jkd1kl$65i$1...@dont-email.me>, Lynn McGuire<l...@winsim.com> wrote:
>> Do you have any authors that you will purchase
>> anything from ? In the order of, "ooh, shiny".

> __Snip good list.__ I like this thread.
>
I have authors whose books I will consistently look at. I don't think
I'll just automatically buy anything right now, since my TBR pile is
over a hundred books...

Kim Harrison
Jim Butcher
Ryk Spoor
Kat Richardson
Tanya Huff
Stephen R. Donaldson
C.J. Cherryh (Her Science Fiction)
Steven Brust
Lois McMaster Bujold
David Brin
Elizabeth Moon

Are all on my list of "If I pick it up, I'll probably buy it."
But there is nobody on an automatic must read. I think that this is a
problem with the constant publication cycle for popular authors. Back
when I used to wait impatiently for the once a year offering from my
favorite writers, I'd buy whatever they wrote. Now I could bottleneck
my entire reading year with maybe half a dozen authors, and most of them
turn out the occasional book that leaves me cool to the next.

As an example, I loved the KSR Mars books, but haven't picked up
anything KSR since Rainbow Mars. I don't even know what he's written.
I have a couple Brins and a couple Cards on my TBR shelf, but I'm not
buying new stuff from them because I'm not getting around to the older
stuff.

I've never read anything by Pamela Dean, N.K. Jemisin, or Sean Stewart

Soon as I become a million seller, I'll wipe out that TBR list and get
back to my reading. But first I need to become a thousand seller, and etc.

Bill


--
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