*SPAM?* [HPFGU-Catalogue] Re: 1.2.3 Literary Sources & Influences/ the drive-by back up

[Barry Arrowsmith]

First, an admission -  I'm not a fan of Neil Gaiman, so ' in a class of 
his own' probably wouldn't mean the same thing on my list as on yours. 
Ah well. Takes all sorts.

Gibson, Stephenson - you mean early Stephenson as in 'Snowcrash' - 
techno-cyber-hard science whatever-it-is? Or maybe the softer Gibson as 
in 'All Tomorrow's Parties'? It's a bugger when they change styles on 
you.

A  couple I enjoy are Neil Asher and Richard Morgan - they fall 
somewhere near the middle of Gibsons spectrum so far as hardware is 
concerned, though Asher has his fun in alien environments.

I do like a writer that builds a believable background and maintains it 
over a series. C. Cherryh with 'Foreigner' or Shogun in Space as it's 
detractors refer to it; Michael Flynn with his 'Star' - 'Rogue Star', 
'Fire Star' etc. series (pretty much todays world with todays problems 
- and a driven woman with  a real-world fear as lead character -  
nicely constructed). Since you're a Gaiman  fan you'll have been 
introduced to China Mieville, weird but compulsive.

To be honest, I find it more and  more difficult to classify some of 
these writers into neat sub-genres - it's only the military 
weapons-wonks (Tom Clancy clones like John Ringo) that seem to stand 
still long enough.

Anyway, I  thought you were doing OK  down there with the likes of Sean 
McMullen doing the business?

Barry



On 11 Mar 2005, at 16:57, Sean Dwyer wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 04:25:26PM +0000, Barry Arrowsmith wrote:
>
>  > On my shelves I've approx 1,200 SF titles (about 12 fantasy - and 
> that
>  > includes the HP series) and I'd estimate 60% were first published in
>  > the last 7 years. Let me know what your tastes are and I'll 
> recommend
>  > some titles for you to try. There's even (God help us) a series that
>  > has SHIPping as it's main theme. True love in the Spaceways. Ugh.
>
>  I'm curious, Barry: have the styles of Gibson and Stephenson spawned
>  noteworthy genres/writers? This is the sort of thing most difficult 
> for an
>  antipodean to gauge. And is Gaiman truly in a class of his own still?
>
>  Sean, desperate for some SF/Fantasy freedom.
>
>  --
>  When all you have are foxes, everything looks like a henhouse.
>
>
>
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