Jo on top

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "mooseming" <josturgess at ...> wrote:
> 
> Ah Alastair Reynolds is a recent find for me
> 

Decent bloke, met him while he was doing signings for 'Chasm City'.
Very interested in learning what other SF writers the fans were buying.
Good writer from the serious end of the genre, but must admit, I'm
very taken with Neal Asher - he comes up with splendid (but nasty)
fauna in 'The Skinner' and 'Line of Polity', and in the latter links it  
nicely to his distaste for a religious dictatorship through a children's
story book.

> 
> Another author would be Michael Dibdin (and no I won't pick one 
> book ;-)

Yeah. Austere style, but very readable.
A bit shocked to see his obit published a few weeks back - he was 
younger than me, gives one intimations of mortality.

> 
> On Pratchett, yes book three would be about where he picks up for 
> me, but a quick review of the list shows they have selected the 
> first book in all series so that might explian it. Now my favourite 
> of his would be Guards! Guards! if only for the 'million to one 
> chance' scene. Oh and I liked his comment re JK:
> 
> His full response to Rowling's admission that she did not think 
> Harry Potter was fantasy as she was writing it, was: 
> "I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, 
> hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, 
> ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?" 
> 

There's a book of his essays and short stories published by NESFA
that I'd rate (overall) as good as any of his books and better than
some. Has trenchant comments on adults who disapprove of kids
reading fantasy. Well, he would, wouldn't he? Though he's probably
right in what he says.  And Jo did leave herself wide open for that
comment.

Kneasy