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Monday, August 29, 2005
Responding to Recommendations
A lot of people had recommendations for me after yesterday's post, so I'll just go over some of them really quickly here, rather than try to make that thread any longer than it already is.
Robert Jordan--I know lots of people like him, but I'm specifically trying to avoid the long, epic fantasy series at this point. Except that George Martin one I keep meaning to read.
Robert Holdstock--Mythago Wood is actually sitting on my book-case in my "to be read" pile already.
Tom Holt--I've actually read a few of his books before, the ones about Vikings who end up in the present day, so I may need to go back and check out some of his other works.
Bernard Cornwell--I've heard good things about the Sharpe books, but I haven't heard much about his Arthurian books. Maybe I'll give them a look when I get into an epic mood.
Charles Portis--Masters of Atlantis sounds like the sort of thing I'm looking for, so I'll give it a look.
Elizabeth Hand--She may be a little too gothic for my taste.
Charles deLint--I've read several of his books already. I particularly liked Greenmantle. It's one of the books that got me interested in Celtic and Euro-pagan myths in the first place.
Laurell K. Hamilton--definitely too gothic for my taste.
Emma Bull--I've heard really good things about her work, multiple times. I think Pete may actually have her War of the Oaks books already, so I'll have to check.
The Illuminantus trilogy--Used to re-read it on an annual basis, back in high school. I actually now prefer Masks of the Illuminanti, though The Historical Chronicles of the Illuminanti were quite good as well, and damnedly hard to find.
Ian Rankin--I've heard good things about him several times, I may need to check out one of the books.
Thomas Berger--This Arthur Rex book looks like it may be good.
Jo Walton--Her books look like an interesting take on Arthur myths, I'll probably take a closer look at them.
Tim Powers--I should have thought of him myself! Drawing of the Dark was really good, exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for, but I never followed up by reading any of his other novels.
Jack Whyte--It looks like the sort of thing I'd like, but it's up to book 8! I'm trying to avoid the epics right now.
And now I have two recommendations for all of you:
Nobody mentioned it, but it sort of follows the same subject matter as the kind of books I'm looking for, but Lisa Goldstein's Dark Cities Underground is a very good urban fantasy novel exploring the links between the Egyptian myth-cycle of the death and rebirth of Osiris, the Victorian and Edwardian children's literature about children traveling to other worlds, and the modern sub-way systems. She's very much in the tradition and style of Neil Gaiman and Tim Powers.