Mercedes Lackey - If you haven't read them already, you might like her Last Herald-Mage trilogy (telepathic horses, with a gay magic-using hero and lots of tragedy), By the Sword (female mercenary heroine; and its prequels, the Vows and Honor duology, which features her grandmother and her blood sister, also mercenaries), her Diana Tregarde books (set on earth, female magic-using hero), Born to Run (racing cars, with elves), Summoned to Tourney and Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (music as magic, with elves). If you absolutely have to, the trilogy that starts with Arrows of the Queen (in the telepathic-horses universe) is what really launched her career. Read enough of her books, and they start to feel distinctly recycled after a while.
Anne McCaffrey. An SF writer who used to be an online debate buddy of mine remarked that Anne McCaffrey had mined out the Pern material (the series for which she is most famous) years ago. Many of her books end with the heroine getting the guy, and then, of course, everything is all fine, because then they can spawn, and everyone will be happy. Everything is always all fine. Gah. Anyway. (I spent a good chunk of time writing fanfiction for this series. I'm pretty familiar with it. :/) If you absolutely must, I'd recommend the trilogy that starts with Dragonflight, and Dragonsdawn. Those mostly manage to avoid horrible twee-ness. She's written other series, and I'm trying to think if any of her other books were particularly worthwhile. I'm blanking now, but if I come up with anything, I'll let you know.
Andre Norton: Probably the first really successful SF writer. Read Witch World just to say you have. Someone who remembers more of her early non-WW work than I might have something else to recommend.
Marion Zimmer Bradley: Read The Mists of Avalon if you haven't already. Morgan-is-not-totally-evil reworking of the Arthurian mythos. As for her other work ... of the Darkover books, I enjoy The Forbidden Tower. You might also like Thendara House, The Shattered Chain, and City of Sorcery. The Heritage of Hastur and Sharra's Exile are decent. She deals with homosexuality in those two rather a lot. The cool thing about the Darkover books is that recently they've started releasing the related novels in paperback omnibus editions, which should be easily available.
Robert Jordan: OMG AVOID AVOID AVOID. If it's not too late. The man goes on and on and on, in his series and within the novels. They're apparently tracing the lives of a group of souls who keep getting reincarnated. I couldn't finished the one I tried to read.
Laurell K. Hamilton: I'd say stay away. I haven't read the Anita Blake series, but from what I hear it's going down the tubes in terms of being non-ridiculous in its lack of obstacles for the heroine. And the Merry Gentry series starts out in an interesting way but the plot:sex (that doesn't advance the plot or provide much revealing characterization) ratio keeps getting lower.
If I think of anyone else, pro or con, I will post, though it would probably be redundant. (I'd consider reading The Once and Future King, a fantasy-ish take on King Arthur, just to say you had.)
Yes, I am embarrassed that this was more than twice as long as the max comment length. I'm such a dork.
Oh. One more. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress. Story of what would happen if some of us were bioengineered to not need sleep. Two sequels, but they're merely okay. Same author, different setting: Maximum Light. Logical extrapolation of the fertility problems which are becoming more and more common.
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Part 3
Date: 2005-06-04 02:06 am (UTC)Mercedes Lackey - If you haven't read them already, you might like her Last Herald-Mage trilogy (telepathic horses, with a gay magic-using hero and lots of tragedy), By the Sword (female mercenary heroine; and its prequels, the Vows and Honor duology, which features her grandmother and her blood sister, also mercenaries), her Diana Tregarde books (set on earth, female magic-using hero), Born to Run (racing cars, with elves), Summoned to Tourney and Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (music as magic, with elves). If you absolutely have to, the trilogy that starts with Arrows of the Queen (in the telepathic-horses universe) is what really launched her career. Read enough of her books, and they start to feel distinctly recycled after a while.
Anne McCaffrey. An SF writer who used to be an online debate buddy of mine remarked that Anne McCaffrey had mined out the Pern material (the series for which she is most famous) years ago. Many of her books end with the heroine getting the guy, and then, of course, everything is all fine, because then they can spawn, and everyone will be happy. Everything is always all fine. Gah. Anyway. (I spent a good chunk of time writing fanfiction for this series. I'm pretty familiar with it. :/) If you absolutely must, I'd recommend the trilogy that starts with Dragonflight, and Dragonsdawn. Those mostly manage to avoid horrible twee-ness. She's written other series, and I'm trying to think if any of her other books were particularly worthwhile. I'm blanking now, but if I come up with anything, I'll let you know.
Andre Norton: Probably the first really successful SF writer. Read Witch World just to say you have. Someone who remembers more of her early non-WW work than I might have something else to recommend.
Marion Zimmer Bradley: Read The Mists of Avalon if you haven't already. Morgan-is-not-totally-evil reworking of the Arthurian mythos. As for her other work ... of the Darkover books, I enjoy The Forbidden Tower. You might also like Thendara House, The Shattered Chain, and City of Sorcery. The Heritage of Hastur and Sharra's Exile are decent. She deals with homosexuality in those two rather a lot. The cool thing about the Darkover books is that recently they've started releasing the related novels in paperback omnibus editions, which should be easily available.
Robert Jordan: OMG AVOID AVOID AVOID. If it's not too late. The man goes on and on and on, in his series and within the novels. They're apparently tracing the lives of a group of souls who keep getting reincarnated. I couldn't finished the one I tried to read.
Laurell K. Hamilton: I'd say stay away. I haven't read the Anita Blake series, but from what I hear it's going down the tubes in terms of being non-ridiculous in its lack of obstacles for the heroine. And the Merry Gentry series starts out in an interesting way but the plot:sex (that doesn't advance the plot or provide much revealing characterization) ratio keeps getting lower.
If I think of anyone else, pro or con, I will post, though it would probably be redundant. (I'd consider reading The Once and Future King, a fantasy-ish take on King Arthur, just to say you had.)
Yes, I am embarrassed that this was more than twice as long as the max comment length. I'm such a dork.
Oh. One more. Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress. Story of what would happen if some of us were bioengineered to not need sleep. Two sequels, but they're merely okay. Same author, different setting: Maximum Light. Logical extrapolation of the fertility problems which are becoming more and more common.