Author List Part 2
Saturday, May 21st, 2005
I am very slowly going through a list authors I’ve enjoyed and commenting on them.
The first of Harry Harrison’s books that I enjoyed was the Stainless Steel Rat series. I think I may have read the Deathworld series before that, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with them. Stainless Steel Rat appealed to me for the over the top heroics of Jimmy Digriz. Alternate history has always appealed to me and the Hammer and the Cross series is one of the reasons for that. That series can be rather gruesome, but it’s a very plausible alternate history where the Dark Ages were interrupted by the work and luck of one man. For some reason, the third book in that series keeps going astray, so I’ll have to buy yet another copy sometime. In the Worldwar series, aliens invade in the midst of World War II. I liked this series for its portrayal of humanity as unique, though not quite as “humans uber alles” as some early SF. I don’t particularly like his retellings of the American Civil War. In summary, Harrison is one of those authors where some series are terrific and other just fall flat for me.
I enjoyed the first few Chicks in Chainmail books as edited by Esther Friesner. The last one just fell flat for me for some reason. The books she’s written just haven’t appealed to me for some reason.
I really liked the Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur series by Stephen R. Lawhead in high school. The last few times I’ve tried to read some of his work, it has struck me as to heavy on details, to the point where the story is lost.
L. Sprague de Camp’s books are fun to read. I found the Ancient Engineers fascinating. Lest Darkness Fall is another fine example of alternate history. I found his non-fiction to be very readable and his fiction tends to have interesting ideas in it.
What can I say about Tolkein? I really enjoy The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Farmer Giles of Ham was a fun read. I still haven’t been able to get into The Silmarillion or the Unfinished Tales.
I enjoyed The Once and Future King by T.H. White, though it’s been quite a while since I read it. I’m especially fond of this quote
The best thing for being sad, replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then– to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you. Look at what a lot of things there are to learn…
– T.H. White, The Once and Future King
Larry Niven’s short stories and his collaborations with Jerry Pournelle are good reads. His writing seems to airy when he writes novels alone. For some reason everything in the stories seems just a bit insubstantial - as though it’s not quite there. I really enjoy his essays. When Lois and Clark was on, I was fond of reading “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.”