Quote:
Originally Posted by sufue
I am just the opposite...I've picked up a lot of the mysteries - any recommendations, beyond those already mentioned, for sci-fi?
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Aside from what's already been mentioned upthread, this is what stands out to me when I go through my list of acquisitions:
- Nancy Springer: she's got excellent short stories in the collection that's free (The Boy Who Plaited Manes is a simply wonderful faux-fairytale, which IIRC is included), and I liked the first few of her Books of the Isles vaguely Celtic faux-mythological fantasies which I got from Fictionwise back in the day
- Tanith Lee: gorgeously atmospheric dark fantasy, a little purple prose-y but very evocative; haven't read the particular books which are free in this, but really liked her Flat Earth and fairy tale series and glad to see ORM picking up her backlist
- Poul Anderson: an SFWA Grandmaster, IIRC; a little retro, but still solid storytelling and highly influential (there's a Baen anthology of tributes to his work)
- Brian W. Aldiss, Robert Silverberg, Fritz Leiber, Greg Bear: more old school classic authors who've had some works I liked
- James Morrow: sharp and satiric; have enjoyed the few works of his I've read (have not encountered the ones in the promo)
- John DeChancie: very entertaining humorous fantasy set at a castle that's a multiversal crossroads; there's one novel in it which is a nifty storytelling experiment (complete with reader quizzes), and another that has a brief but fantastic parody of golden age mystery whodunnit revelation tropes
- Victoria Strauss: I really enjoyed the Phoenix Pick freebie we got of one of her novels a while ago, enough to buy the sequel on sale, and am pleased to be able to try more of her work
- Pamela Sargent: a general rec on reputation; IIRC she's one of the pioneering 70s/80s feminist sfnal authors; also has some historical fiction (for more quality historical fiction by an sfnal author I recommend Cecelia Holland whose non-sf works are in this promo)
- Jessica Amanda Salmonson: another 70s feminist author who edited a bunch of anthologies about Amazons which I picked up on impulse from the used bookshop and enjoyed; she's got some novels about real-life Japanese samurai warrior Tomoe Gozen (I think these are actually straight historical fiction), and a non-fiction encyclopedia of famous legendary women which is well worth it (for more mythological encyclopedia stuff, I also recommend the works of Bernard Evslin which can be found in the Teen & Tween section)
- Elizabeth Ann Scarborough: simply delightful light fantasy; I have the particular books from Fictionwise editions and I think my old reviews of them are somewhere in the What Are You Reading? thread
- Robert Newman: an author from the Teen & Tween section; I recall liking Merlin's Mistake (in the promo) from the school library a long time ago, has many other novels included (and a sequel to MM that I've never read!
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- Patricia C. Wrede: good YA-ish fantasy; have not read the novels in this promo, but her Enchanted Forest Chronicles is one of my favourites
- Nancy A Collins & Chelsea Quinn Yarbro & Brian Stableford: if you're into dark fantasy/vampire fiction; Yarbro also has some historical supernatural suspenses which are pretty decent and I've read from old Fictionwise editions; Stableford is one of my favourite writers for genetic engineering, but I'm not as into his decadent dark fantasy, though it's still perfectly readable
- R. A. MacAvoy: another author I used to auto-buy during Fictionwise sales; excellent fantasy, though you only get 2 books out of a very worthwhile trilogy (have not read her sf novel yet)
- Ru Emerson: another ex-FW author; quite liked her Night-Threads series which is one of those “kidnapped to save the alternate world” stories which I'm a sucker for
- Marta Randall: have only read her non-sf murder mystery which is in the promo, but quite liked
- Susan Shwartz: excellent historical fiction with fantasy elements
- Clare Bell: a very good YA-ish historical novel with fantasy elements set at some point during one of the Mayan (IIRC) civilizations
- Dave Duncan: Scottish-Canadian author who's written historical adventure mysteries I really enjoy (The Alchemist's Apprentice series set in Renaissance Italy); ironically, have not read his far more prevalent sf/fantasy novels just yet even though I got a stack of them during a used bookshop sale
- Richard Monaco: have not read, but the 1st volume of his Parsifal saga of Arthurian fantasy, which we've gotten some of the rest of as Venture freebies, and which netted him a Pulitzer nom, is free
- Elizabeth A. Lynn: another old school feminist sfnal author; have enjoyed some of her short stories (collection and several novels in the promo)
- Ian R. MacLeod, Elizabeth Hand: have not read their novels, ISTR but recall liking some short stories
- Sean Williams, Lisa Goldstein, Jonathan Caroll, Liz Williams, Samuel R. Delany: on reputation; these are authors I've been meaning to try and have acquired a couple of their books on sale to do so, but haven't actually gotten around to reading yet (I think I actually read some Goldstein somewhere, but can't recall where)
- Frank Lauria & William Kotzwinkle: on reputation, but wrote some occult mystery-ish crossovers you may enjoy
(Honestly, I'd just recommend grabbing the lot. It's only around what, 700 or so books for the sfnal stuff?
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