Quote:
Originally Posted by geoffthomas
This woman has won two Hugos. Published well over 50 books.
She writes both hard Science Fiction and Fantasy.
And she is my favorite author - right there with Asimov, Heinlein and Steinbeck.
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Yah, she's probably my favorite sci-fi author too. She just gets the whole thing about how aliens might see us and as I mentioned in another thread - mankind's more realistic potential future in space.
Just fyi, she's won 2 Hugos for novels and 1 for a short story, so 3 Hugo awards and she's had a few other novels nominated. I think Pride of Chanur lost out to Asimov's Foundations Edge. And Faded Sun: Kesrith was nominated one year and maybe some others (also a Fav heh).
Thanks for the linkie. I also missed the other thread. Lots of good info on that site. I found this tidbit I never knew..
"I'm told it was actually Jerry Pournelle who coined the phrase TANSTAAFL...which many people (including myself, thank you to the reader who wrote me pointing this out) mistakenly attribute to Robert Heinlein. TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch) means that the universe at large doesn't give you a freebie pass on what comes due, including the laws of physics, the behavior of human beings, or longterm economics."
And that in a nutshell is much of what I love about her fiction (the sci-fi anyway, she's not nearly my fav fantasy author). That's what is behind the fiction she weaves.
She uses science and some would consider her a hard core sci-fi writer, but she does it without being bone-crushingly boring. Just like Vernor Vinge does. For example, the "gravity well" thing. The first time I read that, I had no idea what she was talking about. What the heck was a gravity well? And then I realized - that's exactly how someone who was born in space and has never set foot on a planet, would consider a planet.
Devil to the Belt (Heavy Time & Hellburner), Cyteen, The Faded Sun: Kesrith, The Pride of Chanur, Merchanter's Luck, Tripoint, Finity's End, Cuckoo's Egg, Foreigner, Defender, .... Some of the best sci-fi I've ever read and all by the same author..