If you have looked over previous blog posts I have made for this site, you can tell that I have an almost fetishistic drive to create lists. Recently, I tried putting together a top 10 favorite authors list. I found this extremely difficult to make. I could easily, and without any debate name my top ten favorite comic book writers, since many of the list I have read dozens, if not hundreds of their comic book issues, and will continue to do so, for as long as they continue to put their work out.
For Novelists, I would have to say, it is far more difficult to come up with a complete list. With the exception of authors of ongoing series of novels, like say RA Salvatore with his Dark Elf books, or Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman with their Dragonlance books, it is very rare for me to have read more than 3 books by one author. In the end, I came up with this list:
Joe Hill
Jim Butcher
George RR Martin
Brandon Sanderson
Anne Rice
Patrick Rothfuss
Stephen King
Timothy Zahn
--- I would save this spot for the TSR/Wizards of the coast authors I mentioned before, even though, like Anne Rice, I really haven’t read any of their work since my early twenties (I am 37 now).
That leaves one more spot, and I am going to give it to Citizen of the Cherokee Nation and expert on future tech, Daniel H. Wilson.
It was only after reading Robogenesis and then realizing that I had also read his book, Amped, and his original Robots-wiping-out-humanity book, Robopocalypse that I realized he made it into that sacred 3 books or more level of authors.
From these three books, I can see that Wilson is able to deliver the Worldbuilding that I appreciate from all of the other authors I listed. Just like the authors I listed, when Wilson builds his worlds, in the case of a post Robot Apocalypse world or in a world where the destiny of Man and Machine are becoming more and more intertwined, there is a brutal realism that goes hand in hand with the sense of wonder he creates.
Comments
Post a Comment