Book Recs: 3 Fantasy Authors You Need To Read

This week's topic is shining a light on authors who we think you should be reading, aka Book Recommendations.

Side Note: This weekend, the big SFF gathering of WORLDCON went down in Dublin, which was capped off with the HUGO Awards Ceremony (aka, peer-nominated Best Of Genre spanning authors, editors, fanzines, illustrators, TV, and movies.) Check out the nominees and winners here.



1. Aliette de Bodard
Nominated for a Best Series HUGO for her Universe of Xuya (think Chinese-influenced Sherlock with a sentient ship in the role of Watson). These are short stories and novellas. While they're great, I'm putting forth her Dominion of the Fallen UF series because a) dragons, b) gothic Paris in a post-apocalyptic setting. There are three novels (so far) and novelettes. Yes, she won the British Science Fiction Award for the first book in the series.




2. Laura Bickle
Once upon a time, Laura was one of us, a regular blogger on what was then known as the Word Whores. Laura writes YA and adult UF, and I'm a huge fan of her Modern Weird West UF series The Wildlands. When the protag is a geologist, the sidekick is a coyote, and the alchemists are running amok, you know you're in for a fabulous ride. Five books in this series so far. Laura has a lot of books under her belt, and all of them worth the read, whether you're interested in tarot, fire salamanders, or even Amish horror.




3. Allison Pang
Another graduate and founding member of this blog, Allison has published traditionally with her Abby Sinclair UF series (featuring Phin, the world's tiniest, horniest, most-bacon-loving unicorn). Since then, she's shifted to writing High Fantasy with her IronHeart Chronicles. It's steampunk with a touch of zombies. Two books in this series so far.

Literary Infamy

EDITED to make actual sense after I appear to have missed the fact that a cat went keyboard surfing and messed up my post. Many thanks to Jeffe for alerting me!

Have you ever made someone else cry with your reading choices? I have that distinction. It was a holiday party and the idea was to bring your favorite book already wrapped. We then did a blind exchange. All the wrapped books were put under the tree, we drew lots and went around picking books. The gal who got mine opened a copy of Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond - a book I still love for world building. She started to cry. They were not happy tears. To be fair, she's a teacher. Getting a nonfiction book was a little more than she could handle. So yeah. I still feel guilty about that one. Fortunately, someone else wanted the book and offered to trade a historical romance with her. Happy ending.

That's actually my only real brush with literary infamy. My reading tastes are wide ranging and not all that controversial. I'm probably more interesting (or demented) based on the books everyone else likes that I dislike. However. That's another day's navel gaze.

The book(s) that I enjoy that might surprise you are those written by Mr. Chuck Tingle. Oh yes. Space Raptors Butt Invasion. Hugo nominated!

I love Chuck for so many reasons. I mean. What's not to like about a man who so effortlessly and gleefully trolled the ever-living hell out of the Rabid Puppies when they did their damnedest to game the Hugos? So much admiration.

And what's not to love about a mentally ill man finally finding his niche and his joy in writing unlikely homo-erotic and occasionally politically on-point porn shorts?

The stories are fun. They're filled with lovely, unambiguously consenting, enthusiastic sex partners. Perceptions get twisted - in one story a dude falls in love with a handsome building. For several pages of that story, I had to consciously tell my logical brain to shut the hell up - because in my own weird mental world, all inanimate objects have a spirit, which would make them not so inanimate anymore, right? Where do I get off saying it's impossible for a guy to fall in love with a roadside diner and then spend pages having hot sex with it? I like that I have to shove my assumptions about what's possible aside in order to consume the candy this man writes. Besides. There are worse slogans in the world than his: Love is real.