Bonus points for any books you believe are classics from that time period. Any language, but only fiction please.
I’m really excited to see what Lemmy has.
Neil Gaiman
Two authors I haven’t surprisingly seen mentioned
Neil Gaiman is great. If you haven’t read his works yet, start with *the ocean at the end of the lane". A wonderful, short read.
This second one is going to be controversial.
George RR Martin. The books are actually well written, and yes the final book probably won’t get written, but it won’t take away from your enjoyment. He is a very good writer.
GRR Martin knows how to write people. I think I learned a great deal of humanism just by reading his works alone
- John Scalzi - Old Man’s War series and The Interdependency series
- Dennis E. Taylor - Bobiverse
Dennis E. Taylor - Bobiverse
That was pretty fun except the 4th book.
Guy Gavriel Kay. First book published in 1984, part of a trilogy that was Tolkien-esque, quite decent, but not exactly ground-breaking. He’s since gone on to something a little more unique, which he describes as “historical fiction with a quarter-turn to the fantastic.” Impeccably researched but set an alternate world that’s a close but not exact mirror of our own. This allows him to take a few small liberties with historical accuracy in service of telling a better story. Personally I think he really hit his stride in 1995 with The Lions of Al-Rassan, and almost everything he’s written since then has been exceptional.
His stories are pretty conventional and honestly somewhat boring, but his pen is unique, not even Tolkien managed to make the story flow so smooth.
Dan Abnett. Eisenhorn, Gaunt, and Bequin. I understand that the setting doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone, but the way he writes prose is beautiful in my opinion. And he writes excellent characters.
Hands down best 40k author, however a lot of that is coming from him somewhat downplaying the grotesque over the top grimdarkness of entire setting and just writting it more like either traditional war story (Gaunt) or occult mystery (Eisenhorn) with plenty of horrors present but more related to the genre than to setting. Sadly i didn’t read Ravenor trilogy or Bequin novels, can’t get them in Poland.
Also 40k recently got some interesting authors rising. David Annadale or Robert Rath are getting some quality stuff out, not like the Goto shit.
Frederik pohl
Nice someone still remember him. I would say half/half since while his most famous book was in 1977, but he started in 50’s
Terry Pratchett (first book 1971 so barely counts haha)
