From: pwyll@arrakis.es
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 1998 14:57:18 -0800
Subject: some authors & titles

Hi, I'm a Spanish computer-sci student (that explains my clumsy English
:) and happened to find your page yesterday (which I liked very much)
and read some of the reviews and letters in your mail bag. Although you
seem to have read a lot more fiction than I, I can't resist the
temptation of sending you a few recommendations about books I liked very
much, that you haven't read, it seems. One of the reasons for this is
that I saw books from Donaldson, Contact by Carl Sagan, 2001 by Clarke,
Tolkien & so on at the top of your rankinkg, which I also have at the
top of mine, so we have at least partially coinciding likings (but I
can't say the same about, others, like Zahn, for example :).

Unfortunatly, I haven't yet read some of your favorite authors, like
Brust & Simmons, and only Mordant's Need by Donaldson, but I will read
them when I have the chance, specially Covenant's saga, of course. The
only reason why I haven't read it yet is that I want to read it in
English, and not in Spanish translation: to like a foreign literature is
a big problem; first you have to learn the language at a certain depth,
that is hard enough, then getting some titles becomes a little
adventure, at least in the economical aspect. Ordering an foreign
non-best-seller goes like this: often you have to wait several weeks,
sometimes the book won't even arrive by mysterious reasons, in case it
does it will have increased its price noticeably. The other possibility
is to rely on translations, which you shouldn't even if the translation
is good (if it is bad you're done for: I have seen whole pages suppresed
in translations, and most often, lots of sentences). Anyway,
translations of non-best-sellers are published after years and years,
and of course you can't wait all that time for a book of your favorite
author, and even if you can, you'll probably want to read it in its
genuine state. Well, I hope I'm not boring you with problems you won't
ever have, except if you suddenly become overly interested in Polish
literature :-)

Well, to the subject, here are some authors I'd recommend. I don't think
you will hear anything new, because I've seen the size of your mail bag,
but here goes it anyway:

- Neverness by David Zindell: I've seen in one of the letters you
received "you'll either love or hate this one", but I think there's more
to love in it than to hate, because this book has everything: writing,
plot, depth, atmosphere and poetry. It looks like a topic, but with the
imagination employed in this book, Zindell could have written 4 or 5,
which is what he seems to be doing right now, that is, writing a saga
with fewer ideas than the ones he used in Neverness :(

- Stanislaw Lem: this is the one you will love or hate. He has at least
two kinds of books and tales: the serious ones, and the
satyric-humoristic ones. Those of the first kind are totally amazing for
me, because I haven't found anything similar in SF. They REALLY seem to
be written by future people, with a more advanced tecnology (just the
technical terms he invents could pass for true ones), and not just a
mockery of the future. Do you imagine what would it be like for an
18th-century person to read a book about modern computer science? That's
the feeling I have with Lem, and the orientation of his work I like
more, but there is also the humor element and the philosophical element,
which are also quite impressing. One book to begin with is "His master's
voice"; the subject is quite similar to Sagan's Contact, but you will
find the tone much darker, and the end much more pessimistic (indeed
much heavier than Contact). For something more humoristic, try the
"Cyberiad", which you'll probably like. Be careful, if you begin with
the wrong book (for example, the Kafkian "Memories found in a hottub"),
you'll probably end up hating him. Some of his features remind of Borges
(reviews of books that don't exist, and so on).

- Valis, by Philip K. Dick. I've just ended this one and felt quite
impressed. I mention it because I read your review of the "Man in the
High Castle" and totally agreed with it; in fact I had read other books
by Dick that left me quite indifferent (specially, "Do Droids Dream of
Electric Sheep", maybe because I expected "Blade Runner"). This one has
much more plot than the Man in the Castle, and, if you like old
religions, apocryphal gospels, and obscure subjects like those, you'll
probably love it. And it seems that "The Divine Invasion" and "The
Transmigration of Timothy Archer" are more or less sequels to it.

- Robert Holdstock. If you like the atmosphere of forests, the Celts,
shamanism, and mythological creatures that roam in the depth of the
woods, you'll like this one; even if you don't, try it. "Mythago Wood",
"Lavondyss" & "The Hollowing" are three books about an English wood in
which old and not so old myths (like Robin Hood) take physical form. I
can't explain the beauty and the mystery of some passages in the 2nd
book, Lavondyss, a journey into the unknown region. If I had to
recommend you a single book or author this could be the one. Besides, he
has other books with more or less the same atmosphere: "The Fetch" for
example (indeed, that may be his main flaw, he is lately repeating
himself a lot). I think the movie "The Emerald Forest" is based on one
of his short stories.

- The Empire of Fear, by Brian Stableford. This is a novel about an
alternative story set (at the beginning) in the 17th century, in which
vampires have the world in their hands. They are immortal and immune to
pain, therefore everybody envies them and tries to become one of them.
This book is divided in parts so different one from the other that they
could be different novels, so it is possible that you like some of them
and not others, but in general I think the plot is very good and
atmospheric.

- The Secret History, by Donna Tart. This isn't SF or Fantasy, but still
deserves a try. It is mainly a thriller about a strange group of
students and their teacher of classic languages which get engaged in a
rite that ends very badly. Very good description of characters, you feel
as if you knew then personally at the end of the novel. Once I got into
the plot I wasn't able to stop reading.

- If you like subjects like freemasonry and mysterious conspirations and
cults, try any novel by Robert A. Wilson, specially those of the trilogy
"The Historical Illuminati", set in the 18th century.

- I liked very much "Soldier of the Mist" (and a bit less its sequel
"Soldier of Arete") by Gene Wolfe, but if you didn't like specially the
Book of the New Sun, you won't probably like it that much either, unless
you are specially interested in Greek History and mythology.

- Jorge Luis Borges, for example "Fictions" or "The Aleph". This is an
Argentinian author (at least I can read one in my language :) that,
though not SF or Fantasy writer, has quite impressing short tales that
could be considered science fiction like "the library of Babel". Some of
his subjects of interest are books, libraries and time (someone said
that the Name of the Rose was a Borges-kind tale, expanded to a novel),
and, for example, in the tale "Tlon, Uqbar and Orbis Tertius" he deals
with an encyclopedia about another world, and about its philosophy,
languages, etc. In the "Approach to Almotasim" he does a review about a
book that doesn't exist (he does that often). I think all these tales
are in his book "Fictions". I consider him the best modern writer in
Spanish, but some people don't like him because he's too "intelectual".

- Haven't you read the Neverending Story by Michael Ende? (nothing to do
with the movies, specially the second) It is one of the most singular
books I have read (and impressing, specially when you are a child, and
see the the book written in red and green letters to distinguish between
the main character's story and the book he reads, a story inside a
story; I don't know if current editions still maintain this feature).
Full of astounding ideas and catching from the first words.

To finish, some opinions about R. Jordan. I bought the first book of his
'Wheel of Time Series', called the 'Eye of the World', and couldn't
finish it at the first try. I simply couldn't stand passages that, to
me, appeared simply as plagiarism from Tolkien. In fact, in the first 50
or 100 pages there is a situation incredibly similar to the hobbits
hiding from the Black Riders. Well, I thought, let's give it a try, and
got to the end of the book. I decided I couldn't imagine what Jordan's
fans saw in those books and forgot about reading the rest of the saga,
because it all seemed a mockery of Tolkien's world making, an involution
instead of an evolution. I couldn't forget for a moment I was reading a
fantasy book, and what I like about fantasy is totally opposite: I think
that is the difficult thing to do, give readers the impression they are
hearing about a REAL world, although it be totally different to our
world (I'm thinking about Mordant's Need). Maybe the next books in the
series are marvelous and I will miss then forever, but that's too bad. I
know you haven't read the series yet: maybe with bad opinions like mine
you will be able to balance the enthusiastical opinions that go around
the web about R. Jordan, and have a first reading without prejudice ;)

OK, this is getting too long, so, congratulations for your page, and
have a good reading :)

Bye,
  Jose Ramon Gallo Vazquez.
  Sevilla, Spain
  pwyll@arrakis.es