Not for the fairest

[james_davis_nicoll]

In a previous flocked post, I said "At the risk of destroying my jaded reviewer cred, [name withheld] is nowhere near the bottom of the barrel where modern fantasy and SF are concerned."

This raises the question of who is near the bottom of the barrel where modern fantasy and SF are concerned. Obviously, I am far too poorly read to answer that but those of you who are not in my particular situation may feel free to supply your own answers.

Comments

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I really like the first few books--Hamilton isn't a great writer and never will be, but the stories were compelling enough that I was willing to overlook her flaws as a writer (the fact that Anita is a massive Mary Sue being one of them). After they turned into essentially nothing but sex scenes, I lost interest as a reader.

RT = Romantic Times BOOKReviews Magazine--I'm their senior SF/F reviewer.

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed her early books as well. They were my guilty pleasure books (books I enjoyed reading without making any effort) and also my introduction to urban fantasy. So basically, we're pretty much on the same page.

I am however grateful to LKH for introducing me to other, better authors in the same genre: Patricia Briggs, TA Pratt and Jim Butcher (courtesy of numerous Amazon threads "Help, I was an AB fan and I need something else to read!!!").

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Tim Pratt is awesome. If you haven't already, get a copy of The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl. I love that book so freaking much. His Marla Mason series is really fantastic, too--I love how she's such a morally gray character. I like my fiction with a lot of moral complexity and ambiguity, which is what initially drew me to LKH, but as the series went on, those parts of Anita's character have just disappeared.

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

I totally thought TA Pratt was a woman. O_o Can't remember why, though. I very much enjoyed the Marla Manson series. Thanks for the rec, I'll be sure to pick it up.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

I suspect that a lot of people think that, actually. A good chunk of urban fantasy's current readership seems to be female--and there is a lot of overlap with paranormal romance, which is mostly female.