james_davis_nicoll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2008-07-02 11:20 am
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2008-07-02 11:20 am
Old Tea Leaf Reviews 15: 1995 Locus Poll Best First Novel
Cut for Length
Best First Novel
1 Gun, with Occasional Music Jonathan Lethem
I own this but have not read it yet.
My impression is that Lethem has a book published every
year or two but that he has escaped the narrow boundaries of genre
fiction.
2 Queen City Jazz Kathleen Ann Goonan
This is a post-apocalyptic novel where the apocalypse was
poorly designed and incredibly powerful nanotech. I seem to recall
that this was well received at the time but I thought the nanotech
was too magical.
Goonan is still being published but I think there was a five
year stretch in the early 2000s where no new novels came out.
3 Rhinegold Stephan Grundy
I have not read this book.
Grundy is new to me but I see he's been creating modern
adaptations of old sagas for some time. He also uses the pseudonym
Kveldulf Gundarsson and as far as I can tell, his most recent
book was 2002's FALCON NIGHT (Co-written with Melodi Grundy).
4 Witch and Wombat Carolyn Cushman
I did not read this. As far as I can tell this was her
only novel, although she is very active as a reviewer.
5 Vurt Jeff Noon
I did not read this.
Noon had eight novels. I am unaware of any more recent than
2002 but he is said to be working on a script for a movie called
DIVINE SHADOWS.
6 Midshipman's Hope David Feintuch
This is the first novel about Nick Seafort, the man who gives
seemingly cursed chronically depressed religious fanatics a bad name.
Nick always tries to live up to his duty to Earth's space navy, even
when it costs him his immortal soul. Nick has a tendency to find
solutions to problems that require him to heroically sacrifice other
people.
Nick is also on my list of people not to go camping with
because he would eventually decide civilization could only be saved
if he fed me to a bear.
Feintuch wrote seven Seafort novels, each more gloomy than
the last, and two fantasy novels. His final novel was published
in 2002 and he died in 2006.
7 Wizard's First Rule Terry Goodkind
This is a giant fantasy written along Objectivist lines. Is
this the one with the evil chicken?
Goodkind has produced eleven books in the Sword of Truth
series. The stand alone DEBT OF BONES is forthcoming. He appears
to be rebranding himself and recently left Tor for the sweet embrace
of a three book deal with Putnam. The first book will be a contemporary
thriller set in an American city.
8 Aurian Maggie Furey
I did not read this.
Furey appears to have had at least ten novels. Her most
recent release came out in 2008 but I see a six year gap prior to
that.
9 Love Bite Sherry Gotlieb
I did not read this.
I think this was her only novel.
10 The Woman Between the Worlds F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
I missed this. I used to follow him in ANALOG so if I had
seen it, I'd have given it a chance.
I think that aside from a Tom Swift tie-in, this was his
only novel to date. He's reasonably prolific as a short story writer,
a reviewer and in non-fiction.
11 Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls Jane Lindskold
I did not read this.
Lindskold is a prolific fantasy author whose career is ongoing.
12 Becoming Human Valerie J. Freireich
I did read this although the details are hazy. Is this the
one about the neuter who escapes their oppressive native culture for
a more cosmopolitan world? I liked enough to pick up at least one
other book by her although not enough to reread it.
As far as I know, all four of her novels came out in the 1990s.
13 Mistwalker Denise Lopes Heald
I did not read this.
I believe that this was their only novel.
14 Aggressor Six Wil McCarthy
Humans are forced to adopt alien behavior in an attempt to
understand why the aliens are attacking humanity.
McCarthy is one of the more note-worthy hard SF authors these
days. His most recent work is the interesting but flawed Queendom
of Sol series, which was concluded in 2005..
15 This Side of Judgement J. R. Dunn
A time cop finds himself put in the position of protecting
the Third Reich from would-be do-gooders.
I liked this at the time but the argument in favour of
keeping history as it is is one I think of as the vending machine
theory of ethics, where you earn the capacity to be decent once
you've fed the vending of history with enough dead Jews. I am not
myself keen on this argument and I think the fact that it took
countries like Canada and US until the 1970s to end practices like
state-sanctioned eugenic sterilization or using ethnic minorities
in medical experiments is signigicant.
As far as I know, Dunn had three SF novels, all in the
1990s. I believe he is now some sort of right-wing pundit, if
this is the same JR Dunn:
http://www.americanthinker.com/jr_dunn/
[After thought: think about the implications of the phrase "SF author
turned right-wing pundit" before you click on that, m'kay?]
16 The Imperium Game K. D. Wentworth
I did not read this.
She appears to have been reseaonably prolific. Her website
leads me to believe that she has some books forthcoming from Baen,
although I think her most recent novel was in 2004. She appears to
be active at shorter lengths.
17 Changing Fate Elisabeth Waters
I also did not read this.
She appears to have had two novels under the Waters name
but Elisabeth Waters is a pen name and I have no idea if she's
published under other names.
Oddly, I see at least one source that seems to imply that this cam
out in 1989. Wait, no. Wikipedia says that it won the Gryphon. That's
the award for "Best Unpublished Fantasy Manuscript by a Woman", isn't
it? I think that was Andre Norton's idea and that the award soon fell
into disuse.
no subject