Old Tea Leaf Reviews 18: 1998 Locus Poll Best First Novel - rec.arts.sf.written

Message from discussion Old Tea Leaf Reviews 18: 1998 Locus Poll Best First Novel

Rich Horton

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More options Jul 5, 1:13 am

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written

From: Rich Horton <rrhor...@prodigy.net>

Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:13:16 -0500

Local: Sat, Jul 5 2008 1:13 am

Subject: Re: Old Tea Leaf Reviews 18: 1998 Locus Poll Best First Novel

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On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 19:28:28 +0000 (UTC), jdnic...@panix.com (James

Nicoll) wrote:
>Best First Novel

>1 The Great Wheel Ian R. MacLeod

> I missed this.

> MacLeod's books are well received. His career is the opposite
>of many detailed in this series, with one novel in the 1990s and three
>since 2003.

MacLeod's a wonderful writer, but I haven't read this book. I think it
took him some time to modulate from writing at novelette/novella
length (which I suspect is his natural length) to novel.

>2 Expendable James Alan Gardner

> It's always hard on morale when explorers die. This society
>has tried to limit that problem by using people with off-putting
>disfigurements as explorers because nobody misses the ugly. Oddly,
>this is not a particularly nice society.

> Jim had seven books in the League of Peoples series, one
>Lara Croft tie-in and one collection. I am unaware of anything at
>book length since 2005's GRAVITY WELLS.

I missed GRAVITY WELLS.

Gardner's books are usually quite fun, but the underlying concepts are
in their way at least as silly as the concept you complained about so
strenuously at the center of Tony Daniel's METAPLANETARY.

>3 Black Wine Candas Jane Dorsey

> I missed this.

> I am having a hard time reconciling her being on this list with
>the records I can find for her career and so will leave commentary to the
>better informed.

Dorsey has done some excellent short fiction. Haven't read this book,
though I think I have it.

>4 An Exchange of Hostages Susan R. Matthews

> Our tragic hero discovers that he really, really enjoys torturing
>people for the State but since he feels guilty it is OK.

> I hated the two books of hers that I read.

> She had at least seven novels before 2002 and one in 2006.

I stopped, I think, at one book -- this one -- for the obvious
reasons. I did used to enjoy the occasional Pete McCutcheon rant on
the subject though. (I miss Pete ...)

>11 The Troika Stepan Chapman

> I missed this.

> I think this was his lone novel.

Chapman, like James Tiptree, Jr., and Howard Waldrop, is a John W.
Campbell discovery, late in Campbell's career. And so who says
Campbell was by then a hidebound conservative, unable to adapt to the
newer styles of SF?

>12 The Stone Prince Fiona Patton

> I did not read this.

> Patton had four novels between 1997 and 2001, one in 2005 and
>one is forthcoming (For some reason I thought she had a lot more books).

>13 Lives of the Monster Dogs Kirsten Bakis

> I missed this.

> This appears to be their only book.

I read it. It was published in the mainstream. Got a lot of praise,
and I thought it OK but not great.

I don't think there is any controversy about Bakis' gender -- she's a
she. (I mean, I get it when you use "they" for Raphael Carter, but
...)

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