Readings - Lectures

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Books

I LOVE books.  My idea of the perfect vacation includes lots of time to read and several shopping trips to used bookstores!
 

Web Readings

Here are some links I like:

Contemporary Authors

David Brin

(Earth; Glory Season; the Uplift series - especially Startide Rising, The Uplift War, and Brightness Reef; etc.)

No one writes about "otherness" like Brin does; he is simply amazing.  In addition, he has a wicked sense of humour.  His Uplift universe is one of the most creative, coherent, complex, and fun in sci-fi.

Steven Brust

(Dragaera: the Vlad Taltos series and the Phoenix Guard series; Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Gril; The Sun, the Stars and the Moon; To Reign in Hell; etc.)

Brust has a way with words, and there's a devilish carefree reckless sense of fun through all his novels, even when the action turns dead serious.  He throws in clever plot twists, and you have to watch for all the foreshadowing and sly references.

William Gibson

(Burning Chrome, Neuromancer, Count Zero, Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties, etc.)

The thing with Gibson is not just that he created and defined the cyberpunk genre, nor that he writes well.  It's that he keeps getting better; you can tell by reading his books in order that he clearly works hard at getting better, for the sheer love of writing.

Barbara Hambly

(Antryg Windrose series, Benjamin Janvier series, Dragonslayer series, Don Ysidro series, etc.)

Hambly writes science-fiction, fantasy, mysteries, adventures, gothic, and suspense with equal ease.  And through all those genres, her characters are so very, very human.  She writes some of the most attractive characters in any of those genres.

R.A. MacAvoy

(Damiano series, Black Dragon series, Lens of the World series, etc.)

I don't know what MacAvoy is doing these days, but I miss her.  She has a knack for taking an "impossible" premise and running it through a series of convolutions to end up with a "logical", or at least internally consistent, conclusion.  And her characters definitely end up as living people, no matter how supernatural they may have started out.

Patrick O'Brian

(Jack Aubray/Stephen Maturin series)

Nautical and historical fiction at its best, wit and erudition, rousing boarding actions, and clever spy games, it's all there.  Set in the Napoleonic era British Navy.  Unless you're already a nautical buff, though, I recommend getting the companion books (especially Dean King's A Sea of Words) or at least a dictionary of nautical terms

Robert Silverberg

(To See the Invisible Man, Majipoor series, etc.)

Another author with rich characterization who builds complex, attractive settings.


Livres

J'adore les livres.  Qu'on se le dise.
 

Lectures Ouaib

Auteurs contemporains

Umberto Eco

(Le Pendule de Foucault, Le Nom de la rose, L'Ile du jour d'avant, Comment voyager avec un saumon, etc.)

Ce n'est certes pas à moi de présenter Umberto Eco.  Ses intrigues complexes, ses personnages étranges, son style audacieux -- les lapins qu'il tire de son chapeau...  Mon préféré est Le Pendule de Foucault.  Le chaînon manquant entre Le Matin des magiciens et X-Files, précurseur de toute une génération de conspirations et de paranoïa littéraires.

Franz-Olivier Giesbert

(L'Affreux)

L'Affreux est un de ces héros improbables, et Giesbert un de ces auteurs habiles, qu'on ne peut plus lâcher après quelques pages.  C'est dommage que Giesbert soit si occupé comme journaliste et rédacteur, je l'aime bien en romancier!

Daniel Pennac

(Comme un roman, la série des aventures de la famille Malaussène, Messieurs les enfants)

Mon auteur préféré.  Quand un de ses livres arrive, je laisse tout tomber.  Il y a un style, une joie de vivre, une gouaille qu'on ne retrouve que chez Dumas (papa, pas le monsieur de la Dame aux camélias...) - ou dans les bandes dessinées!  Tiens, Gottlib, Gosciny et les Dingodossiers, peut-être...

Patrick Süskind

(Le Parfum)

Un personage principal à la fois dégoûtant et fascinant!  Un auteur avec un style descriptif captivant!



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Last update December 29, 2001 - Dernière mise à jour: 29 décembre 2001