[thechat] sci-fi recommendation (was LotR)

[Jonathan Chard]

>At 05:28 PM 6/4/01 -0400, you wrote:
>>Can anyone suggest any current authors who are real science
>fiction writers
>>(not fantasy)?

Has anyone else has read any Jeff Noon...? I think he's great, but I'm not
sure how well his books travel. The ones that I've read are all based in a
future, depraved, drug-addled Manchester, which is quite weird when you've
got people meeting in places that I recognise...

Anyhow, his books are a bit difficult to read - lots of invented words and
slang, but you just have to go with it, and in the end you just pick it up
from context and story. V. cyberpunky in that respect. You definitely have
to go into his books with an open mind, if you can cope with it, once you've
got going it's difficult to stop. Very clever writer, takes a concept and
twists it as far as it'll go. One of his books (Automated Alice) is written
in the style of Lewis Carol, and to appreciate it fully you have to have
read Alice In Wonderland. My GF thought it was fab (though a bit forced at
times).

I thought Vurt was excellent, Pollen is v. good, as is Nymphomation. I can
see why people wouldn't like him, but you've got to admire his writing all
the same. Bit of a try it and see.

Re Gibson: have to say I was disappointed with Neuromancer. I got the
feeling that he was so carried away with his invented world, he forgot small
details like a plot. Maybe I should read it again. And I didn't realise that
there were more books in the series; maybe it livened up after that.

Jon Chard.