I read a lot of SF, plus other random fiction and lots of interesting non-fiction. Here are some of my favorite authors:

Fiction

• Lois McMaster Bujold is my favorite author. Her stories have fascinating, complicated characters interacting in realistic ways. Her plots are wonderful, she writes hilarious one-liners, and she has great imagery and symbolism. Like any good SF author, she uses technology to illustrate social and political issues. She has written about a dozen books in the same universe, which have won 7 Hugos/Nebulas. I can't recommend these strongly enough. I'd suggest starting with The Warrior's Apprentice.
• Robert A. Heinlein. His attitudes about politics, sex, humanity, etc. shine through his work, and as I happen to agree with most of them, I love his stuff. He is pro-competence, anti-religion, and Menckennially cynical about politics and people. My personal favorite is The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Some of his later books got a bit iffy as he became obsessed with sex, slutty redheads, and homosexuality (not that there is anything wrong with any of these topics, but they didn't inspire him to write good books). I suggest avoiding Time Enough For Love and I Will Fear No Evil.
• Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash was just plain freakin' awesome. . I also enjoyed Cryptonomicon and Zodiac, although Diamond Age didn't do much for me ('cept the castle Turing stuff).
• Dick Francis. He has a great love for reasonable people and disgust with unreasonable ones, which works for me. His protagonists are generally competent, straightforward people thrust into extraordinary situations with which they deal as best they can. The secondary characters are sometimes unrealistic, unreasonable, whiny, or foolish, and while these are portrayed as negative, it is generally with sympathy and pity.
• Georgette Heyer. People laugh at me when they hear of my affection for the first lady of Regency Romance. Now before you get your panties in a twist about the word "Romance", these are not bodice rippers. The most that ever happens is a kiss, and a kiss in these books is a very big deal that generally doesn't happen until after the participants have become engaged. These are romances set in the world of english nobility in the early 1800's, and while not very edifying, they are marvelously distracting. The hero is generally a noble, rich man who has become bored with all the insipid debutantes trying to catch his eye. Finally he meets a woman who actually has personality, and after various interesting difficulties they fall in love. The characters are delightful and the dialogue often quite amusing. So there! Hmmph.
• Phillip K. Dick. Decent books, phenomenal short stories.
• John Brunner. Shockwave Rider was a seminal proto-cyberpunk work, and a lot of his other books are interesting as well. He wrote about issues like pollution, overpopulation, and future shock, and while the world hasn't quite gone to hell in the way he predicted, he sure got some things right. Depressing but clever stories about humanity's failings.

Non-Fiction

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Last Modified: September, 2000