fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #4555 ]

[ SECRET POST #4555 ]

⌈ Secret Post #4555 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Lesser-known favorites and why you love them! inspired by the other thread

- Caroline Stevermer. A College Of Magics is a really charming magical-Interwar-Europe novel. Half of it is set in a girl's college for magic, the rest of it is more like a Ruritanian romance type thing, it's a really fun read with very likable characters.

- Patricia McKillip. Great fantasy writer with really imaginative, powerful themes and great atmosphere and very magical magic. Just full of imagination and life.

I don't think Patricia McKillip could be considered obscure...

OK. That hasn't been my impression but I don't think there's really any objective way of adjudicating who is or is not obscure, so I guess it's not worth getting into.

Probably if someone's won a World Fantasy Award, they're not exactly below the radar. But I don't want to fight about it, I was just surprised anyone would consider her obscure.

I don't think the World Fantasy Award is necessarily a good metric because it's really a pretty long way outside of "mainstream" fantasy. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing - I think it's a really good, meaningful award because of it - but I don't think that it speaks to broad popularity and I don't think that it's an award that confers a lot of visibility, outside of its own circle.

SA but also, more generally, I think it's better to just post authors and not worry about exactly whether they count as "obscure" or not

Then the thread becomes a "writers you love" thread, which is significantly different than what the OP might've intended.

I hope people would use their own best judgment and things would work themselves out.

nayrt

That circle being "readers of fantasy", though. I guess you could argue that Manet is an obscure artist who's only known within his own circle if you define that circle as "people who know anything about art", but...

Well, alright, if your feeling is that the WFA winners are generally representative of the tastes of mainstream fantasy readers, I can't really prove you wrong, but it really hasn't been my experience.

I don't know. There are some pretty big names on the list of WFA winners, including George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Lois McMaster Bujold, Stephen King...

But that's not really the relevant question for what we're talking about, is it? Those people are popular, well-known authors who also happened to win a World Fantasy Award.

The more relevant question - I think - is on the other end, how well-known Angela Slatter, or Anna Smaill, or Sean Stewart, or Sofia Samatar are. And whether or not you would call those writers "obscure", there's definitely a significant difference between any of them, and any of the writers you listed.

Do you think Patricia McKillip's fame and career is on the same level as the writers you listed?

No, of course not.

Listen, if you want to say that McKillip isn't obscure, fine - I think it's a subjective thing to a certain extent, regardless. I just don't think having won a World Fantasy Award really proves it one way or the other.

I admit, I was being a little flippant when I mentioned the World Fantasy Award. I don't think that's the only metric by which one can judge who is and isn't obscure. But I don't think Patricia McKillip is an obscure author.

Patricia Finney! She has a trilogy about an ex-soldier and a codebreaker in Elizabethan London. The third book has problems but the first two are excellent. She has a mystery series as P. F. Chisholm but I haven't read it.

Not sure I could call them favorites yet, but there are a couple I've discovered recently that I definitely want to read more of.

- Ann Gallagher. I've only read two of her books, which were both super fluffy m/m romance, and they were adorable. I know there's at least one more m/m one and I think there are a couple m/f ones, too...I want to read them all eventually.

- Darcy Coates. I've only read one book (Craven Manor--I originally saw it recommended here a long time ago, so thanks to whoever talked about it) but it was so good. Kind of a stereotypical horror/haunted house story and sort of just really predictable and trope-y but also completely different at the same time? I know that doesn't really make sense, and I'm not sure how to describe it, but it was really good, and I definitely want to read some more of her stuff.

Confession... I, too, remember the rec for Darcy Coates and I read Craven Manor. It was good, but unpolished. It reads like something that's self-published and I didn't think it had a very strong plot. I like her ideas and concepts, though.

ayrt

I didn't think it had a very strong plot.

Yeah, the premise seemed very "this has been done a million times before" but I just really liked it for some reason that I can't explain lol.

ironkite aka Aaron Kite. Two Cats - is an urban fantasy set in a kinda medieval world. I also liked their ya book.

Cindy Anstey is more or less known. She writes sparkly regency romance. Liked all her book I read so far.

Laura Joh Rowland writes gritty detective stories set in medieval Japan.

Alden Bell (or Joshua Gaylord) doesn't get enough love.

Only semi-related, but I just read Sabriel for the first time, so I'm loving your icon!

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[ SECRET POST #4555 ]

Obscure Writers You Love

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