Inspired by my friend Larry Nolen, I decided to make a list of authors that I read for the first time in 2008 that I found to have written good works. Following his example, I'll highlight those who moved me the most (Larry highlight the writers whose debut efforts came out in the U.S. this year, but since I live in Brazil, I thought I should do things a little bit differently):
Ekaterina Sedia
Jeff VanderMeer
Jacques Barcia (Brazilian author, not available in English translation)
Adam Roberts
Jeffrey Thomas
Ken McLeod
John Scalzi
Chris Roberson
Joe Abercrombie
Brandon Sanderson
David Louis Edelman
Forrest Aguirre
Jeff Carlson
Maurice Dantec
Christie Lasaitis (Brazilian author, not available in English translation)
Tobias Buckell
Robert T. Jeschonek
Jay Lake
Hal Duncan
Rhys Hughes
Ted Chiang
Stepan Chapman
Thomas Ligotti
Jeffrey Ford
Leena Krohn
Hannu Rajaniemi
Steph Swainston
Daniel Abraham
Eric Brown
Antônio Xerxenesky (Brazilian author, not available in English translation)
Otis Adelbert Kline
Naomi Novik
Joe Hill
Tibor Moricz (Brazilian author, not available in English translation)
Elizabeth Bear
Mark Newton
Sarah Monette
Sergei Lukyanenko
David Thorpe
M. J. Rose
Roberto Bolaño
Kelly Barnhill
Conrad Williams
Katherine Sparrow
Ludimila Hashimoto (Brazilian author, not available in English translation)
Kelly Link
Tony Ballantyne
Neal Asher
Karl Schroeder
Alan Pauls
Felix Gilman
Matthew Pearl
Patrick Ness
illustration by Fabio Cobiaco
Very nice list, Fábio, but I have to tease you about one omission: Angélica Gorodischer? Or have you not yet been able to read her Kalpa Imperial? :P
Finding my name in such an honorable list took me completely by surprise.
Hum, not completely, to be honest. You had told me something to that effect in person. Then again, lists have and official sense to them. More so when you know the background of the person who made the selection.
It certainly encourages me to keep writing and to read all the authors you mention.
Thank you so very much. (And this must be the longest comment I've written in 2008. I only get that prolix when I'm embarrassed :))
Hi Larry!
You´re right - I haven´t had the chance to read Kalpa Imperial yet, unfortunately. I didn´t put Angélica Gorodischer´s name on the list because I´ve been reading about her for a few years, so she wasn´t completely a surprise. But I just checked the list and noticed I left two or three authors out of it, so I think I´ll add Señora Gorodischer as well. :-)
Thanks for the teasing! :-D
Ludi, you really deserve it. I think that you are one of the most promising new authors in Brazilian SF/Fantasy right now.
Larry, you must DEFINITELY read her story in the next issue of TERRA INCOGNITA. It´s in Portuguese, but you´ll have no problem at all reading it. It´s a quite nice story!
Thought that might be the case, as Gorodischer's story is something else (so are the six short stories of hers that I've read to date). And I'll be sure to read that issue in the next few weeks, even if you're a bit generous about my abilities with Portuguese - I can't read it anywhere near as fast as I do Spanish or English!
Is that my name over there? O.o
Hi, Larry. Nice to meet you.
In case the stories in Portuguese in the next issue of TI don't make sense to you, I'll consider translating them into English. (Specially the one I wrote ;))
Thanks for the kind offer, Ludimila, but I should be able to read it okay enough - I just meant that I wouldn't be able to read it as fast as I do in English or Spanish. It's just that I'll have to remember tener/ter, bien/bem, etc. more than anything else and remembering those shifts slows me down. But if I do have problems, I'll be sure to let you know!
You should watch this. Alan Pauls talks about his novel The Past (O Passado).
Escritor argentino Alan Pauls fala sobre sua obra "O Passado", adaptada para o cinema por Hector Babenco.
http://mais.uol.com.br/view/1xu2xa5tnz3h/metropolis--entrevista-com-alan-pauls-040262D0A97346