Science Fiction and Mysteries

Mystery Section: (Jump to Sci-Fi)

I was introduced to mysteries when I was five or so, with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels. Not that these reflect the state-of-the-art, but when you're five...I wasn't until I hit college that I found room in between F&SF to fit in mysteries. I started in with, in my experience so far, the best: Nero Wolfe. I had at the same time got attached to the Saint, primarily through the TV show (Roger Moore's true calling). A friend of mine led me into the Fletch books as well as A.A.Fair's Cool and Lam series (although I still haven't read any of the plethora of The Case of... Perry Mason books on my shelf) and Ellis Peter's outstanding Brother Cadfael series. More recently, I started reading Julian Symons' books, really the first large set of mysteries I have read without a running set of main characters.

I have to admit that I started reading the Spenser books because of the TV show (Avery Brooks is amazing as Hawk...I still am shocked when Sisco (DS9) smiles that predatory Hawk smile-the roles are so far apart I forget who the actor is). The more recent movies with Joe Montenga are pretty good. I have found the Sara Paretsky books very similar, andequally enjoyable, with just a slightly different cast, and from her I got pulled into Sue Grafon's wonderful X is for Xenocide series. Parker and Paretsky are the best from a tradition best personified by Hammett and Chandler, and I hope the tradition can be carried on by similar talents. Stuart Kaminsky also tries to more directly copy the style and mood, and I have enjoyed some of his Toby Peters books, based in old Hollywood, where we often meet familiar names.

I also have to strongly recommend two more series: James Melville's Inspector Otani series, centered in Japan, and Tony Hillerman's books, which most lead one of two Navajo detectives. Both are very good mysteries, and also provide a look into different cultures. Dale Furutani is another author worth looking at, although his body of work is much smaller so far - he has two series, one where the protaganist is a period Samurai, and one where the main characters are modern day Japanese-Americans.

Recently I have been read different types of mysteries, from Mary Monica Pulver's Peter Brichter books (including Murder at the War a.k.a. Knight Fall) The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl through to Susan Conant's dog mysteries to Diane Mott Davidson's catering mysteries. All of these I would recommend completely, although Susan Conant definitely shows what it means to be a dog person (alright, she even goes a bit far, but it is an entirely different mind set) and a non-dog person might not 'get it'.

Mystery! Home Page from WBGH

A&E (cable tv)(Good mystery stuff)

Nero Wolfe (Muffy's excellent work-in-progress-a very thorough job!)

Johan Blixt's Nero Wolfe page

Dave Patty's Nero Wolfe page

Another Nero Wolfe fan page

Spenser (another dedicated fan's excellent work)

Ballantine/Doubleday (home of Grisham, Forsythe, etc.)

Sherlockian Holmepage

(as time passes, I will add my own chronology sub-pages here)

The Saint

Cool and Lam

I also propose to delve into the Mystery based in the F/SF setting, such as Garrett's Lord Darcy series, Lawrence Watt-Evans' Nightside City, Joel Rosenberg's D'Shai books, and Alan Dean Foster's Greenthieves.

Science Fiction/Fantasy Section (jump back to Mystery)

My favorite Science Fiction/Fanstasy makes a reasonably long list. Starting with The Lord of the Rings by Tolkein, (and even farther back through C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, and Lloyd Alexander's Black Cauldron series, I have found many treasures. I am one of the seemingly few who enjoyed Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series. Susan Dexter started with The Ring of Allaire, and I have been a fan of hers ever since. Paul O. Williams Pelbar Cycle is a well-crafted series in a distant, post-apocalypse future where the pieces are starting to come back together. Lawrence Watt-Evans is another of my absolute favorites, with his Esthsar world novels. Steven Brust's Jhereg books are great (with the possible exception of Teckla), and his Phoenix Guards/Five Hundred Years After are delicious plays on Dumas' Three Musketeer stories. I recommend Barbara Hambly, Clifford Simak, Terry Brooks, and Katherine Kurtz.

My Science Fiction tastes have been more dormant for some years now, but first Walter John Williams pulled me back in, starting with the writers on the Cyberpunk scene (if not entirely Cyberpunk books), such as Bruce Sterling and James Patrick Kelly. Lawrence Watt-Evans has several books classified as SciFi, but he himself claims to be unclear on the real difference, and has been surprised by the label used by the publisher on his latest series (Out of This World). In general, I have always been drawn to the space and aliens aspects of SciFi more than anything else. Harry Turtledove has some interesting work on the subject of first contacts.

Harry Turtledove has written a number of interesting books, usually more closely related to alternate histories. His Guns of the South is a 'what if' the South had some help from the future to win the Civil War. Also, his Krispos of Videssos series is a fun play on a full Roman legion being dropped into an entirely different world (where magic, of course, works). He has me reading a range of other alternate histories from authors like Harry Harrison, SM Stirling (whose Nantucket novels are phenomenal), etc.

I must lay claim to enjoying the Shadowrunbooks, loosely based on a role-playing system of the same name. This series is based in a world where technology and magic live side-by-side. The cyberpunk aspects are often very interesting, and usually at least creative. The magic is also divided into ritual and shamanic magic.

Tor Books

DelRey Books

Draegara (Steven Brust info) (moved???)

Walter Jon Williams' Home Page, and The WJW fan page (very good)

Lawrence Watt Evans' own homepage

Joel Rosenberg's homepage. He has, among other things, an interesting replay of Starship Troopers (Not for Glory) and some interesting Fantasy Mysteries (a rare genre) which are uncommonly excellent (these are the aforementioned D'Shai books).

Bruce Sterling has an on-line version of his book Cracking Down on Hackers

Paul O. Williams Pelbar Cycle

William Gibson interview

Flex (SF homepage)

GEnie SF links

SF Stuff

Flights of Fantasy On-Line Bookstore

Babylon 5 (The Psi-Corps is your friend!) links include: