# Other authors

*The Urth list — 8 messages, 8 voices, 13 Apr 2003*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3929>

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### Jason Ingram
*13 Apr 2003, 07:49*

Perennial favorite 'other' author on the list seems to be John Crowley

Jonathan Carroll's last two novels (_White Apples_ and _The Wooden 
Sea_) are worth checking out.

I'm not sure I would call Jack Vance "brilliant," but he fits your 
other criteria.  However, some people seem to have heard of him . . .

Another thought, albeit out-of-genre, is Lawrence Durrell's _Alexandria 
Quartet_; but only if you have considerable patience.

Best,

Sepia

> On Saturday, April 12, 2003, at 11:28 PM, Steve Case wrote:
>  I want to buy a book no one’s ever heard of that is incredibly 
> good. So I’m coming to you. I know lots of Wolfe-like authors have 
> been discussed on the list before. Tell me what book I should 
> buy. (And by something like Wolfe I mean something well-written, 
> thought-provoking, brilliant, and relatively clean.) 

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### silk tree
*13 Apr 2003, 16:06 · follows Jason Ingram*

Richard Powers. Here is an interview:
http://eserver.org/clogic/2-2/williams.html
I think my favorite is _Gold Bug Variations_,
but it is very hard to decide.

First thing I read by John Crowley was _Little, Big_.
It is linked in my mind with Mark Helprin's New York
book, _Winter's Tale_ (maybe it's the New York setting
and the strange magic). Mark Helprin is another author
I will read on sight.

This page recommends John Crowley, and even though
it hasn't been update in a while, I appreciate the page for
also recommending some other authors.
http://home.att.net/~Storytellers/jcrowley.html
and then back up to
http://home.att.net/~Storytellers/autpicks.html
(describes _Winter's Tale_ as "a brilliant failure" :))

There is this fantasy writer that wrote Virconium, but
I haven't finished it and don't remember his name.
He is someone I don't hear people talk about a lot. google
will pull up more info for you.

Oh, for some reason I am thinking of Russel Hoban because
of _Riddley Walker_. It is because I recently saw a web
page where people were talking about how much better
his other books were in comparison and that one just blew
me away.

Thomas Disch too.

I'm getting off topic thought. I think for Wolfean
intricacy that Richard Powers is one to recommend.
I am assuming you will find reviews and skim the books
before buying them, due to the vaguely out of genre
experience they would cause.

mimosa

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### William Ansley
*13 Apr 2003, 16:55 · follows silk tree*

> First thing I read by John Crowley was _Little, Big_.
> It is linked in my mind with Mark Helprin's New York
> book, _Winter's Tale_ (maybe it's the New York setting
> and the strange magic). Mark Helprin is another author
> I will read on sight.

How interesting. LB and WT are linked in my mind as well, probably 
for the same reasons. I don't know if I will ever read anything else 
by Helprin, but I would definitely recommend Crowley, especially LB.

> There is this fantasy writer that wrote Virconium, but
> I haven't finished it and don't remember his name.
> He is someone I don't hear people talk about a lot. google
> will pull up more info for you.

M. John Harrison is the name and I didn't even need Google for this one. <g>

```
William Ansley

-- 
```

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### Roy C. Lackey
*13 Apr 2003, 22:16 · follows William Ansley*

William Ansley, first quoting mimosa:

> First thing I read by John Crowley was _Little, Big_.
> It is linked in my mind with Mark Helprin's New York
> book, _Winter's Tale_ (maybe it's the New York setting
> and the strange magic). Mark Helprin is another author
> I will read on sight.

>> How interesting. LB and WT are linked in my mind as well, probably
>> for the same reasons. I don't know if I will ever read anything else
>> by Helprin, but I would definitely recommend Crowley, especially LB.<<

---------------------------------

Interesting, indeed: I thought it was just me. The books share similar
geography (NYC and a mysterious, rural, upstate New York) and almost
identical time periods (late 19th -  very early 21st centuries). They are
also easily each author's best book. LITTLE, BIG is the best fantasy novel
I've ever read and WINTER'S TALE is the best novel I've ever read --
period --regardless of genre, "classic" or otherwise. William, you should
read Helprin's other novels; they are well worth it.

-Roy

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### James Wynn
*14 Apr 2003, 12:31 · follows Roy C. Lackey*

Walter Wangerin's "Book of the Dun Cow" sits on my shelves near to Wolfe's
books. It consists of a Wolfean mixture of myth and theology (Wangerin is,
or was, a Lutheran minister) in an "Animal Farm" stew.

James Tiptree Jr.'s short story, "A Momentary Taste of Being" takes on the
Wolfean theme of identity in a sci-fi story about the purpose of life and
space travel.

I add my endorsement of Helprin's "Winter's Tale". Like Wolfe (and Wangerin
and Tiptree) Helprin's works are as worthwhile for their beautiful writing
as for the story. Incidentally, Helprin was enlisted as Bob Dole's speech
writer during the summer of the 1996 Presidential campaign. He wrote the
"this is where I touch ground" speech that reinvigorated the Dole campaign.
He shortly quit however because he got disgusted with Dole's insistence on
editing his speeches until they sounded like the speeches Dole was giving
before they hired him. Then the Dole campaign returned to its drifting death
by mediocrity.


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### Jonathan Laidlow
*15 Apr 2003, 09:36 · follows James Wynn*

> From: Malco <nastler at yahoo.dk>
> Subject: Re: (urth) RE: Digest from  urth at urth.net

> Lanark by Alasdair Gray

Can I just second this? and third it? An amazing book
by a little-known Scottish author. I also recommend
his 'Poor Things'. Both are illustrated by the author
and available to all via amazon.co.uk

Jonathan Laidlow
www.ultan.co.uk

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### Malco
*15 Apr 2003, 09:43 · follows Jonathan Laidlow*

Breathlessly mounting his hobby horse Malco adds;
And please also consider "Unlikely stories, mostly"
EVERYONE should own a copy of "The book of prefaces"


 --- Jonathan Laidlow <ultan01 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > >

>> From: Malco <nastler at yahoo.dk>
>> Subject: Re: (urth) RE: Digest from  urth at urth.net

>> Lanark by Alasdair Gray

> Can I just second this? and third it? An amazing
> book
> by a little-known Scottish author. I also recommend
> his 'Poor Things'. Both are illustrated by the
> author
> and available to all via amazon.co.uk
> 
> Jonathan Laidlow
> www.ultan.co.uk
> 
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### Ed Cooke
*19 Apr 2003, 10:38 · follows Malco*

Good to see Goethe and Iain M. Banks cropping up in this thread. To complete
the triangle, I've always assumed Banks took the title of 'Against A Dark
Background' from the following passage of Goethe:

"Spring had come in all its glory. An untimely storm that had been looming
all day thundered down from the mountains, rain swept across the landscape,
the sun returned and a rainbow shone forth from the greyness. Wilhelm rode
towards it and was deeply moved. "Oh!" he said to himself. "Do life's most
beautiful colours only make themselves clear to us against a dark
background? Must raindrops fall for our delight? A clear day is no different
from a cloudy one, if we look at it unmoved, and what can move us but the
silent hope that our hearts' natural inclination will not go unrequited? We
are moved by the account of a good deed, the contemplation of an aesthetic
object; they make us feel as though we are not complete strangers here, and
give us intimations of a homeland towards which our highest and innermost
feelings impatiently strive."    --'Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre', Bk VII Ch I

TBotNS is the best Bildungsroman I've ever read, mainly because it ends
satisfactorily. Wieland spent thirty years rewriting his 'Agathon',
eventually resorting to a further argument between the eponymous hero and
the Sophist Hippias in the afterlife, and Goethe churned out a sequel in his
dotage that loaded the characters with so much symbolism that no-one could
really care about them anymore; but Wolfe ties up enough loose ends for a
sense of closure but not so many as to preclude another two novel cycles.
Bravo!

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