For non-UKians, SFX is the biggest UK sci-fi and fantasy magazine. It has huge readers poll awards that usually attract big stars to the event and stuff. Anyway,

Best Novel:

1/ Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse - Robert Rankin
2/ Night Watch - Terry Pratchett
3/ Coraline - Neil Gaiman
4/ LOST IN A GOOD BOOK - JASPER FFORDE!
5/ The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams

So, many congratulations, Jasper!

(And do we see Tom Holt anywhere on that list? No, we don't. Nor in the top ten. Ha!)

I was expecting to see a review of WOLP, maybe, but it's not there.

Oh, and Buffy won in every category it was eligible for, more or less, so the readers obviously have impeccable taste.



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Do something pretty while you can...

This may spark a wave of controversy (and has probably been done a million times before) but I thought that TEA should have been there instead of LIAB. They are both brilliant, of course...

And another thing - isn't the literary world tired of Terry Pratchett's somewhat strained (by now) brand of humour after what, seven years? It's like reading The Redemption of Althalus (David Eddings) after you've read the Belgariad, the Mallorian, accompanying books, the Tamuli, the other one in the same vein as the tamuli ... but without the great authorial style and great genre.

It's just this year's reader poll, so Eyre Affair wouldn't be eligible. (I think, although there were some odd things in the TV episodes category...I guess cause they've just been shown on terrestrial.)

And Terry Pratchett's been doing Discworld for 20 years. But yes, it's not as good as it used to be...



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Do something pretty while you can...

ahh .... didn't realise it was just this year's poll. Some stars just don't know when to leave gracefully. It's like Douglas Adam's "What? Still no Dolphins?" joke in SLATFATF, but the literary world doesn't seem to realise this - maybe thanks to good marketing agents

*cough* Robert @#$%& *ahem*

I actually enjoyed "The Redemption of Althalus" on the whole, though I thought the ending was a bit weak. But then I haven't read anything else by the same author.

I bought my first Pratchett book around the time it came out, which would have been some time in the mid-eighties - 1984, I think - so he's actually been going nearly twenty years. I wouldn't say his humour was strained, and I personally thought "Night Watch" was superb, but I would say he'd written one or two that might not have got past the publishers if he hadn't been Terry Pratchett. ("The Last Continent" springs instantly to mind as the prime example in that category.) All right, it's difficult to stay on top form for 25 novels, especially when they seem to get longer and longer, but don't knock him too much; I think he's still a genius. Anyone who can create a whole literary world with as much detail as he's put in it has got to be doing something right somewhere. Besides, I love his one-liners. :-)

This might be the time to mention that shortly before I discovered the works of the Great Panjandrum himself (and therefore while in an unbiased state), I bought a book by T*m H*lt in the hope that it would amuse me, since I was recovering from depression at the time. I didn't go so far as to hurl it across the room, but let's just say I won't be bothering to re-read it!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the redemption of althalus too, but after a few chapters I was like "well, same characters (really) same theme of jokes, same sort of plot, same special abilities ..." although that said, sometimes that kind of thing can be good - it's like revisiting an old friend. I feel much that way about Anne McCaffrey and continue to enjoy her easy-going style, although she can fade away towards the end of a series occasionally.
I was a big fan of Terry Pratchett when I read The colour of magic, the light fantastic, equal rights, pyramids, mort etc etc.. but I guess his style just isn't my kind of thing - it seems a bit too much like slapstick I suppose, but to his credit, he can write, so I suppose it's more about personal taste than authorial merit. Also, one of my friends worked at WH Smiths and met him when he came in to do a signing and said he was the most arrogant person he'd ever met, which kind of put me off...

Much food for thought in this thread. Thought good. Coughing bad. Taking it in the order I think of it;

I believe LIAGB to be a better book than TEA. For why? Because TEA was gestated over seven years and many versions, including a transition from third to first person, and many of the joins still show. LIAGB is much better structured and paced, and written with the confidence that only being published can bring. The plot hangs together better, and the jokes arise more naturally from the situation (when they're not dreadful puns, anyway). WOLP, I have to say, is better yet, but for different reasons, but you can find out all about it at midnight ... oh, no, wait, that's some other book, apparently. (And I wouldn't be in Carla's hat tonight for all the gold in Gringott's bank. Overhyped hackery).

Mr. P. I broadly agree with Sarah (but would add Thief of Time as a bum note). I think it's wrong to see TP as a fantasy author, anyway; he's a humorist first and foremost, and on the whole quite a good one. Good characterisation, too, which is rare in a humorist and practically unheard of in fantasy. But perhaps he ought to think about writing less, and certainly writing less Discworld ... he is starting to repeat himself a bit. The 'literary world', btw, has never had any time for him, or for any other author who doesn't make them look clever. Yes, Greer and Paulin, I do mean you.

An author who constantly repeats himself is Robert Rankin, sat there at the top of the SFX poll. The Brentford Trilogy is pretty good, but for the rest, you've read one funny apocalypse you've read em all. Which brings us to Mr. H*lt. I too read him before I read Mr. Ff. I had bought TEA and some other books to take on holiday, and then forgot to pack them. Cue frantic search round Manchester Airport for replacements, one of which was Wish You Were Here. It was utterly dreadful, and I *did* throw it across the room. You might say I came to Jasper on the rebound, but perhaps you'd better not.

Actually, JRRT apart, I usually can't stand 'fantasy' unless it's played for laughs, so I'm most unlikely to be reading David Eddings any time soon.

As for the SFX poll, I'm not surprised LIAGB is only third ... it's probably a bit literary for the average SFX reader, who usually likes more pictures in his reading matter. I don't read SFX much these days .... you just can't take a mag on the train that has a semi-clad Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cover and a title where the middle letter is obscured by same.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Cor.

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I think the witches are marvellous, but yes, Mr Pratchett is not infallible. There are odd dull ones. I first read him at Sarahs when I was being divorced and laughed my way out of it in a fortnight. Need I say more?

Thanks for the background details on TEA which are most interesting. Am I the only one who didn't know?

I didn't know, and completely missed the switch from third to first person, but it can work - inconsistency isn't necessarily a bad thing - but so much for my powers of observation!

Has anyone seen any other polls of best sci-fi / fantasy literature?

And go easy on Harry Potter. It wasn't until The Prisoner of Azkaban that it really became famous, and that was the third one. And JKR never asked to be famous - if there's a shortlist for types of people who deserve more money, it's single mums. How much money tho.... well, it's kind of not under her control... and the books are good....

I read Terry Prachett's early books with enjoyment, and some of the later ones. I thoroughly enjoyed 'Guards, Guards' and 'Night Watch', but I've picked up some of his others and put them back on the library shelves. For me, he often seems to try too hard at the funny descriptions. The 'Pratchett Style' can overwhelm the storytelling.

As for Harry Potter, I read the first three and thought they were perfectly competent without being particularly exciting. There wasn't anything new in the idea of witches and wizards in contemporary society - see Diana Wynne Jones for one excellent example - a lot of the boarding school stuff was hardly any different to an Enid Blyton story, and by the time I'd read the third one, they didn't seem to be doing anything really new. I rather liked J K Rowling when she was being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman the other night.

Maybe not new, but her style is better than Wynne Jones (although "Archer's Goon" as being exceptional) and perhaps better (or just more contemporary and therefore more "relatable" to today) than Blyton (although Blyton is classic). And there is nothing new in a lot of contemporary fiction, but that doesn't stop it being good - after all, TEA and LIAGB are perhaps fundametally "detective stories" - nothing original to *that* broad concept. JKR's style appeals to me, and they all seem particularly well put together, combining the mundane details with the grand plot build-up rather well.

Oh, it's come out by now, hasn't it. Anyone reading it?

I've never read any of the Harry Potter books, I made a quite rare assumption for me that I wasn't really interested in that style of storytelling. I think that might have come down to having been such a fan of Ursula le Guin's "Wizard of Earthsea" series and didn't want to end up doing the compare and contrast kind of criticism that would be unfair to both authors.

I do have nearly all TP's Discworld books and I agree that he's had his excellent moments for me and I really enjoy his style of humourous writing. The only one that I can't bear to re-read is "Feet of Clay". I couldn't see what his point was with the golem idea and it seemed one of his more sniping and heavy-handed pieces of writing.

btw, have read one of Mr. H's books and quiet enjoyed it, "Alexander at the World's End".

In my opinion T*m H*lt's first two fantasy novels, 'Expecting Someone Taller' and 'Who's Afraid Of Beowulf', were significantly better than any of his later ones.

And as far as Eddings is concerned his novels set (more or less) on present-day Earth are significantly better than his attempts at epic fantasy. Try 'High Hunt', or 'Regina's Song'...

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This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

boo, hiss to Milo!

Diana Wynne Jones' books are *much* better writing quality and style than JKRs! In my opinion, of course, but that's always right.

I did nearly buy Harry Potter this morning, but decided I couldn't be bothered carrying it about all day.

Reading a great book just now called The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford - anyone read it? It's about the books he read growing up, it's a kind of memoir but also has lit crit and psychology and stuff...

(and he likes Diana Wynne Jones too :-p)



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Do something pretty while you can...

I'n on chapter 13 (over 200 pages down) and can't wait to read more, but need to start packing...

It was HECTIC in Canary Wharf but i survived and it went rather well.

*rather enjoying the villain image*

I read Ursula le Guin a while ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it, but the style is completely different, so don't worry about making comparisons - they're aimed at different audiences, have different themes and are both well worth reading.

Re: Eddings - if High Hunt is significantly better than his fantasy, it'll blow me away. It'll be the next thing I read (ummm ... after HP 5 - arrived by amazon this morning, and is excellent so far ... and after Tad William's "Otherland" set, which I'm also part of the way through ... and Clive Barker's "Imajica" which I also kind of started). I don't think Eddings is an attempt at epic fantasy, I think he manages it quite well, but like I said, his style does stay the same all the way through, but it is utterly enjoyable.

Curiously, JKR seems to have managed to do what Clive Barker does so well - continue to build the plot and tension up and up throughout a book, only she's done it through five books. Immaculately.

.... now, if I could only do half the things Hades does. Or maybe I need to work on the villain image a bit more ....

I phoned my friend, Gary, this morning about our trip to Blackpool next week. He was reading his copy of HP5, bought at around 4.00am from Tesco's, only £9.99. He spoke to one of the assistants, and Tesco's had never been so busy at midnight before.(It's one of those open-24-hours superstores).
We're now booked into a B&B at Blackpool for Tues/Wed/Thurs next week. Pleasure Beach, here I come !

Liking JKR doesn't make you a villain round here. Sorry. She just isn't bad enough for that. H*lt-worshippers might be in trouble, though.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

well, I did drive at 70 miles an hour once ... through the Arndale centre

is that better?

.... oh well, at least I got a "boo, hiss".

I only have two chapters left in the new HP book. Hubby's nagging me to hurry and finish so he can start reading it. It's pretty damn good and shoiuld keep me happy until WOLP comes out.