The ability to reach across the world and find people with similar interests has greatly benefited, people with rare sexual fetishes, religious extremists, and book readers alike.
As a young man I could discuss my favourite fantasy books with a tiny number of my small circle of friend. Now a mouse click or two will bring me to a forum where scores of strangers are ready with their opinions, observations, and open minds (sometimes).
It's great. Though it does remove some of the need to demand that the people I know read the books I like.
However with my latest read, the excellent Books of Babel.
Book 1: Senlin Ascends
Book 2: Arm of the Sphinx
I find that I have fallen into a time-warp. The books are self-published and currently have a tiny readership. And as such I'm having difficulty finding anyone to reinforce my belief that they are startlingly good. It's like being in the 80s!
Help me out by making these books popular.
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"people with rare sexual fetishes, religious extremists, and book readers alike"
ReplyDeleteWell, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. :)
Mark, Did you read R scott bakker? He is one of those who writes interesting and provocative books but he is completely ignored by the mainstream. I got the same feeling when I read his books...Curios what you think of him since both of you write dark fantasy. Any chance of a review or a shout out ?
ReplyDeleteI have read and reviewed Bakker as it happens, but you're mischaracterising him to a significant degree. According to the Wertzone list he has sold over a million books. AAnd my own calculations based on Goodreads ratings give him a conservative lower limit of 300,000 sales. I see him mentioned on many forums, and very frequently on Westeros.org.
DeleteHave you read A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones? Its one of the best oldish fantasy series I've read and no ones heard about it. The author never got around to amkeing the last book, but the first four are gold
ReplyDeleteI always find that i read a good book and then find out that the writer is well established and in fact i have just read joe Abercrombie's 2nd book series!
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to find a vast collection of fantasy novels that arent major titles that book stores stock!
I haven't read Senlin Ascends but your praise for it has made me put on my to-read list. Have you read A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones? It's one of my favourite fantasy books despite that fith and last book will probably never come out. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24249.A_Cavern_of_Black_Ice
ReplyDeleteI haven't read her, but JV Jones is well known. Her work has 34,000 ratings on Goodreads.
DeleteJust finished both books Mark and I definitely want to thank you for the recommendation! In today's world when do much of the fantasy published has, for lack of a better term, a copy and paste feel to it, the complete uniqueness of the world and the story really sucked me in. I hope Josiah gets more exposure as I believe his books would take off in a major way.
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