TnT Top Ten: Escapist Fiction Authors (Trees And Things)

skeeter1: Re: TnT Top Ten: Escapist Fiction Authors

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:18:44 EST

I'm not a big novel reader. For the most part, I like magazines (I used to be an editor at a rather prominent computer magazine) and this internet thingy.

Way back, though, I remember reading Frank Herbert's Lindsey Davis. Fun to read and apparently very well researched.

uncarved block: James Was An Odd Duck

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:30:54 EST

Yeah, when you think about Henry James' books, the whole veneer of his language contrasts wildly with the action and plots. Turn Of The Screw still has students shaking their heads in bewilderment-- at least those who paid attention. An

postillion: Re: Defining Romance

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:23:33 EST

My guess is that it involves a different balance in the battle of the sexes side of the characters. In the "typical" Romance, the woman has most (all?) of the power (in the relationship, not in the world at large), and the plot is a long unwinding of th

Lou: Marzipan for the brainpan

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:46:07 EST
I find Clive Cussler the best for my light/escapist reading. I especially reading his books at bed time. Since I pretty much know what's going to happen I don't feel compel

uncarved block: Defining Romance

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:04:50 EST
even if it doesn't have a cover of a long haired man with a blouse on
Actually the industry standard, from what I shelve, is rapidly splitting between no shirt at all (indeed, some covers are merely a close up of a naked male torso)

postillion: Re: We live in meifumado

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:03:44 EST
Will no one admit to reading romance novels?
I was reading the wikipedia entry on genre fiction which points out that all fiction can fit into a genre.
So, my bet is that

3fingerspointback: We live in meifumado

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:00:21 EST
Escapist to me means it makes me daydream what it would be like if I was there. So these must be my favorite escapist authors.
Anything written by Kazuo Koike and set before 1800. Lady Snowblood lost me in the very first volume when she

keta: Re: All Fiction is Escape

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:54:27 EST
Well said.

skeptic: Re: All Fiction is Escape

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:15:59 EST
Fiction is many things, escape being one of them. But people also read fiction to learn about the real world. Fiction can be described as a form of synthetic experience. No one has the opportunity to experience all the experiences which m

thefadd: Re: All Fiction is Escape

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:34:31 EST
I suppose I was taking escapism as part of an enrichment-bubble gum entertainment dichotomy which isn't necessarily how everyone intends it.

keta: Re: All Fiction is Escape

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:57:35 EST
I guess what I mean is that whenever I dive into a work of fiction, I'm escaping from the reality around me, and entering a world created by imagination. I don't necessarily need to be leaving an unhappy reality - as a matter of fact I generally get

thefadd: Re: All Fiction is Escape

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:19:50 EST
I suppose it is all a matter of semantics but I wonder to what degree you mean "escapism" when you call them an escape. This is less a direct reply to you and more a consideration of the subject. Personally, I hesitate to call something an escape unless it

keta: All Fiction is Escape

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:41:38 EST
I find reading fiction - any fiction - to be a form of escape, but the only two "genre" writers I've thoroughly enjoyed are Patrick O'Brian (his Aubrey/Maturin series) and George McDonald Fraser (his Flashman series.) So slot me under, "historical fi

postillion: Re: Just One Book

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:17:56 EST
After all, it is the generation that gave us the greatest war poet.

uncarved block: Just One Book

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:24:58 EST
I think it was just the first Psmith book, though I find I have misremembered my cite, Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory. Wodehouse had been serialized in The Strand (The Prince And Betty, checking Wikipedia) before

Steve Urkel: Re: The Pulps

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:15:49 EST
Is that true about "the trenches"? I didn't think Wodehouse was that well known until after WWI.
Funny you should mention Burroughs, who I considered throwing in, but didn't because I haven't read anything by him since I was a kid. Then, at least, I th

thefadd: Re: The Pulps

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:39:02 EST
The only thing I know of Gor is the massive role play following it has in Second Life. While the service offers much more, for those involved in Gor it functions

uncarved block: The Pulps

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:24:39 EST
Bertonneau could have saved a lot of ink by remembering one of Samuel Johnson's best short observations-- "a writer is judged by his worst works while alive, and by his best works once dead." If the pulps have waited this long for critical rec

Lou: Ankh-Morpork! City of One Thousand Surprises

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:43:00 EST
Terry Pratchett is without a doubt my favorite author ever. I'm almost embarrassed by how much I like his work...I'm afraid I'll be seen as a 46 year old fanboy. I own nearly everything he has ever written. I also own three of his books

Steve Urkel: Tinkerty-tonk

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:31:00 EST
If you want escape, try the comedy of the incomparable P.G. Wodehouse. As Waugh put it, ""Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale."
I stumbled across this essay

skeptic: Re: Fantasy & Sci-Fi...

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:15:35 EST
Your comment shows what I would consider to be very good taste in fiction. My own choices in reading matter are highly similar to yours. It is also interesting how Tolkien didn't want to be considered a genre author. The late Kurt Vonnegu

port1080: Fantasy & Sci-Fi...

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:50:15 EST
...have always been my genres of choice. Horror and mystery just don't do it for me, for some reason (my mother is all about the crime solving nuns, though). A few of my favorites, in no particular order: