(no subject)

[d_aulnoy]

Re-reading J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century the other day, I was struck by Tom Shippey's qualifications for making the claim for Tolkien's status: democratic, generic, and qualitative.  Now, I don't really have the capacity to take a poll ... and while I enjoy making claims about genre both casually and professionally, I'm going to be talking about an author whose work is prolific enough and broad-ranging enough that it would take a good long time.  So I'm going to stick to qualitative, and I'm going to add in another, potentially frivolous qualification: quantitative.

Tanith Lee, people.

time_shark  posted a link to a review of Clockwork Phoenix, which happens to contain a story by Tanith Lee.  The review is worth reading in and of itself (and might encourage y'all to purchase Clockwork Phoenix), but what amused me was how quickly the bulk of the comments devolved into, "Ooooooooo, and you have to read this one!"  And by "amused," I mean, "tempted me to post in the journal of a complete stranger."  Because, good lord, that woman has covered a lot of ground! 

Of all of her work, unsurprisingly, it is her collection of retold fairy tales that I love the most, but it's by a narrow margin: I also adore her Flat Earth series, I've reread The Silver Metal Lover a frightening number of times (most particularly when I move and need to redecorate, just for the glorifying-subsistence-level-housing-on-a-budget tips), I get ridiculously involved with the slow maturation of the characters in Don't Bite the Sun, I keep arguing with myself about which version of Revolutionary France takes precedence in my head, hers or Delia Sherman's ... on and on and on.  And these are just three series out of ... good lord, I can't even begin to count.  Check out her annotated bibliography for a taste. 

The bottom line is, while there are other authors out there who speak to me with their work, not many of them have an even dozen series out.  I'm not positive here, but she may be topping Mercedes Lackey.  Hell, she may be topping Stephen King - and that's just in terms of page count.  In terms of consistently appealling to my own aesthetic tastes ... no argument.  When I visit a bookshop, I veer to the "L" section automatically on the off-chance that there may be a new Lee (it is a bonus that this puts me right next to the "M" section for McKillip, who is right next to Ms. Lee in terms of delighting me regularly, and not far behind her in terms of delightfully steady consistent publication). 

So, question: who are the authors whom you depend upon?  Not just the ones that you love, though feel free to toss those out, too: I mean the ones who delight you, like clockwork, on a regular basis, the ones who casual strangers would be safe in assuming as your favorite authors, just by dint of number-of-works-owned by you.  Inquiring minds want to know!

Comments

[dhole.livejournal.com]

Zelazny. Unfortunately, he doesn't really do that any more. But when I hadn't yet read everything he had written, a new to me Zelazny was always the story I saved for last, in the anthology or stack of books, because I knew that I'd love it.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Diana Wynne Jones
Tamora Pierce
Garth Nix
Lois McMaster Bujold
McKillip

Though if we're talking about who was the 'author of the century' last century, I'd probably make an argument for Azimov, but, obviously, there aren't any new ones. (Though there are plenty of 'old' ones I haven't read, yet.)

[jplangan.livejournal.com]

Somewhat to my surprise after all this time, Stephen King, with Peter Straub not that far behind. Based on number of works owned, Lucius Shepard's probably a good bet, too.

[heathencorp.livejournal.com]

if you look at my shelves, you'd guess anne mccaffrey, but that's more because i devoured them all as a kid and kept them out of loyalty.

i don't know. i haven't found that many series to feed myself with... i'm itching for the next song of ice and fire, and i've been downing the dresden books like candy... and i read anthologies like they're going out of style.

~;)