#amonthoffaves: Fave New-to-Me Author Discoveries

Today I'll tell you about my Fave New-to-Me Author Discoveries of the year --

Edgar Cantero: Author of The Supernatural Enhancements, Cantero did a great job crafting an epistolary novel where all of the bits gave essential information but none of it was boring or obvious. In fact, he crafted such an amazing NO WAY!! ending that I thought about the possibilities it raised for days. Edgar is from Barcelona (like my beloved Carlos Ruiz Zafón) and I would love to read a book by him that is set there. As this is his first novel, I will be proud to say that I loved his books from the beginning!

Jonathan Carroll: I loved Jonathan Carroll's amazing ideas so much that I ended up reading two of his books in this first year of knowing him -- The Ghost in Love and The Land of Laughs. He's a favorite of Neil Gaiman's and now mine and I look forward to delving more into his back catalog over the next year or so (as I doubt I will be able to wait too long between each book). Carroll is an American living in Vienna.

William Ritter: William Ritter lives much closer to me, in the land to the south that is called Oregon on most maps. Again, Jackaby was his first novel but I hope that he continues the series with the same strong female characters and awesome supernatural details. There was an honesty to the book that you don't always find in genre fiction.

Ben H. Winters: I can't believe that I read all of Ben's Last Policeman books this year because it seems like they've been in my mind forever now. If you've talked to me at all this year about books, I've probably recommended the series to you. I was a bit wary at first because he was the author of Android Karenina and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. I technically read him before with SS&SM but I'm not really counting that because it wasn't completely his own. But, this year, he got me completely invested in a story about an impending apocalypse and about policemen, neither of which are my favorite subjects. I hope that he surprises me again with his next work. (Indiana, if you were wondering ...)

Jo Walton: This is a weird one because I have only read Jo's book of Tor essays about other books -- What Makes This Book So Great. She is, as many surely know, a well-renowned fantasy writer (living in Canada) but I haven't picked up one of her books yet. But the way she wrote about both books I loved and others I haven't yet read, made me decide that she is simply an awesome person and I like the way she thinks. I'll be reading at least one of her own books in the coming year.

I am a little surprised to see that almost all of my choices are males but am somewhat satisfied that they are dispersed so nicely over the globe.

Singing praises,

K