Audience participation

[lightreads]

Okay, you guys were so great last time, let’s try this again. Any opinions on where one ought to start with these guys? Cautionary tales?

• Iain M. Banks’s Culture series: I understand they’re mostly standalones and that the first book by pub order is not great, so where do I start?
• Charles de Lint: *gestures helplessly* that is a pile of books.
• Andre Norton: ditto
• Gene Wolfe

Also, if anyone can rec a relatively sane biography of Anne Boleyn, I’d be most grateful. For values of “relatively sane” meaning with at least a pretense at considering evidence before speculating.

Comments

[cyphomandra]

Gene Wolfe - I really like the duology The Knight and The Wizard, but I'd rec them with the caveat that I can also imagine people bouncing right off them. And I have been intrigued by The Shadow of the Torturer (first of the New Sun series) every time I read it (three or four times, now?), and every time something else gets in the way before I read the rest.

Andre Norton - where to start? Avoid very early (Ralestone Luck has deeply problematic slave owners as sympathetic ancestors), and late works that say "co-written with". I have never gotten into the Witch World books. I love her sf - The Zero Stone, Judgment on Janus, Crosstime Agent, the Solar Queen series, her children's Magic books, and her achieved goal of publishing at least one book titled appropriately for every letter of the alphabet.