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A few of my favourite authors and books:
John Wyndham. I read and re-read most of his books
when I was about 12-13: Midwich Cuckoos, The Kraken
Wakes, and others. I recently re-read the brilliant The
Day of the Triffids and, although it's a little dated
(it was first published in 1951) it's still a cracking good
read.
John Christopher. This man inspired me to become a
writer. I loved his Tripods trilogy when I read it,
around the time I was reading Wyndham. Aliens controlling
the human population by 'capping' them as teenagers ... a
group of children on the run from this ... exciting, scary
stuff!
Ursula Le Guin. It's her adult fiction that particularly
strikes me these days, but she's also one of the great writers
of teen fantasies, with her Earthsea books established as
classics. In my mid-teens I read, and was gobsmacked by, The
Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness.
The web series. A dozen short science-fiction novels
for teenagers, written by some of the leading writers in the
newer generation of adult SF authors, including Eric Brown,
Stephen Baxter and Pat Cadigan. I
reviewed them for infinity plus: there are one or two
weaker books here, but it's a fine series.
Julia Green. A new author discovered by my own publishers,
Puffin. In 2003 I read an advance copy of her first novel,
Blue Moon. It's the story of how fifteen year-old Mia
deals with the fact that she's pregnant. It could easily have
been dull and worthy but instead is a wonderfully wise and
insightful tale. It was published in April 2003 and I'm really
looking forward to the sequel.
Who are your favourite authors? If you mail me the
details I'll add some of them here. My e-mail address is nick@nickgifford.co.uk
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