Ok, I have to face it. My Big Three fave writers are gone. Zelazny is long dead. Banks just died. Tim Powers is still around but he ain’t writing so good any more. I need fresh blood.
I’m also a big fan of Vernor Vinge but he doesn’t write so often. I lurved me some Neal Stephenson but he hasn’t written anything I’ve liked since “The Diamond Age.” I think John Crowley’s “Little, Big” is the best fantasy novel ever written, by a huge margin, but I don’t really like anything ELSE Crowley has written.
I’ve tried other writers, with indifferent success. I tried Ken McLeod’s "The Cassini Division. Meh. I tried Jack McDevitt but I got tired of the flamy space thingies raining on everyone’s parade. I tried Greg Bear, Greg Egan, Peter Hamilton and others. Meh, meh, meh. They may be topnotch writers, but I didn’t like their stuff.
I guess my SF tastes turn to well-written galactic space operas featuring far-flung interstellar civilizations, lots of alien races, advanced tech, with interesting and well throught out approaches to that tech, with an optimistic viewpoint about the future of the human race, which probably explains why Banks’ Culture novels are at the top of my list.
In terms of fantasy, I’ve tried Emma Bull, Robert Holdstock, Charles de Lint, Jim Butcher and others, none of whom were all that appealing to me. I like fantasists who create new takes on traditional mythical themes that are so original that they completely redefine those themes. At least, that’s what I think Zelazny, Tim Powers and John Crowley have in common.
So, given my tastes, what do you think I might like?