Stephen R. Donaldson, Roger Zelazny, & L. Frank Baum

Today, Love All Books has a lengthy post for you.

For starters, we have belated birthday wishes to authors Stephen R. Donaldson (Wikipedia) and Roger Zelazny (who share May 13^th birthdays) and some guy named L. Frank Baum (born May 15^th).

So, where've I been the last few days?

Downtime.

My JavaScript class (AKA: Internet Programming - Client Side) at Saint Paul College is finished. Stick a fork in me—I'm done!

Now I pass the time waiting for the results of my final exam and the final projects by getting caught up with all the things I've ignored around the house for the last week or so.

So, on to our birthday celebrants . . . .

Stephen R. Donaldson is the author of a magnificent series of books known as The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. How anyone could make such a disagreeable excuse for a human being into a hero is quite truly amazing.

He also wrote The Gap Cycle and Mordant's Need series.

Roger Zelazny was the Hugo Award winning (six times) and Nebula Award winning (only three times) author of too many excellent books to name, but my favorites must be the Chronicles of Amber series.

L. Frank Baum is, of course, the well-known author of fourteen Oz books and a ton of other non-Oz books.

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Barry B. Longyear

Today, Love All Books wishes the happiest of birthdays to author Barry B. Longyear (Wikipedia).

Barry B. Longyear is the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Award winning author of Enemy Mine (later made into a movie starring Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr.)

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Gene Wolfe

Today, Love All Books wishes the happiest of birthdays to science fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe.

Gene Wolfe is the Nebula, World Fantasy, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Locus award winning author of many great books.

His Soldier of the Mist has long been one of my favorite books. It is the story of Latro, a Roman mercenary that—as the result of a head injury in battle in ancient Greece—forgets everything while he's sleeping, and how he copes with awakening with amnesia each day.

(Think 50 First Dates, just set in ancient times—oh, and not so funny!)

Wolfe is also the author of the extremely popular The Book of the New Sun series.

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Larry Niven

Today, Love All Books is, once again, a day late and a dollar short celebrating a birthday, this time the birth of science fiction and fantasy golaith Larry Niven.

Larry Niven is the Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula award winning author of countless excellent books.

He is perhaps best known for Ringworld—the book that is quite possibly the jewel in the crown of his Known Space series.

In addition, he has written a number of fine books with Jerry Pournelle (I can personally—and quite strongly—recommend Inferno, Lucifer's Hammer, and Oath of Fealty) and with Steven Barnes (I greatly enjoyed Dream Park). He's also written with a number of other authors (books that I haven't gotten to yet, but I'm willing to bet they are fantastic.)

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Jack Williamson

Today, Love All Books remembers birthday of the author Wikipedia reports is considered by many the "Dean of Science Fiction": Jack Williamson.

Jack Williamson is the Hugo and Nebula award winning author of the Legion of Space Series, the Humanoids Series, the Undersea Trilogy, the Starchild Trilogy (with Frederik Pohl), and many other books.

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Ann Maxwell & Robert Bloch

Today, Love All Books wishes the happiest of birthdays to authors Ann Maxwell (AKA A.E. Maxwell and Elizabeth Lowell) and Robert Bloch.

RITA Award winning author Ann Maxwell began her career writing science fiction and has been nominated for the Nebula Award seven times (once coming within one vote of being a finalist).

Hugo Award, Bram Stoker Award, and World Fantasy Award winning author Robert Bloch is perhaps best known for his 1959 novel Psycho.

Didn't some guy named Hitchcock turned into a movie <sarcasm>that almost no-one has heard of</sarcasm>.

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Joan Vinge, Hans Christian Andersen, & International Children's Book Day

Today, Love All Books celebrates the birthdays of Hugo Award winning (and Nebula and John W. Campbell Award nominated) science fiction author Joan Vinge and popular fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen (HCA).

Joan Vinge's books are very good reading, and should be considered "highly recommended" if you like SF.

Her novel The Snow Queen is particularly good and—in light of today's other birthday—it is (to me, at least) particularly interesting: it is based on the HCA fairy tale of the same name!

(It isn't the only HCA story she's adapted, either; her short story "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is also by a story of his of the same name. One has to wonder if she knows they share a birthday!)

Another interesting bit about HCA's birthday: it is the day that International Children's Book Day is celebrated!

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Samuel R. Delany & Anne McCaffrey

Today, Love All Books wishes a very happy birthday to a couple of greats among the science fiction field: Samuel R. Delany and Anne McCaffrey.

Samuel R. Delany is the Hugo and Nebula award winning author of Babel-17, The Einstein Intersection, and Driftglass, all of which have graced my bookshelves for many a year.

Anne McCaffrey is likewise a Hugo and Nebula award winning author, perhaps best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series, or maybe her The Ship series, or maybe The Crystal Singer series, or perhaps—oh, nevermind, you get the idea!

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Pamela Sargent

Today's birthday wishes go out to Nebula Award winning science fiction author, Pamela Sargent.

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William Gibson

Today's birthday greetings go out to one of the originals of the "cyberpunk" subgenre of science fiction: William Gibson.

I think that the first two-thirds of his Sprawl Trilogy—which is, sadly, all I have read so far—was some of the most exciting and talked about science fiction that was happening in the mid-eighties.

It is a no-brainer why the first novel in the series (Neuromancer) is the first novel to win the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Philip K. Dick Award.

Given the caliber of his work, I really should be reading more of it, and promise that by the end of the year you'll be seeing reviews of his books here.

I mean, hey, how can you not like a guy quoted as saying something as witty as "The future is already here. It's just not widely distributed yet"?

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Happy Birthday, Harry Harrison

Today's birthday wishes go out to a truly outstanding science fiction author: Harry Harrison.

Harry Harrison is the voice behind a number of noteworthy series (such as the Deathworld trilogy, the Stainless Steel Rat series, the Eden series, and so on).

He also won the 1973 Nebula Award for Best Script for the movie Soylent Green (which was based on his 1966 novella of social commentary, Make Room! Make Room!).

If for no other reason, Soylent Green should be part of everyone's cultural education for its memorable (and often satirized) last line!

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Elizabeth Moon & Paul Preuss

Today's "Happy Birthdays" go out to Elizabeth Moon & Paul Preuss.

Elizabeth Moon is the 2004 Nebula Award winner for Best Novel—as well as being nominated for the 2003 Arthur C. Clarke Award in that same category—for The Speed of Dark.

She also was nominated in 1997 for the Hugo Award in the Best Novel category for Remnant Population and the 2005 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Marque and Reprisal.

Paul Preuss was nominated for the 1998 John W. Campbell Memorial Award in the Best Novel category for Secret Passages.

If you've been following along in this blog lately, you would—correctly—guess I haven't read any of the above books.

I have read some of Elizabeth Moon's books, though so long ago that I couldn't tell you which, and none of Paul Preuss' to my knowledge.

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