The Sword and Laser discussion

Some authors have had long, brilliant careers in SF and Fantasy (Asimov, Le Guin, Cherryh, Gibson, Gaiman to name only a few)

Others made a big splash with a book or series and then seemed to disappear from our radar screens. Who are your “Whatever happened to…?” authors?

For me one would be Paolo Bacigalupi who wrote the incredible “The Windup Girl” in 2009, set in a dystopian world destroyed by bioengineering and corporate greed (think Monsanto) and a completely new tale that I also like called “The Water Knife,” in 2013. Followed by a co-written fantasy novel “Tangled Lands” that, for me, completely missed the mark. And then…

A quick look on twitter shows he is politically active - which overall might be a better thing than writing another novel given how messed up the world is right now - but I do want ever-so-badly to see what he will do next. Maybe 4 years since Tangled Lands isn’t that long of a time but the fact that it was co-written - and based on the outcome not his best work - worries me that his focus has shifted.

Note: this isn’t a “George RR Martin isn’t your bitch” post. I’m interested in things you want to see, not things you think the author owes you.

For me it's J. V. Jones.

Her first trilogy, The Baker's Boy, A Man Betrayed, Master and Fool is a typical secondary world fantasy. In this case the titular baker's boy must learn to master his magic powers to defeat the evil prince.

But it's her follow up series (A Cavern of Black Ice, A Fortress of Grey Ice, A Sword from Red Ice, and Watcher of the Dead) that I really enjoyed. The author really stepped up her writing game. This series has a more complex plot and interesting characters. There is supposed to be one more book in the series.

Watcher came out in 2010. I'd love to know when the next book is coming.

I met her at a book signing for Cavern years ago and she was really cool.

Raphael Carter, who wrote the brilliant The Fortunate Fall.

I really liked the two steampunk airship combat books by Robyn Bennis. The last post on her author page says something about sales will determine if more books will come out - and it looks like the sales weren't there. So that's a bummer.

Seth wrote: "I really liked the two steampunk airship combat books by Robyn Bennis. The last post on her author page says something about sales will determine if more books will come out - and..."

I really enjoyed these too. Shame the sales were poor.

Not sure if you were aware, JV Jones has a Patreon. She alludes to going through some difficult times but is working on her next book again after a long absence. https://www.patreon.com/jvjones

Oaken wrote: "Not sure if you were aware, JV Jones has a Patreon. She alludes to going through some difficult times but is working on her next book again after a long absence. https://www.patreon.com/jvjones"

Thanks for letting me know. It's good to know she's writing again.

There was a manga series I picked up called Alichino. Now, I’ll be honest, I didn’t love the story, but the art was gorgeous so I wanted to keep reading anyway and it would have been nice to see how things progressed.

Sadly, the author/artist broke her hand and that put a halt to the whole series. I wonder about her sometimes, and hope she recovered and has been making beautiful art again, even if only for herself.