From: "Raymond E. Feist"
Date: Sun, 01 Sep 1996
Let's set some groundrules to understand Feist's biases. 1) no one writing English ever did it better than Shakespear. That's why we sit in stuperfaction watching his work on stage almost FOUR HUNDRED YEARS after he wrote it. His sonnets are among the most beautiful ever written. 2) a single work can mark a master. It doesn't happen very often, but it can. Witness Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird) and Walter Miller (A Canticle for Leibowitz). 3) Most people confuse "what I like" with "what's good." So, with the above in mind: There are very few really good writers working today, in any category, not just science fiction/fantasy. There are some very popular writers who I want to slap at times because of what they do to the English language. But I don't read them to be astonished by language, I read them to be entertained. And if they pass that test, all is well. Right now the best writers in the business (IMHO) are George Alec Effinger and John M. Ford (Mike to his friends). George and Mike are writers of stunning talent. They just get distracted and don't write as often as I would like. Tim Powers has shown great gifts, but sometimes he blows it. The Last Call was brilliant, as was Anubis Gates. Dinner at Deviant's Palace was OK, and On Strager Tides and Stress of Her Regard were difficult for me to finish. Jonathan Carol can be breath-taking. Now, the writers most of you folks talk about, myself, Eddings, Jordan, Wurts, Brookes, etc. are all pretty fair country storytellers. Not one of us is, IMHO, a great writer. I think I'm about as good a storyteller as there is working today, but that's because I write what _I_ like to read (and do it better than anyone else around, IMHO ). Truth is, each of us writes what he/she likes to read, which is why we do it. And to each of us, if we're being honest, each of use is our own favorite writer. But none of us will make the mistake of telling anyone we're great. Hell, most of us are pretty unhappy with how we write, which is why we're trying to improve every time we sit down to write. Ask me what my favorite book is, and you'll always hear the same thing: the next one.
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