In on the ground floor...

[Kell]

(Pinched from Booking Through Thursday blog)

 

There’s something wonderful about getting in on the ground floor of an author’s career–about being one of the first people to read and admire them, before they became famous best-sellers.

 

Which authors have you been lucky enough to discover at the very beginning of their careers?

 

And, if you’ve never had that chance, which author do you WISH you’d been able to discover at the very beginning?

[Kell]

There are three authors who spring to mind here:

Kelley Armstrong is the author of the awesome Women of the Otherworld series, which began in 2001 with Bitten, and I got in on the ground floor, reading it the year it was published. I was blown away. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it to be the first in a series (and I’m pretty sure I’ve read somewhere that Kelley has said that it was originally going to be a stand-alone novel, but it was received so well that she was asked if she would consider writing a sequel). I recommend her all the time and I’ve yet to hear anyone who has taken my recommendation give anything other than a glowing report when they’re done!

 

And she doesn’t just write supernatural/paranormal fiction either – there are the wonderful Nadia Stafford series, focussing on an ex-cop-turned-hit-woman. On top of that, Armstrong has taken care of young adult audiences with the Darkest Power series.

 

One thing all Armstrong’s books have in common is the empowerment of women – all her females are feisty, or at least have a bit of bite to them. No wimpish damsels in distress on her pages!

Simon Scarrow‘s first Roman Legion novel was published in 2000 and I managed to pick up a copy very cheaply. I was hooked from the start and found myself eagerly awaiting sequels. I’ve collected them all as they’ve been published and cannot get enough of Cato and Macro.

 

The novels are incredibly well researched and the writing is gritty and real.I’ve been on campaign with the Roman legions for ten years now and I cannot see a time in the future when I will not want to be!

 

I also have the Revolution series (set during the Napoleonic war), but I haven’t read them yet. I plan to rectify that very soon!

 

Stuart MacBride is the third author I caught at the beginning. MacBride burst onto the crime fiction scene in 2005 with Cold Granite and has terrorized the city of Aberdeen* with macabre murders ever since. Each novel has been even better than the last, and seeing as how Cold Granite is absolutely bloody brilliant, that should give you a great example of just how fantastic the other books are!

 

The Logan McRae books are doubly wonderful to me, as I live in Aberdeen and recognise all the locations, but anyone not familiar with the Granite City will love them too (my Grom adores the books, grisly and gruesome as they can be, despite not being too familiar with the city itself).

 

Not content with nailing the Aberdonian crime underworld, MacBride has also written a novella set in America (Sawbones) and grappled with a near-future Glasgow in the sci-fi-crime thriller Halfhead (under the name Stuart B MacBride). Both are brilliant.

 

Now that I’ve told you all about these fabulous authors, I fully expect to be inundated with comments filled with heartfelt gratitude for turning people onto them. Go on – get thee to thy nearest book repository and read thy fill!

 

 

 

* It’s worth mentioning that I’ve met Mr MacBride several times now and he strikes me as a very nice man. He even came along to our book group when we were discussing one of his books and joined in all the chatter while happily signing our copies.

[catwoman]

I was able to read Karin Slaughter's books right from the beginning and got her first book, Blingsighted when it first came out. Ever since then I have been hooked.

 

As for Authors that I waas slow on the uptake. I would have liked to have read the Twilight series before the franchise. Also Simon Scarrow would be another author. My friend recommended them and I have only just started to read them, I find them fantastic.

Edited February 10, 2011 by catwoman

[Karsa Orlong]

I was in pretty much at the start with Peter F Hamilton (from A Quantum Murder) and David Eddings (from Pawn of Prophecy). I wish I'd discovered Jo Nesbo, C J Sansom, Steven Erikson and probably lots of others sooner but, in a way, I prefer discovering authors when they've been around for a while - then you don't have to wait around before being able to read the next book in a series. I remember the waits between the last couple of books in The Belgariad being agonising, and they weren't even that long

Edited February 10, 2011 by Karsa Orlong

[Chrissy]

Angie Sage's Septimus Heap series. I caught sight of this chunky little hardback book while on holiday, and that was it!

 

5 books later and I still love the covers, and am still enjoying the clever and original adventures told within.

 

.

[pickle]

David Eddings was probably the one I remember most from childhood waiting desperately for the next one to be published and deciding if I had enough money to get it in hardback although I was pretty early with Stephen Donaldson as well certainly by the second Chronicles the others being published a little early for me in the late 70's when I was far too young to be reading them.

 

I remember reading the Kelley Armstrong and Charlaine Harris from before they were even considered for Tv production as well as the Laurrell K Hamilton after the first one waiting for the next few to be published, hence a lot of my books have the early covers rather than the later now we are popular ones which I hate when it happens.

[Ruth]

Mark Billingham - author of the Tom Thorne detective novels,

[Janet]

I read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997 after it won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and was reviewed on Blue Peter.

[Ruth]

Mark Billingham - author of the Tom Thorne detective novels,

 

Sorry to quote myself, but I remembered that I also wanted to add Charlaine Harris as well - author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, which of course have now been adapted into the True Blood series.

 

With both Billingham and Harris, I thought their debut novels were easily their best.