Telling the tale

[zagadee]

for me, my top list has to be:

'Dust', but Charles pellegrino

'Prey' and Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

'Men at Arms' and 'Nightwatch' by Terry Pratchett

'Fandom of the Operator' and 'Nostrodamus Ate My Hamster' by Robert Rankin

'Day of the Triffids' By Jon Wyndam

basically science thrillers and humourous books do it for me

[zagadee]

Oh, also the World War series by Harry Turtledove, probably the best alternative history writer out there.

[Xue Lan]

Fox and I have been following this thread with great interest. There are some very very good books here, that you as writers can learn from.
That is the pupose of this thread. It is not supposed to be a list of FAVOURITE books, it is intended to be a list of WELL WRITTEN books that can teach.

I quote andibabe to demonstrate what is intended:

"The Other Boyelyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory

She's excellent at writing seduction; and also the wavering of loyalties and the conflict it causes within a person. Very good at first person point of view; not many authors are."

Thank you.

[Curtis]

Thank you for the clarification, Xue Lan. In that case, I will recommend "Sorcery and Cecilia" by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. It was written as a series of letters back and forth between the two authors, each pretending to be a Victorian-era sorceress/debutante. There's magic (of course) and a mystery to solve, and the milieu to keep consistent. This is a technique that would be easily adaptable by modern authors collaborating on stories via the Internet.

Each one tells what happened to their character over a two or three day period, then sends the letter off to their friend to tell their next part of the story. In this particular instance, the girls are friends who have been seperated for the summer, one rusticating in the countryside while the other "comes out" in London, so there's no problem (until the end) with stepping on each other's toes or pirating each other's characters.

Most authors would probably do this instead with both characters experiencing the same things (roughly), and each telling from their own perspective how events transpired, but you could do it with the two authors playing the parts of e-mail "pen pals" who live far apart but know some of the same people.

[Finding_Fantasy]

I had completely forgotten about this well written book until I watched the movie last night. (Though, as always, the book is way better). That one is

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. It is also known as its full title The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders.

[Dododecapod]

A Canticle for Leibowitz , by Walter M. Miller jr. This gets my vote for the best Science Fiction novel ever written, and not just mine; it has been voted such by four different surveys since it's writing.

Might I also suggest anthing by Chekhov. His imagery is superb, and he isn't quite as overly verbose as many of the Russians.

[spike]

I know this is an old thread but I’m new here and so are lots of others who could probably contribute to everybody’s reading pleasure so it can usefully be revived. (Besides, I can’t sleep right now so I may as well do something useful.)

The story so far: a thread is looking for well-written books that teach about writing. Now read on:

For writing a difficult character simply and clearly:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

For huge themes and potentially confusing science fiction ideas made clear:
Diaspora by Greg Egan

For simple moral ideas we should all be reminded of expressed in an amazing landscape, and an understanding of how to develop a series:
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency By Alexander McCall Smith (and its various sequels)

Plus, here are some bad examples who aren’t necessarily bad writers, just not to be copied: Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, Olaf Stapledon, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Martin Amis.

And here is a very good book by a very good writer which also falls into the not to be copied category:
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

Don’t do that, you’ll never wake up.
Spike