hard sf
fantasy
historical fiction
detective fiction
non-fiction
verse
Anything else?
Also some combinations:
historical sf (time travellers, immortals)
historical fantasy
historical fiction with a fantasy element
a murder investigation in an sf novel
But I think we can say that:
he wrote mostly sf;
he is known mostly for his sf, secondly for his fantasy;
fans will read anything by an author, irrespective of genre.
Thus, he does introduce sf readers, e.g., to historical fiction even if they never read any more of it.
There are readers, sf readers and sf fans. I have been told that sf fans do not necessarily read sf! The theory is that sf brought like-minded people together. They socialize at Cons and would like to hear or meet Poul Anderson (while he was alive, of course) without necessarily reading his works.
Sf readers might read nothing but sf! I veered in this direction earlier in life but never went all the way. I read CS Lewis' fiction, then everything else by Lewis. I read all of Aldous Huxley's fiction and non-fiction although only two, or at most three, of his novels are sf.
Poul Anderson's sf raises every issue. Recently on this blog, we discussed economic competition and monopolization in relation to Anderson's Technic History. We would not have been able to do that in relation to Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy.
We appreciate the realization of fictional places - future cities, other planets - in Anderson's works and also the realization of real places in some contemporary novels, e.g., Stockholm in the early twenty-first century in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and the English county of Suffolk in the summer of 1976 in Barbara Vine's A Fatal Inversion. Both recommended.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I used to be something of a fan of the books of Taylor Caldwell, who wrote many historical novels touching on religious themes. But I gradually became dissatisfied with her stories, the last straw being DEAR AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN, focusing on St. Luke. I could not buy her depiction of a tall, blond, blue-eyed Luke. A Greek speaking Levantine is far more likely to be short/average in height, black haired and olive complexioned, with brown eyes, etc.
Some of Caldwell's books are worth reading, such as THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, and WICKED ANGEL.
Hope this uploads.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, yes, that's more -likely-. On the other hand, there are blond, blue-eyed Lebanese. They're a small minority -- less than 10%, IIRC -- but they're there. For that matter, there are blond, blue-eyed Palestinian Arabs -- I've seen them myself.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Granted, of course there will be exceptions like these to "general rules." But it's still so much more likely the real St. Luke was not tall, bond, and blue eyed.
Hope this uploads.
Ad astra! Sean
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