if you like Minette Walters, have you tried Ruth Rendell? Her series novels featuring Inspector Wexford would be too conventional for you, but her non-series novels are very like Walters (and probably influenced her).
Yep, but mostly in her guise as Barbara Vine. I wasn't as fond of her style as Walters, or her characters. Walters was a bit more accessible to me for some reason -- I don't know why.
*RE The Martian? Not sure if you read the book or just saw the movie? It's been a while since I read it, but my take was slightly different.
I think what I found to be outside the box in regards to the Martian was the emphasis on character as opposed to "the monster" or "the world" or some "theme" and the fact that it wasn't a horror story or post-apocalyptic/dystopia. So much of the sci-fi that I've seen or read of late seems to be a dystopia, horror, or post-apocalyptic. I'm sort of tired of the monsters and horrible alien trope.
The Martian, I thought, was a breath of fresh air, because there were no villains, no bad guys, no monsters, no damsels, it was just basically a scientist struggling to survive in a foreign place, and how do we figure out how to get him home. Using science to solve a problem. The Captain of his ship was female, the head of NASA, Indian, and it was a diverse bunch of people working together to bring him home.
I can see why the Puppies hated it. (Captain was female, head of NASA was Indian...the white guys were idiots..) It had various themes that would have turned them off, and was somewhat satirical about some of the tropes they adored. Flipping some gender roles. Mark Watney was a botanist and not a geek or tough, while the women were, and tough. Weir in short made fun of various sci-fi tropes and pop culture sacred cows in the novel.
So, no, the book wasn't really the type of book they wanted exactly. Maybe on a superficial level - ie. Man vs. his environment. But even there? No, not really. And there's a lot of books that do that trope - which admittedly is a favorite trope of mine, I've read a lot of them as a result, but not that many in sci-fi. There aren't that many in sci-fi genre. The publisher's current obsession with YA dystopian fiction and YA coming of age trilogies has just about destroyed the sci-fi genre from a what gets published perspective. (I swear if I see one more rip-off of the Hunger Games...)
BUT...The Puppies, near as I could figure, wanted their friends to win a Hugo and their values reflected and validated in the books that were nominated and won. As opposed to values/beliefs that they did not agree with. (Which to be fair, is true of most writers and fans. They were just assholes about it. And a wee bit juvenile. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever leave high school.)
no subject
Yep, but mostly in her guise as Barbara Vine. I wasn't as fond of her style as Walters, or her characters. Walters was a bit more accessible to me for some reason -- I don't know why.
*RE The Martian? Not sure if you read the book or just saw the movie? It's been a while since I read it, but my take was slightly different.
I think what I found to be outside the box in regards to the Martian was the emphasis on character as opposed to "the monster" or "the world" or some "theme" and the fact that it wasn't a horror story or post-apocalyptic/dystopia. So much of the sci-fi that I've seen or read of late seems to be a dystopia, horror, or post-apocalyptic. I'm sort of tired of the monsters and horrible alien trope.
The Martian, I thought, was a breath of fresh air, because there were no villains, no bad guys, no monsters, no damsels, it was just basically a scientist struggling to survive in a foreign place, and how do we figure out how to get him home. Using science to solve a problem. The Captain of his ship was female, the head of NASA, Indian, and it was a diverse bunch of people working together to bring him home.
I can see why the Puppies hated it. (Captain was female, head of NASA was Indian...the white guys were idiots..) It had various themes that would have turned them off, and was somewhat satirical about some of the tropes they adored. Flipping some gender roles. Mark Watney was a botanist and not a geek or tough, while the women were, and tough. Weir in short made fun of various sci-fi tropes and pop culture sacred cows in the novel.
So, no, the book wasn't really the type of book they wanted exactly. Maybe on a superficial level - ie. Man vs. his environment. But even there? No, not really. And there's a lot of books that do that trope - which admittedly is a favorite trope of mine, I've read a lot of them as a result, but not that many in sci-fi. There aren't that many in sci-fi genre. The publisher's current obsession with YA dystopian fiction and YA coming of age trilogies has just about destroyed the sci-fi genre from a what gets published perspective. (I swear if I see one more rip-off of the Hunger Games...)
BUT...The Puppies, near as I could figure, wanted their friends to win a Hugo and their values reflected and validated in the books that were nominated and won. As opposed to values/beliefs that they did not agree with. (Which to be fair, is true of most writers and fans. They were just assholes about it. And a wee bit juvenile. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever leave high school.)