Syntax of Things has a very interesting list of underrated writers which includes two of my favorites, Scarlett Thomas and Caitlin Kiernan. I just received Kiernan's upcoming book, Daughter of Hounds and I've been trying to resist the pull to read it as I finish up a boatload of reviewing and get all my January Bookslut stuff before this weekend's chaos hits. (Wonderful chaose, but chaos all the same.) I am puzzled why Kiernan and Thomas would continue to get only moderate readership when so many others (Pessl, Pessl, Pessl) get lauded as the greatest thing since sliced bread. I'm not saying one author is better than the other - but exactly that one is not better. So who decides that the PR blitz should be on one specific writer and why does it have to be so ungodly uneven?

This sort of thing drives me nuts. (original link from Jenny D. btw.)

One very cool thing about the Syntax list is that it was culled from 20 different lit bloggers thus giving readers not only authors they would like to find out more about but also blogs they should visit. So many good literary things going on over there.

One thing that bugged me abou the list (and only a little) is that YA authors were not present. I didn't see how the authors had to be for adults only (but I might have missed that or it was always the intent), but I don't see any reason why adult authors are the only ones who fall victim to this sort of overlooking. I commented about two YA authors in particular - Canadian William Bell and Britain's Catherine Fisher. Both The Blue Helmet and Corbenic were two of my favorite books this year - for any age group - and I don't know why so few people know about them. Bell has had trouble finding an American publishers of all things (why why why?) and Fisher's book is such an outstanding piece of fantastic fiction that it defies all reason that Endymion Spring should be so popular when she is bringing something so well written and new to the table. (Imagine a protagonist who refuses the big challenge - and then has to learn to live with his decision.)

Anyway, I've been thinking about my favorite underrated writers from this year and here's what I think (beyond Bell and Fisher):

Poppy Z. Brite who seems popular but really isn't. She is doing a wonderful and surprising thing with her Liquor series of books and while the critics do appreciate her work not enough readers know she is out there. Right now you should shoot over to the Sub Press site and get your hands on her new novella D*U*CK - order by the 22nd and you get a free chapbook as well. She does not do just "foodie fiction" but great relationship and geograpy fiction as well. Go see my joint review of Soul Kitchen and D*U*C*K and you will see what I mean.

Tim Pratt did a very interesting thing with The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by crafting an urban fantasy that is firmly entrenched in wild western mythology. It's modern to the core, but has a cowpunk aesthetic that blended both humor and gore in a way that made me compulsively read each page. He's onto something very new here and needs to be noticed.

Of course if I'm going to point out Pratt then the world should be buying Cory Doctorow. I'm telling you, there is no way a book about a man who is the son of a mountain and washing machine should work but it does - it is amazing. Go see my Bookslut review and then get yourself to a bookstore.

Delia Falconer's Lost Thoughts of Soldiers was a slim meditation on Custer's Last Stand that was so oddly beautiful that I could not stop thinking about it for weeks afterwards. I've read a lot of war fiction but this was one of the few that really put me into the minds of a particular group of soldiers in a certain place and time. I don't know how Falconer did what she did, but it's gorgeous and should be much more well known.

Beyond that, there are an entire host of authors at Subterranean Press that I find irresistible. More on that press and why I adore it later.

Finally, do we understand the seriousness of even casually reporting that the US Army might bust a strike? Remember Sec. of War Baker:

"It should be borne in mind that our Regular or permanent Army is designed to resist and overcome enemies of our government and is provided for strictly federal use. . . . The protection of private property, rights, and liberties, and lives of the inhabitants of any state is primarily the duty of the individual concerned. . . . Use of federal troops for this class of duty has heretofore always been the last resort. . . . Our Constitution contemplates such force only when all other forces of a locality or state have been exhausted . . . or insufficient to meet the emergency." (via)

Talking about busting a strike to support a war that the American people do not want. However did we get here?