British Authors I Need to Read?

My mother is heading to England in a few days and wants to know if there are any books she can bring back that aren't available in the U.S.  (Have I mentioned how cool my mother is?)  My mind has, of course, now gone completely blank on the entire category of U.K. authors.

Can anyone remind me of any books I really ought to be reading that aren't out in the U.S. or still in hardcover in the U.S. but in paperback in the U.K?  Any authors to recommend?  Genre fiction (F&SF, mystery, historical mystery, thriller) preferred, but I'm fairly eclectic in my tastes. 

Please don't recommend stuff that's already out in the U.S.; my mother is not going to haul books home from England if she can order them from Amazon or get them at the local bookstore.

Answers which arrive after Wednesday will not be useful for this particular trip, though I'll still be interested to hear them and will file them for future use.

Comments

[Keira]

I've enjoyed what works of Robert Rankin I've found, but there are only two books of his that I've ever been able to find in the US, so I don't really have specific book recommendations. His books are kind of mix of sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and just plain odd. And there are quality titles like "The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse" (one of the books that I've been able to find over here.)

[Serge]

Considering your interest in steampunk, you might ask her to look for a copy of Christopher Priest's The Space Machine. It first came out in 1976 and hasn't been reprinted since 1999, but she might still be found in used-book stores. What is it about? For some reason, I've never read it, but it sounds interesting: a late-19th-century inventor builds a time machine, tries it out with his girlfriend, but they accidentally travel not in time but in space, and arrive on Mars just before the locals are about to take off to invade Earth.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Heh. She might make money by carrying Jo's books over there!

Robert Rankin is from the UK, huh? I've been wondering if he was related to the Robert Rankin who played trumpet in band when I was in high school, but I guess not.

[Neil Willcox]

When Robert Rankin is on form, I've found him very funny, with interesting and cutting views. When he isn't I'm left cold.

I'm afraid I've been doing the opposite; I've been in Forbidden planet in London buying American books twice in the last two months so I'm not sure what's new... I've picked up in paperback (but not read) Fallowblade, the fourth and last in Ceclia Dart-Thornton's Crowthistle chronicles. In this, and her previous trilogy she stitches together a story from all kinds of folk tales, fairy tales, and other stuff. It's very leisurely, as there's a tendency for people to stop and tell each other tales, and you can often see the seams where she's put stuff together. her website suggests it's not out in the US.

I'll take a look at the what I read recently pile later.

[Kip W]

Jo's books were about the first thing I thought of, Marilee. The times we've gone over there, I've found things to bring home, but never in an organized way. I do regret not snapping up some of the comic annuals in the used-book store in Tewkesbury. They had quite a pile, going back a long way. Six or eight of the best would have been quite a haul.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Susan, you may not know, but Jo Walton isn't published in the UK. She's published in half the European countries now, but not the UK. So if your mother feels like carrying books over to, say, Forbidden Planet in London, she might make a little money. She should check with them first, of course.

[Serge]

Doesn't Walton live in Montreal, by the way?

[Susan de Guardiola]

Why on earth is Jo not published in the UK? That's bizarre. I don't think my mother wants to take up book-smuggling, even if I had a pile of Jo's books around to send with her. The offer was more along the lines of being willing to go to a (particular) really good bookstore and pick me up stuff if there was stuff I wanted.

I thought of an author: Iain Banks. But the two books of his I've read both contained scenes of Major Squick, so even though he comes highly recommended I'm not sure I want to read more if he does that kind of thing in every book.

The Crowthistle stuff also sounds interesting, and I will look into it.

And yes, Jo is in Montreal now.

[Neil Willcox]

Iain Banks or Iain M Banks? If it's the science fiction (with an "M") version then most of them have some squick-scenes. Generally the earlier he wrote it, the squickier for me, although he came back on form for that stuff in The Algebraist. In mainstream mode (without an "M") he seems to have less of it recently. I can't think of anything in Whit or The Business - there's something unpleasant at the end of The Steep Approach To Garbadale but it's off page, some time in the past, and fairly seriously spoils the book so I won't go into it.

The only other thing that comes to mind is Alan Mallinson's Mathew Hervey series - it's historical fiction in the early 19th century about a cavalry officer. Mallinson seems pretty on the ball about the era's politics and society, as well as knowing how to run a cavalry regiment; how he handles dancing I don't know. As far as I can tell it's not published in the US.

Self-correction: Dart-Thornton is actually an Australian.

(Re-reading before hitting post, I can't help wondering who Major Squick is. Almsot certainly he's had to leave the King's Service and join the East India Company for doing something-nobody-will-talk-about-and-will-only-hint-at-in-whispers)

[Marilee J. Layman]

I've read Banks here in the US, from the library, so it has to be published here.

We don't know why Jo isn't published in the UK. It's just weird. It's true that all of her books so far take alternate looks at the UK, but books that take alternate looks at the US sell well here.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Iain Banks and Iain M. Banks. Canal Dreams (brutal rape) and Use of Weapons (furniture, she says with deliberate vagueness). That was enough of a sample that I stopped reading him after those two. I especially do not like squicky things near the end of books, since that then becomes my strongest memory of the story.

The Dart-Thornton stuff appears to be available in the U.S. from Tor. The Mallinson, not so much, and that sounds right up my alley. I shall send my mother after the first one. She'll love that; she spent several years carefully tracking down matched editions of every single Patrick O'Brian book for me. Thanks for both recommendations!

I look forward to reading The Secret Diaries of Major Squick!

[Serge]

Susan.. furniture, she says with deliberate vagueness

I probably don't want to know.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Serge: you may or may not want to know, but people who don't want to be spoiled really don't want to know. I am therefore vague.

Marilee: It just seems odd. She's a successful, much-lauded author. You'd think some UK publisher would have picked her up.

[Serge]

Oh, you can tell me, Susan - thru email if you want.

Banks has been highly recommended to me by a friend, which is why I have The Player of Games on a bookshelf. I didn't ask about any squick in that one though. Then again we don't all go squick about the same things although there are things that will squick most of us.

I may find that Banks's voice may not resonate with me, great as others may consider him to be. That's why I don't seek out Kim Stanley Robinson and Alastair Reynolds.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Susan, Jo has repeatedly sent books to UK publishers only to have them rejected. Fortunately, her fans can buy from either Amazon with very little wait.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Marilee:
Verrrry strange. Their loss.

[Allison]

'way too late (I haven't caught up on my blog reading for over a month) but Charles Stross, "The Jennifer Morgue" is out in paper in the UK but not in the USA until 2009. Of course, you'd have to like "The Atrocity Archive" to go for its sequel...

[Serge]

Allison... In case you're interested, Stross had a short story posted at Tor.com, where we find that 'Bob Howard' isn't really his name because it's not prudent to have others know your True Name. I enjoyed The Atrocity Archive, but I'm still waiting for The Jennifer Morgue to be released in the USA in paperback or at least in trade. (Besides, it's not as if I'm likely to run out of books to read, and I blame our Rixosous Hostess for that, what with the numerous but excellent title suggestions she has made.)

[Marilee J. Layman]

I got The Atrocity Archive and The Jennifer Morgue a while back in omnibus from SFBC. Nyah Nyah!

[Serge]

Marilee... Is this the part where you and I launch into a Three Stooges routine, with eye-poking and all? Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!

[Susan de Guardiola]

Allison:
Too late for my mom to fetch it for me this trip, but I did like Atrocity Archive and fully expect to get Jennifer Morgue in good time. Stross has firmly hooked me on the series by promising that one of the future books in the series will be a Modesty Blaise pastiche.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Serge, that would be impossible because I've never watched the Three Stooges more than a minute or so. Like a lot of that kind of cultural knowledge, I get it from other people. I was just poking at you that I got both at the same time and for a lot less.

[Susan de Guardiola]

My mother has reported cryptically that she did buy a book for me (which makes it either a Mallinson or the new Cora Harrison) but will not tell me what it is, as she plans to make it a Christmas gift.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Which means you can't get one of the other possibilities until after Christmas. But you've probably got lots to read.

[Susan de Guardiola]

I am never short on things to read. I am about twenty years behind on my to-read pile and have no real hope of ever catching up.

[Serge]

Good thing there are no earthquakes in New Haven otherwise you might die under the weight of the many books that decorate your bedroom, should they fall off their shelves, eh?

[Marilee J. Layman]

Heh. I'm only about eight years behind on my to-read piles! We only have small earthquakes normally, but if the Madrid Fault lets go, the condo is likely to fall down, so I'm not so worried about having books on me.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Hmmm. My bed is centered along one wall, with bookshelves on the two walls on either side. If I slept in the exact center of the bed, I think the shelves themselves would not fall on me, though presumably some books would become projectiles.

Unfortunately, I sleep curled up in one corner of the bed, with the rest of it being covered with books and dance notes and my laptop (yes, I sleep with my laptop). So my vampire bookshelf would take me out, with a crate full of almost the entire run of Tomb of Dracula leading the way.

[Neil Willcox]

So my vampire bookshelf would take me out...

Presumably for a fun evening! But you'd be oh so tired the next day, and when pressed couldn't quite describe what happened. And then one day you'd notice that all the books on the shelf were pale and faded and looked like they'd had staples pulled out of them and worst of all they had several fewer pages!

[Marilee J. Layman]

LOL Neil! I have eight Ikea Billy bookshelves in my bedroom, so they could fall from the bottom of the bed or the left. I sleep on both sides of my bed (because I sleep on my sides) and I only have cats to navigate when I turn over, which sounds more comfortable than yours, Susan! You must be one of those people who do everything in their beds. I use the computer in what's supposed to be the dining room and I do handwork and read the paper and such in the recliner in the living room. Other than sleep, I only read about 90 minutes before sleep in the bed. Oh, and I do my exercises there because a cotton futon mattress is an excellent exercise surface.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Neil:
Hee! Thank you for that lovely twist.

Marilee:
Yes, I do an awful lot in bed. It wasn't so bad when I had to actually do my computer work in the study, but the laptop has just doomed me. My cats are often with me (Audrey is generally found at my right elbow and seems to enjoy watching the screen), but I shoo them out when I actually go to sleep.