Lately, in certain online discussion groups there seems to be an unfortunate tendency to deify the classics of SF&F, and therefore, to denigrate anything NEW, particularly from unfamiliar authors. Well, I'd just like to remind those who tend to think this way that many of the authors of those great classics are now dead! There will be no new writing from them. Would you really want to be confined to reading only THE CLASSICS for the rest of your life? Or are you willing to take a chance on authors you've never read before?
As I've admitted ( shamefacedly! ) one of the biggest mistakes of my life was reading only the first page of The Hobbit---and promptly putting it back on the shelf. I'd never even heard of J. R. R. Tolkien! Fortunately, I rectified that mistake and later discovered The Lord of the Rings, in my opinion one of the greatest fantasies ever written.
Of course, those who have recently discovered some of the great classics are in awe of them. But time doesn't stand still, and many of those who were influenced by those books are now writing SF&F of their own. Don't be too hasty to lump all those books into the category of "non-classics" and therefore dismiss them, untried.
In my lifetime I've started and failed to finish a good number of books---mainly because they failed to hold my interest or weren't up to my standards; however, I at least gave them a try. Be daring! Try reading a new book by an author unfamiliar to you. Try reading a new genre. You never know when you just might discover a new classic!
All for now,
MRTighe
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