R F Kuang, Xiran Jay Zhao and Neil Gaiman were ruled ineligible for the 2023 Hugo Awards in 2023 despite receiving enough nominations.
I don’t like Neil Gaiman, I find his writing a bit repetitive and his personality is a little grating. But are these other two authors any good? I’m always looking for new science fiction authors to get into, and quite liked Cixin Liu if these have been translated from Mandarin.
R F Kuang is American and Xiran Jay Zhao is Canadian. They write in English.
There was a time you’d never heard of any of your favourite writers. But then you did and you enjoyed them. If you’d dismissed them with a “how good could they be if I’ve never heard of them?” you’d never have discovered them. Don’t be a twit.
I’ve tried a couple of things from R F Kuang. If you like super generic fantasy tropes with an East Asian feel, you’ll probably enjoy their stuff. I haven’t finished any full series because there just wasn’t anything to hook me. I think major authors like Raymond Feist and Terry Brookes also suffer from the generic argument albeit with a European setting so YMMV.
