From: "Gareth Jelley" 
Subject: Re: (urth) [OT] Other authors: Lawrence Miles
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2003 23:28:39 +0100

Adam Stephanides wrote:
>While DEAD ROMANCE is better,
> DOWN does a couple of interesting things with unreliable narration;
> and for fans of Iain M. Banks, it can be seen as a sort of reply to
> the Culture.


It's worth noting, though, that Miles is building on the novel 'The Also
People' by Ben Aaronovitch, who introduced the 'People' who feature in
'Down'. Both Aaronovitch and Miles are well worth a look. It was Aaronovitch
who originally provided the 'reply' to the Culture.

The Doctor Who novels, published first by Virgin, then by the BBC, and now
by both Telos and the BBC, are all worth looking at, selectively, because
they are afforded far, far more freedom than any other series of
'franchise'-related fiction.

And when Virgin was publishing them, they were the only SF publisher in the
UK willing to accept unsolicited manuscript submissions. So the Who list was
a great place for people to begin writing SF.

Paul Magrs has written immensely successful mainstream novels, but began on
(and is still writing for) the Doctor Who series...


> For those interested in narrative technique THE
> ADVENTURESS OF HENRIETTA STREET is also worth noting; it's one of the
> few novels I've seen which is written almost entirely in the style of
> a history or biography (e. g. almost no directly quoted dialogue;
> sometimes providing contradictory versions of an event from different
> "sources" without saying which is correct).


My problem with 'Henrietta Street' was that it wasn't *enough* like a
history. It needed an Index, a Contents page, and Introduction, and more
extensive notes. For the 'trick' of the narrative to work, it needed to
become even more absorbed in the whole exercise... I found it a drag,
because (for me) it fell between too stools...

But 'Interference' is a fantastic novel, at moments, if far too long. And he
has also branched out into Audio Drama, Comic writing, and more, no doubt...

This http://www.factionparadox.co.uk/ is a treasure-trove.

But this is the last place I expected to see Miles mentioned :o)

Best,

G.


--