Some author recommendations for the former Neil Gaiman fan

A book store in LA containing a hole made of books that creates a tourist attraction.

I promise, this is the last one I'm going to write about Neil Gaiman. The situation is gross and I wanna wash my hands with this in an already gross as hell year.

But one good thing has risen to the surface in this thick-ass gross soup of a situation and that's the fact that people who liked Neil Gaiman's fans are READERS. Like, we read a LOT of stuff. And in the wake of recent events everyone has been sharing their other favorite books and introducing people to worlds of literature they've yet to explore.

Here's a couple recommendations from me if you want some new worlds to explore.

Recommendations for former Neil Gaiman fans:

Scott Meyer

Scott Meyer is great at writing books with magical realism that are just fun.

His Magic 2.0 line is all about a guy who finds a file that lets him hack reality and, upon going back in time to use his new found powers to teleport to medieval England and pretend to be Merlin, he finds out, upon arrival, that time period is absolutely chuck full of nerds like him from different time periods that also found the file and had the same idea.

It has a lot of nods to pop culture without doing that obnoxious Ernest Cline thing of constantly listing things just for the sake of showing nerd cred. It's more the kind of thing where if you know you know, and if you don't you don't need to. Like, a character makes a spell where they can teleport short distances but using the word "BAMF". If you get that it's a Nightcrawler reference, awesome, enjoy that quick dopamine hit. If you don't it doesn't matter and the story continues. It's nerdy but not gatekeepy.

He's also created the Authority books which are a fun group of detectives that work for a secret but also fame seeking organization. It has sort of an American Gods feel in the sense that it's a main character that's actively trying to figure something out despite being a normal human along side a techie ninja, a guy that controls bees, and other oddballs that come off like weird super humans.

Scott Meyer has written just a stupid wealth of fun books and I can't recommend them enough.

Dennis E. Taylor

Dennis E. Taylor has a slew of awesome books. He's a ridiculously intelligent guy who is able to utilize complex plans, technology, science, and more in ways that make sense while also being incredibly accessible. Hell, he explained Von Neumann space probes in a way where my 11-year-old became obsessive with the concept.

While he's got a lot of cool books, the big one is his Bobiverse books. Starting with We Are Legion (We Are Bob), Dennis E. Taylor writes about a character who finds their brain put into a computer, waking up in a not too distant future where religious organizations have taken over and basically ruined the world (not that THAT could ever happen) leading a need for a human mind to be placed into a Von Neumann probe (a self replicating device) so that it can find a new, habitable world for humanity to live on.

As Bob attempts to do this, he runs into humans being humans. Different countries wanting to immediately enforce new rules and regulations and become kings. Meanwhile other countries have launched their own probes that are looking to stop Bob.

One of the really fun things about these books is that Dennis E. Taylor uses Bob as a surrogate for his intelligence and, using that, Bob overcomes obstacles at a rate that would normally be struggled with for drama. It's refreshing having a protagonist that just gets shit done sometimes.

An antagonist, for example, reveals that he implanted Bob's programming with a virus that would make him do whatever they asked. It immediately doesn't work and Bob says something to the effect of, "Dude, I'm a program, why do you think I wouldn't notice that?" Things happen and he IMMEDIATELY solves them and, honestly, I've never seen this in a series before but it feels really good to read from time to time.

Over the course of the four books you explore the deepest alcoves of space, discover new planets along with the various Bobs that get created along the way. Learn not only about new ways of life but also what happens to Earth in the long run. It's a stunning series that not only provides ample warning for what could happen if we don't grow up, but also manages to provide a really fun journey at the same time.

Peter Clines

Peter Cline's stuff tends to get a little darker, along the kind of visuals you might get from American Gods, sometimes heavier. But for the good of the story.

One of Peter Clines biggest series is the X-Heroes books which is a zombie story (wait, trust me) about superheroes (I promise, wait) but told from the point of view where society has pretty much been decimated and a couple people with powers just want to help a city full of people survive in an incredibly problematic world. The people genuinely couldn't give a shit that superheroes live among them as long as they pull their weight and help.

There are a few super hero fights. There are a view violent zombie kills. But for the most part it's people coming together with the help of a few special abilities to help (and sometimes harm) the surviving humans.

I know it's cliche to say that a zombie story "isn't actually about the zombies" but, honestly, they're like the "Gotham" to a Batman story. It's there, it's what they're living in, but the true conflict comes from the people who can't leave well enough alone and need to take control of situations that might not need it.

If Zombies aren't your jam, he also wrote the Threshold series which contains The Fold which, despite what the name implies, is actually an incredible piece of science fiction, and not the spot where I find crumbs when I stand up.

The Fold is a science fiction story about a team that figures out the secrets to teleportation through folding space. It's also one of those books that when you start noticing things are going wrong, you not only realize it too late but you also then realize the characters should have noticed sooner too. Then the panic sets in and the ride starts. I LOVE this book. It's like a slow burn, but if the thing slowly burning was a wick with a stick of dynamite at the end.

Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan is a really great author for people who want more day to day life in their books. In all three of his books, he does this fantastic job of making it feel almost as if you room with the characters living out not just the good and bad, but those days where nothing happens and they have time to think.

And while you would think that you'd want to start with his book Sourdough because, admittedly, it's very alluring to find a book in which stars a sourdough starter with sentience, the place you REALLY want to start is Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store.

It's like reading the Da Vinci Code, if the Da Vinci Code didn't feel like it hated you for reading it. Imagine instead of angelic perverts and people who can't solve a simple cypher, you have a slew of charming old people who have spent decades unraveling a mystery found within a bizarre series of books.

It's got the conflict of old verse new, it's got suspense, it's got so much mystery, it's got giant reveals, but also it has heart. When the time comes and the big secret is revealed you don't care about it because you just want to make sure the characters are all okay because they are the true prize of the book.

Hank Green

You ever have a dream where you swear there was another real person in it? Like someone got into your private dream room? Imagine if that was true, but the dreamscape you inhabit is the place that everyone on Earth goes to when they fall asleep, every night, one massive shared dreamscape. And imagine that that dreamscape is filled with puzzles that require the entire planet to work together to solve it. Which goes as well as you'd imagine.

It's with this incredibly brilliant, clever, and ultimately frustrating theme that we get Hank Green's "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing" and its sequel "A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor."

In the story we get something where something is testing humanity and instead of getting results they get...humanity. Flaws and all. Mostly flaws.

It's a series that contains a stunning amount of heart, as well as the breaking of said heart. It's funny, it's unlike any other science fiction I've read, And the sequel follows the type of villain that would make you think the book was written this year.