A week ago this short video about Judy-Lynn del Rey from the PBS show American Masters was put on YouTube:
If you look at my bookshelf you'd see Del Rey books represented all over the place; many of my favorite SF&F authors wrote for Del Rey, so I thought I knew the imprint pretty well.
Uh, nope.
I always thought it was Lester that was the dominant factor in the imprint, but it turns out it was his wife, Judy-Lynn, instead. Maybe Del Rey was called that because of Lester's name, but Judy-Lynn made it the force it was back in the 80s and early 90s. There were some novels that I ordinarily would have passed on but picked up back then because of that Del Rey imprint, such as Barbara Hambly's Those Who Hunt the Night. I don't think I can be blindly loyal to a publisher like that anymore, but I did enjoy those novels far more often than not.
Still, it's a fascinating bit of SF&F history about a woman who made her mark in genres I loved.
That is fascinating, I've never heard of Judy'Lynn Del Ray.
ReplyDeleteI just bought Those Who Hunt the Night for my kindle based on this. I have been looking for a new vampire author to try, and I've also never heard of Barbara Hambly. Don't worry about whether I'll enjoy it it not. I spent less than I often spend on lunch, so if turns out not to be to my taste I won't hold it against you :-)
Good thing you won't hold it against me, although in doing a quick bit of research for this post I discovered she was President of the SF&F Writers of America in the mid-90s, and Those Who Hunt the Night won a Locus Award for Best Horror Novel. I didn't know it became a series, but the sequel won an award as well.
DeleteHer first series, The Darwath Trilogy, which is more of a straight-ish Fantasy, was pretty good for starting out. I do have the first novel of another series (Sun Wolf and Starhawk), The Ladies of Mandrigyn, but I've never read it yet. (I picked it up for a dollar at a used bookstore.)
Ok well I made it three chapters in last night, and I am really digging it so far :-)
DeleteGreat to hear!
DeleteI also don't advocate blind loyalty to a publisher, I will however suggest that if you've read at least a few Baen books and enjoyed them, you could reasonably expect to like other books they publish. Conversely, if you disliked some Baen books, give anything else of theirs more scrutiny than usual before buying. I think they might be the only major publisher that tries to have a brand identity.
ReplyDeleteMy first exposure to Baen Books came in the mid-late 80s when they first republished some of Robert A. Heinlein's old pulp stories. I hadn't really read much of Baen's catalog since, but I did try to read one of their Military SF novels about ten years ago, and I couldn't really stomach it.
DeleteBaen does a lot of good mil-sf, but it sounds like you don't care for the genre. They are good in the ebook market, being an early adopter of that format, and do DRM-free releases in multiple ebook formats.
ReplyDeleteWell, Mil SF can be good, but it really depends on the author. Just like any story, I suppose. I wasn't that fond of Mike Shepard's Kris Longknife books, but I did like Elizabeth Moon's Trading in Danger (I haven't read the rest of the series). I've also picked up Jack Campbell's first Lost Fleet book based on a personal recommendation, and the same with Myke Cole's first novel.
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