Do you know Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series? It’s fantasy for children, but I have read it plenty as an adult. In the first book, the main character is named Will.

And I do have to disagree with writers being self-important. Most of us suffer from incredibly low self-esteems and have complexes about whether or not people would want to read us and why. At least I have found that to be pretty true – perhaps it is different for authors of sci-fi.

But I am still very interested in authors presenting the world in a skewed, dreamlike, or unrealistic POV. My favorite from last year was Lowboy http://us.macmillan.com/lowboy. Jose Saramago is good if you have the patience to wade through page long sentences. I don’t always have that patience, I couldn’t get through The Double but loved Death with Interruptions.

I don’t eat fish, but I actually have grown to like oysters, much to my surprise. A perfect half dozen oysters, a glass of Muscadet = quite a lovely little treat.

Unfortunately I tend to shy away from unfamiliar authors in Fantasy because I find such a lot of it either cliched or showy, but this tends to be less of a problem in children’s fantasy.

i’m not a stephenson fan, but not for quite the same reasons you describe. like you, i tire of his “aren’t i clever”-ness, and in my opinion he has a tendency to go on and on and on and on… (the main problem, IMO, with cryptonomicon – i got bored long before the story finished.)

but. all writers are self-important. you’d have to be, to believe that you’re special enough, intelligent enough, innovative enough to produce anything that anyone besides your dog (and possibly your cat) would have any interest in reading. i think this is as true for authors like frank herbert (the white plague is one of the most interesting books i read this year, and stands up surprising well against the onward march of science – it only felt slightly dated) and toni morrison (who i can’t stomach) as it is for neal stephenson.

i think you’re being a bit harsh with snow crash, though, and taking it too seriously. hiro isn’t a particularly likeable character, and that’s part of the reason he’s named “hiro protagonist.” we’re supposed to like and empathize with protagonists, and here stephenson has written one so totally bleh that he has to give him that name to remind the reader that he’s the one we’re supposed to be relating to.

you’re also ignoring the fact that the love interest (i forget her name at the moment) is written as more mature, more intelligent, more resourceful, and more likable than hiro. the fact that she’s fifteen serves to throw that into even more stark relief. (i have to say i’m a bit surprised that you’d call hiro “pedophile” – clinically, pedophilia refers to individuals sexually attracted to prepubescent children. fifteen-year-olds aren’t usually prepubescent. i think there’s a high ick factor there because of our social conditioning, but labeling hiro a pedophile is a bit much.)

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raw oysters? heavenly. (you’ll want to watch out for warm-water oysters in the summer months, though. they’re often contaminated with vibrio vulnificus. i think the FDA’s response was a bit careless, but there’s a legit health concern there – and a good reason to follow the “only in months containing an R” oyster-eating convention.)

I do really enjoy Gaiman. “Murder Mysteries” from Smoke and Mirrors is partly responsible for the courtship of the mister and I

I’m in a Gregory Maguire phase right now, which is great because he has some awesome children’s books I can read with Miss E.

(I haven’t even worked my way up to crawfish yet and look at you, almost to the raw oysters!)