What unknown authors would you recommend to others?

[Shik]

I love my library. No, really: if I could hug it, I would. It's the only wonderful thing about this awful town. Because of it, I've been able to really push my reading boundaries. As we all do, I have certain "go-to" authors who I will always read over & over again...but I like new. It's hard to ask for recommendations because I'm so tetchy & highly, HIGHLY critical of what I read; & honestly, that causes problems with me giving out recommendations as well.

See, I've come to really, really, reallyreallyREALLY hate current American fiction (I'm not much a fan of the so-called "classics", either.), & so I've really started embracing authors from all over the world over American ones. Although I have a sci-fi foundation, I really prefer mysteries, noir, & the like, but I don't always stick to it. But I'm always seen wherever I go with a book in my hand or my bag (& rarely the same one twice; I bang through them pretty quick), & people are always asking me, "What are you reading? Who is that? I've never even heard of them?" I even keep a small notebook in my bag to write down authors I might be interested in.

Lately, I've been reading a ton of Massimo Carlotto, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Nicola Griffith, Alicia Gimienez-Bartlett, Chun Sue, Joe Meno, & Peter Clines. I could probably rattle off a lot more, but what "unknown" authors are you into & why would you recommend them?

 

[Spot's Meow]

I think he's still fairly unknown, but I would recommend Christian Cantrell. Start with his book Containment. He writes scifi but he really stood out to me among other scifi authors because of his background knowledge in science and technology. He will spend several pages describing future technologies, which might sound boring but actually isn't at all, because it makes so much sense that it feels realistic, and you wonder why it hasn't been invented already. You really feel a part of the world that he has created. He is also good at creating genuine mysteries in his stories, which is why I like Containment in particular. I prefer mystery novels over scifi, but this author blends them quite well.