Who is Del Sefton anyway?
Who is Del Sefton anyway?
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A brief history
A brief history
Trained as a philosopher and a classicist, Del finished grad school to hold various odd jobs, including teaching high school Latin and running a debate team, but eventually entered the business world as a management consultant. Now semi-retired after a long career, he lives in Seattle, US, with his lovely wife, plays recherché boardgames, and putters around in his woodworking workshop (he dares not call himself a carpenter, not yet) when not writing.
Recent photo of the reclusive Del Sefton, captured leaving his Italian villa
Del's goals
Del's goals
To entertain his readers, to write dense author's notes, and to slip in some references to philosophy and the classical world whenever possible. But mostly the entertainment thing.
Del's recent and current nightstandÂ
Del's recent and current nightstandÂ
We'll see how often I update this. Does not include books on 'the craft.' Lately, in addition to a lot of editing my own:
Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. First book in his Border Trilogy. Never been a big fan of Westerns, but this is changing my mind on that point. I don't see how McCarthy so casually disposes of conventions like punctuation and dialogue markers, yet manages to write such a gripping tale that's so easy to follow.
K.J. Parker's The Company. More of the same from a comfort author who is frequently (and accurately) accused of writing a lot of samey books, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of side characters named Menin Aeide and Andra Ennepe. These are the first words of the Iliad and the Odyssey in Ancient Greek, a nice little inside joke from one Classicist to his readers. (Well, he leaves out a 'moi' from the Odyssey, but I'll forgive him.)
Iain M. Banks' Surface Detail. Another reread; it's been many years. I have to revise my earlier statement. Excession is probably my favorite of his novels, but they're mostly all quite excellent
Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan. He does it again, setting a pseudo-historical novel in the Reconquista. Dense but worth the read, not a page turner, but a thinker.
Iain M. Banks' Look to Windward. A reread, one of my favorite novels in his Culture series (tied with all other novels in his Culture series except Consider Phlebas and Inversions). What a creative mind! Unfortunately marred, like all his other works, by an (IMO) unnecessary scene of grotesquerie.
Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven, an interesting historical novel (with slight fantasy elements) set in 8th century Tang Dynasty China. I've wanted to read this author for quite a while, based on what I've heard about him. I found the book a little overstuffed, but I can see why he has the rep he does.
A couple of military sci-fi books, as research/comp titles for my upcoming fourth+ novels (The Tab Novak Journals).
Jane Austen's Persuasion (not as great as Pride and Prejudice, I think, but still a great Regency Romance; she's just such a game-changing author)
Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake (denser than and as chilling as The Handmaid's Tale)
Swords and Dark Magic (a collection of fantasy short stories, primarily purchased because (1) it was on sale on Amazon and (2) had stories from a couple of authors I particularly like, such as K. J. Parker)
Martha Wells' Murderbot oeuvre (thanks to a steal of a Humble Bundle sale; light and fun reading)
Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven (every time I read a work of hers, it is a humbling revelation)
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series (finished a full reread of all 20 novels; even better now than they were two decades ago when I was introduced to them; I would have a hard time finding anyone who had produced such high-quality work for so long a period; how many semi-colons can I use in these parentheses?)
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