Crime Novels

[YankeyMCC]

I'm curious - do the SF readers here also read many non-SF novels or stories?

For my non-SF fiction it pick up the occasional historical fiction (fictionalized accounts of actual events) and classics (like "Moby Dick" Steinbeck novels etc...) but never anything like crime or mystery novels (well once or twice I have).

Yet I'm reading the anthology "Alien Crimes" edited by Mike Resnick (http://www.amazon.com/Alien-Crimes-Mike-Resnick/dp/1582882231/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3177457-0776141?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183726883&sr=1-1) it is a sort of follow up to the "Down these Dark Spaceways" anthology (http://www.amazon.com/Down-these-Dark-Spaceways-Resnick/dp/1582881642/ref=pd_sim_b_1/102-3177457-0776141?ie=UTF8&qid=1183726883&sr=1-1)

And I loved the Dark Spaceways stories and so far the stories in "Alien Crimes" have been outstanding. I find I love the mix of crime/mystery and SF genre. Maybe I should give straight crime/mystery novels more time in my fiction reading - I know I like the old hard bitten detective movies like "Big Sleep" etc...

[shenmue]

1. Thanks for the tip...

I'll look for the Mike Resnick title.

[shenmue]

2. "Gun with Occasional Music"

I think it would have to qualify. It's by Jonathan Lethem. Even though they usually don't put it in Sci Fi, just Fiction at the store, it has plenty of mystery and alternate reality stuff in there. And it's hilarious.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

3. I'll 2nd that.

I really dig the books that the publishers find hard to market because they are so unlike any one particular genre. Other great "uncategorizables" include The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, The Bridge by Iain Banks, The River Why by David james Duncan.

Nothing beats the Flashman books by George Macdonald Fraser for a great combination of historical fiction and audacious, bawdy humor.

[semillama]

4. I don't read crime novels per se

but I am a HUGE fan of Powers, which is a crime themed graphic novel that follows a detective team assigned to superhero cases. It's won the Eisner and it's one of my favorite graphic novels. Very well done.