Suggestions for conservative reading?

[mosellegreen.livejournal.com]

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine emailed me asking if I knew of, or if indeed there exists such as thing as, contemporary conservative fiction. She'd searched a lot and couldn't find any; the only books she could find that fit were classics, which is all very well but sometimes she wants to read modern works. For context, this friend is more of a cultural/social conservative than a political one.

I immediately wrote back with some suggestions and also bought a copy of S.M. Stirling's Conquistador for her Kindle. (I highly recommend it. It's a parallel universe story. In the 40's a WWII veteran figures out how to get into a parallel universe where Europeans never discovered the Americas, and he and some of his friends create their own society/empire there, one which is in many ways a 1950's time capsule, with a few touches from even further back.)

It just occurred to me that you guys could probably come up with more recs for her, and I would like to have more as well. So if anyone can make some good suggestions of conservative leaning contemporary fiction, she and I would like to hear them!

Here are my recs to her, for anyone who needs more reading material:

First, a few years ago I made a brief excursion into chick lit and discovered quite a few conservative authors in the genre. MaryJanice Davidson is a conservative, and her "Undead and ____" series features a conservative heroine. Julie Kenner wrote a few as well, good books that seem to have had the chick-lit elements kind of tacked on to ensure publication. In The Diva's Guide to Selling Your Soul by Kathleen O'Reilly, the heroine works for the devil and thus has certain magic powers - of course, she reforms over the course of the book. At one point, for reasons I forget, she induces a miscarriage on a woman, and later feels guilty for having killed a baby. Not for having basically performed an unwanted abortion; she feels guilty for killing a baby.

Here's an obvious one: Russell Kirk. Yes, he wrote fiction.

Jeffrey Archer is a bestselling British author (I really liked his first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less) and a Tory.

The mysteries by Emma Lathen. OK, they're a few decades old, but still.

As for scifi, that's easy: Baen Books. I suppose not all of what they publish is conservative, but most of it is. Military SF in general is conservative. A few SF authors to look for: John C. Wright, John Ringo, Larry Niven, Orson Scott Card, L. Jagi Lamplighter, John Scalzi.

I haven't read the historical novels of Catherine Delors, but I used to read her blog and I think she's conservative.

Comments

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

Conservative writer Andrew Klavan has an excellent Young Adult action series -- the Homelanders series, I think it's called. I enjoyed the first book very much. I'm not even into action books as a general rule, but the writing and characterization were really good.

[mosellegreen.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[karmic-serenity.livejournal.com]

MaryJanice Davidson is a conservative? Yet another reason to love her!! :)

[mosellegreen.livejournal.com]

Yes! I was surprised how much chick-lit was fairly conservative during that foray I made into the genre. Most of what I read was supernaturally themed, which might or might not have had something to do with it - it's possible the supernatural segment of the genre is what attracts the conservatives, but I don't know for sure.

[spikedpunch.livejournal.com]

Well, if you haven't already, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is a nice challenge to read.

[mosellegreen.livejournal.com]

I've been a Rand fan since adolescence. My friend asked if I thought she would like her and I suggested she start with The Fountainhead. That's the one I usually suggest to people; Atlas is about how a society should be run which is obviously rife with things to argue about, but The Fountainhead is about how one should lead one's own life, and I think someone who wasn't sympathetic with its message would really be so strange I wouldn't even know how to communicate with them.

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

Conservative Bookstore.com - http://www.conservativebookstore.com/sfiction.shtml

[mosellegreen.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I just ordered Jackie Disaster. I'll pass it on to my friend after I've read it. ^-^

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

Robert Heinlein was a libertarian, rather than a conservative, but many conservatives like him.

Scalzi is not a conservative, and I don't know that most of his work would be perceived as conservative, other than the Old Man's War series.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

THE Omw series is conservative only in that it positively portrays ground level military.

I stopped paying money for Scalzi books on the day I read my first post at his blog. I will not support someone that hate-filled.

[mosellegreen.livejournal.com]

Don't you hate it when that happens? I really enjoy the fantasy author Scott Lynch, but I will also only buy used copies of his books after I followed his blog for a few days. It wasn't that he made a pro-choice post, it was that he called pro-lifers "lunatics", "maniacs" and "hypocrites" all in one paragraph. He also called us "wackaloons. Oddly, this did not inspire me with sympathy for his views.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

It's kind of why I try very very hard to avoid knowing anything about artists and other creative people. Because they are so often disappointing.

One person that I find rather intriguing is Angelina Jolie. She's a liberal hero, I know, and is clearly a bleeding-heart, but she's *also* a free marketeer, and was considering doing the dagny part in Atlas. Looked at logically, it's a fair point that a lot of people in the world that live in *non* free market nations suffer greatly through no real fault of their own.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

It's kind of why I try very very hard to avoid knowing anything about artists and other creative people. Because they are so often disappointing.

This. I adore Diane Duane's books but followed her on Twitter for all of half a day. (Then again, Twitter lends itself to snippy self-righteousness.)

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Hell, As a libertarian, and a self-described horrible person, I am pro abortion. Yet I *still* find that description of the Right to life groups and people to be offensively wrong. And I would stop giving money to one that publicly behaved such.

[mosellegreen.livejournal.com]

Ah. The Old Man's War series is all I've read of his.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Goodkind is worth mentioning. Not amongst the greatest authors, he's as subtle as a sledgehammer, but his books are a very digestible direct piracy of Ayn Rand.

[mosellegreen.livejournal.com]

Really! I've never read him.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Again, if you're a lit-geek, his books will be disappointing. he spins a good yarn, and I appreciate the re-telling of rand. I'd reccomend his books for young adults, or as fluff-reads for experienced conservative readers, nothing more.

[kharmii.livejournal.com]

He sure has an imagination for fantasy though. -Weird stuff. I didn't like the ott violence though.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Also steven weber. Granted bublished by Baen :)

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

Titles?

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

On Basilisk Station is a good starting point.

I find that that series gets a little repetitive after reading several books, but well worth a lazy sunday.

[kelincihutan.livejournal.com]

I started reading On Basilisk Station after looking over this thread and every few paragraphs I have to wonder if Weber was somehow channelling the Obama admin for the Havenites/Liberals/Progressives in the book. Because I swear that some of those characters are clones of the characters in DC right now.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Newt has co-written alternative history!