Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Favorite Contempory Authors?

Rate this topic


Devils_Advocate

Recommended Posts

Who are your favorite authors that have written in the last 20 or so years?

Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert are the best Sci-Fi authors ever. I like Heinlein's philosophy better, but Herbert's writing is really smart. They both also happened to have been in the Navy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert are the best Sci-Fi authors ever.

Heinlein died in 1988, and this thread is for authors active in the last 20 years. I'm pretty sure Herbert is out for the same reason.

Here's a handful of contemporary writers whose work I enjoy. (They're mostly in the science-fiction and fantasy genres.)

Lois McMaster Bujold

Robert Jordan

Charles Stross

Alastair Reynolds

Brandon Sanderson

Steven Erickson

Vernor Vinge

John C. Wright

John Scalzi

Neal Stephenson

I'm not claiming that any of these writers are producing great art, but I buy works from all of them in hardback and find I get my money's worth out of doing so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Geez, scolded twice for going a little long on the timeframe...

Who are your favorite authors that have written in the last 20 or so years?
bold mine

Yes, Herbert died in 1986, just before David Lynch's rendition of Dune was released.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have really enjoyed Daniel Handler a.k.a. Lemony Snicket (Series of Unfortunate Events, Adverbs). He has a wicked way of using words and it is a great joy of fun to read.

Another is David Sedaris. He writes a lot of humor, some of it touching, some of it obscene, most just plain wacky. While I think sometimes he goes over the top, other times he is just plain gruesome, I can appreciate the skill he has in making something funny and ridiculous.

Ursula LeGuin has a lot of good writing as well as some essays and speeches.

Finally Terry Goodkind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who are your favorite authors that have written in the last 20 or so years?

I don't read many contemporary writers, but besides Edward Cline, Gen LaGreca who authored Noble Vision, Laura Kalpakian's Cosette: The Sequel to Les Miserables, Elsie V. Aidinoff who authored The Garden, Isamu Fukui who authored Truancy, and Rose MacMurray who authored Afternoons With Emily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like Dick Morris and his political annalysis. I really loved his "Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race" (despite the fact that unforseen events took place that made the outcome of this race be different) at the time, his observations were very insightful.

I really loved Gregory Maguire's "Wicked" but the rest of this books (including the sequel to Wicked) are crap.

Edited by KevinDW78
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Fantasy - Glenn Cook,

Sci Fi - David Drake,

Political - John Ibbitson,

Historical - Pierre Burton

Pierre Burton? Wow, you truly are a Canuck if Burton is on your list of favorites, lol. I haven't actually read anything by him, and I readily admit that I have generally dismissed him because of his quintessential Canadian-ness. I get nauseated at the thought of opening up a book and reading some masturbatory ode to Trudeau or to Tommy Douglas or some other vile Canadian figure.

Perhaps I was too quick to dismiss him. Any particular titles you can recommend?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're good enough, I don't mind. Love Dune, but after the first book, it got a little to theo-centric for me.

I think the best way for an Objectivist to approach Dune is to read it as a cautionary tale against theocracy. Paul Atreides falls into the trap of becoming a godlike figure and the next two novels show the consequences. I have read all the Dune books, including the later ones written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The "Legends of Dune" series is particularly entertaining, it's set in the time of the Butlerian Jihad. All the Herbert/Anderson books read like political thrillers. I rather enjoyed them.

I started reading Dune in high school and am now in my mid 30s so I guess I could say I grew up with them. To this day I still don't sit with my back to a door (I think that was a bit of Dune fighting wisdom).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Umberto Eco, without a doubt. The Name of the Rose is one of my all time favorites. The character of William of Baskerville is a lone voice of reason struggling against willful ignorance. I can't help but to picture him as Sean Connery after having seen the film version.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who are your favorite authors that have written in the last 20 or so years?

I should have to mentioned before in this thread Kay Nolte Smith's Country of the Heart and A Tale of the Wind (of which I still have not finished); she has other novels too, but I haven't read any of them. Also I should have mentioned Margaret Atwood, particularily and especially her The Handmaid's Tale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...