Devils_Advocate Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Who are your favorite authors that have written in the last 20 or so years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athena glaukopis Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Edward Cline!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriatarka Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Philip Roth is pretty cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Edward Cline!! No other name comes to mind quicker than Ed Cline. Sparrowhawk. Buy it, read it, love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rearden_Steel Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Philip Roth is pretty cool Phillip Roth? You couldn’t mean Phillip “I love the New deal” Roth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabo Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Ken Follett, Terry Goodkind, Alan Moore, Arthur C. Clarke I love Heinlein too, but the original question was for authors who have written in the last 20 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zip Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Fantasy - Glenn Cook, Sci Fi - David Drake, Political - John Ibbitson, Historical - Pierre Burton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khaight Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devils_Advocate Posted August 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 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. They're good enough, I don't mind. Love Dune, but after the first book, it got a little to theo-centric for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokarrin Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 C.S. Friedman for science fiction - This Alien Shore is brilliant David Gemmel for Fantasy - Druss in particular is very nearly a complete denial of all mysticism Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eriatarka Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 Phillip Roth? You couldn’t mean Phillip “I love the New deal” Roth? what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandonk2009 Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intellectualammo Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rearden_Steel Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 what? In his “American Trilogy “ Roth praises FDR and the new deal and views it as a heroic phase of American history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinDW78 Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 (edited) 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 August 18, 2008 by KevinDW78 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrock3215 Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 Cormac McCarthy deserves first mention. I enjoy Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Nicholas Sparks every now and then also. As others have said, I'm sure Ed Kline is a worthwhile mention, but I have not read him, so I cannot confirm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBP2009 Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBP2009 Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 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). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmos Posted August 31, 2008 Report Share Posted August 31, 2008 I enjoy John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inertiatic Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 I like the work of Jesse Ball. He's a fantasy writer. He's one of those authors that has a playful sense of life and uses that to create shockingly brutal, yet beautiful, scenes. I recommend you start with Samedi the Deafness, his novel, first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intellectualammo Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grames Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 David Weber, Patrick O'Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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