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Greatest writer ever (besides Shakespeare)

WVUforREDSKINS

By WVUforREDSKINS
in The Tailgate

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nonniey

nonniey

Posted
Posted
Me.

:evilg:

Just kidding.

:)

Actually this reminds me.

I need to get back to writing.

But seriously, Stephen King does have a pretty nice list of quality books that he's put out and a lot of them have been movies.

Some other great modern writers in my opinion are Harry Turtledove and Roger Zelazny. (those are more along the lines of personal favorites though. Although both do have a lot of different good books and multiple really good series.)

Weis and Hickman (Dragonlance, Deathgate...etc), and Christopher Moore also have some nice variety of really excellent stuff.

If you want to go back a bit you can go with Hemmingway, Austen, Dickens, Steinbeck and some other extremely popular authors. (they didn't all write as many books as some, but each have multiple classics that are very widely read and have been a for a long time)

Well, gotta disagree about Turtledove. Don't get me wrong I like his books but realize he is a fairly lazy writer.

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visionary

visionary

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Well, gotta disagree about Turtledove. Don't get me wrong I like his books but realize he is a fairly lazy writer.

Well, to be fair, I haven't read much of his recent stuff.

He has a ton of really good series and books that I love though.

As series go: Elabon (pretty nice fantasy and humor in this one, haven't read them in a while, but even my brother liked it and he doesn't read much turtledove), Worldwar & Colonization Series (great sci-fi and alternate military historical fiction), Darkness Series (love the fantasy element, War Between the Provinces Series (also nice fantasy element and pretty funny, great parodies), also the How Few Remain series is pretty awesome just in how it evolves through different generations and wars. Some pretty memorable characters too.

As for individual books: Agent Of Bzantium (haven't read it in ages, but it used to be one of my top five or so favorite books) great alternate history/secret agent adventure/etc.

Guns Of The South

(pretty much a classic of modern alternate history/sci fi)

Ruled Britannia (an amazing alternate history novel about Spain and England during Shakespeare's time. I recommended it to a guy who hated Turtledove and he later told me he loved it, lol)

As for him being a lazy writer...I don't know.

He puts out a ton of books.

If you mean that he's extremely repetitive at times...then yeah kind of, and it has made me shy away from a lot of his most recent stuff.

I did read the latest of his books in the Opening The World series though and loved it. (even though he repeated some things in it way too much, lol).

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G.A.C.O.L.B.

G.A.C.O.L.B.

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Steinbeck for sure.

This is hard to judge though. Do you take in one's whole career or just the best single work in it? I mean I swear I've probably had to read Farenheit 451 and The Catcher in the Rye four or five times for classes over the years but they pretty much wrote one book and nothing else. Ditto for Melville and Moby Dick. Amongst others.

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Jethrodsp

Jethrodsp

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Cormac McCarthy's "Bood Meridian" is my nomination for most epic novel ever.

I have really gotten into Cormac in the last 5 years. Started actually when I was looking at Salvador Dali art and saw the original cover that he painted for "Blood Meridian." http://www.normalityrestored.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/the-phantom-cart-salvadore-dali-1933.jpg Being as I am a major Dali fan, I gave "Blood Meridian" a read and was hooked. For me, no one sets a landscape like McCarthy. His prose keeps me reading pages again and again. My favorite from him is "Suttree," although "Blood Meridian" is tremendous. "Suttree" isnt too depressing, its actually pretty funny in many parts. The Border Trilogy is also great. Im re-reading "The Crossing" right now.

Stephen King to me is one of the greatest writers of all time. Green Mile, Shawshank, Stand by Me.

I dont know if I would say hes one of the greatest writers of all-time. Certainly he is the most well-known writer of my generation and many of his books are very entertaining. "The Stand" is a favorite of mine. I finished "The Dome" and have to say that not only is the story very entertaining but the scope of the novel is impressive in itself.

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WVUforREDSKINS

WVUforREDSKINS

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I have really gotten into Cormac in the last 5 years. Started actually when I was looking at Salvador Dali art and saw the original cover that he painted for "Blood Meridian." http://www.normalityrestored.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/the-phantom-cart-salvadore-dali-1933.jpg Being as I am a major Dali fan, I gave "Blood Meridian" a read and was hooked. For me, no one sets a landscape like McCarthy. His prose keeps me reading pages again and again. My favorite from him is "Suttree," although "Blood Meridian" is tremendous. "Suttree" isnt too depressing, its actually pretty funny in many parts. The Border Trilogy is also great. Im re-reading "The Crossing" right now.

I dont know if I would say hes one of the greatest writers of all-time. Certainly he is the most well-known writer of my generation and many of his books are very entertaining. "The Stand" is a favorite of mine. I finished "The Dome" and have to say that not only is the story very entertaining but the scope of the novel is impressive in itself.

Well King was #52 on a list of 100. http://www.thebest100lists.com/best100authors/

I think he deserves more respect. He just has written so much, not just one or two great classics.

But its hard to argue with names like Hemmingway, Huxley, Kafka, and Harper Lee.

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Pskins

Pskins

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Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" is my nomination for most epic novel ever.

I'll second that.

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find." has to be the best eight pages I've ever read. The Misfit ranks up there with the Judge from Blood Meridian or Sauron from the Lord of the Rings as the meanest and creepiest bad guy.

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bcl05

bcl05

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Just thought of one that hasn't been mentioned yet (sorry if I missed it):

Roald Dahl. Best children's writer ever.

James and the Giant Peach

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Danny Champion of the World (my favorite)

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The BFG

And more...

I've been reading these with my 6 year old lately. They're absolutely magical for that age, and lots of fun for me. Great stuff.

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Elessar78

Elessar78

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Posted

Just found this today... a bit old but still relevant to this thread.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/fiction-25-years.html

Early this year, the Book Review's editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." Following are the results:

THE WINNER:

Beloved byToni Morrison

THE RUNNERS-UP:

Underworld by Don DeLillo (1997)

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)

Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels by John Updike

American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)

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