# Who are your most memorable authors?



## Ciuri Di Badia (May 3, 2012)

I recently have been thinking about the most memorable authors whose books I've read in the last couple of years. Three of them have stood out.

Shakespeare

E.L James

Edd Johns

Who are your most memorable authors?


----------



## Ergodic Mage (Jan 23, 2012)

Tolkien followed by Asimov. There are others I will read and re-read but they are the top of my list.


----------



## LDB (Oct 28, 2008)

I most enjoy Conan Doyle of those authors who have passed and by far Boyd Morrison of current writers.


----------



## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Rex Stout - for his invention of two of my favorite characters. His eloquence makes up for some pretty thin mystery plots. The brownstone on West 35th is a very comfortable place to spend time.

John Dickson Carr - not a unique voice, but for the sheer inventiveness of his mystery plots. Locked-room mysteries don't come any better than this. Some pretty zany characters in his books.

The following names for their unique voices:
Clifford D. Simak - Science fiction of a decidedly philosophical bent. Described as a 'pastoral' writer.
Roger Zelazny - If he had invented nothing but the world of Amber, he would still be memorable. 
Ray Bradbury - If there is such a thing as 'more' unique, his writing would be it.


Mike


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I'll give an emphatic second for Roger Zelazny.  

Of current writers, I suppose It is Terry Pratchett, and honorable mentions must be given to Tolkien, Asimov, and Moorcock for doing so much to help turn me into the speculative fiction fan I became.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

I would cite this Top 3:

1) Stephen King. Under the Dome, UR, Cell, and 11-22-63 brought me back to King after a decade of disenchantment.

2) John Locke. What can I say? He's both fun to read and funny.

3) Victorine Lieske. Normally, I don't read romantic suspense. Lieske's Not What She Seems changed all that.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD


----------



## Ciuri Di Badia (May 3, 2012)

Also, as someone has pointed out, I had forgotten John Locke. He is very inventive and funny.


----------



## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

I always feel like I should cite writers of the classics in response to questions like these, but since I don't read many classics, I'll go with contemporary authors. For me, Stephen King, Chris Bohjalian, and Anita Shreve stand out. All can pull me in quickly and not let me go until the end.


----------



## StephenBrennan (Dec 21, 2012)

One more for Stephen King.  I can't think of a more original and engaging storyteller.


----------



## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Stephen King for me, too.  Also Robert R. McCammon.


----------



## Adele Ward (Jan 2, 2012)

Kazuo Ishiguro, Ali Smith and Monique Roffey. I buy all of their books. I'm also a Sarah Waters fan, but will stick with the first three as I definitely read everything by them.


----------



## Michael Cavacini (Aug 2, 2010)

Stephen King, Ken Follett, Harlan Coben, and Lee Child.


----------



## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

Back in my teens I read a lot of what I like to call the Big Four in fantasy and science fiction, namely Anne McCaffrey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Katherine Kurtz, and Tanith Lee.  They were probably more responsible than any other group of writers for shaping my tastes.


----------



## Guest (Jan 1, 2013)

For me, probably Pratchett, Asimov, and Gavin Lyall.

The only one I'd mention that hasn't been discussed yet is A.E.Van Vogt, one of the original science fiction masters. I didn't realise how memorable until I picked up one of his books again, Slan, that I hadn't read since childhood and realise just how well I remembered it.


----------



## deckard (Jan 13, 2011)

I would say, for me, my most memorable authors are:

Richard McKenna, the author of The Sand Pebbles. He also wrote a collection of short stories and essays entitled The Left-Handed Monkey Wrench and, for those of us who have been around ships, know what a left-handed monkey wrench is. He wrote science fiction (Casey Agonistes) and was working on his second novel when he died. I enjoy historical fiction and McKenna was one of the best in this genre, in my opinion. Unfortunately, his works are limited to one novel and collections of short stories. "'Hello ship', Jack Holman said under his breath."

Steinbeck. East of Eden is a favorite of mine since reading it in high school. I know Steinbeck isn't a popular author with some, but for me he opened up a new world into the depression, better than the history lessons in school.

Jack London who, as a boy growing up, was an author invoked a desire for travel to far away lands. I guess you can call Alaska far away, especially in 1900. I reread many of his stories while living in Alaska.

Deckard


----------



## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

The most memorable - that's pretty hard to say as there are so many I've loved over the years. hmmm ... OK, let me take a stab:


1. Harlan Ellison - No one can write a short story like Mr. Ellison.

... after that it gets foggy - Asimov, Card, Kress, Kurtz, Stross, there are so many I go back to time and again.


----------



## billie hinton (Jan 30, 2011)

Emily Bronte
Anais Nin
Virginia Woolf
Michael Ondaatje
Charles Frazier
Marianne Wiggins

Among many more...


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

You know, this thread is skewing off into all-time favorites territory.

I believe the OP had asked about "most memorable authors/works that you've read *in the last two years*."

Just sayin'...


----------



## boblenx (Sep 4, 2010)

John Steinbeck. While all of his books appeal to me, one stands out in particular.

"Travels with Charley in Search of America" is a stunning work. The writing is crisp and clear. It really digs down deep into me feelings when I reread it. This is one of the few books I have read more that twice. It warrants it.


----------



## LDB (Oct 28, 2008)

The ones I mentioned I've read in the last two years and for Conan-Doyle several times prior to the last two years as well.


----------



## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Arthur Conan Doyle who created what is probably my favorite character in all of fiction and earned extra credit for creating lots of other good stuff, even if the other stuff is mostly forgotten.  Robert Heinlein, who had quite an influence on me as a teenager, and is still revered.  Max Allan Collins, for being reliably entertaining, being brilliant at moving me into the world of the 1930s or 1940s, and never letting me down with a dud (both Doyle and Heinlein have produced individual works I didn't care for).


----------



## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> You know, this thread is skewing off into all-time favorites territory.
> 
> I believe the OP had asked about "most memorable authors/works that you've read *in the last two years*."
> 
> Just sayin'...


And I've read all those I mentioned within the last two years: I don't read only newly written books, and I often re-read old favorites when nothing new is satisfying my hunger for really good story-telling. Besides, one that the OP mentioned was Shakespeare, after all!


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

The Hooded Claw said:


> Max Allan Collins, for being reliably entertaining, being brilliant at moving me into the world of the 1930s or 1940s, and never letting me down with a dud (both Doyle and Heinlein have produced individual works I didn't care for).


Wow, another Max Collins fan? Cool.

We're rarer than a blonde at a convention of gingers! 

I've recently been reading a lot of his stuff, because he's the "old school" version of John Locke, in some ways.

Not so much his Nate Heller stuff, but certainly his Quarry books, and to a lesser degree, the Nolan and Mallory series.

All I can say is, thank goodness for Amazon's Thomas and Mercer label for bringing all of Max's old stuff back into print AND into eBook. I'm buying them up as I'm able...

There was a LONG stretch where bookstores dropped Max's books... starting right around the time Carnal Hours was published. For about 15-20 years there, the only books by him that could be found outside of used bookstores were his CSI novelizations and stuff like that.

But Hard Case Crime lured Max back into publishing his own stuff, and now Thomas and Mercer has helped complete the deal, making all his old stuff that I missed available again!

I'm all caught up on Quarry, and am currently trying out Bait Money/Blood Money in the combined edition, Two for the Money, the kickoff of the Nolan series.

And I'm trying out No Cure for Death, the kickoff to the Mallory series. (Controversially... Max wrote NCFD first, but it was published second...)

I'm gonna work my way through Nolan and Mallory and when I'm done and feel ambitious, I'll try catching up on his Nate Heller books. The last one I read was STOLEN AWAY, back when it came out in 1991. Haven't read anything since.

Actually, I started the next one, CARNAL HOURS, but it was a slow starter...

Yay, Max Collins!


----------



## CandyTX (Apr 13, 2009)

Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes, etc)
Stephen King
Joshilyn Jackson


----------



## L.M.Sherwin (Sep 3, 2012)

C.S. Lewis
Lindsay Buroker
Juliet Marillier


----------



## dbowz360 (Sep 5, 2012)

Kurt Vonnegut

JD Salinger

JK Rowling

And for the new crowd

Hugh Howey

Rashad Freeman

Cassandra Clare


----------



## edmjill (Dec 19, 2012)

Jasper Fforde
Christopher Moore
Christopher Hitchens

Plus a small number of authors of NONfiction who have a talent for turning an actual event/life into something that reads like a novel.  Examples of this would include Erik Larson and Benita Eisler.


----------



## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

For me Stephen King and Robert R. McCammon remain huge influences.

Of classic literature, John Steinbeck was a major influence on my writing and in my life.

Of recent authors, Blake Crouch is right at the top.


----------



## rjspears (Sep 25, 2011)

Wow, what a great list of authors that have been listed.  I can join in on many of them.  Like many, I've been following King since he released Carrie.  His early books still speak to me over the years.  I can say the same for Ray Bradbury.  Something Wicked This Way Comes is a great book and he's a great lyrical writer.

Later in like, Thomas Harris' Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs struck a cord for me.

I also spent a lot of my teen years reading Sci-Fi.  Frank Herbert's Dune series was a formative set of books for me.  Asimov's Foundation Trilogy had a lasting impact on me, too.  I saw a couple people listed Roger Zelazny.  His Amber series was such a departure of the traditional sword and sorcery novels out at the time and I still think of them.

I stumbled upon Kurt Vonnegut in my late teens and poured through all his books.  I loved his classics plus some of his not so famous works such as Mother Night and Sirens of Titan.

I also spend a good deal of John Irving with A World According to Garp and the books he wrote around that book.

In my late 20's, I started reading mysteries, specifically private eye novels.  I discovered some great writers.  Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series was at the top of the heap.  Robert B. Parker entertained me for quite a few years with his Spenser series.  I absolutely fell in love with John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee Series even if they are a bit dated.  While he didn't write a P.I. series, James Lee Burke is certainly one of the most poetic writers in the genre.

There's really too many to list that have been memorable.    

--
R.J. Spears


----------



## MayaP (May 10, 2012)

Two writers I've loved, both new to me this year: Matthew Plampin and Oliver Pötzsch.


----------



## EbooksonKindle (Dec 28, 2012)

JK Rowling and Tolien


----------



## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

Last two years?

Kingsley Amis and Richard Powell. Plus the collection of folks who wrote the Bible.


----------



## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

New to me but now amongst my favourites are:
Tessa Dare and Elizabeth Hoyt - both dames of historical romance and very awesome they are to.


----------



## Ciuri Di Badia (May 3, 2012)

not forgetting Charles Dickens and J.K Rowling


----------



## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

I love authors with a more prominent voice. There's a few graphic novel authors whose work is incredibly distinctive. I find myself reading their series' over and over again. Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis are favorites, as well as Neil Gaiman.


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

NicWilson said:


> I love authors with a more prominent voice. There's a few graphic novel authors whose work is incredibly distinctive. I find myself reading their series' over and over again. Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis are favorites, as well as Neil Gaiman.


Sorry, gotta call that out.

90 percent of the work of all three of these writers, which has been collected into the graphic novel format, had those stories begin life in standard 22-page/month comic books.

Calling them "graphic novel authors" is pretentious and an attempt to make them seem like they are a cut above the equally-prolific and accomplished writers like Brian Michael Bendis, Bruce Jones, Mark Millar, and others.

And with the possible except of Neil Gaiman, all of them would quickly identify themselves as "comic book writers" not "graphic novel authors."


----------



## backslidr (Nov 23, 2012)

My favorites are:

Peter F. Hamilton
Stephen King
Dan Simmons

Also:

JRR Tolkien
CS Lewis


----------



## Jenni Norris (Oct 10, 2012)

Okay, if we're sticking to memorable authors of the past two years...

I read Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell over Christmas on my Kindle. I was a total snob about this book as my mother read it and watched the movie repeatedly throughout my childhood and I had become oppositional about it. What a TREAT! It is still with me now, one of those stories that inhabits your soul.


----------



## vindicativevisage (Jan 9, 2013)

My most memorable authors:

J. R. R. Tolkein
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Michael Crichton (still upset he's dead)
Daphne Du Maurier
Dean Koontz
Agatha Christie
Richard Matheson
Ray Bradbury

I'm sure there are others (just as there are more to come that I've yet to read), but these are the first that come to mind.


----------



## TWD Glasgow (Jan 10, 2013)

I'm also a big fan of Steven King. I also like the Scandinvian authors like Camilla Lackberg and Stieg Larsson (his trilogy really did live up to the hype). I can't wait for more of Japanese author Kirino Natsuo's books to be translated into English as I loved all the ones that have been so far, including Out. I also try not to miss Linwood Barclay's latest and I love the Harlan Coben Myron Bolitar books too.


----------



## bertcarson (Jan 28, 2011)

There are a number of authors that I love - most memorable is Nevil Shute - if you've not read him, here's my favorite


----------



## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

TWD Glasgow said:


> I'm also a big fan of Steven King. I also like the Scandinvian authors like Camilla Lackberg and Stieg Larsson (his trilogy really did live up to the hype). I can't wait for more of Japanese author Kirino Natsuo's books to be translated into English as I loved all the ones that have been so far, including Out. I also try not to miss Linwood Barclay's latest and I love the Harlan Coben Myron Bolitar books too.


Stephen.

There is no Steven King who writes books like Christine and The Dead Zone.


----------



## hamerfan (Apr 24, 2011)

John Steinbeck
Ken Kesey


----------



## Ciuri Di Badia (May 3, 2012)

also, I'm thinking of Kyle and Robert Blunt as my most memorable authors of this generation


----------



## vindicativevisage (Jan 9, 2013)

Three more I also like...

Anita Shreve
Luanne Rice
Kay Hooper

More to come. LOL!


----------



## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Douglas Adams. Just reread _Hitchhiker's_ and fell in love with it all over again.

Plus many of the authors already mentioned.


----------



## mickbose (Nov 17, 2012)

Does depend on age and experience to a certain extent.

In literary fiction it had to be Jack Kerouac - the most lyrical English writer I know. And English was not even his first language, him being a Canuck and all.

In thrillers and suspense it has to be :

John Grisham 

Lee Child 

Michael Palmer


----------



## Ciuri Di Badia (May 3, 2012)

also we should remember John Enright (Pago Pago Tango (Jungle Beat)) and Rule by
Jay Crownover. i read the two books last month and these two authors have a sense of style. they are talented as well.


----------



## Feud_writer (Jan 13, 2013)

Most memorable? In other words the stories stay with me long afterwards - maybe the phrases stay too...

I suppose Tolkien because when I first read him LOTR was less well known and the whole epic was new to me. I almost gave up when Boromir died but glad I persevered!
Bernard Cornwell I think revolutionised historical fiction and several of his stories have been especially memorable.
Alexander Dumas I enjoyed when I was younger and still think about some of his heroic characters, especially how he highlights the flaws they have. I like that in characters.


----------

