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Post by aubrey on Sept 24, 2009 14:47:57 GMT
For me, it's CP Snow (I wish, I wish he'd written more; Corridors of Power and The Masters are getting too familiar to me now) and Stephen King (I'm always finding stuff of his that I haven't read - pretty much the opposite of Snow).
Both of them have very distinctive styles: but neither let their style get in the way of telling the story; for both, the story is the main thing, the reason for writing in the first place.
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Sept 24, 2009 15:50:34 GMT
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard, David Gemmell - Masters of the herioc fantasy/dark fantasy/sword and planet genere....I've also read Brian Aldiss's "Heliconia" trilogy way too many times.
Stephen Kings "Dark Tower" series is focking boss (say true, and we all say thank ya!), as is "The Stand", one of my all time favorite novels
I love the way that SK always manages to involve charracters from the dark tower in all of his other books.
AH
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Post by motorist on Sept 24, 2009 16:21:21 GMT
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alan Dean Foster (Alien books and the Spellsinger fantasy series), smoe of Arthur C Clarke's stuff, quite like Lovecraft
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Sept 24, 2009 16:24:52 GMT
So long since I've read the spellsinger series, I read the first three, but never got around to the other three, I keep looking for all 6 of them on ebay, but nobody is ever selling the whole set.  I liked mudge(?) the otter, he was dead obnoxious and funny.  AH |
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Post by percyplum on Sept 24, 2009 16:26:22 GMT
R F Delderfield. I can read and re-read his books forever, A Horseman Riding By and To Serve Them all my Days are brilliant books.
Diana Gabaldon. Her Outlander series is superb. The attention to historical detail is incredible.
Ian Fleming. I've read the Bond books more times than I can remember, so much better than the films.
Dick Francis. Very formulaic but good, easy reads. I have all his novels and they're re-read many times.
Daphne Du Maurier. Love them all.
And of course, Tolkien. Best of the lot.
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Sept 24, 2009 16:26:36 GMT
Raymond E Fiest's "Riftwar" saga was top dollar, read that trilogy loads of times, but I don't know where it went, cuz I sure don't have it now.  Stephen Donaldsons "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" is a masterwork. AH |
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Post by percyplum on Sept 24, 2009 18:41:32 GMT
Stephen Donaldsons "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" is a masterwork. AH Now, I couldn't get on with that at all. Much better, IMO, were the Shardlake novels by CJ Sansom. |
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Post by Patrick on Sept 24, 2009 21:57:39 GMT
Peter Tinniswood
Tove Jansson
Jonathan Gash
D H Lawrence
Somerset Maugham
Graham Greene
To name a few.
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Sept 24, 2009 22:14:52 GMT
Stephen Donaldsons "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" is a masterwork. AH Now, I couldn't get on with that at all. Much better, IMO, were the Shardlake novels by CJ Sansom. It can be hard going at times, but ultimately rewarding...his depiction of giants (stone and sea!) is the finest I've ever read, his other creations like the bloodguard/haruchai are truly fantastic. AH |
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Sept 24, 2009 22:24:00 GMT
Big shout to Karl Edward Wagner - Master of dark fantasy and horror, creator "Kane" - The immortal who slew his brother...and went on to kill his creator, God himself. It doesn't get more hardcore than that.  AH |
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Post by everso on Sept 26, 2009 16:57:54 GMT
I rarely re-read books, but I'm with Percy Plum on Daphne Du Maurier. Fab books.
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Post by Alpha Hooligan on Sept 26, 2009 17:18:06 GMT
Books have layers Mrs E, you've never truly *read* a novel until you've read it several times IMO.
AH
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Post by everso on Sept 27, 2009 22:31:04 GMT
Books have layers Mrs E, you've never truly *read* a novel until you've read it several times IMO. AH You're correct. I've read "Gone with the wind" countless times and find new stuff in it every time. Similarly, The Pickwick Papers (you know, that book that Piffle loves so much  ) I guess, though, that it depends how much you enjoy a book as to whether you want to re-read it. |
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Post by aubrey on Sept 29, 2009 16:40:45 GMT
DL Sayers's Wimsey novels, as well - though there's not enough of those (the stories tend not to be as good - he turns into more like an adventure character).
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Post by riotgrrl on Sept 29, 2009 16:44:18 GMT
DL Sayers's Wimsey novels, as well - though there's not enough of those (the stories tend not to be as good - he turns into more like an adventure character). I've never heard of those ones Aubrey. Is that quite an obscure one, or is my education shockingly deficient? Rebecca West's Grey Falcon Black Lamb is one I can always return to, because it's about 1000 blooming pages long, so you always skip bits and forget bits. The sense of time, place and atmosphere is exquisite, although I DO skip all the bits about art, which one time I will read. |
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Post by aubrey on Sept 29, 2009 17:00:07 GMT
Shockingly deficient, I'd say.  ;D Lord Peter Wimsey? Dorothy L Sayers (the "L" to differentiate her from a popular singer of the day)? She was one of the three or four Queens of the Golden Age of Crime (the 20s and 30s), and a better prose writer than any of them - this is what makes her books so readable even when you know who the murderer is (I usually forget, though; I never think it's that important). She is a bit snobbish, I suppose (though not anti-Semitic, even though some of her characters are), and some people really don't like her; but there are plenty of people who will say that The Nine Tailors is one of the greatest novels - any genre - of the 20th century. (I thought I had that R West book, but it turned out to be N Mitcheson.) |
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Post by aubrey on Oct 1, 2009 18:40:02 GMT
Oh, and Patricia Highsmith. She's dead good. Maybe you wouldn't have wanted to know her, though (unless you were a cat. Or a snail).
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Post by housesparrow on Oct 4, 2009 6:48:36 GMT
Of all the above, the only one I would re-read with any confidence is Greene. But then I haven't heard of a lot of the others, let alone tried to read them.
Dick Francis' early books were cracking reads and I occasionally pick one up now, but like a lot of popular writers, his more recent ones seem to have lost some sparkle.
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Post by percyplum on Oct 4, 2009 14:26:50 GMT
I agree about Dick Francis, although I've read and re-read everything he's writen. I think since his wife died, he's lacking the input!
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Post by aubrey on Oct 4, 2009 20:46:06 GMT
She co-wrote them, didn't she?
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