at 100% (and I’ve read everything they’ve put out)
Iain M. Banks
Terry Pratchett
Neil Gaiman
China Miéville
at 100% (but I’ve not read everything they’ve put out)
Clive Barker
Michael de Larrabeiti
Alan Moore
Kurt Vonnegut, Mary Roach, Carl Sagan.
Wilbur Smith
Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard, Charles Bukowski, George MacDonald Fraser, Alexandre Dumas, Marcel Proust. Also agree with JK Rowling, Carl Sagan and Ray Bradbury above. That make me think of Isaac Asimov; add him, too.
And Cormac McCarthy and Carl Hiaasen.
Is this the same Christopher Moore who writes stories set mostly in Thailand? Sometimes Cambodia or Vietnam? I really dislike his stuff.
I seriously doubt it. None of the “funny” Christopher Moore books I know of are set there.
**Blood-Sucking Fiends
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Practical Demon-Keeping
The Island of the Sequined Love Nun
The Stupidest Angel
Lamb
Fluke**
and others.
My list would be very similar, with the addition of S.M. Stirling, Douglas Adams (I liked the Dirk Gently novels), Glen Cook, and Patrick O’Brian.
Glen was there for me until the last couple of BC books. Eh.
I really wish he would go back to Starfishers universe.
As for the OP, not sure I have any truly 100%, but really, really close:
**Iain M. Banks ** (I’ve read all of the novels written under that name, none of his Iain Banks stuff)
**Glen Cook ** - as noted above. I actually own and have read everything (this includes all shorts & magazines) of his with the exception of the smut book he wrote under a different name (and Sung In Blood - which I’ve read, but don’t own).
**C.S. Friedman ** - I haven’t read her last two, but everything up to that point is great.
**David McCullough ** - read everything he’s done. Fantastic storyteller. The fact that the stories are true makes it even better.
Mark Helprin qualifies, too. (mostly*)
…and how about poets? James Wright has never failed to chose perfect words and arrange them in the best order.
*C’mon, we can all pretend somebody else wrote Frederick and Fredericka, can’t we?
If you want to keep that feeling, you might want to avoid The Halloween Tree.
For me, L. Sprague de Camp was the first name I thought of.
I have a few of his left to go, but he was pretty infallible as far as I can tell.
I have only started on John Updike’s books. I just finished Rabbit is Rich. I’m tentatively moving him into my “can’t miss” list. This is in spite of the fact that I closed Rabbit is Rich for the last time thinking, “Thank god I don’t have to spend any more time with those horrible people for a while.”
Martha Grimes
Jack Vance
Octavia Butler
Anne George
Fritz Leiber. (I’ll try to think of some who aren’t dead.)
oO Oo I want to add DA to my list. The criteria is did any of his books disappoint. His dying isn’t a disappointing book it’s a disappointing occurence.
No more for JK Rowling? I know it’s passé for sophisticated people to say they liked Harry Potter, … But they were GOOD!
For me - Bill Bryson & Eric Newby. but more so their travel or other nonfiction, but not their memoirs.
and Lobsang - lots of people still think Rowling is great. but there a few of us who don’t. I couldn’t make it past the first book. but I never said I was sophisticated.
Robert Charles Wilson.
Richard Condon was consistently excellent.
Elmore Leonard
Carl Hiiassen
Dennis Ryerson
These are the authors that I’ve loved everything by and will immediately buy anything new by:
Carl Hiaasen: his stuff is great, even the two children’s books he’s written. Heck, even his newspaper column collections and anti-Disney books are very entertaining. Sometimes I wonder how anti-environmentalists feel about him, since almost every frickin’ book of his has environmentalist themes or even the occasional bout of what could easily be classified as “eco-terrorism” by the main characters. But I love 'em.
Tim Dorsey: I love his stuff too. It’s like Carl Hiaasen but zanier and darker. I want to be friends with Serge Storms (as long as it’s a long-distance friendship).
Christopher Moore: The epitome of fantastic absurdism. I’ll snap up his stuff quicker than anybody else on this list. When he wrote the sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends I just about had a spontaneous orgasm.
Douglas Adams: I loved the Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy, even when it became increasingly inaccurately named, from the moment I started reading it in junior high. I tried to read Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency back then too, but I didn’t understand it at all. For years I thought it was a confusing mess. Then a couple years ago I listened to the audio book and I thought, “What the hell was wrong with me? This book is awesome.” And his nonfiction was hugely entertaining as well.
Robert J. Sawyer: the premiere Candian science fiction author. I’ve absolutely loved every one of his books except Frameshift, and that was stilll an excellent book; it was only because it was so hard to watch the protagonist deteriorate from Huntington’s Disease that I’ve avoided the book since. His Quintaglio Ascension trilogy was incredible, as was his Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, as was … well, everything.
Scott Adams: yeah, the Dilbert guy. I like Dilbert too, but here I’m mostly thinking about his non-comic writings: The Dilbert Principle, The Dilbert Future … and his two non-Dilbert-related books, God’s Debris and The Religion War. God’s Debris, as a thought experiment, I found strange but intriguing, while the second (as a work of, essentially, science fiction) I found quite thrilling.
Richard K. Morgan: I started out with his first novel, Altered Carbon, and I enjoyed all three of the Takeshi Kovacs novels immensely. The Altered Carbon universe is scary but intriguing and fascinating. His other two books, Market Forces and Thirteen, have also been great (although I’m in the middle of Thirteen right now, so I can’t say the whole THING is great for sure … but it’s great so far).
Steven Gould: His Jumper trilogy (sort of a trilogy; there are three books, the first one and a sequel featuring the same characters and a third one made more like the movie that is coming out soon, but I’ll go with “trilogy”) are just wonderful. His other books aren’t quite as gripping for me personally, but they’ve all been good anyway.
Jeff Lindsay: I love the Dexter books, even though I find myself liking the Dexter on Showtime’s series more than I like the Dexter in the books. Still, I won’t miss a step in Dexter’s adventures.
Dave Barry: Of course, everybody likes his columns and his humor books, but I’m referring here to his novels. Big Trouble and Tricky Business were hilarious, and good plots and interesting characters. I’m still anxiously waiting to see if he’ll come out with something new. Meantime, his Peter Pan prequels with Ridley Pearson are excellent as well.
Richard Russo: I started reading this guy when somebody in some thread here recommended his book Straight Man, and it turned out to be really good. All the rest of his stuff has been good too. Poignant and compelling. I understand they made a movie out of Empire Falls.
Max Barry: This guy’s first book, Jennifer Government, was too cool for words. His second book, Company, was almost as good. I wonder if he has anything new out.
Max Brooks: I loved World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide. Here’s hoping he comes out with more stuff.
Mark Haddon: His first book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, written from the first-person perspective of a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, was amazing. His second book, A Spot of Bother, was also good, although come to think of it I haven’t actually finished that one yet; I got distracted when my MP3 player stopped working at the same time my e-book reader died.
Hmm… that’s all I can think of at the moment. I’m sure I’m leaving some out.
These are authors that I love so far, but I don’t think I’ve read everything of:
Spider Robinson: So far I’ve only read most of the Callahan series (except Callahan’s Lady and Lady Slings the Booze, because those weren’t available when I read the Callahan series; I recently found a copy of the first but still need to find the latter) and Very Bad Deaths, which I thought was an incredibly good book but it freaked me out immensely. I want to read his Lifehouse trilogy and … some book he wrote about civilization collapsing because somebody gave all humans a hugely enhanced sense of smell.
Allen Steele: I’ve really enjoyed the books of his that I’ve read so far, particularly A King of Infinite Space. I hear that his Coyote books are really good too. Need to check those out.
Tom Robbins: I very much enjoyed his Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, and also his newer book Villa Incognito. Having a bit of trouble following along with Half Asleepin Frog Pajamas, though someday I’ll get back to it.
Terry Pratchett: after years of avoiding Discworld because it sounded weird, I halfheartedly picked up a copy of Mort at Borders and read a few chapters before I quit and moved on to some other author. A couple years later, I picked up a copy of Good Omens, his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, because hey, humorous apocalyptic fiction – how can you go wrong? And sure enough, it was hilarious and well-plotted. Still, I resisted anything involving Discworld. Finally, a few months ago, I broke down and listened to Going Postal because the summary sounded intriguing. And damned if I didn’t discover that I LOVE Discworld … at least in audiobooks. (There are a lot of books I find I can’t read in print but that I love in audio. Which sucks, because I used to be able to read anything in print, but over the last few years some combination of head injury and vision problems has robbed me of my ability to read lots of stuff without contracting a blinding headache. Grr.) I asked for opinions here and started listening to the Night Watch series of Discworld books; I’m through the first two so far. I also gave Mort another shot, and it was pretty darn good. What do you know! Some people tell me the Rincewind novels aren’t as good, though … but others say the opposite. We’ll see!
Lawrence Block: I’ve only read two of his books, the first two of the Keller series: Hit Man and Hit List. I’m saving Hit Parade for later. And if his other books are as good as the Keller books, I think I like this guy a lot.
Umberto Eco: I really enjoyed The Name of the Rose, but that’s the only Umberto Eco book I’ve read so far. And that was a crappy abridged audiobook. Stupid lack of an unabridged version…
Hmmm … that’s all I can think of there too …
These are the authors that I mostly love or used to love:
Larry Niven: I absolutely adore most of his old books, especially the Known Space books and his short story collections. I also enjoy some of his collaborations with Jerry Pournelle, like Lucifer’s Hammer, Footfall, Oath of Fealty, and The Legacy of Heorot*. On the other hand, I have never really been able to get into the collaborations he did that involve Steven Barnes, for some reason – except for The Legacy of Heorot. And although some of his recent books have been great, like the fourth Ringworld novel and the collection of Draco Tavern stories, his recent collaborations haven’t been that great for me – Fleet of Worlds was decent, being a Known Space book, but I just didn’t think it was as good as his past books. And I never got past the fist two chapters of Building Harlequin’s Moon. And some of Niven’s works, like Destiny’s Road and Rainbow Mars, well, I found them a bit hard to follow (which is ironic in the case of Rainbow Mars, since I love the short Hanville Svetz stories).
Orson Scott Card: Again, I love most of his old stuff (even Xenocide and, yes, even Children of the Mind for crying out loud), until he started mixing too much politics in with his fiction in the last few years. Now I feel like every time I read one of his books I’m getting preached to. It kills me, because he used to be one of my favorite authors. I didn’t mind nearly as much when he was just posting his ranting personal views on his web site, but his incorporating them into his fiction (and especially into his Ender’s Game universe) really bothers me.
Michael Crichton: Don’t laugh. I really liked some of his books, especially as a kid – Sphere and Congo and Jurassic Park and The Lost World and Timeline and even The Terminal Man were quite thrilling, if much more “fiction” than “science.” But others I find boring and/or ridiculous (I tried to read Disclosure and Rising Sun as a teenager and couldn’t get past the first couple chapters. Although I did enjoy watching Demi Moore sexually harass Michael Douglas in the movie.) After State of Fear, I didn’t think I’d be able to read him anymore – I feared he was going down the same road as OSC and would be politicizing his books excessively from now on. But I found his latest book, Next, to be surprisingly good … it did get a little political about the issue of patenting genes and whatnot, but that’s not really all that political.
Whew, that was long. Yet I still feel like I’ve left a lot out. Grumble.
May I put some mystery writers on the list?
Dick Francis, and that includes the latest one which he worked on with his son.
Margaret Frazier, for both her Dame Frevisse and Joliffe mysteries, set in England in the 1400s
Ellis Peters, at least all the Brother Cadfael ones
Stephanie Barron who uses Jane Austen as her detective. They’re very well done, for the Austen-ophiles out there
Lillian Jackson Braun of the The Cat Who series. Some of the books are better than others, of course, but I haven’t hit a complete clunker yet.
You gave me quite a scare.
I had to look this up to make sure. I’ve never read any Christopher Moore, but I did read a really cheesy re-incarnation book by that title, as a teen and I couldn’t remember who the author was. I haven’t been able to completely excise the memory of it from my mind, alas. This was before I was mature enough to realize that life isn’t long enough to read crappy books, for no other reason than one has purchased it. I was going to be very, very disappointed that anyone could claim that was a great read.
Somehow I wasn’t surprised, at all, to see a movie version made of that book in the 90s.