From the “bring back from the dead” category:
Kurt Vonnegut
John Kennedy Toole
I heartily wish Robert Anton Wilson had lived long enough to complete his Historical Illuminatus Chronicles (planned as a pentalogy; only three novels published).
both deceased:
John Steinbeck, to finish The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights.
Roger Zelazny, to wrap up some of the loose ends in the Amber series. (The ending of that last book was kind of rushed.)
I wish Terry Pratchett didn’t have Alzheimer’s. Not that it’s going to stop him from writing (his latest Discworld novel just came out), but it’s bound to slow/reduce his output.
Ken Grimwood, to complete his sequel to Replay.
Tom Reamy. Blind Voices was a terrific book (even if he didn’t quite finish polishing it) and his short story output showed him to be one of the best emerging SF talents of his time.
She turned into Harper Lee, duh!
Second this. And I’d add H. Beam Piper, who committed suicide without realizing that he had just sold several works (other personal problems may have contributed to his decision). I would love to have seen what else he might have produced.
Douglas Adams
Rudyard Kipling
George Washington Harris
Terry Pratchett - more discworld please…we need to find a cure for Alzheimers!
A. Conan Doyle
Mark Twain
Larry Niven
You beat me to the punch.
Aye.
Also, in the realm of the living, but goddamn slow:
Martha Wells (at least she finished her last series, but still)
Iain M. Banks (because I’m going through the Culture at a terrible rate)
George RR Martin
David Brin
That’s who I came in to mention.
Also Charles Dickinson. He wrote a charming time travel novel – A Shortcut in Time – it begs for a sequel and he’s written one but his publisher isn’t interested.
I’d buy more Civil War mysteries if Owen Parry would write them, but apparently he’s said all he has to say about crime-solving dwarfs in the 19th century.
I’d also read more from John Morressy, particularly the Kedrigern wizard tales.
I’m sure I’ll think of more as soon as I post this, but:
Barry Hughart.
Seconds to Douglas Adams and George R. R. Martin.
But I’ll go ahead and be the first to say Robert Jordan
also
J.R.R. Tolkien I might get stoned by Tolkein purists for saying this but, all the stuff his son put together is impressive and all, but I’d rather have some more actual long-form novels like LOTR (whether on Middle Earth or not.)
I’m almost tempted to say Spider Robinson. His earlier stuff in the Callahan series is great. The recent stuff in that series, not so much. Last one I read was just horrible. Killed off a major character for no apparrent reason, has a virtual zoo full of animals that talk, and the puns weren’t particularly sharp.
Same. 20 books of Aubrey/Maturin isn’t nearly enough.
Oh yeah, that’s another one!
Oh, and I dunno if this counts, but I wish William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth would team up again. I just read Epicurus the Sage for the first time, and it brought back such great memories of when I first discovered The Maxx. I do enjoy Kieth’s more recent solo stuff, but those two together were really a great team.
Everyone else has already said it, but I’m going to chime in anyway. I want some more of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently.
Thirded (or fourthed? I forget). The only series I’ve ever read where I found myself (by about book 9 or 10) actively attempting to slow my own reading down, cause I so badly didn’t want to reach the end.
Dorothy L. Sayers. I could read some more of her Peter Wimsey stories.