Agree with the OP that DFW was a sad loss, he surely had another masterpiece or two in him.
Ursula Le Guin is my faecitious pick amongst living authors. A new book from good Ursula would really be something.
A serious pick is Samuel Delany. Just seemed to reach his pinnacle as a SF writer with Stars in my pocket like grains of sand, in 1984, and then lose interest in writing SF novels. The Neveryona series was written about the same time, which I don’t much rate, but is at least very ambitious. Nothing on the novel front since then save for a couple of lamentable excursions into pornographic fiction in the 90s.
He did give us his autobiography in 1988, which is exceptionally good. The motion of life on water - has there ever been a more intriguing SF writer? Absolute top drawer book.
It seems churlish to complain about the output of such a talented writer, but the thing is he promised a sequal to Stars…I’m certain the title of a sequel was printed in my original copy. So it’s sad that it never came to pass - He’s in a different street to most current SF writers and it would be great to see him return to the genre.
Jill Paxton Walsh has written two Peter Wimeys (authorized by the Sayers estate). Thrones, Dominations is based on an unfinished novel, and A Presumption Of Death is based on the so-called “Wimsey Papers”, a collection of short notes and articles circulated among Sayers’ friends during the war years.
The books aren’t bad, but you can tell the parts that are authentic Sayers and the parts that are Walsh alone.
Re:- The O’Brian books, and I mention this every time his name comes up in a thread. Beg, borrow, or steal the audiobook versions as read by Patrick Tull.
When Avram Davidson was alive, I once read he had a Doctor Eszterhazy novel in the works. I wish he had lived long enough to publish it. Especially if it involved Eszterhazy in love – Eszterhazy was always a curiously sexless character, though by no means prudish, and a complete man in every other way.
As an alternate-history fan, I wish John Maddox Roberts would write a third volume in his Hannibal’s Children series, and Suzan Alles Blom would do a sequel to Inca: The Scarlet Fringe (supposedly a trilogy was intended). And that Kirk Mitchell would write a fourth Procurator novel (the third ended with a cliffhanger).
Spider Robinson’s The Free Lunch ended with a perfect setup for a sequel. I publicly got down on my knees and begged him for one at a book signing at Torcon 3, but he just muttered, “I don’t wanna spend time in Thrillworld!” Dammit, Spider, you knew the assignment was dangerous when you took it! :mad:
Niven still writes. He and Jerry Pournelle are collaborating on another “hit the earth with something big” book at the moment, I think it will be titled “Lucifer’s Anvil”. They just released a sequel to “Inferno”, “Escape from Hell”. So there ya go.
Ha! I don’t know this writer, but now I’m going to have to check him out!
I hesitate to say this, because her last books weren’t good but Georgette Heyer - if she was in the form that made Black Moth & Devils Cub such wonderful period romances or Death in the Stocks such a good murder mystery.
Jane Austen
Another vote for Rex Stout
Frances Parkinson Keyes
I believe you’re referring to John Kennedy Toole, who wrote A Confederacy of Dunces and The Neon Bible, the latter of which is the one which I suppose you’ve read. It’s a favorite of mine, too.
Since no one has mentioned it, I wish Sterling Lanier had managed to write the third novel of the Hiero trilogy; he had a stroke that wiped out his vision for the book, and died without making progress on it.
My problem with George R.R. Martin is that, by his own admission, he usually starts a series and then doesn’t finish it because he starts a different series. This is why I haven’t started the Song of Ice and Fire series yet - I want to know if there’s going to be an ending before I begin.
I’d like to see S.M. Stirling continue the series. He’s a good writer, likes the genre, and is a big Flashman fan.
I once started a thread wondering what the heck David Brin was doing. He was steadily publsihing back in the eighties and nineties with a new novel every year or two. But he hasn’t released anything since Kiln People back in 2002. He’s still actively working so I’m worried he may have just decided to stop writing novels to do something else.
Donald Kingsbury. A very good SF author but a very slow one. He wrote his first story in 1952. Then he skipped the sixties. He wrote two stories in the seventies and two novels in the eighties. I had hoped his output would increase when he retired from teaching in 1986 but it’s actually slowed instead. He published three stories in the nineties and one novel in 2001. He’s supposedly been revising another promised novel since 1984.
David Palmer. Another very slow SF writer. He wrote two very good novels in the eighties. Then he stopped - he wrote that he’s a very slow writer and can’t afford to devote the time it takes him to write a book because he’d never be able to make a living at it. He finally published a third book in 2008 and there’s rumors he has one other book mostly completed.
Another vote for George MacDonald Fraser here. I would dearly love to know the full story about how Flashman managed not only to serve in both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, but also be highly decorated by both sides. That much is known from his passing references to such in the existing books, but that was a book waiting to be written.
It’d be nice to have an actual Tom Clancy book, I agree. Not Tom Clancy and Someone Else, meaning that Someone Else wrote the book and Mr. Clancy came up with the plot outline, proof-read it and gave it his Big Rubber Stamp Of Approval.
Also, I’d like to see Clive Cussler return to his earlier form (Sahara/Mayday!/Raise The Titanic). He’s wandered spectacularly off track lately and that’s rather unfortunate.
Bill Bryson - what is he doing that’s so important we don’t get a new book???
Leslie Glass - I need to read the further adventures of Detective April Woo Sanchez.
Sharyn McCrumb - I guess she has another Appalachian novel coming out soon, but it’s been too long, and she was sidetracked by, God help us, Nascar, of all dumbass things, for a looong time.
Robert Crais - hoping another Elvis Cole/Joe Pike is coming out soon.
I have Monster In A Box (Inspector Wexford series) by Ruth Rendell to devour this weekend. As Ms. Rendell, one of the greatest writers in the history of civilization, is in her 80’s, this could be the last Inspector Wexford, a sad thought…I hope she has a few more twisted, perverse books in her to put out…
Awaiting the next in the alphabet from Sue Grafton with great impatience.
Awaiting the next Lindley/Havers doorstop from Elizabeth George.