Either Hunter Thompson or Molly Ivans would give great political commentary in these times.
This and C.S. Forester too while we are at it.
Yeah - he needs to finish Hornblower During the Crisis. I want to know if C. Northcote Parkinson was correct about how it was going to end.
And he can write The Edge and the Point while he’s at it.
This. He left a lot of hanging plot points, and now we’ll never know what happened or why.
I’d also like to see a sequel to Changeling and Madwand; he left things hanging with that wizard with robes that had a “Made In Taiwan” label.
I’m actually kind of glad that nobody’s stepped in to say they want John D. MacDonald back to write the final Travis McGee novel, or publish the one that was rumored to have been written (The Black Border of Death); I don’t believe he planned on having the Silver Rain novel be the last one, but it works pretty well that way.
Tangentially-related, I’d like Eva Cassidy to come back and record another CD, now that music publishers understand what kind of talent she was.
What muldoonthief said. But 2500 pages is too short.
I came here for the Frank Herbert. I picture him bursting through the door with a typewriter in arm, saying “I’ve come her to chew bubblegum and kick ass!” and then sending Brian Herbert to his room with no supper.
I’d bring back Lovecraft, retroactively, at least long enough for him to end up writing scripts for E.C. Comics and Night Gallery.
Bringing Lovecraft back from the dead pretty much would be an art form in itself, and wouldn’t neeca story.
But don’t put him on Night Gallery – that would e a Fate Worse than Death. They were bad enough to poor Rod Serling. And they butchered Lovecraft every time they did him.
Octavia Butler ~ and ~ Jack Vance
Another vote for Zelazny. And, in addition to wrapping up the loose ends in the Amber stories he wrote, I want him to write the story of Oberon that Betancourt did (which, to be fair, I enjoyed. But it wasn’t Zelazny.).
And maybe another story like A Night in the Lonesome October.
I agree with bringing back Heinlein for more juveniles. I’d like to get another Starship Troopers novel out of him too - more of the adventures of Lt. Juan Rico or perhaps some of Sgt. Zim’s exploits.
I don’t think he was capable of writing that sort of book in his later days.
Whereupon his entire former fandom beat him to death. You’d all be in jail if Mrs. Rhymer & I hadn’t gone back and changed history again.
Like I’d let you guys bother the master. He’ll write what he wants, and you’ll LIKE it.
::hangs head:: It’s true, I would like it. I cannot think of a Heinlein book I did not enjoy. It seems like there should be one, but I cannot think of it.
C.M. Kornbluth. He wrote a couple of the best science fiction or fantasy short-shorts when he was all of 16, then WWII damaged his health and he dropped dead in his 30s, leaving a lot of great stories but also the potential for ever better work in his more mature years.
I didn’t LOVE I Will Fear No Evil; it was readable, just re-readable the way The Moon is a Harsh Mistress or Stranger in a Strange Land are. And once I read it as an adult, I thought The Number of the Beast was actively bad, but in a good way; that is, its badness is deliberate, as the novel is an elaborate joke. So those two (IWFNE & TNofB) are as close as he gets to unsatisfactory.
You’re going to a backup refrigeration system in case the main one breaks - or a whole lotta ice…
The above should read “it was readable, just NOT re-readable.” Pallas is messing with my typing again, on account of me refusing to promise to leave my wife for her when she (Pallas) transitions from computer to flesh & blood.