Who Is The Big-Time Author That You Have Never Read But Intend To Read?

[Marion]

I just bought the Kindle Version of Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I've realized that I had never read a novel by him before?

Who is that author for you?

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

That is a very specific question and would apply to a very limited number of members.

So I will slightly adjust it for my answer.
Who is the Big-Time Author that I've never read? and (A) I intend to one day or (B) I could be convinced to read.

I've never read any Peter F. Hamlton, Kurt Vonnegut, David Weber or Jim Butcher.

[Marion]

Tassie Dave wrote: "That is a very specific question and would apply to a very limited number of members.

So I will slightly adjust it for my answer.
Who is the Big-Time Author that I've never read? and (A) I intend ..."

I've altered the topic question based on your suggestion. Thanks!

[Kim]

I had to look up some lists to get an idea. I've not read any David Weber, Harlan Ellison, Frederick Pohl, Robert Silverberg or Philip José Farmer.

I'm sure there's more but that's what I came up with from lists of "top" sci-fi authors.

[Sky]

Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Harlan Ellison, Django Wexler, Daniel Abraham and friends of the show Myke Cole, Sam Sykes, and Chuck Wendig

[Kim]

Sky wrote: "Peter F. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Harlan Ellison, Django Wexler, Daniel Abraham and friends of the show Myke Cole, Sam Sykes, and Chuck Wendig"

I wouldn't call a lot of them big-time authors.

[Sky]

Kim wrote: "I wouldn't call a lot of them big-time authors. "

i was going to use that caveat but didn't want to insult anyone :)

[Keidy]

My Big-Time Authors that I haven't read but I intend to read one day are:
Alastair Reynolds
George R.R. Martin
Terry Pratchett
James S.A. Corey
Patrick Rothfuss
Gail Carriger
J.D. Robb
Philippa Gregory
Sharon Shinn
Naomi Novik
Tamora Pierce
Katharine Kerr
Lloyd Alexander
Anne Bishop
Neal Stephenson

Aaaaaannnndddd... I think that's it. Man that's a long list. I better get reading. ^_^;

[Paul]

Off the top of my head: Peter F Hamilton, Arthur C Clarke, Ursula K. Le Guin and John Scalzi.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Keidy wrote: "My Big-Time Authors that I haven't read but I intend to read one day are:........"

You must be a fairly new S&L member. We've read 6 of them for the book club :-)

[Dara]

Alastair Reynolds.

[Keidy]

Tassie Dave wrote: "Keidy wrote: "You must be a fairly new S&L member. We've read 6 of them for the book club :-)"

Kinda. I've only been around for three-ish years and actually most of the books that I have on my wishlist was because of this book club. I usually wait around for big price drops on Amazon when I buy my books though so I rarely read a book club pick on the same month it's out unless I've already read it. That only happened once though. ^_^;

Still, those are the authors that I haven't read yet but I will. Someday. <3

[Ben]

Glen Cook, Steve Erikson, Octavia Butler, Peter Watts (other than a couple of short stories), Ian Macdonald (again other than a couple of short works), Strugatsky brothers, Lem, Holdstock, Ryman, Emma Bull...All of these I am really keen to try over next year or so.

[Alan]

Mira Grant and Elizabeth Bear. I like them very much on their squeecast and have been meaning to give their books a try for a while now.

Any suggestions for the right first book to read from either of them?

To comment on some other people's names, David Weber has several books up for free at Baen's on-line library and Harlan Ellison is primarily a short story writer so it's a fifteen minute investment of time. (I'd recommend I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream as a very representative Ellison story.)

[John (Taloni)]

I've always disliked Harlan Ellison, although I will say that "I Have..." is representative of his style. Ellison was also a jerk about genres of SF he didn't like and routinely mocked "scifi" while insisting on the term "science fiction." Ellison openly mocked Forrest J Ackerman, a fellow I rather liked for his vast collection of memorabilia and openness as shown by his house tours.

From my point of view we should all be supportive of each other. Kind of like how Heinlein gave Philip K. Dick a typewriter during a down period of Dick's, so he could continue writing. Or how libertarian leaning conservative Heinlein got along famously with hippy Spider Robinson. Heck, as I free associate on that, Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Bar" shorts are fantastic.

[Pris]

If I'm honest most of the big-names are not SFF

Thomas Pynchon - I made a start on Gravity's Rainbow but Lem'd it. Should retry.

William S. Burroughs and James Joyce also spring to mind.

[John]

I've never read Philip K. Dick before, but I recently bought Ubik and intend to read it as soon as I finish my current book.

[Trike]

Aside from Terry Pratchett and Patrick Rothfuss, I can't think of anyone I've missed. I think I've probably read at least one thing from every "big name" out there.

I don't really count anyone who has only published within the past few years a "big name" unless they have had accolades heaped upon them. (Anne Leckie, for instance, but I read her first book.)

[Brendan]

Frederik Pohl. His books have been damnably hard to track down in Canada and ebooks seem nonexistent. Also Joan Vinge, for the exact same reason.

Harlan Ellison is a big name I haven't read but at this time I don't really intend to? His reputation makes him sound quite unpleasant.

[Kayleigh]

Joe Abercrombie, Brent Weeks, David Gemmell, Ursula K LE GUIN, Steven Erikson, Michael J. Sullivan, Mark Lawrence, Robert Jordan ...

... and I can never decide which one to start with, so I end up not reading any of them.

[Scott]

Terry Pratchett

[Kat]

Joe Abercrombie

[Joel]

I've been meaning to give Guy Gavriel Kay a try for a long time.

I've also wanted to give Half a King by Joe Abercrombie a try.

Orson Scott Card. I've only read Ender's Game. Been wanting to read the Ender's Shadow series for a while.

Roger Zelazny, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson to name a few authors that have been around for some time now.

[Trike]

It must be daunting to come to SFF as a new reader these days. Or comic books, for that matter.

When I started reading both, there just wasn't that much to choose from. It seemed like you could easily keep up with new authors while also reading the classics. I'd be willing to bet that these days more genre fiction is published every month than was published in the entirety of the 1970s. With so much to choose from, I can see people getting overwhelmed.

Comics are the same way. In the late 70s and early 80s Marvel and DC were pretty much it, with Archie comics a distant third. Marvel and DC were just starting to expand their universes, so it was easy to keep track of what was going on. I clearly remember when Marvel added the second Spider-man comic (Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man) and how that seemed outrageous that he would be in three books every month. (He was also in Marvel Team-Up as the regular "host".) Nowadays it seems like there are multiples of every comic and every team.

[Kim]

Trike wrote: "Or comic books, for that matter."

I've only recently come back to comic books for that reason. I'm starting with the new Marvel Star Wars comics.

[Pat]

Off the top of my head - Robert Silverberg

[Rod]

I've never read Neal Stephenson, but I have a copy of Cryptonomicon I intend to start soon.

[Joe Informatico]

I've made it a bit of a project in the last few years, and S&L has helped with that, so I've managed to knock off at least one book from most of the "greats" (Peter F. Hamilton might not count though, since Misspent Youth isn't very typical for him). But there's a couple:

Poul Anderson
Frederik Pohl
Stanislaw Lem
Roger Zelazny (but I've had the collected Amber books for years!)
James Tiptree Jr.
Joanna Russ
M. John Harrison
Vernor Vinge
Tamora Pierce

[Louie]

Trike wrote: "Nowadays it seems like there are multiples of every comic and every team."

Yeah. For instance, Jonathan Hickman has Avengers and New Avengers that inter-relate to each other, but then Rick Remender has Uncanny Avengers that has no relation to either of those series. How confusing for new readers. (Not to mention the plethora of 'X' titles.)

[Rob]

there are so man (especially in literary fiction), but I suppose the two biggest genre dudes are Joe Abercrombie and Stephen King. Does anyone have any idea where to start with either of these, avoiding long series and, in King's case, gross out horror?

[David H.]

Well, Joe just has the First Law trilogy with some stand-alones in the same universe. I hear you can probably read some of the stand-alones as stand-alones, but apparently they might reference the original trilogy or have some cameos.

I'm not a horror guy myself, but I really enjoyed the Dark Tower series by King (obviously a long series). However, I have read two stand-alones--The Eyes of the Dragon (a simple fantasy story, but I just loved it to pieces) and 11/22/63 (great "time travel" story). I definitely recommend the latter two.

[Brendan]

First Law trilogy isn't very long and it makes for quick reading (especially if you're me and did not ever want to put it down.) The standalone books probably do work on their own but they feature so many characters from the trilogy that i wouldn't start there.

There's also Half a King which is the first book in an unrelated trilogy but it is YA and not really representative.

[Miranda]

I have to shamefully admit I never read anything by Neil Gaiman...

[John (Taloni)]

Miranda. Good Omens. Gaiman and Pratchett. Incredibly hilarious and insightful.

Rob: I'm not a King fan but found The Stand readable. Pretty long, but not grossout on the horror.

[Rob, Roberator]

Rob Secundus wrote: "there are so man (especially in literary fiction), but I suppose the two biggest genre dudes are Joe Abercrombie and Stephen King. Does anyone have any idea where to start with either of these, avo..."

Stephen King is always pegged as horror, but he actually writes a lot of stuff. I'm not very well read in his "horror" stuff despite having read about a third of what he's written.

I love his Dark Tower stuff, and have read a lot of the books that tie in to it, in both large and small ways.

I'm probably with John, I The Stand is your best bet for stand alone. It's post apocalyptic horror.

If you want something short though, I really liked Joyland. It's more slice of life than anything.

Another good option might be something like Different Seasons, which is 4 short stories, 3 of which were made into movies (Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, Apt Pupil), though I haven't gotten around to reading it yet myself.

David wrote: "However, I have read two stand-alones--The Eyes of the Dragon (a simple fantasy story, but I just loved it to pieces) and 11/22/63 (great "time travel" story). I definitely recommend the latter two."

I really liked The Eyes of the Dragon too, but a lot of people don't. Personally I didn't care for 11/22/63 as much as his other stuff, but I seem to be in a minority there.

[Melissa]

The author I haven't read yet but keep meaning too would be Isaac Asimov. Not sure where to start.

For a Stephen King recommendation either Insomnia or The Long Walk. The Stand is defiantly one of his best books but its really wordy and might not be a good introductory book.

[Rob]

@Miranda: definitely start with Good Omens. It's a quick read and extremely hilarious. Also he has some free short stories on his website that are great introductions.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone! The Stand is on my too read list eventually, it's just too much of a brick for me to tackle for a while. The Dark Tower as well isn't just on my list, I'm excited for it as I really really want more fantasy westerns, but again, length. I'l probably check out Different Seasons before anything else. What really interests me about king is every single time he's brought up I hear about books I've never heard of before (Long Walk, Joyland, Eyes of he Dragon this time).

And I'll definitely try the First Law trilogy this summer. Apparently I got the first one on a kindle sale.

[Trike]

Rob Secundus wrote: "Does anyone have any idea where to start with either of these, avoiding long series and, in King's case, gross out horror? "

I would avoid The Stand. Its reputation is bigger than it delivers. And the novel It is about 700 pages longer than it needs to be.

I would recommend Firestarter. It's more along the lines of a superhero origin story. The Running Man is actual sci-fi. It might still be published under his pen name "Richard Bachman."

I also recall liking the collection Skeleton Crew, and the standouts were "The Mist" and "Survivor Type", the latter about a shipwrecked surgeon who is forced to do the most drastic thing ever in order to survive.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

I'm not a fan of horror but have read a lot of Stephen King.
I'd put a lot of his work in Sci-Fi or Fantasy more than horror. (Of course he does have horror books in his bibliography)

"The Green Mile", "Under the Dome" (Don't confuse this with the TV show, which was a huge mess and bore very little in common with the book, except the premise) & "Hearts in Atlantis" (a good collection of short stories.) are all good reads.

Trike wrote: "I would avoid The Stand. Its reputation is bigger than it delivers. And the novel It is about 700 pages longer than it needs to be."

Agree about the Stand. One of the criticisms I have about King is that he often suffers from over padding his stories. He doesn't know when to stop or edit his own work. Publishers don't care, bigger books means bigger bucks. Some of his novels would make great short stories or novellas.
The Dark Tower is a great 7 Part trilogy ;-)

[Kelli]

I'm not sure how this has happened, but I've never read anything by Brandon Sanderson. One of my reading goals for 2015 is fix this.

Oh, and I haven't read Gail Carriger yet either. I will this year!

[Dara]

Kelli wrote: "I'm not sure how this has happened, but I've never read anything by Brandon Sanderson. One of my reading goals for 2015 is fix this.

Oh, and I haven't read [author:Gail Carriger|289..."

The Parasol Protectorate series is $2.99 on kindle right now if you don't have it. http://www.amazon.com/Soulless-Paraso...

[Kelli]

Dara wrote: The Parasol Protectorate series is $2.99 on kindle right now if you don't have it.

Thanks for the heads up! I just went over and bought it! :)

[Kevin]

Brendan wrote: "There's also Half a King which is the first book in an unrelated trilogy but it is YA and not really representative."

It's definitely more YA than is other works, but IMO it's still very representative of his style. It has a narrower focus (less sprawling plot, just one pov character) and toned down language, but other than that it has all the typical characteristics of a Joe Abercrombie story.

[Dara]

Kelli wrote: "Dara wrote: The Parasol Protectorate series is $2.99 on kindle right now if you don't have it.

Thanks for the heads up! I just went over and bought it! :)"

You're welcome! The first 3 books in her Finishing School series are $1.99. I picked those up a couple days ago. http://www.amazon.com/Etiquette-Espio...

[Alan]

Melissa wrote: "The author I haven't read yet but keep meaning too would be Isaac Asimov. Not sure where to start."
I'd suggest either The Caves of Steel, I, Robot or Foundation.
There are no precursor books to any of those three. (Later in his life he tied most of his fiction together but there wasn't really a connection when he originally wrote them.) Caves of Steel is the only novel of the three. Foundation is a set of short-stories that tie together (sometimes with carry-over characters, sometimes not) and I Robot is purely a short story collection gathering together a bunch of his early robot stories. Any of them will give you a taste of classic Asimov. If you are trying one of his other books, I'd be leery of anything long - he wasn't much for polishing his works so the long books tended to have a ton of padding.

[Melissa]

Thanks for the Asimov suggestion. I'm going to give Foundation a try. Sounds interesting.

[Brendan]

Alan wrote: "Melissa wrote: "The author I haven't read yet but keep meaning too would be Isaac Asimov. Not sure where to start."
I'd suggest either The Caves of Steel, I, Robot or [boo..."

Another one to consider is The Gods Themselves. Asimov thought it was his best work, and I agree. It has somewhat better writing than those earlier books, also.

[Clyde]

Melissa, I second Brendon's suggestion of The Gods Themselves. I think it is Asimov's best work. (Also, it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, which counts for something.)

[Silvana]

Brandon Sanderson, Ursula Le Guin, Joe Haldeman, Jerry Pournelle, HP Lovecraft, Raymond E. Feist, Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Guy Gavriel Kay, China Mieville.

[Keith]

Looking into my "To Read Soon" collection...Robert Heinlein, China Mieville, and Fritz Leiber. And while I've read plenty of Asimov, I've never read any of his "Robots" books, so I need to get on those.