What do you think of these authors?

[Infinitefox]

I'm curious to see what this site thinks of these authors:

Richard Matheson
Robert McCammon
Greg Iles
Ray Bradbury
Stephen King
John Saul
Michael Crichton(Was sorry to hear he died last year)
Richard Adams

[Zee.]

I finished I am Legend just the other day, my next of Matheson's will be Hell House.
I really enjoyed I am Legend and thought Matheson wrote in a way which really captured my attention from the first page. The whole book was filled with tension and I haven't read a book that has kept me on edge like that in a long time. It was refreshing.

Stephen King - I'm a bit iffy with him. Some of his work I really enjoy, but a lot of it seems quite.. tacky and forced. But I haven't read enough of his work to put forward a valid opinion on it.

[jon1jt]

I'm curious to see what this site thinks of these authors:

Richard Matheson
Robert McCammon
Greg Iles
Ray Bradbury
Stephen King
John Saul
Michael Crichton(Was sorry to hear he died last year)
Richard Adams


I haven't read Matheson and never even heard of Greg Iles, but the rest I know are pop novelists who suck.

[Dark Muse]

I have a love-hate relationship with Stephen King. On the whole I enjoy reading his works and I do like him, but I can nit-pick at him at times, and there are things he does in which it feels as if he got bored with his own story and was not trying anymore, but there are other things he does are truly captivating I think.

On the whole I find many of his short stories to be a bit weak. Execpt for the Apt Pupil which I think is outanding.

[lupe]

I must admitt that I'm not a big fun of this kind of pop litterature and I have read very few books of this authors. Occasionally, there are some books I enjoyed, like Ray Bradbury's short stories "The illustrated man".

[kelby_lake]

I'm curious to see what this site thinks of these authors:

Richard Matheson
Robert McCammon
Greg Iles
Ray Bradbury
Stephen King
John Saul
Michael Crichton(Was sorry to hear he died last year)
Richard Adams

Didn't Richard Adams write Watership Down?
I thought Farenheit 451 was very interesting- don't really want to read anything else by Bradbury.

[Thespian1975]

Stephen King is a good writer but he does seem to include stuff that is irrelevant sometimes. The Stand that I'm reading now is very disjointed.

Michael Crichton. Again. His early stuff, especialy the medical novels, are very good. State of Fear is rubbish and Prey is almost unreadable. He gets so bogged down in putting HIS point across he doesn't let his characters speak.

Richard Adams - AWW Bunny rabbits. Loved it as a kid. :bawling:

The others I've not read.

[1n50mn14]

I love Bradbury, especially his short stories (E.g. On the Orient North, The Toynbee Convector, etc.) He captures my imagination and draws me in, creeps me out a little bit, sometimes, expresses many beautiful and lonely ideas, and can weave a great love story. (The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair, I think it's called, would be what I'm referencing for that point.)

Stephen King is a cliche. Some of his work is outstanding, some of it is just absolute crap. The way he writes annoys me. And he puts way too much background into many of his stories. Cut to the chase. I don't need to know the color of the protagonist's toothbrush...

I am Legend is the only thing I've read of Matheson's, but found it quite enjoyable.

[oopsycandy]

I read one of Bradburys short stories at school and that really got me interested in the format and I still love reading him. I liked I Am Legend as well it was an interesting take on the vampire theme. I've found that the older I get the less and less inclined I am to read King, I read a lot of his stuff when I was a teenager but I just can't seem to be bothered by his stories anymore :) I've not read the others.

[DeadAsDreams]

Richard Matheson is fantastic, especially the phenomenal I Am Legend. A masterpiece of horror fiction.

[JCamilo]

Didn't Richard Adams write Watership Down?
I thought Farenheit 451 was very interesting- don't really want to read anything else by Bradbury.

Martian Chronicles is mostly likely the best science fiction book ever written, if that is relevant. Anyways, it is one of the best books of XX century, better than Farenheit, which is indeed a very good book. But the movie is better.

[Amylian]

Well, I am not fimiliar with the rest except Stephen King. I've read some of his works like The Green Mile or umm, just The Green Mile I think and it blows my mind. He is good.

[Infinitefox]

I finished I am Legend just the other day, my next of Matheson's will be Hell House.
I really enjoyed I am Legend and thought Matheson wrote in a way which really captured my attention from the first page. The whole book was filled with tension and I haven't read a book that has kept me on edge like that in a long time. It was refreshing.

Stephen King - I'm a bit iffy with him. Some of his work I really enjoy, but a lot of it seems quite.. tacky and forced. But I haven't read enough of his work to put forward a valid opinion on it.

I agree about King. The Shining, IT, The Stand, The Dead Zone, Christine, and The Green Mile are all really good, but a lot of his other stuff isn't that good. A lot of his stuff is forced. The last few I've read haven't been that good. I'm starting to think I've read all his best stuff.

[dfloyd]

If this is your total list if authors you like, you better quit going to the beach. You're sun stroke.

[anselmosavenger]

I think Stephen King has a lot of potential, but he hasn't been forced to push himself as a writer because popular culture welcomed his shock fiction with open arms.

[Riesa]

I'm curious to see what this site thinks of these authors:

Richard Matheson
Robert McCammon
Greg Iles
Ray Bradbury
Stephen King
John Saul
Michael Crichton(Was sorry to hear he died last year)
Richard Adams


of the ones I've read, storytellers, all. and, I have to ask this crowd too, when did a good story become garbage?

[jon1jt]

of the ones I've read, storytellers, all. and, I have to ask this crowd too, when did a good story become garbage?



A story that adheres to a conventional model of novel writing devised with mathematical precision by a publishing industry who spins a predictable plot, subplot, character development, rising climax, and conclusion appealing to readers who happen to not know the difference between a good or bad story, but who also do not judge books for their great storytelling anyway. Readers are motivated by a commercial press and spin machine telling them the books are great and so they must be.

[kevinthediltz]

I am currently reading 451 and i am completely hooked by it.