Most Talented Author

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Most people have a favourite book that they've read more than once, and often people have a favourite author, and they wait breathlessly outside the bookstore whenever sed author releases a new title, but I'm after the most talented. Have you ever read an analogy and been unable to hold back your admiration for their wit and skill? Have you been blown away by someone's metaphors?

 

Nietzsche definitely, also sprach Zarathustra was filled with metaphors and he had a style of driven writing I've not seen in any other author or philosopher, not that I've been waiting for his latest release though

 

The guy that comes to my mind is Mordecai Richler. I don't think he is known outside of Canada but he was a consistently excellent author whose works always managed to be humorous, emotionally powerful and elegant all at the same time.

 

@JSBB

what did he write? in what genre?

 

If we're talking fantasy novels, I'd have to go with R.A. Salvatore. I really like his style of writing and have a hard time putting down any his books.

Overall: Ayn Rand wrote in a style that combined genius in philosophy, storytelling, and wit; and wrote 3 of the best novels I've ever read.

 

Best book I've ever read was Shogun by James Clavell, but as that's the only work of his I've tried, I can't really judge. I think I'd have to go with Agatha Christie. (Everyone knows who Agatha Christie is, right? ) For Fantasy I'd have to go with Eric S. Nylund.

 

Mordechai Richler wrote mostly about modern urban life - mostly dealing with Canadian-Jewish people living in Montreal. I am not Jewish but I still enjoyed his work considerably. Probably his most famous works would be The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and the children's novel Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.

Personally, I think that Son of a Smaller Hero, St. Urbain's Horseman and Joshua Then and Now are better than Apprenticeship.

He won the Governor General's award twice for St. Urbain's Horseman and Cocksure and three of his books have been made into movies(Jacob Two-Two, Apprenticeship and Joshua Then and Now).

 

Christopher Brookmeyer, as he's the only Author that's managed to stay a good couple of jumps ahead of my train of thought. Only works for the first reading though.

 

@Morgoth: Yay, another Nietzsche fan!
Would you believe I never read Zarathustra? Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, both Wagner books, and others... but not Zarathustra.

So, Nietzsche, William Faulkner, Norman Mailer, Edgar Allan Poe, Marcel Proust (if you have the godly patience it takes), Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jorge Luis Borges, Frank Herbert, HP Lovecraft, Tayeb Saleh, Anton Tchekhov, Boris Vian... in no particular order. All have something really original in their writing style.

 

Ummmm, pretty much anyone who ISN'T Mark Twain of Charles Dickens.

Ughh I loathe them.

 

Charles Dickens rocks. David Copperfield is one of the top 10 books I have ever read.

 

Agreed. A Tale of Two Cities isn't half bad either. My list for pure writing talent: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jane Austin, Hawthorne, James Joyce, Hemingway, and John Updike.

 

Phillip Pullman. Not my favorite, but one of the writers I have read who has the knack.

 

I read the "kiddy version" when I was much younger and the ending kinda annoyed me. the guy was such a dumbass imo. instead of waiting for the girl and becoming her crying shoulder and all that, he offers to have his head cut off instead. riiight. :/

 

You may want to try an "adult" version next time. Dickens' writing is splendid. "It may be a far, far better thing than you have ever done..."

 

Well, although this is VERY subjective...

I'd be forced to say John Steinbeck... there's a musical and lyrical quality to his prose that amazes me every time I read it.

 

@Chandos the Red

I'll consider it, "A Christmas Carol" certainly entertained me in its many cartoon adaptations

 

Yay for the Dickens fans! He truly is one of the great novelists of England. I would also have to say Doestoevsky and Tolstoy, to add a little Russian in the mix. I tip my hat to anyone able to sparke social change and awareness, something that is rarely achieved at any level.
@ Chandos the Red
Man, you've got a great list there!