Rick Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 Milton Friedman, Norman Geisler, C.S. Lewis, Louis L' Amour, Nicolas Moran, Nabeel Qureshi, Thomas Sowell, Frank Turek, and Ravi Zacharias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daan Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 In no particular order: Camus, Houellebecq, Céline, Hemingway, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Wilde, Nabokov, Poe, Flaubert, Pagnol, Stendhal. I liked Orwell as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKTanker Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 Azimov, Orwell, everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ssnake Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Thomas Sowell, Hayek, as far as economy and practical philosophy are concerned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angrybk Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Best essayists: Orwell (particularly Politics and the English Language) https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/ Swift (particularly A Modest Proposal) https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm Dorothy Thompson (Who Goes Nazi?) https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmgill Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 JRR Tolkein. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbanoid Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Harry Turtledove S.M. Stirling R.A Salvatore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrustMe Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 What about Gene Wolfe who did the "Book of the New Sun" series. Surely one of the best world builders type space opera ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Patrick o Brian. Erskine Childers. John Le Carre. Tom Clancy , In his prime. Gerald Seymour. Craig Thomas. JRR Tolkien. Daniel Bolger. George Orwell. Sinclair Lewis. Agatha Christie. David Glantz. Tom Wolfe. Raymond Chandler. Phillip K Dick. Arthur C Clark. Bernard Cornwell. Not saying all these guys are writers of great literature by any means. Just that they do something I like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickM Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 3 hours ago, urbanoid said: Harry Turtledove S.M. Stirling R.A Salvatore Oui, to Sterling: he's behind some pretty good Terminator 2 sequels on paper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R011 Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 I can't believe no one has yet mentioned Terry Pratchett. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunday Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Nor Chesterton or CS Lewis. Human beings are imperfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angrybk Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 (edited) Jeez, could probably start a whole new thread on Stirling. I don’t think the Draka series reflected his personal beliefs at all (I think his only credo is that buff lesbian warriors are totally hawt) but they were both well written and wildly unrealistic, which started up the whole anti-Draka alt-history movement, which was motivated as much by the fact that the bad guys win in the Draka universe as the fact that there’s no way in hell that super Nazis could arise from South Africa. Odd thing is that his followup series about Nantucket was quite good, his series about the non-Nantucket was pretty good until it went completely off the rails and he gave up. But always with the hawt buff lesbians! Edited January 23, 2023 by Angrybk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 Hermann Schlichting Ascher Shapiro Alfred Gessow & Gary C. Myers Jr Ira H. Abbott & A.E. von Doenhoff Wolfgang Langewiesche Arnold M. Kuethe & Chuen-Yen Chow Theodore von Karman Richard von Mises Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted January 24, 2023 Author Share Posted January 24, 2023 4 hours ago, sunday said: Nor Chesterton or CS Lewis. Human beings are imperfect. See first post for the later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunday Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 7 hours ago, Rick said: See first post for the later. I stand corrected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P Allen Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 Don't know the names of some of them, but the scopas who left us Beowulf, "The Battle of Maldon,' "The Wanderer," The Advent Lyrics, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"/"Pearl"/"Patience," are all top picks of a great list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargrunt6 Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 I was expecting Terry Prachett to be in everyone's list. Maybe that's taken for granted? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted January 25, 2023 Author Share Posted January 25, 2023 26 minutes ago, Stargrunt6 said: I was expecting Terry Prachett to be in everyone's list. Maybe that's taken for granted? Never heard of him till now. I have noticed I'm quite out of the loop regarding science fiction and satire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunday Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 35 minutes ago, Rick said: Never heard of him till now. I have noticed I'm quite out of the loop regarding science fiction and satire. He could write very hilarious comedy, but that atheistic pessimism is always around the corner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17thfabn Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 (edited) Seems like you guys are mostly going with highbrow stuff. I've read some of it and enjoyed some and felt like some was pure torture. War and Peace was enjoyable. The Iliad and the Odysse drug on. I'm not much on Sci Fi books. I like history, action and historical novels. John Sandford writes some great cop novels. His cops were originally based in the Twin Cities and rural areas of Minnesota. One of his characters has branched out and is now a U.S. Marshal so he goes every where. Joseph Wambaugh a former L.A. police officer also wrote some excellent cop novels. Please don't judge his work by the movies made from his books. They don't measure up. I enjoyed Vince Flynn and Brad Thor's special agent novels. It seems like their books are very similar. Both are centered on a super man type special agent. Mr. Flynn passed away several years ago but some one else is continuing his story lines. Between the Flynn and Thor, Flynn was much better. Mike Blakely isn't well known. He writes stories about the U.S. South West in the old days. Every thing from books about the rise of the Comanches, to the Mexican American War. He is also a a country singer / writer. Not well known as a singer but had a few hits as a writer. Michael Shaara, and his son Jeff have written some great historical novels. The most famous are: "Killer Angels" which was made into the TV movie Gettysburg: "Gods and Generals" "The Las Full Measure" Bernard Cornwell was mentioned by others. Besides his well known Napoleonic War series "Sharp's Rifles", and his King Alfred era Series "The Saxon Stories" he has numerous other shorter series and one off books. All are excellent! The only bad thing about his one off books is they leave you wanting more. It makes me sad that many such as Sandford and Cornwell are nearing the ends pf their writing output. Sandford has been writing two books a year. He is almost eighty. I can't see him keeping that up for long. Edited January 25, 2023 by 17thfabn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17thfabn Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 For western's how could I forget Larry Mcmurtry! Besides the Lonesome Dove series, the greatest old west books ever he has many other books. Including the Berrybender narratives series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17thfabn Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 Another author that was gone too soon, James Hornfisher. His excellent Neptune's Inferno follows the critical Naval Campaign around Guadalcanal. It covers the importance of the logistical support which many times dictated how battles were fought. It also chronicols the navel battles that feel like old west shoot outs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17thfabn Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 John McManus is doing a series of three books on the U.S. Army in the Pacific in World War II. The first two are done and are excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17thfabn Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 This pick will be controversial. Steven Ambrose. There are accusations of plagiarism and inaccuracy against him. Having said that, his books are highly readable. He had a great writing style. Many of his books told the stories of the average soldier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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