Favorite Authors!

Wow, where does one start? I have to preface this by saying that I read around 3 books a week, on average, with many weeks seeing as many as 5 read, and have done so since 1968 when I actually learned how to read and set about the task. I have read (by the math) over 10,000 books in my life.

I sold 3000 sci-fi novels when I moved to Louisville 14 years ago. If there is some pre-1995 sci-fi that I have not read, it is by accident. I worked through each major author's collective writings and just about hit them all. I have a collection of Reader's Digest condensed books that have a virtual library of classics, all read (over 100 volumes!). That covers many of the famous American and English authors for the past 100 years.

I currently have about 3000 books on my shelves -- for the most part read, save for the books that are not really intended on being read, dictionaries, grammars, concordances (though I have read two) etc. Almost all of these books are God/church/theology related, though some are also political/historical in nature. I read apologetics for a hobby, and have processed hundreds of books on all sorts of subjects in that field, especially cosmology and evolution, both secular and faith-based.

Some classics that I love:

Robert Heinlein for sci-fi -- (reader beware, he writes racy stuff)
The Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe (also My Side of the Mountain) have read each of those multiple times.
Aurthur C. Clark, especially the Foundation series (he invented the hand-held calculator in one of those books!).
Larry Niven, especially the Ringworld series.

Faith-based works that are must reads:

C.S. Lewis (his anthology!)
Nancy Pearacy -- she is critically important in our era
John Piper, "The Supremacy of God in Missions."
Everything by Ed Stetzer (a personal friend -- my wife and I typed the manuscript for his first book)
Everything by Thom Rainer
Paul Little's work on evangelism
J.I. Packer -- Knowing God and God's Sovereignty in Evangelism

Political reads:
The entire "Politically Incorrect Guide" series -- they are great and well-written by experts in the field
Biographies of Presidents (I've worked through about half the Presidents)
"The Reagan I Knew"
"Upstream" by Regnery
"Radical Son" by Horrowitz (should be required reading in high school!)
And, about 100 more including Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin stuff that was once classified as "underground".

 

Did Arthur C. Clark write a Foundation series too? I haven't come across it, but I like Isaac Asimov's of the same name. ("Foundation", "Foundation and Empire", "Second Foundation").

I also like traditional detective yarns, like Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey, Albert Campion.

I was introduced to an unusual series of mystery books when I was attracted by the odd title of a book in the public library, "The Last Camel Died at Noon". Since reading that one, I think I have read all the "Amelia Peabody" series by Elizabeth Peters. Although she's American, and most of her characters English, she does very well most of the time to avoid "Americanisms". There is just the odd lapse, like "railroad" (we say "railway"), "See here, Peabody!" (We'd say, "Look here, Peabody!") and "write you" (we say "write to you"), but her characters are great.

 

Yeah, they are all of that! The Hard Way was the kidnapping story with lots of plot twists and surprises. Tripwire was my favorite story. The only stinker in the bunch is Echo Burning. Avoid Echo Burning, at least until you've read some other ones. The book that came out last year, 61 Hours, isn't very impressive.

I've never fully figured out a Jack Reacher mystery; parts of it, but never the whole thing. And they are usually multi-faceted mysteries.

He is one tough hombre, though, isn't he?

 

Wow, impressive! I usually read two books a week.

Yeah, I've read tons of Sci-Fi. My latest sci-fi secular author I've been reading is James P. Hogan. The Giants Novels. I also read an interesting time travel/alternate history story by him, The Proteus Operation. His overt preaching of evolution detracts from the stories, but he's a good writer.

Have you read The Lamb Among the Stars Trilogy?
1. The Shadow and Night
2. Dark Foundations
3. The Infinite Day
by Chris Walley?

Imagine a world almost totally devoid of sin, where the effects of the Fall have been greatly diminished. Imagine a peace that reigns across the galaxy... since humanity has now spread to 1600+ terraformed worlds beyond Earth. Imagine you live on the furthest of those worlds in perfect contentment, as humans have done for the last 12,000 years. And then imagine you just heard someone tell a LIE.

http://www.christianfictionreview.com/?review=364

http://www.chriswalley.net

Absolutely the best Christian science fiction I've ever read, bar none. Yes, I've read C.S. Lewis' the Space Trilogy.

Another fav of mine is the Christ Clone Trilogy by James BeauSeigneur. Best end times story ever. Makes Left Behind read like a grade school effort (which it is, IMO)

 

Whoops! I mis-spoke. Clarke had some other great classics of Sci-fi. Been too many years since I picked up one of those books!

I also should have mentioned Francine Rivers. Some of her novels are first rate, especially the Mark of the Lion series.

 

I'll have to look up that series. Sounds good. I sort of got away from sci-fi, whether Christian based or not, becuause we're now living in a world beyond what most of those early writers could even imagine. Time for a new generation of great writers to step up! Perhaps its my turn...