Who Do You Think Are The Most Neglected and Forgotten Writers?

tylenol4000 said:
I'm not sure if I said these authors already but I'd go with AE Van Vogt and Rudy Tucker.

AE Van Vogt is still remembered as a classic golden age SF writer, but only by very hardcore readers. When people do mention him, they only mention the Null-A novels and Voyage of The Space Beagle. But he's written soooo many great works. His first novel, Slan, is amazing. It's very thrilling, he really knew how to keep you wanting more. I also really enjoyed The War of The Rull. Another really interesting novel he wrote was a dystopian novel called Future Glitter. I, personally, think it compares very well with other dystopian novels of the time that are considered classics. Van Vogt was the PKD before PKD started writing. Like PKD, there's a simplicity to his prose that makes his works incredibly readable when combined with his strange and original ideas. I really wish they'd republish all his works like they've done with PKD.
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Sorry for the witteringly long length of this post.


Much as I adore van Vogt - he throws more weird ideas at you a short novel than most people manage in a epic series these days - he was an execrable stylist. I've been collecting gems:

From The Secret Galactics

Quote:
The very next instant, a thin beam of light reached out from the hood of the bigger car and bridged the distance to Carl's van. Bright, oh so bright, but pencil thin, the beam. Carl could not see where it touched his vehicle. But the van tilted and began the developing wobble that sickeningly signalled a flat rear tyre.
Mere moments later, the swaying and tendency to out-of-controlness convinced that normally cynical but persistent philosopher, Dr. Carl Hazzard that the game was up.


or how about this night time view?

Quote:
The scene which her eyes, figuratively, devoured was peaceful. From the cottage window she could see a garden, a swimming pool, and then the long rear of the residence. The entire place was brightly lighted inside and out, all the windows shining forth, and strings of other shiningness outside. Not exactly like day; but a reasonable facsimile.

From Away and Beyond

Quote:
It came down into an earth of marsh, fog, and fantastic reptilian monsters. It came down hard and out of control. Its speed as it struck the thick atmosphere was approximately colossal.

The Book of Ptath
Quote:
"Wait! do not speak!" her voice was suddenly as strong as a vibrating steel bar.
and
Quote:
The rain came down heavily. It washed her face and did wet cold things to her arms and body.

Masters of Time (Very short, utterly bewildering, and riddled with gems of high the finest van Vogtian goodnesses:
Quote:
From Dr. Lell came a barked command, only twisted foreignish words that nevertheless sounded like:"Grab him!"
and
Quote:
The man paused. His brown eyes darkened in a frown, then he smiled with equally amazing grimness.
and
Quote:
They swaggered, did these boys. When they stood, they leaned with casual grace, thumbs nonchalantly tucked into belts or into the armpits of strangely designed vests. Not more than half a dozen of that bold vigorous-looking crew seemed to be the studious type. Here were men of the past, adventurers, soldiers of fortune, who had mutinied as easily as, under slightly different circumstances, they might have decided to fight for, instead of against, their captors.
and probably the best description of an approach to a new world I have ever read:
Quote:
He stood finally at the wall visiplate, staring out at the burnished immensity of Venus. The planet, already vast, was expanding visibly, like a balloon being blown up. Only it didn't stop expanding, and, unlike an overgrown balloon, it didn't burst.


my fave of his books though is The Beast (aka the Moonbeast) Another of his post-Slan evolving superhuman stories.

This time our hero gets slugged unconscious four times, loses his memory twice - but lucky develops the ability to acquire other people's memories telepathically, looses two arms (not at the same time and it may be the same arm twice, I'm not sure) but grows them/it back, and at the end of the book renounced absorption into the Universal Wholeness for the love of a good woman. (His other wife has previously renounced her absorption with him so he can do this).

This all sounds all pretty usual van Vogtian fare but add in - big deep breath - noiseless aeroplanes that can fly to (and crash on) the moon, multiple kidnappings, off-screen sex riots, gaol breaks, presidential elections, secret tunnels (at least two lots), American presidents disguising themselves with lifelike 'flesh masks' and leading his all-women secret service agents on desert operations, two rival secret organizations: one of evil space Nazis, the other of possibly beneficent immortal human anti-vampires (they have the power to grant long life to normal humans by giving them a transfusion of their blood), a million year old Neanderthal who rules an underground city on the moon... - gasp - and then cram it all into 160 pages.... thrillingly bewildering stuff.

There are more stupidly bonkers ideas per chapter in the average van Vogt novel than most authors cram into a lifetime of writing. Of course, with all those bonkers ideas jostling for very limited space, there's not much left for luxuries like coherent plot development and character but what the hell, you can get those anywhere, by the yard; books with immortal sabre tooth tigers fed on a diet of cowboys are very rare and to be treasured.
 
You can;t find much Van Vogt in the bookstores, though you can find him in used Bookstores. Quite frankly , I like his books. He is a very interesting writer. Well worth reading. (y):)
 
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Most of the people I like are pretty well recognised. Only name I can think of that wouldn't be well known is Roy Meyers. He made an impression on me as a young child. Enough so I remember his name. I'm not sure if his books would still impress me. I haven't read them as an adult.
 
Null_Zone said:
Chris Bunch.

Ok his books could never be described as high art but he could write a cracking adventure (with decent small unit actions thanks to his military career) with lots of history injokes - such is the dragon airforce formed around a former flying circus - and actually put some thought into how magic might effect warfare being the giant fireballs and demons stuff so many authors go for.
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He was popular a few years back.
 
Lew Rockwell Fan said:
Most of the people I like are pretty well recognised. Only name I can think of that wouldn't be well known is Roy Meyers. He made an impression on me as a young child. Enough so I remember his name. I'm not sure if his books would still impress me. I haven't read them as an adult.
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Definitely never heard of him.:unsure:
 
svalbard said:
Hella Haase.

A Dutch writer whose work translated quite well. I loved her novel In a Dark Wood Wandering and must go back and check her other works.

Mary Renault.

A fine writer whose works on Greece, especially Last of the Wine, are brilliant pieces of HF.
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Mary Renault is indeed a great write,r I read The King Must Die over 30 years ago, great book.(y)
 
Randy M. said:
Morrison? Futrelle? Bramah?

Okay, you mystery reader, you, how about E. W. Hornung (Raffles)? Or Maurice LeBlanc (Arsene Lupin)? Or writers with non-thief characters, like T. S. Stribling (Dr. Poggioli; years since I read these, but I remember laughing out loud at several of them) and Melville Davison Post (Uncle Abner; a couple of years ago I reread the Dover Publications collection of these and still enjoyed them)?

Actually, one I thought about mentioning, is Thomas Burke. I've only read a few stories by him but enjoyed them all, and one of the creepiest mystery stories I've ever read was his "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole."


Randy M.
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Ive heard of E W Hornung. For some reason I associated this the Raffles character with Sherlock Holmes.
 
BAYLOR said:
Ive heard of E W Hornung. For some reason I associated this the Raffles character with Sherlock Holmes.
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Because Doyle and Hornung were brothers in law. Hornung named his son for Doyle. In one of his stories, one of his characters says something about mystery writing that seems to be good natured badinage aimed at Doyle.
 
Lew Rockwell Fan said:
Because Doyle and Hornung were brothers in law. Hornung named his son for Doyle. In one of his stories, one of his characters says something about mystery writing that seems to be good natured badinage aimed at Doyle.
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Did they ever do pastiche story with both Holmes and Raffles in the same story together?
 
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