Favorite Non-Horror Authors

[coderedx]

What are everybody's favorite non-horror authors? I try to rotate books... read a horror book followed by a non-horror book, rinse and repeat.

My favorite is Orson Scott Card. I have a collection of his books, although he's a hard author to collect because the S/L don't come up very often.

I'm also a fan of John Grisham. (Yes, I know... you can make fun of me...)

[thelion]

What are everybody's favorite non-horror authors? I try to rotate books... read a horror book followed by a non-horror book, rinse and repeat.

My favorite is Orson Scott Card. I have a collection of his books, although he's a hard author to collect because the S/L don't come up very often.

I'm also a fan of John Grisham. (Yes, I know... you can make fun of me...)

My favorites would be Larry Niven, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and Neal Stephenson. I also really like Margaret Atwood, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Neil Gaiman, and anything Treasure Island related.

- Brian

[marduk]

Oh boy...

Hunter S. Thompson, Neal Stephenson, Tim Dorsey, Carl Hiaasen, Robert Anton Wilson, Henry Rollins, Donna Tartt, Brett Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, Simon R. Green, Terry Pratchett, Kurt Vonnegut, Charles de Lint, Joe Abercrombie, P.G. Wodehouse, Chuck Palahniuk, Richard K. Morgan, Lynn Flewelling, Patrick Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman, David Foster Wallace, Tolkien, Andersen Prunty, Carlton Mellick III,... off the top of my head. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

[Joe315]

James Rollins
Douglas Preston
Lincoln Child
Michael Connelly
Jeremy Robinson
Clive Cussler
Stuart MacBride
Mark Billingham
Andy McDermott
Chris Kuzneski
Chris Carter
Simon Beckett
Hugh Howey
Ben Aaronovitch
Tom Knox
Boyd Morrison
Alex Scarrow

[bookworm 1]

Nothing wrong with Grisham. A time to kill is a super book. As is Skipping Christmas. And a few others. I also like Preston Child but they are a little on the supernatural horror side. John Sandford and his Prey series as well as the Virgil Flowers series. No matter what anyone else says James Patterson and his Alex Cross series is great. I also absolutely love Carl Hiaasin.Great story teller with characters you love even if you shouldn't.

[TJCams]

Wow, hard to reply to this properly - does it have to be fiction only? Off the top of my head....

Fiction: Arthur C Clarke, Atwood, Ludlum (only read the first Bourne), enjoyed the first 2 Jurassic Park by Crichton too.

I see Stephenson popping up often, I want to give him a try - I have Anathem, and it's huge! Also, want to give Snow Crash a read too.

I enjoy a lot of non-fiction - mostly science books: Some authors I really enjoy are Michio Kaku and Richard Dawkins. I also started A Hidden Reality by Brian Greene.

As you can see, I have tried many different authors, yet aside from multiple King and Koontz usually mix it up quite a bit.

[Sock Monkey]

The short list would be

Neil Gaiman
Orson Scott Card
Ian McEwan
Joyce Carol Oates
Gillian Flynn

I'm sure I have more but that's off the top of my head.

[rusty23]

I'm just starting to get into more fantasy/scifi authors. Gaiman, Rothfuss, GRRM. I've read all the Clancy novels except the more recent, and most Ludlums. I love Patterson's Alex Cross series as well.

[TJCams]

re: Patterson - my daughter really likes the Maximum Ride series of books, read one in school, found some for her at a yard sale.

[RJK1981]

Hmm, let's see...

Jeffery A Carver
Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman
Khaled Hosseini
Michael Chrichton
Tom Clancy
Greg Iles
Lisa von Biela

[Teriw]

I thought some of Gaiman's stuff was horror? Mostly Fantasy but I thought there was some horror in there

[marduk]

I thought some of Gaiman's stuff was horror? Mostly Fantasy but I thought there was some horror in there

I kinda thought that about Richard Kadrey too, so I didn't include him, but he's one of my favorites, and although he could be classified as "urban fantasy", there's definitely some horror thrown in.

[Highbury]

Interesting topic. I'd have to say Jo Nesbo, Clive Cussler, Lee Child, John Grisham, and Louise Penny.

[Sock Monkey]

I thought some of Gaiman's stuff was horror? Mostly Fantasy but I thought there was some horror in there

I feel that Gaiman's work straddles genres, pulling from numerous to create a mythology that is decidedly his own. While some of his work could be considered horror or have horror elements, I'd mostly say his work falls into the realm of urban/dark fantasy.

[TerryE]

Neal Gaiman (yes some horror, but mostly fantasy of all kinds), Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Steven Millhauser, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, John Barth (but I haven't read nearly enough of his stuff), same with Kobo Abe, and Stephen R. Donaldson.