Favorite Author after King

[Jake Featherston]

While Stephen King is arguably the best living writer of fiction, I can't honestly claim to prefer his work to that of either H.P. Lovecraft or Jack London. As for 2nd favorite living author...its a tough call. Maybe Gore Vidal?

[Natjen26]

Tolkien
Michael Crichton
JK Rowling
Nicci French
Richard Bachman

[Jake Featherston]

Philip K. Dick and Robert Anton Wilson are also very high on my list of faves.

[Charms7]

Richard Bach (yeah, that Jonathan Livingston Seagull guy) who also wrote such books as Illusions and The Bridge Across Forever. I love those books!

[Lina]

After King my favorite authors are Dean Koontz and Thomas Harris.

[Mary Strickland]

After King, my favorites are Tom Clancy and John Grisham.

[jchanic]

Another Clancy fan! I liked all the Jack Ryan books except for that very last one (I don't even remember the title) in which Ryan's son is the protagonist. That one was absolutely terrible!

John

[Joiey]

Way too many to list but I can toss out a few: Richard Matheson, Rod Serling, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Robert A. Heinlein, Gene Brewer and there are so many more. I love to read. In the last few years I've begun reading nonfiction more and more but fiction will always be my first love. J

[Jake Featherston]

Another Clancy fan! I liked all the Jack Ryan books except for that very last one (I don't even remember the title) in which Ryan's son is the protagonist. That one was absolutely terrible!

I stopped reading Clancy after Rainbow Six. In that book, he opined that the 103 people (including 17 children under the age of 5) who got killed outside of Waco, Texas, by agents of the Federal government, deserved their fate. Most apologists for the state have enough respect for/fear of decency to at least claim they believe those people all committed suicide. But not Clancy; he thinks the FBI & BATF intentionally slaughtered all those people, and that it was a good thing they did. I lost all interest in reading anything else written by him after that (although in fairness, I did finish the book I was on).

There's was a news story from about a year ago, pertaining to some 18 or 19-year old guy in Kentucky, who got arrested (as opposed to merely being issued a citation) for driving too fast. He spent the night in jail, and while he was there, was raped by several of the inmates. Amazingly, some people I have told this story to seem to find it funny, and make comments like "Well, I'll bet that idiot will keep it under the speed limit from now on!" I know for a fact these same people drive in excess of the speed limit pretty much daily (this is California, where that could be said of nearly everyone on the road, although I suspect it isn't much different in other states). That's the sort of fellow I imagine Tom Clancy to be. Hopefully, I'm mistaken, but I don't intend to read anything else by anyone I believe to be of that sort of mentality.

[JRM]

I absolutely love Michael Crichton (very sad that he's passed away. He'll be missed). I've read a handful of his books and only disliked Congo (It didn't thrill me, and the paddle-wielding apes were just silly and hard to believe). He's very different from other authors in that he doesn't have very deep characters, but he compensates for it with thrilling action, originality, and a dash of education. Actually, I found the main character in "Prey" to be quite compelling. My personal favorite Crichton book I've read.

I also love Dan Brown. Next to King and Crichton he's my favorite.