A writer’s favorite writers
Here is a list of the writers and books I admire (if it were not obvious from seeing whose ideas I steal for my own work).
A.E. van Vogt, author of SLAN, WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER, THE SILKIE, and WORLD OF NULL-A
Jack Vance, author of the Demon Princes Series (THE STAR KING, THE KILLING MACHINE, THE PALACE OF LOVE, THE FACE, THE BOOK OF DREAMS), the Planet of Adventure Series (CITY OF THE CHASCH, SERVANTS OF THE WANKH, THE DIRDIR, THE PNUME), EMPHYRIO, LANGUAGES OF PAO, THE DYING EARTH. Also worth mentioning are LYONESSE and THE GRAY PRINCE.
Gene Wolfe, author of URTH OF THE NEW SUN and the four books before it (SHADOW OF THE TORTURER, SWORD OF THE LICTOR, CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR, and CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH), as well as SOLDIER IN THE MIST, SOLDIER OF ARETE. NIGHTSIDE THE LONG SUN and ON BLUE’s WATERS are in the same background universe, and hauntingly well written. However, Mr. Wolfe is an irregular writer, and his love of experiment from time to time produces incomprehensibility: avoid his CASTLEVIEW, THERE ARE DOORS, and PEACE.
Ayn Rand’s ATLAS SHRUGGED takes place in a science fiction background as much as, let us say, 1984 or BRAVE NEW WORLD. I do not necessarily recommend her FOUNTAINHEAD, or WE THE LIVING: ATLAS SHRUGGED is her master-work.
Poul Andersen I recommend, especially his HARVEST OF STARS, which is the first book I read to deal with the cybernetic and posthuman future in a fashion that was not a copy of Mr. Walter Gibson’s NEUROMANCER (The cyberpunk genre, with its nihilistic antiheroes, is not to my taste.) Mr. Andersen deals with these cyberpunk themes with the grace and skill of a Golden Age writer. (You will see I stole the term Sophotect, which I use in my novel GOLDEN AGE from him).
Robert Heinlein, I can only recommend with the reservation that one ignores his hedonistic philosophy. Isaac Asimov I can only recommend with the reservation that one ignores his political beliefs, which (unlike Mr. Heinlien) Asimov mercifully does not inflict on the reader. Keith Laumer, I believe I can recommend without any reservations.
I also recommend reading the classics: The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, the Divine Comedy, and Paradise Lost.
As far as fantastic novels go, I am a devoted fan of Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS (which I have read and re-read to the point where I can write and recite in Elfish) and also of THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH by C.S. Lewis. THE WORM OROBOROS by E.R. Eddison is the richest prose ever penned in the English language; and THE NIGHT LAND by William Hope Hodgson is perhaps the clumsiest.
The prize for the most imaginative novel ever written, I would award to VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS by David Lindsany.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
