I need a new fiction author to follow

[Aesop]

My personal greatest hits:

Alistair MacLean - everything he wrote, from HMS Ulysses onwards, is gold
Jack Higgins - ditto, and also wrote as "Harry Patterson"; except his last 4-5 are cookie-cutter novels churned out by rote
Tom Clancy - the most recent is him back on stride; the 2-3 before that, and any of the co-written stuff is pure crapola
Dale Brown
Stephen Coonts
Harold Coyle
WEB Griffin - most everything, although after trying his police series I was ready to confess to being the gunman on the grassy knoll after three pages; his series on The Corps was good for about 5 books, then he lost his mind, and starting milking them, and finally just punted and quit. Now he's co-writing his latest stuff with his son, but junior isn't nearly as good, and the amount of repetition per book should choke his editor. So should his fans.

[Jericho941]

I read the Teeth of the Tiger once. That was a mistake. It was like reading bad Tom Clancy fanfiction, like...

Jack Ryan who was Jack Ryan's son was one day an office when he got an email from his cousin saying terrorists and child rapists were attacking his place... Junior got in his Hummer H2 and said, "It's time for me to live up to my family name and face full life consequences!"

(Reference: Half-Life: Full-Life Consequences)

[Aesop]

"Locked On", in fact, was.

Those other four should be wrapped in a pillowcase, and used to beat the folks at GP Putnam.
After his earlier works, everyone was willing to give Clancy a pass for a stinker. Then another, then another. Thinking, "He can't keep writing total diaper spackle forever." But, unfortunately, his co-awfuls could, and did.

Jericho clearly studied under the co-awful. That excerpt was some of the better stuff in those bowl-clogging turds.



And I can't believe I forgot to mention the Terry Pratchett Discworld series. Savor them all, before Alzheimers drives him around the bend.

[skb12172]

the Day By Day Armageddon Series - JL Bourne. 3 books and counting

Feed series - Mira Grant. 3 books and counting.

That is, if you like Zombies.

[Weetabix]

He started having "co-authors" on the Ryanverse books in 2000, with "The Bear and the Dragon" (though they weren't credited until 2010s Dead or Alive... which I don't believe Clancy had any hand in writing at all).

Hm. I haven't read Clancy in years. I know I've read "The Bear and The Dragon" but I can't for the life of me remember it.

Clancy's books seemed like MicroSoft operating systems: Started off pretty good (DOS), got better (DOS 5.0), then began the long decline into bloated and slow (Windows).

[Greg]

He started having "co-authors" on the Ryanverse books in 2000, with "The Bear and the Dragon" (though they weren't credited until 2010s Dead or Alive... which I don't believe Clancy had any hand in writing at all).

Hm. I haven't read Clancy in years. I know I've read "The Bear and The Dragon" but I can't for the life of me remember it.

Clancy's books seemed like MicroSoft operating systems: Started off pretty good (DOS), got better (DOS 5.0), then began the long decline into bloated and slow (Windows).

You have weird taste. Precious little good about DOS except that it tried to at least *look* like a real operating system, within the limitations of the tinker toy hardware it ran on.

You'd think they could find better co-authors... need to at least take some care of the golden goose, so it keeps laying for everyone. Gotta grease the wheels on the gravy train, you know?

David Drake has done remarkably well plotting out stories and writing outlines that other writers complete. Some very big-name writers in the field have gotten their start that way, and even books by writers who never seemed to take off at least are pretty decent (see the books set in The Pact).

[Weetabix]

You have weird taste. Precious little good about DOS except that it tried to at least *look* like a real operating system, within the limitations of the tinker toy hardware it ran on.

I had a tough childhood.

[Jericho941]

the Day By Day Armageddon Series - JL Bourne. 3 books and counting

The first one was okay. The second one bored me away from the series.

[Jered]

+1 on any of Tom Clancy's co-written books being crap.

I listened to Against All Enemies on CD that I borrowed from someone at work. It was work the price. It was like listening to a lecture about military hardware and that made it really annoying to read.

[SeekHer]

Bernard Cornwell
C. C. Humphries
Tim Willocks -- The Religion
David L. Robbins
T. E. Banks
Giles Kristian
Tim Severin
John Birmingham
Ben Kane