The Authors Revisited with Short Book Reviews
Monday, November 13, 2006
This is the third revision of the list with some commentary on some authors. I am not a critic, and some either need no comment or deserve no comment. These are the most significant authors in my recollection. Some of them put out complete CRAP. But that is still significant. All the works by all the authors affected me or are still affecting me in some way. At best, the moved me to higher commitment, spiritually, at worst they were a waste of biochemical energy used to turn the pages. Some even deepened my depravity, but at some point, depth no longer matters and you have to come up for Water. Note: MY opinions. Don’t hate on me ‘cause I’m not in love with Jordan, Hickman or any of the others. I’m picky, that’s all.
1. A.A. Milne (Pooh)
2. Aesop (Fabled to be great)
3. Alan Dean Foster (Funny Sci-fi)
4. Alesdair Crowley (Pagan) Magical theory and rituals) Heavy philosophy and guidance. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
5. Alexander Dumas (Musketeers)
6. Anne Frank (Diaretic)
7. Anne McCaffrey (Dragons) NOT on the same plane as Rawn.
8. Anne Patchett (Bel Canto) Tragedy, engrossing, weird.
9. Anne Rice (Vampires, dead people) Beautiful imagery and some deep thought circling deity and religion powerful enough to make you think.
10. Aristotle (Smart Guy)
11. Arthur C. Clarke (SPACE)
12. Arthur Conan Doyle (Elementary)
13. Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged etc.) Very selfish philosophy. She portrays so much that’s just on the verge of being right (such as “all men are NOT created equal” and “minorities are NOT victims”), but humanism is still corrupt, noble as we might think it is. I still enjoyed the good guys’ victory, and she makes badguys very unlikeable.
14. Brothers Grimm (Faerie Tails)
15. C. S. Lewis (Mere Christianity, Lion Witch Wardrobe, space trilogy) He’s had some critics in Christian circles about his use of allegory, but I take the simple stance that fantasy is Fantasy. Look beyond what you see. Oh, and the evil witch is just that… EVIL. Quit crying about witchcraft.
16. C.H. Spurgeon (All of Grace and more) This man’s testimony to the Faith is incredible. If more of us could be like him…
17. C.J. Cherryh (Faded Sun Trilogy. A beautiful story about a “soldier gone native.” I loved every minute of it. This story is epic like Dune and rolls like Star Wars.)
18. Calvin Miller (The Singer Trilogy) Beautiful poetic rendition of the New Testament. Allegory, hard to read for me, but pretty.
19. Charles Dickens (Wonderful)
20. Dan Brown (“The Davinci Code” and “Angels and Demons”) Made me want to travel to Europe and see all the old cathedrals and castles and such. He did a really good job of describing the setting. His ideas were junk, based on junk and really just suck, like junk.
21. Dan Millman (Oriental Philosophy) This guy captured a LOT of what we could be in terms of physical living and how we view things. Zen isn’t the way to go, but finding joy in details and service is a skill to be developed and a gift to be coveted.
22. Dante (Infernal)
23. Dave Wolverton (On My Way To Paradise) Still a favorite of mine, shocking, thought provoking and on a level similar to Gibson in it’s dreamy sort of style.
24. David Gemmel (Okay Fantasy) Never mind, he sucks. I can’t defend the writing. Just because there’s a lot of books doesn’t mean it’s good.
25. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship) Rocked my world in many ways. Showed me how carried away I can get and how vital my commitment is. Lordship Salvation.
26. Donald Michael Kraig (Magical Theory) Almost entirely ritual and magical application. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
27. Douglas Adams (“Hitchhikers Guide”, Dirk Gently) The general interrelated mish-mash of all things is a concept to live by. Funny and sometimes very insightful dive into the intricacies of thought, not necessarily based on quality, rather quantity.
28. Dr. Seuss (Green Eggs etc…) Great Guy, reminds me of my brother. Actually, if Seuss were younger, it’d be a short stretch to convince me that he was my brother.
29. E. B. White (Trumpet of the Swan) This book really affected me; being one of the earliest I can remember reading. I wanted to Be the boy. I wanted to go to the warm springs in Montanabanana.
30. E. E. Smith (Lensman) LONG-winded and hard to read. Maybe I’m too young.
31. Edain McCoy (Pagan Fluff) Celtic tribal stuff. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
32. Edgar Alan Poe (Pendulous Pen) I can’t say I liked reading Poe. The phenomenon I could call Shakespearablah applies (almost every book I was required to read in grade school ended up on my most hated list).
33. Edgar Rice Burroughs (Martian Chronicles) I picked these up because Heinlein mentioned them. No comparison, but I liked the Barsoomian jokes.
34. Edred Thorsson (Runes) One more book on a magical system. Oracle or fortune telling, some religion too. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
35. Ernest Hemingway (Really nice)
36. Frank Herbert (Dune) Scope. The sequels were not as good, but the Brit movie that came out a while back, was really cool. The original Dune movie was okay because of innovation, not much else.
37. Frank Peretti (Piercing writer) I don’t like his stuff. It’s not cool. Very overdone Christian thriller.” Spiritual warfare forced to reality, much like the Left-Behind series was Revelation forced to reality. Things spiritual should stay there.
38. Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury’s finest)
39. God (Bible) Version? Currently NKJV but I’m not picky. I don’t consider the Positive Bible, Femme Lib, Gay, Affirmative Action or (insert special category here) to be the Bible. TR is fine, so is the AV, whatever. Quit arguing about the typeset and translation and check the message contained. Oh, and it’s NOT a fortune cookie.
40. Greg Bear (Darwin’s Children and Radio) Really entertaining. Definitely not believable (which I prefer for fiction.
41. Hans Christian Andersen (Shoes and such)
42. Harold Keith (Rifles for Waitie) This was another book from my youth. I still have the copy I first read. Wonderful. My daughter has to do a book report on it.
43. Harry Harrison (Bil the Galactic Hero, Stainless Steel Rat) Pure gunk. I love it. Standing wager among my friends about making it through the entire Bil series in one try.
44. Herman Hesse (Siddhartha) Eastern religion. Not my cuppa any more, but it helped me get an A on my World Religion course this year.
45. Isaac Asimov (Sci-Fi, math, history, science) His research skills are awesome. His insight is opinionated. Historical opinion, especially on the Bible must be taken with a grain of salt (or hallucinatory stuff, depending on how picky you are).
46. J. and S. Farrar (Pagan). Popular basic Wicca. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
47. J. F. Cooper (Last of the Mohicans) The movie was better.
48. J. R. R. Tolkien (LOTR and all else) He’s had the same attacks as Lewis, but I don’t get why. He didn’t claim Gospel content. He wrote a Beautiful story that defined fantasy, showed depths of depravity and heights of awesomeness rarely seen in fiction today. The movies were nearly as good.
49. Jacquelin Carey (Kushiel’s Chosen/Dart/Avatar) I haven’t read #4. I don’t think I will any time soon. Too far off my moral scale. A year ago I would’ve bent the spine, but I’ve changed.
50. James Clemens (Wi’t’ch Chronicles) Fantasy, Nasty, Scary, Nightmarish, Not worth reading. Freaky stuff loosely sewn together by plot and more freaky stuff.
51. James Herriot (Veterinary stories) Beautiful stories of the old country. I loved the audio books. Just peaceful reading. Like Sherlock Holmes the Vet, sort of, only dark and stormy nights are more about getting out of the cold/wet, rather than catching the badguy.
52. Janny Wurts (Master of Whitestorm) Just plain classic stuff. Great story, great idea, well done. Surprising even when predictable.
53. Jennifer Roberson (Cheysuli) Writes Books, fantasy, yay. Not. I couldn’t get into her.
54. Jim Berg (“Changed into His Image” and “Created for His Glory”) I can only thank the Lord for this man’s work. Changed really did just that. I read it twice and I’m different twice because. Conviction straight from the Bible.
55. Jim Marrs (Conspiracy junk) Falls under, maybe even below the magic stuff. This material causes serious psychological problems, undermines authority, deletes files pertaining to respect of people or organizations and in general plays havoc with society.
56. Jimmy Buffett (Parrots Normal Writers) I prefer the music but my Wife doesn’t, so the book is less offensive.
57. Johann David Wyss (Swiss Family) Survival, invention, solitude, adventure. All you could ask for in a L’Amour but Disney made a movie about it.
58. John Baillie (Christian Devotion) Wonderful stuff, I need to read it again.
59. John Grisham (Legal stuff zzzzzz….)
60. John J. Robinson (Freemasonry) Historical stuff intrigues me and this guy seems to have done good footwork. Problem is I lost interest in the topic. Oh well. Might come in useful someday, but I ditched my copy.
61. Jules Verne (All Wet)
62. Kenneth Graham (The Wind In The Willows) I loved the old toon-films and audio books. I read and loved the stories and they bring back memories as real as if I’d lived them.
63. Khalil Gibran (Poetry of my dreams) Beautiful imagery. I dream of writing poetry as beautiful as his.
64. L. Frank Baum (THE WIZ)
65. Lee Strobel (The Case For Christ) His associations may not be to my liking, but this book played a very powerful part in my salvation. My problems with God were dealt with directly by Strobel’s work in the book.
66. Lewis Carrol (Looking through Glass)
67. Lloyd Alexander (The Black Cauldron) Another childhood memory that I revisited only a few months ago. Still as good as ever. I should read Westmark someday.
68. Lois Lowry (Gathering Blue) I still don’t get why this sort of work is on banned book lists.
69. Louis L’Amour (Westerns) History in every one. So many authors are overlooked because of their type-casting. L’Amour is a master of historical fiction. Read “The Haunted Mesa” and “The Walking Drum” back to back and then write your reviews.
70. Lucy Maud Montgomery (All about Anne) I have a thing for redheads. I have a thing for the old days, which I never experienced). Watching someone grow up has always been a fascination for me.
71. Maggie Furey (Fantasy) I am guessing it wasn’t great, ‘cause I can’t remember a stitch of the book or the title.
72. Margaret Weiss (See Tracy Hickman. Pulp)
73. Marion Zimmer Bradley (Mists Of Avalon) Beautiful twist on Arthur and His Knights. I really enjoyed it.
74. Marvin Minsky (Sci-Fi) Turing Option was a great story about AI.
75. Mary Shelley (Frankly Scary) Falls in with Poe under Shakespoopie
76. Matthew Henry (Commentary) Easy to understand break-down of the Bible. I use it regularly. Can’t claim to have read it all, but large chunks have been chewed.
77. Max Lucado (Beautiful) Watered down but still moving. I prefer hard-hitting doctrine to mushy-poetic motivational-preaching. If you’re going to hit me with God’s Word, it had better pack the PUNCH of God’s Word. Catholics and Baptists can have peaceable lunch together over this stuff.
78. Melanie Rawn (Dragon Prince) Still my all-time favorite series. Competes with LOTR. I LOVE her imagery, detail, passion and everything. This is one of the stories I read at least once every two years. Soundtrack is the score from Last of the Mohicans.
79. Michael Bond (Paddington)
80. Michael Chreighton (Scientific Sci-fi)
81. Miguel De Cervantes (Tilts)
82. Musashi (5 Rings) Complement to Sun Tzu. Eastern religion and philosophy are very attractive. But they’re not in my book of recommendations. They deny the truth (easy, too, since they’re mostly about denial). The principles as applied to warfare are valuable, but people who read them for insight on running businesses or as guidance in life really should look a little less east.
83. Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince)
84. Orson Scott Card (Fantasy)
85. Orson Wells (World War)
86. Piers Anthony (Isle of Woman, Incarnations) His books are good studies of people and relationships. I really enjoyed “watching” people. The incarnations were definitely NOT representative of immortality in reality, but they were entertaining. Fantasy is just that, FANTASY.
87. Plato (Philosophical)
88. R. A. Salvatore (Fantasy and Star Wars)
89. R.A. Torrey (The Fundamentals) Motivating and convicting. A collection of some of the most thoughtful articles on what is important to Christianity today. More Christians should read them. They’re free, too.
90. Ray Bradbury (Farenheit) I’m hoping the world ends before this happens. It’s too easy to envision and too frightening and depressing to enjoy reading twice.
91. Raymond Buckland (Pagan) A big compendium of paganry. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
92. Richard Adams (Watership Down) More cute animals. I love this one too, just like Wind in the Willows. Saw the movie and got the book right afterward. Epic.
93. Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Drivel) His work was poopy. I didn’t like the abuse of text from the Word. I am not a member of a corporation and my purpose is NOT to get along in society, though I would love to do so.
94. Roald Dahl (Peachy)
95. Robert Aspirin (Sci-Fi)
96. Robert Greene (48 Laws) More like the conspiracy theory stuff. I am not interested in control. It’s scary. I certainly don’t want to do it like the 48 expect. Servanthood, not mastery, is the game and I have a hard enough time with that.
97. Robert Heinlein (THE MASTER of Sci-fi and social ideas) Yep, he’s a humanist. He’s not Christian, but his work is entertaining, informative, and one can do much worse. I don’t keep up with most Sci-fi any more, but I’ll stick with Bob.
98. Robert Jordan (Fantasy) Blech. I decided I don’t like this stuff. Popularity doesn’t guarantee quality.
99. Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasured)
100. Samuel Clemens (TOM and HUCK)
101. Scott Cunningham (Pagan) One of the most popular in the religion. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
102. Shakespeare (Dead)
103. Silver Ravenwolf (Pagan) Example of pluralism at its worst. Anything is okay. Christian witches, all sorts of stuff. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
104. Sir Walter Raleigh (Great stuff)
105. Socrates (Dusty thinking) Philosophy is at odds with Christianity, but being able to argue, think, speak and comprehend are advantageous.
106. Spider Robinson (Heinlein’s Twin) almost, especially now that he’s co-authored one with the Master.
107. Starhawk (Pagan) Another very popular author. I no longer recommend this or other new-agery. Rhymes with sewagery.
108. Stephen King (Gunslinger) I don’t really like any other works in his horror collections. I enjoyed Green Mile and Shawshank as movies.
109. Stephen Lawhead (Historical medieval) He’s pretty good. Sometimes drawn out and not always temporally accurate in his use of words. Endings can be cheesy, but overall gets an A- for his stories.
110. Stephen R. Donaldson (Covenants) Almost on a level with LOTR, but anachronistic in language and VERY VERY VERY repetitive with words like “hellfire” and other fancy things. I love books that have the scope of vision that Donaldson, Tolkien and Herbert all have. After #6, His sequels sucked.
111. Storm Constantine (Wraiththu) Incredible. The sequel recently released was NOT up to standards.
112. Sun Tzu (Art of War) See note on Five Rings.
113. Tad Williams (Otherland) Scope. Complex. Engrossing. Mastery of including just about every genre in writing. I loved it. The soundtrack is Deep Forest Comparsa.
114. Tennyson (Poetically Spiffy)
115. Terry Brooks (fantasy) Yuck again. It’s not my type.
116. Terry Pratchett (Funny Fantasy) Pretty much Douglass Adams in Fantasy. I love the stuff. Parody of just about every political or social situation around.
117. Thiessen (Lectures in Systematic Theology) I’m working on Hodge now. Both are really hard work.
118. Thomas Mallory (Le Morte D’ Arthur)
119. Tim Lahaye (Left Behind et all) Blech. Trying to force Daniel and Revelation from the Bible into a believable story is for God, not man. The characters sucked, the scenes were repetitive and predictable (no pun) and the badguys were stupid like Cobra from G.I. Joe cartoons. Over-armored idiots. We all know evil people are not stupid, why hope they’re not?
120. Tom Clancy (Military Stories)
121. Tracy Hickman (Fantasy)
122. Trevallion (Shibumi) Another Eastern Philosophy story but with some serious cool assassin stuff. I loved the garden and the peaceful scenes. Never heard of the Basque either, until this book.
123. Walter Farley (The Black Stallion) The movie was cool too. Scope again.
124. William Gibson (TECH) Invented cyberspace. He’s freaky and night-mare dreamish, but entrancing. More movies should come out. Johhny Mnemonic was a bust.
125. William Goldman (Princess Bride) My all-time favorite movie and the book is great too. I wish there was a sequel.
126. William Shatner (HORRIBLE WRITER) Fair starship captain. He’s found his niche in commercials.
127. Yann Martel (The Life Of PI) What a weird book. It was definitely what I’d call a “summer read.” Throw away when finished. I enjoyed it, but can’t figure out what specifically made the book enjoyable.
128. Victor Appleton (Tom Swift)This series is like the Hardy Boys, only for nerds. I will maintain my opinion of the excellence of these books to any who ask. I, II and III.