Bonus points for any books you believe are classics from that time period. Any language, but only fiction please.
I’m really excited to see what Lemmy has.
Terry Pratchett.
I am on 12 of 42 or however many he wrote, but damn it if his little quips aren’t masteries of word play. So far Sorcery, Wyrd Sisters, and Mort are my favorites.
I tell people it’s like living in a Monty Python universe with a dash of magic.
Be sure to include The Amazing Maurice and Equal Rites and the Tiffany books as well; the only thing YA about them is the ages of their protagonists.
Equal Rites was great! I think that was my first introduction to Granny but I wished there was a sequel.
There kinda is. Esk shows up in I Shall Wear Midnight. Tiffany resolves a lot of the threads left by the witches
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I’m more of a fan of his later works myself. It trades some silliness for depth as time goes on. And I really loved Susan who you haven’t met yet
William Gibson. He’s a huge influence on modern scifi
This was my first thought, but realize he’s probably not well known enough… Yet
Brandon Sanderson
The man is a top flight book generating machine. Where he’s taking the Cosmere, I don’t know, but I’m gladly awaiting for the novels he’ll write the in future to find out. Reading the Stormlight Archive and Mistborn is a joy.
I also really enjoyed how he wrapped up The Wheel of Time. He is much less reluctant to kill off characters than many other authors, and that series needed some serious character culling to bring closure.
I’ve got the hardcover for his new mystery novel ordered. Can’t wait for it to arrive and to read it.
David Foster Wallace
Stephen King
Haruki Murakami
Kurt Vonnegut
Toni Morrison
Just a few names that popped into my head
Edit: some of these are based on popular opinions. For example, I never really got into Toni Morrison
Vonnegut is wonderful but his first book is 1950s and his greatest success is likely the 1960s. Question asked post 1970.
Yeah, I knew he started in the 50s. But you’re right, I looked it up and some of his notable stuff was earlier than I thought
Love DFW
Douglas Adams is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of the period.
He is known for light, surrealistic science fiction comedy, not a genre generally considered “high art” but his mastery of language is superb. He is a master of analogies in a way that is both funny but also makes the reader think about the roles and conventions of symbolism in language.
Terry Pratchett (first book 1971 so barely counts haha)
Neal Stephenson
I had to scroll way too far for Stephenson. He has some ups and downs (as all creators do), but some of his novels are mind blowingly awesome.
Cormac McCarthy, wrote some books you might have seen as movies such as The Road and No Country for Old Men.
Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West is a crazy good book.
Can I cheat? Ursula K LeGuin’s first famous book, A Wizard of Earth sea, was published in 1968. Amazing stuff. Also I love her short story, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.
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I’m going to repeat Ursula K Le Guin and Margaret Atwood because it’s hard to overstate how much of everything is in their works. Iain (M) Banks I’ll also echo, but will add China Miéville because there aren’t enough anarchists in this thread.
This
Really love how nobody is hating on any of the replies here.
Considering how many of his stories have been adapted to tv and movies, in addition to being great on their own: Stephen King.
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I haven’t seen Chuck Palahniuk mentioned, and he was very influential to a bunch of us millenials, I imagine. He is very good at writing about the nihilism of modern times.
Fight Club is the most popular example of his novels, and its a great read. I am also really particular to, Rant:The Oral Biography of Buster. Its such a weird story, and was one of the first books to really spark my interest in reading fiction. He has a bunch of other good novels I would recommend, like Snuff, Choke, and Lullaby.
I would say Robin Hobb. She writes easy to read, character driven fantasy novels that gracefully deal with a gamut of difficult topics (e.g., orphanism, otherness, sexual violence, mortality, etc.). The books really helped me build empathy for people and concepts that were far afield of my own experience.
I did not enjoy that story. I kept waiting for Fitz’s mentor’s patience to result in a plan, but apparently their plan was to just let Royal do whatever the fuck he wanted to do, for as long as he wanted to do it. The story was compelling, but there was no pay off in the end. Other people I’ve talked to about the book have felt similar.
Cory Doctorow and I suggest reading Walkaway. I found it transformative.
