Just had to share... excerpts from an old era that unwittingly defined my favourties.


Excerpt:
In July 19, 1993 edition of Publishers Weekly and intriguing event in the history of the book publishing industry was recorded. The top six mass market paperbacks were all written by John Grisham and Michael Crichton, effectively freezing out other well-known authors from the fame and glory, royalites, and potential film or television sales associated with these top rankings.

Grisham held the number one (The Firm), three (The Pelican Brief) and five (A Time to Kill) spots. Crichton was ensconed in the second (Jurassic Park), fourth (Rising Sun), and sixth (Congo) positions.


Further excerpt:
In 1994, brand name authors dominated all sales cateogries. This was especially true in the fiction arena where John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Danielle Steel, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King accounted for 80% (11.5m out of 15.7m) of all unit sales; proving how difficult it is for new authors to make inroads in the fiction market.

You asked for fiction and my number one is as I have said above Dickens but for fiction as a tool to discuss more serious issues in society I would vote for Eric Blair most famously known as George Orwell. His most famous book is "Animal Farm" but you will enjoy reading "1984". He also had a lot of short stories on a wide range of topics from trivial matters like "A cup of tea" to discussing matters of human nature. He was a prolific commentator during the second world war and you will find a lot of informative and interesting details in his writings here:

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300011h.html

Good to know we have a very savvy Guka who can still read books which don't have pictures...

Where is Robert Ludlum in all this surely? Any discussion of fiction writers without this fella is surely incomplete!
That some of his novels have been made into films and mini-series, including The Osterman Weekend, The Holcroft Covenant, The Apocalypse Watch, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum bears out the man as among the creme de la creme of fiction writers.

Why...they even had an apt description of his books - UNPUTDOWNABLE.

Pia Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime was just the bomb - you come to discover the detective investigating a homicide kumbe is actually the real mukora/killer after he killed the real detective! Very great twists...great suspense

Because comics are also fiction (ha!) Obelix n Asterix, Tin Tin anytime.

Mel Munyua
C/O www.wazua.com

Dear Sir/Madam,
Let me take this opportunity to welcome you to www.wazua.com.

On very rare occasions do threads or posts on this site connect with my deep self, my ego, but you just went and did exactly that. Perhaps you and I do indeed have a soul connection. It shall be fun to explore this.

Now, to substance. The best fictional author of all time. Let us leave out the statistics and concentrate on my list for this post. Who is best to me? Like you, it depends on the phase of my life.

It started out in the early seventies with the Lady Bird Hard Covers. After that I discovered Enid Blyton with her the famous Five, The Secret Seven and so on.

Next in Secondary school, I met Mr. James Hardly Chase and did I have fun.

In High School Mr. Robert Ludlum got me expelled from geomorphology class. That is Bourne Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum, Materise Circle.

What am looking for in fiction. Some form of understanding. I want the white man to understand the black man. I want the black man to understand the white man. Who does this best for me. Wilbur Smith.

His series composed of “A Falcon Flies, Men of Men, and the Leopard Hunts in Darkness, make him the best author of fiction in my world. They clearly bring out the black man’s side of the story and the white man’s aspect of the same situation in the history of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.

Finally with the current impasse between China and Google Jeffrey Deaver gave me “The Blue Nowhere”. I was spell bound.

Let me thank you for having given me this opportunity to express myself so candidly and again, welcome to www.wazua.com

Yours Sincerely
Aemathenge Mahegoat.

I agree Dickens had some skill otherwise he wouldnt be considered as a classic, but i feel he didnt push he realms harder. Ludlum is too 90s for me but Jason bourne will always be the man. Stephen king has been one of he very few authors that have been recognised on the mainstream and also on the literary. He has delved into a myriad of genres and the Dark Tower series still ranks 1 on my list(ok maybe tied with Harry Potter and LOTR)
Thanks all for the welcome.
Did you know Agatha Christie's The Murger of Roger Ackroyd, generated so much controversy and she was accused of going against the ethics of writing a good "Whoodunnit" I guess thats why she best selling author of all time

i'll go for a ken follet anytime for a great spy story....

Mario Puzo's Godfather and Robert Ludlum's Holcroft Covenant are unputdownable.

Spanner in the works time: Clearly there are no King enthusiasts here. We all have who we love and read vigourously and that may not be the same author. In defence of my hero,m check this out http://www.stephenking.com/awards.html, Directors and producers have also added how hard it is to adapt a stephen king story into a movie due to how linear his books can be and hence reason the mostly adopt the short stories. Anyone who did not love ShawShank Redemption should be shot, The shinning is considered to be still one of teh most eerie films ever made and the list goes on. In recent news, JJ Abrams bought rights for The dark tower series and guess for how much... 19 dollars. Gj, what did you think of Lost Symbol by Dan Brown?

Am surprised nobody has mentioned Sidney Sheldon and his unputdownable THE BLOODLINE, THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT nad MEMORIES OF MIDNIGHT.

Can see some kindred spirits here. To those already mentioned as possible contenders, add Harold Robbins, Frederick Forsyth & Nelson DeMille.