Famous authors and their forgotten books…
Famous fiction authors often gain their fame from their series. (I have a few myself, although they haven’t made me famous.) But often their out-of-series books, those that stand alone, are so much better. Unfortunately, they’re often forgotten by the reading public. (As are most of my novels, whether in a series or not!) The novels I consider in this novel are also “evergreen books,” ones as current and entertaining today as when the authors finished their manuscripts. (Many of my books are evergreen.)
Let’s start with Hoyle’s The Black Cloud (1957). You don’t know who Hoyle is? He was mostly responsible for the “steady-state theory of the Universe,” long since proven wrong (the three-degree Kelvin background radiation was the nail in its coffin), but his sci-fi novel is eerily possible and quite original, the cloud being an ET villain that in hindsight was partial motivation for the Swarm in my “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.”
King’s Misery (1987) is undoubtedly the horror-meister’s best novel simply because what happens in it is entirely possible. Maybe all author’s should think twice about having rabid fans…or about living in rural New England? (Say what? That’s where Bernie and Stephen live! I used to live there. While the New York area’s winters are often terrible too, they’re not as bad as New England’s.) Maybe to King’s credit, his testifying against the Simon and Shuster merger with Penguin/Random House because it would negatively affect hours (maybe of his ilk, but certainly not me—I don’t care!) might rise to compare with the good warning this novel provides (or was it just self-interest because King is published by Simon and Schuster). Again, with hindsight, I’ll have to admit how King’s author was treated influenced my depiction of Declan O’Hara’s plight in the novella where I introduced that Irish writer. (I made up for that in a few novels, though; in particular, he’s happily married now to the MI5 agent Maggie Bent.) (You might have read more about my opinions of King in my little course “Writing Fiction” — a free PDF download found on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page — which dares to say what King never had courage to say in On Writing.)
With the changes in the lottery rules (the last Mega Millions reached an obscene level!), the possible winnings have increased. Baldacci’s The Winner (1998) will make you wonder how legitimate those lotteries are and, in particular, whether they’re rigged to favor certain players. This is one of David’s best novels and far better than those in his formulaic series; only two others are better (and they’re standalones as well, not in any of his series—see the “Steve’s Bookshelf” web page). I don’t like to gamble or consider suckers who do, even with the lottery, so this novel inspired none of mine. It’s worth the read, if only to cure you from gambling in general and playing the lottery in particular.
I love well-written historical fiction (Declan’s novel about St. Brendan is an example—a non-existent one mentioned in several of mine that do exist), especially about WWII. Gerlis has some good novels in this genre that I’ve enjoyed reading, classic mixes of real history with fictional parts interwoven. His compare favorably with Deaver’s Garden of Beasts (2004), an earlier novel that sets a high bar for the genre (and makes his Lincoln Rhyme series pale in comparison!), only comparable to Follett’s Eye of the Needle. All of these books involve spying, and they probably influenced my portrayal of Esther Brookstone’s days in East Berlin for MI6 during the Cold War.
Authors are influenced by books they read; I’m no exception (and I read a lot!), although sometimes that influence is so subtle I can only detect it in hindsight (overloaded brain…because I read a lot!). But the evergreen books I’ve mentioned should be remembered when you’re looking for a good book to read. Don’t forget those evergreen stand-alone novels! (I hope you’ll remember mine as well.)
This, of course, is a short list of evergreen books, their publication dates running from 1957 to 2004, so any retailer that only features recent books (e.g. most brick-and-mortar bookstores) won’t display them (all too often they favor celebs’ tell-alls and political scandals, the Big Five’s bread and butter). They’re still in print, though, and they can often be found in ebook second editions.
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Come globe-trot with me! Three evergreen novels from three different series will take you, the reader, to many different countries. Aristocrats and Assassins (UN52Q) finds Detective Castilblanco and his wife on an European vacation that becomes deadly. Why is a terrorist kidnapping Europe’s royals? In Death on the Danube (AR72S), you’ll cruise down that famous river along with Esther Brookstone and Bastiann van Coevorden on their honeymoon voyage…right into danger, as the two sleuths try to find a murderer. And in Muddlin’ Through (TV85M), you can go along on a dangerous tour with Mary Jo Melendez around Europe and South America as she tries to prove she was framed for her sister and brother-in-law’s murder and tries to save the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”). All these globe-trotting adventures that will leave you breathless and asking for more are on sale now at Smashwords for only 99 cents. (Use the indicated promo codes if you don’t see that price.) Bon voyage!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
