Which authors 'write the best'?

[Smoking Man]

Which authors do you think have the best use of language and ability of writing? Not necessarily considering the content of the books, but just the quality and skill of writing?

 

[Vonhelmet]

Probably hard to say, given that they will have editors who are responsible for a great deal of making the actual writing palatable. The last Harry Potter book appeared to be written much worse than the rest, but word has it that by that stage there was only one editor and they had to work on the book on their own in a locked room. It shows.

 

[mrthingyx]

Yup, editors play an enormous role in sorting out authors' writing.

I really like the writing, pacing and depth of stories produced by Timothy Zahn - sure, he's sci-fi, but I've picked up almost all of his books and found them all really enjoyable, but also not patronising as other authors can be.

He's the only author which I've picked up in the past 20 years who has a consistently great style of writing.

Whilst I love LOTR, for instance, the style of writing changes dramatically from the first book through to the last (for reasons that can be rationalised, sure), so it's a different question.

 

[Arnie]

Yup, editors play an enormous role in sorting out authors' writing.

If they're terrible authors, yes.

 

[Tombstone]

I've always been impressed by Terry Pratchett and his way of playing on words and concepts

 

[Malakite]

I was just thinking about this the other day, rereading the Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker.

I think Barker is/was one of the best 'descriptive' writers about. He can paint incredibly vivid pictures in your head of some fairly outlandish stuff. While the content of some of his work can be questionable and not to everyones tastes his actual writing is top class.

 

[hood1971]

Whenever I read a John Steinbeck novel I quite often pause at the language usage - brilliant but not flowery.
A couple of modern writers whose language usage I enjoy are -
Ian McEwan - Atonement staggered me. The narrative is mesmerising
Cormac McCarthy - He plays with styles in different novels and it can take a while to get used, particularly the Border Triology, where he omits punctuation.

 

[THMRK]

Probably hard to say, given that they will have editors who are responsible for a great deal of making the actual writing palatable. The last Harry Potter book appeared to be written much worse than the rest, but word has it that by that stage there was only one editor and they had to work on the book on their own in a locked room. It shows.

A good example of this can be found in Raymond Carver's short story collection What We Talk About, When We Talk About Love.

It's a brilliant collection, but after his death they released it in an "uncut" version and really, the editor could be said to be responsible for crafting Carver's minimalist style because he cut a lot out of it.