There was a time where I was frustrated by the types of books that were coming out in an area I was interested in that I just took a pass on it all for awhile. I used this time to focus on dead authors because there was no wait between volumes coming out – though some dead authors manage to sneak things out regardless. It was a pretty good plan as focusing on material from the 50s and 60s allowed for shorter books in general, coming from serialized magazine works and the like, and more experimental works that would come in at 200 pages or so. But it exposed me to a lot of different things and expanded my overall knowledge in the science fiction and fantasy realm.
I’ve talked a bit about Heinlein in my past pieces that focused on older works but for this question I’m going to have to go with Asimov and particularly Caves of Steel. While both the first Foundation and I, Robot novels began some of the works that really defined my interest in his works, especially when they crossed to become something larger, there was such a fascination with his Elijah Bailey novels for me that they really stood out and I’m still frustrated that these easy to make big films have never been made from them.
Bonus question: Which author that has passed on do you wish you had more works from?