>>>>And then you have Ayn Rand and her character Ragnar Danneskjold - one of the most unsung heroes of literature :)
>>
>>Followed only by John Galt himself, whose monolog capability is without parallel to this day, even by Castro. ;-)
>
>Ugh. I never got through that book. It's one big diatribe.
>I can understand how someone might subscribe to her ideas, but as a writer AR ranks somewhere below Danielle Steel

Sorry, completely disagree.

Granted, Atlas is more like a non-fiction book, but Fountainhead and We the Living are very good pieces of fiction. And even a "dark" play she once wrote called "Think Twice" was very good.

And Rand knew what passed for good fiction. Her favorite writers were Victor Hugo, Dostoevsky, O. Henry, and Ibsen - and they are definitely very good.