a system that puts stephen king in the same category a s dean koontz seems kind of useless to me. what most of the books i like have in common is style.

Clive barker probably has one of the most perfect styles. i've seen the sounds of the words in his long silky sentences are perfect witht the cannotations of the words. I knew i would read a more of his books after the first paragraph. His stories (especially imajica) are wildly creative too.

Steven king is also a great author because his writing seems to come straight from his unconscious. (maybe it does, he didn't know that the shining was symbolically about his life untill someone pointed it out). You can kind of feel a deeper undercurrent in his novels, and i think it is probably effortless.

barbara Kinsolver's metaphors are great too. she seems to write on a lot of different levels at the same time. you can go as deep as you want.