<p>hmm, the writers everyone keeps comparing Ayn Rand to are all non-English writers, so we can only read their works in translation. Now, I can't speak for Russian (but I know it's notoriously difficult to read in English), but wordy French in translation reads alot more fluid in French.</p>
<p>And good writers aren't only marked by writing style. A good deal of it is plot development and characterization. Ayn Rand's characters don't tend to be complex. This works for her type of writing, because she is essentially just spouting her philosophy. But critically, it does no good. She also adds alot of tedious plot. Granted, so does Victor Hugo. </p>
<p>Ayn Rand is important, but not important in the way that Dostoyevsky is important. Dostoyevsky had a philosophy in writing Crime and Punishment, but it's the same philosophy that inspired Camus, Sartre, Kafka. They all manifested this school of thought in radically different forms. Ayn Rand is...uh, not that creative.</p>