Niven and Pournelle are the protege's of RAH. They have chosen to endorse Baen.COM by allowing them to make available, for free, their collaboration Fallen Angels as an ebook.
Separate from Baen, if you haven't read the collaborations between Niven and Pournelle you haven't really read either of them. They do their best work together. I spent a very long drunken weekend with them at a con and have known Jerry for years through his computer journalism work. They bring out the best in each other. I particularly recommend Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. Both are products of the 70s and don't stand up to 30 years of science, but great books none the less. Lucifer's Hammer is the ultimate "something hits the Earth" book and Footfall is the ultimate "someone invades the Earth" book, IMHO.
Rick Cook, who did the Wizardry series, the first two books of which are also in the free library, is an IEEE fellow. If you know squat about computers you'll get all of the jokes. If you don't you still will probably enjoy the books. And I bet Clarke likes his stuff (inside joke - see Clarke's Law).
Koontz is probably envious of Ringo's military SF, with Ringo having been a member of the 82nd.brings some great verisimilitude to his stuff. Alien omnivores not withstanding.
Check out the library. It's free. Tell me you don't find authors to list among those you cite in the mix you provide. I bet you you'll be pleased. You named giants. These are their heirs.
I have Lucifer's Hammer, just started reading it, dated but also contemporary !
" Niven and Pournelle are the protege's of RAH."
Actually, Pournelle was a protege of H.Beam Piper, who was every bit as good as RAH. Pournelle even has the rights to Piper's universes, and has written a few sequels to them. (Athough he never wrote the promised sequel to Space Viking.)
Another SF writer who is almost as good a a slug of Jim Baen is Harry Turtledove. He is doing a crosstime juvie series that brings back memories of RAH and H. Beam Piper.
Although you are right. It is hard to beat Weber, Flint, Ringo and Drake, et al.
I've never found anyone who's read any of the Rick Cook books. I was laughing so hard at some of the stuff in the second Wizardry book, my wife thought something was wrong with me. She read it and still thought so. I had to explain a lot of the more esoteric Unixisms. The Daemons were hilarious.
Re: Lucifer's Hammer
I have seen SO many ripoffs of that book! Always the tsunamis, always the earthquakes, always the survivors trying to piece together the remnants of civilzation against the cannibal hordes...
It's a pity that originality is so hard to find these days.