Top 5 Favorite Authors!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hemingway
  • Start date Start date
Well I'm pretty young, and definantly not experienced in Fantasy. I've been reading for the past few years, but only heavily recently, as a select few authors have really started to pull me into it. Just joined here, and I'm hoping I can find a lot more I'll love here :)

1. Stephen King - Undisputed for me. I grew up on King. The Shining was one of the first real books I read. I fell in love with a lot of his short story work, which is generally more controlled than his regular work(not to say he doesn't do great with novels), and still make an effort to read his new stuff. I picked up Under The Dome the day it came out, loved it. I have a large collection of his books - Somewhere around 40, 25-30 of which are hardcover, and I'm always working on growing that number.

2. Brandon Sanderson - This is one of the authors that really, really got me into Fantasy. Between Mistborn and Song of Ice and Fire, I was hooked, and I'm absolutely loving Warbreaker right now. His involvement alone is making me consider picking up Wheel of Time again, which I stopped in the middle of book 5(I'm horrible about that <.<; )

3. George R R Martin - Same deal as Sanderson. So many incredibly well built characters are in Song of Ice and Fire, and his distinct ability to take a character from background and relatively forgettable to one of the absolute best of the series is bar none.

4. Phillip K Dick - I'm really not sure why I like him so much. I guess I just love his use of paranoia and how he messes with the readers, and the general use of mental instability in many of his characters to create intriguing stories.

5. Jim Butcher - Butcher is one of those authors that I(lovingly) refer to as stupid fun. It's not an insult on the quality of books, just that they are not complex, not thought-intensive or provoking, but are still incredibly fun. Dresden is a great character, and I will always love his books :)
 
1. Tolkien

2. Frank Herbert (I also love what his son and Kevin J Anderson have done)

3. Patrick Rothfuss

4 Robert Jordan (And Brandon Sanderson is doing a great job)

5 Raymond E Feist
 
ChrisW said:
GRRM has fallen off the list due to me not being able to remember if his writing is any good. Taking three years to write a book is way to long. It means I have to either reread the previous books or be lost for the first part of the new book.
Click to expand...


this made me laugh, post was made in 2003.
 
teahupoo said:
1. Tolkien

2. Frank Herbert (I also love what his son and Kevin J Anderson have done)

3. Patrick Rothfuss

4 Robert Jordan (And Brandon Sanderson is doing a great job)

5 Raymond E Feist
Click to expand...


You really feel that strong about Rothfuss? I mean I loved TNOTW but imo an author needs more than one book to make a top fav author list. But to each his own so cheers if u found his debut that great.

My list:

1. Terry Brooks
-Got me started in fantasy. Read the Heritage of Shannara in the mid 90's and have never looked back. Still buy every new release to this day save for the Landover novels (tried the first two but couldn't get into them.)

2. Terry Goodkind
-Found Wizards First Rule in my local bookstore back in 98 while looking for something new after I'd finished all the Shannara that was out. Really opened my eyes to a different kind of fantasy. At the time I assumed fantasy was all about elves, trolls, etc and pretty much PG-13. TG made me realize that there was fantasy out there aimed towards an adult audience. Imo the SoT series could have been shortened by 3 books but overall its still my fav fantasy series to date.

3. Robert Jordan
-What can I say. I'm a sucker for long drawn out epic fantasy. By the time I got around to reading the WoT there were 9 books out. I got to read them back to back and absolutely fell in love with the series and its characters. Rand and Matt are probably two of my fav characters in all of fantasy. For awhile I thought I wasted my time on a series that wouldn't be finished, but now with an end in sight I couldn't be more happy.

4. George RR Martin
-Imo there isn't any better (not even JRR). Just plz don't take 15 more years to finish the series.

5. ?
-I'm gonna hold this spot until I read some more authors. I mean I've read a bunch of trilogies from different authors but nothing that stands out as being great yet. Also Pat Rothfuss and Peter Brett have great debuts but like I wrote earlier one novel isn't enough to make my list.
 
1. Terry Goodkind
2. George R.R. Martin
3. Fiona McIntosh
4. Joe Abercrombie
5. John Marco
 
In no real particular order:

1. Brandon Sanderson - Most original and creative magic systems I have read thus far.

2. Joe Abercrombie - Love the gritty feel of the world and the characterization.

3. George R.R. Martin - Think this has been covered to death so no need to speak on it further *smirks*

4. Steven Erikson - A confusing jumble of information at times but when they begin to tie together you find yourself going 'Ahhh...I see now.' And Deadhouse Gates is still one of my favorite endings in a book for how it hit me.

5. Jacquelin Carey/J.V. Jones - I give it to the both of them at this point. I read others I enjoyed but only single novels and I can't put someone on such a list for only one book. Greg Keyes taught me the folly of that with how he ended the Briar King series.

Jones - I am enjoying her Caverns of Black Ice series as I at first didn't expect much out of them after reading reviews of her Book of Words series (haven't read it). But it has been a very enjoyable read with characters you can definitely enjoy like the Dog Lord, the Teverence family, etc. Granted I'm getting irritated with Raina Blackhail, heh.

Carey - Very good stories and an original feeling to them in regards to the Kushiel novels. Probably one of the best female characters in fantasy in the eyes of many readers. Definitely not for the faint of heart though *smiles*
 
1. Robin Hobb / George RR Martin (tied in greatness)
3. Juliet Marillier
4. Sharon Shinn
5. Glen Cook
 
Rob B said:
Rob B said:
Since I posted that almost 3 years ago, here's the latest version:

Matthew Stover
Neil Gaiman
George R.R. Martin
Greg Keyes
Michael Moorcock

Of course, that will change the next time I post.
Click to expand...
It is changing again, though only slightly:

Neil Gaiman
Matthew Stover
George R.R. Martin
Jim Butcher
Stephen King
Click to expand...


Almost a year and a half later, here's a list in on particular order:
Tad Williams
Neil Gaiman
Matthew Stover
Gene Wolfe
Robert Jordan
 
Mmmm, I guess that, since this is the Fantasy corner, I can't put Harlan Ellison or William Gibson on my list?

OK, five "fantasy" (it's gonna be a bit of a loose definition, bear with me...) favourites:

(in no particular order, despite what the numbers would have you believe)

1. Ursula Le Guin
2. Roger Zelazny
3. Gene Wolfe
4. Terry Pratchett
5. oh what the heck...he wrote a bit of everything, so why not... Harlan Ellison.

I've enjoyed A Song of Fire and Ice tremendously so far, but for me, purely from the point of view of the writing, I thought the first two books were far more powerful than the ones that followed (even if the story was still brilliant), there was a bleakness and melancholy and poetry and atmosphere in the writing (and I thought the characterisation was more alive, too) that kind of fell by the wayside as yet more characters and more plot twists were introduced. If it wasn't for that, George Martin would be on this list. I'm usually more of a science fiction reader... but ASOFAI was THE series that completely, radically, utterly changed my perception of fantasy, and opened up my mind to a whole bunch of writers that I may not have considered reading before (though you never know, of course).

Oh, and I think the only reason Neil Gaiman isn't on this list is because I haven't read enough of his books yet - but what I've read I've absolutely adored.

Oh, and Jorge Luis Borges - excellent call!
 
1. Stephen King; The Dark Tower is the longest series I've read and I loved it. He also wrote one of my favourite fantasy novels (The Eyes of the Dragon) and in a way I aspire to be as good a writer as he is.
2. Jim C. Hines; I've only read 2 of his books, but I fell in love with his characters. The Princess series are books I've near-literally been unable to put down, and no author has ever been like that for me.
3. H. P. Lovecraft; Hopefully he speaks for himself.

I think that's about it for now. I've not read enough to really elaborate past 3.
 
Dwagginz said:
1. Stephen King; The Dark Tower is the longest series I've read and I loved it. He also wrote one of my favourite fantasy novels (The Eyes of the Dragon) and in a way I aspire to be as good a writer as he is.
Click to expand...

I always tell myself I'm gonna finish this series one day. I started it back in '05. Thought The Gunslinger was great and really liked The Drawing of the Three, but just couldn't finish The Waste Lands. I don't know why. My brother finished the entire series and said it was "good". I swear I'm gonna finish it someday.
 
Lists such as these are fun and confounding at the same time, which author to pick but here's my current top 5:

1] Jeffrey Deaver - probably the best thriller writer around, always comes up with compelling and devious plots and great characters.

2] James Clemens/James Rollins - His Godslayer series is 1 of my Fav. series & his Rollins books are simply too much fun.

3] John Connolly - has great prose and dark humour plus his Charlie Parker books are moving on to the mystical side whch is making the progression from good to great.

4] David Gemmell - Possibly the best heroic fantasy writer & his books are good to read no matter whichever reread it might be.

5] Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - This writer duo writes techno-thrillers and with their Pendergast series in which they have a great Sherlockian character is a veritable treat as well.

The authors who missed out on this list would be Sarah Ash, Jim Butcher & G.R.R. Martin. Plus it really hard to compress your favs into a list of 5 and especially with new authors suich as Peter V. Brett & Tim Marquitz showing such potential, I'm sure this list will be much different in the future :)

Mihir
 
Last edited:
murf99 said:
I always tell myself I'm gonna finish this series one day. I started it back in '05. Thought The Gunslinger was great and really liked The Drawing of the Three, but just couldn't finish The Waste Lands. I don't know why. My brother finished the entire series and said it was "good". I swear I'm gonna finish it someday.
Click to expand...

i thought book 1-4 were great, but it went downhill from there. very steeply.
 
JRR Tolkien
Mervyn Peake
Gene Wolfe
Jack Vance
Lord Dunsany

also awesome:

Robert Holdstock
Susanna Clarke
George RR Martin
Tim Powers
 
In no particular order:

Robert E. Howard
Glen Cook
J.R.R. Tolkien
George R.R. Martin
C.S. Friedman
 
2 years ago I have submitted safe names [Hobb, Martin, Tolkien, K J Parker]. I thought I would put up today five names of authors i discovered / read in the meantime:

1. Adrian Tchaikovsky
2. Joe Abercrombie
3. Carlos Ruiz Zafon
4. Brandon Sanderson
5. Paul Kearney
 
1. Dan Simmons
2. Iain M Banks
3. Orson Scott Card
4. George R R Martin
5. Douglas Adams

Honorable mention
1. Richard Adams- I have only read Watership Down... It's obviously one of the all time classics. He could pass people if The Plague Dogs is as entertaining.
2. Scott Lynch- Loved his first two books. If he can build on that he could move up as well
3. China Mielville- Once again I've only read Perdido Street Station so depending on how much I like the other books (And I've heard amazing things about The Scar) he could move up.

Authors I still need to read-
1. Erikson
2. Butcher
3. Tad Williams
4. Abercrombie
5. Fiest
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors


We try to keep the forum as free of ads as possible, please consider supporting SFFWorld on Patreon


Your ad here.

Latest posts

Back
Top