Your Favourite Author ?

Bob the Unlucky Octopus

Oh God...where to begin...

Fantasy writing: Tolkien(of course), Fritz Leiber, RA Salvatore, Weiss/Hickman and Robert Jordan.

Terry Brooks lacks imagination in his writing- Eddings is too repetitive- Goodkind though looks like a genuine talent, as does Modsett Jr.

Raymond E. Feist is a good rather than a great writer. Most of his source material is blatantly plaigarized (eg Kelewan is a ripped-off pre-Meiji, zaibatsu Japan), while Silverthorn is a paroxysmic recounting of Sleeping Beauty. His characters tend to be two-dimensional and single-minded- he prefers to tell rather than show the reader what is happening. The three authors I mentioned up there are far more able writers than Feist (though Feist is capable of some brilliant set-pieces).

Sci-Fi: Asimov, Frank Herbert, Arthur C. Clarke, Jules Verne, Ian M. Banks and Timothy Zahn(so no surprises there)

Classics: Dickens, Kafka, Camus, Doestoyevsky, Tolstoy, Hesse, Homer, Orwell

Humor: Douglas Adams, Eddie Izzard, Cervantes(how could we forget Mr. Don Quixote himself?)

Those are the authors that I really enjoy- the sort of author that allows me to pick up any of their books in the genre and read it more than once, all the way through. Smashing stuff.

Bob the Unlucky Octopus
=Veni Vidi Vici=

Yo Mamma

Well I just want to add another one to my favourits list, George RR.Martin, and the best thing is that it was sombody on these here boards that pointed me in the right direction !!Thx

[This message has been edited by Yo Mamma (edited 08-05-2001).]

Bloody Drunkard

Jimmy Burns or Nick Hornby

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Lets get back to basics Niall, the ball is round

syringe

I haven't read much of his stuff, but Ed McBain's stuff really keeps my attention. Maybe cos I'm a teeny bopper and have no taste, but each to their own.

RopeDrink

Terry Pratchett - He's one of the most Imaginative and funny authors around...

The DiscWorld Novels are top notch!

ConUladh

It's been a good few years since I've read the Riftwar Saga but I ended up wanting all the good guys to be slaughtered, if I recall correctly I found it predictable, I like the Empire trilogy that Feist wrote with Janny Wurts though(been a few of years since I've read that as well must give it a go again), Janny Wurts own books were a bit poor though some of them were readable enough

Gemmell's books seem to repeat the same theme again and again but I like them
anyway, Legend was one of the first Fantasy books I read

Robert Jordan is probably my favourite at the moment, prob cause I spent the best part of the last 4 months rereading them so I could move on to Book 9

Reading Barbed Coil by JV Jones at the moment, alright so far

ConUladh

For a laugh there's no-one better than Terry Pratchet

[fist]Pi$$er

Hrm, best author is hard to call. There are books I will buy merely for the author because I am confident I will enjoy it. But surely the best books of all time were written by the best authors? The books I would classify as being one of the best ever written are mostly written by people who only ever wrote one good book.

I'm sure ill regret this list when I get reminded bout others but here goes:

Robert M. Pirsig
Jung Chang
JRR Tolkien
JD Salinger
Iain Banks
Margaret Weis
Tracy Hickman

Bard

Rob Grant & Doug Naylor, William Shakespeare, Frank McCourt, Roddy Doyle, Douglas Adams (regardless of the current sad news), and Spike Milligan, to name but a few.

{EDIT:} How could I forget!?!? ... STEPHEN KING!!!

Never really got into Pratchett, personally.

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Bard

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"We do know it was we who scorched the sky..."

[This message has been edited by Bard (edited 13-05-2001).]

Neil3030

Elmore Leonard

ConUladh

Extract from an e-mail I sent to someone as a list of (fantasy)recommendations, sure I've left out a few but there you go

Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time (9 books and counting)
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels
Bernard Cornwell's Arthur books (starting with The Winter King)
Julian May's Saga Of The Exiles (haven't read it in a couple of years but remember it as being very good) and the Galactic Mileu Trilogy
Tad William's Memory Sorrow and Thorn (been a couple of years as well)
The Empire series by Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurts (Daughter Of The Empire etc.)(again, been a while)
All David Gemmell's fantasy books (Legend first)
Lord Of The Rings (Obviously)


[This message has been edited by ConUladh (edited 15-05-2001).]

Kev

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Belisarius:
Hunter S thompson comes to mind , odd he hasnt been listed yet.

</font>

yes HST is my favorite author, he rocks.
reading generation of swine at the moment.

Sean

my best author is;
dave pelzer
as a kid he was betten by his evil mother
and got away and found a family that loved him. and then he joined the US air force
and had a Great life and so on .........
the booksare a child called it , the lost boy
and a man called dave

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Sean ownz j00 all!!

[This message has been edited by Sean (edited 24-05-2001).]