Favorite SciFi/Fantasy Authors?
- Thread starter Jax
- Start date
Kveldssanger
Black Adder leads us all
Sci-fi (not a very big fan)
Frank Herbert
Douglas Adams
Fantasy
Terry Pratchett (the ultimate god
)
David Eddings
Robert Jordan
Michael Moorcock
Ursula K. Leguin
Frank Herbert
Douglas Adams
Fantasy
Terry Pratchett (the ultimate god
)David Eddings
Robert Jordan
Michael Moorcock
Ursula K. Leguin
SculptedCold
-scented manbeef-
Stephen Donaldson. His Gap series is the best science fiction work i've ever read. An introductory novel followed by 4 massive sequels, a totally complete world of authenticity, epic drama, tragedy and tension. I'd recommend it to anyone.
Voice of God
Harmless Bum
Fantasy:
JRR Tolkien
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Robin Hobb
Terry Pratchett
Orson Scott Card (Alvin Maker, although parts 4 & 5 weren't too good... hope 6 & 7 will restore the quality)
David Eddings (belgariad & related, elenium sucked so much I didn't bother with the sequel trilogy)
Neil Gaiman
Stephen King (dark tower)
Feist (I've only read one book, but that was great)
Sci-Fi:
Dan Simmons (Hyperion series)
William Gibson
A.C.Clarke
JRR Tolkien
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Robin Hobb
Terry Pratchett
Orson Scott Card (Alvin Maker, although parts 4 & 5 weren't too good... hope 6 & 7 will restore the quality)
David Eddings (belgariad & related, elenium sucked so much I didn't bother with the sequel trilogy)
Neil Gaiman
Stephen King (dark tower)
Feist (I've only read one book, but that was great)
Sci-Fi:
Dan Simmons (Hyperion series)
William Gibson
A.C.Clarke
xenophobe
Active Member
yourdeadgroom
Black Stone Wielder
Peter Hamilton (the Night's Dawn trilogy is one of the best things I've read)
Harry Harrison
Neil Gaiman
Harry Harrison
Neil Gaiman
Cool to see all the bookworms here!
Some of my faves, in no particular order, are:
Michael Moorcock <--the man who got me into the genre 20 years ago when I discovered the Dorian Hawkmoon series
Roger Zelazny
Fred Saberhagen
Raymond Feist
Anne McCaffrey
Stephen Donaldson
I'm trying to dig up all the Eddings books that make up the Belgariad (since it's been highly recommended to me countless times), but it's unbelivably difficult when stores only have one book from the whole thing for sale..I read fast enough that I like to have the next book in hand, so I won't start reading this one til I find them all. May have to just break down & order the whole set online.
Speaking of which..here's the url for a site where you can go search for used/rare/out of print books from sellers around the world. They set their own prices, & from the search I did there on a few of my favorite authors, the prices vary from very reasonable (especially on used hardbacks, which we all know can be unbelievably pricey when new), to *how the hell can you justify charging that price for a used paperback?* hehe. I managed to find the last couple of books of Zelazny's Amber series through this site, at a damn good price.
One of the perks is that, with thousands of booksellers in the network, the selection is impressive.
At any rate, maybe you'll find something good here..the url is:
http://www.abe.com/
Some of my faves, in no particular order, are:
Michael Moorcock <--the man who got me into the genre 20 years ago when I discovered the Dorian Hawkmoon series
Roger Zelazny
Fred Saberhagen
Raymond Feist
Anne McCaffrey
Stephen Donaldson
I'm trying to dig up all the Eddings books that make up the Belgariad (since it's been highly recommended to me countless times), but it's unbelivably difficult when stores only have one book from the whole thing for sale..I read fast enough that I like to have the next book in hand, so I won't start reading this one til I find them all. May have to just break down & order the whole set online.
Speaking of which..here's the url for a site where you can go search for used/rare/out of print books from sellers around the world. They set their own prices, & from the search I did there on a few of my favorite authors, the prices vary from very reasonable (especially on used hardbacks, which we all know can be unbelievably pricey when new), to *how the hell can you justify charging that price for a used paperback?* hehe. I managed to find the last couple of books of Zelazny's Amber series through this site, at a damn good price.
One of the perks is that, with thousands of booksellers in the network, the selection is impressive.
At any rate, maybe you'll find something good here..the url is:
http://www.abe.com/
Ziller
?
I'm a little late (tight weekend schedule and all that ;-) ) but here's my 10 cents worth:
Sci-Fi:
Fantasy:
Sci-Fi:
- William Gibson -- to me, he will always be the man who defined cyberpunk. Some say his writing skills are lacking but I think his somewhat sparse style fits the atmosphere perfectly.
- Iain M. Banks -- for wild utopias and jaw-dropping plot twists.
- Harry Harrison -- for harmless fun.
- Douglas Adams -- for mostly harmless fun... the musings on the inner workings of the universe in his books are absolute gems. Went and died, the bastard.
Fantasy:
- J.R.R. Tolkien -- nuff said.
- Ursula Le Guin -- tight, well laid out, economic and interesting stories, not 2000-page "epic sagas" every six months. The system of magic in her books -- using true names for power over things -- is interesting.
- Terry Pratchett -- For the same reasons as Adams, mostly. He parodies the modern world in funny and unexpected ways.
Sci-Fi:
Douglas Adams
William Gibson
Robert A. Heinlein
Frank Herbert
Fantasy:
HP Lovecraft
Terry Pratchett
J.R.R. Tolkien
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
I don't have my books here and I have really bad namememory, so I don't remember more names (and some of those just because someone mentioned them before).
Douglas Adams
William Gibson
Robert A. Heinlein
Frank Herbert
Fantasy:
HP Lovecraft
Terry Pratchett
J.R.R. Tolkien
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
I don't have my books here and I have really bad namememory, so I don't remember more names (and some of those just because someone mentioned them before).
Voice of God
Harmless Bum
Tristessa
Member
Sci fi and fantasy are not my favourite genres, but I've read a little of them and I like:
Stephen King (of course)
Ray Bradbury
Stephen King (of course)
Ray Bradbury
Fantasy:
J.R.R. Tolkien - Partly because it was the first book I ever read.
Katherine Kerr,
George R. R. Martin,
Raymond E. Feist,
Anne McCaffrey,
Robin Hobb,
Maggie Furey,
J.V. Jones,
David and Leigh Eddings,
Elizabeth Haydon,
Terry Goodkind,
And last but not least Frank Herbert
There's a lot more but these are the best of my collection.
J.R.R. Tolkien - Partly because it was the first book I ever read.
Katherine Kerr,
George R. R. Martin,
Raymond E. Feist,
Anne McCaffrey,
Robin Hobb,
Maggie Furey,
J.V. Jones,
David and Leigh Eddings,
Elizabeth Haydon,
Terry Goodkind,
And last but not least Frank Herbert
There's a lot more but these are the best of my collection.
Fuþorc
Rotting Corpse Head!
Don't like Science Fiction much, but I do love Horror and Fantasy.
Fantasy:
JRR Tolkien
Stephen King (again, Dark Tower Junkie)
Robert Jordan
Micheal Moorcock
Robert e. Howard
Horror
Stephen King again
Lovecraft
Bently Little
That's about it.
Fantasy:
JRR Tolkien
Stephen King (again, Dark Tower Junkie)
Robert Jordan
Micheal Moorcock
Robert e. Howard
Horror
Stephen King again
Lovecraft
Bently Little
That's about it.
the only (i think) author not already mentioned that i can come up with is Tad Williams, all my other fav's stand above
currently reading a collection of stories from a.c. clarke; very enjoyable
fav so far is without a doubt robert jordan
currently reading a collection of stories from a.c. clarke; very enjoyable
fav so far is without a doubt robert jordan
They rarely have entire series available for borrowing all at once, same as bookstores rarely having entire series available for purchase all at once.
Being a fast reader is a curse or I'd just get one at a time.
Rusty
A-HAHAHA!
Hmm, I don't really do sci-fi.
Fantasy:
Terry Pratchett
J. R. R. Tolkein
Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickmann
David Eddings
L. E. Modesitt Jr.
Ian Irvine
There's someone else who I've completely forgotten and no one else has mentioned him. This is gonna annoy me all day.
Fantasy:
Terry Pratchett
J. R. R. Tolkein
Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickmann
David Eddings
L. E. Modesitt Jr.
Ian Irvine
There's someone else who I've completely forgotten and no one else has mentioned him. This is gonna annoy me all day
.
Got this from another message board & thought I'd share..
I often see people asking about fantasy books, but it usually focuses
on the mainstream fantasy writing. I prefer the less traditional
stuff. If anybody else is interested in the more odd side to
fantasy, my suggestions are....
City of Saints and Madmen, by Jeff VaderMeer. Jeff quickly became
one of my favorite authors, based on this book. A collection of
short stories set in a fantastic city. Instead of a medieval
mind-set or typical fantasy, it is populated by artists, writers,
missionaries, historians, and mushroom people with sinister secrets.
It's beautifully written, and has a mix of surrealist writing, horror
and some humor. Be sure to read everything - there are stories
hidden in footnotes and bibliographies and appendixes.
Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake. It's often filed in fantasy, but
there's little resembling fantasy. It's the sprawling tale of the
inhabitants of Gormenghast Castle, set in an indeterminate time
period. The writing is very long, going into minute detail and
moving with an almost glacial pace. At it's best, it's some of the
best writing in the English language, at it's worst, he dwells a bit
too long on the details. Still, I think it's one of the best
"fantastic" series out there.
The Troika, by Stepan Chapman. This is for those interested in
something completely different. It's the tale of a Mexican woman, a
computerized jeep, and a brontosaurus crossing a desert. Incredibly
bizarre, but so interesting that I couldn't put it down.
Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville. Sprawling urban science
fiction. Reading it, you always feel the presence of "the city".
It's very long and the plot is convoluted, but it's the most original
sci-fi/fantasy I've read in a long time. Insect people, sentient
cacti, steam-tech artificial intelligence, ambassadors from Hell,
extra-dimensional spiders, inter-species romance and completely
insane scientific theories are found here, with a whole lot more.
The writing is very dense, with some Peake-ish passages. This book
had a profound effect on both what I started to read after it, and on
the music I write (this is what got me interested in music that
evokes the city).
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino. Musings on memory, disguised in
short stories, which are part of a conversation between Marco Polo
and Kublai Khan. Very imaginative, but not much in the way of story.
Uzumaki, by Junji Ito. It's a Japanese comic, translated into
English. It's a creepy horror tale of a town haunted by spirals.
Each chapter of it tells an increasingly horrific tale, with some
grotesque, spiral-related element.
The Tartar Khan's Englishman, by Gabriel Ronay. It's not fiction,
but history. But it's so weird, some may think it's made up. It's
the story of an English priest who was excommunicated and traveled to
Mongolia, becoming the chief diplomat for Genghis Khan, and an
incredibly powerful figure in the Mongol army.
I often see people asking about fantasy books, but it usually focuses
on the mainstream fantasy writing. I prefer the less traditional
stuff. If anybody else is interested in the more odd side to
fantasy, my suggestions are....
City of Saints and Madmen, by Jeff VaderMeer. Jeff quickly became
one of my favorite authors, based on this book. A collection of
short stories set in a fantastic city. Instead of a medieval
mind-set or typical fantasy, it is populated by artists, writers,
missionaries, historians, and mushroom people with sinister secrets.
It's beautifully written, and has a mix of surrealist writing, horror
and some humor. Be sure to read everything - there are stories
hidden in footnotes and bibliographies and appendixes.
Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake. It's often filed in fantasy, but
there's little resembling fantasy. It's the sprawling tale of the
inhabitants of Gormenghast Castle, set in an indeterminate time
period. The writing is very long, going into minute detail and
moving with an almost glacial pace. At it's best, it's some of the
best writing in the English language, at it's worst, he dwells a bit
too long on the details. Still, I think it's one of the best
"fantastic" series out there.
The Troika, by Stepan Chapman. This is for those interested in
something completely different. It's the tale of a Mexican woman, a
computerized jeep, and a brontosaurus crossing a desert. Incredibly
bizarre, but so interesting that I couldn't put it down.
Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville. Sprawling urban science
fiction. Reading it, you always feel the presence of "the city".
It's very long and the plot is convoluted, but it's the most original
sci-fi/fantasy I've read in a long time. Insect people, sentient
cacti, steam-tech artificial intelligence, ambassadors from Hell,
extra-dimensional spiders, inter-species romance and completely
insane scientific theories are found here, with a whole lot more.
The writing is very dense, with some Peake-ish passages. This book
had a profound effect on both what I started to read after it, and on
the music I write (this is what got me interested in music that
evokes the city).
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino. Musings on memory, disguised in
short stories, which are part of a conversation between Marco Polo
and Kublai Khan. Very imaginative, but not much in the way of story.
Uzumaki, by Junji Ito. It's a Japanese comic, translated into
English. It's a creepy horror tale of a town haunted by spirals.
Each chapter of it tells an increasingly horrific tale, with some
grotesque, spiral-related element.
The Tartar Khan's Englishman, by Gabriel Ronay. It's not fiction,
but history. But it's so weird, some may think it's made up. It's
the story of an English priest who was excommunicated and traveled to
Mongolia, becoming the chief diplomat for Genghis Khan, and an
incredibly powerful figure in the Mongol army.
i may seem a bit trendy in naming these authors but i love em and fuck whats trendy or not
Lovecraft
Tolkein
all other authors pale imo. i admit i havne't heard or read most of the authors everyone else has listed i'll check those guys out. i really like tolkein and lovecraft for the richness of their imagination and in creating their own worlds, mythologies, languages, etc.
Lovecraft
Tolkein
all other authors pale imo. i admit i havne't heard or read most of the authors everyone else has listed i'll check those guys out. i really like tolkein and lovecraft for the richness of their imagination and in creating their own worlds, mythologies, languages, etc.
