Sacrosanct
Legend
By tribalism, I mean by some of the things we've seen in entrenched fandom. "Anyone who votes against my favorite author isn't smart enough to appreciate them, so I'm going to downvote any author you upvote in retaliation."
Survivor Appendix E (5e) Authors- Ursula K. LeGWINS!
By tribalism, I mean by some of the things we've seen in entrenched fandom. "Anyone who votes against my favorite author isn't smart enough to appreciate them, so I'm going to downvote any author you upvote in retaliation."
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
[MENTION=15700]Sacrosanct[/MENTION]: Ah. Yeah, there's plenty of that going on also. (It explains the Tolkien debacle, at the very least.)
Gradine
The Elephant in the Room (she/her)
Alexander, Lloyd 21
Bulfinch, Thomas 10
Cook, Glen 21
Jemisin, N.K. 18 - Not sure where the hate is coming from (outside of initials usage), Jemisin is doing some of best world-building out there right now, not to mention some of the best prose.
Kay, Guy Gavriel 20
LeGuin, Ursula 19
Lynch, Scott 20
McKillip, Patricia 21
Peake, Mervyn 18
Pratchett, Terry 18
Sanderson, Brandon 15
Wolfe, Gene 23
Bulfinch, Thomas 10
Cook, Glen 21
Jemisin, N.K. 18 - Not sure where the hate is coming from (outside of initials usage), Jemisin is doing some of best world-building out there right now, not to mention some of the best prose.
Kay, Guy Gavriel 20
LeGuin, Ursula 19
Lynch, Scott 20
McKillip, Patricia 21
Peake, Mervyn 18
Pratchett, Terry 18
Sanderson, Brandon 15
Wolfe, Gene 23
The authors remaining aren't especially obscure. Most of them have front facing books on the shelves.
Gradine
The Elephant in the Room (she/her)
American fantasy author, most famous for the Chronicles of Prydain which is probably best known for spawning the not particularly well-received (but better than I think most people give it credit for) Disney movie The Black Cauldron (Alexander himself once remarked that it bore little resemblance to his own work, but he enjoyed it well enough on its own merits). They were a pretty excellent series of youth-oriented fantasy novels in that they were fully appropriate for all ages without being "kiddy" or shying away from being genuinely dark and depressing at times. I'd highly recommend them.
There is a difference between "works about misogyny" and "works that are misogynistic". Howard's works fall pretty squarely in the latter in most instances; whereas from what I can find from a short trip down Google (I've not read his works myself) Kay tends to be regarded more in the former category.
Survivor threads are, definitionally, about being the "least-hated", not the "most-liked" or "most-popular".
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Alexander, Lloyd 21
Bulfinch, Thomas 10
Cook, Glen 21
Jemisin, N.K. 18
Kay, Guy Gavriel 20
LeGuin, Ursula 20
Lynch, Scott 20
McKillip, Patricia 21
Peake, Mervyn 16
Pratchett, Terry 19
Sanderson, Brandon 13
Wolfe, Gene 23
Lots of big, big fantasy authors still on this list: Terry Pratchett was the second biggest selling British writer of any stripe, after J.K. Rowling, during his lifetime. I'm pretty sure most D&D players who read books will have heard of most of these, though even I have learned quite a bit from taking a deeper look at this list.
Bulfinch, Thomas 10
Cook, Glen 21
Jemisin, N.K. 18
Kay, Guy Gavriel 20
LeGuin, Ursula 20
Lynch, Scott 20
McKillip, Patricia 21
Peake, Mervyn 16
Pratchett, Terry 19
Sanderson, Brandon 13
Wolfe, Gene 23
Lots of big, big fantasy authors still on this list: Terry Pratchett was the second biggest selling British writer of any stripe, after J.K. Rowling, during his lifetime. I'm pretty sure most D&D players who read books will have heard of most of these, though even I have learned quite a bit from taking a deeper look at this list.
Sacrosanct
Legend
There are thousands of front facing authors on the shelves. Doesn't mean most D&D player are familiar with them. Of this list remaining, I feel comfortable in saying that the vast majority of D&D gamers are only familiar with maybe two or three of them. Heck, we have people here in this thread who aren't familiar with some of the more iconic, best selling authors. So for people to know a much lesser well known? I think that's only the minority.
Either way, my point stands. I find it odd that the top authors remaining for a thread about "most inspirational" are those that had the lowest readership than those authors who fell first. The results will likely be the complete opposite of what the thread's intent was supposed to be. I strongly suspect a thread where you just did a poll, the results would be completely different.
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