Fantasy authors worth the reading.

[DrunkonDuty]

Pants wrote:
Well... I kinda look at Malazan as a big, Micheal Bay-ish style fantasy. Cool, superpowered fights with lots of explosions, kinda cool, paper thin characters built up out of pretty cliche archetypes and lots of stuff that, generally, doesn't make much sense but is cool to look at.

It's the not making much sense thing that has done it for me. I've given up on tyring to find a plot among all the anecdotes, asides, hints, etc etc. But thanks for the reply, I think I know I can skip him now.

Wayne Ligon wrote:
Simon R Green - The Nightside books and his new Shaman Bond series. Quick, frothy books that resemble each other a great deal but the concepts and names he just tosses out there should keep you in plot hooks for several months or longer. He really, really loves the word 'Appalling', just to warn you.

LOL when I read this. He IS an appalling writer. I read one of his books. Hated it. But the ideas in the story, the mythology behind it if you will, was great and could easily be mined for fantasy world creation.

ANother vote (it's not really a poll but hey) for Naomi Naovik and Temeraire.

And how could I have forgotten Le Guin? She's been one of my all time faves since I was a kid.

Joe Abercrombie: I've read The Blade Itself, and really enjoyed it. Waiting eagerly for the next ones.

 

[Grog]

Someone who hasn't been mentioned yet - Neil Gaiman. American Gods is well worth a read if you're looking for something unusual - it's a fantasy story set in modern-day America.

 

[DarkKestral]

Someone who hasn't been mentioned yet - Neil Gaiman. American Gods is well worth a read if you're looking for something unusual - it's a fantasy story set in modern-day America.

I was just about to mention Gaiman. Given that he's not only written some of the best modern fantasy in novel form, but some of the best in TV, comic, and movie form, he certainly should qualify, as his comics and scripts are also fairly readable. Plus, Good Omens is him and Pratchett combining their styles into one book that shows off the things they are individually good at while being something that is recognizably written by them together if you are familiar with both of their styles. Oh yeah, and it's an awesome parody of first The Omen film. American Gods is a great example of his work, and I'd recommend it, Stardust, or Mirrormask as starters, if only because American Gods is his best known novel, while Stardust and Mirrormask are excellent movies, and you can get a easy sense of his style, though Stardust the movie is a slightly inferior adaptation (though with DeNiro as a campy gay pirate captain, which is interesting) and Mirrormask is only in movie form. Neverwhere's also been done as another medium (it was a TV series first though) but as it likely a bit harder to find the DVDs, I'd skip it as the first. (It's interesting comparing American Gods to Neverwhere and Good Omens though, as he seems to really know how to make things feel more like what they are there. American Gods's fictional USA feels more American than the real world USA, and I wouldn't be surprised if Neverwhere and Good Omen's England feels more British than the real world England.)

 

[RangerWickett]

I enjoyed American Gods until the last quarter of the book. The ending felt decidedly non-American.

 

[RangerWickett]

I generally don't like 'epic fantasy' novels. Not because I dislike epic tales per se, but because most epic storytellers take things too seriously. I want some fun in my fiction. Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser are great for this, and I much prefer that style to something like George R. R. Martin's books. I mean, he's great, but isn't my cup of tea.

So everyone has been listing tons of fantasy authors, but which ones are more light-hearted?

 

[Asmo]

So everyone has been listing tons of fantasy authors, but which ones are more light-hearted?

Eddings is the sum of light-hearted fantasy, at least in my book.

Asmo

 

[Rackhir]

So everyone has been listing tons of fantasy authors, but which ones are more light-hearted?

Cook's Garret Novels are generally pretty light hearted.

There's Robert Lynn Asprin's Myth-XXXX books. If you've never read it, Phil Foglio did a comic book adaptation of the first novel that is even better than the original book, which was already terrific.

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

David Eddings (at least the Belgariad/Malloreon and Elenium/Tamuli series; later stuff not so great...)

Terry Goodkind

Terry Pratchett

Barry Hughart

Steven Brust

 

[PieAndDragon]

David Gemmell - No one does heroic fantasy quite like him, and loved Lion of Macedon.
Robin Hobb / Megan Lindholm - Some of the best characterisation I've seen. Powerful stuff
Jacqueline Carey - Loved her Kushiel's series, very different viewpoint.
Neil Gaiman - American Gods, Good Omens, his short story collection, love them all.
Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana, Sarantium Mosaic and other stuff is very well put together.
George RR Martin - Good characters, politics and setting, and not afraid to give his characters a hard time.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

Jack Vance - The Lyonesse Trilogy (excellent) as well as his Dying Earth offerings. The man is a wordsmith.

Roger Zelazny - The Amber Series (superb) as well as his fine grasp of the short story.

Ursala K. LeGuin - The Earthsea Trilogy ( just never get her much later 4th book because it has very little to do with the Earthsea in style or scope; it is terrible).

Robert Silverberg - The Majipoor Chronicles (Fantasy Sci)

Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood; I've never read anything like this before or since. This is a very, very unique concept.

John Bellairs - The Face in the Frost; I picked up my copy years ago on a Dime Store rack -- boy, talk about a extremely pleasant suprise.

M.R.R. Baker - The Man of Gold (set in a sci-fi world and yet it has tons of fantasy).

Tim Powers - The Anubis Gate and On Stranger Tides.