Fantasy authors worth the reading.

[WayneLigon]

And one last thing. I've used the list at Best Fantasy Books to find some really neat fantasy on occasion, though there's also a lot on the list I don't agree with. Anyone else seen the site?

Never heard of it, and no wonder It's pretty poorly done

Of his choices, though:

Patrick Ruthrus -- The Name of the Wind
Excellent choice. I enjoyed the first book immensely.

Garth Nix’s “Abhorson Trilogy”
Very good. Some very cool stuff in here, and how to be a Good necromancer.

JV Jones -- A Sword of Shadows
I've read the first book. Excellent resource for a character from a cold barbaric environment. I felt like I was going to freeze to death reading it.

Sean Russell’s The Swan’s War trilogy
Pretty much anything Sean Russell does is good.

Lian Hearn’s Tales of the Otori
Very good. I've read all but the last one

 

[Desdichado]

Here's another interesting list. Built solely by voters, although it groups science fiction together with fantasy.

Although that's the same as most libraries and bookstores anyway.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cavern/6113/t100256.txt

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

"The Boats of the Glen Carrig" by William Hope Hodgson is my suggestion, if it doesn't give you D&D ideas, you suck!

also scares crap out of you.
Most of the rest of his stuff is just meh, oddly weird, not so good at all though. Carnaki's not bad at times.
Except one book of Hodgson...
+5 rept to first who knows what book I mean

 

[Errandir]

Hmm... on the topic of George R.R. Martin, I read the first book in his long series and liked it, but wasn't overly impressed (never got any further because I couldn't find the other books in my library - odd, given their popularity). But I recently came across a short story / novella of his called A Song for Lya (it was in an anthology somewhere), and it did a lot more to convince me of his merit as a writer. It was really excellently done.

 

[Knightfall]

I must give my vote to the following authors: Hobb, Knaak, Leiber, Vance, and Weis/Hickman.

I just started reading "Mistborn" by Brandon Sanderson. It's very good, IMO.

 

[garyh]

I just started reading "Mistborn" by Brandon Sanderson. It's very good, IMO.

I just started reading that series myself. Halfway through book two, and I'm really enjoying it. Also, the makers of SpyCraft announced this week they're doing an RPG of Mistborn in 2009, so that's really cool.

 

[Knightfall]

I just started reading that series myself. Halfway through book two, and I'm really enjoying it. Also, the makers of SpyCraft announced this week they're doing an RPG of Mistborn in 2009, so that's really cool.

Yeah, it was reading about that RPG that made me start reading the book. Mistborn was one of the free e-books that Tor gave away a while ago.

 

[garyh]

Yeah, it was reading about that RPG that made me start reading the book. Mistborn was one of the free e-books that Tor gave away a while ago.

I decided to give it a try because I'm a Jordan fan, and was curious if the guy I had never heard of who's doing A Memory of Light was any good. Luckily, he is!

I have to wonder how many more books Sanderson has moved since he was named to finish Jordan's last book. You can't buy that kind of exposure.

 

[drothgery]

I decided to give it a try because I'm a Jordan fan, and was curious if the guy I had never heard of who's doing A Memory of Light was any good. Luckily, he is!

I have to wonder how many more books Sanderson has moved since he was named to finish Jordan's last book. You can't buy that kind of exposure.

That's why I picked up Elantris (and since it was pretty good, the first two Mistborn paperbacks).

 

[garyh]

I plan to read Elantris after I finish the Mistborn trilogy. Kinda wanted to read the first two Mistborn in time to read the third when it comes out, so I could be up on it, despite being new to the series.

Mistborn's magic system sounds like it'd be fun in an RPG. But I'm wondering how they'll make it so mistborn, mistings, and regular folks can all be in a crew together and all be useful. That's been problematic in other fiction-to-RPG adaptations (channelers in the Wheel of Time rpg, Jedi in various Star Wars RPGs, etc.).