[OT] Who is your favourite author?

[Tetsubo]

When I read fiction I'd have to say the authors already mentioned are good.

Now I read non-fiction exclusively. I recently discovered Joseph Campbell and I am really enjoying him. But my favorite author would be Richard Dawkins. I don't agree with his views on religion but the man writes great books. I believe I only have one of his left that I haven't read yet.

 

[Dragonblade]

Fantasy: (not necessarily in order of preference)

1) Robert Jordan
2) JK Rowling
3) David Gemmel
4) David Eddings
5) JRR Tolkien
6) Terry Goodkind
7) Terry Brooks
8) Michael stackpole
9) Simon Hawke

Other:

Michael Crichton
Jules Verne
Louis L'amour
Robert Louis Stevenson

and more I can't think of right now...

 

[Eosin the Red]

Interesting...so many that I consider excellent and so many that I think aren't?

FANTASY:
A nod goes goes to JRRT for creating secondary worlds.

My favorite would have to be GRRM but lots of other good ones out there.

SCI-FI & Best all around
Asimov - and I understand he is the most prolific writer?

MODERN
Vachss - a whole new meaning to gritty.

NON-FICTON
Somewhat dated, but I still love Will Durant.

 

[Matt Black]

If I had to choose one favourite, it'd be Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One Hundred Years of Solitude sucked me in like no other novel ever has.

 

[shadowlight]

Well, I named my son after a Zelazny character (Random from the Chronicles of Amber) so i'd have to recommend him...

I've also been reading Salvatore's Demon Wars saga... Very good brain candy action fantasy with some great quasi-religious topics thrown in...

 

[jaerdaph]

I like doing lists like this

In no particular order, these are probably my favorite:

H.P. Lovecraft
Peter Straub
Brian Lumley
Robert Bloch
Caleb Carr
Kim Newman
Fred Saberhagen
Richard Matheson
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Henry James
M.R. James
J.R.R Tolkien
H.G. Wells
Michael Moorcock
Peter J. Heck
Ambrose Bierce
Algernon Blackwood
Jules Verne
Stephen King
J.K. Rowling
Franz Kafka

Actually, this list could probably keep going on and on, but I'll stop here

My AM and PM subway commutes are my prime reading times, and a nice use of what would otherwise be wasted time.

 

[Maldur]

Steven Erikson!


Sidenote:I think Stephen King is the most overrated writer of all times and HP Lovecraft a good second! Their Ideas are awesome, their introduction of characters is good but the endings of their stories and novels are really, really BAD!!

 

[Terraism]

Carl Sagan. Always perks me up - either because it's depressing as all heck, and I thrive on melodrama, or because it actually is just damn good. (That too, even when it's depressing. )

I'm not touching fantasy authors with a ten-foot pole here, mainly because I can't pick, and I don't want to break the rules and name more than one. [So there, you all! ] Though, thinking about it, I think I'd go with him anyway.

 

[sellars]

William Gibson his cyberpunk stuff is great, but frighteningly real from time to time
neil gaiman
Franz Kafka
Dostojevsky
Gonstjarov
Phillip K Dick

All of these authors aren't particularly cheerful, but they each have their own style and timeperiod in which they write.

S

 

[Priest]

Like many others who post on these well (IQ) endowed boards, I can not pick just one Author who really jumps out as my favorite. but I have a who list of top tens


Fantasy

1. Andre Norton "Witch World" and the following serries
2. Elizabeth Haydon "Rhapsody" "Prophecy" "Destiny" "Requim for the Sun"
3. Mercedes Lackey "The Bardic Voices" Publishers Ed.
4. Fritz Leiber "Swords & .... Series"
5. Ursula K. Leguin "Earthsea"
6. Patricia P. Mckilliup (sp?) "Riddlemaster of Hed"
7. David Farland "Runelords Series"
8. Peter S. Beagle "The Last Unicorn"
9. Guy Gavriel Keye "A Song for Arrabone"
10. G.R.R. Martin "A Song of Fire, and Ice"

(Honorable mentions of course being LoTR, Princess Bride, Soul Singer of Tyrnos by Ardath Mayhar, also WoT by R. Jordan), Recluse by L. E Modeste

Science Fiction (Hard)

1.Ben Bova "Mars"
2. Jack Mcdevitts (sp?) The Engines of God
3. Ben Bova "Venus"
4. Kim Stanley Robinson (Mars Series; Red, Green, Blue)
5. J. Schmidt (Ecologies of the Hub)

Science Fiction (Adventure)

1. Andre Norton "Solar Queen Series"
2. Robert Heinlein "Citizen of the Galaxy"
3. Andre Norton "The Stars are Ours, and Star Born"
4. Ursula K. Leguin "The Dispossesed"
5. Phillip K. Dick "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"
6. Andre Norton "Brother to the Shadow"

Historical Fiction
1. Patrick O'brien Aubrey & Maturien Series
2. C.S. Forrester Horatio Hornblower
3. Alexander Dumas "The Count of Monte Cristo"

Classics

1. In the Sargasso Sea by Janvers