Favourite fiction author

[Quirinus]

Do you have any (fiction) author which you particularly like?

My current favourite is Terry Pratchett. No one -not even Douglas Adams- writes comedy like he does.

[Geoffrey S]

Oh, there are far better comedy authors than Pratchett - his talent is in using decent plots as a means of presenting his interesting variety of characters. Humor is secondary, which he pretty much proved by his excellent Night Watch book.

My favourite fiction author has for some time now been John Irving. Quirky plots, memorable characters and the ability to touch the reader spread over numerous books place him in that position, in my mind.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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I've not been into fiction too much except being buried deep in Tolkien.
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[Justiciar]

I'm a George Martin fan. I've never read any of his complete stories outside the Song of Ice and Fire series, though. I'd also wade through snakepits to get a good translation of Andrzej Sapkowski's novels. I've heard so many good things about them, but felt a wee bit unimpressed by Danusia Stok's English version of the Last Wish.

[Martok]

Hmm. I truly can't say I have only a single favorite.

Any list of my top 5, however, would have to include Isaac Asimov, Stephen R. Lawhead, Steven Pressfield, and Tolkien.

I don't know that I would necessarily include Timothy Zahn on that list, but he at least gets honorable mention for his Conquerors Trilogy in addition to his Star Wars novels (Grand Admiral Thrawn is easily among my favorite non-canon SW characters ).

[Veho Nex]

Dennis L McKeirnan

Robert Anthony Salvatore

Issac Assimov

[Lord Godfrey]

Bernard Cornwell, a true master of historical fiction. The Grail Quest series and the Saxon Chronicles go hand in hand with MTW

[Innocentius]

I'll just have to say Adams then. Wit, language, lack of actual plot... he's got it all.

All fantasy authors are so "light" and "easy". Even Jordan seems naive to me. If there is fantasy with more dirt, death, disease, pessimism, cynicism, capitalism, fanatacism etc. please let me know. Or I could just stick to naturalism and get all that without having to learn those weird names*...


*Tolkien was the only fantasy author (ever) who understood how to make up names and languages.

[Tratorix]

All fantasy authors are so "light" and "easy". Even Jordan seems naive to me. If there is fantasy with more dirt, death, disease, pessimism, cynicism, capitalism, fanatacism etc. please let me know.

Have you tried George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series? Very gritty and real, not much magic and flights of fancy. Even the people who could be called the "good guys" can be rather nasty, and the "villains" you can actually identify with.

I'd have to say my favourite author (at the moment at least) is probably Bernard Cornwell. Nobody really does battles bettter in my opinion.

[Conradus]

For fantasy I prefer Robert Jordan, he made characters I could care about and give them quite realistic feelings. Martin on the other hand just had a cynic joy in killing of every enjoyable character imo, combined with his personal motto "everything that can go wrong, does so", he isn't exactly my kind of writer

For fantasy I love to read Frank Herbert or Robert Heinlein.
And if I want to laugh, then Douglas Adams is the man to read.

[Ser Clegane]

Some favorites:
- John Irving
- Umberto Eco
- Max Frisch
- Haruki Murakami
- Frank Herbert
Obviously I am also quite fond of George R. R. Martin's books

Actually the list is a bit too long to be a meaningful answer here - but "favorite" just depends too much on current mood...

[Ramses II CP]

If you want gritty fantasy try the Black Company books, by Glen Cook. Not a great writer, but a good story teller.

I couldn't pick just one favorite either. A few I'd recommend highly are Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Fred Saberhagen (Okay, I love the idea of the Berserker books more than the execution, but I'd still put him up there), Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Lem, Phillip Dick, Bentley Little, H.P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, H. Beam Piper, John D. MacDonald, John W. Campbell... Ergh, I could go on and on. And that's just fiction that comes immediately to mind.

[Marshal Murat]

Bernard Cornwall, Tom Clancy (great stuff Red Tide Rising), Larry Bond (like Clancy but more diverse), Tolkein, Asimov, Arthur Clarke, Heinlein, Pressfield, Cussler, Turtledove, David Drake. I would put King, but he's a non-fic writer.

Simon Scarrow: Does some great stuff with the Roman invasion of Britain.
Bernard Cornwall: Great Saxon, Great Grail, Sharpe always great.
Tom Clancy: Never the easy path, always technical without trying to overburden you. Same goes for Larry Bond, but he has South Africa vs. Cuba, or EU vs. Poland. More variety.
Pressfield: Like Scarrow, but alot more into it, more detail.
David Drake: His Hammer's Slammers are somewhat redundant, but still very good, along with his Seas of Venus.

[Beirut]

Arthur C. Clarke
Tom Clancy
Edgar Allan Poe
Douglas Adams
George Orwell

(I don't read a a lot of fiction, but if I find a good authour, like Clarke or Clancy, I'll read everything they wrote. Twice.)

[Reverend Joe]

OH YEAH! (I like literature threads.)

I tend to like individual books more than authors (i.e. Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Carl Sagan's The Dragons of Eden, althouh the latter isn't really fiction) but if I had to choose an author it would most definitely be Nikos Kazantzakis. Dense, metaphorical, metaphysical, psychedelic, philosophical... beautiful. He's the reason I used to be named "Zorba."

[Gaius Scribonius Curio]

My favourite author has to be Bernard Cornwall (particularly the Grail Quest books).

Colleen McCollugh is an incredible author, the deep development of Characters just seems to throw you back into that time period (highly recommend the Masters of Rome series ).

Was recently introduced to George R.R. Martins A Song of Ice and Fire, totally agree with Brave_Sir_Robin, dark, gritty, and only a hint of magic. They're fairly hefty though...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But if your reading a literature thread then you probably don't care!

[Martok]

Hmm, sounds like I may have to check out this Bernard Cornwall. He sounds like he'd be right up my alley.

[naut]

Orwell is brilliant, great writer, (but I find he gets a bit dense/dry). Poe is great, enthralling and intelligent. Malouf, great writer, some of his stuff is a bit dull, but still good. Wordworth, poetry baby! Shakespeare, serious, so amazing, often odd, like As You Like It, but still great. And, Matthew Riley - nothing like good mindless action.

Edit: How could I forget! Ovid! Simply amazing, I only wish I could read his stuff in the original Latin.

"To be loved, be lovable."

[Lemur]

I read the way most people eat potato chips, so I've got more favorite authors than you really want to hear about. A very partial list:

Charles Stross (best current SF author)
Lois Bujold (wrote some of the most fun and amusing space opera of all time)
Patrick O'Brian (best historical fiction series)
Robert Graves (best history-based fiction of all time)
Gene Wolfe (the American Borges, if you believe the praise, and a great author when you're in the mood for a brain torture)
Giles Milton (the most readable historian I've ever encountered)

... and I could go on. But you're probably happy that I won't.

[Fragony]

Rowling, I just have no defense against the whacky sense of humour, always reading with a broad smile slapped on my face.

GO HARRY

[Quirinus]

Wow. Wasn't expecting so many replies in a day.

Oh, there are far better comedy authors than Pratchett - his talent is in using decent plots as a means of presenting his interesting variety of characters. Humor is secondary, which he pretty much proved by his excellent Night Watch book.

Haven't read that one, looks like I'll have to. My personal favourite is Mort, it had an interesting premise, decent pacing, and lots of sly little observations like the rest of his books. Oh, and also a Death that SPEAKS LIKE THIS. A close second would probably be Monstrous Regiment

Curiously, the problem I have with Pratchett (actually, with pretty much every fantasy-comedy book and author) is that as the story moves along, they tends to lose focus. The plot picks up, yes, but it doesn't really get funnier-- as if plot developement somehow jostles out the humour.

With Adams.... well, Douglas Adams is funny, but I like my books to have at least a semblance of a coherent plot, and the Hitchhiker's 'trilogy in four parts' doesn't really provide that.

Tolkien I don't particularly like: the stories are amazing, yes, but they plod. He doesn't have any sense of pacing whatsoever. They just go on and on and on. The Hobbit, for example, took me no less than four times (over a period of about that many years) to actually finish it.

I like Edgar Allan Poe too. My personal favourite is The Cask of Admontillado, The Tell-tale Heart, and the one where he describes how the 'real' Arabian Nights ended.

Harry Turtledove is definitely one of my favourite authors. I read Guns of the South a couple of years back, and I was eating through the Timeline-191 series up till the thirties in January. His style of writing isn't spectacular-- in fact, it's workmanlike, but it's effective in conveying snapshots of an entire world that never was through his characters, but at the same time, he never loses sight that his characters are people, so they never seem like archetypes or two-dimensional.

I've read all the Clone Wars novels except the Medstar Duology (I was a big-time SW fan), some pre-Ep-I ones, the Thrawn Trilogy, and the Legacy of the Force series up till Sacrifice (whereupon I gave up on the series). My favourite of all the SW authors would be James Luceno. I enjoyed all three of his books: Cloak of Deception, Labyrinth of Evil, and Rise of Darth Vader. My favourite SW novel, though, is probably the Revenge of the Sith novelisation.

The Harry Potter series, IMO, was good till about the fourth book. The fifth book lacked pacing, and was far too long, as well as being overly angsty. The sixth book wasn't too bad, but the seventh book I place at about the same level as the fifth. Pointless treasure hunt? Check. Angst and hormones? Check. Contrived 'death' sequence? Check. Lame climax? Check. (I mean, c'mon. Expeliarmus? Expeliarmus???) Saccharine epilogue? Double check. IMO the third book was the zenith of the series. Strong story, good character interaction, excellent pacing.

Colleen McCollugh is an incredible author, the deep development of Characters just seems to throw you back into that time period

I agree. I find it slightly annoying, though, how she makes Caesar out to be a god amongst men-- very intelligent, very handsome, very noble, very everything.

Now rereading First Man in Rome.


If I had to choose my favourite book, it would be The Athenian Murders by Jose Carlos Samosa. Has anyone else read this book? The sheer amount of layers to the book is amazing, and the intriguing idea is brilliantly executed.

[CountArach]

Robert Jordan - May he rest in peace.

[edyzmedieval]

Clive Cussler.

Right now reading Conn Iggulden, pretty good so far.

[Justiciar]

Cornwell's.. iffy. He isn't everyone's cup of tea. Personally I can't stand his books, and yet seem to find myself constantly buying them.

His characters are two dimensional, his plots highly unoriginal, the course of his stories predictable, his style of writing workmanlike, mistakes are constant, and the general butchery of historical events and trivia standard. Not to mention that he seems to recycle character from series-to-series, just giving them different names and faces, and putting them in different settings. Ooh. And he seems to be physically unable to go a single book without mentioning London as some glorious and eternal, thriving, cosmopolitan metropolis. I think the only exception is Stonehenge, for obvious reasons.

That said, he does indeed write excellent descriptions of combat, and despite the flaws he doesn't half tell a good story.

[pevergreen]

Raymond E. Feist.

So many books, but still enough time to read them.

[KukriKhan]

Tony Hillerman
James Clavell

3 or 4 dozen others, but those are my top 2 for fiction.

[Tribesman]

Robert Rankin
http://www.sproutlore.com/books/rankinbooks.php

[Motep]

David Eddings. Right amount of detail, likable characters, juicy plots, nice little quirks and twists here an there. Pick up the Elenium, If you are anything like me, you will not be dissapointed. (The redemption of Althalaus is good too, along with the Belgariad) You might not get to the end all that fast, but you will enjoy the journey immensely. If you did get to the end faster, the books would not be as good. He makes a good world to escape to. I can go on, but I dont have the time...read him for yourself.

Other good authors are Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (woot for those two), Robert Jordan (though I often find myself bogged down in frivolous details that I forget and dont realize is important untill two books later), Tolkien (he's pretty good), and of course, Piers Anthony (lord of puns. Has penned an interesting view of the universe).

[Gaius Scribonius Curio]

I agree. I find it slightly annoying, though, how she makes Caesar out to be a god amongst men-- very intelligent, very handsome, very noble, very everything.

Now rereading First Man in Rome.

Its true, but he is supposed to be a major protagonist (I mean three books devoted mainly to him). And he is shown as having some flaws (mostly as a result of his specialness).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I see him as Jose Mourinho

My favourite character is Octavian (complex much??), but Curio, Sulla and Sertorius interest me too. (Well more than that but I don't want to mention them all!)

If I had to choose my favourite book, it would be The Athenian Murders by Jose Carlos Samosa. Has anyone else read this book? The sheer amount of layers to the book is amazing, and the intriguing idea is brilliantly executed.

I'll look it up.

Cornwell's.. iffy. He isn't everyone's cup of tea. ...

His characters are two dimensional, his plots highly unoriginal, the course of his stories predictable, his style of writing workmanlike, mistakes are constant, and the general butchery of historical events and trivia standard. Not to mention that he seems to recycle character from series-to-series, just giving them different names and faces, and putting them in different settings. Ooh. And he seems to be physically unable to go a single book without mentioning London as some glorious and eternal, thriving, cosmopolitan metropolis. I think the only exception is Stonehenge, for obvious reasons.

That said, he does indeed write excellent descriptions of combat, and despite the flaws he doesn't half tell a good story.

Agree to a point, but mostly with the last sentence!

Yes the plots are fairly unoriginal, or alternatively unrealistic/implausable, however the novels he writes are enthralling.

As a sidenote I've just finished The Pale Horseman and don't recall a mention of London (or Lundene) in that sense, but maybe I missed it.

Another author thats similar in that sense is the late David Gemmell. The stories seem to be recycled from his previous books and characters pop up that are simply renamed. And I challenge you to find one of his books without a mention of the Source (even the Troy trilogy!!!). However the books are entertaining and the battle descriptions brilliant.

EDIT: I recently read a Dan Simmons novel Olympos and found the amount of detail incredible, but the novel itself extremely confusing and hard to follow, anybody else have the same experiance?

[Yawning Angel]

Favourite author has to be Iain (M) Banks with or without the 'M'. (For those that didn't know 'M' is the sci-fi stuff and without is other fiction). Anyway love the Culture series of books and the stand alone stories are pretty good as well. One of the few authors I will go out and buy hardbacks when they are released rather than waiting for paperback.