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Your favorite author?
qazyman
Member Posts: 1,785
I'm always on the lookout for a new author to dig into. Does anyone here have a favorite author? My favorites are Michael Connelly and John Sandford. They are both crime writers and I've read all their novels. It's hard for me to say which one I like most, but I like the early novels by Connelly and the latest novels by Sandford the best. I also like Dean Koontz allot but haven't read any of his books since the 2nd Odd Thomas novel.
Comments
Terry Goodkind
Steven Spielberg
Why read when you can watch movies?
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Mis-portraying WW2 one movie at the time.
You'd probably like James Ellroy.
Agree with you there. Sandford is probably my favorite for consistantly good stories. Connelly is up there too.
If you like them, try Jonathan Kellerman. Series about a Dr. who works with the police. My latest favorite is Vince Flynn. Ken Follett has some of my all time favorite books. Try "Pillars of the Earth", "World Without End", "A Dangerous Fortune"
I just finished rereading http://www.robertmccammon.com/novels/swan_song.html last night. Long epic similar to "The Stand"
Another I have been reading a lot is Danial Silva. He is a little slower so you may not like them.
http://www.danielsilvabooks.com/content/index.asp
John Ronald Ruel Tolkien
I haven't heard of Danial Silva, James Ellroy, or Terry Goodkind and I appreciate the information
I did watch the premiere of legend of the seeker because of a post on these forums, but i didn't realize it was from Goodkind.
I have a friend that's been trying to get me read Vince Flynn, and have been planning to go to half price books and see if I could find his first novel. Unfortunately, Sandford just doesn't write fast enough. On the other hand, maybe thats a good thing.
the author i have the most admiration for at the moment is Steven Erikson, he has written one 1000pg epic fantasy novel a year for the last 8 years. Shockingly, they are good books all.
[edit] if you like crime fiction (with a bit of horror and humor) i would recommend Michael Marshall's "The Straw Men"
Same. but, if I'm not mistaken, it's Reuel, not Ruel
I was correct. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien
Who would have guessed?
I agree.
- How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
- I don't know, but some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?
You may not have heard of Ellroy but you have probably seen a movie from a novel of his. I have never read his books but "LA Confidential" the movie was great. "The Black Dahlia" was aweful.
Go to the library. They should have the older Flynn novels.
Some suggested authors not mentioned above, not in any particular order:
Stephen King - fantasy and modern fiction, his writing can best be described as disturbing and/or thoughtful
Robert Jordan - fantasy, his works to date are the only ones to rival Tolkien's scope of a world in my opinion. Unfortunately he left his greatest work unfinished when he died.
Terry Brooks - fantasy, well known for his darker, more morbid mood in stories
Peter F Hamilton - Science fiction, the only word for his stories is "epic"
Anne McCaffrey - fantasy/science fiction, principally known for her excellent dragonrider tales
Michael Chrichton - modern fiction/science fiction, particularly good at weaving stories out of the nightmarish side of modern technology, particularly in the medical field. BTW, did you know that various biotech companies "own" nearly a third of your DNA through patents?
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
Three good fantasy authors, not mentioned above, would be:
- Nick Perumov - Much darker, and to some extent, realistic. Very different from the everyone-is-happy fantasy that seems to be dominating the current range of fantasy books.
- Alan Campbell - Different and very interesting. I've half fallen in love with his version of hell. Strongly recommended to read if you've not.
- George R.R. Martin - Decently good, not that great but still very much enjoyable reading.
My personal all-time favorite is Douglas Adams and The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy which is simply the best series of books I've ever read. A must.Nobody mentioned RA Salvatore in the fantasy genre.
Stephen Brust and Glen Cook are two of my favorite authors.
Well, actually, I only like Glen Cook's Garret series, not his Black Company series.
I also like a lot of teh Hugo and Nebula Award winners
Terry Goodkind FTL!!!! Not a great author, and most of his material is ripped off from other authors.... lots of it is stolen from the Wheel of Time.
Grymm
MMO addict in recovery!
EQ,SWG preCU,L2,EQ2,GW,CoH/CoV,V:SOH,
Aion,AoC,TR,WAR,EVE,BP,RIFT,WoW and others... no more!
Margaret Weis (often with Tracy Hickman as co author) the first few books are good.. the rest are amazing. Whole Dragonlance series and Deaths Gate series are my favorites.
Stephen King- The Dark Tower series... epic.
Robert Jordan- The Wheel of Time is excellent
R. A. Salvatore- the first few arent so great, but later ones are f-ing awesome.
Anne Rice- awesome author... vampire chronicles and some other unrelated stuff
and my UNIQUE contribution!!.......
Read the Myst novels by Rand Miller and David Wingrove.. the Imagery is awesome. It's a trilogy and you'll have to buy them used
Grymm
MMO addict in recovery!
EQ,SWG preCU,L2,EQ2,GW,CoH/CoV,V:SOH,
Aion,AoC,TR,WAR,EVE,BP,RIFT,WoW and others... no more!
Anne Bishop- Black Jewels Trilogy ...dark and mature. enjoyed it A lot
Mercedes Lackey- Valdemar series, Queens Own and subsequent books were great.
Stephen Donaldson - Thomas Covenant the Unbelieve series is one of my most favorite.
Melanie Rawn -The Sunrunner series also another favorite
Jennifer Roberson- chronicles of the cheysuli series
LOL
Terry Goodkind > *
And definitely
Terry Goodkind > Wobert Jordan
Sword of truth FTW
Edit: Notice how Robert Jordan always starts every chapter of his books with the same kind of boooring describing of scenery?? Its easy to see in his works that American writers are paid by the page.. I simply gave up around book #9 in Wheel of Time... its easy to see that he has run out of imagination.
Sword of Truth, By Terry Goodkind:
A prophecy foretells that Richards underwear are going to turn pink in the wash. Richard... the seeker of truth becomes very upset and hates the world. As Richard, resigned to his fate loads his laundry into the machine a passerby with an IQ of 12 points out that there is a red shirt mixed in with his whites... prophecy averted.....
Next book; A prophecy foretells that Richards socks are going to turn blue................................................... similar results to first book.
Book three; A prophecy foretells that Richards hair is going to get dyed green...................................... again... same result.
No matter how many times this happens the "Seeker of Truth" fails to realized that prophecys dont always come true or mean what you think they mean. The books had some great characters and elements...... but overall they were FAIL!
Not to mention that they border on plagiarism...... though not as bad as that Sword of Shanarra guy...... Terry Brooks is it..... near plagiarism there too.
Grymm
MMO addict in recovery!
EQ,SWG preCU,L2,EQ2,GW,CoH/CoV,V:SOH,
Aion,AoC,TR,WAR,EVE,BP,RIFT,WoW and others... no more!
Edit to previous post (my edit button is broken).
Ok fine, I have to admit, the first book "Wizards First Rule" is pretty good as a standalone... and I'd say the Sword of Truth series is worth reading I guess... but so many people go around saying how great it is and its really not.....
Besides the "Seeker of Truth" being very gullible and not seeing the obvious.... the near-plagiarism of some portions of the story.... there is also... well....
In book one there is this really cool crazy old witch.... who talks like a crazy old witch.....
Later on (in book 3 I think) Richard recognizes some other people as being from the same place as the witch because they have the same accent....... the crazy old witch accent.....
Its obvious that when the first book was written this was not intended to be a dialect or regional accent... and making a regional accent out of it later is really silly..... Stuff like this drives me nuts about the "Sword of Truth" series..... but it does have some good content and very good characters.
Grymm
MMO addict in recovery!
EQ,SWG preCU,L2,EQ2,GW,CoH/CoV,V:SOH,
Aion,AoC,TR,WAR,EVE,BP,RIFT,WoW and others... no more!
Terry Pratchet
I think of all the books i have red in my life he is the best fantasy writer in the world.
Also i like Philip K. Dick.
I won't say he is the best writer i know but I really liked Blade Runner. Specially because of how he tells the story and not because of the story per se.
Sword of Shannara, published 1977
Book 1 0f WoT The Eye of the World published 1990
When it comes to fantasy, I rarely say "plagiarism" but say generic instead. Mainly because the bulk of the books have exactly the same plot.
Yes Sword of Truth series seemed very generic to me, that's if you ignore the titillating addition of S&M.
About WoT,I was given the first four tomes. Picked up the first. liked the prologue. Then at about 80pgs into the story, i thought, "hang on a sec, what has happened so far?". The answer was, "two guys walked down a road. A very well described road".
I looked at the other three books and assumed that they would get somewhere at some stage but decided that i need not share their journey. Thank Christ because over ten books later the author dies before finishing.
Try Mary Gentle's History of Lost Burgundy.
Mary Gentle has several degrees, and gives quite a good description of warfare in Medieval Europe against a science fiction/fantasy backdrop. Well researched and written books.
Additionally, for those with a twisted sense of humor, read her book "Grunts". It's quite wicked fun.
Never mess with a necromancer, they can torture you to death, then bring you back and do it again.