Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Moorcock...one of my old favourites....
I have over 60 of his books in my collection, yet I think he has written well over 100. (Although they tend to be rather short....lmao)
Each of his books, heroes and stories are interlinked in some way through the multiverse concept. Each hero being a different incarnation or sometimes alternate reality of himself. The more you read, the more complex the themes become as characters from apparently unrelated books pop in to stories....then you spot another link and so on.
I highly recommend the 'Dancers at the End of time' trilogy for just plain oddness...the elric, erikose, callum novels are the eternal hero incarnation stories that weave and intertwine.
Moorcock is an old English hippy and has collaborated with the band Hawkwind on occasion. The 'Chronicles of the Black Sword' album is directly related to the Elric books.
Also....
He has written a highly regarded historical novel 'Mother London' which shows his range as a writer beyond the pure fantasy.
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Raymond E Feist has to be one of my favourites.
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
How about the series by Stephen Donaldson.
THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER
Book One: LORD FOUL'S BANE
Book Two: THE ILLEARTH WAR
Book Three: THE POWER THAT PRESERVES
Secon Chronicles
THE WOUNDED LAND
THE ONE TREE
WHITE GOLD WIELDER
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
I can't believe no one mentioned Ursula K. Le Guin, she's my favorite fantasy author bar-none.
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
JK Rowling ^_^
Ursula Le Guin was alright, I wasn't crazy about Earthsea though I didn't dislike it either.
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Ursula Le Guin is ok,"Gifts" was nicely written.
Alison Croggon - The Gift is one of my fav,the next book she wrote ,The Riddle, is already out but it's not out in Singapore yet :-(
then there's Kate Constable's Chanters of Tremaris trilogy,i loved both of the first two and can't wait to read the last.
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Stephen King - The Dark Tower series.
And of course JK Rowling - Harry Potter ;)
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Some Tad Williams stuff
War of the Flowers
Theo Vilmos is a thirty-year-old lead singer in a not terribly successful rock band. Once, he had enormous, almost magical, charisma both onstage and off—but now, life has taken its toll on Theo. Hitting an all-time low, he seeks refuge in a isolated cabin in the woods—and reads an odd memoir written by a dead relative who believed he had visited the magical world of Faerie. And before Theo can disregard the account as the writings of a madman, he, too, is drawn to a place beyond his wildest dreams...a place filled with be, and has always been, his destiny.
Great book,nice to find a fantasy story in one book.
THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR
Book One of Memory, Sorrow & Thorn
The Dragonbone Chair is the story of Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician's apprentice, whose dreams of great deeds and heroic wars come all too shockingly true when his world is torn apart by a terrifying civil war — a war fueled by ancient hatreds, immortal enemies, and the dark powers of sorcery.
In Osten Ard, a land once ruled by an elvishlike race known as the Sithi, the human high King is dying. And with his death, a long-dormant evil is unleashed on the land as the undead Sithi ruler, the Storm King, seeks to regain his lost realm through a pact with one of human royal blood. Driven by spell-inspired jealousy and fear, prince fights prince, while around them the very land begins to die, poisoned by a sorcerous force sworn to annihilate the humans whose ancestors had driven the Sithi from their rightful home long ages ago.
Only a small, scattered group, the League of the Scroll, recognizes the true danger faced by Osten Ard, only they hold the knowledge of times past, of threats fulfilled, and of a riddle of swords, which holds out the one small hope of salvation. And to Simon — unknowningly qpprenticed to a member of the League, and unwittingly touched by magic both good and ill — will go the task of spearheading the search for the solution to this riddle of long-lost swords of power, a quest that will see him fleeing and facing enemies straight out of a legend-maker's worst nightmare!
STONE OF FAREWELL
Book Two of Memory, Sorrow & Thorn
In this mesmerizing sequel to The Dragonbone Chair, best-selling author Tad Williams returns us to the troubled realms of humans, Quanuc trolls, and Sithi, as the dark magic and terrigying minions of the undead Sithi ruler, Ineluki the Storm King, spread their seemingly undefeatable evil across the realm of Osten Ard.
As the very land is blighted by the power of Ineluki's wrath, the tattered remnants of a once-proud human army flee in search of a last sanctuary and rallying point —THE Stone of Farewell, a place shrouded in mystery and ancient sorrow. And the widely scattered surviving members of the League of the Scroll desperately struggle to fulfill missions which will take them from the fallen citadels of humans to the hidden mountain caves of the Qanuc...across storm-tormented waters to discover the truth behind an almost-forgotten legend...through a forest alive with dangers no human could hope to brave...to the secret heartland of the Sithi, where the near-immortals must at last decide whether to ally with the race of men in a final war against those of their own blood....
TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER
Book Three of Memory, Sorrow & Thorn
A novel of vast scope, detail, and complexity, To Green Angel Tower is the momentous tour-de-force finale of a ground-breaking series. Replete with war, deception, adventure, sorcery, and romance, To Green Angel Tower brings to a stunning and surprising conclusion Tad Williams' monumental tale of a magical conflict which fractures the very fabric of time and space, turning both humans and Sithi against those of their own blood.
As the evil minions of the undead Sithi Storm King prepare for the kingdom-shattering culmination of their dark sorceries and King Elias is drawn ever deeper into their nightmarish, spell-spun world, the loyal allies of Prince Josua desperately struggle to rally their forces at The Stone of Farewell. And with time running out, the remaining members of the now-devastated League of the Scroll have also gathered there to unravel mysteries from the forgotten past. For if the League can reclaim these age-old secrets of magic long-buried beneath the dusts of time, they may be able to reveal to Josua and his army the only means of striking down the unslayable foe.
But whether or not the League is successful in its quest, the call of battle will lead the valiant followers of Josua Lackhand across storm tossed seas brimming with bloodthirsty kilpa...through forests swarming with those both mind- and soul-lost... through ancient caverns built by legendary Dwarrows...to the haunted halls of Asu'a itself—the Sithi's greatest stronghold!
Great fantasy,well worth the read,I think I'll read these again as its been a while since I read them,thats the mark of a good read :)
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Raymond E. Feist.
I'm really liking his latest stuff.. the Conclave of Shadows series... but I've been hooked ever since I read Magician, which is still his best work (IMHO)
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Terry Pratchett uber alles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett's_Discworld
I can't wait for Thud in October...
Mystery lord of the Discworld
Terry Pratchett does fantasy differently from J.K.Rowling. But his success means that he can consider giving away film rights. Peter Fray reports.
Myths follow Terry Pratchett around almost as persistently as his fans buy his books. There's the myth that he is somehow an unknown writer, the myth that he dislikes Tolkien and the myth that he didn't learn to read until he was 10 years old.
Of all the myths often repeated in respectable journals it is the last one that gets the biggest rise, and the first that bemuses him most. "Oh, God," he says, when asked about his alleged double-digit illiteracy. "If you hadn't learnt to read by 10 at my school you'd get the shit beaten out of you. I was 10 before I started reading books for pleasure."
The first book the young Pratchett read was Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, a rustic fantasy with a message for adults and kids alike. Three years later he was a published author in the school rag and soon after in a magazine called Science Fantasy.
It is tempting to say the rest is history; certainly the rest is fantasy, literally and literary.
For the few people who don't know, Terry Pratchett, 56, is the multi-million-selling author of the Discworld series of books that, if it weren't for J.K. Rowling (more of her later) would be the world's biggest selling fantasy books.
Each Discworld - a world not unlike our own, though shared with the likes of witches, trolls, dwarfs and golems - book sells upwards of 400,000 copies, often many more.
Total sales for the series is, Pratchett estimates, about 35 million copies and the latest, Going Postal, the 33rd in the series, was No.1 in Britain's bestsellers list for a month. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages. Not bad going for an unknown author and not bad for an author who makes fantasy an arena for some seemingly very unfantastic subjects.
"The concerns are real within the book and within the plot but they may well also be considered real, in the sense of the real world, by the reader," he says. "Mr Lipwig in Going Postal, he's got issues, he's got things he's trying to do. You've got to be faithful to the fact you are writing that story."
Moist von Lipwig is a conman, who is pardoned from the hangman's noose only to be delivered unto the living hell of trying to fix the postal service, with not much more help than a few ageing, cantankerous postal workers and a golem, Mr Pump, who acts as parole officer and bodyguard. It is a tale of its time and our time, with plenty of Pratchettesque gags, part absurdism, part satire, part whoopee cushion.
"Going Postal is about venture capitalism and private enterprise versus state control and that kind of thing you don't get in Mordor."
You don't like Tolkien, then? "People keep telling me that," he says. "When I first read Tolkien I was 13 and I was completely blown away. I wrote a crossover short story, Jane Austen meets J.R.R. Tolkien. It was great, especially the bit where the orcs attack the rectory.
"When I saw the first Tolkien movie it was as if Peter Jackson had managed to find the 13-year-old boy I'd been and stuck some electrodes in my head and just filmed everything that I'd imagined.
"I probably still venerate Tolkien but I don't consider him to be the greatest author that has ever been in the world. He wrote an absolutely magnificent book that is firmly based in its time and you could not write the Lord of Rings again.
"There's a difference between immensely and deservedly popular and the best. I don't think I would vote the Lord of Rings as the best book ever written."
The British public begs to differ. About a year ago, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was voted Britain's favourite novel in an extensive BBC viewers' poll called The Big Read. (It also won the recent German equivalent.) J.K. Rowling was fifth, with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Pratchett had five books in the top 100 but none in the top 50. He and Charles Dickens had the most books nominated.
Like Dickens, Pratchett employs a journalist's ear for detail and character. Pratchett spent 13 years in regional journalism, from the age of 17. It exposed him to the weirdness of everyday life and taught him how to write and retain competing stories in his head, skills that still serve him well.
He has three books on the go at the moment, the first to be published (in autumn next year) is the next Discworld instalment, Thud!.
By way of a sneak preview, he reveals the opening line: " 'Thud! That was the noise the body made when it hit the ground'."
Pratchett owes a lot to his time covering courts and crime. He recalls a particularly bizarre moment when, during a coroner's hearing into the death of an old man in a house fire, the local policeman announced that "in the oven was a cold rice pudding".
"It just hung in the air. What can you do? What can you say? Do you burst into tears, join the foreign legion? It was just there."
Eventually, journalism got the better of him or he it. He baled out. "I was a sub-editor on a small chain of newspapers and I saw this chap getting his leaving present and I thought, 'that's going to be me. Do I like it here?' I thought, 'hang on, you're 30, you're too young to be doing the job you are going to be doing for the rest of your life, especially in journalism'."
But Pratchett had too much common sense - the byproduct of a deprived working-class upbringing - to chuck in his day job to become a full-time fantasy writer. Instead, for almost the next decade he was the PR flak and public face of a nuclear power company. It was the 1980s and with, first, Three Mile Island and then Chernobyl, everything nuclear was controversial. "Anything that happened on a nuclear power station was serious news and I was the guy who got the last call at midnight," he says.
He didn't become a professional writer until 1987, though the first Discworld came out in 1983. He has also written several children's books and won, in 2001, the respected Carnegie Medal for children's literature. He surprised the award ceremony by palming the medal for a chocolate coin and, to the shock of the unknowing guests, promptly eating it. Being in PR, the dark side of journalism also seems to have served Pratchett in good stead, especially when it comes to questions he'd prefer not to answer
or realises that most answers could easily be construed as the wrong one. He has also retained the skill to give the answer he wants to give rather than perhaps the one the question demands.
This comes in handy when discussing J.K. Rowling. Pratchett is among Harry Potter's lesser victims. Before the boy wizard came along, Pratchett and his motley crew from Discworld were the kings of the fantasy heap. Now they are merely No.2 , surpassed in a Quidditch-esque rush of books by the tens of million and blockbuster movies. Rowling is worth an estimated £435 million ($A1.1 billion), probably about 10 times more than Pratchett.
Is J.K. Rowling a good writer?
He hesitates. "I've never actually been asked that question." With a marked change in vocal tone, he says: "I think of her as a good and competent writer, a phrase that I would apply to myself as well."
A very diplomatic answer. "I am being political simply because I'm painfully aware that not you, but plenty of people would love, 'Pratchett slams Rowling' as a headline. I've given what I consider a true answer.
"Easing on to a slightly easier facet of that situation is, people say, 'aren't you jealous of J.K. Rowling?' to which my reply is, 'I never dreamed I'd make any kind of money out of writing fantasy because not many people do. I never dreamt I'd become a millionaire out of writing fantasy.'
"It's luck. OK, there's a level of competency that is required. (But) it's down to luck and arriving at the publisher at the right time when the wind is blowing in the right direction.
So if you think that you've been lucky enough to win at the roulette wheel you certainly aren't jealous of someone who's been lucky to win on the baccarat tables next door. It's all ultimately, within reason, a kind of crap shoot.
"There are better writers than me and J.K. Rowling who aren't particularly financially successful."
Pratchett has yet to follow Rowling into Hollywood and, despite earlier reports that the makers of Shrek were planning to produce a film based on his Bromeliad trilogy, he seems a reluctant starter for celluloid fame. "With movies you lose lots of control over characters. They are my characters, really."
But while he is in Australia next week he plans to meet a small Melbourne-based group, Snowgum Films, which is interested in shooting one of his short stories, Troll Bridge. No money is changing hands, Pratchett says. "At 56 how much more money do I need?"
Pratchett's Discworld output has been running at almost two a year for the past 17 years. But a recent heart operation has lead him to take things a little steadier. "It is a kind of warning to pace things a little bit."
Will Discworld ever come to an end? "No ending is planned. (But) it will cease at some point."
Millions of people may have just had their day ruined.
----
Now i'm ending Olympos by dan Simmons,the sequel of Ilium ando also this is a masterpiece.
OLYMPOS Opens Strong
OLYMPOS was released on June 28, 2005, and opened to very strong reviews in Publishers Weekly (starred review), Kirkus Reviews, LOCUS (two reviews), Booklist, The Denver Post, and in other publications. It was #25 on the New York Times extended bestseller list (7/17) and #15 on the Book Sense Pacific Northwest Independent Bestseller List (7/3), as well as #3 on the Denver Post Bestseller List (7/17).
Library Journal calls OLYMPOS "an exceptional creation".
Nick Gevers in LOCUS says of OLYMPOS -- “Considered as a great explosion of Story, Dan Simmons’s OLYMPOS, sequel to the already voluminous ILIUM (2003), is a supreme achievement. . . . this is, in other words, something resembling the ultimate SF novel, a convergence of most, if not all, of SF’s idioms and narrative potentials into a synthesis so commanding that it might appear to put a capstone to the entire literary project that is SF, obviating any need to go further . . . . for readers seeking to understand what SF is and what it can be, the ILIUM/OLYMPOS diptych will for the time being be the cynosure.”
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
I don't think I've ever read David Eddings, Michael Moorcock, Terry Goodkind.
However I have read the works of the other three authors.
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I've read volume one of the Otherland series by Tad Williams. It was a very good book, although I don't know if I'd put it on my list of the best books ever. I thought that the book was more cyberpunk than fantasy, but again- I haven't read his other books so I couldn't tell you.
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I love Terry Pratchett, but I don't think he should be on a list of fantasy writers. He belongs in a category by himself. His books do take place in an alternate universe where magic and magical creatures exist, but that doesn't nearly define them. Your sense of humor will be what determines
whether or not you like his books.
I've read a lot of his books, but I'll admit that I'm probably not even half way though his published works. The man defines prolific.
Anyways, his works are really, really funny and the only good way to get a good sense of what his books are like or if they're for you, is to pick a book at the local library and read.
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Mercedes Lackey. Not LOTR for children. Unless you're someone who categorizes all fantasy novels short of bodice rippers as LOTR for children. I've read almost all of her novels and I think that I can safely say, if you're looking for a target audience, then her novels are aimed more at women. Yes, her Heralds of Valdemar series do have white, "magic," horses, but they also promote same sex couples. Quite warmly.
However, out of the authors I've mentioned above (all two of them), she is the closest thing to a writer of a traditional fantasy. And she writes about elves in the big city (admittedly, a very fun thing).
--
And just because I want to, I'm going to include a list of some of my fav fantasy and sci-fi authors (and because weeks ago I actually made a list, though it's very incomplete right now)
Alphabetized and categorized too!
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Orson Scott Card. Author of Ender's Game-a definite should read. And then he wrote more. Although I heard that the book (Ender's Game), wasn't written for teenagers, they are probably the books largest audience right now. But you can really tell that teenagers weren't the audience with the later books in the series, with the exception of Ender's Shadow which is cut from the same mold as Ender's Game (to generalize very, very much).
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C.J. Cherriyah. An author of epic fantasy/sci-fi. It's been a while, so I don't have much to say except that you'll need a free weekend to get through a series, but really it's cool stuff. Old school?
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Ursula K. Le Guin. She writes both fantasy and science fiction. Read the Left Hand of Darkness, it's so what really good sci-fi should be (and don't get thrown off by the summary on the back cover-are good summaries even possible?). I don't really remember much about the Earthsea series (except that I read them long ago and enjoyed them), but Gifts was very good and Left Hand of Darkness was awe-inducing.
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Robin McKinley. She wrote the Blue Sword, one of the cornerstones of my world. Unfortunately, she doesn't really like sequels, so there's just this book, it's sequel-that-is-really-a-prequel and a few short stories. She also writes
very good fairy tale retellings, and a kickass vampire story with kickass cinnamon buns. While the lack of sequels can make one very sad, the genre hopping is also responsible for some very cool books.
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Terry Pratchett. See above.
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Authors (that are targeted) for the younger audience.
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Nancy Farmer. I loved the Ear, the Eye, and the Arm. I also loved a Girl Named Disaster, although I very rarely read outside of the fantasy/sci-fi genres. Also an author with a very wide range (look at her most recent books). I read her books when I was young, and they're still a good read. Not that I'd include books that weren't on this list.
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Garth Nix. Drools heartily. I've read all of his books, except ragwitch and the books for the really young kids. (So I never looked in the sections for the newly-teethed. Sue me.) That's not really saying much though, since that's more a matter of availability than anything else. But, hey, I'm writing about him in the wee hours of the morning now aren't I? I loved the Old Kingdom Trilogy and I'm currently waiting for Sir Thursday. Although targeted for the teenish audience, it doesn't have the feel of a children's book (you know, the I-liked-this-book-when-I-was-a-younger-but-I-have-now-realized-the-author-is-talking-down-to-me sort of way.)
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Phillip Pullman. Read the His Dark Materials trilogy. It's really unique. And of course it's a great story. I'm getting kind of tired now, so no more long explanations. The alphabetization stops here.
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J.K. Rowling. I don't need to explain this do I?
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Jane Yolen. You've probably heard of her. With good reason.
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Lloyd Alexander. He didn't just write the Prydain Chronicles. He also has good one volume books.
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Megan Whalen Turner. The woman is a goddess for writing the Thief.
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Of course there's more, but I'm too tired to wade through the yeses and the almosts. If you liked my recommendations, recommend me some books. Also, sorry for taking up so much space. I just really like books.
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Hello everyone,
I expecially like Danielle Steel books. She is my favorite author!
Have a good day.
Thanks
Amblerhelen
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amblerhelen
Hello everyone,
I expecially like Danielle Steel books. She is my favorite author!
Have a good day.
Thanks
Amblerhelen
Wrong sort of fantasy, but good effort! :smilie4:
Re: Favorite Fantasy Authors?
The Belgariad
1) Pawn of prophecy
2) Queen of sorcery
3) Magician's gambit
4) Castle of wizardry
