Best Fantasy Authors (Vanity)

5/15/03 | bondserv

[bondserv]

Who are some of your favorite Fantasy authors, and their best books. I am looking for authors that might write in a similar style as some on my list.

My list:

Tolkien - Rings Series

Stephen Donaldson - Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Series

Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time Series

Terry Brooks - Shanara Series

Terry Goodkind - Sword of truth Series

Joel Rosenberg - Guardians of the Flame Series

David Eddings - Belgariad/Malloreon/Elenium/Tamuli

L.E. Modesitt, Jr. - The Saga of Recluce Series

Robin Hobb - Farseer Series

Tad Williams - Dragonbone Chair

[Wings-n-Wind]

Tim LaHaye & company LEFT BEHIND series

[The Grammarian]

Gotta have Tolkien in there. What about the Dragonriders of Pern books? They'd be on my list.

[The Grammarian]

Please tell me you were emphasizing the "fantasy" part and not the "best" part.

[HairOfTheDog]

Ping....

[bondserv]

I agree they are good books and I am reading them as they come out, but I think of them as reiteration of the book of Revelation, which is not fantasy.

Not that I thought you implied that.

Any others?

[Hegemony Cricket]

Try out some Ursula K. LeGuin. She somewhat bridges the gap between fantasy and sci-fi, but I've always enjoyed her stuff.

[bondserv]

Preferably your favorite authors in the fantasy genre.

I have read many bad fantasy books over the years.

[ModelBreaker]

Stephen Donaldson - Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Series

I don't know about this one. I wanted to slap Thomas about a quarter of the way thru each book. Get over it, dude. Lighten up, you know . . .

[InvisibleChurch]

new york times staff - all the grits thats fits to prints

[dts32041]

Hillary klintoon Living HIstory, can't get more fantasy than that.

[bondserv]

Yeah, the consummate anti-hero.

The world Donaldson created was one of my favorite.

[bondserv]

Jayson Blair - Duping the Gray Lady Series

[Tax-chick]

Steven Brust, "Dragaera"

Roger Zelazny, everything

Is it fantasy? Is it SF? Who cares?

[kcar]

I nominate Poul Anderson, to whom I swear fealty, for something. How about for his Future History series, or the Tales of the Time Patrol. Either Anson Guthrie or Manse Everard has gotta walk away with something I figure. I love Poul like I love JRR, brilliant imagination, wonderful story-telling abilitiy, and awesome command of the language.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Also check out Robert J. Silverberg, particularly "Lord Valentine's Castle".

[shempy]

Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun series.

[ozzie]

Gene Wolfe's Shadow and Claw as well as the follow-up books. Not as widely known as those mentioned above, but much headier and darker stuff.
Also, George Martin's stuff is pretty good. To be frank, I get bored by fantasys that I've read that leave you with a cliff hanger trying to get you to buy the next one, and the next, and the next. No finality in any of those.

[Maigrey]

I'vve been told that George R.R. Martin is good also. (I'vve not read him yet, since I'm re-reading WOT for the second time through...)

What about all of Hicks/Weis? I'm reading Weis in her Star of the Guardians once again, just to refresh myself on my namesake.)

[InvisibleChurch]

asimov - early foundation series

[bondserv]

New additions to the list:

Dragonriders of Pern

Ursula K. LeGuin

Steven Brust - "Dragaera"

Roger Zelazny

Poul Anderson

Anson Guthrie

Manse Everard

Robert J. Silverberg - "Lord Valentine's Castle".

Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun series

Gene Wolfe's - Shadow and Claw

George R.R. Martin

Hicks/Weis - Star of the Guardians

Asimov - Early Foundation series

[Maigrey]

You could also try Piers Anthony, and some of his Xanth Series, and also his series, Incantations of Immortality. Also interesting reading (if not too fantastic...)

There is also one by Greg Bear, called Songs of Earth and Power.

[billbears]

Not necessarily fantasy except the 'what if' part but Harry Turtledove. He's written a long series on what would possibly have happened if the South had won the War (he's past WWI in that one), another series if aliens had landed during WWII (last time I looked up into the 1980s on that one), and another couple of history ones including what if Mohammed had turned to Christianity. Haven't gotten into that series all that much, but did just pick up his latest book, Ruled Britannia, set 10 years after the Spanish Armada defeated the British.

For laughs, without a doubt, Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series. What I've always found so funny is how he ties in things from our lives into the stories

[shempy]

Wow, Lord Valentine's Castle! That was such a cool book. I read it when I was a kid and haven't seen it since. I'm gonna head on over to Amazon and order it now.

[Cachelot]

Well, this is kinda different from the selection you have there:

Mervyn Peake - the Gormenghast trilogy.
Certain books by Iain Banks, such as Walking on Glass and The Bridge.

A little more mainstream:

Hannes Bok - The Sorcerer's Ship and Beyond the Golden Stair
Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood and Lavondyss
Christopher Stasheff - King Kobold

[Tax-chick]

Turtledove bump, way cool! "Guns of the South," Deo Vindice!

Stainless, you like?

[bondserv]

I have enjoyed Piers Anthony Adept Series on Phaze.

[billbears]

Hicks/Weis - Star of the Guardians

And if you're really bored, you could pick up the Dragonlance series they started, which should have ended about 40 books ago!!!

There was another book that SciFi just did a movie of the first book a few weeks back. Riverworld I think it was. What if all the people from history met in the afterlife. That one is weird but a good read

[bondserv]

Hannes Bok - The Sorcerer's Ship and Beyond the Golden Stair

Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood and Lavondyss

Christopher Stasheff - King Kobold

Which is your favorite? I have seen Bok, but haven't commited to buying them yet.

[VeritatisSplendor]

how about Harry Turtledove's alternate histories? Ruled Britannia, How Few Remain, Guns of the South (reading it now). I don't know if he did sword and sorcery type fantasy, but if he did you'd love it - the man can write unlike some of the authors you mentionned, who type, no offense.

And definitely, definitely Lois McMaster Bujold - the Spirit Ring, Curse of Chalion, (sequel due in a few months.) She writes too.

Mrs VS

[VeritatisSplendor]

Aww, ya beat me to it.

Mrs VS

[philetus]

A.E. Van Vogt

The Weapon Shops of Isher

[bondserv]

Riverworld or was that Otherworld?

Was that by Tad Williams?

[billbears]

Up until WWI I liked it. Although I think he has taken it a route that would probably not have happened, if you know what I mean...

The thing I did like from Guns though was that he used mainly real quotes from the people involved. Kind of interesting who started the real run at a Socialist party and led it in these United States if you ask me.

[Malsua]

I agree with your list...

Add in Hard Sci-Fi though!

Jack Chalker - Well of souls

David Drake - Hammer's Slammers

Just about everything from Gordon R. Dickson.

And just about everything from Philip Jose Farmer.

on that note, I attended a lecture from Stephan R Donaldson at the Kiva at Kent State back in probably 1986 or so. it was fascinating. He explained the characters at length and why Thomas Covenant was so annoying.

[billbears]

LOL!! I can't put his books down for some reason. And don't tell me about Ruled Britannia. I just started reading it the other night

[billbears]

Riverworld was written by Farmer. Don't know about Otherworld

[shempy]

The Riverworld series by Phillip Jose Farmer is excellent. The sci-fi channel absolutely butchered it.

[Eastbound]

Good choice!

[billbears]

Yes they did. It didn't have anything that I remember from the book except a few of the main characters. Came off reminding of the one time I watched Xena one afternoon home from work

[50sDad]

Stafshee's "Her Majesty's Wizard" - Catholic-leaning Humanist drops into magic world, discovers his rhyming skills make him a powerful wizard, gradually comes to discover "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility." And anything in his "Wizard in Spite of Himeslf" series (King Kobald included!)

Read Heinlein's "Farnam's Freehold" and that "Japs invade America" book, something about "Mota."

[Phsstpok]

Dragonriders isn't strictly fantasy. The premise (from Dragon's Dawn) is that the dragons are genetically altered creatures with natural, not supernatural, abilities. They were altered by the colonists' resident geneticist genius (Kitty Ping, if I remember right) when they discovered the idyllic planet they landed on was periodically decimated by a natural interplanetary menace that fell from the sky.

My favorite Dragonrider book is White Dragon, though I love the Harper Hall trilogy as well.

[Spyder]

For laughs, without a doubt, Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series. What I've always found so funny is how he ties in things from our lives into the stories.

Terry Pratchett is the best. Some of the best satire on the disk, ah, er, planet. He's prolific, too - something Douglas Adams unfortunately was not.

[bondserv]

I attended a lecture from Stephan R Donaldson at the Kiva at Kent State back in probably 1986 or so. it was fascinating. He explained the characters at length and why Thomas Covenant was so annoying.

Sweet!!

[Phsstpok]

I met Stephen Donaldson at a book signing in a small San Francisco book store back when the first trilogy was being published. For a long time my friend and I were the only ones there so we ended up talking to him. Finally another lady came up for his autograph on a book, but then proceeded to complain about the vocabulary in his novels.

"Look lady, if you can't figure out that roynish is a bad thing from the context the ur-vile was roynish then you probably won't get the rest of the book either."

I loved it.

[Cachelot]

Which is your favorite?

Lol. They're all good. Got around 4000 vols of fantasy/scifi here, and I can't for the life of me pick any one favourite. I suppose Holdstock is probably the easiest read, the kind of thing that sucks you in. But try Banks, he's sort of new and his range is startling. And he's done a whole slew of scifi as well, and also "mainstream lit". Both he and Peake are totally unique critters.

[billbears]

And the thing about Pratchett is that you don't always catch the meaning of a word until the second time. For example in Soul Music, I don't really think I caught the underlying meaning of the lead singer's name until the second go round

[Arkinsaw]

Tolkien (LOTR), Turtledove (South, Brittania), Ursula K. Leguin (Earthsea), Moorcock (Eternal Champion), Tom Reamy (Blind Voices), Tanith Lee, Lovecraft, Donaldson (Covenant)

Can't stand Pern, Shannara, or most of your typical young boy mage on a quest fantasy.

[GailA]

I Love Anne McCafreey's books, her pisonic stuff is just as great as her Dragon Riders of Pern.

Marion Zimmer Bradley DARKOVER series is Great SI/FI too. MM Auel...Clan of the Cave Bears series is fantastically realistic.

[Arkinsaw]

Riverworld was fantastic I agree. Lots of fun.