Fantasy genre authors? (1 Viewer)

[Pick]

Arg! I remember we compiled a pretty good list of fantasy authors. I thought I printed it out but alas, it is gone. Please help me compile a new list. If you like the author's work in general, just list the name. If there is a particular book or series, then list that. I will compile a list on this first post. Please feel free to let me know of errors on the list.Michael Moorec ockTerry BrooksRobert JordanRaymond E. Feist: Serpentwar Saga (series), Empire(?) Saga (series writtten with Janny Wurts)Michael Crichton: TimelineTolkien: Lord of the Rings (series)George R.R. Martin: A Song of Fire and Ice (series)Stephen King: Through the Eyes of the Dragon (book)Janny Wurts: Alliance Light and Shadow (book)David Eddings: Belgariad (series), Mallorean (series)J.V. Jones: The Book of Words (series)Stephen Donaldson: Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the UnbelieverTerry Goodkind: Sword of Truth (series)Guy Guvrial KayC.S. Friedman: Black Sun Rising (book), True Night Falls (book), Crown of Shadows (book)Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow, and ThornMargaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman: Dragonlance ChroniclesJohn Myers: Silverlock (book)Isaac Asimov: The Mule (book)Piers Anthong: Xanth (book)JK Rawlings: Harry Potter (series)Roger Zelazny: Nine Princes of Amber (series)Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game (book), Treason (book)

 

[Men-in-Cleats]

You forgot George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series, which was probably the most popular recommendation on that thread. I'm about 200 pages into the second one in that series and am seriously hooked. It probably goes without saying, but I'd probably add Tolkien to any compilation of fantasy authers.

 

[kupcho1]

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire

A Game of Thrones

A Clash of Kings
A Storm of SwordsExcellent series and I'm anxiously awaiting the fourth book.

I did finally get around to finishing Crossroads of Twilight. Very "Seinfeldian" in nature. It was almost a book about nothing. Hopefully the 900 or so pages of set up pay off in books 11-14.

 

[Mad Cow]

Weiss and Hickman have written a lot of fantasy D&D styled stuff. Their best by far is the Dragonlance trilogy, followed by the follow-up Twins trilogy. Very entertaining and engrossing. I would recommend it highly if you are into fantasy.When we doing the LA Freeway, Pick? Sojourners hit it at 6:00 AM and that sucks. I would want to do it later.

 

[Men-in-Cleats]

I'd also say that Stephen King should be included for the books he's done in this genre. I enjoyed his "Through the Eyes of the Dragon" a long time ago and have heard a lot of good things about his "Dark Tower" series (is that considered fantasy?) although I haven't read it myself.

 

[Ranethe]

I had listed a ton of authors and series but i'd have to head downstairs to the dungeon to look again since i can't remember them all. A few off the top of my head though:Stephen Donaldson: Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (my personal all-time fav).JV Jones: The Book of Words series.Janny Wurts: Alliance of Light and Shadow (or something like that)I'll post more when i get a chance.

 

[Simris]

Just started a re-read of the Donaldson series-Good!

CS Friedman-Black Sun Rising,True Night Falls and Crown of Shadows is good-Anti hero stuff.

Guy Guvrial Kay wrote a series and some novels that are good.

<snipped>

Kay's debutnovel, The Summer Tree (1985), was the first in a trilogy called The Fionavar Tapestry. The other two novels were The Wandering Fire (1986) and The Darkest Road (1986).

The story is in much built on nordic and celtic mythology and is about five students that found themselves in a mystic world called Fionavar. Fionavar is the mother of all world, all myths and legends comes from this world.

The story is much darker and more realistic than fantasy usually are, the students aren't immortal and found themselves and quite deep trouble.

In the later books by Kay, the magic has got smaller place and the historic telling has getting more space. Tigana (1990) and A song for Arbonne (1992) is still stories of fantasy while The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995) is more of a historic novel.

Terry Goodkind did a series (will edit for the names unless someone else remembers)

Terry Brooks-Sword of Shanarra series.

I will think of more.

 

[Ranethe]

The Terry Goodkind series is called The Sword of Truth series. Great series also though i was very disappointed with the last volume...makes me wonderi if he's dragging it out ala Robert Jordan with The Wheel of Time.Another great series i just remembered is the Tad Williams series...Memory, Sorrow, Truth? (is that what it's called? ) 3 volumes...The Dragonbone Chair...Green Angel Tower..and i forget the last (damn my memory sucks..old age)

 

[Caution]

Weiss and Hickman have written a lot of fantasy D&D styled stuff. Their best by far is the Dragonlance trilogy, followed by the follow-up Twins trilogy. Very entertaining and engrossing. I would recommend it highly if you are into fantasy..

dragonlance is my favorite fantasy series!!

 

[Pick]

Weiss and Hickman have written a lot of fantasy D&D styled stuff. Their best by far is the Dragonlance trilogy, followed by the follow-up Twins trilogy. Very entertaining and engrossing. I would recommend it highly if you are into fantasy.When we doing the LA Freeway, Pick? Sojourners hit it at 6:00 AM and that sucks. I would want to do it later.

I thought the whole thing was entitled the Dragonlance Chronicles. Is there a trilogy called Dragonlance Trilogy?How far is LA?

 

[Pick]

I'd also say that Stephen King should be included for the books he's done in this genre. I enjoyed his "Through the Eyes of the Dragon" a long time ago and have heard a lot of good things about his "Dark Tower" series (is that considered fantasy?) although I haven't read it myself.

I didn't like the Dark Tower stuff. Too weird, but good writing got me through it.

 

[Memphis Foundry]

A list of great Fantasy works just wouldn't be complete without Silverlock by John Myers Myers. I first read it in high school and it's still easily one of the ten best books I've ever read. And while it's not strictly sword and sorcery style Fantasy, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's retelling of Dante's Inferno has a lot of the same elements as Silverlock and is quite good in its own right.

 

[ratpfink]

Another great series i just remembered is the Tad Williams series...Memory, Sorrow, Truth? (is that what it's called? ) 3 volumes...The Dragonbone Chair...Green Angel Tower..and i forget the last (damn my memory sucks..old age)

It's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. The books are: Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell, Green Angel Tower(parts 1 and 2 if you're buying paperback).Um, I recently made it through this. I'd recommend skipping it unless you are a die hard fantasy fan and have nothing else to read.

 

[Preds]

How about David Eddings and his Belgariad and Mallorean series? Both great reads IMO.

 

[Preds]

TBH, JK Rowlings Harry Potter series is actually a decent read as well, despite being written to a 5th grade audience.

 

[Pick]

How about David Eddings and his Belgariad and Mallorean series? Both great reads IMO.

I did not like those series at all. The heroes are too perfect and never get a scratch, let alone die.

 

[ratpfink]

I did not like those series at all. The heroes are too perfect and never get a scratch, let alone die.

Aye. The same thing makes R.A. Salvatore's work pretty so-so too.And Martin's series is so good for exactly the opposite of that. His characters aren't divided up into all-good heros and all-evil villians. They just seem much more realistic than other fantasy I've read.

 

[The_Pod]

Isaac Asimov -- The MulePiers Anthony -- XanthUmm.... crud... Melody .... something.... hond on.. google... dammit, I cant find it. Film at 11.The entire David Eddings Belgariad series is fabulous.

 

[The_Pod]

Found it.I strongly recommend the Dragon Prince series by Melanie Rawn. Some of the best books I've ever read from a sci fi perspective. Whats unusual about them is they aren't cliche -- ie, hero goes on quest, kicks butt against evil, etc... Her books cover both the quest side but more interestingly the political side. Really quite good. They get better as they go by, because she sets the stage beautifully. Give 'em a read.

 

[The_Pod]

I did not like those series at all. The heroes are too perfect and never get a scratch, let alone die.

They're good. Of course I read them when I was 16... but still a nice fanciful jaunt, if you want that. Well written...nice universe... good stuff.

 

[Ranethe]

I did not like those series at all. The heroes are too perfect and never get a scratch, let alone die.

I don't really care for Eddings' stuff either. IMO the constant bantering/humor is very corny and detracts from the books. I'm not a big fan of humor in the fantasy i read..at least if it's the overriding characteristic of the book.Rat...i'm very surprised you didn't like the Tad Williams series. After i had finished reading it i thought it was great....i've read just about every fantasy series out there and i had put this up near the top. Different tastes obviously.

 

[Caution]

pick:dragonlance is quite an extensive series, but the original trilogy is the one i was talking about.

 

[Caution]

i just started game of thrones, rr matin, based on the reviews from here.

 

[Men-in-Cleats]

i just started game of thrones, rr matin, based on the reviews from here.

You won't be disappointed. I loved the first one and am getting close to 300 pages into the second one and absolutely hate it when I have to put it down. Since I started this series I find I'm staying up way too late reading when I should be getting a better night's sleep.

 

[2133]

Dr. Seuss is brilliant...I just finished Hop on Pop and now I'm going to sit back with The Cat in the Hat... :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

 

[Blue T]

Raymond E. Feist is known to be a diehard Charger fan. He posts on a couple of the Chargers boards that I frequent. In fact, he may even be registered here.

 

[pecorino]

roger zelazny's "nine princes of amber" series is outstanding.also, more recently, we have orson scott card (with the books on ender) and pullman's "the golden compass" series

 

[Pick]

pick:dragonlance is quite an extensive series, but the original trilogy is the one i was talking about.

I did not know one existed. So there was a trilogy "Dragonlance", and this spawned the Chronicles?As far as the Chronicles go, I like them. I especially enjoyed the "Heroes" series.

 

[Men-in-Cleats]

roger zelazny's "nine princes of amber" series is outstanding.also, more recently, we have orson scott card (with the books on ender) and pullman's "the golden compass" series

I don't know how technical Pick is intending to be, but I'd probably classify Card's Ender series under Science Fiction as opposed to fantasy, although the two typically get categorized together in the bookstores, reviews, etc. Did just read Ender's Game recently though and really enjoyed it. Will probably eventually read the rest of the series to see what happens although I've been given mixed reviews on them.

 

[Pick]

They're good. Of course I read them when I was 16... but still a nice fanciful jaunt, if you want that. Well written...nice universe... good stuff.

I agree that it is good writing, and despite my reservations, I still made it through several books.Just a shot in the dark but I think a problem fantasy authors have is that they create these bijjin characters, but don't want to kill them off after puttin so much into them. Ranethe hit the nail on the head with the overplay of the humor card in Edding's stuff. His heroes are just too perfect and everything falls into place too nicely.I like Terry Brooks a lot cuz he doesn't have a prob killin off the cool guys. With Eddings, it got old cuz it was just lop-sided victory after lop-sided victory.Keep it comin guys. Good stuff.

 

[Mad Cow]

Weiss and Hickman have written a lot of fantasy D&D styled stuff. Their best by far is the Dragonlance trilogy, followed by the follow-up Twins trilogy. Very entertaining and engrossing. I would recommend it highly if you are into fantasy.When we doing the LA Freeway, Pick? Sojourners hit it at 6:00 AM and that sucks. I would want to do it later.

I thought the whole thing was entitled the Dragonlance Chronicles. Is there a trilogy called Dragonlance Trilogy?How far is LA?

LA Freeway is about an 11 mile round trip from Memorial Park in Provo.

 

[Mad Cow]

pick:dragonlance is quite an extensive series, but the original trilogy is the one i was talking about.

I did not know one existed. So there was a trilogy "Dragonlance", and this spawned the Chronicles?As far as the Chronicles go, I like them. I especially enjoyed the "Heroes" series.

There are 2 Dragonlance Trilogies, actually. Three if you count the one that is going on now (which I have not read at all).You have the original one - Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winters ?? and Spring Dawning. There is actually a 4th novel released several years ago - Summer Flame which is a fun read, too.The Twins trilogy is very nice, too - develops Raistlin and Caramon very well. Sort of a final redemption story to the first trilogy.The new one, I know very little about.

 

[sstork]

Piers Anthong: Xanth (book)

first three or four of the Xanth series were all very good, went down hill fast after that.Anthony's Death Rides a Pale Horse is easily one of my favorite books in the genre. Though the rest of the series was a dissapointment.

Also loved the first book on the Space Tyrant series. ?Bio of a Space Tyrant?

The Adept trilogy is worth reading as well.

 

[sstork]

If we are including Sci-Fi (and it appears we are) Footfall, Lucifer's Hammer and to a lesser extent A Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are great books.

 

[Pick]

LA Freeway is about an 11 mile round trip from Memorial Park in Provo.

My long run this week is 7 miles. I won't hit near 11 for 3-4 weeks.

 

[Caution]

would you count piers anthony split infinity series here?

 

[Bluespuck]

How about some old school -Edgar Rice Burroughs - John Carter of Mars serieson a side note, I have no idea of what genre this is but was I the only one that faithfully bought every installation of "The Executioner" series? I went to my parents house to find my old book collection (including John Carter books and the first 120 Executioner books and found they had gotten rid of them.

 

[Caution]

How about some old school -Edgar Rice Burroughs - John Carter of Mars serieson a side note, I have no idea of what genre this is but was I the only one that faithfully bought every installation of "The Executioner" series? I went to my parents house to find my old book collection (including John Carter books and the first 120 Executioner books and found they had gotten rid of them.

are you talking about mack bolan?if so, those are awesome.

 

[Bluespuck]

How about some old school -Edgar Rice Burroughs - John Carter of Mars serieson a side note, I have no idea of what genre this is but was I the only one that faithfully bought every installation of "The Executioner" series? I went to my parents house to find my old book collection (including John Carter books and the first 120 Executioner books and found they had gotten rid of them.

are you talking about mack bolan?if so, those are awesome.

Exactly - I think the author was Don Pendleton, but it has been close to 20 years since I read those books. I always wondered why they didn't turn those books into a series of movies or a running tv show.

 

[golfguy]

wow all the way to page 2 and no one has mentioned RA Salvatore yet?i'll give him the nod here. icewind dale trilogy is great and most of the other books with drizzt in them.

 

[Caution]

i just emptied out the book shelf to paint the room and lo and behold i ran across one of these. pendleton sounds right, but i'll have to go look.the detail on the weapons was incredible.a tv series is a great idea.

 

[ratpfink]

wow all the way to page 2 and no one has mentioned RA Salvatore yet?

i'll give him the nod here. icewind dale trilogy is great and most of the other books with drizzt in them.

*cough* I guess it was only in passing, but still... Salvatore is ok, but like my brother(who is a huge fantasy fan) said after reading Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series: "Salvatore is kid stuff." I first read Icewind Dale when I was in Jr. High. I fairly recently went back and re-read it, and also the Cleric Quintent, and I found myself forcing myself to get through them, especially so with the Cleric Quintent. However, the Pony/Elbryan stuff he's written I've found to be much better compared to his earlier books. I don't know what that series is called but it has the Demon Awakens and the Demon Spirit and a few others.

Rat...i'm very surprised you didn't like the Tad Williams series. After i had finished reading it i thought it was great....i've read just about every fantasy series out there and i had put this up near the top. Different tastes obviously.

Well, it's not that I didn't like it... it's just I found it unnecessarily LONG. And it seemed to me to be a Tolkien rip off. And I found the hero quite unbelievable much of the time. And the ending was just too storybook and uncreative. The first 200 pages of the Dragonbone Chair was positively the most boring fiction I've ever read and if I wasn't reading it for a "fantasy book club" deal I don't know that I would've trudged through it.I don't read much fantasy though so really all I can compare Williams to is Salvatore and Martin. The Martin series is just so much better that it's the only thing I ever recommend people read.

Oh, I can make one recommendation for a series that one shouldn't read: Ed Greenwood's The Band of Four. Ugh, not good. The thing that bothered me most is the magic system: To cast a spell a wizard has to take the 'energy' from some kind of magical item. To create a magical item a different wizard has to sacrifice himself to put his 'energy' into the item. Yet there are seemingly thousands of these items just laying around all over the place. Uh huh...

I think I'll start on The Briar King by Greg Keyes tomorrow. I picked it up awhile ago but this thread has given me the motivation to start it.

 

[Caution]

another book that was on the recently cleaned shelf was the dragonbone chair, and honestly asked myself if i actually read it. it must have left zero impression, because i have seen it listed here and just can't remember anything that happened.

 

[Twilight]

Here are a few suggestions and discussionsiers Anthony::All his series are ok, but he really extends them WAY longer than they should. Xanth has 5 or 6 out of the 24+ that are any good, the first three in the Apprentice Adept. Incarnations book 1 is very good, 3 was good, the rest were only barely readable. Bio read well when I was 16, tried rereading, it sucked.Neil Gaiman:American Gods won the Huga and the Nebula (Best SF/Fant of the year awards) this year. Good read.Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel's Dart, Chosen, Avatar - Story about an alternate Europe where an angel preaching love settled in France. The main character is a masochistic courtesan. Lots of sex and some pretty good action. Very well written.Laurell Hamilton:Anita Blake novels (1st one is Guilty Pleasures, #10 just came out) A kick-### adult version of Buffy. Takes place in a US where Vampires have rights, Lycanthropy is a discriminated against disease, and the Main character raises the dead for money for things like court cases and insurance disputes. Heavy on the action, later on in the series a little too heavy on the sex, but the series rocks.Lois McMaster Bujold - The Curse of CHalion is a fantasy novel that was also nominated for the Hugo last year, very good read. But her SF series about Miles Vorkosigan is the awesome one. Miles was exposed to a bad chemical while a fetus, so he has extremely brittle bones and stunted growth on a world where that is just not accepted. Sounds boring I know, but these books have some great action and are fantastically written. 3 of the books have won Hugos.Robert Asprin - Myth Adventures - A dimension hopping Apprentice magician and his teacher, who can't do magic due to a practical joke. Hilarious series.Peter David - Sir Apropos of Nothing, The Woad to Wuin - Great twist on the fantasy genre. Apropos is the kind of guy, when given a choice of rescuing the princess of great wealth, he chooses the wealth, who gives a s*** about the princess. 1st one was great, Woad is still only in HB and haven't read yet.David Weber - Honor Harrington (9 books) and Dahak (3 books) - SF, not fantasy, but great books. Honor Harrington has some of the best SF ship battles I've read, involving an extended war between a small star kingdom and a huge bloated one. Loosely based on Horation Hornblower books. Dahak has a moon-sized warship and the fight against invading aliens. Great reads.That is it for now. If you haven't guessed, I'm a compulsive reader with a library of a couple of thousand books, almost all either SF or Fant.

 

[night]

Some old ones I liked:Bio of a space tyrant seriesThieves world seriesYearwood and its sequel. The third book was a sack of sewage.

 

[Pick]

Up to date on the Martin stuff. Good reading.Read the new Jordan prequel. Not so many sub-stories. It was ok. Nice to get some background.Started some stuff by Janny Wurts. Very unique writing here. It took a bit to get used to but it grows on you.BTW, you can order a lot of this stuff from Barnes and Noble online for pretty cheap and if you order at least $25 worth of books then shipping is free.

 

[bentley2]

Read the new Jordan prequel. Not so many sub-stories. It was ok. Nice to get some background.

Did he mention why he never makes any ####### progress on the main storyline anywhere in the book?

 

[Pick]

Read the new Jordan prequel. Not so many sub-stories. It was ok. Nice to get some background.

Did he mention why he never makes any ####### progress on the main storyline anywhere in the book?

Ya, under his picture in the back it says "BLING BLING, SUCKAZ!"

 

[bentley2]

Read the new Jordan prequel.  Not so many sub-stories.  It was ok.  Nice to get some background.

Did he mention why he never makes any ####### progress on the main storyline anywhere in the book?

Ya, under his picture in the back it says "BLING BLING, SUCKAZ!"

I had no idea he was so urban.

 

[Pick]

Read the new Jordan prequel.  Not so many sub-stories.  It was ok.  Nice to get some background.

Did he mention why he never makes any ####### progress on the main storyline anywhere in the book?

Ya, under his picture in the back it says "BLING BLING, SUCKAZ!"

I had no idea he was so urban.

Check out his pic. He's a pimp mofo.