I sat the other day, looking at my book collection, wondering how i should find room for the 4 additions, arriving soon.
Realising the task as hopeless, i thought about who my fav authors were instead.
The top of the Top would be Robin Hobb. She i just fantastic with words and creating her own fantasy worlds,
and the fact that she has written 3 (three!) trilogies, where each and every book is connected to each other. I'm really mind blown about that ^^
Now, the 2nd one is tricky. I must say that Willbur Smith and Dean Koontz is on a joint 2nd. Because, well.. They are just awesome.
3rd place goes to not 1, but several. The Black Library. The guys responsible for the warhammer 40k books, and allowing me to have a complete history of what happened up to and doing the Horus Heresy.
Hmm Im not much into books anymore. But I would guess these 3
1: Douglas Adams - Cause he made THE best book serie of all times)
2: Richard A. Knaak - For his work in Diablo and Warcraft Novels. Contributing to the Amazing lore , (Not counting Diablo 3 story or any of the WoW ***, He did not do that and those stories are BS)
3: Robert Jordan - He is the only author who have made me read so many books in a row
has to be Ben Kane great writer wrote the forgotten legions and other great books about the9th legion
Oh that sounds interesting Stealth.
Im absolutely intruiged about the myth/mysteri around the 9th legion. i'll look him up.
definitely going to echo freeoath on Douglas Adams. Love his books/style
oh, and Harry Turtledove, for his great alternate history series about WW2 and alien invasion.
E.E. 'DOC' SMITH and his Lensman series:
First Lensman
Galactic Patrol
Gray Lensman
Second Stage Lensman
Children of the Lens
Also
Triplanetary
and
Masters of the Vortex
I have reread these books over and over for the last 20 years and still love them.
GHOST RECON DIVISION 4 year Club
I meant to say I had reread them over the last 50 years!
My current favorite is John Scalzi. His new book 'Redshirts' is a phenominal work of satire and personal introspection and his modern classic 'Old Man's War' should be required reading for all sci-fi fans.
Links:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=old+man%27s+war
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=redshirts
Sir Terry Pratchett - Discworld all the way !
Markus Heitz - German Fantasy author
G.R.R. Martin - A song of Ice and Fire...
Social Operations Corps Commander - You want exposure? We might help.
By far my favorite is L.E. Modesitt Jr. for all my fantasy and Sci-Fi reading needs. In my opinion hes probably the best Fantasy/Sci-Fi writer still alive and he drops a new book every 6 months or so.
Pratchett has to be on the list. In years to come he will be mentioned in the same breath as Twain and Swift.
However, allow me to add a few (just) post-golden age SF authors.
John Brunner. Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up and my personal favourite Shockwave Rider.
Alfred Bester. Tiger, Tiger (I believe this was published in the states under a different name, Stars My Destination or something) and The Demolished Man.
And finally, Philip K ***. One of the most filmed SF authors of all time (Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report...to name just a few). However if you can check out The Man In The High Castle.
Arguably his most mature work.
"What's the point of being a grown up if you can't act like a child?"
Good grief..... Philip K ***!!!!!!
Sometimes the profanity filters just get silly.
I have been thinking about a post for book recommendations so glad when I checked and found this posting on the forums.
From a young age I loved to read and if not gaming would normally have had my head in a book.
Whilst I cannot recall all the authors and titles of every book I have read, back then I did read a lot of Stephen King. He was a good storyteller. However some of the stories of his that I remember most fondly are the ones he wrote as Richard Bachman. In particular The Long Walk in which 100 children walk across part of America. Can’t say anymore without spoiling the story. Another story was The Running Man. (forget the mess of a film with Arnie in it which was so disappointing.) It was one of those books that I could not put down. If the film had followed the book in more details it could of been a great film.
As we are talking about adaptation of books to films, I think I have to mention the Stephen King novel The Green Mile. I did have concerns when I heard they were making that into a film but it was done very well.
As time went on I read many more books by many authors. The last book I read of Stephen King’s was Gerald’s Game which is the first and only book that I never finished. For me it lacked something so I moved away from him and found another favourite author in Dean Koontz. First few books of his were Intensity, Shadowfire, Twilight Eyes and Lightning. All amazing stories. He had the ability to feed you just enough for you to believe, and then feed you a bit more and then a bit more again. Amazing author and so many enjoyable stories. I have to mention here and give praise for his books on Frankenstein. Definitely worth a read. A great twist on a classic.
More recently I got into the works by Jo Nesbo and in particular his novels based on character Harry Hole. In regard to the recently made film The Snowman, that was really bad. Forget that and please read the book. You won't be disappointed.
Based on above you may think the thriller kind of book is my thing but I read all sorts of stuff
A few others on this post mentioned Terry Pratchett. He was a great author and his novels based on the Discworld were different and an enjoyable change of pace. Until he past, may he rest in peace I always had his latest novel on my wishlist for Christmas. The more of his Discworld novels you read the more you felt connected to the world and characters he had created. Despite it being a fictional world, he still managed to bring in and deal with issues from the real world. He was very unique in what he did and how he did it.
From fantasy world of Discworld I now turn to the Forgotten Realms and the stories of R.A Salvatore. His stories on Drizzt, the drow that turns his back on his world the Underdark and journeys to the surface. The discrimination he suffers because of what he is as he looks to create his own path is an intriguing one.
I will start to wrap this up now but have to mention another author by the name of Bernard Cornwell.
Most would know the name from the novels about Sharpe, a man who worked his way up from the ranks in the British Army in a time when you bought your commision or were appointed due to your status. All these novels on their own are great and far better than the series shown on TV (although Sean Bean does well as Sharpe.)
Maybe less known just just as enjoyable are the The Starbuck Chronicles about the northerner Nathaniel Starbuck that fights for the south in the American civil war or perhaps the King Arthur Chronicles in which Bernard Cornwell revitalises and gives a new refreshing take on the myth of King Arthur.
Before I finally complete this post I have to mention one more book that whenever I had to donate or give away some of my book collection, (children = less space for oneself.) this one I held back.
The book is called New Barbarians and is by Kirk Mitchell. It is based in a time where the Rome never fell, where it actually grew and it’s reach even stretched across the ocean to new world. In this new world was Aztecae Empire which had not fallen.... Very interesting and well thought story.
Anyone else have any recommendations for books or authors would be great to hear from you.
It's strange that in all these listings of fantasy authors none mentions Feist, Weis/Hickman (Dragonlance), Eddings, or even Tolkien etc lol.
But yeah, Douglas Adams for the win.
Though I've always enjoyed Robinson Crusoe.
As a bit of a WW2 history buff I always loved a good WW2 book, true or fiction.
However the best non-fiction I read was Pegasus Bridge by Stephen E Ambrose as it was a recollection of the first Allied soldiers to break into France a few hours before the D-Day invasions were scheduled to begin.
On the Fiction side of things I loved one of the Harry Turtledove books that talked about a possible alternate history with Rommel taking over the reigns of the Third Reich instead of Hitler.