216 replies to this topic

[Buster]

Who are your top 10 favourite authors?

• George R.R. Martin
  
• George Orwell
  
• J.R.R. Tolkien
  
• Stephen King
  
• Frank Herbert
  
• J.K . Rowling
  
• Joe Abercrombie
  
• Thomas Harris
  
• Bernard Cornwell
  
• Robert Ludlum

Edited by Buster, 18 June 2012 - 05:14 AM.

[Zcrow]

No order:

Martin
Abercrombie
Abraham
Gilman
Mieville
Erikson
Kay
Pratchett
Reynolds
Banks

honorable mentions: Stover, Watts, Morgan, Lynch, Rothfuss, Gaiman, Harkaway, Cook, Vonnegut, Simmons, Moore, Palahnuik

Edit: remembered some more

Edited by Zcrow, 15 June 2012 - 06:39 AM.

[russjass]

1. Robin Hobb
2. J.R.R. Tolkein
3. Frank Herbert
4. James Calvell
5. George R R Martin
6. Steven Erikson
7. Katharine Kerr
8. Daniel Abraham
9. Robert Jordan
10. Terry Pratchett.

That book is liable to change at any time. e.g. GRRM slipped down after Feast, the even further after Dance. The rest move about. Erikson should prob be lower, because I havent had the inclination to read his books since Toll the Hounds. Bakker is sometimes on there, more often not, depends on mood. Same with Abercrombie

[Lord of the Night]

I only have a Top 5 after some thought, beyond that I don't give it much thought.

1. Aaron Dembski-Bowden
2. C.L Werner
3. Karen Traviss
4. Jim Butcher
5. Graham McNeill

Honorable Mentions: Andy Chambers, Jacqueline Carey, David Weber, Terry Goodkind (For Wizard's First Rule), Benedict Jacka, Ben Counter, Rob Sanders.


LotN

Edited by Lord of the Night, 15 June 2012 - 05:57 AM.

[SkynJay]

Terry Pratchett.
Mark Twain.

Those are my 1 and 1a.  After that I don't care to come up with rankings.

[Mikael]

Tove Jansson and Hemingway, can't really think of any others at the moment that I *really* like.

[sologdin]

marlowe.  malory.  sun-tzu. vatsysyana. sterne.  melville.  krafft-ebing. solzhenitsyn. milton.  homer.

[Artas]

OK, I gotta ask... Krafft-Ebing? Why?

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Not in order. Beats me why I numbered them 1-10.
1)Daniel Woodrell
2)GRRM
3)Ursula Le Guinn
4)KJ Parker
5)Robert Holdstock
6)Angela Carter
7)Kelly Link
8)Ray Bradbury
9)Joe Abercrombie
10)Douglas Adams.

If we were to include playwrights then Shakespeare and Harold Pinter would be on that list.

Edited by Nearly Headless Ned, 15 June 2012 - 08:56 AM.

[Reposado]

for fiction, not really in order.

Tolstoy
Dostoyevsky
Martin
Pratchett
Joe Abercrombie
Guy Gavriel Kay
Steven Brust
George MacDonald Frasier
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

at least, that's who i've made an effort to read everything

[Sabby]

No order either.
Robert Heinlein (Most days Moon is a harsh mistress is my favorite book)
Neil Gaiman
Brandon Sanderson
JD Salinger (Even though we still never got all those stories he supposedly wrote after he disappeared)
Frank Miller (best batman ever)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Robin McKinley
Connie Willis
Alan Moore (this guy created so many great characters)
Doulglas Adams

Honorable mentions to Elizabeth Moon, Joss Whedon (X-men), Brian K. Vaughn, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Patrick Rothfuss, and Peter V. Brett.

[TheEvilKing]

Top 5 only:

1. GRRM
2. Joe Abercrombie
3. Scott Bakker
4. KJ Parker
5. Daniel Fox/Chaz Brenchley

[Mr. E]

Stephen King is definitely number one.

Other than that...hm. Well, Hemingway's probably number 2. David Foster Wallace is creeping up with every sentence I read by him. GRRM is, of course, floating about there somewhere.

[Sabby]

Nearly Headless Ned, on 15 June 2012 - 08:54 AM, said:

Not in order. Beats me why I numbered them 1-10.
1)Daniel Woodrell
2)GRRM
3)Ursula Le Guinn
4)KJ Parker
5)Robert Holdstock
6)Angela Carter
7)Kelly Link
8)Ray Bradbury
9)Joe Abercrombie
10)Douglas Adams.

If we were to include playwrights then Shakespeare and Harold Pinter would be on that list.

  What are good books to start with for Robert Holdstock and Angela Carter?

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Sabby, on 15 June 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

What are good books to start with for Robert Holdstock and Angela Carter?

For Holdstock I'd go for Mythago Wood. Pretty easy going, first in the series and leads on to the stunning Lavondyss.
Only read two Angela Carter-The Magic Toyshop and the collection of short stories The Bloody Chamber, which contains the classic Company of Wolves. Both are utterly superb with beautiful prose. Either really. Quite light reading.

[Elder Sister]

In no particular order:

1.  Tolkein
2.  Kate Atkinson
3.  Jane Austen
4.  Peter Kennedy Toole (and for only one book - A Confederacy of Dunces - it's amazing.)
5.  Cormac McCarthy
6.  Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
7.  George RR Martin
8.  JK Rowling
9.  Lee Smith
10. F. Scott Fitzgerald
11.  Donna Tartt

[Sci-2]

No Order:

Chris Rock
Jeph Loeb
Todd McFarlane
Paula Dean
Stephanie Myer
God
Camus
Perez Hilton
Patrick McDonnell
Satan

[Mr. E]

sciborg2, on 15 June 2012 - 12:25 PM, said:

Satan

Have you by chance perused his sci-fi/fantasy epic Bringer of Light? If you haven't, then don't, because it's terrible.

[Grack21]

Someone mentioned Frank Miller? For reals? The guy makes Orson Scott Card look like Jesus.

Also thumbs up to whoever mentioned Kerr. Woman was writing gritty medieval fiction before it was "cool".

Edited by Grack21, 15 June 2012 - 03:24 PM.

[Yana]

In no particular order: George Martin, Alexandre Dumas, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Joanne Harris, Ivo Andric, Tolkien, Tolstoy, Scott Lynch (read his books only recently, now I'm totally in love with them), Colleen McCullough, Barbara Kingsolver...also, David Sedaris, Philip Pullman and many others...