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All-time Fantasy top 5


Calibandar

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I'd like to see how we stand regarding the best authors you've read in this genre. This can be epic Fantasy, New Weird, Urban Fantasy, you name it, any sort of Fantasy will do, works from way in the past up until the most recent 2006 releases, just no SF in this poll.

Please rate 1 to 5. You can also rate at random but in that case I will allocate 1 point to each listed name. I will tally up the votes and post the endresults. Hopefully as many old-timers ( who may have done this before) and newer posters as possible will respond.

After the name you can also list the series or standalone that you rate the highest from that author.

Alright, my top 5.

1) JRR Tolkien ( Silmarillion)

2) GRR Martin ( ASOIAF)

3) Robin Hobb ( Farseer/Tawny Man)

4) Guy Gavriel Kay ( Fionavar/Lions of Al-Rassan).

5) Scott Bakker

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Hmm...I suppose I'll give it a try, though it is very hard. If I'm asked tomorrow the answer will probably be different. I'm simply going to base my rankings on my enjoyment of the books the author's have written, giving higher credit to 'better' authors. Of course, I am limited to authors that I have read. The authors are not in any particular order and it turns out that I'm listing 7 instead of 5.

So, here are my top 7 SFF authors of the moment:

Jeff VanderMeer

R Scott Bakker

Steven Erikson

Kim Stanley Robinson

Neil Stephenson

China Mieville

Charles de Lint

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1. Erikson - Everything but DG is my fav

2. Martin - ASOIAF minus AFFC plus the Tuf Voyaging stuff

3. Tolkien (more for non LotR stuff, Silmarrilion, BolT, UT)

4. Zelazny - Lord of Light, Corwin's amber tales.

5. Feist (I know a weird choice considering his latest work sucks and I don't even read his new stuff anymore, but Empire, Riftwar, Serpentwar and the two in between books are all imo very enjoyable)

Just out of the top 5 would be Lynch (needs to write more books but a great debut), Bakker (great writer, just don't like his subject material that much) and Rowling (very enjoyable stuff). Jordan has some great stuff, but the last 3 books are meh.

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1. Jeff Vandermeer - pretty much all solid output so far, but Veniss Underground is my favorite.

2. China Mieville (source of my username :P ) - ranked below Vandermeer bc his short story collection Looking for Jake is inferior to Jeff's Secret Life - Scar is my favorite.

3. GRRM - this is the ASOIAF board :D

4. Guy Gavriel Kay - for Tigana and other historical fantasy stuff

right now - Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake and Scott Bakkar are fighting for the number 5 position. OK, i'm willing to accept an argument for Tolkien as well ;)

note: i'm disqualifying authors with a single work or who i've only read one of their works, e.g. Susanna Clarke (Strange and Norrell). also disqualifying magic realism otherwise Umberto Eco and Salman Rushdie would be fighting to be up there.

bellis.

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Fuck this shit, I'll define this the way I see 'fantasy' as being ;)

1. Jorge Luis Borges (Ficciónes)

2. José Saramago (Blindness)

3. Umberto Eco (Foucault's Pendulum)

4. Gabriel García Márquez (Cien años de soledad)

5. Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast)

(tie) Gene Wolfe (Book of the New Sun, Latro in the Mist)

There. It fluctuates a lot, but it is what it is.

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1.) Terry Pratchett (Going Postal! Although, if you asked me in five minutes, it would probably change.)

2.) Neil Gaiman (Stardust)

3.) R. Scott Bakker (The Warrior-Prophet is probably my favourite of his trilogy)

4.) Richard Adams (Shardik)

5.) Eh. Let's go with Martin, because I can't think of someone else at this moment.

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1 - George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Fevre Dream)

2 - Guy Gavriel Kay (Tigana, The Sarantine Mosaic, A Song for Arbonne)

3 - Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates, Declare, On Stranger Tides)

4 - Steven Erikson (Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice)

5 - Raymond E Feist (Magician, the Empire trilogy)

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1. Steven Erikson (Malazan Book of the Fallen, esp. Midnight Tides)

2. Terry Pratchett (Discworld, esp. Monstrous Regiment)

3. China Mieville (Bas-lag, esp. The Scar)

4. Janny Wurts (The Wars of Light and Shadow)

5. R Scott Bakker (Prince of Nothing, esp. The Darkness that Comes Before)

Honourable mentions: Scott Lynch, Hal Duncan, Roger Zelazny, George RR Martin

Sir Thursday

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- George R.R. Martin (ASoIaF)

- Scott Bakker (Prince of Nothing)

- J.R.R. Tolkien (Silmarillion)

- Scott Lynch (Lies of Locke Lamora)

- Frank Herbert (Dune)

Wolfe and Kay are still pending. I have yet to start either The Book of the New Sun or Tigana, and university will undoubtedly cut a substantial amount of available reading time.

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GRR

Hobb

Hugh Cook (Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series)

Chris Bunch (Seer King series, Dragonknights etc)

Lawrence Watt Evans (Lords of Dus, Esthar series, Dragon Venom etc)

JV Jones

Are the guys I would buy almost anything from, although I must admit Hobb's latest series is a bit of a dissapointment and Jones seems to be having trouble getting her publisher to actually release her last, completed book in a timely manner.

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