Best SF&F Author Thread

[arcticstoat]

I'm going to go with these:

1) GRRM
2) Mervyn Peake
3) Scott Lynch
4) Frank Herbert (because the original Dune book is awesome, even if all the other ones aren't so great)
5) JRR Tolkien

Mind you, I haven't read any Joe Abercrombie or Steven Erikson yet

[db1869]

Here is a newbie's take:

1. GRRM (ASOIF is my all time favorite)
2. Tolkien
3. C.S. Friedman (coldfire triology rocks)
4. C.S. Lewis (a visionary)
5. Feist

*I have not yet read Abercrombie, Lynch, Bakker, and Erikson but I have bought all the books.

[fionwe1987]

I haven't read all that much, and most of what I have, has been epic fantasy, but here's my choice of top 5:
1. Tolkien
2. Jordan
3. Mieville
4. Martin
5. Herbert

[add-on]

1. Kay
2. Graham Joyce
3. GRRM
4. Tolkien
5. Bakker

[Benjen Stark]

1) GRRM
2) JRR Tolkien
3) Terry Pratchett
4) Stephen Brust
5) Ursula K Le Guin

R Scott Bakker
Isaac Asimov
Stephen R Donaldson
Tad Williams
Frank Herbert
Stephen Erikson
Robin Hobb
Roger Zelanzy
Scott Lynch
Glen Cook
CS Lewis
Michael Moorcock

(I haven't read enough Vance or GG Kay to place properly, and I left out anything that predated SciFi as a distinct genre...)

I'm sort of surprised I wound up rating GRRM #1. I'm sure if I spent a few hours thinking, this list would grow and change massively.

[Tuoni]

1. GRRM
2. Greg Egan
3. Robin Hobb
4. China Mieville
5. Dan Simmons

[WiseFool]

not sure it's a good idea to stick it, I only noticed this thread like now...

anyway, tough call. Are we talking about best or favourite or most important authors there?
in terms of fave, Tolkien wouldn't make it in my list but in terms of importance he'd probably take the #1 spot because of his impact on the fantasy field...

need to ponder, I'll come back later

[shortstark]

1. Tolkien
2. GRRM
3. Hobb
4. Bakker
5. Abercrombie

This is hard, having to choose 5, i decided on the authors whose books i reread the most, it was a toss up betwen abercrombie and bujold and i might change this later...

[HammerOfGod]

1 Robert Jordan {Now Deceased}
2 Roger Delazney
3 Gene Wolfe
4 Amanda Ashley
5 Joy Dara

[Lawrence]

[quote name='HammerOfGod' post='1284560' date='Mar 22 2008, 17.41']2 Roger Delazney[/quote]
Is that some superhuman/writer combination of Roger Zelazny and Samuel Delaney? :lol: Or a sly attempt to nominate both?

[Sheep the Evicted]

In no order

Pratchett
Abercrombie
Martin
Rofthuss ( i love his writing style )
Douglass Adams

[Black Wizard]

1. George R R Martin
2. Frank Herbert
3. Terry Pratchett
4. J R R Tolkein
5. Raymond E Feist

[Vethnar]

[quote name='MattD' post='1272437' date='Mar 14 2008, 14.34']1. Gene Wolfe
2. Italo Calvino
3. Catherynne Valente
4. Milan Kundera[/quote]

MattD,

Thanks for your list! Threads like this one are great for discovering new authors. I love Wolfe, Calvino and Kundera, but had never heard about Catherynne Valente before reading your post. I skimmed quickly through the reviews of her books at Amazon, and they look very interesting. Which of her books is the best one to begin with?

My own (unsorted) list for today:

Jorge Luis Borges
J.R.R. Tolkien
Gene Wolfe
Italo Calvino
Ursula Le Guin

[Gunnlaugr ormstunga]

1. China Mieville
2. GRRM
3. R Scott Bakker
4. HP Lovecraft
5. Scott Lynch

[henderson]

No particular order:

George R.R. Martin
Steven Erikson
Michelle West
David B. Coe
Robert Jordan

[alguien]

Oooooh! I like this game. My top five:

1. Tolkien
2. George RR Martin
3. Neil Gaiman
4. Terry Pratchett
5. Stephen King (LOVE the Dark Tower series)

some close finishes:
-Ursula LeGuin (Earthsea ROCKS)
-C.S. Lewis (Narnia was my first book series I ever read on my own way back in 1st grade)
-Orson Scott Card
-Robert Jordan (RIP)
-Susannah Clarke
-Ray Bradbury
-Susan Cooper (an oldy, but a goodie)
-Scott Lynch (Lies of LL is fantastic, but I was less than impressed with Red Seas)
-Frank Herbert (first three Dune books = awesome, the rest...not so much)

[Multaniette]

1. Tolkien
2. Le Guin
3. Sturgeon
4. Ian R. MacLeod
5. Tim Powers

[Virtua Icon]

Five is very limiting -- which, I suppose, is kind of the point.

1.) Haruki Murakami
2.) R. Scott Bakker
3.) Umberto Eco
4.) Jeff VanderMeer
5.) Catherynne Valente

That Valente spot could have easily gone to Jorge Luis Borges, China Miéville, Julio Cortázar, PKD, Sarah Monette, or dozens of other authors, though.

[Bellis]

[quote name='TIconOA' post='1288248' date='Mar 25 2008, 19.59']That Valente spot could have easily gone to Jorge Luis Borges, China Miéville, Julio Cortázar, PKD, Sarah Monette, or dozens of other authors, though.[/quote]

Someone else after me own heart.

[quote]Threads like this one are great for discovering new authors. I love Wolfe, Calvino and Kundera, but had never heard about Catherynne Valente before reading your post. I skimmed quickly through the reviews of her books at Amazon, and they look very interesting. Which of her books is the best one to begin with?[/quote]

I've only read Valente's [b]Orphan's Tales[/b] duology. It's definitely worth a buy. Stories within stories, with a feminist angle, sort of like Angela Carter, more overtly like Scherezade. I really appreciated that most of the stories originated from non-western european mythologies.

[MattD]

[quote name='Vethnar' post='1286494' date='Mar 24 2008, 15.38']I love Wolfe, Calvino and Kundera, but had never heard about Catherynne Valente before reading your post. I skimmed quickly through the reviews of her books at Amazon, and they look very interesting. Which of her books is the best one to begin with?[/quote]
Hard to argue with the [i]Orphan's Tales[/i] duology, it's her most recent and in some ways her most accessible. [i]Yume No Hon[/i] has a bit more of the contemporary feel of a Calvino or Kundera if that's what you're after, although Valente is quite different -- post-modern in her own way, but with a decadent, surrealist prose style. If you want a snapshot of her writing, she has a [url="http://www.clarkesworldbooks.com/fiction/fict_valente_bones.html"]short story[/url] [url="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/valente_12_06.html"]or two[/url] online.

Comparing authors is always tricky, and this isn't really the right thread, but given the authors you've listed I'd also recommend (as more directly similar to them than Valente) you look into Zoran Zivkovic (who almost made my top 5 list), Theodora Goss (read her [url="http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/sorrow/1/"]"Rapid Advance of Sorrow"[/url] online) and maybe Alan Lightman's [i]Einstein's Dreams[/i], if you haven't already.