Who is your Favourite Fantasy Author, and why?

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  1. robbell profile image60
    robbellposted 16 years ago

    Hi everyone,

    I love Terry Pratchett's fantasy comedy novels - although set in his fantasy Discworld, they often take on real world issues. It could be said that Terry is the greatest satirist of the 20th and 21st centuries.

    I'm also a big fan of David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series, and Terry Goodkind's 'Sword of Truth' Series.

    Is anyone else a fan of the genre? Who are your favourite authors and why?

    Rob

  2. Mark Knowles profile image58
    Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

    Absolutely - Terry Pratchett used to be awesome. Mort is a must-read. I hated the later ones though. And I would have to put Douglas Adams forward as a better satirist big_smile

  3. kerryg profile image84
    kerrygposted 16 years ago

    I'm a Pratchett fan, too. Have you guys heard about the effort going on right now to match his donation to Alzheimer's research? http://www.matchitforpratchett.org/

    My favorite, though, is Patricia Wrede. She's mostly a children's and young adult author, but her Enchanted Forest Chronicles are my favorite comfort books from childhood.

    Of adult fantasy authors, I'm a big fan of George R.R. Martin, who pretty much couldn't be more different from Pratchett and Wrede if he tried. smile His A Song of Ice and Fire series is amazing.

  4. lucysdoghouse profile image60
    lucysdoghouseposted 16 years ago

    Not fantasy but sci-fi, but I really like anything that David Weber does.  His Honor Harrington series is something I go back to over and over again.

  5. makemoneyonline profile image38
    makemoneyonlineposted 16 years ago

    J.R.R Tolkien of course. I found that more modern authors don't know how to write any more smile

  6. Storytellersrus profile image67
    Storytellersrusposted 15 years ago

    Hey, I'm new to this Hub thing so of course I headed here first.

    I have read everything by Ursula LeGuin- her Earthsea books are psychological landscapes navigated by deeply characterized and very real wizards like Ged who is her Gandalf and Dumbledore.

    For Science Fiction, I love Connie WIllis.  She lives here in Colorado and I have met her at a couple writing workshops. She is very down to earth but holds more Nebulas and Hugos than any  other writer in the genre.  Doomsday is pretty awesome.

    The list of children's fantasy/sci fi writers who have captivated me is very long, from Madeleine L'Engle who won the Newbery for Wrinkle in Time way back when I was in elementary school- I am OLD- to the ever amazing E. Nesbitt to modern writers like Susan Fletcher and M.T. Anderson and Eva Ibbotson, the writer who inspired JK Rowling.  And how could I forget Edward Eager and his Magic or Not? 

    I do love to read.

    BTW, for the writer who says there are no longer any good writers, pick up a young adult novel.  These writers have to be amazing to capture the attention of an audience that demands quality and cuts no slack for inadequacy.

    Barbara

  7. kerryg profile image84
    kerrygposted 15 years ago

    Storytellersrus, I really loved To Say Nothing of the Dog, but I think that's the only Connie Willis I've read. I didn't realize she was so prolific! (For some reason I generally prefer to watch sci-fi and read fantasy - don't know why, but as a result I tend to be oddly clueless about sci-fi authors and fantasy films/television.)

    It's pretty interesting how much of the best fantasy is intended for kids. I've gotten a lot better at finding stuff that isn't in the last few years, but for awhile I had grown very disillusioned with adult fantasy because so much of it read like a cheap knockoff of Tolkein - and there's only so many Lost Heirs and Swords of Power I can put up with before I start to gag. Thank heaven for the George R.R. Martins and Terry Pratchetts and Guy Gavriel Kays of the world! *g*

  8. CMOE profile image56
    CMOEposted 15 years ago

    I am currently reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.  I am on book number 6.  I really enjoy his writing style.  You should check it out if you are looking for a new series to get into.

  9. mikavexo profile image60
    mikavexoposted 15 years ago

    I enjoy Lawrence Watts Evans, Piers Anthony and CJ Cherryh.  I'm not into Sci-Fi, but the fantasy stuff by these authors are pretty good.  I also like N.M. King, but she's my wife so I don't have much of a choice in that regard.  We're looking to publish a novel, but may have to go the self publish/print on demand route.

  10. AC Gaughen profile image60
    AC Gaughenposted 15 years ago

    Diana Wynne Jones--Howl's Moving Castle, absolute MAGIC!

    Gail Carson Levine--Ella Enchanted, and Fairest, both modern takes on fairy tales in a fantasy setting.

    Tamora Pierce--all of her fantasy is incredible, especially The Song of the Lioness series, which follows a young girl who wants to be a knight. 

    Susan Cooper--the Dark is Rising series.  Just awesome. 

    And of course, no top five list can be complete without blatant adoration for Philip Pullman's His Dark Material's series. 

    Love it!

  11. Earl S. Wynn profile image79
    Earl S. Wynnposted 15 years ago

    I am a Sci-Fi addict, but when it comes to fantasy, I think my favorite author would have to be Storm Constantine, specifically her Wraeththu series. She has this richness to her style that's absolutely incredible, and is so engaging and lavish that you just get sucked in. It's really incredible. I like Tolkien too, he's pretty great, but I have a hard time reading anything that wasn't written within the last two decades because the writing style tends to become less active and more... I don't know. I want to say archaic, but that's pejorative, and the last thing I'd want to do is put down someone as talented as say, Tolkien or Pratchett. They're awesome, just not my favorites, haha.

  12. Bard of Ely profile image79
    Bard of Elyposted 15 years ago

    CS Lewis because for me as a child who couldn't see much sense in church, prayers and religion, his Chronicles of Narnia and the character of Aslan the lion touched something in me that awoke an interest in spirituality that has stayed. Over the years I read those books over and over again as well as his science-fiction ones and other works.

    George MacDonald and HP Lovecraft are other favourites.

    1. Earl S. Wynn profile image79
      Earl S. Wynnposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      You know, now that I think about it, there's definitely something about HP Lovecraft that hooked me while I was reading it too. I think it's the depth to which he goes in some of his writings, dredging up and darkening ideas locked away in the dusty vaults of forgotten mythologies. Really interesting stuff that way.

  13. WeddingConsultant profile image67
    WeddingConsultantposted 15 years ago

    For me it's definitely J.R.R.Tolkien.

    Why?  Well mainly because of his LOTR books, but also because he was good friends with C.S. Lewis and I'm a huge fan of Lewis as well.

    1. AC Gaughen profile image60
      AC Gaughenposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      You know, I was recently at a conference where a woman was speaking about fantasy and saying that for most people, the idea of fantasy is constrained to this sort of pre technological twist of the Roman to Medieval history of Europe, as defined by JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and the like--so essentially, the definition of fantasy is chained to the ideas of tight-knit group of dead white men from Cambridge. 

      Which I thought was really interesting.

      1. kerryg profile image84
        kerrygposted 15 years agoin reply to this

        I think that is true for most people who don't actually read fantasy, and even a lot of people who do. A lot of people expect fantasy to stick within a certain set of boundaries that does, imnsho, make way too much published fantasy into a cheap Tolkein rip-off, and I've heard of people even getting very upset when confronted with a fantasy by, say, Gaiman, because it doesn't follow the "rules." Of course, there's plenty of snobbery on the other side too! smile You should hear some of my friends go off on Jordan!

        The nice thing about sff, though, is that the possibilities are literally endless, so there is more than enough room for everyone. I just wish we could get a bit more respect from outsiders. One of my friends got laughed at by a coworker a few weeks ago when she talked about how excited she was for the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. The co-worker's favorite show is The Biggest Loser! I mean, BSG has its flaws, sure, but in terms of the overall quality of its writing and acting and the fearlessness of its plots, it outshines 90% of the SCRIPTED shows on TV, let alone "reality" shows like the Biggest Loser, and it's getting dismissed out of hand as garbage because it's set in space. It's ridiculous.

        1. Earl S. Wynn profile image79
          Earl S. Wynnposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Man, you're right! I write Sci-Fi, so I know how it is to be just totally marginalized because you're writing something that's (1. fiction, and (2. set in space, while the "mainstream" is just totally hooked on reality shows and stuff like that. I mean, look what happened to Firefly, and that was the best SF show (IMO) to ever grace the airwaves.

          But we were talking fantasy books, haha. Anybody here read "Scar Night" by Alan Campbell. That was an... interesting novel. Haha.

  14. DJ Funktual profile image77
    DJ Funktualposted 15 years ago

    Tolkien, Douglas Adams and whoever wrote LOGAN'S RUN!

 
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