Who are some of your favorite authors and books?

[Rosbjerg]

"'The Lord Of The Rings' seemed to bog down too much in detail...but still, nice read if you can stomache 10 pages describing a specific event that only lasted for a few seconds."

 

Try reading anything of Victor Hugo!! that guy can go on for about a 100 pages of totally irrelevant information ..

[Darth_Radnor]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Night by Elie Wiesel

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

 

Tolkien, and pretty much all of Arthur Conan Doyle's works (except for Brigadier Gerard)

 

I have read a lot of good books, but these are all I can come up with at the top of my head.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Sadly enough...I like several of the books Dean Koontz has done...mainly 'Twilight Eyes', 'Fear Nothing', and 'Seize the Night'. 'Midnight' was good to...though disturbing........the guy's weird, yet, oddly entertaining.

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I only know Koontz's "House of Thunder". Pretty entertaining back then, but I've forgotten much of it by now.

[Nartwak]

It's pretty rare for me to come across a book I don't like. I just like reading.

 

Some of favorite authours inlude Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Leonard Elmore.

[Loof]

Just to prove how much of a fantasy freak I am ....

(in no particular order)

 

George R.R. Martin's "Song of ice and fire"

Steven Erikson's "Malazan book of the fallen"

Ursula Leguin's "Earthsea"

Scott Bakkers "Prince of Nothing"

Zelazny's "Amber"

Robin Hobb's "Farseer" and "Tawny man"

Carol Bergs "Rai-Kirah" (or something liek that...)

Feist and Wurts "Empire trillogy"

Lynn Flewelling's "Nightrunner"

Steven Brust "Taltos series"

Glen Cook's "Black Company" (although they pale in comparison with Erikson)

JV Jones "Sword of shadows"

Orson Scott Card "Alvin Maker series"

JK Rowling's "Harry Potter"

Clive Barker's "Imagica"

Michael Moorc0ck and storm constantine "Silverheart"

Neil Gainman "American Gods"

 

if im feeling generous I might add something by Jack Vance or Tad Williams too.

 

Just to finish up I will add some sci-fi books too:

Neal Stephensson "Snow Crash" and "Diamond Age" (I hear Cryptonomicon is even better but haven't gotten around to it yet)

William Gibsons "Neuromancer", "Count zero" and "Monalisa overdrive"

Frank Herberts "Dune"

Mathew Stover "Heroes die" and "Blade of Tyshalle"

Bruce Sterling "Islands in the Net"

E.E Knight "Vampire Earth" (yes despite the title its a sci-fi and not a vampire series)

and last but not least

Walter Jon Williams "Hardwired"

 

 

PS. No I dont like Tolkien

[Laozi]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Night by Elie Wiesel

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

 

Tolkien, and pretty much all of Arthur Conan Doyle's works (except for Brigadier Gerard)

 

I have read a lot of good books, but these are all I can come up with at the top of my head.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Lord of the Flies, another testimony on why its bad to be fat out in the wild. Good book.

[Rosbjerg]

anyone ever read Aldous Huxley's Apes and Essence? .. feels like a mix of various other classics, but it's actually pretty decent ..

 

I never got around to reading anything else he wrote though..

[Darth_Radnor]

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Night by Elie Wiesel

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

 

Tolkien, and pretty much all of Arthur Conan Doyle's works (except for Brigadier Gerard)

 

I have read a lot of good books, but these are all I can come up with at the top of my head.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Lord of the Flies, another testimony on why its bad to be fat out in the wild. Good book.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You should definitely read The Things They Carried, Laozi. That has to be the best book on the Vietnam War ever.

[Laozi]

I might try it, though I have to take my "supreme" tragedies in moderation.

 

Its like that book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. A good book, but extremely difficult to read, and in no way one of my favorites.

Plus I have a father who served in Vietnam, so if I really need some firsthand accounts I can alway go to him

 

I would recomend Journey to the End of the Night to anyone, buts its horrible depressing

[Darth Drabek]

Sadly enough...I like several of the books Dean Koontz has done...mainly 'Twilight Eyes', 'Fear Nothing', and 'Seize the Night'. 'Midnight' was good to...though disturbing........the guy's weird, yet, oddly entertaining.

 

'The Lord Of The Rings' seemed to bog down too much in detail...but still, nice read if you can stomache 10 pages describing a specific event that only lasted for a few seconds.

 

And, lastly, my favorite series of books...fantasy books...a strange series called 'Xanth', written by Piers Anthony...so many, many puns.

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Fear Nothing and Seize the Night were good. I've read quite a lot of Koontz's stuff and those are two of my favorites. I can't remember the name, but there was one where the evil dude that had been killing people left and right turned out to be so angry and homicidal because of the extra testosterone he was producing.... from his extra testicles . No joke. I stopped reading Koontz for a while after that on principle.

 

Also, the Xanth series is great. I especially liked "Demons Don't Dream," the one about the kids that get into the fantasy realm through a video game. Considering that book came out in 1993, I'd say he was ahead of his time. :D

[Diogo Ribeiro]

from his extra testicles.

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One can never have enough of those.

[LadyCrimson]

Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, but most especially the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy.

 

Wow...another fan. I was blown away by Tigana. I still haven't read the Tapestry...even tho I bought it years ago.

 

I mostly read sci-fi like Asimov or Jack Chalker, or fantasy...with a little horror and historical fiction thrown in (particularly the US Civil War period). But I became tired of never ending series syndrome and stopped reading, mostly, several years ago.

[mr insomniac]

Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, but most especially the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy.

 

Wow...another fan. I was blown away by Tigana. I still haven't read the Tapestry...even tho I bought it years ago.

 

I mostly read sci-fi like Asimov or Jack Chalker, or fantasy...with a little horror and historical fiction thrown in (particularly the US Civil War period). But I became tired of never ending series syndrome and stopped reading, mostly, several years ago.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Loved Tigana! You definitely have to read the Tapestry. As they were his first books, its interesting to see how he's grown as an author

[Whitemithrandir]

Phillip K. Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy defined much of my teenage years. I cried and wanted to die after finishing it, yet the after-taste (which lasted a few years) was surprisingly uplifting.

 

Good call Gromnir.

[Maedhros]

Let's see..

 

Romance of Three Kingdoms - Can be downloaded at http://www.threekingdoms.com/

The Wheel of Time - Liked the first 6 books very much, the rest are not as good.

A Song of Ice and Fire - Best fantasy books by FAR.

Dune Chronicles - Especially book 4, Leto II rocks! :cool:

Tolkien's books about Middle-Earth - Especially Silmarillion.

[Loof]

Agree about Tigana being a superb book, didn't think fionavar tapestry was nearly as good.

[There is only the force]

i like tolien, robin hobb, isaac asimov, douglas addams, hobss third series was really good brought the first two together

[Azure79]

Right now I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

 

I started reading the Three Musketeers then 20 Years Later, both which I liked. I'll back to Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan after this book, though I'm told the later books focus more on the Victome de Bragelonne.

 

I really like Chinese Martial Arts Fantasy especially ones by Louis Cha...I think that's the name he is known by in English.

 

I also like short stories by Philip K. ****.

 

I've read the Complete Sherlock Holmes many times.

 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of my favorite all time books.

 

Hmm what else....Isaac Asimov I like. The Robot series and Foundation.

 

The Ender Series was great. Bean was a great character.

 

The Dragonlance books were classic too. The chronicles and legends were great fantasy reads. I think those were the first fantasy books I read. I lurved Tasslehoff.

 

Watership Down is also one of my favorites. I saw the animated movie in fourth grade and was fascinated. I remember getting the book from the library the next day and reading it all night.

 

I'll have to try some of the Sci-fi and fantasy books mentioned here.

[Laozi]

^^^^I don't read too much sci-fic, but Philip K. **** is awesome and its a shame that we can't have his last name on these boards, and that hollywood continuially basturdizes his work

 

Tanis and Tasslehoff really kept the whole work interesting for me especially after Sturm died, I guess I'll always be a bit dissappointed by those books as they were hyped as the "Best thing to read after LOTR"

 

Currently I'm reading The War of the Spider Queen and the first two books by Thomas M. Reid and Richard Lee Byers have me completely on the main character's side. They're, to me, and extremely entertaining read, especially if you've ever read any of the Drizzt books

[Lcaus Scuks]

Moby **** by Herman Melville

[213374U]

Philip K. **** is awesome and its a shame that we can't have his last name on these boards

 

Sorry, but I can't help finding that pretty hilarious.

[mEtaLL1x]

Love lots of books, both afrementioned, and not.

 

 

I would like to add John Grisham to the list. Really loved some of his works, especially Rainmaker and The Chamber.

 

Also, loved Raimond Feist for his first book, The Magician. Unfortunately, all books after that were really dissapointing for me.... but the first one is a jewel

 

Also, loved "To Kill a Mocking BIrd" classic. Sadly enough, forgot the author's name.... but many of you prolly read that.

 

And, well, Russian classics. Not all of them, but Dostoevskiy and Chekhov were my favorites. Well, we had to read many of them at school, according to our program, but those two I read by my own desire.

 

 

Well, can't seem to remember other books..... it's been a long time since I last held a book in my hands.

[zer"0"]

I love reading Gene Wolfe. He has a very poetic, twist of the language.

You just feel as if you are there, the sounds, the smell, everything.

It boggles the mind... sometimes, the way he writes ... How does he do it?

 

 

Some of his books :

 

 

Shadow & Claw

 

Sword & Citadel

 

The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories

 

Storeys from the Old Hotel

 

 

 

Other Great Writers:

 

 

'Cordwainer Smith

 

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith. Smith (Paul Linebarger) was one of the early SF writers who influenced a new generation. His stories take place against the backdrop of a long future history, referred to as "The Instrumentality of Mankind". While Wolfe denies having read much if any Cordwainer Smith, I feel those who would appreciate Wolfe would also appreciate Smith.

Norstrilia. Smiths only novel, set on the planet Old North Austraila ("norstrillia").

 

Jack Vance

 

Tales of the Dying Earth (set far in the future, in a world of decadence and magic) was inspiration for Wolfe's New Sun series. Fortunately this series is now back in print in a collection forthcoming in September.

Night Lamp. Set on the decadent world of Fader, whose inhabitants only pursue leisure with a genetic slave class to do their labor. The planet's inhabitants are paralyzed by lack of will in the face of many dangers. Vance developed his own alien vocabulary whose meaning words emerges as the story unfolds.

Ports of Call Space opera of interstellar exploration.

 

Lord Dunsany

 

The Complete Pegana One of the progenitors of twentieth century fantasy, he influenced H.P. Lovecraft and many others. Pegana was Dunsany's cycle of stories of mysterious other gods who care little for what worship they receive. The language has wonderful legendary quality to it.

 

Neil Gaiman

 

The Sandman. A wonderful comic books series, 75 issues, now collected into editions. The series is about Morpheus, the Lord of Dream, and his siblings, The Endless (all told, Dream, Death, Destiny, Desire, Delerium, and Despair). A modern fantasy rich in legendary allusions and imagery.'

[Amentep]

Wow a lot of stuff I likes already been mentioned (Hammet, Melville, PKD, Gaiman, Poe and such)

 

I've always been fond of H. P. Lovecraft's work. I'm a huge fan of Barry Hughart's Master Li novels (Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, Eight Skilled Gentlemen). Shirley Jackson is another author I'm pretty fond of (loved both The Haunting and We Have Always Lived in the Castle). I'm also pretty fond of the novels and short stories of Joe R. Lansdale, which all tend to be horror and crime type stuff, but well done with a twisted sense of humour.

 

"Comic book" wise, the works of Alan Moore, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Leiji Matsumoto are all highly recommended by me; I think those three are probably the best 'current' comic book writers out there.

[Finger of Death]

仙剑奇侠传 and 天龙八部 by 金庸

In last week,I buy a novel in a second-hand book market, Typhoon by Joseph Mark,is it good?