Favorite fantasy authors

[scem0]

Here are some of my favs:
1) Terry Brooks
2) Terry Goodkind


Honorable mentions:

Melanie Rawn, Ursula K. Leguin, Storm Constantine, Elizabeth Haydon.


Right now I am reading the 4th book in the wit'ch war Saga by
James Clemens. He isn't a very good author, but he has improved
a lot from the 1st book, and I started the 1st book, and it would
be annoying if I didn't finish the series. It's like bags of chips, once
you start you can't stop.


Oh, and I might as well write why I didn't put JRR Tolkien. His
books are BORING . I could barely read the whole Lord
of the Rings series because I kept falling asleep halfway through
the chapters. I mean, he starts going off into pointless topics such
as the lineage of the kings of Kalimbor, and how they came to the
elvin forest of Llorithaine (I made all that up BTW). I just think
that his books aren't that great.

Now is when everyone is gunna start saying dune over and over.
Everyone loves dune, but I haven't read it.

And just to add this for those who have read both Terry Brooks
and RA Salvatore:

Who is better? I am adding this to settle an old altercation. It
seemed like it fit the topic.

I think that's it. Let the discussions begin:

[strider42]

personally, i hate fantasy. as a genre I think its garbage (I actually think most of anything that can fit nicely within a genre is probably garbage. of course there are exceptions to that, I'm making a gross generalization). I've read a few that were OK. Ursula K.Lenguin was good, david eddings was interesting for a while. All of them pale to Tolkien. I'm not one of those people who's going to dress up to go see the movies, but I've always been a huge fan of those books. They aren't boring at all, though I can see how they wouldn't appeal to some. They are beautifully written, and actually have a purpose and depth rather than just being escapist fantasies: they are an exploration of mythology and linguistics and very complicated themes. The world is much richer and detailed than anything anyone else has done (if you've read the silmarillion and other books released after his death, you'll see what I mean). I think I like Tolkein so much because I was an English major, and his books were deeper and better written than most of the "classis" i read. You should give them another shot and ignore the hype and silly people that surround it.

[springscansing]

Spymac count? (kidding)

[scem0]

lol, that was a good one :D. No, I'm afraid it doesnt, anymore, but
it used to. THey have gotten better (A little ;)). My friend really
likes David Eddings.

Tolkien's world is really complex. But when he tries to explain
all that complexity, I start to fall asleep. But he does write beautifully
when writing interesting stuff.

[jelloshotsrule]

i'm a big fan of c.s. lewis

only real fantasy he's written is the chronicles of narnia series. but they are great... easy to read, yet deep and such.

tolkien's great too. though i'd rather see the movies and/or hear the books on tape... just hard to read allll that stuff.

[scem0]

and boring :D:D:D:D

[dnte42]

Check out Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I would say those are right on par with Tolkien's books, although it is hard to compare them. This is a very epic series (soon to be ten books, more to come I believe). There is an enormous depth to the world and the histories and peoples, and the characters are wonderful. Not for everyone's attention span, but they are some of the best books I have ever read.

[arn]

c'mon - no Weis and Hickman?

Dragonlance?

arn

[rainman::|:|]

i don't read much fantasy, because i tend to lose myself in books, i think the genre is too dangerous for me. but i am a huge dark tower (King) junkie, which is kind of fantasy, and there's one fantasy book i read that i absolutely loved but CANNOT find again... it's simply called Fantasy: Illusion (or perhaps the words are transposed but i dont think so)... it's so cool, it parallels the French revolution through the classes of people; the Exalted, who can perform magic, but have let themselves become powerless through overindulgence and laziness, and the common people, who live in unspeakable conditions. i think despite the length of the book, it would be a good way to get people interested in history... i'm amazed no history teachers i've spoken to know what it is...

[edit] Okay i found it, it's called Illusion by Paula Volsky... and it goes on my christmas list :)

Oh, and of course i read and liked very much the LOTR series... but that's too cliché to count...

:)
pnw

[howard]

I'm also a big fan of Tolkien. I read those books a long long time ago before the movies were even thought about and i loved them. I just started on some ursula leguin and i am enjoying it, though the worlds arn't as deep. I also read a lot of books out of the wheel of time series by robert jordan. I liked them but it got to much for me, the characters were very in depth and done extremely well but the plot was so drawn out ...another series i read was the death gate cycle by margaret weis and tracy hickman. i definintly enjoyed that..though it was a long time ago that i read them it seems.

[MacAztec]

The two best books i have ever read, I reccomend them to anyone. Especially to people who are into technology (like myself)

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card

AWESOME BOOKS. Just read the first 20 pages and trust me, you will not put it down.

[scem0]

I definitely wanna read orson scott card, but I have so many series
I am a part of right now, absolutely no time. I wish that wasn't
the case.

As for Weis and Hickman - my friend read dragonlance and he
either really hated it or really liked it, I forgot which, Ill have to ask
him. Im almost done with that James Clemens book, and then I
am going to read Pillars of Creation by Terry Goodkind, who
is such a good author, I love his books. But I wouldn't recommend
them to young'uns, being that they are very - well - graphic. But
everyone go pick up Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodind. He is
such a good author, and anyone is sure to enjoy his books.

And If you haven't read terry brooks then go pick that up too.
THey are realyl good. Brooks isn't as good of an author as terry
goodkind, but he is close to him, but I like his books better because
I enjoy his world, and his plots better. But get 'The Sword of
SHannara' by Terry Brooks, and then read 'The Elfstones of
Shannara' even if you didn't like the sword of shannara (which I
don't see how that is possible). Many people like 'The Elfstones of
Shannara' more then 'The sword of SHannara'. Im pretty sure he
wasin High school when he wrote 'The Sword of Shannara'. I
strongly recommend reading all the history and heritage of
Shannara Series before you read Isle Witch, Antrax, and Morgawr,
which are probably my 3 favorite books. If you read the 8 or 9
shannara books you will have a much deeper and full understanding
and by the time you finish them Terry Brooks will have his next 2
or 3 books (Depending on how fast you read) out, which he is
writing right now.

Terry (Brooks) has 3 series (all good):
Shannara - extremely good, read it!
Landover - Not nearly as good, but still good. Very childish. If
you like Harry Potter, read this.
Word and VOid - Many like this more then Shannara, to me it is
right between shannara and Landover. One of the
few fantasy books that take place in modern times.


And as a side not - read Harry Potter if you haven't already. They
really aren't totally meant for children. Well, I am 15 and I think
they are pretty good. Well worth reading if you have the time.

[scem0]

Back again, but this time I have a warning:

DO NOT READ KRISTEN BRITTAIN
I got 3/4 of the way through 'Green Rider', which was full of
horrible, horrible writing, and then guess what? 50 pages were
gone! Yes, gone! It went from page 300 to page 250 all the way
to 300 and then directly to 350. So I had no clue what the hell
happened (I didn't have pages 300 through 350 :( :( :()
when I looked on page 350. SO there was this publishing error,
but that wasn't the worst of it. She couldn't write at all!

Let me give you an example of her writing:

--
The crab-creature leapt towards the horse. It reached towards
the petrified horse. It grabbed the horses leg in its gaping mouth.

"Noooooooooo!!!!! Horse!"

The horse was getting hurt! [NO ****]
--

Well, I didn't dig up the book just to take out a quote, so I wrote
that out of my head. But there was a crab-creature, and a horse
called 'horse', who was saved by an eagle. OMG, that was the
worst book I have ever read. DON'T READ IT!!!!!

[lmasanti]

I like very much several books of Ursula K. LeGuin:

The Earthsea Trilogy (4 --soon to be 6-- books)
The Word for world is Forest (The best metaphor of how the conquest of Amerrica has could be quite different)
Th Dispossessed (a metaphor about a different ending for the Cold War)

I like fantasy because it let you go into a credible world in which to analyze "idas" from another point of view or without prejuice.

[howard]

Originally posted by MacAztec
The two best books i have ever read, I reccomend them to anyone. Especially to people who are into technology (like myself)

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card

AWESOME BOOKS. Just read the first 20 pages and trust me, you will not put it down.

omg i totally forgot to mention those, i agree they are the BEST...but don't forget the rest in the series...speaker for the dead and xenocide.

[krossfyter]

JR Tolkein and CS Lewis


enders game is pretty cool.

[Durandal7]

JRR Tolkien and Frank Herbert

[diorio]

J.R Tolkien can be a bit dry, but he is still one of my favorite authors. Frank Herbert is an excellent author. Never read Terry Brooks. R.A. Salvatore is an excellent author from what I read in Vector Prime, the first of a new Star Wars book series (though it kind of pissed me off that he killed Chewbacca). I haven't read C.S Lewis in a while so I don't know.

[krossfyter]

JR Tolkein and CS Lewis were in a literary group together called "The Inklings".. among them were other popular authors. They would get together and sharpen each others skills.... crique each other.. spin off ideas... etc. etc.


JR Tolkein lead CS Lewis to Christ.


Pretty cool.

[diorio]

Oh, I forgot J.K. Rowling. She is an excellent author, even if good ol' James Dobson thinks her books have subliminal satanic messages in them.

[scem0]

Originally posted by diorio
J.R Tolkien can be a bit dry, but he is still one of my favorite authors. Frank Herbert is an excellent author. Never read Terry Brooks. R.A. Salvatore is an excellent author from what I read in Vector Prime, the first of a new Star Wars book series (though it kind of pissed me off that he killed Chewbacca). I haven't read C.S Lewis in a while so I don't know.

May I ask why you don't like Terry Brooks? I have no problem with
you not liking him, I just have to wonder how someone could tell
others not to read his book. You didn't just read the Landover
series or something, did you? Becasue those books do not do
give Brooks a good name, I'm afraid.

[bousozoku]

Terry Brooks, author of THE VOYAGE OF THE JERLE SHANNARA: MORGAWR chats
on iVillage (http://www.ivillage.com/chat/) on Thursday, December 5 at
10:00 pm EST

Thought that you people might want to know. :)

[diorio]

Originally posted by scem0


May I ask why you don't like Terry Brooks? I have no problem with
you not liking him, I just have to wonder how someone could tell
others not to read his book. You didn't just read the Landover
series or something, did you? Becasue those books do not do
give Brooks a good name, I'm afraid.

I never said I didn't like terry Brooks, I said I'd never read terry brooks.;)

[Taft]

Originally posted by paulwhannel
...
but i am a huge dark tower (King) junkie, which is kind of fantasy,
...

I'm with you on the Dark Tower books. I'm quivering with excitement for the upcoming releases. Have you read the forward to the Wolves of Calla? That got me really excited for the new books.

And I think they count as fantasy. They are pretty out there.

Like most people, I'm also a fan of the LOTR books. I've read them a few times, mostly back when I was in high school countless (7-8?) years ago.

Other than that, I'm not a huge fan of fantasy overall.

Taft

[BenderBot1138]

Well my tastes have changed over the years for sure... like most of you (or at least 50 percent I think) Hugh Hefner was probably my favorite author... but lately I've been reading Ray Bradubury.

:cool:

[diorio]

Originally posted by BenderBot1138
Well my tastes have changed over the years for sure... like most of you (or at least 50 percent I think) Hugh Hefner was probably my favorite author... but lately I've been reading Ray Bradubury.

:cool:

Did you know that Ray Bradbury wrote stories for Playboy? I just found that interesting. Vanna White, Kevin Costner to name a few all started out in Playboy. Crazy.

[JupiterZen]

I find it rather strange that Terry Pratchett isn't mentioned yet. He does write some very nice fantasy IMO.

And I love Tolkien since I read LOTR in about three weeks when I was 12 (my oh my was that really 15 years ago ;) )

It was my doorway into fantasy.

[BenderBot1138]

Originally posted by diorio


Did you know that Ray Bradbury wrote stories for Playboy? I just found that interesting. Vanna White, Kevin Costner to name a few all started out in Playboy. Crazy.

That explains EVERYTHING!!! ;)

:cool:

[BenderBot1138]

I remember a story by Frank Robinson on X-1 that used the term "Muggle Juice". Imagine my surprise to find out there are a string of plagerized things that the author of Harry Potter never fessed properly up to.

I enjoy the movies, but have some bad feelings about how the Potter plagerizer got her source matterial, and then claimed it as original.

:cool:

[Spike Spiegel]

Originally posted by arn
c'mon - no Weis and Hickman?

Dragonlance?

arn
Weis and Hickman definately own. ive probably read most of the series, but for some reason, i never got around to reading any fifth age. Chronicles, Legends, and Summer Flame were all awesome though. Also, for those who haven't read them(likely) the Philip Pullman series is great(i think the series is called "his dark materials"-3 books) people tell me i should read the enders books, and i will, eventually, but right now im reading neil gaiman's American Gods, which is very interesting, followed by god omens of same author. Bradbury is great; as a kid, i loved the halloween tree, and fahrenheit 451 is fantastic. Of course Douglas Adams cant be forgotten as he is my favorite author(late). Oh, and Tolkien is awesome, even if no one in the history of human life could read the Silmarilian.
P.S. Dalamar rocks!

[BenderBot1138]

Just read Dragonlance... that is AWESOME... !!!

:cool:

[scem0]

Originally posted by diorio


I never said I didn't like terry Brooks, I said I'd never read terry brooks.;)


ahhhhh, I see. I thought you said 'never read terry brooks' when
you meant 'I have never read any terry brooks'. Sorry for the
misuderstanding ;).

Now hurry up and read One of his books. :D

[rainman::|:|]

Originally posted by Taft


I'm with you on the Dark Tower books. I'm quivering with excitement for the upcoming releases. Have you read the forward to the Wolves of Calla? That got me really excited for the new books.

And I think they count as fantasy. They are pretty out there.

i've re-read everything with a DT reference (Talisman, Black House, Insomnia) and the series when the release date for Wolves was still 2002 (dammit)... So i'm waiting as patiently as i can... 'Course we get 3 books in a very short period of time, and The Dark Tower novel, when released, will be his last :( So i guess i can wait a bit longer...

Have you read It? Do you think it's the same Turtle, the one that vomited up the universe whole and the one that guards the beam?

:)
pnw

[Spike Spiegel]

Originally posted by paulwhannel


i've re-read everything with a DT reference (Talisman, Black House, Insomnia) and the series when the release date for Wolves was still 2002 (dammit)... So i'm waiting as patiently as i can... 'Course we get 3 books in a very short period of time, and The Dark Tower novel, when released, will be his last :( So i guess i can wait a bit longer...

Have you read It? Do you think it's the same Turtle, the one that vomited up the universe whole and the one that guards the beam?

:)
pnw

are you talking about the turtle in IT, before the deadlights?

[wdlove]

C S Lewis wrote "Space Trilogy"