Favorite Authors

[filkertom]

Branching off the previous posts, who are your favorite authors? The criterion here is body-of-work, not just one or two books. Mine would be J. R. R. Tolkien, Lois McMaster Bujold, Isaac Asimov, and Harlan Ellison. I also have great fondness for Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Larry Niven, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Ursula K. LeGuin, Stephen King, Jules Verne (interestingly, at least to me, for Around The World In Eighty Days more than any of his other books), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Dr. Seuss.

I really wish I could add J. K. Rowling and Spider Robinson, but I have too many problems with too much of their work. I consider both to be excellent storytellers, but not really very good writers, if you catch the distinction.

Have at.

ETA: I'm such a doof. Thanks to djonn for mentioning the 800-lb. gorilla, Wm. Shakespeare. Although it's a touch iffy, as he was a playwright and poet, not a novelist, there are so many stories and story elements that either come from him or were first and best distilled by him that there's no way to avoid him, and why would you want to in the first place?

Comments

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

There are so many authors I love! I want to speak up for Kage Baker, though. How is she not more popular?

[vulpine137.livejournal.com]

I read 'Sky Coyote' by her, but while I remember liking it, I didn't like it enough to really want to find the rest of her books.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Douglas Adams, Robert A. Heinlein, Lewis Carroll, J. K. Rowling.

[vulpine137.livejournal.com]

Favorites: HP Lovecraft, Robert Howard, Richard Tierney, Lawrence Sanders, Charles Stross, Brian Lumley, Anne Mccaffrey and Katherine Kurtz (I credit the last two with keeping me sane(ish) during my early teens)

Fondness: John Zakour, C.J. Henderson, F. Paul Wilson, Terry Pratchett, Steven Saylor, Nick Pollotta, Lynda S. Robinson, and many more I can't think of off the top of my head.

I agree with you on Rowling, I love the world she's created, I cannot stand her writing style. 1 1/3rd books is all I could get though. I love the movies though. One of the rare times I like the movies better than the books.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Favorite Rowling movie moment: The woman seeing Prisoner of Azkaban for the first time, hadn't read the book, who paused the movie 1/3 of the way in in order to ask:

"Let me get this straight. His name is Romulus Remus Lupine, and neither we nor all the wizards at Hogwarts are supposed to have guessed yet that he's the werewolf?"

(Later on, she would say, "Good Lord! Fangus Wolfenstein--you were the werewolf all along!", and "I'm not sure yet, but I think Drinky McBlood might be a vampire...")

[devospice.livejournal.com]

I'm a slow reader, so reading anything for me is a bit of a chore. To that end I haven't read a whole book in years and the books I do read tend to be reference and instructional books. I think the last one I read was about running an independent record label.

However, I do have a favorite sci-fi/horror author. I've never read any of his books, but I've listened to three of them in audiobook format while driving back and forth to various conventions. His name is Scott Sigler. The books I listened to were Ancestor, Infected, and Earthcore. They were all excellent.

http://www.scottsigler.com

->Later.....Spice

[sdelmonte]

My sacred three are Stephen King, Terry Pratchett and Donald Westlake.

The next tier includes Bujold, Tolkien, Asimov, Phillip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, and Colin Dexter.

[arucartoonguy.livejournal.com]

John Scalzi is at the top of my list. I'm re-reading his books before Xmas. Good Sci-fi with a sense of humor. He has a great blog over at http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/ and even a free book online called Agent to the Stars.

I used to like Harry Turtledove and the fantasy and alternate history. However, my brother completely ruined him for me by pointing out a "tic" of his writing that now makes all of his work unreadable. I won't mention it here (unless someone asks) but it's kind of like having the poems of Emily Dickinson ruined for you when you learn they can all be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas"...

Emily Dickinson

[signy1.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. When I found out that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, when read in the original, scans perfectly to Billy Joel's 'For the Longest Time' I thought it only improved the poem.

Of course, it kind of says something about the circles in which I move that this immediately became a party trick.

[controuble.livejournal.com]

The authors I am willing to pay hardcover prices for: Mercedes Lackey, James Michner, Tom Clancy, Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I collect a lot more than these, but these are probably my favorites.

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

One of Mercedes Lackey's books had SO many typos in it, I wanted to scream. I realize it was a publishing issue -- it had "We!!" instead of "Well," which seems like a scanning problem -- but I have a hard time reading her books now.

[jbacardi.livejournal.com]

Tom Robbins, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, William Gibson, Mark Helprin come immediately to mind.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Good Lord, did I forget Tom Robbins on my list? Dangit, I moved to the Pacific Northwest because of his books! Ken Kesey and Ernest Callenbach, too!

Man, it's been too long. I gotto get back to some of my old favorites.

[mimiheart.livejournal.com]

Ray Bradbury, Peter David (his books were my favorite for a very long time, even if he isn't "classic"), Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and Edgar Allen Poe are all up there. Dr. Suess will always hold a special place in my heart, along with whoever wrote the Berenstain Bears.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

That would be Stan and Jan Berenstain.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Charles DeLint. I've adored just about everything of his that I've ever read, and it's what I come back to for re-reading when I need comfort.

Christopher Moore. Completely different style, but he manages the balance of humor and literature better than anyone else I've found.

Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison are near the top of the list, too - I haven't read all of their work, and I try to take it in small bites like extra-dark chocolate, but it's rich and vivid and I just want to wrap the words around myself like a fur coat and roll around in them....

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Yay for Christopher Moore! I went to one of his booksignings once.

[jss]

My faves tend to be genre-dependent. Definitely Isaac Asimov is up there (more for his early and mid career work), but so's Agatha Christie (yes, she's formulaic at times, but it's still a great body of work) — but it's unlikely anyone'll think of the latter as a science fiction author.

I can't find fault with any of your first- and second-tier authors or commentary. I'm waffling as to whether I'd include Heinlein on my second-tier; when he's good he's very good, but there's some of his stuff that's just plain painful to read.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Doesn't have to be SF. That's specifically why I have Twain, Poe, Doyle, and Seuss on the list.

Authors

[varseth.livejournal.com]

Hmmm,
Ray Bradbury
Terry Brooks
David Eddings
Andre Norton (Year of the Unicorn!!!)
Dean Koontz
Charles De Lint (Jilly Capricorn!!!)
Christopher Moore
Chris Claremont
L. Sprague & Catherine Crook de Camp
Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (I really miss him. Rest in peace my friend)
Myranda Kalis (WoD Vampire: the Masqurade & the Dark Ages) (I would be flogged in I did not putt he Mrs. in my favorites, but i really do enjoy her writing.)

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

Madeline L'Engle
Ursula K. LeGuin
Robert Heinlein
John M. Ford

[orlacarey.livejournal.com]

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, JD Robb/Nora Roberts

[bruinson.livejournal.com]

David Gemmell, David Weber, David Drake, John Ringo, Terry Prachett. Lots of action and some comedy pretty well sums up what I like.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

>>I really wish I could add J. K. Rowling and Spider Robinson, but I have too many problems with too much of their work. I consider both to be excellent storytellers, but not really very good writers, if you catch the distinction.<<

Sorry, I don't catch it. Splainy? If you're gonna diss the Spider, one of my all-time fave authors, at least tell us why.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I can read Spider's stuff like salty, buttery popcorn. Love love love to read it. Fantastic characters. Seriously, how could anyone not want to see a movie starring John Goodman as Callahan, Billy Joel as Fast Eddie, Ryan Stiles as Long Drink, and Charles Durning as Doc Webster? (I'm never sure who I want to play Jake.)

And one day, I suddenly thought about the common thread of the Callahan/Lady Sally books: Everybody is a polymath, and everything is an astonishing series of coincidences that they just happen to intuit. I mean, really: How many commando/philosopher/punster/sex artist/logicians who can quote Lord Buckley and who know each other's favorite coffee do you really expect to find on one planet, let alone one bar? Lady Slings the Booze and Callahan's Key are particularly noxious about it, even though I adore the description of the trip down to Florida in the latter.

And there are so, so, so many instances where these people act like absolute braindead morons or stupid shit happens, all because Spider thought it would make a good bit or a good line or a good pun. The Doonesbury pun delivered by Tony Donuts was excruciating not because of the pun but because of the ridiculous set-up. The food fight in one of the stories in Callahan's Lady. Tanya Lattimer gut-punching Jake because Jake said "Hit me" when he wanted their travel itinerary. Jake saying "Hit me" when he wanted a travel itinerary. The entire fucking world pretty much accepting Erin at face. The goddamn swearing parrot, which for all I know may be real but who cares? Everybody's reactions to a gazillion things, large and small. Jake figuring out the plan to hide Erin on the shuttle, and then drawing it out for pages and pages. His tendency to have people figure out the plan and then make the reader (by way of a character who's a little slow) go through the exact correct steps every time to figure it out, which doesn't involve me as a reader so much as insult me by throwing his other characters' obvious superiority in my face because they can of course figure out whatever bullshit he came up with.

Spider has these fantastic characters, and, just like JKR, puts them through the paces his story wants, rather than telling their own stories. And I know that sounds insane but it is easier for me to accept a pooka and a cluirichane than it is to accept Jake sticking his middle finger into a cop's gun barrel. Bulletproof or no, that's just stupid. Intuiting the existence of someone putting nuclear mines in the New York City water system starting from the sole fact of We Haven't Had World War III Yet... oy.

Jim Omar. Jeeeezus. Way more than an immortal Nikola Tesla, Jim Omar is a character who might as well have "I'M SUCH A PLOT DEVICE" tattooed on his perky pectorals. Same with Double Bill, except the tattoo would read "SPIDER HAS SOME OSTENSIBLY CLEVER LINES HE'D LIKE ME TO DELIVER". Lots of his characters have that tattoo. Those characters are also there to react with awe (but not disbelief and with all-too-ready acceptance) because Spider's thrown so much weird shit at the regulars that nothing's too much any more. It's like Arkham Asylum with a cash bar and a band. And fewer sociopaths, but nearly as many people perfectly ready to kill if necessary.

Coincidence and weirdness, sure. Of course. But when everybody is weird and everything is a coincidence, it gets a little much. Especially when Spider is determined to put in all that theoretical hard science to justify it.

Thing is, his characters can sell his plots. Almost. But only almost. Munchhausen, Jake ain't.

Your mileage may vary.

[briansiano.livejournal.com]

Harlan Ellison, Thomas Pynchon, Patrick O'Brian, James Ellroy, Donald E. Westlake, Neil Gaiman, Vladimir Nabokov, Alan Moore, Laurie King, George MacDonald Fraser, P.G. Wodehouse... probably a few others I'm forgetting.

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

That's one of the scariest questions I've ever seen!

For getting me started: Ray Bradbury
For upping the ante: J.R.R. Tolkien
For changing how I think: Phil Dick
For appreciation of style: Gene Wolfe
For keeping me thinking: Tim Powers

Also deserving among those not yet mentioned: Robert Sheckley, R.A. Lafferty, John Collier.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Geesh, this is not easy. If you look at my bookshelf, you will see that I used to do a LOT of reading. Less so now due to lack of time (I've replaced my nightly reading time with socializing on irc while listening to Dementia Radio, so I actually have some human contact now when not physically at work).

I loved early Stephen King, but lost my taste for him in his more recent years.

Douglas Adams is manditory.

The only Robert Aspen I read is Myth Adventures, so he is disqualified due to your rules above (I don't read anything of him outside of that series).

Spider Robinson is definately on my list, and yes I do like more than just his Callahan's Place books (although I have not read all of his work yet).

And I have yet to go wrong reading any book by Issac Asimov that I put my hands on (he combined my love of mysteries with sci-fi in a way no one else has, and his sci-fi stories do not feel dated even 50 years after they were written).

Beyond that, I read only specific books from authors, not bodies of work by them. And I am sure that I have forgotten authors here; I am doing this post off the top of my head while at work, and thus no access to my bookshelf for a reminder of who else I have read a lot of.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

DOH!! I forgot to mention Raymond E. Feist. I knew someone I read a lot of books by would slip through the cracks of my work-addled brain when I made my first post.

[greenmansgrove.livejournal.com]

I'd have to agree with Tom on Lois McMaster Bujold, though I haven't read her most recent stuff. I also own everything that I can find by Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt. On a different note, Guy Gavriel Kay only gets better with newer books, and I'd kill for a new Barry Hughart novel, even if it's not in the Bridge of Birds world.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

I'd kill for a new Barry Hughart novel, even if it's not in the Bridge of Birds world.

Has he done anything since those three novels? Back when I hit used bookstores a bit more regularly I made a point of buying extra copies of those books just to give away.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Faves (I will buy in hardcover): Lois McMaster-Bujold, Terry Pratchett, CJC's "Foriegner" series.

Like: Arthur C. Clarke, RAH's old juvies, Larry Niven, Hal Clement, Jules Verne.

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, boy...

Hrm...

Hard question.

Okay, here's my off the cuff list of authors that I go for when I'm too tired to pick up something new.

Robert Heinlein
Anne McCaffrey
Jacqueline Carey
Spider Robinson
Anne Bishop
C.S Lewis
L. Frank Baum
A.A Milne
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Diane Duane
CL Moore
Tamora Pierce

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Darn, I thought I was going to get to mention Diane first. :-)

From Stealing the Elf-King's Roses:

Once such manifestations had taken much more work. In ancient Greece, men had compelled Justice's presence by sheer weight of numbers. As technique improved, the Romans and Byzantines managed it with tribunals of fifty, and medieval Europe with only "twelve good men and true." In this country, most jurisdictions kept the jury as a check on the judiciary process. But you really only needed two or three properly trained people, these days -- the two advocates, and the magistrate who maintained the structure which compelled the Power's attention. Once you had Justice's attention, everything else happened very quickly indeed.

[n-e-star.livejournal.com]

C.S. Lewis

Even his textbook on allegory is a captivating read.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, and Madeleine L'Engle are my classic trinity, though I'd say LeGuin rates right up there. Currently, I'd rate Greg Egan, Bruce Sterling, Charles Stross, Lois McMaster Bujold, Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman, Tim Powers, and Lawrence Block.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

I was hoping someone else would mention Peter S. Beagle before I did! And yes, I was one of those legions that for the longest time had only read "The Last Unicorn" and nothing else, but after meeting him at A-Kon 2007 (and again at Archon/NASFiC/TuckerCon 2007), I picked up two collections of his short stories and promptly devoured all of them too. I'm waiting for him to re-release "The Innkeeper's Tale" (or whatever the title really is) 'cause he lists that as the novel of his that he goes back to when he needs encouragement - he reads it and thinks to himself "Damn, I'm good". =)

Ursula K. LeGuin is the other one at the top of my list. Yes, the Earthsea trilogy is great, but oh my gosh if you can find a copy of "Very Far Away from Anywhere Else", read it read it read it. My copy is one of the few things I would be very sad to lose. At least Emma Bull's "War for the Oaks" is still in print - I don't think VFAFAE is.

[eleri.livejournal.com]

Hmm. There's not much I won't read :) But I'll happily snatch up anything by Anne Bishop and Jacqueline Carey. I'm also fond of Andrew Greeley. Been reading SM Stirling lately, too. I can re-read McCaffrey any old time, too.

I'm a heretic, though. Can't stand RAH.