Good fantasy authors?

[Zhade]

Obviously, Rowling, but aside from her... anyone got some recommends on good fantasy authors?

(Please note I said 'good'. If you like, say, Mercedes Lackey, run don't walk from this thread.)

I've read Tolkien, Zelazny, and not much else I can remember.

[SPKrazy]

1. What Are Those Guys Who Wrote The

Left Behind series?


I'M TOTALLY KIDDING ZHADE!


:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[Zhade]

3. LOL!

It's fantasy, but I said GOOD fantasy!

:D

[SPKrazy]

6. It's Something All Right

fantasy

shitty

scary

but not good by any stretch


:evilgrin:

[Danger Mouse]

38. HEY!!!1

THE LEFT BEHDIN SERIEOS AIN"T FANTASYT IT"S HONEST FGOSPEL TRUTH YOU HEATHAN HERETICK!!!

[Writer]

2. NOT RA Salvatore.

;)

[Zhade]

7. Non-suggestion noted!

It would be okay to turn this into a why-we-hate-these-particular-hacks thread, too.

:evilgrin:

(That might be easier than listing GOOD fantasy writers. I must admit to a certain bias against the genre, based on some of its best-known writers.)

[Writer]

11. Are you looking for pulp fantasy or something a bit "different"?

If you're looking for pulp, I'd aim for David Eddings... or heck, pick up the original Dragonlance series by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. Those are fun books!

But if you're looking for something a bit more cerebral... maybe Tad Williams? There isn't enough cerebral fantasy out there, imho.

On edit: Oh wait I forgot one more author that you'd love... Christopher Stasheff!

[Zhade]

24. Anything clever. And I mean, really clever, not authors delighted by their own cleverness.

I like anyone who can surprise me with creative solutions to the problems they throw their heroes/heroines into.

Cerebral is good, very good indeed.

[LynzM]

4. Sorta fantasy...

George R.R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire"
Robin Hobb's "Liveship Traders" trilogy (plus two other trilogies whose names I can't remember right now)

:hi:

[LeftyMom]

16. Seconding Martin.

Good writing, people with depth and motivation, a world built around it's people and not the opposite, and a story that doesn't read like a novelization of somebody's D&D campaign (even though the author is a gamer.) It's a delight, especially if you've read too much bad fantasy.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. thirding Martin...anxiously awaiting release of book V

but these are wonderful books.

I also loved Robin Hobb

Farseer
Liveship
Fool

are the three trilogies. Start with Assassin's Apprentice and go on from there.

[Zhade]

27. "a world built around it's people and not the opposite"

That's an excellent way to phrase what interests me.

For myself, it's all about character first. I really fall in love with things that feel more like the author 'discovered' the world and reports on it, rather than labors on the world first and the characters third.

[LeftyMom]

36. Charachter development is really good.

At first it's a bit of a downside, because there's a huge cast and it take a while just to get everybody straight in your head and he dribbles out their personalities, backgrounds and relationships within the story rather than infodumping, but if you can make it far enough to get who's who straight you'll almost certainly enjoy the series.

Martin's kinda the anti-Tolkien. More than halfway through the series, we haven't got a complete map, an explanation of the seasons in the books or a comprehensive map. We know no more than the sum of what the people in the books know, and they don't know those things.

[uppityperson]

5. Garth Nix, Sheri Tepper, Diana Wynne Jones

[Broken_Hero]

8. A few...

John Christopher...

http://www.gnelson.demon.co.uk/tripage/jc.html

RA Salvatore

http://charon.sfsu.edu/salvatore/salvatore.html

Glen Cook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Cook

Troy Denning

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/troy-denning/

Lloyd Alexander

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Alexander

To name a few...

[Zhade]

9. Also - is Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials scifi, or fantasy?

I hear it's not at all religious, too, which is a big plus in my book.

[XemaSab]

10. It's anti-religious

The enemy is the church. :D

[LynzM]

12. Hrm...

I'd put it more towards fantasty/philosophy, myself. Good and interesting, and a fast read, too.

[Kutjara]

21. Self delete

Wrong place.

[XemaSab]

13. Check out the fantasy lit forum

There are many good authors in there. :D

[haf216]

14. Philip Jose Farmer's

Riverwold series starts really good. The first book is To your Scattered Bodies Go. I read the first two books and then got side tracked on to other books, but I did enjoy them.

Btw Zelazny is one of my favorite authors, it's good to know other have found him.

[Mythsaje]

43. I particularly liked his World of Tiers, myself...n/t

[WhollyHeretic]

15. Let's see

Phillip Pullman
http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Trilogy-Golden-Compass-Spyglass/dp/0440238609/sr=8-1/qid=1166506122/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5825737-7150530?ie=UTF8&s=books

Robert Jordan(at least the first few of the series)
http://www.amazon.com/Eye-World-Wheel-Time-Book/dp/0812511816/sr=1-3/qid=1166506298/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-5825737-7150530?ie=UTF8&s=books

There are a lot of fantasy authors who have a good first book or two and then just repeat themselves ad nauseum.

[Broken_Hero]

17. I still need to check on Robert Jordan...

I got the first novel, of his wheel in time line...but never got past page 100...other issues prevented me from finishing the book.

[WhollyHeretic]

26. It is an extremely long series

I've been reading it since I was 15(I'm 29 now) It lost it's way for a few books but the latest one was very good. The next one will be the last, though it's not due out 'till 2008.

[Broken_Hero]

30. The longer the series, the better imo...:) nt

[Zhade]

28. Oh, I totally forgot about reading Jordan's first.

I enjoyed it, a decade or so ago, but never picked up another, and heard bad things about the series as it continued.

[WhollyHeretic]

32. It definitely lost it's way for a while

The latest book was much better. I've got to finish the series, I've been reading it for almost half my life(I read Eye of the World 14 years ago)

[LeftyMom]

18. Orson Scott Card has done some good stuff.

Seventh Son is a good read. Later on in the series it gets very Mormon-y and the plot doesn't really go anyplace, but the first two books are worth the trouble, because the use of language and alternate history is well done. Once the protagonist grows up, it's less interesting, but Card is generally at his best when writing books that center on child protagonists (who are generally exceptional in some way and often outcasts- I get the feeling his was not a happy boyhood.)

[WhollyHeretic]

23. I used to love Card

Ender's Game was terrific. I've had trouble reading any of his stuff after some of the vile stuff he's said and written, especially after 9/11.

[haf216]

25. I really enjoyed

Ender's Game, but could not get into anything after that. (and that was before Card opened his mouth).

[Zhade]

29. He's a total homophobe, which of course is a problem for me!

Ender's Game *was* good - I remember being thrilled with it once I finished it - but MAN, the rest in the cycle suuuuuuuuucked.

[haf216]

34. I could only get about three chapters into

what ever the next book was. I was looking forward to it, because it was about a "street" kid and i was working at a Boys and Girls Club at the time and loved stories about those kids.

[LeftyMom]

33. Luckily, his new stuff is utter crap, so you're not missing anything.

I accidentally bought the last Bean book twice, because it was so utterly riveting (yawn) I completely forgot I already had read it.

Petra and Bean (well Bean anyhow, Petra is a non-entity other than occasional mentions of her morning sickness, for some reason) are trying to find their IVF proto-babies before somebody uses them to create a race of mutated tactical super-geniuses with which to take over the world.

Really. Peter Wiggin's a protagonist now too. No plausible explanation for his personality change.

Personally, I liked the mutated military genius story better on Star Trek, probably because Khan wasn't a navel-gazing ninny.

[jobycom]

19. Gene Wolf

His last couple of books have achieved a level only comparable to Tolkein. He's got a couple of weak earlier works (Castleview, for instance, and a couple I've forgotten), but his Knight series and his Long Sun/Short Sun series are breathtaking, IMHO. Not just brilliant storytelling, but very good writing. Not something you find much in fantasy.

[cemaphonic]

46. Yeah, Gene Wolfe was my first thought too

Almost certainly the best literary stylist in sci-fi/fantasy, and with very interesting stories and ideas too. If you like some combination of Proust, Melville, Chesterston and Nabakov you will probably like him.

[Kutjara]

22. China Mieville.

He wrote Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council. All excellent fantasy books. And China's a leftie. He ran for public office in the UK as a Socialist Worker.

Also Lian Hearn. His "Tales of the Otori" books are marvellous. The characters are drawn from the Japanese Samurai tradition, but the stories are set in an imaginary world.

[MrCoffee]

65. Seconded on the Mieville...PSS is outstanding.

[Zhade]

31. Thank you for your suggestions - I've got to get to the library!

You guys came through!

[sweetheart]

35. urusla le guin, david brin

The earthsea series had a nice charm.

There was a 6 book series i haven't read in years, and after writing this,
i've got to check out gettig another copy, just to see if i still like it.
the series of 'corum'
The knight, queen and king of the swords (?)
bull and the spear, oak and the ram, sword and the stallion (?)

David Brin had some interesting works, and 'the postman' i did not find one of them.

'imagica' and weaveworld by clive ????somebody

[Blue-Jay]

37. Clive Barker.

He's good.

[LSK]

39. Dick Cheney, George Bush, Donald Rumseld, entire crew at FOXNEWS

Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, etc etc etc

[deadparrot]

40. George R. R. Martin.

The "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

:thumbsup:

[enigmatic]

41. The Man Himself

Harlan Ellison:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison

During his peak from 1965-80 there was no better writer of Fantasy alive, IMO.

I Have No Mouth But I must Scream:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/ellison/ellison1.html

And his short story "Croatoan" might be one of the most contrversial short story in the past 40 years..

[Mythsaje]

42. Me...

And what's wrong with Misty Lackey? She pioneered urban fantasy along with Emma Bull and Tanya Huff. And the early Heralds books were good epic stuff.

But to continue... George Martin, Glen Cook, Raymond Feist, Julian May (more science-fantasy, but close enough), Anne Bishop (particularly the Black Jewels trilogy), David Eddings, Holly Lisle (though she's turned to writing suspense these days), Jennifer Roberson, Tanya Huff, Joel Rosenberg (his early Guardians of the Flame books were good...after the first four...not so much).

Need more?

On edit: Saberhagen, Gael Baudino.

[BikeWriter]

44. Excuse me. I like a number of good fantasy authors, including...

me, but I'm still editing...

[Mythsaje]

45. What kind of fantasy, precisely?

Epic, heroic, urban, high?

Do you want something unique or something that's obviously incestuous and cannabalistic repetition of so many successful models before it? More pseudo-medieval sword-swinging nonsense, or something different?

Check out Anne Bishop's Black Jewels, and Glen Cook's Black Company. I'd recommend the Bishop first, if only because I think it's one of the most original pieces of fantasy fiction in decades. Everyone I've loaned the first book to has gone out and bought the whole series before even finishing the first book. If that tells you anything.

[BreweryYardRat]

47. Recommending Martin. Yet again.

The man is a writing GOD. Also try and hunt up some of his earlier stuff. Fevre Dream and the Nightflyers anthology are excellent.

And Lackey's early stuff isn't that bad...I'm half-wondering if she took a knock on the head that resulted in the current pap.

[pokerfan]

48. Larry Niven wrote some good fantasy

though he's mostly known as a hard SF writer. "The Magic Goes Away," "The Flight of the Horse," etc. But what is fantasy? As Arthur C. Clarke wrote, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

My question is, did Tolkien break the fantasy mold with LOTR?

I mean, what does it take to equal him? First graduate from Oxford with a first in English Language. Then serve in the War to End all War (postumously titled the First World War, then write for the OED, then become a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, write the quintessestial disection of Beowolf and then create half a dozen completely believable artificial languages for his novels. The mind boggles.

I've tried, but I just can't get into other fantasy nocels/series. Tolkien remains pretty much the only fantasy novel I've ever embraced.

[Omphaloskepsis]

49. C.S Lewis

The Space Trilogy.

[melliyna]

50. Some Recommendations

Terry Pratchett is brilliance personified as is Neil Gaiman. Get them together and you get Good Omens which is a truly glorious book. I'm also very in to historical fantasy right now particularly Naomi Novik and her Temeraire series. I'm also very fond of Jacqueline Carey (although a fair warning she isn't to everyones taste) and Diana Wynne Jones.

[China_cat]

51. Octavia Butler

[China_cat]

52. Octavia Butler

[Guava Jelly]

53. Coulter, Hannity..etc

oh wait they are bad fantasy writers :7
Or is it they are just living in one .

[buddhamama]

54. George R.R. Martin

read his A Song of Ice and Fire series, you will not be disappointed.

Also, Robin Hobbs' Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy and The Tawney Man Trilogy (the three trilogies are related)

[China_cat]

55. Forgot to mention Connie Willis

[Lyric]

56. I am a HUGE fantasy lover.

Here are a list of the authors who live on my bookshelf:

Anne Bishop: Get the Black Jewels trilogy, "Daughter of the Blood", "Heir to the Shadows", "Queen of the Darkness". This is just damned good storytelling, with very character-centered writing.

George R. R. Martin: Unbelievably good writing, probably the best modern fantasy writer out there. Mr. Martin is not obsessed with coddling his main characters, like many other fantasy authors. He has no qualms about making them suffer and/or die, no matter how prominent their role is, so the story stays fresh and unpredictable. You really never know what's going to happen next. His world is vast, but he doesn't get overly-narrative about the scenery.

Laura Resnick: The books to get are "In Legend Born", "The White Dragon", and "The Destroyer Goddess".

Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Mists of Avalon. A fantasy classic, and a must for anyone interested in hearing the Artherian legends from a female/Pagan perspective. One of my all-time favorites.

Mercedes Lackey: Hate her if you wish, but I love most of her novels. The Valdemar books aren't deep and introspective; they don't have to be. They are simply good storytelling, without pretensions of being otherwise. Recommended: the "Arrows of the Queen" series, and the "Winds of Fate/Change/Fury" series.

Neil Gaiman: "American Gods", "Anansi Boys", "Neverwhere", and "Good Omens" (co-written by Terry Pratchett) are all worth your time. I originally fell in love with Gaiman's "Sandman" comics, but his novels are outstanding too.

Clive Barker: Some of his books are more horror than fantasy, but all have elements of fantasy within them. My favorites are "Galilee", "Imajica", "Weaveworld", and "Everville".

Robert Jordan: Starting his "Wheel of Time" series is a monumental time commitment, but well-worth it in my opinion. I recently heard that he's seriously ill, and might not make it long enough to finish the story. I sincerely hope that isn't true, because I think my head will explode if I am left to never know what happens to Rand, Nynaeve, Egwene, and Mat.

I also love Christopher Paolini's "Eragon" series, and of course the "Harry Potter" series. Tolkien goes without saying, as does C.S. Lewis.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

57. Robin Hobb & Phillip Pullman

Robin Hobb -- start with Assassin's Apprentice, the first book of the Farseer Trilogy and work chronologically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hobb#As_Robin_Hobb

Phillip Pullman -- the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy which begins with Northern Lights (renamed The Golden Compass for Americans).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_dark_materials

[buddhamama]

58. agreed on the Farseer Trilogy

i listed Hobb in my post too. :thumbsup: :)

[DontBlameMe]

59. L.E. Modessitt

Saga of Recluce, Spellweaver series and his current one, Legends I think it's called, are all good. He also does some pretty decent SF stuff.

[Rabrrrrrr]

60. David Eddings. And if you want different, C.S Friedman's "Coldfire" trilogy.

Goddamned brilliant, that latter one - one of the coolest, most original, fantasy series I've read with very full-rounded characters who actually grow and learn, and a setting that is unique in the world of fantasy writing.

I can't recommend it enough.

[Bridget Burke]

61. Tim Powers & Greg Keyes (plus an Old Master)

Tim Powers writes contemporary fantasy; Last Call is the first in a trilogy, although he usually writes stand-alones. His historical fantasy is even better; On Stranger Tides & The Anubis Gate are good places to start.

Greg Keyes has written some quite original fantasy series; good remedies for those who are sick of Tolkien wanna-be's. "The Age of Unreason" is set in the late 17th & early 18th centuries; historical & fictional characters make their way through the aftermath of a world damaged by a comet fall. Magic is real. "The Kingdom of Thorn & Bone" uses a planet with earth-like cultures & aliens; could it be science fiction? Be warned: the last volume in the latter series remains to be published.

Have you read Fritz Leiber's Ffahrd & Grey Mouser stories? Leiber invented the term "swords & sorcery"--but his heroes were far more interesting than the muscle-bound oafs encountered in too much of that genre. He also wrote urban fantasy that borders on horror. (As well as excellent science fiction, of course.)

[newportdadde]

62. Robert Jordan(first 4 Wheel of Time), Robin Hobb, Modesitt

[cemaphonic]

63. No Fritz Leiber yet?

The Lankhmar books are the best-written pulp this side of Hammett and Chandler (except for the last couple - avoid them), and he has written a number of interesting modern fantasy (Conjure, Wife and Our Lady of Darkness) and horror novels as well.

I would say that he is almost as influential to the post-60s fantasy genre as Tolkien, and more entertaining to read.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

64. Agreed on that.

[mike_c]

66. has no one recommended China Mieville yet...?

I don't read much mainstream fantasy genre, I mean dragons and knights and wizards type stuff-- I'm more of a genuine SF fan. But Mieville's work is AWESOME fantasy. Highly recommended!

on edit-- oops, just found the rec up-thread. Consider this an additional endorsement.

[dropkickpa]

67. Melanie Rawn, Barbara Hambly, and for silliness

There's always Robert Aspirin (my favorite is the Time Scout series) or Terry Pratchett, both of whom I really like.