favorite author/book/book series
 

My favorite author would have to be Terry Pratchert, and his Discworld series. You gotta love him.

I liked the Discworld too but I think my favorite would have to be Steven Donaldson and the Unbeliever series

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

I've been diggin' on Chuck Palahniuk and Hunter S. Thompson recently

Tolkien - Lord of the Rings :) Or anything he wrote really. And thats pre-movie, I've been reading the books my whole life.

But if I had to pick a second, I'd go with Stephen R. Lawhead's The Pendragon Cycle. Combining the legends of Atlantis with Arthur, great stuff. :)

Ugh, too many great series'. I'll list a few.

The World War (and Colonization continuation) series by Harry Turtledove. His Great War books are also good.
Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey.
The Black Company by Glen Cook.

Books by Ed Greenwood, Chris Clairmont

Wizards First Rule series by Terry Goodkind
unique fantasy world well written. Awesome details

The Destroyer series by Richard Saphir and Warren Murrphy
I have ever one in mint condition 8) although they seemed better before going to the lame Eagle Brand books..

Dragonlance ... er.. Dragons of ... series ..

Doc Savage.. have the bulk books though.. but a few originals

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Did you bring your towel?

gods almost forgot.. my fav author..

Brian Lumley famous for the Necroscope series

Tolkien, of course.
Steven King's <i>The Dark Tower</i> series, although it's <b>way</b> too long between books !!
Anything by Robert Ludlum.

Other than LoTR, got to go with George R. R. Martin's current series. It isn't finished, so it runs the risk of suffering from Robert Jordan disease, but right now, it's quite good. A little gruesome, but a lot of interesting and original characters and ideas - instead of just Tolkien rehashed.

I know this might seem like EZ Readers to some, but I've been reading the the Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin since I was a kid. I've always liked that one in particular.

The DeathGate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Best fantasy series I have read, and quite possibly the best series I have ever read, period.

I highly recommend this to anyone into fantasy novels.

Dragon Wing is the first book of the series.

Yeah, I just got down with A Game OF Thrones and I thought it was excellent. It was the first book in awhile that I would read during lunch at work. I have a few other books to get through before I start A Clash of Kings.

Any of Stephen King's old books.

LOTR is a given, of course. I'm a dork and I love Harry Potter (hence the name onesnowyowl). I cannot wait for Order of the Phoenix. I'm also in love with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, and am waiting patiently for Fiery Cross to come out in trade paperback. I'm also a fan of Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear novels but I'm afraid the story has been stretched thin. Hopefully Shelters of Stone (also waiting for paperback) will be better. As for favorite authors...I'm still a dork and like romance novels...:D...So I'd have to say Nora Roberts and Jude Deveraux. Deveraux's "Velvet" series is also very good. :)

irvine welsh
chuck palahniuk
hunter thompson
jack kerouac ...

Robert Jordan, hands down. in my life, nobody holds a candle to him as he writes
The Wheel of Time. He writes _extreemly_ long handed, but you feel like you're part of all of the storylines. i could easily say 'Rand must hadd been angry, he was sweating and breathing quickly, though his wine barely sloshed a bit.' instead of 'Rand is angry?'

his storyline gets sooooooooooo engrossing and you end up with tons of conspiracy theories, laughter, surprise,
violence and more. _the books_

i've never reread a book besides the WoT series and the dark tower books by King.


I also have enjoyed Koontz, Ed Greenwood (although Making of a Mage bored me), RA Salvatore (though A Thousand Orcs wasn't very good)... Brian Lumly is great! i finished DeadSpeak and ohmygod how wonderful.

at the moment i'm reading The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. it is great once you hit 150ish page.

" I'm also in love with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, and am waiting patiently for Fiery Cross to come out in trade paperback. " i read those. it was nothing more than a glorified romance novel, lotsa sex. George R. R. Martin's series (A Song of Fire and Ice) is really good, i'm on the third book. the series is almost political fantasy, not just the usual humdrum heroic quest, which is nice, gives it a bit more of an intellectual flare. Oh, i love stuff by John Irving, it is hilarious, saddening, sickening real life stuff. and right now i'm reading "Ragtime" by E.L. Doctorow. for any Broadway buffs out there, it's the book the musical was created after. totalkly lush, lyrical writing, and subtly funny, i highly recommend it.

lloyd alexander
tom clancy
piers anthony
tolkien

David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr (about invasion by an alien ecology) is a sci-fi series worth checking out. Gerrold twists a lot of conventional genre elements around to comment on both sci-fi in general and more specific and weighty issues: A Matter for Men is partly about a soldier's sexual-identity crisis (the Chtorr are huge carnivorous pink worms--talk about your less-than-subtle symbolism); A Day for Damnation has a lot to do with religion; etc. I think the books are currently out of print, but you can find old copies at used bookstores fairly often. Plus I think they'll all be rereleased when the fifth book comes out (soon, allegedly).

The Father of Modern Fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkein, of course.

Let me also put a plug in for the old old stuff:

Read the Sherlock Holmes books as well as the Tarzan series if you never have. Damn good stuff, I'll have to read them again when my books come out of storage.

Tolkien all the way
second pic - Jean Auel (Clan of the Cave Bear)etc.
3rd pic - J. K. Rowling
4th pic--Piers Anthony

Big Pratchett fan...but my fave series author would have to be Glen Cook...the Black Company and Garret series are some of my favorite books, period.

Anything By Robert A Heinlein

In Partilcular , Stranger In A Starnge Landnd I Will Fear No Evil

Douglas Adams, Lewis Carroll or Jerome K Jerome.

1st. Robert Jordan - You become one with the world, it engrosses you with how detailed and planned out the world, it's clans, towns, people, kings and queens, warriors and soilders... just to much to list.
2nd. Chuck Palahniuk - He has such a dark and demented writing style that you can't put it down, he's funny and intelligent writer.
3rd. J. K. Rowling
Tie 4th. Tolken and Old School King

I love Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Lately, I've been reading Martin's Song of Fire & Ice series. It rocks!! Just finished A Clash of Kings and started A Storm of Swords. He plays games with the reader a lot but it makes the story even more engrossing!

Roger Zelazny's Amber series remains my all-time fave.
The Dune books by Frank Herbert.
Much of R.A. Heinlein's work.
Larry Niven's Known Space books and his others. He also has some great collaborations (Mote in God's Eye, Dream Park come to mind).
Vernor Vinge's Deepness in the Sky and Fire Upon the Deep are incredible single novels.
Brin's Uplift books.
The author's name escapes me but the Hyperion books are great.
Anything by Asimov and Clarke is usually a great read.

Sorry to ramble. :)

-- GA

Dan Simmons: Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion
ANYTHING else by Dan Simmons is great.

Harold W. Coyle, Heinlein, King, Clancy, Stephen Coonts, James Cobb

Laurie R. King, Sherlock Holmes and Mary series.

Terry Pratchett,
Discworld Rules, ive read every single one, 80)
i also liked the myth series by robert aspirin, his Fool series was good too,

-Martin's latest series is great. I won't spoil, but there is one place he is willing to go that no other author is, and it adds a whole new dimension to fiction.
-Jordan's Wheel of Time is usually phenomenal, but the last one stunk.
-I couldn't disagree more with the person who said Goodkind was unique. His books are exact dupes of Jordan's series, but he started writing them 3-4 years after. I quit reading them after book 3.
-Alexander, Asimov, Tolkien, all great. Gaiman's "American Gods" is great too.

But I'm going to have to go with Orson Scott Card and "Ender's Game" for my all time fave.

Btw, I'm new here, hi all!

Douglas Adams
Neil Gaimen
Robert Heinlein.
William Gibson.

Don't make me choose!!

I have to agree/disagree with alot of people already -- whatever is said about his writing, Robert Jordan's WoT series is just absolutely engrossing -- frustratingly long and slow sometimes, but it's almost like an entire history of another world, and just absolutely interesting too.

George Martin's books are also excellent, I'm just re-reading them now before i start the new one!

Terry Goodkind as well, I really enjoyed his books, but they were so...i don't know, wierd. Seemed like an RJ copy at first, then became something different. But his world -- it seems so empty and yet so complete at the same time! Ah well...

Other great books i love (in the scifi/fantasy theme we're on)
David Eddings - the Belgariad - my intro to fantasy and one of my favorites
Dave Duncan - the various Kings Blades books - great stuff
Ray Feist - the Pug series, can't remember the name
OS Card - Ender's game - my first scifi, and loved it too

The Magician Sagas - Raymond E. Fiest
The Vald Taltos Series - Steven Brust
The Drizzt DoUrden Series - RA Salvatore
The Hitchhiker's Series - Douglas Adams
The Incarnations Series - Piers Anthony
The Jack Ryan Series - Tom Clancy
The Vampire Cronicles - Anne Rice
The Belgariad Sagas - David Eddings
The Myth Seriers - Robert Asprin

I like tom clancy books and games :-)

Robert A. Heinlein was a demi-god among men.

2 dead authors- sadly, they're not producing anything new:
j.r.r. tolkien- you all know him...
p.g. wodehouse- anyone read him? i always come back to him- hilarious! (he's most famous for wooster and jeeves)

Wow, lots of people here like the same books as I do :)

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire ... both are excellent. I also liked Harry Potter and the Belgariad series.

Something that might be kind of funny to Wheel of Time fans who are a little disappointed about the pace of the last two books:
http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/jordan.winters.shtml

2 authors here...

Tolkien of course is number 1 in my mind. LOTR is fantastic, and is the only book I've read multiple times. The Simarillian was also a great look into the world Tolkien created, and of course the token Hobbit as well.

Secondly I'd have to go with Michael Crichton... Back in fourth grade I read Jurassic Park, and after that I read many other of his books. I think the only one I haven't read so far is Rising Sun. His most recent works, Timeline (movie coming out this month too) and Prey were top-notch. Even his more down to earth and dramatic "A Case of Need" was enjoyable for me.

John Sandfords' "Prey" series.
Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robbs' "In Death"series.
Jean M. Auels' "Earth Children" series.
J.K. Rowlings' "Harry Potter" series.
Terry Brooks' "Shannara" series.
Tabor Evans' "Longarm" Western series.
Louis L'Amours' "Sackett" series.
Jeffery Deavers' "Lincoln Rhyme" series.
Lillian Jackson Brauns' "The Cat Who" series.
Patricia Cornwells' "Dr. Kay Scarpetta" series.

and a whole lot mo' ;)

I don't normally read to many books (actually almost none) but when i read choke from chuck palahniuk that made him my new favorite

as far as sagas/series go...

i enjoy this as well.

and i do have to add Tolkein as well... because i grew up with his books.

Hehe, wasn't that a fucked up twisted book? I can't wait to see if it will ever become a screenplay :D

Michael Crichton is still my favorite.

However, Jeff Shaara is quickly speeding towards the front the more times I read his stuff.

I used to be a fan of the Enders Game series, but I think that with time the quality started going down. I think that Xenocide was the first stinker, and can't remember was came next, I'm not sure I finished that one. When did Card write Ender's Shadow? I read that a while back and was entertained, but not blown away.

I read a lot of Tom Clancy. I don't know, though, if my interest in his books has declined with my age and maturity, or if his talent is drying up. The Hunt For Red October and Without Remorse were awesome, but the Bear and The Dragon was like reading a Steven Segal movie- the good guys never even get dirty. I just picked up his newest book and I'll withhold judgement until I finish it.

Does anybody else feel the same way?

Damn, I think I might have killed this thread. It was cruising along, and then, bam! nothing.

OK, lets forget about Clancy and Card- has anybody read any good political or autobiographical book? If I'm going to read, then I might as well try to get smarter.

Conan The Barbarian - Robert E. Howard (orignal stories, not the pastiches)

Discworld - Terry Pratchett

Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov

HitchHiker's Guide - Douglas Adams

Xanth Series - Piers Anthony

Riverworld - Philip Jose Farmer

Anything by Heinlein

Anything by John Irving

I read a lot of the Xanth series as a kid. I loved those books...

One things I love about this is that books are too inumerable to list and too many great ones have come and gone -

Joseph Heller - Catch 22
It is the greatest piece of humor I have ever read. So black and so telling. In years past I kept a half dozen copies all over my home so I could pick one up anywhere and begin reading.

Homer - The Odyssey, The Illiad
I have a thing for the classics. And nothing is more classic than the great works of The Greek.

William Gibson - Neuromaner et al.
I am an avid fan of true Cyberpunk. Neuromancer spearheaded a genre and captured the imagination of millions. Every 'computers and people' Matrix type movie owes everything to Gibson.

Lau Tsu - Tao Te Ching
Supremely interesting. But never read just a single tranlation. It's best to read a number of translations simultaneously and compare the chapters.

Shea and Wilson - The Illuminatus Trilogy
Can you say paranoia? Also started me on a life long obsession with learning more about John Dillinger.

Wei Hui - Shanghai Baby
Just something I picked up at the library earlier this year. A tour de force for a young and modern writer.

Tristan Egolf - Lord of the Barnyard
More or less the same but I picked it up a few years ago. It's a bit massogonistic but the writing is amazing.

Herman Wouk - City Boy, The Hope, etc.
Herman Wouk came to me by way of Jimmy Buffett and 'Don't Stop the Carnival'. I've read a half dozen of his books now, and they're prime.

William Shakespear - He wrote a couple...
The incomparable bard.

Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide
A sense of humor matched by none. His passing still saddens me.

John Brunner - Stand on Zanzibar
Written in the late 60's with a twisting and serpentine manner never before and never again captured, Brunner played with so much in this. Skipping conventions of typography, the format of the novel, the rigors of linear plot. His books stars the future and not the multitude of characters who inhabit it. Sadly, I think every day how his predictions are coming to fruition.

I'll toss my vote in for Martin's "A song of Ice and Fire" series. One of the best I've ever read.

I also enjoyed the "Wheel of Time" series as well as "The Sword of Truth", but they don't hold a candle to Martin.

Dave Eggers

fav author: Easily Neal Stephenson

fav book: Snowcrash

Fav Series: Lord of the Rings trilogy or the Grand Admiral Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn... GREAT books

Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time

Raymond E. Feist, All his books.

David and Leigh Eddings: Belgarath series

Sarah Fergusons 'Budgie The Little Helicopter' serires

The Dark Tower Seriers - Stephen King

Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk.

Also Benchley and Crichton.

Anything by:

Raymond E. Fiest
Michael Crichton
Tom Clancy

Philip K. Dick or Alfred Bester

Favorite author-Chuck Palahniuk
Favorite series- Harry Potter

Lord of the Rings just didn't do it for me. I liked the Hobbit, but I was bored after reading through the Fellowship. I loved the movies, they kick ass.

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Star Wars: The New Jedi Order - Multiple Authors

Robin Cook -- the guy who wrote "Coma" -- I've read most of his books.

HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams

Jaqueline Carey- the Kushiel's trilogy
Melanie Rawn- The Dragon Prince and Dragon Star trilogies
another vote for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series

May be low-brow to some but, Grisham and any Spider-Man novel [although tthe comics are good too]...

J K Rowlings Harry Potter is excellent. She is a great author.

gotta be James Herbert. quality british horror/thriller writer

Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Tolkien)
The tsurani trilogy (Raymond Feist)
Shogun (Clavell)
Hitchhikers saga (Douglos Adams)
The Alchemist (Cant remember the author)

I'm re-reading them now in antipation of the "Wolves of Calla".

Douglas Adams.

The Hitchhiker series and the Dirk Gently series are both so incredibly clever that I have to shake my head sometimes.

Add these including. . .

Margret Wise and Tracy Hickman

Mercedes Lackey

David Gemmel

Terry Brooks

Stephen Donaldson

Despite everyone's arguments over this or that argument about what fantasy author is this and that, I don't care, these are the ones that entertain me.

JRR Tolkien, Lord of the rings. Damn.

I just recently stumbled on this one and haven't read but a third of it.
Hughart, Barry: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox
Humorous tales of a China that never was. Every page has elicited laughter, shock, or disgust. Really great stuff.

Series i would recommend:

George R.R. Martin: Song of Ice and Fire.

Robin Hobb: Farseer Trilogy
Robin Hobb: Liveship Traders
Robin Hobb: Tawny Man
All in the same universe, and all stunningly good.

Stephen R. Donaldson: Gap Series

Dan Simmons: Hyperion Cantos
Dan Simmons: Illium (first book in a series that has a LOT of potential)

"The Last Promise" by Richard Paul Evans (I really suggest this to women, especially! It's a great read.)

ANY of Maeve Binchy's books are absolutely fabulous. She is one of the best authors out there. She really draws you into the story.

Also, for women again, Judy Blume has a great book called "Summer Sisters". I'm not one to read books over but I've read this one 3 times. It's another great read.

Glen cook, The Black Company, best damn fantasy mercs in any world

Steven brust, Vlad Taltos, best damn fantasy assasin in any world

Thieves world anthologies, the best fantasy city in any world...

Oh man, you guys kick ass.....

Yes. George Martin. Robert Jordan... well... I'll be less pissed off with him when he FUCKING FINISHES THE SERIES. Don't get me wrong, love 'em, but they're dragging more than a little. Herman Hesse. Roger Zelazny. David Eddings (though he is kind of a one trick pony). I liked the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony. Heinlein. The Black Company Series. I've rambled enough, and could keep going, but it's always a pleasure to see so many people with good taste in recreational literature.

:D

The series I used to read with any consistency was Marion Zimmer Bradley's novels about the planet Darkover.

Many fabulous authors and books/series mentioned in this thread - it's nice to see another P.G. Wodehouse fan! I have read most everything he wrote - he was one of the most entertaining authors of all times.

Have you ever read the short stories by Saki (H.H. Munro)? He sometimes reminds me of a dark Wodehouse - very witty as well.

Well, I'd have to say it's a multi-way tie for authors: J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, and Richard A. Knaak. Favorite book series is a three-way tie as well, between Dragonlance, Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter.

Author? Probably Hemingway. I love his simple, powerful prose style.

Series? If you consider Lord of the Rings a series, that would be it.

For a combination of author and series, it would be either Tolkien or Arthur C. Clarke for the whole 2001 series.

-> G.K. Chesterton
-> Sherlock Holmes Stories
-> Walter Gibson and the original Shadow pulp magazine Serials. I can overlook the abysmal years from 1946-1948 when Bruce Elliott butchered the character and virtually ensured the magazine went out of business even with Walter returning to writing.

Michael and Jeff Shaara's series of Civil War books. (Michael is the father, Jeff picked up when his father died)
Michael started with the Killer Angels (of which the movie Gettysburg was based on) then Jeff takes over with Gods and Generals (sucky movie, awesome book). The Last Full Measure, and GOne for Soldiers, which moved on to the MExican American war.

He had a 2 series book on the American Revolution, and this fall he's releasing a book on the First World War....

It's a great series of books

The books themselves are well researched

First and foremost: The Dune series by Frank Herbert. I've only read the first four so far though, taking them slow and rereading them before moving on.

And under that, a tie between "The Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker's Trilogy" by Douglas Adams, the Robots/Empire/Foundation universe novels by Asimov (though I'm still knocking a few of those book sout), and the Myst books by Rand Miller (based in the universe from the game).

Also been a pretty big Michael Crighton and Tom Clancy fan.

But yeah, Dune above those.

George RR Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire
Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Trilogy
Glen Cook - Black Company
Robert Jordan - WoT

Robert K Morgan - Altered Carbon. I thought Altered Carbon was great but Broken Angels didn't live up to my expectations. Kovacs acted differently and just wasn't as cool of a character.

I enjoyed the one Prey series novel I read and am hopefully going to read some of the other books.

Dinesh D'Souza - Letters to a Young Conservative

Ernest Hemingway - For Whom The Bell Tolls - the way he writes the scences and characters is just awesome - they're so believable you'd think you were in person - you can just about smell the pine needles and cordite and you want to duck for cover when the shooting starts. Sheer brilliance. No wonder he won the Nobel prize for literature (though for the Old Man and the Sea).

my Favorite author would have to be Anne Rice,

and my favorite series she wrote is the "Vampire Chronicals" (sp)

Favourtie book = Impossible to single one out, there are so many good ones! :)

Favourite author = James Herbert (the English Dean koontz)

Favourite series = Harry Potter (the only series of books I've read!)

Not really a heavy reader, but:

Elmore Leonard-great crime dramas(big movie w/ Owen Wilson & Morgan Freeman
Dean Koontz-great murder/thriller books(movies suck)
Tolkein-Hobbit, LotR, what else needs to be said(GO!! Peter Jackson!!)
Stephen King-The Stand, Shawshank(short story, forget the name) both good movies
J.D. Salinger-Catcher in the Rye (pure greatness)
James Clavell-King Rat (heavily reccommended)

My favorite book is Son of a Hundred Kings, by Thomas B Costain.

A few books ago, I would have said Robert Jordan, but since the books started dragging around book 7 and 8, I think that series has fallen off the list. Book 9 showed a lot of promise for the series getting good again but book 10 went back to the same old song and dance. Since book 10 was a borderline excruciating read, the entire series falls off the list.

Wheel of Time (books 1-6) - Rober Jordan
Sword of Truth - Terry Goodkind
The Drizzt Do 'Urden series - R.A. Salvatore
The Belgariad and The Mallorean - David Eddings

Don't worry, I'm getting to George R.R. Martin very soon. I've heard way to many good things about it to ignore it any longer.

I grew up on Grisham and R.L. Stine, but now I mostly read Chuck Palahniuk.

I'd say the last actual series I read was The Fear Street Saga when I was about 10 or so!

I'm trying to get into Slaughterhouse Five right now, and then after that it's on to some Hunter S. Thompson.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events has become my favorite book series. I know they are classified as "children/teen" books, but I find it rather entertaining.

Tolkien's Middle Earth of course...
Larry Niven's Ringworld and his known universe.
Asimov's Robot
Zalazny's Amber
Saberhagen's Berserker
Gibson's Neuromancer. The first two stand above.
Fritz Leiber's Swords (Fafhrd and Gray Mouser)

The last couple decades I'd have to say Addison Wesley gets most of my time. :/

Zelazney is easily my favorite author (Miss you, Roge. :()
My all time favorite book is probably <i>Dune</i>.
My Favortie series is George RR Martin's "Song of Fire & Ice", with Tad Williams' "Memory Sorrow, and Thorn" tied with Glenn Cook's "Black Company" series for second.

Lot of people have mentioned Discworld. I haven't read many of them, and, of those I have read, <i>The Colour of Magic</i> is good, but <i>Small Gods</i> is my third or fourth favorite book ever, easily one of the most brilliant things I have ever read.

I agree that Jordon has gotten old, but I've invested enough in it that I am going to see if he can finish before cholesterol catches up with him. (New book in November, I think.).

Terry Goodkind is sort of like Jordan with an R rating (so's Martin, but it's the difference between Porky's and The Godfather). Before his last one, I was going to give up on him, but I found a signed copy of <i>Chainfire</i>, and it was significantly better than the last three, and is a cliff hanger, so he's into me for at least two more. If he sticks with his whole pornography of violence meets pseudo-fascism (and that's the good guys), then I'll say goodbye to him.

Someone mentioned Phillip Dick and Alfred Bester in the same breath. Sorry, but, though Bester was brilliant, Dick just makes me choke. Storys start in the middle and go nowhere. The only more annoying writer I have run across is Sam Delaney, who seemed to be out to prove that you could masturbate with a typewriter. Reasonable people can disagree on this, but I honestly can't see how.

Props out to Steve Brust, Jammin' JRR Tolkien, and MC HP Lovecraft. Yo!

George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire. The best fantasy series I've read to date. As long as he stays on the same track I'll definately be buying the rest. Book #4 (A Feast For Crows) is out in October and you can preorder it now. He's supposed to finish it up with no more than seven books total.

R.A. Salvatore - Drizzt Duurden series. Some of them weren't so good, and the quality has been lacking with the latter stories, so I may just abandon him altogether.

Anne Rice - The Vampire Chronicles. I loved most of this series, but not all of it. The last few books totally sucked and most likely I won't be buying any more if she writes them.

I hate Jordan. Hate him with a passion. His story is so good, but he's ruined it. In book 10 he simply recapped what's been happening in the first 9 and nothing happens until the last chapter. Then he has the gall to go back and write a prequel. Every woman is a carbon copy feminist man hater. His penchant for describing how people are dressed is ludicrous. I could go on, but he's ruined a good story as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately, I'll also read the last few once I find them on Amazon for $1 apiece. I'll wait until he's done writing them though to be sure he actually ends the neverending story. BTW, his next installment is due out in November and is available for preordering.

I actually made it to book 4, I think. I agree with you whole heartedly.

Wilbur Smith - tons of books that are awesome. River God is especially good, but all of his books that I have read so far are very good.

I also like Raymond E. Feist and L.E. Modesitt Jr (specifically the Recluce series).

Lord of the Rings/Tolkien is always first for me, followed by (in no order) R.A. Salvatore, Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Timothy Zahn. I'm more an art person than a book person though.

oh man I actually have one I cant find that any of you listed

Clive Cussler-ANY of the Dirk Pitt books
Catherine Coulter (The Bride Series)

I will also add ones that I agree with some people on
Diana Gabaldon-Outlander Series (I SO want to have sex with Jamie!!)
Rowling-Harry Potter
Patricia Cornwell (any Kay Scarpetta book)
Anne Rice-Vampire Chronicals (Tale of the body theif is my fav)
and Anne Rice-Beauty Series

Favorite author: Robert A. Heinlein.

Favorite book for pure entertainment: The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

Favorite book with a "message": Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.

Favorite book series: All of Tom Clancy's books about the Jack Ryan character (Patriot Games, Clear And Present Danger, The Hunt For Red October, etc.).

Iain M Banks - The Culture :thumbsup:

but his other sci fi is awesome, the best no question and no doubt

The Culture is:
Consider Phelbas
The State of the Art (2 culture short stories)
Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions (dud)
Look to Winward

stories of power, violence, future technology, war with twists, turns, shocks, fun and disgusting cruelty all written in enough detail to describe but not overwhelm.

If you don't agree then you are an idiot and that's OK you aren't alone. :rolleyes:

Two more to add since the last time I posted...

Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series is fantastic, it's a good combination of horror, mystery, and romance.

Also, I'm in the middle of reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which is excellent so far. I've heard it goes downhall in the last few, but I'm on Fires of Heaven right now and it has yet to disappoint.