genka

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

Crimson

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

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Crimson
If my life is to change - Let it change
If my whole world is to be destroyed - So be it
If my fate is to die - I must simply laugh

diergray

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

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"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” ~ James Bryant Conant

thecriminal

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

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Don't take any guff from these fucking swine!

onodrim

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.

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"The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides"
-Carl Sagan

The Robot Monk

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.

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Little solace comes
to those who grieve
when thoughts keep drifting as walls keep shifting
and this great blue world of ours
seems a house of leaves

Drider_it

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

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It means only one thing, and everything: Cut. Once committed to fight, Cut. Everything else is secondary. Cut. That is your duty, your purpose, your hunger. There is no rule more important, no commitment that overrides that one. Cut. The lines are a portrayal of the dance. Cut from the void, not from bewilderment. Cut the enemy as quickly and directly as possible. Cut with certainty. Cut decisively, resoultely. Cut into his strength. Flow through the gaps in his guard. Cut him. Cut him down utterly. Don't allow him a breath. Crush him. Cut him without mercy to the depth of his spirit. It is the balance to life: death. It is the dance with death. It is the law a war wizard lives by, or he dies.

yournamehere

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.

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If you want to avoid 95% of internet spelling errors:
"If your ridiculous pants are too loose, you're definitely going to lose them. Tell your two loser friends over there that they're going to lose theirs, too."
It won't hurt your fashion sense, either.

rock_bottom

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.

Quadraton

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.

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"A witty saying proves nothing"
- Voltaire

Grondar

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.

kgb

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.

tommyboy

Any of Stephen King's old books.

snowy

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......So I'd have to say Nora Roberts and Jude Deveraux. Deveraux's "Velvet" series is also very good.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Ciall

irvine welsh
chuck palahniuk
hunter thompson
jack kerouac ...

WhoaitsZ

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.

mystmarimatt

" 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.

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Words of Wisdom:

If you could really get to know someone and know that they weren't lying to you, then you would know the world was real. Because you could agree on things, you could compare notes. That must be why people get married or make Art. So they'll be able to really know something and not go insane.

iktoweya

lloyd alexander
tom clancy
piers anthony
tolkien

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i miss K-Wise

Hal Incandenza

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).

Lebell

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.

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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis

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Atropos4

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

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holtmate

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.

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"Give her your coat"
"Why me?"
"Because you're perfect."
"You have a point there."

scapegoat

Anything By Robert A Heinlein

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

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Sticks and Stones may break my bones, But Whips and Chains Excite me!

John Henry

Douglas Adams, Lewis Carroll or Jerome K Jerome.

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"No one was behaving from very Buddhist motives. Then, thought Pigsy, he was hardly a Buddha, nor was he a monkey. Presently, he was a pig spirit changed into a little girl pretending to be a little boy to be offered to a water monster. It was all very simple to a pig spirit."

LordEden

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

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Vice-President of the CinnamonGirl Fan Club - The Meat of the Zombiesquirrel and CinnamonGirl Sandwich

Zotz

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!

GeneralApathy

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

vermin

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

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If puns were sausages, this would be the wurst.

hotzot

Laurie R. King, Sherlock Holmes and Mary series.

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The Bully Boys are here!

rabidy

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,

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I'm sick in the head and I haven't gone to bed
Since I first came ashore from me slumber
For I spent all me dough on the lassies don't you know
Far across the western ocean I must wander
-The Jolly Rogers

finally

-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!

monody

Douglas Adams
Neil Gaimen
Robert Heinlein.
William Gibson.

Don't make me choose!!

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Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to explain the curious attractiveness of others.
-Oscar Wilde.

fizzledorf

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

rogue49

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

Cuball

I like tom clancy books and games :-)

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Let's GO

Stiltzkin

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

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The most important thing in this world is love.

frankgrimes

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)

Flippy

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

JcL

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.

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"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth then lies." - Nietzsche

Fremen

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'

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