Favourite Authors

[Jessie]

Because this section is choking on music.

So yeah! Who's your favourite author(s) to ever grace this earth ever? Explaining why is cool with me.

I think I'll just do a These Are My Favourites, Bitch list without putting them in a specific order.

Christopher Brookmyre - Scottish crime novelist and funny as fuck. Especially with the glossary at the back of 'A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil'. Unfortunately nobody not Scottish ever gets half of his jokes, but they are amazing books anyway.

Debi Gliori - YES ANOTHER SCOTTISH ONE. (Y) Her books are also funny as. I mean, seriously, it has a tarantula who wears lipstick. Also has the Loch Ness Monster in it who copulates with a dragon who thought she was a boy until like, halfway through the second book. And! 'Lochenauchermuchty'. I bet you can't say that properly. I can't either.

Erin Hunter (the three/four of them, anyway) - CAT BOOKS. :D However occasionally lame endings may be, I will always have a soft spot for the Warriors series.

And yeah I'm done. Go!

[Ramsie]

I don't really have a favourite author. I like Dyan Sheldon, Diane Setterfield, and Jane Austen. (Even though sometimes I find Austen a bit boring.)

[opaltiger]

Ursula K. Le Guin. If you haven't read any of her books, you cannot claim to be a fan of SFF.

Other than that... George R. R. Martin is pretty epic. Yeah, I'd say those two are about it for now.

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

Oscar Wilde and Thomas Harris.
And probably some others but those are the main ones.

[Furretsu]

Chelsea Handler.

And no one else.

But seriously, Chelsea Handler is god. <3

[Ambipom]

Roald Dahl. He has the most amazing wonderful books ever.

[Kusarigamaitachi]

George R R Martin. Nobody else so far, but I've just found the actual fantasy section in the local bookstore and am waiting for the funds to do something about it.

(Libraries require two trips whut.)

[Dragon_night]

Scott Card.

He is the best. Period.

[Storm, Earth, and Fire]

Don't really have favorites myself (most of the authors I like have real flaws.), but ones I like most would be Harry Turtledove, Tom Clancy, and George Orwell.

[Altmer]

Fowles, Huxley, Tolkien

[Dannichu]

I read a lot of crime novels and my favourites have to be Patricia Cornwell, Val McDermid, Kathy Reichs, Karin Love-and-Rainbows Slaughter, Lee Child, Janet Evanovitch, John Grisham and more.

My favourite classic authors are Orwell, Woolf and Dickens, I guess.

All-time favourite author might just be Bill Bryson because I love him so much <3 David Sedaris is hilarious, too.

I also like Stella Duffy and Sarah Waters, who write lesbian literature you can buy in normal bookshops, which is unheard of.

I'll happily recommend any books my any of the aformentioned authors if anyone cares :3

[opaltiger]

Scott Card.

He is the best. Period.

oh good point he is pretty awesome

except for the part where he is also pretty crazy but oh well

[Kratos Aurion]

Um. Other than Brian Jacques's Redwall series, J.K. Rowling and a few other seriesthings I didn't find particularly spectacular, I don't know that I read enough books by the same authors to have a "favorite". I mean, I might've liked the one or two books but that just means I like the books, really.

So I guess probably Jacques because even though the books are for a younger audience and I think he's slipping a little in the later books (and the grammatical errors in Eulalia! were UGH; please shoot your editor Mr. Jacques), I will always always always be a Redwall fan and some of the early books were pretty awesome. God I think I've read Mossflower like twenty times. :/ I'll never get tired of you, Tsarmina you crazy bitch.

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

Janet Evanovitch
Whoa wait wha? Her family name makes no sense to me ಠ_ಠ It is male D:

Roald Dahl. He has the most amazing wonderful books ever.
Yeah, Roald Dahl should be on my list too. Apart from the awesome children's stories everyone can still enjoy his mature stories are great too. the one with the bees is one of my favourites, as is the whole My Uncle Oswald series.

[Dannichu]

Whoa wait wha? Her family name makes no sense to me ಠ_ಠ It is male D:


Huur, I spelt it wrong. Janet Evanovich is a female author who writes crime/thriller novels that are absolutely hilarious. Her main series with Stephanie Plum as the main character (One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Ready... up to Eleven on Top) are awesome, but her other, seperate books are great, too. :3

[Icalasari]

Gary Paulsen

Hatchet and The Island = <3

[Blastoise]

I like Bruce Coville (Monsters of Morley Manor!), Rowling, C.S. Lewis, Eoin Colfer, and maybe a few others.

[Altmer]

Yeah, Roald Dahl should be on my list too. Apart from the awesome children's stories everyone can still enjoy his mature stories are great too. the one with the bees is one of my favourites, as is the whole My Uncle Oswald series.

Did you check out some of his short stories? They are amazingly twisted.

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

Did you check out some of his short stories? They are amazingly twisted.
I did, I have The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl or something like that. This is an awesome book since it contains all the stories in Kiss Kiss, Over To You, Switch Bitch, Someone Like You and Eight Further Tales of the Unexpected.
I really like the story with the Egyptian man and the American sailor, with the bet and the cutting of pinkie, it has a nice twist. I'd have a hard time picking my absolute favourite though since they're all very good.

The first time I read a short story book by Roald Dahl I was pretty amazed. 'haha the guy who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory writes about murder and secret cannibalism and sex what.'

[Altmer]

I had to do Kiss Kiss for my final exams in English, that is, the international baccelaureate.

Parson's Pleasure is lol

[H-land]

I've recently been rather enthused by Terry Pratchett. There's little I can say about his works, though, without sounding like I'm citing the backs of his books, though, as all profound statements about his works seem to have already been made by people who get payed to make them. So I'll just settle for saying that his books are funny, and that silly things happen, yet he manages to write stories in such a way that they're still not total nonsense.
He's also pretty darn good at setting up puns. (A particular scene in Guards! Guards! near the end of the book involving Carrot and Vimes comes to mind.)

[Flametail von Karma]

Erin Hunter/Vicky Holmes wins, hands down. She's amazing beyond words.

I also adore Jane Johnson, under her many pseudonyms. The Wild Road and The Golden Cat are spectacular, though they can drag on a bit at times. Her children's series is pretty darn good, too.

Hmm... that's about all, I suppose. I love too many books to possibly count, but the authors themselves don't usually stand out in my mind.

[Salamander]

This is one of the questions I hate, because I have a million authors I love and I'm never going to remember them all. If I just keep it to people who have written multiple books/series that are awesome, then, uh, in no particular order... Tamora Pierce (yay fantasy), Scott Westerfeld (vampire science fiction~), Terry Pratchett (:D), Gail Carson Levine (rewritten fairy tales ftw), Dave Barry (way too quotable), Roald Dahl (go, nightmare-inducing kids' books!), Shel Silverstein (best. poetry. ever.) ... and... all the approximately one thousand and forty-six people I can't think of because it's early in the morning.

[Kratos Aurion]

Huur, I spelt it wrong. Janet Evanovich

Still male, dear. :P The -vich suffix (or whatever the suffix technically is) means "son of". So technically her surname is "son of Evan" or something. Really, I think sometimes the ovich thing isn't intended to be a surname at all. But it doesn't really matter. I mean, I'm not exactly what my last name would imply I am. :D (Oh, how lovely it would be if I were, though.)

Still don't have a favorite author other than Jacques, but I do have a list of people whose books I have really enjoyed so far and have been meaning to read more by, so I guess they could potentially become favorites. Uh, let's see... Stephen King, Terry Pratchet, Kurt Vonnegut and, uh, this one guy named Robert Sawyer who writes about dinosaurs and is awesome. If only that series wasn't out of print and hard to find... D: Damn you, library.

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

Still male, dear. :P The -vich suffix (or whatever the suffix technically is) means "son of". So technically her surname is "son of Evan" or something. Really, I think sometimes the ovich thing isn't intended to be a surname at all.
That's because it's a middle name. Like, Putin is called Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin because his father is/was called Vladimir, and as such the suffix -vich means son of, like Ericson, son of Eric. But his wife is called Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Putina because her mother was/is called Aleksandra and the -ovna means daughter of. It's sort of automatically added in as a middle name so I don't get why people have it as their family names but uh :V

[Kratos Aurion]

...Yeah. That.

See I could be more clear about it if I actually remembered anything from Russian Lit but I don't. Uh.

[Renteura]

Eoin Colfer
Erin Hunter
Tite Kubo XP (bleach ftw)
Christopher Paolini

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

...Yeah. That.

See I could be more clear about it if I actually remembered anything from Russian Lit but I don't. Uh.
as the prime minister i have to know these things, don't feel bad.

and remember to never mention the goddamn submarine

[Commahappy]

...Alexandre Dumas? I can't choose just one...

[Animorph]

Tamora Pierce, Anne Ursu, J.K Rowling, Rick Riordan, Tom Atkinson, and Hilari Bell.

...I'm a fantasy person. And...well, Tom Atkinson is another story.

[Number 100]

George Orwell and Ray Bradbury are two that immediately come to mind.

J. K. Rowling is nice too I guess

Edit: Ah, Eoin Colfer and D. J. MacHale too.

[opaltiger]

oh hey I totally forgot Haruki Murakami.

[Mirry]

Jane Austen. (Even though sometimes I find Austen a bit boring.)
Noo, Jane Austen is never boring! She's my absolute favorite author. :3

I also like... hm... JK Rowling and Elizabeth Gaskell.

[foreign contaminant]

if i had to pick, probably ayn rand or f. scott fitzgerald. i like j.d. salinger and stephen chbosky too.

edit: how could i forget daniel keyes?

[Eevee]

Christopher Paolini
get out

[James]

Ursula Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and Garth Nix restore my faith in SFF.

re: ayn rand - doesn't e have an eighty-page speech about how capitalism and eir random stu are morally superior to everything in one of eir books

re: anyone who said paolini - I don't know you.

re: rick riordan - entertaining but crap

re: eoin colfer - would be decent if e realized when to STOP WRITING ABOUT ARTEMIS FOWL, HOLY FUCK THE CASH COW IS DEAD STOP BEATING IT

[foreign contaminant]

re: ayn rand - doesn't e have an eighty-page speech about how capitalism and eir random stu are morally superior to everything in one of eir books

i don't think so.. wiki says her ideals were actually anti-communist. that's wikipedia, though..

[James]

I didn't say anything about communism.

[foreign contaminant]

I didn't say anything about communism.

my bad. i'm not entirely sure about her glorifying capitalism in each book, but i know that her famous books outline her personal philosophy underneath a narrative. one of the books she wrote that deals with the philosophy specifically was called 'capitalism: the unknown ideal,' and that explains her ideals about it.

[opaltiger]

Ursula Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and Garth Nix restore my faith in SFF.

Huh, I'm not sure I agree with Garth Nix. Sure, he's better than average, but not on the level of the others (not that either Pratchett or Gaiman are on the level of Le Guin but hey). I feel compelled to add Robin Hobb and, again, George R. R. Martin for proving that epic/high/whatever fantasy CAN be done right (I am looking at you, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind!).

And while I'm at it, let's throw in some old school SFF; Asimov, Clarke, it's all good (unless it isn't).

re: ayn rand: all I know about her is that she wrote Atlas Shrugged, which has always struck me as a pretty cool title.
re: paolini: stop reading pale imitations and go read what he ripped off (alternatively, stop being eleven)
re: salinger: did he ever write anything except Catcher in the Rye (I jest! he um wrote some short stories that is all I know god this is embarrassing)
re: eoin colfer: great fun because no one outside of Ireland can pronounce his name

[foreign contaminant]

re: salinger: did he ever write anything except Catcher in the Rye (I jest! he um wrote some short stories that is all I know god this is embarrassing)

just a bunch of short stories, no other novels. i have franny and zooey sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read; what i've skimmed through seemed pretty good.

[James]

Huh, I'm not sure I agree with Garth Nix. Sure, he's better than average, but not on the level of the others (not that either Pratchett or Gaiman are on the level of Le Guin but hey). I'm not saying he is, but he's a considerably better writer than quite a lot of popular SFF writers. His stuff tends to get a bit weak around the middle - Sir Thursday and Lady Friday in the Keys to the Kingdom series were kind of bland, but Superior Saturday was good and the series up until then was good, too; Lireal in the Abhorsen trilogy was boring for the most part, too - but I'm quite fond of it otherwise.

Also agreed @ Le Guin.I feel compelled to add Robin Hobb and, again, George R. R. Martin for proving that epic/high/whatever fantasy CAN be done right (I am looking at you, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind!). I've strangely never read any of George R R Martin's stuff and I don't remember @ Hobb. I have difficulty reading bricks, you see. (Also yes they suck ass :[)And while I'm at it, let's throw in some old school SFF; Asimov, Clarke, it's all good (unless it isn't). Needs more Heinlein.re: ayn rand: all I know about her is that she wrote Atlas Shrugged, which has always struck me as a pretty cool title. I heard it has an eighty-page monologue on how the amoral hero is apparently the best guy ever and also on the virtues of capitalism. Eighty pages. "WE INTERRUPT THIS BOOK FOR THE AUTHOR TO GO ON AND ON ABOUT HER VIEWS"re: paolini: stop reading pale imitations and go read what he ripped off (alternatively, stop being eleven)And remember to recycle.

[opaltiger]

I'm not saying he is, but he's a considerably better writer than quite a lot of popular SFF writers. His stuff tends to get a bit weak around the middle - Sir Thursday and Lady Friday in the Keys to the Kingdom series were kind of bland, but Superior Saturday was good and the series up until then was good, too; Lireal in the Abhorsen trilogy was boring for the most part, too - but I'm quite fond of it otherwise.

Fair enough.

Also agreed @ Le Guin. I've strangely never read any of George R R Martin's stuff and I don't remember @ Hobb. I have difficulty reading bricks, you see. (Also yes they suck ass :[)

It's okay, the font is so tiny in GRRM's books that they're actually decent sized. (I am only half kidding).

also, in Robert Jordan's defence, WoT is about as entertaining as an over-the-top action movie; that is, a great deal of crap that still somehow manages to amuse.

Needs more Heinlein.

I must admit to never having read anything by Heinlein. I know, shun the unbeliever.

I heard it has an eighty-page monologue on how the amoral hero is apparently the best guy ever and also on the virtues of capitalism. Eighty pages. "WE INTERRUPT THIS BOOK FOR THE AUTHOR TO GO ON AND ON ABOUT HER VIEWS"

well wasn't the whole POINT of the book to explain her views

[James]

Fair enough.This may however be tied to my love of things where EVERYBODY DIES BEFORE THE LAST BOOK STARTS. Okay well not everybody. Enough of everybody. And then they all fought giant bugs using magical umbrellas. While everybody dies. (I am mostly not making this up)It's okay, the font is so tiny in GRRM's books that they're actually decent sized. (I am only half kidding). :'[ brickalso, in Robert Jordan's defence, WoT is about as entertaining as an over-the-top action movie; that is, a great deal of crap that still somehow manages to amuse.That's good at least, then.I must admit to never having read anything by Heinlein. I know, shun the unbeliever. [shun]well wasn't the whole POINT of the book to explain her viewsBut it like had a plot and such.

[Zilc]

David Eddings and Erin Hunter are my favorate authors.

[Darksong]

Erin Hunter. :D Warriors <3