No stand out for me, but here are a few of my favourites. 1) Robert Anton Wilson. Love his crazy fiction, but his non-fiction work is brilliant too. RIP. 2) Iain (M) Banks. The stuff I love is awesome, but some of his work leaves me a little cold. 3) Terry Pratchett. Just gets better all the time. 4) Robert Rankin. Weirder than Pratchett and plays around with language in a way that delights me. 4) Salman Rushdie. Midnight's Children deserved the Booker of Bookers. 5) Jonathan Safran Foer. My favourite writer today and another who plays with language. 6) Julian May. Loved Saga of the Exiles series. 7) Michael Marshall Smith. His early work was great snappy 1st person madness. 8) Robert Heinlein. Stranger in a Strange Land is still my all time favourite book. 9) Kurt Vonnegut. Along with RAW and Carlos Castaneda he changed my life. 10) Carlos Castaneda. But the number one for me will always be the genius who brough us Winnie-The-Pooh, Mr AA Milne. That book always makes me fee life is beautiful. Apologies to any I've missed.
By far Dean Koontz, Tess Gerritsen and Stephen King. I enjoy suspense; something that pulls me in and holds me till I turn the last page.
J.K. Rowling - The Harry Potter series can hold my attention like no other book. I want to know what happens next so bad I can't stop reading. Eoin Colfer - The Artemis Fowl series is fairly interesting and keeps my attention well. Christopher Paolini - The Inheritance Cycle is a great series, especially since the first book was written when the author was a teenager. J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit is a great book, but I never could get through the LOTR trilogy.
Robin Hobb, for The Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders Trilogy and The Tawny Man series. Fantastic character development. You really grow attached to many of the characters in those books. And great plot development aswell.
Lauren Brooke, JK Rowling, Eoin Colfer, and Cornelia Funke all rank pretty high on my list of favourite authors. Oh, and Iris Gower.
I have quite a few favorites myself: Ray Bradbury: I have read very few stories by him that haven't worked in some way. Henry Kuttner: The man was an unappreciated genius, what can I say? I don't like his novels very much, though. Phillip K. Dick: I like his nitty-gritty style, though A Scanner Darkly was kind of boring. (Now Wait for Last Year was his best, I think.) Some older authors I like are Alexandre Dumas: Author of the Three Musketeers series. He was my gateway author to classical books. Lao Tzu: When I was interested in all sorts of different religions, Lao Tzu Dao de Jing was one of the coolest books I ever read. Victor Hugo: Les Miserables was too long, I think, but the Hunchback of Notre Dame was fantastic and nothing like the Disney version. Too bad he didn't write more. For the most part, though, I don't like most of the canonical writers in the genre I write in (science fiction). By the way, it seems a large amount of people (I hesitate to claim a majority) think the Inheritance Cycle was poorly written. I agree but others seemed to like it. We all have our preferences. Try antishurtugal.com for more information. For information opposite antishurtugal, there is, of course, shurtugal.com.
I understand how many people don't like the Inheritance Cycle because it takes bits and pieces from many fantasy novels. I can see the resemblance between the name Eragon and Aragorn from LOTR and other similarities. Despite these, I still think the series is overall an entertaining read.
R.A. Salvatore - Good Writer, fairly easy to follow. Sarah Ash - Amazing novels, well laid out, but occasionally tend to jump from one spot to the next, although she always has a way of making this fit together in the end. Robert Jordan - Author of one of my favourite series "The Wheel of Time" Stephen King - Good horror author, pays good attention to detail.
J.K. Rowling (sentimental favorite, grew up on Harry Potter, is still really great) Stephen Baxter (great hard sci-fi with philosophical underpinnings) George Orwell (do I really need to say?) Voltaire (had to read Candide for French, but it was really funny still)
Matthew Reilly - Matthew Reilly is the international bestselling author of nine novels: 1. Contest, 2. Ice Station, 3. Temple, 4. Area 7, 5. Scarecrow, 6. Hover Car Racer (for younger readers), 7. Seven Ancient Wonders, 8. Hell Island(a novella written for Books Alive in 2005), and 9. The Six Sacred Stones. Published in over 20 countries and known for their highly visual style, fast pace and large-scale action scenes, over 3.5 million copies of his books have been sold around the world. Matthew’s books have also—unexpectedly—become a major tool in the fight to get teenage males into reading. While written for a mature readership, Matthew’s novels have become very popular with reluctant male readers. Matthew has also recently created a television show set in the world of publishing called Literary Superstars. To be produced by Darren Star for Sony Pictures Entertainment and starring Jenna Elfman, the pilot is scheduled to be shot late in 2007. In 2004, Matthew optioned the movie rights to Hover Car Racer to Disney. He had previously optioned the film rights to Ice Station to Paramount Pictures, but that option expired. A huge movie fan, Matthew owns an extensive range of movie memorabilia, including: 1. A life-sized replica of Han Solo encased in carbonite (from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) 2. A DeLorean DMC-12 car (from Back to the Future) 3. A very rare Jango Fett replica helmet (from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) 4. A replica of the Chachapoyan fertility idol (from the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark) biopic3 Han Solo and the DeLorean; Jango and the Chachapoyan idol from ‘Raiders’ Matthew has also written several short stories over the years, mainly for the Bulletin magazine’s annual Summer Fiction issue in December. These include: 1. A Bad Day at Fort Bragg 2. The Mine (written for The Sydney Morning Herald in 2000 as a four part serial) 3. The Rock Princess and the Thriller Writer 4. Altitude Rush (written for the anthology, Girls Night In 2) 5. Complex 13 6. Time Tours biopic4 Artwork for Time Tours (The Bulletin, 2005, artwork by Glenn Lumsden) utside of the entertainment industry, Matthew has also partaken in several charity-, celebrity- and publicity-based events. Including: In 2000, Matthew was a delegate at the What Makes a Champion conference in Sydney. Nelson Mandela gave the opening address at the conference, and it featured such luminaries as Edmund Hillary, Richard Butler and Shane Gould. On January 1st, 2001, Matthew walked in the Australian Centenary of Federation Parade as a representative of Australian Literature. He has appeared on the Big Breakfast television show in Britain. He has appeared on the Good News Week celebrity game show in Brisbane. Matthew has been engaged by one of Australia's most successful television producers, Hal McElroy - creator of Blue Heelers and Water Rats - to develop a couple of new television series. In 2001 and 2002, Matthew was a special ambassador for National Youth Week, an initiative designed to get young people to chase their dreams. In 2003, he is one of the faces of the Australian government's National Literacy and Numeracy Week. In August, 2003, his book, Ice Station, will be one of six books sold at less than half price as part of a special literacy-driven project called Books Alive. As part of a charity dinner for the NSW Cancer Council in 2002, he offered to name a character in Scarecrow after the highest bidder. The winner was Alec Christie. Watch for his name in Scarecrow! Matthew has played in several celebrity cricket matches and golf days alongside members of INXS, rugby union legend Matthew Burke and a host of other Australian celebrities. He has even trekked to the base of Mount Everest!
Recently Terry Pratchett has been amazing. I really loved his Moving Pictures novel. Phenomenal. ~ The Essential Writer
Finished reading John Banville's 'The Sea' today and it is beatiful, descriptive prose throughout, a joy to read.
Kevin McFadden who is better known as Christopher Pike, a brilliant thriller and even fantasy adventure writer, which somehow surprised me when I was first reading it, it seemed like others but with less background... that quickly changed Its so eerie to me how well he uses all the elements in his stories, my favorite book would probably be Monster, gawd that was the best Vampire (or at least very close) book I've ever read, it shocked me and had a great ending, like most of his other stories I remember first reading his Spooksville stories when I was younger, and it brought back memories to read them in a more mature format
I have a few favourites including J.K Rowling, Astrid Lindgren, Lian Hearn, Jodi Picoult and Douglas Adams. They write in very different styles, but they all have the ability to capture me and keep me interested throughout the books. And yes, I know that Astrid Lindgren wrote children's books, but they are still great despite the fact that I'm way past that age.
Darren Shan is definately at the top of my list. Really enjoy his supernatural story series like 'The Demonata' and 'The Saga Of Darren Shan'.
A few years ago, for pure story, it was Stephen King; but JK Rowling bumped him down a notch. I just wonder... how is she going to top Harry Potter?
