Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I ordered the first two Malazan books from Amazon UK less than two weeks ago, and got them Last week (while I was away from home). Waiting 2-3 weeks for a book to arrive isn't exactly the end of the world; we all waited longer than that for the Dom2 demo, then for the Dom2 final Version, then for the Dom2 patch... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Gene Wolf is excellent! I imagine nobody has mentioned him because his famous works are more science fiction. Once you include him, there's a long list of sci-fi authors to include...

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

P.C. Hodgell - God Stalk series

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

For me, great fantasy is less about specific authors and more about specific *works*.

I can't think of many authors that are consistant enough for me to rate them apart from specific books.

That said, here are my top 10 all time favorite fantasy books/series segments (strictly excluding sci-fi and horror):

1. Lord of the Rings : Tolkien
2. The Hobbit : Tolkien
3. Paksenarrion trilogy : Moon
4. A Song of Fire and Ice trilogy : Martin
5. The Sword of Truth series (first 3) : Goodkind
6. Dying Earth : Vance
7. Cugel's Saga : Vance
8. Lankhmar Series (first 3) : Leiber
9. Jack of Shadows : Zelazny
10. A Wizard of Earthsea : Le Guin

[ January 26, 2004, 10:57: Message edited by: diamondspider ]

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Except it isn't a trilogy.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Except it isn't a trilogy. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It is until at least April http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

We'll see if the new book makes my list. My guess is: yes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

edit: regarding release date as per PhilD. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ January 26, 2004, 17:00: Message edited by: diamondspider ]

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Except it isn't a trilogy. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It is until April http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

We'll see if the new book makes my list. My guess is: yes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not to sound pessimistic, but... GRR Martin promises to post about A Feast for Crows on his homepage as soon as it is done, and he still hasn't. Until he does, any street date his publisher may have announced is pure speculation, and, at the moment, April seems... optimistic.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

Here's another vote for George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. IMHO, second only to Tolkein. As a magnum opus and a genre-creator, LOTR is unbeatable, but for a pure enjoyable read and characters you truly care about, Martin 's trilogy (so far) is the best ever.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

Hurray! Somebody mentioned Vance. Call me a madman, but I find his obscure choice of words very enjoyable. Cugel in particular is a very enjoyable character, even if I never want to meet him personally. The Lyonesse trilogy was good too.

Oh, and PhilD, if you haven't noticed yet, you can find a couple of Egan's short stories on his webpage along with entertaining java applets and background science at varying levels of techicality. I would have to agree that at least some level of understanding of science is necessary. Honestly I'm not really sure what happens during the second half of Schild's Ladder myself. Sometime I'll have to educate myself about spin networks and read it again.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh, usually by the second half of Egan's books, nothing makes much sense anyway. The first third of each book is absolutely brilliant, then it's a series of "huh?", and the end, while enjoyable, is usually so far in pure speculation that it doesn't help anymore to have a decent science education (or maybe I just don't have enough, but between my own PhD in CS, my girlfriend's in statistical physics, and our general mathematical background, I'd say we're somewhat ahead of his general target readership, or he would have a very hard time making a living out of his books).

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I didn't mention them in my post for the possibly same reason, despite having read a couple of them in the Last month or so.

Wasn't sure if they'd be considered fantasy, horror, or sci-fi.

Also read a Clive Barker book not too long ago that was almost certainly fantasy, but I forget what it was called. And it felt like it was maybe aimed more at children (though it was still an enjoyable read). </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That reminds me: Clive Barker's Imajica was possible the best fantasy novel I have ever read. Neil Gaiman is also high on the list with Stardust, Neverwhere, American Gods, and if you allow it, the entire Sandman series.

Re: Favorite fantasy author
 

My favorite is without a doubt, so far beyond any other material I've read - and it's just the plain classic Lord of the Rings. Tolkien is a sheer genious - his mastery of the english language made that entire series candy to me.

On the other end of the scale I'd like to take this opportunity to diss Robert Jordan(Anyone reminded of Dune reading his long winded crap books? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ) and Ed Greenwood who seems to have a fetish for tavern wenches successfully taking on elite troopers.

The Shanara series was ok, except I really felt kind of like "I've read this before" with each successive novel I read in that series.

The dragonlance series holds a special place in my heart though as it was my first exposure to fantasy really, and I loved the setting so much I read the entire collection pretty much(I was young http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )