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).