Favorite fantasy author

[PhilD]

Originally posted by diamondspider:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:

quote:

---

Originally posted by diamondspider:

4. A Song of Fire and Ice trilogy : Martin

Except it isn't a trilogy.

---

It is until April

We'll see if the new book makes my list. My guess is: yes.

---

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.

[taterbill]

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.

[LordArioch]

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.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by LordArioch:

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.

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).

[Maven_007]

Originally posted by Breschau:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
One other that hasn't been mentioned, possibly for the same reason, is Stephen King with his The Dark Tower series...

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).

---

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.

[Lord_Devi]

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? ) 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 )