What are your favorite books/series/authors?

[Loredoctor]

SF
Stapledon - Last and First Men
Everything by H.G.Wells
The Gap series
Hyperion series - Simmons
The Book of the New Sun - Wolfe
Flowers for Algernon - Keyes
Everything by Iain M. Banks

Fantasy
TCTC
Fevre Dream - Martin

Horror
Most of H.P.Lovecraft's work

Fiction
Everything by Jane Austen
Everything by Oscar Wilde
Wuther Heights - Bronte
Le Comte de Monte Cristo - Dumas

Poetry
Everything by Wilfred Owen

[burgs]

In somewhat of an order, including children/young adult fantasy, which has become increasingly interesting over the past few years.

Tolkien
Donaldson
Martin
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Robin Hobb
C.S. Lewis
Sharon Kay Penman
Phillip Pullman
Tad Williams (for Tailchaser's Song and Memory, Sorrow, Thorn)
J.K. Rowling
Gene Wolfe
Flannery O'Connor
Frank Herbert
"Lemony Snicket" (they crack me up)
Clive Barker (his children/young adult stuff)
L. Frank Baum
Jenny Nimmo
Conrad
Faulkner

(I'm sure the last two will rise in the list; I'm just starting to read their work with more focus, and am enjoying it immensely.)

[Man Of Westernesse]

The Epic stuff - in some order (hard to rank them all)

Tolkien - Hobbit & Lord of the Rings (Have re-read c. 20 times - will never be bested)
King - Dark Tower (& everything else he has ever written)
Donaldson - Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Martin - Song of Ice and Fire
Feist - Magician etc... series + Empire Series
Gemmell - Drenai tales + Rigante tales + Shannow books.
May - Saga of the Exiles
Auel - Earth's Children series

[Invain]

H.P.Lovecraft - everything (there's not much of it, sadly)

Fantasy:

series

Stephen R. Donaldson - "Chronicles...", especially the First
George R.R. Martin - Song of Ice and Fire
Terry Pratchett - Discworld series
Glen Cook - Dread Empire (especially first 3 books)
Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana
Stephen King - first 3 books of Dark Tower (4 & 5 weren't half as good, haven't read 6 & 7 yet)
Tolkien - LOTR

singles

Martha Wells - Death of the Necromancer
Patricia McKillip - The Tower at Stony Wood
David Gemmell - Knights of dark renown
Marion Zimmer Bradley - The mists of Avalon
Tim Powers - The Anubis gate
Ursula K. LeGuin - Wizard of Earthsea (I didn't like the sequels too much)

Sci-Fi , Cyberpunk etc:

Mike Resnick - Kirynyaga
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game, Speaker of the Dead (sp? don't know the original title)
William Gibson - Neuromancer

Polish writers left out. On an extra note, I was disappointed with Eddings's Belgariad and Malloreon. Now I'm preparing to start Jordan's Wheel of Time - got the first two books, waiting for the winter exam session to end.

[KATIE]

I enjoy David Eddings but I find it a bit childish

[Ainulindale]

In no particular order, well perhaps loosesly in order, was tough narrowing them down to 25, but here it goes:

Top 25 series

1. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
2. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
3. The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmon
4. Dune by Frank Herbert
5. Discworld by Terry Pratchett
6. Lankhmar by Fritz Lieber
7. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
8. The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson
9. The Night’s Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
10. The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
11. Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
12. Elric saga by Micahel Moorcock
13. Riddle of the Stars by Patricia Mckillip
14. Conan by Robert E. Howard
15. Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson
16. Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
17. Earthsea Cycle by Ursula Leguin
18. The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker
19. His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
20. Memory, Sorrow, Thorn, by Tad Williams
21. Ender’s series by Orson Scott Card (admittedly was pretty weak after the first installment)
22. Malazan Empire by Steven Erikson
23. Virinconium by M. John Harrison
24. Dark Tower by Steven King
25. Homunculous by James Blaylock

Top 25 Stand-alone novels:

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
2. Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
3. A New Universal History of Infamy by Rhys Hughes
4. The Last Coin by James Blaylock
5. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
6. The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
7. Things that Never Were by Matthew Rossi
8. The Scar by China Mieville
9. The Once and Future King by TS White
10. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
11. Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer
12. The Etched City by KJ Bishop
13. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
14. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark
15. The Paper Grail by James Blaylock
16. The Light Ages by Ian Macleod
17. Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin
18. Voice of Fire by Alan Moore
19. Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
20. Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Leguin
21. Secret Life by Jeff Vandemeer
22. The Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart
23. On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
24. The Unreasoning Mask by Philip Jose Farmer
25. The Myst’s of Avalon by Marion Zimmer

[Zahir]

Fave series (in no particular order):

Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
A Song of Fire & Ice by George R.R.Martin
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by SRD
The Gap by SRD
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Challion Novels by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Familias Regnant books by Elizabeth Moon
Uplift by David Brin
Honor Harrington by David Weber (this is something of a guilty pleasure, like jellied orange candies oh my )
Witch World by Andre Norton
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
The Dark Wing Series by Walter Hunt
Winds of War and War & Remembrance by Herman Wouk
Tales of the Flat Earth by Tanith Lee
Earthsea by Ursual K. LeGuin
The War Against the Chtorr by David Gerrold (DAMN YOU WILL YOU JUST FINISH THE DAMN THING!!!!!!)

Some individual faves:

Post Man by David Brin
Hart's Hope by Orson Scott Card
Treason by Orson Scott Card