What are your favorite books/series/authors?

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

Ok, I am sure its been done before, so don't bite my head off for posting such a newbie topic, haha and I've been told by someone to watch out for Danlo, I was told you'd bite, but not mean it.

Anyways, what are your favorite books/authors/series etc. Give a top 10 or 20 or whatever, no matter, just for fun to see whats the favorite of yours? Cheers, I guess I'll go first. Cheers again.

In no Particular Order
1. Peter F. Hamilton - Reality Dysfunction
2. J.R.R. Tolkien - Hobbit
3. Frank Herbert - Dune
4. James P. Blaylock - The Last Coin
5. Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Time of the Twins - Legends
6. Stephen R. Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Book One - Lord Foul's Bane
7. Guy Gavriel Kay - Fionvar Tapestry - The Wandering Fire
8. Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Deathgate Cycle Book 2 - Eleven Star
9. George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones
10. Alexander Dumas - Counte of Monte Cristo
11. Christopher Marlowe - Dr. Faustus
12. Robin Hobb - Assasin's Apprentice
13. Tany Huff - Blood Price
14. Tad Williams - Tailchaser's Song
15. China Meillville - Perdido Street Station
16. Dan Simmons - Hyperion
17. Homer - The Iliad
18. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
19. Neil Gaiman - American Gods
20. Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light
21. Eric Van Lustbader - Veil of a Thousand Tears - Pearl Saga

Thats my list, for better or worse, those are my tastes of best books. Cheers.

[Fist and Faith]

and I've been told by someone to watch out for Danlo, I was told you'd bite, but not mean it.

LOLS:

*wipes tears away*

OK, for series(es?), I'll add:
Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea
David Zindell's Neverness
Eric Lustbader's Ninja (At least the first three)

For single books:
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire
Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game
Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land
Poul Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga

And hey! I'm nearly done with American Gods, at duchess' recomendation. Pretty cool.

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

*wipes tears away*

OK, for series(es?), I'll add:
Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea
David Zindell's Neverness
Eric Lustbader's Ninja (At least the first three)

For single books:
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire
Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game
Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land
Poul Anderson's Hrolf Kraki's Saga

And hey! I'm nearly done with American Gods, at duchess' recomendation. Pretty cool.

Eric Lustbader, could easily have been added to my list. I've also read the Ninja novels and his Pearl Saga is brilliant mix of sci/fi and fantasy, in fact I'm going to add that as 21. thanks for reminding me. The others you've mentioned are all brilliant, I can see we have some similiar taste in good books, cheers to that.

[Fist and Faith]

I haven't read Lustbader's Pearl Saga/Veil. But his Sunset Warrior Trilogy was pretty cool. Black Heart is superb too.

[Worm of Despite]

If this were a list of general fiction and not fantasy/sci-fi, God Emperor would be #3:

1) God Emperor of Dune, by Frank Herbert
2) The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
3) The Illearth War, by Stephen R. Donaldson
4) A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin
5) The Wounded Land, by Stephen R. Donaldson

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

The Pearl saga is one of the best melding of science fiction an fantasy, the one cool thing is the use of gender and gender reversal in the book, as well as its religious and social satire, cheers.

[Loredoctor]

Gene Wolfe - Book of the New Sun
H.P.Lovecraft (anything of his)
Jane Austen - same
Some guy called Stephen DOnaldson - same
Heinlein - Stranger in A Strange Land
Olaf Stapledon - anything
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
Alexander Dumas - Le Comte de Monte Christo
Simmon - Hyperion series
C.J.Cherryh - the Mri trilogy
Hamilton - Night's Dawn
Herbert - Dune
Carl Sagan - anything he's written

[danlo]

Neverness!

[matrixman]

edit

[birdandbear]

Neverness!

The Dark Tower!!



(I'll read yours if you'll read mine.... )

Also LOTR
Katherinr Kurtz's Deryni books....all of 'em, but the Saint Camber trilogy is by far the best
Anything by Neil Gaiman
Anything by Neil Stephenson, especially Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age
The Hobbit
TCo Narnia
That SDR guy
The Prydain Chronicles - Lloyd Alexander
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
The Handmaid's Tale - I forget
The SILMARILLION
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle
The Stand
A Canticle for Lebowitz - I forget
DUNE - The first trilogy is great - I couldn't read the second, I'll give it another try pretty soon, I think. The original book is probably one of the top 5 very best things I've ever read.
The Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy et al
and Harry Potter

*ducks danlo's tomato*



Welcome to the Watch Fiz!

[I'm Murrin]

Despite my endless reading, the number I've read is surprisingly small. Here's my faves out of what I've read so far:

1 - GRRM's 'A Song of Ice and Fire' / Erikson's 'Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen' - definately a tie between the two for best.

The rest are in no particular order (single books and series are listed):
-Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series by Tad Williams
-Wheel of Time by RJ
-TCTC by SRD (of course)
-The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
-Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
-The Prince of Nothing series by R Scott Bakker

[dANdeLION]

Here's my top 5 series:

1) LOTR by Tolkein

2) TCTC by Donaldson

3) Foundation by Asimov

4) Dune by Herbert

5) Conan by Howard

[[Syl]]

Donaldson - (LFB)
Wolfe - Book of the New Sun (though depending on the next book, The Wizard Knight might eclipse it)
Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club (Choke a close 2nd)
Richard Bach - Illusions
Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage
Thomas Hardy - Far From the Madding Crowd
Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls
Zindell - The Broken God
Tolkien - The Silmarillion
Patricia McKillip - The Book of Atrix Wolfe
Williams - The Stone of Farewell

Honorable Mentions
Josef Heller - Catch 22
Salinger - Catcher in the Rye
Saberhagen - The Book of Swords
Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle
Hunter S. Thompson - The Rum Diaries
Dan Millman - Way of the Peaceful Warrior
J. Gregory Keyes - The Waterborn
Martin - A Game of Thrones
Twain - Tom Sawyer
Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge
Heinlein - Starship Troopers
Steakley - Armor

I could go on, but I think I'll stop before my brain hurts

[Roland of Gilead]

Stephen King - Dark Tower (I've read everything he's written)

Dean Koontz - Twilight Eyes, Lightning, Watchers (he's losing it lately)

Wilbur Smith - River God, Courney Saga, Ballantyne Saga

Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe series

Peter F. Hamilton - Nightr's Dawn, Fallen Dragon

L. Ron Hubbard - Battlefield Earth, Mission Earth

George R. R. Martin - Song of Ice and Fire

Stephen R. Donaldson - Covenant, Gap, Axbrewder mysteries

Goerge MacDonald Fraser - Flashman series

Julain May - Saga of Pliocene Exile

Dorothy Dunnett - Lymond Chronicle

F. Paul Wilson - Repairman Jack series

J. R. R. Tolkien - LotR

Chaz Brenchley - Outremer

Paul Kearney - Monarchies of God

Tim Powers - The Anubis Gates, Expiration Date, On Stranger Tides

Guy Gavriel Kay - Lions of Al-Rassan, Tigana

[Edinburghemma]

Well, in no particular order...

Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Cryptonomicon-Neal Stephenson
Absolutely everything by Thomas Pynchon
erm, Thomas Covenant
The Glass Bead Game- Hermann Hesse
The Master and Margarita- Mikail Bulgakov
The Alexandria Quartet- Lawrence Durrell
Gulliver's Travels- Jonathan Swift
The Princess Bride- William Goldman
The Odyssey- Homer
On- Adam Roberts
Purely sci-fi:

Ringworld- Larry Niven
The Stars My Destination-Alfred Bester
Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes
Cities in Flight- James Blish
Forever War- Joe Haldeman

and best of all

Stand on Zanzibar- John Brunner

[Loredoctor]

Stand on Zanzibar is great! So is cities in flight! nice choice emma.

[Lord Mhoram]

Fitzbans, you have good taste. Lord of Light is an excellent novel. Here goes my list:

-The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny
-TCTC
-A Song of Ice and Fire, GRR Martin
-Dune (book and series), Frank Herbert
-Lord of Light, Zelazny
-The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
-Narnian Chronicles, Lewis
-Mere Christianity, Lewis
-A Seperate Peace, John Knowles
-The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien (yes I like the Hobbit more than LOTR!)
-Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn
-Foundation, Isaac Asimov

[Fist and Faith]

Eric van Lustbader? I read his original Ninja novel waaay back. If I recall, the plot was: ninja. sex. more ninja. more sex. climax. the end.

I didn't read anything else by him after that. I figured if I wanted to read kinky sex fantasies, I'd write my own.

(OK, I edited out the insult. I was not remotely serious about it. Entirely a joke. But still... ) I'm gonna have to disagree. Although I think going past three was unnecessary, The Ninja, The Miko, and White Ninja are great! The first goes pretty deep into bushido, and the Japanese view in general. The way he weaves Musashi's Book of Five Rings throughout it is amazing. And I think Saigo's magic, the kobudera, is maybe the best I've seen anyone put magic into the "real world." (As opposed to things like Buffy and Charmed, where every street corner has a hugely powerful witch, demon, vampire, or god performing acts of great power.)

The second is a very good sequel. The third deals a lot with his mother's father, and the magic of China. Great depth to the characters too.

[matrixman]

edit

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

Matrixman, I'm gonna have to disagree. Although I think going past three was unnecessary, The Ninja, The Miko, and White Ninja are great! The first goes pretty deep into bushido, and the Japanese view in general. The way he weaves Musashi's Book of Five Rings throughout it is amazing.

F&F, those are my thoughts exactly. Five rings, is a mix of fantasy, science fiction, ancient lore, religion, etc.. It's amazing hwo someone can interweve so many genre into one book and series. I am awaiting the third book release in paperback, cheers.