Recommend an Author

[Dan Gurden]

Check; http://forum.trek-rpg.net./showthrea...&threadid=6907

I wrote my 'parable of the day' tongue loosely in cheek, yes I do read all the release dates of RPG stuff, DVDs, and the DS9 relaunch stuff... But I was simply getting irritated by all the anti-decipher feeling over the delayed products when as a HOBBY it really shouldn't matter all that much... But as I wrote it, my description called to me, and when I said it sounded like a nice realxing day...

It really did.

So, I am asking all to recommend your favourite authors, so that any of us that choose, can just nip out and get a novel, and sit down with a coffee and simply waste an hour or two.

Not just Fantasy/Sci-Fi either. I really have read a lot of that, but if theres a really good author feel free to recommend them. Ideally I am looking for a slim volume that can slip into my inside pocket, but will probably get a doorstop volume if theres enough appeal (it might also be nice not to have a series of novels connected for once, then I dont have to wait for the next part/sequel too ).

My Current pick of recommended authors;

Neal Stevenson
William Gibson
JRR Tolkien
Terry Pratchett
Neil Gaimen
Anne Rice
Stephen King
Harry Turtledove
Bernard Cornwall

[qerlin]

Absolute favorite is Arturo Perez-Reverte. Try The Club Dumas or The Seville Communion.

For sci-fi, it's either Bruce Sterling or Jonathan Letham.

Historical: anything by George MacDonald Frasier! Alan Furst is good for the WWII period.

Try Ray Kurzweil's Age of Spiritual Machines...a great read

[Joe Dizzy]

I don't read that much in my free time, which is ironic considering that I study Literature.

I recommend:
Douglas Coupland
Dashiell Hammett
Raymond Chandler
Earnest Hemingway
James Joyce
Douglas Adams

Joe, eclectic to the bone

[Evan van Eyk]

There are already fine names here, I just have to add one:


Steve Perry, who e.g. wrote Shadows of the Empire and Titan A.E. ( together with his daughter )

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Well I would say Neal Stephenson, but you already did. Cryptonomicon rocked!

Dorothy L. Sayers - Golden Age mystery writer of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories.

"Yeats is Dead!" is a mystery novel written by 15 Irish authors about a fabled unpublished James Joyce novel. It reads like a Guy Ritchie film views ("Snatch", "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels") if you like that sort of thing.

-- Daniel

[Setvenharis]

Clive Barker!


'nuff said!




Lars

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Listening to Rush (the band) made me think to add --

Neil Peart -- "Masked Rider" a memoir of bicycling in Cameroon.

[Owen E Oulton]

Favourite authors and specific books to look out for:

Modern SF/Fantasy:
Steve Perry (Matador series)
Harry Turtledove (Agent of Byzantium, Videssos Cycle, Guns of the South)
David Weber (Honor Harrington series)
Lois McMaster Bujold (Miles Vorkosikan series)
Steven Brust (Jhereg series, To Reign In Hell)

Classic SF/Fantasy
Isaac Asimov (anything pre-1980, especially the original Foundation Trilogy)
Robert A. Heinlein (almost anything pre-1980, especially his juveniles and Glory Road)
Arthur C. Clarke (almost anything, especially 2001, A Fall of Moondust and Rendezvous With Rama; avoid 3001)
A. Bertram Chandler (Commodore Grimes series)
Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories)

Modern Thrillers/Mystery:
Robert B. Parker (Spenser series)
James Patterson (Alex Cross series)
Mark Billingham (Sleepyhead, Scaredycat)

Classic Thrillers/Mystery:
Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer series)
Dashiel Hammet (Maltese Falcon)
Raymond Chandler (Marlow series)
Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle (Sherlock Holmes stories)

Technothrillers/Military:
Dale Brown (Old Dog series)
Harold Coyle (Scott Dixon series)
Tom Clancy (Jack Ryan series, "Mr. Clark" series)

Stuff to avoid: ANYTHING licensed from Star Wars or Star Trek since 1980, especially Margaret Wander Bonano (Trek) and Kevin J. Anderson (SWars)

Just a few that come to mind...

[Ramage]

As a confirmed bibliovore...

Patrick O'Brian -- the FINEST writer of historical fiction going (sadly now "the late Patrick O'Brian"); Napoleonic-era naval adventures better than Horatio Hornblower meets Jane Austen manners and mores -- learn about the whole of society.

Robertson Davies -- he writes big novels that are hard to describe. "The Deptford Trilogy" is amazing -- three books that may be read in any order that revolve around "Who killed Boy Stanton?"

Guy Gavriel Kay -- as one critic said, "Kay can write about a peasant picking up a bucket of water and he will have you in tears over the beauty of the movement and the sadness of the peasant's life." Try Tigana or The Lions of al-Rassan.

Tolstoy -- War & Peace. 'Nuff said.

Charles de Lint -- great urban fantasy from a man who can really write. Try "Dreams Underfoot" for a taste.

Terry Pratchett -- Discworld. Avoid Rincewind. Try anything with Carrot & Vimes.

Storm Constatine -- she is a writer for those of rather adventurous tastes, very baroque, very fantastical -- I loved Calenture and her Wraeththu (yes, 2 th's there) novels. Many people find her, at best, an acquired taste.

Bernard Cornwell -- his Sharpe's books are fair-to-middlin historical fiction (nice details, but the characters feel too "modern"), but his Arthurian trilogy is to die for -- The Winter King, Excalibur, The Enemy of God (I forget the order at the moment). I am nutty on the Arthurian legends, very picky in my authors, and was hesitant to pick these books up; once I started reading, I couldn't put them down! Camelot, fleas and all, true to the 5th century A.D.

H. Rider Haggard -- very Old School adventure writing from the late 19th century, but still whopping great fun (She, King Solomon's Mines)

Jules Verne -- find one of the modern translations of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or The Mysterious Island where the re-insert the passages left out of the earlier English editions. Great adventure, fantastic social commentary, extraordinary characters.

P.G. Wodehouse -- light, flippant, and hysterical! Anything from Jeeves or Mr. Mulliner is good!

Well, there's a start...

[Sho-sa Kurita]

As a confirmed bibliovore...

You eat books? Couldn't resist.

[Aldaron]

Hmm...*checking my bookshelf*

For sci-fi/fantasy...

Tolkien, definitely, but then he goes without saying.
Raymond E. Feist is a definite (Magician, Silverthorn, A Darkness at Sethanon are his first...his others aren't as good, but that trilogy is a must-read)
Julian May
Isaac Asimov
Arthur C. Clarke (my favourite SF author, btw)
Greg Bear
Frank Herbert
Alan Dean Foster
R.A. Salvatore
Jules Verne
H.G. Wells
Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain is still one of my all-time favourite novels and movies!)

Contemporary/Other stuff...
Tom Clancy
Stephen Coontz
Dale Brown
Ken Folett (specifically, The Pillars of the Earth - fantastic historical fiction set in 13th century England)

Thriller stuff...
Stephen King
Dean Koontz

Half my books are still getting chewed by mice in my sister's garage in Sydney ( ) - just can't get them down here; no courier will take 23 2'x2' boxes full of books for less than about AU $1,000

[Cdr Scot II]

A few recent hits with me:

SF/Fantasy:

Age of Unreason Series by Gregory J Keyes (alternative history-cum-fantasy)
Revelation Space/Chasm City/Redemption Ark by Alistair Reynolds (Hard SF with intriguing ideas, very epic)
Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (An excellent stand-alone fantasy novel, light and easy without being dumb)
To Hold Infinity, Paradox by John Meaney (more hard SF, intelligent and challenging - and he's Colm Meaney's brother )
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson (published the same year as the ROTK - 1954 - and now reprinted, proving that the good professor wasn't the only person writing fantasy back then)

Other:

How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Herman Arthur (read this book and realise that you owe us everything )
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind (The story of the revolution in 1960s/70s Hollywood, in all its drug-addled glory...)

My reading time in recent months has been severely curtailed due to the new baby, but I have a pile of books to dive into on my bookshelves now that time is freeing up again .

Oh, Graphic Novels (they count as books nowadays too, don't they?):

Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday (Has fun with a lot of classic pop-culture tropes without getting too smugly self-referential)
The Adventures of Luther Arkwright by Bryan Talbot (I bought this in comic form back in the late 80s/early 90s, but I misplaced my copies in the time since, so I was happy to stumble across this collected edition - a truly superb multiple-alternate-history story)

[Ramage]

Originally posted by Sho-sa Kurita
You eat books? Couldn't resist.

mmmm, fiber

[Silverthorne]

Few Authors people seem to forget..

J.F. Rivkin.. Silverglass series
Mercedes Lackey.. Heralds of Valedmar series
Anne McCaffery.. Pern series.. Sassinak series.. Rowan series..

Serra-ted Edge series.. Forget the author right off the top of my head. This series deals with the idea of Elves in the modern day.

[Dan Stack]

Here we go, Dan's list...

Michael Chabon, especially The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - about a pair of Jewish boys in the 1930s, one from Brooklyn, the other who escapes from Nazis in Prague. The two create a superhero, "The Escapist" which becomes tremendously popular. The book then goes on to follow them as they mature, go through the 40's and 50's. It is one of those books which is hard for me to describe but had me reading obsessively for days. It was just a joy to read.

CS Forester - The Horatio Hornblower series is a definite inspiration for Star Trek.

Raymond Chandler - While I find his Philipp Marlowe series uneven (some books are much better than others), overall it is a fantastic series and just filled with hard-boiled attitude. (These also have the advantage of being quick reads)

Joseph Ellis - Excellent biographer for US history, especially Founding Brothers which tells of the conflicts involved in the early days of the United States, conflicts which are still felt to this day.