Favorite Authors (other than Star Wars)

Aside from Star Wars authors, who are your favorite authors? In particular, I was wondering about active authors. For me, there are some authors that whenever they come out with a book, it instantly goes onto my must read list. For you, who makes the cut?
_________________

Master Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 1346

Arthur C Clarke, no question. He's not active for obvious reasons, but 2001 and Rendezvous with Rama are some of my all-time favorites.
_________________

Active:
-Daniel H. Wilson (I haven't read Robopocalypse yet, but I loved Amp'd).
-John Green (Not read much of his stuff yet, but I loved An Abundance of Katherines and own most of his books; just need to get to them).
-Brian Michael Bendis (loved his work on Ultimate Spider-Man, and now I'm loving his X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy titles).
-Mark Millar (The Ultimates 1-13 is one of my favourite graphic novels).

Less active/inactive/dead:
-Frank Herbert (my second favourite book is Dune).
-Michael Crichton (my favourite book is Jurassic Park).
-Chris Clarement (loved his run on X-Men/Uncanny X-Men).
_________________
It was the year of fire… the year of destruction… the year we took back what was ours.
It was the year of rebirth… the year of great sadness… the year of pain… and the year of joy.
It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed.
The year is 2261.
The place: Babylon 5.

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

William Gibson, HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Isaac Asimov, Charlie Huston, Matt Stover, and Neal Stephenson when I have the time to parse his writing.

Edit: I suppose I'll preemptively note I listed Stover since I read his non-SW books, which isn't true of any other SW author. If I'm still breaking the rules, whoops.

My favourite authors (and my favourite book from each of them) so far:

-C. S. Lewis (the Narnia series... can't pick just one)

I swear me and Lewis were separated at birth (barring the time gap). I've never met anyone else in real life or on the page who was so similar in terms of personality, thought process, and imagination. The contributions he's made on my life are huge and he will always be my favourite author.

-Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451)

My favourite science fiction writer by far. His stories are thought provoking and haunting. I'm not normally into short stories, but his are the best.

-Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)

I love Dicken's humour and characters. He has a really good understanding of human nature. Dickens is also one of the few authors who can make me attend to the mundane (e.g. poverty).

-J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)

No one beats Tolkien at world-building. LOTR is truly epic and I'm in love with Tolkien's themes and ideas.

-Kenneth Oppel (Airborn)

Oppel writes adventure stories for children. They're always very fun and compelling. And he's Canadian!

-John Milton (Paradise Lost)

I can't think of anyone who writes more beautifully than Milton.

-Kathryn Lasky (The Shattering, from the Ga'Hoole series)

I actually read the Ga'Hoole series before Narnia as a kid. I like to describe Ga'Hoole as the Knights of the Round Table vs. the Nazis... with owls. I have noticed some flaws in her writing as I've gotten older, but these books will always hold a special place in my heart. Owls are the animals I most identify with.

So that makes... two active.
_________________

Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

It's hard to name a favorite novel or story from each writer. I know my favorite from Stephenson is Zodiac for sure, and I haven't read all his work yet but I doubt any of it will supplant it. As for Gibson, it's hard to say. I just re-read Neuromancer a few months ago, and I'm actually listening to the audio book for Count Zero ATM. But I really enjoy his other two trilogies. I think I'd go with Neuromancer just for the novelty of it and the pulp noir elements of it.

Lovecraft is harder to choose, I like quite a few of his stories. I guess "The Call of Cthulhu" is probably the best, or at least one of his top 3, so I suppose I'll just go with that one and be unoriginal.

As for Howard, I'm partial toward "The Frost-Giant's Daughter." It's public domain. Here it is in both text and a LibriVox audio reading under the alternate title "Gods of the North." It's what really got me into Conan the Barbarian, along with Conan the Musical.

For Asimov, The Foundation. Great science fiction. And for Charlie Huston, hard to pick. I guess I'd go with The Mysical Art of Erasing All Signs of Death. And for Stover, Heroes Die.

Knight Joined: 10 Apr 2011 Posts: 434

Lewis and Tolkien, definitely.

Also Clive Cussler. I enjoy his Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, and Orgeon Files series. It's great to see that he's interweaving the three together to some extent with the Oregon crew appearing for the first time in Dirk Pitt: Flood Tide and Pitt making cameo appearances in some of the NUMA and Oregon books. The only thing that bugs me, though, is while he uses specific dates and years in nearly all of the Pitt novels, he rarely does so in NUMA or Oregon Files, which make it tough to figure out where those books fall timeline-wise in relation to Pitt. Still, good series. I've completed Pitt with the exception of Poseidon's Arrow, set for PB release this November, all of NUMA except The Storm (PB release end of this month) and Zero Hour (new release in a few weeks). On Oregon Files, I'm woefully behind with only two out of nine; need to get the rest.

Steve Berry is another good one. I enjoyed The Romanov Prophecy and would love a sequel; sadly he seems to be concentrating on his Cotton Malone series right now. Tried to read a Cotton Malone book once and didn't really like it, but after hearing about his new novel The King's Deception and its ebook prequel The Tudor Plot, I may give the Malone series another go.

When it comes to "must read" authors, there aren't many who make my list: Stephen King (looking forward to Dr. Sleep, though he has a book called Joyland coming out next month), Patrick Rothfuss and Peter V. Brett.

All of the other authors that I enjoy, who are still writing, are all Star Wars or ex-Star Wars authors. For instance: Kevin J. Anderson, Paul S. Kemp, Troy Denning, Matthew Stover, Kevin Hearne (he'll be a Star Wars author next year), Martha Wells (come October), John Jackson Miller, Drew Karpyshyn, Michael A. Stackpole and Joe Schreiber.
_________________

Master Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 4400 Location: Korriban

I also am looking to Dr. Sleep!

My list is rather odd. I like Terry Brooks, Jeff Shaara, John Shirley, Scott Snyder, Brian Herbert, and a few others, but mostly I do different stuff with a lot of readers.
_________________
Perfection is a lifelong pursuit requiring sacrifice. The only way to get it quicker is to sacrifice the most.

As a sophomore in college, most of the books I read are what my professors assign, but when I get a chance to read for fun, there are a few authors that I turn to:

Eoin Colfer - this is a remnant of my childhood, especially now that his Artemis Fowl series has ended.

Rick Riordan - the Percy Jackson series, that is quickly becoming a franchise with 2 simultaneous spin-off series. These are a fun read, especially if you know Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology. (Also a fairly easy read, as these are aimed at teens).

J.K. Rowling - for obvious reasons
J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as well (in fact, I have to read The Hobbit for one of my classes right now)

I also follow the novelverse of that other sci-fi franchise, Star Trek (I know, I know, I'm a traitor). Most of those I buy immediately, much like Star Wars, but the authors that are always on my must-read list are David Mack, Christopher Bennett, and David R. George III.

And I still manage to find time to read Star Wars books again and again and again.
_________________
"But it was so artistically done."

“No. I am Ganner. This threshold is mine. I claim it for my own. Bring on your thousands, one at a time or all in a rush. I don’t give a damn. None shall pass.”

“Eventually, we all betray something, Tahiri. It’s what you stay true to that counts.”

"Shaken, not stirred, will get you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth. The reason you stir it with a special spoon is so not to chip the ice. James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it."