NationStates Jolt Archive

With all of these 'Worst' literature threads, I figure we could do with something positive to balance it out.
Please note, the title of the thread does not say 'Best' author. You could have a favorite author and still think they arent the best. Of course, feel free to post about who you think the 'best' author is as well :P

Now, on to the thread!

My favorite author would be Terry Pratchett, because he has managed to create a series of books as awsome as Discworld with its mix of (somewhat modified) science, history and parody. Yes, some Discworld books are rather bad, some are raving anti-whatever rants in disguise (Jingo comes to mind, although I thought the plot was rather good if you discounted the messaging. That and the fact that it was written BEFORE 9/11 make it worthwhile :P).
No, Terry Pratchett is not the best writer, he also needs to hire a new editor considering the number of typo's in his books, but the world is sorely lacking in good fantasy writers these days. Angsty mush or bland, boring, repetitive violence that uses words like 'gushing' or 'impaled' every other paragraph. Oh, and dont forget the Pratchett impersonators.

Bret Easton Ellis

I dunno, hard to say. Robert Ludlum maybe, or Lee Child.

Kurt Vonnegut

current fiction


I like Patricia Cornwell

Also:

James Patterson
S. King
D. Koontz
Robin Cook (not sure if he's still alive)
Tom Clancy (Jack Ryan)
Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt)
Anne Rice (Lestat et al.)

among others.

Much better than the "worst author" thread. :p

Hmm, let's see.

Some of my favourite authors would be John Steinbeck (which explains why I wasn't so fond of the OP in other thread, heh), Michael Ondaatje, Chaim Potok, and Kate Chopin (oh my, last time I mentioned her in a thread like this, CTOAN came along muttering something about a seagull being hit with the metaphor hammer ... :p). And I actually really like Stephen King, even though much of what he has written is crap.

There's a whole bunch of books that I would call my "favourite books" that are by other writers, though (everything from Lord of the Rings, to Vernon God Little, to A Thousand Acres). Still wouldn't call those writers my "favourite authors", though.

David Weber. Who doesn't like the character Honor Harrington? Books are simply addictive. :)

Michel Houellebecq
Jonathan Safran Foer
Umberto Eco
Herman Brusslemans

Well I like CS Lewis's books and also Tim Lahaye's series on the comming of christ .

My favourite novel is A Clockwork Orange, but it's the only work by Anthony Burgess that I've read, so I couldn't say he was my favourite author. Perhaps H P Lovecraft; Stephen King provides great page-turning horror, but Lovecraft's stories were highly original for the time...plus his writing style is much more wordy and enjoyable. I love Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole diaries too; hardly lofty literature, but they crack me up every time.

I don't have any single favorite author, but those that are highest on my list are:

- Scott Adams: Author of Dilbert and a large number of books. Very humorous and often eerily accurate in his cynicism. God's Debris is especially profound.

- Terry Pratchett: For reasons already listed.

- Neil Gaiman: Dark and disturbing in a great way.

(1000th post! W00t!)

The guys who wrote the Gospel of Judas, just because it was hilarious watching my religion teacher try to legitimise the Bible gospels, while at the same time put down the outsides texts. :D

(1000th post! W00t!)
Yay! Congrats! :)

I don't usually do that, but after almost three years (:eek:) you really, really deserved it.


Ahem, on topic: I also like Tim Cahill a lot, he's very funny. (Much more so than Bill Bryson, in my opinion.)

David Weber. Who doesn't like the character Honor Harrington? Books are simply addictive. :)

Me. It read like the Bolitho books but with a female lead and evil commies rather than the French/Spanish.

And Alexander Kent could write Nelson-era fiction far better. I did like the Starfire series, even if his perpetual denigration of the Russians and worship of the Cult Americana (especially in Insurrection...) got on my nerves.


Lovecraft I like because he could write really scary stuff. OK so Call of Cthulhu wasn't too hot and he couldn't quite pace his novels but work like Dagon and The Colour Out Of Space were brilliant.

Wells was good author, mostly for War of the Worlds (I had nightmares after hearing the Jeff Wayne version at age 5. Still don't llike going underground but it's worth it). The Time Machine was another good one.

I also like Frank Herbet, even if I think Dune got boring after God-Emperor. The Prelude series is a good one - yes his son wrote it and Legends (Legends fucking sucks) - but it was based off Frank's stuff.

I still like Pratchett even though I see him as a sort of intro to fantasy writing. David Eddings and Raymod E Feist are two aythors that I love and I spose I better mention Terry Brookes as I'm reading it at the moment

Favourite authors:
Jack Vance. His Dying Earth series and Lyonese trilogy are great. His books are easily digested, full of great imagination, a bit of mystery, great wordplay (having a dictionary nearby is handy!) and just great to lie in bed on a wet winters day. Not going to win any prizes but great escapism.
Phillip K Dick. Imagination out of this world.
Iain M Banks. Also great imagination. His Culture series is fantastic.
For a change of pace, away from sci-fi:
Robert Graves. Wrote I, Claudius and Claudius the God - the two best books ever written about roman life (aside from maybe The Twelve Caesars by Suetonious which was written in 100AD and translated by none other than Robert Graves). His autobiography about his experiences as a captain in WWI (Goodbye to all that) is one the best war novels I've ever read and well worth getting your hands on whether you like war books or not. His poetry's brilliant as well.
Eric Hobsbawn. Historian. His Age of... series is simply brilliant.

I mostly read non-fiction, but when I do read fiction, my favorite author (modern, at least) is Jonathan Kellerman.

F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Favorite authors, in no particular order:

Jonathan Ames
Kurt Vonnegut
David Sedaris
Laurie Notaro
David Eddings
Irvin Yalom
Erma Bombeck
Dave Barry

Kurt Vonnegut

Yes! He is the best.

My Fave Authours :
Captain WE Johns
John Buchan
H Rider Hagard
Richmal Crompton
Jerome K Jerome
Tom Holt
Jules Verne

Ayn Rand and Edward Abbey

Favorite authors that I can think of, in no particular order:
Isaac Asimov
Robert Heinlein
Anne McCaffrey
Orson Scott Card
Jules Verne
J.R.R Tolkien
C.S. Lewis
Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising sequence)
Ursula K. LeGuin
Robert Louis Stevenson
J.K. Rowling*
...and a bunch of other authors that I can't think of at the moment

* - As I see it, J.K. Rowling is the George Lucas of the book world; both Star Wars and Harry Potter have imaginative settings, reasonably well-executed yet formulaic plots, lousy dialogue (*especially* love dialogue), and a redeeming sense of humor. I like the Star Wars movies, I like the Harry Potter books. YMMV.

Dave Gorman
Danny Wallace
Jacklyn Moriarty

Michener is the author of Space, which is my favourite book, but my favourite author is probably Clarke.

Erma Bombeck
Aww. Loves Ilie for loving Erma. :)

Fiction: J. R. R. Tolkien - conlangs, concultures, and interesting theology

Nonfiction: C. S. Lewis - explains everything the way I wish I could

Robert Heinlein
Kyle Mills
Harry Turtledove
Terry Pratchett
Matthew Reilly (Although he's in danger of falling off of the list)
Captain W E Johns (Come on, who doesn't like Biggles?)

So many to list...

Thomas Pynchon.
http://www.miserabili.com/archives/pynchonsimpson.jpg

I still like Pratchett even though I see him as a sort of intro to fantasy writing. David Eddings and Raymod E Feist are two aythors that I love and I spose I better mention Terry Brookes as I'm reading it at the moment

Raymond Feist is pretty good. I would put him in the "fantastic" category, except for the fact that his writing started going waaaay downhill after the original Riftwar saga. Those four books, plus the three books that he wrote with Janny Wurts (Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire and Mistress of the Empire) are the only ones I would highly recommend.

Robert Heinlein
Isaac Asimov (Foundation)
Spider Robinson
Elizabeth Moon (Sassinak and Deed of Paksenarrion)
Stephen King
J. K. Rowling
J. R. R. Tolkein
Phillip Pullman (Dark Materials series)
C. S. Lewis (while I like Dawn Treadar and Silver Chair, I am not as big a fan of the others.)
Dave Barry (particularly "...Hits Below the Beltway")

My absolute favorite... probably
Orson Scott Card.

I am re-reading Lost Boys now, and I am not ashamed to admit that the last two chapters still make me cry.

My least favorite author?
Ann Coulter.

Simply trying to comprehend her vicious invictive, sad unintentional irony and complete lack of logical thought also makes me cry, but from rage and frustration.

I noticed that I have a great deal of the same authors on my list as Taredas. While I own The Dark Is Rising series and a great deal of Anne McCaffrey Books, I haven't yet gotten around to reading them.

Dan Brown

Angels and Demons
The Da Vinci Code
Deception Point
Digital Fortress
(Another is being released later this year, taking place after The Da Vinci Code and starring our hero Robert Langdon.)

Neil Gaiman - Brilliant sort of thingy.
Douglas Adams - for obvious reasons.
Philip Pullman - Hmmm, dunno why.

Oh yeah, Douglas Adams too. Can't believe I almost forgot him.

Noam Chomsky

Douglas Adams, and

I can't believe nobody's said this yet:


Piers Anthony (Xanthony, Szanth)

I find it hard to believe he's not on ANYBODY'S list. I'm obsessed with the land of Xanth.

Favourite Author?
Kim Stanley Robinson

Closely followed by Terry Pratchett and Alastair Reynolds.

Mark Twain

Great classic American author, he is a genious, and so is his work. also his works are so creative

William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, William Blake and John Keats are my favorite writers, but my favorite works of literature aren't by any of them.

My favorite books are:

The Lord of the Rings-JRR Tolkien
The Diary of Anne Frank
Love in the Time of Cholera-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Prophet-Kahlil Gibran
The Rubaiiyat of Omar Khayyam
Will in the World-Stephen Greenblatt
What is Art?-Leo Tolstoy
The Republic-Plato

Oh yeah, Douglas Adams too. Can't believe I almost forgot him.

How the frak could I have forgotten Douglas Adams?

Orwell, Vonnegut, Card, Mowat, etc

Agatha Christie.

Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere, Coraline, Anansi Boys... Need I say more?
J.K. Rowling - Yes, it's cheesy, and yes, the HP series starts off very childishly and gets cheesier with time, but it's addictive!
Jean Auel - The Earth's Children series. I pick up any of the books, and I can't put it down until someone pries it from my hands so I can get some sleep.
Piers Anthony - Very surprised he's not in more lists. Personally, I fell in love with the Modes series, and the Adepts series, and all the Xanth I could get my hands on at the library. ^^;
Douglas Adams - The name that needs no explanation.
Anne McCaffrey - I ♥ Pern, Acorna, and the Rowan.
Dan Brown - Another author whose books are hard to stop reading once you start, if you can stand the cheesy plot twists. ;)
C.S. Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia. I've loved them since I was old enough to read them on my own, and I love them still.
Tamora Pierce - All her books are fantastic, IMHO.

There are more authors that I enjoy reading, but don't count among my favourites, too. I've been reading since I was 4, before I even started school (Yay, Sesame Street!), so I've had a LOT of time to rack up a list of authors. ^^;

My favourite novel is A Clockwork Orange, but it's the only work by Anthony Burgess that I've read, so I couldn't say he was my favourite author. Perhaps H P Lovecraft; Stephen King provides great page-turning horror, but Lovecraft's stories were highly original for the time...plus his writing style is much more wordy and enjoyable. I love Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole diaries too; hardly lofty literature, but they crack me up every time.
Yes, Clockwork Orange is great, also never read anything else by Burgess. Never heard of Townsend, though.
Mark Twain

Great classic American author, he is a genious, and so is his work. also his works are so creative
Agreed, I think my favorites are Hadleyburg and Yankee in KA's Court. As for other American classic authors, I can't believe no one has said John Dos Passos. He beats Hemmingway and Fitzgerald hands down far as I feel, but I do realize he gets shrugged over everywhere he's listed. So I guess I'm not surprised. I'm only part of the way through the 42nd Parallel, but it's a great book.

Oh, and Faulkner and Melville are both badass too.

As for newer/lesser known people...
*Stephen R Donaldson. I love "The Gap" slightly more than the Covenant series, but both are great.
*Gene Wolfe (though I think that "The Knight" series wasn't all that amazing, 'specially compared to the collective Books of the Suns and Peace).
*TH White, who wrote a version of King Arthur as WWII was dawning on Europe. Very interesting, even if historically butchered.
*Christopher Rowley. He's not that great, actually, but I love Bazil Broketail (wyvern dragon...think an amphibious, ~9 foot T-rex that's intelligent, swinging around a sword, and in a fantasy army with a dragonboy archer sidekick) for being the bestest, funner'est dragon I've read of.
*Terry Goodkind. I think he's mostly trash, now, but when I was 10-12 I thought he was amazing and he really got me into fantasy. So I owe him one.
*That guy who wrote the sciencey book "Conscilience" whose name I don't know.
*Pratchett, of course.

Many more I can't recall in a minute or two.

I have't read Jennifer Government, but simply so that Max Berry can feel better, I'll give him an hon-mention.

I have't read Jennifer Government, but simply so that Max Berry can feel better, I'll give him an hon-mention.

Jennifer Government is in my opinion the worst of his three books. Syrup is his best work. I read it in a single sitting.

Anyway, as for the topic at hand, Terry Pratchett wins by a mile (although his style has changed considerably since his first Discworld book).

Robert Heinlein
Lois McMaster Bujold (Ya gotta love Miles Vorkosigan)
John Hillerman
Susannah Gregory (writes intelligent mysteries set in the 14th century)
James Michener (if only for the educational value)
Herman Wouk

Yes, Clockwork Orange is great, also never read anything else by Burgess. Never heard of Townsend, though.Here you go (http://www.adrianmole.co.uk/). The Mole diaries are a quintessentially British thing, I think, but even then I'm sure they're not to everyone's taste, but I can't get enough of them. Her other novels aren't quite as good in my opinion.

I have't read Jennifer Government, but simply so that Max Berry can feel better, I'll give him an hon-mention.I've not read any of his other novels, but I thought JG was a good page turner :)

#1:
God Almighty

Then, in no particular order:
C.S. Lewis
Louis L'amour
James Reasoner
J.R.R. Tolkien

It’s a hard call, since mostly I read non-fiction, but I still have so many favourite authors.

For fiction:

Larry McMurtry
AB Guthrie
Colleen McCullough (especially the Historical Fiction of the Ancient World)
Robert Stone (Damascus Gate and Dog Soldiers)
Richard Bach
Isaac Asimov
John le Carre
Orson Scott Card
Stephen R. Donaldson
Frank Herbert
Robert J. Sawyer
The Sci Fi writing team of Niven, Pournelle, and Barnes.

I also have a soft spot for Louis L’Amour, Dick Francis, and JRR Tolkein.

Robert Harris
John Marsden
John Grisham

:)

Franz Kafka
Stanislaw Lem
Haruki Murakami
John Banville

Frank Herbert's "Dune" series began superbly, and Jack O'Connell's "Quinsigamond series" is great as well.

No orwell love tonight I guess.

No orwell love tonight I guess.
Mad props to Orwell, yo.

Frank Herbert

Your favorite author...

Marcel Proust.

Edward Gibbon.

Isaac Asimov.

William Shakespeare.

...I could make another list, but there's no need to keep cluttering up the thread.

Robert A. Heinlein

Hermann Hesse

Phillip K Dick. Imagination out of this world.

I like the one where the guy questions whether or not he or what he's experiencing is real...
Franz Kafka
Stanislaw Lem
Haruki Murakami
John Banville
Haven't heard of the last two, but since I like the first two you may have made a recomendation.


Yes, Clockwork Orange is great, also never read anything else by Burgess.
Haha, I've read more than that...o-one more...and I can't remember the title...(the one where the linguist is losing the language centers of his brain...I could look it up, but...)

So, apart from the dudes I agreed with up there, some of the dudes who I've read more than one book from-

Paul Auster, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Mark Twain, Arthur C. Clarke, maybe more that aren't coming to me right now...and then some playwrights who, according to the 'worst' thread aren't "authors" (I don't need your approval, dammit...*sob*...)

Robert Anton Wilson

My favourite novel is A Clockwork Orange, but it's the only work by Anthony Burgess that I've read, so I couldn't say he was my favourite author. Perhaps H P Lovecraft; Stephen King provides great page-turning horror, but Lovecraft's stories were highly original for the time...plus his writing style is much more wordy and enjoyable. I love Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole diaries too; hardly lofty literature, but they crack me up every time.

Wow. Our reading tastes are remarkably similar. A Clockwork Orange was my favorite book as well, and I was heavily into the old Providence spook (H.P. Lovecraft) too. My favorite current author is Stephen King, also. This is almost creepy. Haven't read any Sue Townsend though.

whew

China Miéville, Robert Holdstock, Philip Pullman, Norman Spinrad.

As for whom else I like......

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Fritz Leiber
Harlan Ellison
Graham Masterton
Michael McDowell
Robert Silverberg
Edgar Allan Poe
Peter Straub
Orson Scott Card
Ursula K. LeGuin
James Herbert
Ramsay Campbell
John Skipp and Craig Spector
Philip K. Dick
Stephen Donaldson
J.R.R. Tolkein

ok, I'll stop now...... (though I could keep going)

...
Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising sequence)
...

Ooh! I loved that series when I was younger. The books are still in my bookshelf.

Also, I have to agree with those that mentioned Douglas Adams.

Yay! Congrats! :)

I don't usually do that, but after almost three years (:eek:) you really, really deserved it.


Thanks! I'm often something of a lurker, so I don't post much. :D

Hands down, my favorite author has got to be George R.R. Martin. A Song of Ice and Fire has got to be the best fantasy series I have ever read and even the best books I have ever read, although I am clearly biased in my assessment. XD The plot twists are truly shocking, but not thrown in just for shock value. I'll spend time trying to get into characters heads, trying to figure out what they'll do or spend time wishing and burning with the need for a character to live or die. Great, great books.

Have you looked at Discworld Mud game on the web?
Its a text based thing, I found it totally confusing! :headbang:

Wow. Our reading tastes are remarkably similar. A Clockwork Orange was my favorite book as well, and I was heavily into the old Providence spook (H.P. Lovecraft) too. My favorite current author is Stephen King, also. This is almost creepy.Good to know I'm not alone; what good taste you have :fluffle: Clockwork has a clear polemic message relating to criminality and social control, fictional or not. I was thus disappointed to never see any reference to it when I was doing my BSc in Criminology, but when I was started my Masters, I was delighted to see it was a set text in one module. The essay for that class was the only one I've ever actually enjoyed writing, and garnered a very good mark. It pays to be interested!

Kurt VonnegutDitto. :)

Man! I forgot about George Orwell as well! (1984, obviously.)

Anyone else I've forgotton?

Max Barry (Jennifer Gov't- I loved the part about subcontracting the murders to the police)
Jon Stewert (for Naked Pictures of Famous People, as well as America)

I suppose that I could list Michael Crichton (sp?) but State of Fear really dissapointed me (for the plot, not the interesting discussions on the (lack of?) merits of Global Warming)

and Al Franken is too funny to not have his name on my updated list.

Im suprised nobody has mentioned Lovecraft...
Some of his stuff is crap, but some of it is good. The Call of Cthulu sucks as literature, but Cthulu himself is awsome. Who couldnt love a giant squid-dragon?

Cormac McCarthy, Cynthia Ozick, Gore Vidal, and Donna Tartt as far as modern writers go. I read Whitman and Yeats all the time as well.

Im suprised nobody has mentioned Lovecraft...
Some of his stuff is crap, but some of it is good. The Call of Cthulu sucks as literature, but Cthulu himself is awsome. Who couldnt love a giant squid-dragon?I mentioned Lovecraft (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10732267&postcount=10), as did at least two (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10732305&postcount=14) others (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10737527&postcount=60)! CoC is not his best tale, but I actually got into Lovecraft through the role-playing game of the same name. I agree that the creature himself is cool :)

I'm currently reading the House of Cards trilogy by Michael Dobbs. Unusually, the books are simply not as good as the superlative BBC dramatisation of them, but they're still fast-paced, humourous and very enjoyable. I can't see Dobbs making it into my favourite author list, but the novels are worthy of note nonetheless.