Comparatively Fantastic! Our favourite authors

[Tonyblack]

Not sure I've read too much classical stuff. Read HG Wells and I guess he'd still be turning out Sci-Fi. I'd love to read modern books by Mark Twain and Jonathon Swift as I suspect their satire might even be a rival from Terry.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

OK let's rephrase -
I'd say Twain and Swift writings are certainly 'classic' as they're taught all over And HG Wells too *wise nod*. After all some people would classify Austen as Mills and Boons so it's authors whose work and style is still in use and admired today

So - what do you think your fave deceased author would be into if they'd been born into our generation?

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I wonder what George MacDonald would have been writing now as I have enjoyed his previous ones, he only wrote two adult ones,and did inspire JRRT I believe.

 

[NightOwl]

going through my influences -
Sterling Lanier - Hiero's Journey etc - great post apocalyptic psi - fi
CS Lewis - Narnia etc
early David Eddings - Belgariad
HG Wells - not re-read recently though - Time Machine
Orwell - 1984
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Tolkien - LotR etc - seminal!
Walpole - Castle of Otranto
Swift - Gulliver's travels
Stephen Donaldson - The Gap series + Mirror of ther dreams etc
Julian May - Golden Torc
Herbert - Dune
Asimov - Foundation
William Gibson - cyberpunk stuff
I used to enjoy those silly punny Xanth novels

more recently
Robin Hobb - Assassin's etc
Iain M Banks - Culture novels
Jasper FForde - time detective novels
Dan Brown - hi-tech conspiracy theories

I think fantasy / sci-fi etc is a pretty wide genre

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Stumbled on this thread looking for something else

In my latest adventures in searching for compatible literary agents to peddle my own stuff I needed to review which authors I enjoy reading and as fantasy/scifi as a genre seems for some reason to be looked down on amongst the bigger hitters I only found 3 authors I could hand on heart say I actually admired...

So first because he's the one I've read longest - Tom Sharpe. Too sharp sometimes - I was actually physically nauseated by The Throwback (condoms, scouring powder and cheesegraters.... ) - but the South African novels and of course the Henry Wilt series are brilliant books that satirise some of the truly nastier social mores of modern times.

Kate Atkinson - adore her early stuff, especially Behind the Scenes at the Museum. She's got this friendly yet aetherial quality like you're giggling with someone in the kitchen at a party and all of sudden you're off in the haunted woods running after a woman who's just turned into a hind. Quirkily eerie rather than terrifying until you return to the mundane storyline and think how can they do that still?

Jeanette Winterston - weird and wonderful. I like short stories and she does them so well and often to a theme. She also has a thing about sleep and dreams so, for an insomniac, she's always a compelling writer. Oh yeah and it's nice not to have sexuality rammed down your throat the whole time either except in context like the marvellous Dog Woman in Sexing the Cherry

And my probably favourite contemporary author that I couldn't find at all in the Agents client lists online - Julian Barnes. He's just marvellous - I first read him in History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters and he's just spellbinding by stealth almost. Just as think you have him sussed he does something so simple and breathtaking with such finesse it's actually profoundly shocking - he's Tom Soft actually

 

[raisindot]

So first because he's the one I've read longest - Tom Sharpe. Too sharp sometimes - I was actually physically nauseated by The Throwback (condoms, scouring powder and cheesegraters.... ) - but the South African novels and of course the Henry Wilt series are brilliant books that satirise some of the truly nastier social mores of modern times.

Has he written anything since "The Midden"? That's the last book of his I've seen in the U.S., and that was ages ago. I wish he were more prolific.

 

[pip]

Julian Barnes has produced some wonderful books . Read Arthur and George earlier this year and its absolutely fantastic.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

He's actually more active than I thought Jeff - I knew there was another Wilt book out recently but there's 2 more I haven't read (last one I read was Wilt on High) but he's written other stuff in between - here's his wiki entry so you can check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sharpe

Have you read England, England and Metroland Pip - they're pretty good fun to read but with underlying caustic commentary Talking it over was quite good as well

 

[pip]

cool. I'll keep an eye out

 

[SpyViolette]

Oh, there are quite a few. Let's see, besides Pratchett of course, my top three favorite authors are:
- Markus Zusak (The Book Thief is one of my favorite books ever.)
- Maggie Estep (Not very well known, but she wrote an amazing book called Diary of an Emotional Idiot.)
- Sarah Waters (for all things lesbian romance...)

And that's not even counting my favorite poets.

 

[pip]

Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is brilliant one of the better books i've read.
I bought another of his I Am the Messenger a few months back but still haven't got around to mit.

Jan picked up Metroland by Julian Barnes . Nice crisp first edition

 

[SpyViolette]

I also have I Am the Messenger and I've been meaning to read it, but I got a bit distracted by Discworld...

 

[Antiq]

Authors I'm currently loving to bits - apart from Sir Terry (lovelovelove) -

Kazuo Ishiguro - started reading him ages ago, love his "watercolour" style of writing.
China Mieville - Such extraordinary originality, something that's hard to find these days. The Iron Council is stunning, The City and the City mind-bending.
Iain M Banks - the sci-fi books. Best science fiction book I have ever read to date is The Algebraist. The Player of Games and Feersum Endjin follow closely.
Edward Rutherfurd - he writes historical novels about places - hugely entertaining and epic. Sarum, Russka, New York, London, Dubin, Ireland-The Awakening etc.
Tracy Chevalier - she wrote Girl With a pearl Earring, and I have like all of her books so far.

There are many more authors I love, but this list could go on...and on...

 

[Danny B]

Have you read China Miéville's Embassytown yet, Antiq? Amazing.

I'm with Antiq on including Iain (M.) Banks and China Miéville amongst my favourite authors, but I'll also add the following.

Donald E. Westlake (including his alias of Richard Stark): An incredible crime writer, able to shift effortlessly between light and frothy capers, pitch black and violent noir and slick contemporary fiction.
Christopher Fowler One of my absolute favourites. Whether he's writing weird urban horror stories, dark fantasies or dense mysteries, he's always top quality.
Clive Barker Is he horror writer or a fantasy writer? It's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends, but his writing is always magical, hypnotic and beautiful.
Robert Holdstock Arguably the most important British fantasy writer of the 20th century, for my money.
Ursula K. Le Guin She hasn't written anything I didn't love to bits. Even her lesser works have a grace in the prose and a fierce intellect behind them that most SF or fantasy writers can't match.

 

[Antiq]

Have you read China Miéville's Embassytown yet, Antiq? Amazing.

No, I haven't!! Another for my "to read" list