Who Is Your Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author(s)?

[brother vinny]

I'm well into The Great Hunt, Book Two of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series. I intend to read all ten books over the next few months, and would like to hear your recommendations for other Science Fiction and Fantasy authors.

Here's a few of mine:

Frank Herbert
Douglas Adams
Terry Pratchett
J.R.R. Tolkien
Orson Scott Card
Stephen Lawhead
David Eddings

[Dilton]

The Watchouski Brothers

[Piebald]

in no specific order,

1. J.R.R. Tolkien
2. C.S. Lewis
3. J.K. Rowling

[brother vinny]

Today @ 09:59 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=108551#post108551)
Hamster:

in no specific order,

1. J.R.R. Tolkien
2. C.S. Lewis
3. J.K. Rowling

I forgot about Rowling! I don't exactly consider her a genre author, but her books are very enjoyable.

I've only read a couple of the Narnia books by Lewis.

[brother vinny]

By the by, David Brin is GoH at a convention in my area this July (which I plan to attend). Has anyone here read him? If so, is he any good? If so, what would you consider his essential works?

[Jaltus]

Hmm, Brin is pretty well known, but I just cannot get into his style.
He is very much sci-fi, whereas I am more of a fantasy guy. Just go to Amazon to look up his works.

For other authors, I highly recommend:

Raymond Feist
C S Friedman
Guy Gavriel Kay
Isaac Asimov

[Bill the Cat]

George Lucas

[HerodionRomulus]

Marion Zimmer Bradley
Andre Norton
Anne McCaffrey
Asimov
Tolkein
Frank Herbert--and the books by his son Brian which continue the Dune saga
Robert Silverberg
Vernor Vinge
J. Michael Straczynski

[Solly]

Lightweights most of them; get into the hard stuff...

Harlan Ellison
Cordwainer Smith
Samuel Delaney
Gordon Dickson
Philip K Dick
Ursula LeGuin
Christopher Priest
H Beam Piper
Frank Herbert
A E Van Vogt
Hal Clement


off the top of my head, since it's been a dozen years since I read the stuff

[Jaltus]

Hard stuff or old stuff? ;)


Hey....I was only kidding....remember that you are a pastor......

*hides behind Brother Vinny*

[Solly]

Today @ 04:51 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=110009#post110009)
Jaltus:

Hard stuff or old stuff? ;)


Hey....I was only kidding....remember that you are a pastor......

*hides behind Brother Vinny*

:rofl: Both; it's all commercial these days, which is why I don't read it. The last big thing was Cyberpunk which happened just as I was coming out of it. Everybody else started writing fantasy novels which also put me off.

[Rusty T]

Nobody mentioned Robert Heinlein?

Or Tad Williams?

[efta777]

Vinny
I didn't think anyone else would mention Douglas Adams - I usually don't like the genre, but I love his books, they make milk come out my nose at times. Though C.S. Lewis is good too because it's thought provoking.

Also, has anyone ever read Stephen R. Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever?" It's a pretty crazy yet deeply written series.

[Bill the Cat]

Today @ 12:59 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=110076#post110076)
efta777:

Vinny
I didn't think anyone else would mention Douglas Adams - I usually don't like the genre, but I love his books, they make milk come out my nose at times. Though C.S. Lewis is good too because it's thought provoking.

Also, has anyone ever read Stephen R. Donaldson's "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever?" It's a pretty crazy yet deeply written series.

Thomas Covenant ROCKED. Lord Foul the Despiser was one of the best written villains I've ever come across. I read all 6 in a month. Could not put them down!!

[Rusty T]

"His Dark Materials" trilogy is one of the best written set of books I have ever read. I highly recommend it. It's a bit heretical, but . . .

[Undomiel]

J.R.R. Tolkien
C.S. Lewis


I was once a huge Frank Herbert fan, in fact I was friends with the man who compiled the Dune Encyclopedia. I also exchanged emails concerning the House Atreides novel with Kevin J. Anderson. He asked me if I would assist in defending the work on alt.fan.dune since several naysayers had begun to trash the work before they'd even read it. I constructed a site for Dr. McNelly, the man who compiled the Dune Encyclopedia. He sent me a huge packet of all his life's writing via snail mail. I still have it somewhere, in one of my boxes (we moved), I do believe. I even have a site dedicated to creative writing roleplay set in the Duniverse (Dune universe), starting with Paul Atreides as a young lad. Unfortunately, I never go there [and it's my site!] because I've begun to dislike the Duniverse.

Dr. McNelly passed away recently from absestos-related lung cancer and his son sent me an email with his obituary and asked me to spread the word to Dr. McNelly's fans. We got into a conversation in which I explained my grievances against the Dune stories and Dr. McNelly's son told me that he knew Frank Herbert very well and the man was a nihilist and an atheist. I knew there was something about it that just didn't seem right. My list of dislikes grew to include things like - the women were either mean and cruel or totally bonkers. When there was a woman that was kind, she was bumped off early = Chani, Hwi Noree. The only woman that survived the entire fiasco of the God Emperor was Siona and she was violent and angry to the extreme. Women were chattel, and tossed around like rag dolls = witness the Bene Gesserits who were assigned husbands. The society was decidely feudalistic and completely atheist. Not my cup of tea. I didn't realize this though, on first reading, or tenth. It took awhile for the subtle messages in it to sink in.

Anyway, if you are a Dune fan, I have two sites dedicated to it.
one is FOLDSPACE http://futureprometheus.com/fold/ check out the Terminologies. I worked hard on those.
The other is Dr. McNelly's site for the Dune Encyclopedia: http://futureprometheus.com/

[Lizard]

With a user name like Faramir, I will let you figure it out.

:teeth:

OK in addition to Tolkien I like, in no particular order:

Frank Herbert
Robert Heinline
Anne McCafry (sp?)
Clifford Simak (really old stuff)
Douglas Adams
Timothy Zahn

[Undomiel]

Oh yeah, Douglas Adams. :lol:

Okay, I gotta give cudos to Douglas Adams.

[dublczek]

Currently, heroic fantasy writer, David Gemmel. Also, if you like fantasy and metaphysics, try A Voyage To Arcturus by Lindsay (I think). And the couple that wrote Polgara.

[Solly]

Yesterday @ 06:35 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=110104#post110104)
Undomiel:

I was once a huge Frank Herbert fan, in fact I was friends with the man who compiled the Dune Encyclopedia. I also exchanged emails concerning the House Atreides novel with Kevin J. Anderson. He asked me if I would assist in defending the work on alt.fan.dune since several naysayers had begun to trash the work before they'd even read it. I constructed a site for Dr. McNelly, the man who compiled the Dune Encyclopedia. He sent me a huge packet of all his life's writing via snail mail. I still have it somewhere, in one of my boxes (we moved), I do believe. I even have a site dedicated to creative writing roleplay set in the Duniverse (Dune universe), starting with Paul Atreides as a young lad. Unfortunately, I never go there [and it's my site!] because I've begun to dislike the Duniverse.

Dr. McNelly passed away recently from absestos-related lung cancer and his son sent me an email with his obituary and asked me to spread the word to Dr. McNelly's fans. Anyway, if you are a Dune fan, I have two sites dedicated to it.
one is FOLDSPACE http://futureprometheus.com/fold/ check out the Terminologies. I worked hard on those.
The other is Dr. McNelly's site for the Dune Encyclopedia: http://futureprometheus.com/

---->Solly :bow: To you and Dr McNelly
I am impressed, very impressed. I loved the Dune Encyclopedia; it didn't get the mention in despatches it deserved - so much work went into it, even though there were books coming out after it.

Of Herbert's stuff, I only really liked Dune (the original trilogy); his other stuff was too anti-religiously polemical - Wor-Ship!! - or just not my kind of novel, like Whipping Star and Santaroga, but Dune held it together. I re-read them recently, and liked it, though it is interesting to see how my tastes have changed (I also tried re-reading Ayn Rand; Blecch!!).

I especially liked the sub-creation in Dune, both of the planet itself and the society, and so haven't read the later creations of Herbert/Anderson.

The film stinks, and it's a shame, cos nobody will make it again in my lifetime.

Edit: just spent 20 mins browsing the sites you mentioned. WOW, some jolly good work there. Nice fonts too.

[Undomiel]

Today @ 08:32 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=111238#post111238)
Solly:



---->Solly :bow: To you and Dr McNelly
I am impressed, very impressed. I loved the Dune Encyclopedia; it didn't get the mention in despatches it deserved - so much work went into it, even though there were books coming out after it.

Of Herbert's stuff, I only really liked Dune (the original trilogy); his other stuff was too anti-religiously polemical - Wor-Ship!! - or just not my kind of novel, like Whipping Star and Santaroga, but Dune held it together. I re-read them recently, and liked it, though it is interesting to see how my tastes have changed (I also tried re-reading Ayn Rand; Blecch!!).

I especially liked the sub-creation in Dune, both of the planet itself and the society, and so haven't read the later creations of Herbert/Anderson.

The film stinks, and it's a shame, cos nobody will make it again in my lifetime.

Edit: just spent 20 mins browsing the sites you mentioned. WOW, some jolly good work there. Nice fonts too.



:rofl: Never had anyone bow to me before. Quit that. :bonk: heh heh heh Well that was my 15 minutes of fame. Whew, glad that's over with. :lol:

P.S. I loved the film. But now the entire Duniverse has lost its appeal. Star Wars, on the other hand, probably never will lose its appeal. George Lucas is a much more positive and even-handed man. Frank Herbert just thought we all sucked. :shrug:

[FirstSunday33ad]

AbFab SYFI...Grant Naylor (aka Rob Grant, Doug Naylor) :yipee:

[DanielleJoy]

Douglas Addams (HGTG)
CS Lewis (Narnia)
Any Dystopia author (Orwell, Huxley, Zamyatin, Atwood, L'engle, ect...)
Ray Bradbury (EVERYTHING, it's just his writing style more than anything)
L. Frank Baum (Wizard of Oz series)
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance)

[Lizard]

:argh: How could I have forgotten Ray Bradbury. :argh:

[wienerdog]

Orson Scott Card
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle ("The Mote in God's Eye" and "Inferno" are excellent)

I always liked Heinlein, but he always seemed more of a pulp writer. I kind of liked Spider Robinson's earlier stories, but he ended up getting really disgusting and offensive.

[Captain Ochre]

Today @ 07:14 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=121038#post121038)
wienerdog:

Orson Scott Card
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle ("The Mote in God's Eye" and "Inferno" are excellent)


I dig the "Tales of Known Space" by Niven. I like the way he blends sci-fi with the mystery genre.
I liked Jo Clayton's earlier work before she took a page from Frank Herbert (sorry, folks, but I get weary of encountering names that I cannot pronounce when they turn up about three times per sentence).
Heinlein's okay, but his autobiographical streak is insufferable much of the time. Okay, maybe not autobiographical exactly, but he seems to appear (thinly disguised) in most of his tales. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress I do regard as a classic. So, even though I rarely mention it, I know what some of you folks are saying when your sig line says "TANSTAAFL".
Stanislaw Lem is the best that Sci Fi has to offer, even though he's a rough fit for the genre. Adams is lightweight by comparison, and I enjoyed THGTTG.

Dan Simmons received oblique mention in poetry-related thread here at TWeb. If you sci-fi fans haven't read Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion then I'm suggesting that you track it down and read it.


I always liked Heinlein, but he always seemed more of a pulp writer. I kind of liked Spider Robinson's earlier stories, but he ended up getting really disgusting and offensive.

I like R. E. Howard's "Conan" series, and ERB's "John Carter of Mars was another favorite."
There's an art to storytelling even if the story isn't crafted as a thought-provoking object of art.
The Conan stories felt real to me, something like the way LotR reads as history.

[prgmrdave]

Today @ 12:16 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=121054#post121054)
Captain Ochre:

I dig the "Tales of Known Space" by Niven. I like the way he blends sci-fi with the mystery genre.

Gil "The ARM" Hamilton :thumb:

...ERB's "John Carter of Mars" was another favorite.

Wow, that was a long time ago.

Piers Anthony and the never-ending Xanth series...
The stories involving Kim and Kris Kinnison (who wrote those again??)
Some of David Brin
Alan Dean Foster
Orson Scott Card (The Alvin Maker series is getting four new books!)

[Undomiel]

Anybody recognize my author avatar? :teeth:

[Vorkosigan]

Lois McMaster Bujold
Poul Anderson
Piers Anthony (before Xanth consumed him)
Harry Harrison
Isaac Asimov
Larry Niven
Jerry Pournelle
Marian Zimmer Bradley
Anne McCaffrey
Joe Haldeman
Robert Heinlein
Robert Sheckley
AE Van Voght
Algis Budrys
John Campbell
Karl Edward Wagner
Damon Knight
Gordon R. Dickson
Fred Saberhagen

..and those are just some. There are so many great ones out there.

Vorkosigan

[JardinPrayer]

05-26-2003 @ 11:15 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=108575#post108575)
Brother Vinny:

By the by, David Brin is GoH at a convention in my area this July (which I plan to attend). Has anyone here read him? If so, is he any good? If so, what would you consider his essential works?

Brin's two most popular books were both Hugo Award winners: "Startide Rising," and it's sequel, "The Uplift War." They're mid-1980s books, but his best, IMHO. When he got married in 1990 or so, his stuff got really mushy and long-winded. He seemed to have lost his edge.

I used to be on a mailing list Brin kept back then. Anyone who wrote to him got on the list and received periodic newsletters...they were really just general letters to everyone, much like blogs!

I wrote sci-fi/horror for 10 years - published a couple of short stories - met and hung with just about everyone I'd ever read. So, my opinions are quite objective, but to this:

05-28-2003 @ 03:07 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=109721#post109721)
Solly:

Lightweights most of them; get into the hard stuff...

Harlan Ellison
Cordwainer Smith
Samuel Delaney
Gordon Dickson
Philip K Dick
Ursula LeGuin
Christopher Priest
H Beam Piper
Frank Herbert
A E Van Vogt
Hal Clement


I give a HUGE :thumb: and offer my own list:

Dick and Ellison are undoubtedly outstanding, but I find them a little difficult to read (I still love them, though);

For "the hard stuff," I'd have to nominate:
Joe Haldeman (a must read for hard sf fans)
Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle (The Mote in God's Eye)
Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead)

Less hard:
George R.R. Martin
Ursula LeGuin
James Tiptree (that's going back a ways, and is actually a woman)
Richard Matheson (nearly a deity)

Peace,
JardinPrayer

[Pilgrim]

Heinlein for Sci Fi
Eddings for Fantasy

At least those are the two authors I have read and reread the most.

The list is longer of course...

Lewis
Anthony
McCaffrey
MacDonald
Herbert
and I really liked Christopher Hienz's "Paratwa Triology"

[Solly]

Anybody ever read

Space War Blues by Brian Lupoff? That was great
And I mention, possibly again, Involution Ocean, by Bruce Sterling
Joe Haldeman's Forever War
The only ST story I really liked, Memory Prime, by Gar Reeves.
RAW's Illuminatus Trilogy blew my mind
David Lyndsay's Voyage to Arcturus, which I read recently, is a challenge

[JardinPrayer]

Again, I'm a very subjective contributor. Joe Haldeman was one of the dearest friends I ever made. Forever War is, of course, his best know work, but he wrote a trilogy in the 80s: Worlds, Worlds Apart, and Worlds Enough and Time about a "generation" ship that headed out for deep space when the world was destroyed, the crew knowing their generation would never see life on a planet again...in fact their children wouldn't. They were living to provide a home for their grandchildren. Very moving and full of neat hard science at the same time. That's whay I always loved about Haldeman. So, "yes" to that one, Solly!

I stopped reading SF about 6 years ago...my life changed dramatically and I stopped going to conventions and stopped writing and fell out of touch with current work. You guys are making me long for it.

And, for those who mentioned Harlan Ellison...does anyone know about his house, "Ellison Wonderland?" What an experience to tour.

Sorry...not talking about writing anymore. I'm getting nostalgic.

Peace,
JardinPrayer

[TWells]

05-27-2003 @ 03:48 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=108541#post108541)
Brother Vinny:

I'm well into The Great Hunt, Book Two of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series. I intend to read all ten books over the next few months, and would like to hear your recommendations for other Science Fiction and Fantasy authors.



I envy you. The Great Hunt is one of the very best of the series, far better than EOTW.

My favorites have always been Tolkien, Herbert, Asamov, Clarke (less and less though the more I find out about him) Silverburg etc. My ablsolute favorite of scifi/fantasy though will always be the Star Wars saga.

[brother vinny]

Today @ 03:19 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=121391#post121391)
TWells:



I envy you. The Great Hunt is one of the very best of the series, far better than EOTW.

I'm a little ways into The Shadow Rising, now. Check out my blog for my thoughts thus far on it.

[PRAISE]

I'm not really that much into Sci-Fi, but from that catagorey, I would say the book-"STARDANCE" by Spider & Jennae Robinson. That was excellant! As far as Fantasy, there aren two authors that I really like. One is Stephen R. Donaldson-author of "THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER" TRILOGY & "THE SECOND CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT" TRILOGY, & my other favorite fantasy author is Terry Brooks-author of the "SHANARRA" books. There are 9 boorks in that series, starting with "THE FIRST KING OF SHANARRA"! They were excellant!

PRAISE:thumb:

[One Bad Pig]

PRAISE:

I'm not really that much into Sci-Fi, but from that catagorey, I would say the book-"STARDANCE" by Spider & Jennae Robinson. That was excellant! As far as Fantasy, there aren two authors that I really like. One is Stephen R. Donaldson-author of "THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER" TRILOGY & "THE SECOND CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT" TRILOGY, & my other favorite fantasy author is Terry Brooks-author of the "SHANARRA" books. There are 9 boorks in that series, starting with "THE FIRST KING OF SHANARRA"! They were excellant!

PRAISE:thumb:

You're missing some Shanarra books! They should be read in order of publication, IMHO.
The Sword of Shanarra
The Elfstones of Shanarra
The Wishsong of Shanarra

The Scions of Shanarra
The Druid of Shanarra
The Elf Queen of Shanarra
The Talismans of Shanarra

First King of Shanarra

The Voyage of the Jerle Shanarra (trilogy)
Ilse Witch
Antrax
Morgawr

I've also enjoyed his Magic Kingdom of Landover books. They're fluff, but FUN fluff.

The authors I can't get enough of are David Gemmel, CS Friedman, GG Kay, Julie Czerneda, CJ Cherryh, Glen Cook, and Robert Jordan. I've pretty much read myself bored of Andre Norton, Katherine Kurtz, and Anne McCaffrey.

[johnransom]

Well, I agree with pretty much all of the names mentioned by everyone - good authors all. What amazes me though is how much believers are into science fiction, given that it is largely an atheist/humanist-dominated genre. And often very depressing. Nevertheless, here are a few more names to consider:

Tad Williams (Otherland tetralogy)
James P. Hogan (all sorts of interesting parallel worlds stuff)
HARRY TURTLEDOVE!!! How come no one has put him up?
Charles Sheffield
David Drake (if you like your SF bloody)

And there are plenty of Christian SF authors too:

Stephen Lawhead (fantasy and SF)
Randy Alcorn
Bill Myers
Karen Hancock
Kathy Tyers (who completely rewrote her Firebird trilogy after conversion)
John Olson
Randall Ingermanson
Gilbert Morris (and family)
Calvin Miller
George MacDonald
Shane Johnson

[Seeton]

Orson Scott Card
Tolkien
C.S. Lewis
J.K. Rawling
Ann Rice don't count but boy her stuff is cool!
Timothy Zahn (don't know if I spelled right)
Anne Mcaphry(pretty sure I mispelled)



When the heck is there going to be an Ender's Game movie?!
We all want one!