Who's your current favourite author?..............

[The Bluestocking]

My current "must-read" authors are Brandon Sanderson and Diana Gabaldon. I just can't stop turning the pages...

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Philip K. Dick. Just reread Ubik. Having another go at Three Stigmata, then maybe another run at Do Androids Dream.

 

[Idoru]

Current favourites are Sam Sykes, Kameron Hurley, Joe Abercrombie, Nick Harkaway and Brandon Sanderson. I'm also looking forward to reading Patrick Rothfuss and Brent Weekes.

 

[chongjasmine]

My current favourite authors are robert jordan and brandon sanderson.

 

[K. Riehl]

Lois Bujold, Julie Czerneda, Steve Miller and Sharon Lee, Jim Butcher, and Patrick Rothfuss are all of my must buy- must have authors right now.

 

[Chris Guillory]

Current favourite has to Steven Erikson.....

I do like Joe Abercrombie, Jim Butcher (only recently discovered) Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks to name a few.

Maybe a better question is who has dropped from being one of your favourites.

Robin Hobb has fell way out of my radar, Tad Williams has as well not that I dislike them but I won't be rushing to buy their latest books. I will catch up with them eventually but there plenty of others that I'll read first.

Nixie - You took the text right out of my brain. Recently read the Abercrobie trilogy and LOVED it. I just finished Bonehunters by Erikson, and will likely get the next one after I finish what I'm reading now (The Forever War by by Joe Haldeman).

And will obviously jump on the next Rothfuss book when it comes out!

 

[Mangara]

John Wyndham is the fist author I look for in the second hand bookstore, I love his style and everything I've read so far has been very enjoyable.

For contemporary authors Brandon Sanderson is one I'm keen to read more of after reading Elantris and the Mistborn trillogy.

 

[elvet]

Favorite authors equates to buying all their books, reviews unseen. So that would be Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erikson, Michelle Sagara West, Mark Lawrence, K.J. Parker and Neal Stephenson. There are probably more, but I can't think of them right now.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Favorite authors equates to buying all their books, reviews unseen.

That would mean I don't have one. I am not buying any more of Bujold's fantasy books.

psik

 

[J-Sun]

Favorite authors equates to buying all their books, reviews unseen.

That would mean I don't have one.

Yep, that's a high bar to set. I don't have one either although, for the most recent ones, I'd bought everything Greg Egan produced (leaving aside his first, kind of fluky, novel) until he started in on a trilogy and had gotten everything Bruce Sterling wrote up to 2009. I think I do have all the fiction Vernor Vinge has put out but I don't know I'd buy just anything he wrote. And, even with them, I still haven't read a book or two of those I've purchased.

I wonder if this is a style vs. idea thing? I tend to have authors I like which depends on a variety of reasons (and I do love Bruce Sterling's style) but the first thing I want to know is "what's it about?" and if it's about something that doesn't sound right, then I usually won't get it except for authors I'm crazy about or who I've somehow stumbled into seeing that they can pull off even things that don't sound right. But if I were into style as a more determining factor, I guess I would buy whatever they wrote, trusting that the way they wrote it would be satisfying.

What is it about those authors that put them in that class for you, elvet?

 

[j d worthington]

I'm not sure I could call anyone a "current favorite". My permanent favorite, at least since the age of about 12-13 (43-44 years now) would be H. P. Lovecraft, to whom I return time and again.

But I do have one who is currently moving up from the "top ten" list to possibly bumping one of my 30+-year-standing list of "top four": James Branch Cabell. I've long meant to read his "magnum opus", "The Biography of the Life of Manuel" (18 volumes in the "definitive" edition; 25 in some other editions), but only over the past two years or so have determinedly set about doing so. Lately I've been going at them one after another; I'm on #11 right now (The Certain Hour). With each volume I become more and more impressed, not only with his writing itself (which is, simply put, exquisite; as he says in various places, the goal is "to write perfectly of beautiful things") but the themes and his development of these themes, as well as the generous heart which I would say informs his work. It has been a very long time since I did such a thing, but I have a suspicion that I just might end up finishing this set only to turn around and read the entire thing all over again.....

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

I'm not sure I could call anyone a "current favorite". My permanent favorite, at least since the age of about 12-13 (43-44 years now) would be H. P. Lovecraft, to whom I return time and again.

I've got Necronomicon on the shelf waiting to be opened, often thought I should try Lovecraft but still haven't managed to start, there always seems like there's something else more attractive waiting for me when I look to see what to start next. This is the one I have waiting:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0575081562/?tag=brite-21

 

[Extollager]

But I do have one who is currently moving up from the "top ten" list to possibly bumping one of my 30+-year-standing list of "top four"...QUOTE]

Obviously it won't be Lovecraft who gets the bump, and I hope it won't be Tolkien! So: Ellison or Moorcock gets pushed off the raft? : )

 

[BAYLOR]

Steven Erikson . The Malazan series is just amazing stuff.

 

[Chris Guillory]

Steven Erikson . The Malazan series is just amazing stuff.

Reaper's Gale started off a little slow, but now that some of the recurring characters are coming into play, it's really picking up!

 

[johnnyjet]

Current favorite ... hmm, probably John Scalzi. Neal Gaiman a close second.

All Time favorite: Philip K. Dick, followed by Ursula K LeGuin, Cordwainer Smith, Gene Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, J.G. Ballard.

 

[j d worthington]

I've got Necronomicon on the shelf waiting to be opened, often thought I should try Lovecraft but still haven't managed to start, there always seems like there's something else more attractive waiting for me when I look to see what to start next. This is the one I have waiting:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0575081562/?tag=brite-21

Physically speaking, it's a lovely book... but textually, it's something of a mess. I won't go into details here, but there a LOT of problems with the actual texts of that collection, sadly....

Lovecraft is best taken when one is in the proper mood, at least for the first time. After that, it varies from person to person.

 

[j d worthington]

Obviously it won't be Lovecraft who gets the bump, and I hope it won't be Tolkien! So: Ellison or Moorcock gets pushed off the raft? : )

Hard to say. It may be that I have a "tie" position. Possibly Ellison, though it would be near thing. The more of his (Cabell's) work I read, the more impressed I am with him in a number of ways. I'm posting another quotation from one of them in that thread about him, a passage I came across last night, and which came, in the midst of a novel which has typically used an ironic tone as something of a "distancing" technique, as something of a jolt... and, I think, is beautifully done....

 

[Bugg]

My current favourites are Alastair Reynolds and Patrick O'Brian. I've (finally!) got into them over the past couple of years and am thoroughly enjoying catching up with their work. I'm certain they'll both rank among my all-time favourites. Lois McMaster Bujold and C J Cherryh are bubbling under at the moment.

 

[VALIS13]

Current favourite is Adam Roberts, who doesn't seem to get much love for some reason.