Your top Five favorite FANTASY writers ?

[Dave Vicks]

Robert E. Howard
Fritz Leiber
CS Lewis
JRR TOLKIEN.

 

[Elentarri]

J.R.R. Tolkien
Patricia A. McKillip
Janny Wurts

For most other authors whose books I've read, it's more along the lines of "I've loved/really enjoyed some of their books or loved one of them, but not all of them".

 

[Pyan]

JRRT
Sir Terry Pratchett
Raymond Feist
David Gemmell
= Jim Butcher / Ben Aaronovitch

 

[BAYLOR]

Robert E. Howard
J R R Tolkien
Clark Ashton Smith
Johnathan Maberry
Karl Edward Wagner

This is hard list because there are so many books I like .

 

[nixie]

Are they really favourites, not really sure but these are the authors whose books I buy most of.

Steven Erikson
Raymond E Feist
Brandon Sanderson
Mark Lawrence
R Scott Bakker.

 

[hitmouse]

Erm, I also don’t really think in terms of favourites, ranks, or lists. But I suppose, in no particular order I would include:
Michael Moorcock
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Mervyn Peake
Walter Moers
JP Martin

 

[Pyan]

JP Martin​

As in the excellent "Uncle" books!
When I was young I wanted to move to Homeward, though I'd bet you'd have preferred Badfort!

 

[paranoid marvin]

Tolkien
Pratchett
Stephen King
Dr. Seuss
Lewis Carroll

 

[Dave Vicks]

CS LEWIS anyone?

 

[Extollager]

Something like this for my list:

C. S. Lewis
Tolkien
S. T. Coleridge (Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Kubla Khan)
George MacDonald
Alan Garner (mostly for The Weirdstone of Brisingamen)

I'd have liked to include William Morris and Mervyn Peake for the first two Gormenghast books. I thought of Chesterton for The Man Who Was Thursday, but we're probably thinking of a tradition into which that book wouldn't quite fit.

 

[Culhwch]

Tolkien
Pratchett
Stephen King
Dr. Seuss
Lewis Carroll

I like the inclusion of King, I wouldn't have necessarily thought of him for this list!

Mine would be...

Tolkien
Pratchett
Feist
King

And I'm keeping that fifth slot open for now.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Ted Chiang.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's pretty unusual to see a page of writers without the name GRR Martin appearing once.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

It's pretty unusual to see a page of writers without the name GRR Martin appearing once.

Everyone here is showing their age...

 

[Culhwch]

It's pretty unusual to see a page of writers without the name GRR Martin appearing once.

Ten or fifteen years ago, sure. Heck, he was the reason I joined this site.

The last two books, plus all the waiting, has dampened my enthusiasm.

 

[BAYLOR]

It's pretty unusual to see a page of writers without the name GRR Martin appearing once.

Not getting around to finishing the book series really doesn't help.

 

[Pyan]

Not getting around to finishing the book series really doesn't help.

And that you can't afford to build a reader-character relationship with anyone in the books, due to his preference for killing off interesting people at a whim.
Just about all the fantasy paperbacks on my shelves bear the honourable spinal cracks of multiple readings and rereadings, apart from Martin's series. They have the smooth, pristine spines of once-read, then-ignored books, and are on my list of potential charity shop donations to make space for, frankly, better books.

 

[BAYLOR]

And that you can't afford to build a reader-character relationship with anyone in the books, due to his preference for killing off interesting people at a whim.
Just about all the fantasy paperbacks on my shelves bear the honourable spinal cracks of multiple readings and rereadings, apart from Martin's series. They have the smooth, pristine spines of once-read, then-ignored books, and are on my list of potential charity shop donations to make space for, frankly, better books.

He singlehandedly turned the killing off a popular character into a cliche .

 

[paranoid marvin]

Although this does reflect real life. In civil wars, choosing the wrong side/allies or trusting the wrong person got you killed.

The earlier books were in many ways like the 'Wars of the Roses'. Rob Stark - like Richard III has a strong power base in the North, whilst the unpopular Lannisters - ie the Woodvilles - were scheming to have a boy king put on the throne who would be under their control.

Richard had everything going for him, and could have taken the throne but for turning those who supported him against him.

In this real English civil war, kings, princes and nobles died just as easily (if not moreso) than commoners, and this is reflected in Martin's story.

I'm more bothered about the completely unecessary sex, violence and bad language in the books. They just get in the way of a good story. The Lord of the Rings needed none of those things (despite what Peter Jackson thinks!), and is all the better for it.

 

[BAYLOR]

Although this does reflect real life. In civil wars, choosing the wrong side/allies or trusting the wrong person got you killed.

The earlier books were in many ways like the 'Wars of the Roses'. Rob Stark - like Richard III has a strong power base in the North, whilst the unpopular Lannisters - ie the Woodvilles - were scheming to have a boy king put on the throne who would be under their control.

Richard had everything going for him, and could have taken the throne but for turning those who supported him against him.

In this real English civil war, kings, princes and nobles died just as easily (if not moreso) than commoners, and this is reflected in Martin's story.

I'm more bothered about the completely unecessary sex, violence and bad language in the books. They just get in the way of a good story. The Lord of the Rings needed none of those things (despite what Peter Jackson thinks!), and is all the better for it.

You might want check out The Accursed series by Maurice Druon Its seven book series revolving around King Phillip IV a.k.a Phillip the Fair who's anything but fair. George R R Martin admired this series . It was inflect on Game of Thrones.It was twice adapted a limited tv series in France.