Writing Favorite Writer

[Kamuro]

I'm always occupying myself insome way, but none more then actually sitting down, and reading, fiction, non-fiction, whatever, it always interests me, to see how other people's imaginations work, and how its converted into a story, whats your favorite writer? and why should we read what he/she writes?

[Shinmaru]

Unfortunately, there are a lot of writers who I like, but I haven't had much exposure to their work. For example, I like William Faulkner a lot, but I've only read [i]As I Lay Dying[/i] and I'm in the process of reading [i]The Sound and the Fury[/i]. I don't read enough of the works of many authors lol.

Of those whom I [i]have[/i] read a significant amount of their work, my favorite usually flip-flops between J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut. Salinger wrote my second favorite novel ever, [i]The Catcher in the Rye[/i], and he also wrote a bunch of really good short stories. Salinger mostly deals with teenagers and 'young adults' in his stories, which is pretty easy for me to relate to, seeing as I'm only nineteen lol.

A lot of Vonnegut's stories that I've read have to do with war. Vonnegut was a survivor of the fire-bombing of Dresden during World War II, and I'd wager that's what turned him into a pacifist. He's written a lot of great novels with anti-war leanings, of which [i]Slaughterhouse-Five[/i] and [i]Mother Night[/i] are my favorites. His writing style is a bit simple compared to a lot of authors, but he makes up for it by weaving very compelling stories.

I like Stephen King, too, but he can be a mixed bag, sometimes. Most of his novels are either very good with lame endings, or just completely awful and really embarrassing to read lol. His short story collections are surprisingly good, though, and his [i]Dark Tower[/i] series is excellent. I'd consider [i]The Dark Tower[/i] novels to be the best series of novels that I've read (and I've read [i]The Lord of the Rings[/i] trilogy, [i]Harry Potter[/i], and some other series, mind).

[Gentle]

I can't exactly tell you why you should read her books but, I'm a small fan of Tamora Pierce. Most books don't catch my interest unless they have a good title and then a good summary to back it up. Her's always did. I've only read two so far of one of her series: [I]Shatterglass[/I] and [I]Cold Fire.[/I] It's different from what I usually see which was better but something or another.

If I can remember who wrote the book, then it's a good author. If not, then I didn't really care much for them. I can only remember two and one, her books were just too long to forget her name.

[duoikari]

My favourite writer is Lian Hearns, she has done three stories all about a boy with extreme hearing senses, and how he meets the love of his life, each book is a carry on from the next, and it's set in ancient Japan. the first is Across the nightingale floor, the second is Grass on his pillow and the third is Brillance of the moon. There are the only books she done, but the story is really good. Antoher good book i read was called Cloud of sparrow, also base in Japan but in the early 50's. It's about and young japanese man who has vision of the future, he tries to make an alliance with some america preachers, it's also a love story and then he bring out the seque which is Autum Bridge, but i can't remember the name of the author, i'll put it up later. I recommend all of these books

[Lord Dante]

My favorite writer is a guy named Terry Goodkind.

his books (the sword of truth series) are, IMO, some of the best on the face of the earth. i could go on for hours about what makes them so great, but i can't be bothered. i suggest you read them yourself.

the series contains:

wizard's first rule
stone of tears
blood of the fold
temple of the winds
soul of the fire
faith of the fallen
naked empire

debt of bones.

they easily top lord of the rings in my oppinion.

[2010DigitalBoy]

I don't do too much reading, but if I do I tend to go to the same author's material. Do manga authors count? Because Myung-Jin Lee is a very good storyteller, but he uses pictures. Whoever writes the Artemis Fowl series is very skillful in her depiction of violence. That lady who wrote holes is really good at dropping little links beteen charchters that you don't really notice until later. (the whole "Hechter Zeroni" thing)

Oh! Sir Conan Doyle! He has to be me favorite author, as the Sherlock Holmes series is brilliant.

On second thought, my favorite author ever is Gavin Brown, author of such whisical tales as Wickersleeves and The Legend of Otaku Hollow.

[Dragon Warrior]

[quote name='ThatOneOddDude']On second thought, my favorite author ever is Gavin Brown, author of such whisical tales as Wickersleeves and The Legend of Otaku Hollow.[/quote]

How'd I know if I went to your post in this thread I'd find you saying that, you crazy stalker? XD But hey, it's a compliment to have someone think you're the greatest author. I'm honored.

I don't really have a favorite author, but I am definitely fond of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series, so I'll say he ranks in there along with probably Brian Jacques for the [i]Redwall Series[/i]. Those two authors are probably the only ones in existance that have gotten me to read their books fully without losing interest... thus far, I mean. Maybe there will be someone else someday.

I'm hard to please, I must say.

[img]http://img131.exs.cx/img131/8930/dwwashere9rz.gif[/img]

[Azure Rose]

[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue]I like so many authors, I'd be hard put to pick just one as my favorite, but Jacqueline Carey and Anne Bishop wrote two of my favorite trilogies ever: the Kushiel's Legacy Trilogy and the Black Jewels Trilogy. Both authors have the ability to create characters and worlds you become attached to, and the stories are such that when you finish the book, all you want to do is read more. At least, that's how I feel ^_^ Seriously though, as far as fantasy writers go, they're some of the best.

Ray Bradbury. Haha, a lot of my friends say they absolutely[I] hated [/I] [U]Farenheit 451[/U], but I thought it was seriously awesome. His style is so unique and gripping, I could read his stuff forever. The short stories I've read are equally awesome and equally freaky ("The Veldt" for example...) He's just incredible, and I wish I had half his skill as a writer. [/COLOR]

[Boo]

[color=gray][size=1]I think [i]Terry Pratchett[/i] and [i]Raymond E. Feist[/i] would be my favourite writers. Which would probably be because they are the only writers of who I have more than two books >.>;
It's just with Raymond E. Feist that he sometimes likes to spiff stuff up, but he overdoes it... I do that too a lot, so that might be why I like his stuff xD[/color][/size]

[Ozymandius Jones]

[COLOR=DarkOrange][QUOTE=Azure Rose][COLOR=DarkSlateBlue]
Ray Bradbury. Haha, a lot of my friends say they absolutely[I] hated [/I] [U]Farenheit 451[/U], but I thought it was seriously awesome. His style is so unique and gripping, I could read his stuff forever. The short stories I've read are equally awesome and equally freaky ("The Veldt" for example...) He's just incredible, and I wish I had half his skill as a writer. [/COLOR][/QUOTE]

YES!

Ray Bradbury is a genius. He mixes whimsical with the horror of the unknown perfectly. For those of you who are woefully uneducated, ;), "The Veldt" is a story about a virtual reality system used as a nursery for children...but little do the parents know that their children have found a way to make the "virtual" reality real...[insert evil laughter here]...

[QUOTE=Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man]George, I wish you'd look at the nursery.?

?What's wrong with it??

?I don't know.?

?Well, then.?

?I just want you to look at it, is all, or call a psychologist in to look at it.?

?What would a psychologist want with a nursery??

?You know very well what he'd want.? His wife paused in the middle of the kitchen and watched the stove busy humming to itself, making supper for four.

?It's just that the nursery is different now than it was.?

?All right, let's have a look.?

They walked down the hall of their soundproofed Happylife Home, which had cost them thirty thousand dollars installed, this house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them. Their approach sensitized a switch somewhere and the nursery light flicked on when they came within ten feet of it. Similarly, behind them, in the halls, lights went on and off as they left them behind, with a soft automaticity.

?Well,? said George Hadley.

They stood on the thatched floor of the nursery. It was forty feet across by forty feet long and thirty feet high; it had cost half again as much as the rest of the house. ?But nothing's too good for our children,? George had said.

The nursery was silent. It was empty as a jungle glade at hot high noon. The walls were blank and two dimensional. Now, as George and Lydia Hadley stood in the center of the room, the walls began to purr and recede into crystalline distance, it seemed, and presently an African veldt appeared, in three dimensions, on all sides, in color reproduced to the final pebble and bit of straw. The ceiling above them became a deep sky with a hot yellow sun.

George Hadley felt the perspiration start on his brow?[/QUOTE]

And it just gets weirder from there. [URL=http://www.veddma.com/veddma/Veldt.htm]Linkage.[/URL]



The Illustrated Man is a great collection of his short stories, Fahrenheit 451 is a classic and is my favorite book, and Dandelion Wine is also a really great book as well, if somewhat of a departure from his usual genre.

But if you like creepy without gory, "Zero Hour" is THE perfect story. And if you like weird...well...you should be able to find plenty there to enjoy.

So...yeah. Bradbury is, by far, my favorite author.[/COLOR]

[Arcadia]

[size=1]At the moment, some of my favorite writers are Guy Gavriel Kay and Frederick Buchner. Kay is such a wonderful story teller and his voice is so witty and intelligent. He writes a lot of fantasy novels, but they're very grounded in reality. Most of them are kind of like historical fictions and he puts a ton of research into them. His characters are so easy to love.

Buchner is a fucking artist, though. Amazing imagery and diction. [i]The Storm[/i] is almost like prose at some points - it's beautifully written. Love it.

Of course, I will always be a fan of the one and only Will Shakespeare. Iambic Pentameter never looked so good.[/size]

[GuyYouMetOnline]

Doesn't [i]]anyone[/i] here read science fiction? All I've seen are fantasy authors, with a couple exceptions. I mean, come on, people! There's more than just fantasy out there!

Admittedly, there are some fantasy authors that I like, but fantasy's been over-represented in this thread, so I'll just talk about my favorite sci-fi authors.


David Weber: Weber writesmillitary SF; his books are about wars in the far fuure. Interstellar wars, battles between fleets of spaceships. he writes excellent battles, bth in space and on the ground, but he doesn't just write action. His [i]Honor Harrington[/i] books especially explore an entire society, from the sociall aspects to the political ones, and he has an excellent grasp of politics. Plus he writes good characters.

Charles Sheffield: This guy's actually a PhD, and it shows. He knows what he's talking about. His stories are scientifically accurate, and tells some very good stories, and frequently throws in unexpected plot twists. His books always keep me guessing. He's also not afraid to do things the hard way, and has actually written a book, [I]Between the Strokes of Night[/I], that has an interstellar civilization without any form of faster-than-light travel. No hyperdrive, no wormholes, nothing. And it's done very well.

Robert J. Sawyer: Like Sheffield, Sawyer's books are scientifically accurate. Sawyer, however, takes on different subjects, and is certainly a much more controversial author. In [I]Calculating God[/I], he writes about aliens who have scientifically deduced the existance of a God that is a mortal being bound by the laws of physics, not a supernatural entity. In the [i]Neanderthal Parallax[/i] trilogy, he comes right out and says that there is no God, that religion is wired into the human brain. In [i]The Terminal Experiment[/i], he writes that animals, with rare exceptions like chimps, are soulless creatures. And he scientifically explains every one of those things. Not only that, but the science he bases these things off of is accurate. Simply amazing.

Jack L. Chalker: This guy has an imagination. He may not be as mindful of established fact, but he writes excellent stories, from the demons-are-real [i]Quintara Marathon[/i] trilogy to the race-changeing [i]Well World[/i] novels to the time-travel story [i]Downtiming the Nightside[/i], his plots are excellent. Plus, his characters are some of the best I've seen, especially [i]Quintara Marathon[/i]'s Jimmy McCray. McCray, an ex-priest of Irish ancestry with an unusual knowledge of the old demon lore and a parisitic or symbiotic (depending on who you ask) creature on his back, has to be the best character I've seen in a book.

[Persona]

[COLOR=DarkRed]As of now I am simply captivated by Clive Barker's creation and wondeful imagary. He is a brilliant writer and very imaginative. he simply grasps a hold of something simple and makes it twised and full of mysteries and wonder. Although his novels are thick and very much to read..it is all worth it, because every page is a breathe taker that keeps you going for more air. Another writer that I will always adore is Nora Roberts. Her romance and mystery books are facsinating and creative...a must read for the ladies.[/COLOR]

[Stuart]

[COLOR=DarkSlateGray][B]R.L Stine[/B] of course. The writer of many different children series, Such as; "Goosebumps" and "Fear street". R.L Stine's books, Although short and easy to read, The storys were always kept interesting and the books were almost impossible to put down once you begin because he ends each chapter with a dead end or something happens that you just need to find out in the chapter ahead. The "Goosebumps" series was once in the Guinness book of world records for the best selling childrens book, That was until "Harry Potter" came along. R.L Stine also wrote many other books. His "Choose your own story" books were always fun to read but sometimes confusing when you lost where you last left off xD.I once owned the entire collection of the "Goosebumps" series until my cat just happened to spray them before he was nudered... It's such a shame.

Yes I know I picked the Author of a children's book. I'm not ashamed.[/COLOR]

[JT Darkfire]

The one who got me into reading, helped me to begin writting, and I would have to say my overall inspiration, was Lynne Reid Banks. When I first read [U]The Indian in the Cupboard[/U] in the second grade, I couldn't put it down. I just had to buy the next three books in the series, even though I hated reading at the time. Ever since that book, I have been addicted to reading. In a way, I guess she will always be my favorite author.

[Minako]

My favorite author at the moment would have to be [B]Diana Gabaldon.[/B] I guess you could say her works are historical fiction (I guess a wee bit on the fantasy side..) but it tells of a woman, Claire Randall (maidenname Beauchamp) in 1945. She's on a "second honeymoon" in Scotland with her husband, Frank, because they didn't have time for a "first" honeymoon due to the war. Since there are many stonehenges in Scotland, and Frank's an archeologist, he was interested in pagan rituals that usually happened there. The accidentally witness such ritual and Claire ends up going [I]through[/I] the stonehenge back in time to 1743. The story goes on how she meets her husband's ancestor and how she meets the REAL love of her life, the wild red-haired Scotsman, Jamie "Red Jamie" Fraser.

I know it sounds corny, but this series is just AMAZINGLY written. Her descriptions of the people and their surroundings, and the events surrounding "The '45" and the battle of Culloden (a Scottish uprising against the king at the time, I forget his name, led by "the bonnie prince" Charles Stuart. This battle led to the slaughter of many many Scottish clans.). I've three of the books so far (I hear there's a fourth out now..) they're called, [I]Crosstich[/I], [I]Dragonfly in Amber[/I], and I feel bad because I forget what the third book is called. :animeswea

My English teacher (here in Finland) lent me the books and I got hooked. Diana Gabaldon's writing is seriously addicting! You can't put her books down!!

I highly recommend Diana Gabaldon.

I also have to mention a few of my other favorites (I won't go into the details, but a rough list of my favorites), [B]J.K. Rowling[/B], [B]Patricia Cornwell[/B] (though the last book I read [I]Trace,[/I] had a very anti-climactic(sp?) ending.), [B]Dick Francis, Lawrence Sanders, Jean Auel[/B]'s Earth's Children series is awesome too, and the list goes on, but I'm not going to bore you all more than I already have!

[Mitch]

right now my favorite author is mitchell grant smith. he isn't known well at all, and he is kind of a loser sometimes, and he's altogether pessimistic and overexaggerative, yet i enjoy him. he doesn't have any solid published material yet. he has, however, shared with me his work-in-progress novel, tentatively titled [u]Somewhere Out There[/u], which appears to be pretty solid thus far, albeit not the most uppity thing to read. he's only got a few poems published at this point in his just-began career, but also he has shared with me numerous poems he's made, and he shows immense talent. his writing mainly deals with a general dislike for society, and championing of the individual and pursuits of the self, as well as determination and celebration of the wonder and potent power of the written word.

[Juke Box Hero]

Niccolo Machiavelli is my all-time favorite author. [i]The Prince[/i] is an ultimate masterpiece of politic and power, rivalled by none in its genre. Not only the work itself, but its reflections of Florentine society in all of its rich complexity and spirit and the aftertaste of its culture given in the digestion of the text: culture steeped in the highest artistic virtue, while walled by death's cruel gaze.

James Clavell and Thomas Harris are also awesome, creating master characters such as Dirk Struan and Hannible Lecter

[Roxie Faye]

[color=#9933ff]Hack Helba - No need to be ashamed of R.L. Stine. Though I'm not much of a horror/scary story type person myself, my friend is, and I know he's written a lot of books for adults that are pretty good (accordign to my friend).

Takuya - What's wrong with fantasy? =P

One of my favorite authors ever has to be [b]Dianna Wynne Jones[/b]. She writes for the "Young Adult" age, but I still find her amazing. Her endings are also somewhat crappy, sometimes, but I don't know, I just still like her sooo much! If you love JK Rowling, definitely try Diana Wynne Jones. Try the Chrestomanci Chronicles; I still find those her best works, followed by Howl's Moving Castle & Castle in the Air (the former is already a Miyazaki movie! Check out the Anime Lounge for details... Wow that was very advertisement-like. @-@).

I also, of course, love J.K. Rowling & the Harry Potter series. I just LOVE it!!!

And before I got hooked on Fantasty, I was always a big historical fiction freak, especially when I was little, and I love the Little House on the Prairie series by [b]Laura Ingalls Wilder[/b]

But back to Fantasy! [b]Phillip Pullman[/b] and the [i]His Dark Materials[/i] series were amazing, so he's definitely one of my favorite authors, too! ^^

I'm currently reading volume one (of four) of a series called "Otherland" (the books are massive @_@) by a man called [b]Tad Williams[/b]. It was recommended to me by someone from another message board, and so far it's pretty good. I don't know if he's a favorite author yet, but I'm enjoying this book a lot! ^_^ The best way to describe it: "The ultimate virtual-reality saga, borrowing motifs from cyberpuk, mythology and world history." Heh.[/color]