Not sure if this should not be on the authors' board but I wondered who people's favourite novelists are. Mine are mainly from sci-fi and fantasy: JRR Tolkein (of course) Isaac Asimov Gene Wolfe Frank Herbert (for the first 4 Dune books) Arthur C. Clarke Umberto Eco Douglas Adams Terry Pratchett Ursula K Le Guin (how could I miss her out) I have thread (an example of me using the wrong word again) quite a few classic novels but probably not enough, although I have listened to many more audio books - by the Brontes, for instance.
Not in any particular order: Patricia briggs Tolkein Brian Jacques Gaie Sebold After I find the rest of my books, I'll put up more. As for Manga: Okayado (Monster Musume) Nakaba Suzuki (Seven Deadly Sins) Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail) and my personal hero: Ken Akamatsu (Negima, UQ Holder, and the awesome Love Hina Series)
Jack L. Chalker isn't technically the best writer I've ever read, but he sure has a lot of physical and mental transformations -- some interesting, some fun, some sexy, some all three.
"When a fresh-faced guy in a Chevy offered him a lift, Parker told him to go to hell." They're nowhere near erotic, but the Parker novels by Richard Stark (a pen name of Donald Westlake) are triumphs of noir fiction. Parker is an ugly bastard whose only skills are hurting people and taking their valuables. Yet Parker has the discipline of a professional thief: greed and impulse aren't in his nature, and each novel holds a laser focus on the one specific thing he's after. The prose is unadorned and direct, not a word wasted, and even a description of Parker ordering coffee speaks volumes about his aloofness, his single-mindedness. Together it all leaves you wanting to see him get away with his crimes, and more than just a great crime novel, The Hunter (first in the series) is one of my all-time favorite novels.
If the topic switches to the best writer of novels, it was after reading the start of "A Gentle Spirit" by Dostoyevsky that I realised I would never be a greater writer and this was of course (although I did study Russian) a translation!
I followed Chalker's Well of Souls (transformation to exotic alien species/struggle to save or repair the universe by tuning the Master Computer's programming) and Four Lords of the Diamond (secret missions on four biologically inescapable prison worlds, each with distinct psi-magic powers) series as a young adult. It might be a fun premise to set up a Well World or Four Lords story for Chyoo/Chyoa. Downtiming The Night Side seemed to be Chalker's most tangled web of time travel and mental and physical transformation. I might have enjoyed The Identity Matrix best, though it kind of reads as an author's personal wish-fulfillment scenario. Nebbish economics professor finds himself body-switched with a young Alaskan Indian woman, then a cute Canadian college girl. They're captured by the Kind Of Sinister Government Guys running the Secret Project Against The Body Switching Aliens. After struggling with their new identities and new sexualities and against the Kind of Sinister Government Guys, and getting mind-wiped, the ex-professor and the ex-college girl have their memories restored (edited?) and form part of the Earth's delegation to Get The Paranoid But Benevolent Aliens To Fight The Really Bad Zombie Army Aliens. Ex-nebbish Really Cute Girl and Ex-Really Cute Now Exotic Girl celebrate saving the world by going on a romantic road trip on California's Highway One. The Flux and Anchor series was kinda fun, but didn't seem to add much to his standard bag of tricks. I recall one hetero couple had their genitals magically interchanged. I didn't actually follow the Quintara Marathon or Chalker's other later stuff.
Haha, not trying to switch the topic, Beeble42. I was hoping to convey that Stark/Westlake's prose is what elevates bog-standard thriller plots into greatness. Thank you for the recommendation, as well. I've been looking for a jumping-on point with Dostoyevsky!
Some good descriptions of sexy women in that series, though -- it contains a number of "beautification" transformations.
It's good to find that author who proves you're absolutely terrible. Otherwise, how would you ever know your writing was awful objectively? For my favourites: Dostoyevsky H. P. Lovecraft Brian Jacques Terry Pratchett Robert E Howard Joseph Conrad Ray Bradbury
I think there are other Dostoyevsky novels which are more fun. I remember doing my Russian oral about his life, long before I really appreciated him.
Crime and Punishment is almost standard for beginning, but I think the Idiot is maybe the easiest of his books to read.
I've just finished "One Little Room an Everywhere," and it pains me how long it's been since I read K. J. Parker. His novels are nail-biting (though most are bricks, probably why I stopped reading them), and his short stories are endlessly inventive. Very much worth a look for anyone who likes fantasy about not-the-nicest people.
really hard to say as I do read a lot, but I thin two of my favorite authors have to be Frank Herbert, and not just because of his Dune Books, I have read a few of his non-Dune books and his imagination is truly inspiring. my other favorite author is Kevin J. Anderson, I'm in the midst of reading his Saga of Seven Suns books and they are absolutely brilliant in detail, in characterization and in plot. I remember when I was younger reading some of his Star Wars novels and being equally impressed by his love of the material.
Ed McBain James Patterson Terry Pratchett Robert E. Howard H.P. Lovecraft Ian Fleming A. Lee Martinez Jim Buthcer John Sandford Some of a few that i read,for me i give a book 50 pages plus my age(52) If it hasn't engrossed me by then i won't finish it!
