Authors

[simon275]

Since every there has been alot of posts where people list their favorite movies, bands etc. I thought it would be nice to see what people's favorite authors are.

To get the ball rolling mine are

Andy Mcnab* - Action (Fiction books about a ex SAS guy & Non fiction about the authors time in the SAS)
Chris Ryan* - Action (Fiction books about a ex SAS guy)
Clive Cussler - Action (Fiction books adventuers of characters working for NUMA)
Tom Clancy - Action/Political Intrigue (Fiction/Non Fiction)
Terry Pratchett - Fantasy/Satire (Fiction takes the piss out of fantasy books best books are about the city watch)

*Both are ex members of the SAS writing under pseudonym

[Slug Toy]

i can never remember his name... but i like the guy who wrote the hitchhikers guide series. i still think hes the very best at saying nothing in a very complicated manner, with as many words as possible.

my other favourite author is me. ive got a whole collection of "short stories" i suppose you could call them. they're very... um... strange, but i get a huge kick out of them. ive got a stack about two inches thick, stretching back to about grade 10, which was... 5 years ago now. there are accompanying illustrations for a lot of them too. i could probably get it published as a childrens book or something.... a very twisted childrens book...

[GT40_GearHead]

Dostoievski

Dante

Kafka

the top 3 authors for me right now

[Ironcat]

Hitchhiker's Guy is named Douglas Adams.

I like Asimov, King, Koontz, Cain, Bradbury, Nartin, Niven, Eddings, Cussler, Clancy, Chrichton, and a ton of others too...

[UK-Blade]

Tom Clancy is my fav by far.

Dale Brown, any of the Warhammer 40K authors, Douglas Adams, Clive Barker and early Stephen King.

Not fiction, but also Stephen Hawkings.

[DaveW]

Not my faves, but i'm currently into Philip K. Dick and John Sladek.

They have something in common: incoherency.

Dick's books are like some sort of acid trip, you feel like you're being strained through a characters mind, and when you come out the other side, you're dirty, feeling his personal problems for yourself...it's screwy.

Sladek, on the other hand, is a sort of rapid fire satirist, who has tiny little sub-plots going on in his book that often seem to make no sense whatsoever. They usually amount to something later in the book, and come back up-but first time round, it's a whirlygig of characters, flashbacks, and bizzare conversations.

Sladek also came up with a perfect way to describe the creative process: it's almost poetic. I'll try and post an extract later on tonight.

-Dave

[Slug Toy]

oh ya, creative process. i want to see this so i can shoot holes in it.

while we're talking about books... you know what i really dont like about them? english class, or literature class or whatever you want to call it. you always have to talk about plot, and theme and what it all means. god dammit, ill think for myself thank you very much!!! i hardly ever agree with the teacher or other students. everyone just looks too far into things and really stretches it. i couldnt care less.

[GT40_GearHead]

your right slug, they always try to tell how to look at a story, or novel,
like "this means this" and all that ****, when does your mind get to think for it self,

you should get something out of a literature class

[xdxforever]

I think its important to be able to see what others thought before you about the books you read, just as long as that isnt confused with what you actually read yourself, and what YOU think about it.
My faves are: Orson Scott Card, Heinlien, Margaret Atwood, Ayn Rand.
there are lots of others, but its not like i really keep track, the individual books are more important than the authors when measuring how good they are.

[jdbnsn]

I gotta say that I am a sucker for Twain and Dickens, two of my fav's.

[DaveW]

Here you go then Slug. I think even you will approve.

Friar Bacon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon) was supposedly interested in Arab Technology, which was quite advanced at that time-it was said that he created a talkin brass head which could answer any question, in order to allow him to build a brass wall around England to keep barbarians out. (He was probably talking about us Scots. Hadrian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall) finished what he started, but he didn't do a very good job. We kind of...jumped over it. ;) )

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/davew/Creation_Quote.jpg

-Dave

[.Maleficus.]

Edgar Allan Poe
Garth Nix
Orson Scott Card

[Omega]

I'm not particularly fond of any specific author, but I do have a few books I like:

Farenheit 451
The Hobbit
Enders Game


Those are pretty much the only 3 that i've read and liked alot, but then agian, I don't read too much ('cept for magazines, i read magazines all the time).

[Crimson Sky]

Edgar Allan Poe
Garth Nix
Orson Scott Card


OoOo... Ender's Game, an all time fave of mine.

[xdxforever]

That was the first book i ever got obsessed with. I've read it thirteen times, my copy is a little beat up. the following books (children of the mind etc.) are almost better, Xenocide possibly being the greatest

[simon275]

Dale Brown, any of the Warhammer 40K authors,



I love 40k black library books

Guant Ghosts Books by DAN ABNETT are brilliant

Col. Shaffers Last Chancers books by GAV THORPE

And the two Grey Knight books by BEN COUNTER

[Omega]

OoOo... Ender's Game, an all time fave of mine.

I read that book at least 6 times in one week once, and i've must have read it over 100 times so far, and every time i read it, i infer something different. It's pretty awesome.

[Zephik]

Friar Bacon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon) was supposedly interested in Arab Technology, which was quite advanced at that time-it was said that he created a talkin brass head which could answer any question, in order to allow him to build a brass wall around England to keep barbarians out. (He was probably talking about us Scots. Hadrian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall) finished what he started, but he didn't do a very good job. We kind of...jumped over it. ;) )
-Dave

LOL

That is mighty impressive! Psh! Sure you can see the the Great Wall of China from space! But how is that going to prevent aliens attacking us when they can so easily see our defenses??? Hadrian was truly a brilliant man! He didn't design that wall for ground attacks, but for attacks from "up there". I think he deserves much more credit!

:D

-SF

Oh yeah...

I dont really have a favorite author, but rather favorite books. I'll most likely enjoy any book you put in front of me to a certain degree. A good book I just read was MONSTER by Frank Peretti.

[simon275]

The great wall of china from space thing is not quite true since it is the same colour as the ground around it it is almost impossible to spot. Most of the great wall is either not their or is in disrepair or is just some mounds of earth. The only bit of the great wall in its former glory is a small section renewed for tourists to visit.

Info from a doco I watched on tv and wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_wall_of_china

[nil8]

Robert A Heinlein
Anton LaVey
Christopher Hyatt
Israel Regardie
Robert Anton Wilson
Timothy Leary
Windy Northcutt
George Orwell
Thomas Jefferson
Henry David Thoreau
Jack London

[DaveW]

Have never heard of half your faves Nil8...some of them i recognise, but not all.

Probably about half of them.

Anton LaVey
Israel Regardie
Robert Anton Wilson
Windy Northcutt
Henry David Thoreau
Jack London

^^ Never heard of those guys.

-Dave

[nil8]

LaVey started the Church of Satan, which (after his death) formed a subgroup called the Temple of Set.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_LaVey

Israel Regardie devoted much of his life to the Golden Dawn and preserved their system. His late work was mostly to integrate the GD system into a more modern approach, remove the Rosicrucian restrictions, and allow it to combine with the somewhat similiar ideals of Alester Crowley's Thelema to form what modern occultists refer to as the left hand path.
(The wiki entry for Regardie is not worth reading. It lacks material or sources)

Robert Anton Wilson was the great unifier of skeptical occultism. He mockingly dealt with all aspects of occultism and helped to form the initial ideas of discordianism and chaos magic. One of the wittiest and smartest men to grace the earth in the past 100 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson

Wendy Northcutt runs darwinawards.com and publishes the books by the same title. Great bathroom reading and always a laugh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards

Henry David Thoreau is an old American author and philosopher who shook up the social scene of his time by introducing some very radical political theories.
I include him for his explanation of the joys of solitude and the benefits from it. I'm also a history nerd and tend to read a lot of work from pre-civil war America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoreau

Jack London was an American author most known for "Call of the Wild"
I've read a handful of his books and the only reason I've added him is because I admire his writing style, the way he pushes plot, and similar to Heinlein addresses some higher human constructs that most writers are afraid to tread into. I really think London was the Kubrick of his day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London

[DaveW]

Thanks. None of those books sound like my cup of tea, to be honest-i prefer scifi and classical novels like Les Miserables.

-Dave

[jdbnsn]

Jack London is a name I haven't heard for a long time. Great writer, I read one of his books of short stories and I'll never forget "To Build A Fire". Great read!