I need to get acquainted with some other authors. Gothic/Horror/Fantasy is top on my list, with Mystery/Thriller coming second. Fantasy of any ilk has to be really superb for me to take a chance on it.
So, tell me, who are some favorite authors, favorite books?
Tags: books
Let’s see – ones I usually like to read are JR Ward (she’s horror/erotica I guess you could call it, I like the odd bent to her sense of humor), I’ve read Eddings’ Elenium(sp?) trilogy and liked it, same goes for their The Redemption of Althalus, but haven’t read (so far) any more of his books, but keeping him open as an option.
I’m also down to my last Steve Berry book – he’s a little Dan Brown-esque in that the books could be called historical thrillers, but he does like to put in a heavy basis on history and he tells you in the author’s notes exactly where he took literary license and what he based the book.
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is okay so far – have only read one full book so far and am going to start another one of hers soon – what I like about St. Germain is that he is, for me, rather ambigous about how he feeds – which may also be attributed to me possibly missing something (which has been known to happen on more than a few occassions-I’m the queen of having to be hit with a two by four if you want something done-subtlety is more often than not lost on me).
While I haven’t read Laurell Hamilton’s Merry Gentry books, I have read her Anita Blake books – They’re okay as far as it goes, on the other hand, I have also parted with the series that I had so far. *shrugs*
And Stephanie is right, Jasper Fforde’s books do have a good dose of humor with a slightly surreal twist.
One other author that I’d like to throw in is John Sandford – for me, his Prey series kicks butt – each book can be read independently, but, starting with Rules of Prey, they follow the career progression of a detective and his rise through the ranks.
If you don’t mind true crime – John Douglas – he’s written a few books that deal with behavioral profiling and a couple fiction books based more or less on what he did w/the FBI (most of the mainstream (more or less) stuff he’s done was co-written with Mark Olshaker – he’s co-written a couple other things that I think were meant more towards professional type reads)
i like the merry gentry books by laurell k hamilton, david eddings, terry brooks, anne macaffrey, andre norton, elizabeth moon. most of those are fantasy (except lkh-horror/erotic) and moon sometimes does science fiction.
Kelley Armstrong’s ‘Women of the Otherworld’ series is entertaining. The first one is called ‘Bitten’. I also like Charlaine Harris.
In a less supernatural vein, I like Kathy Reichs novels about Temperance Brennan. I think they’re a lot better than Patricia Cornwell, although the two authors are definitely comparable.
If you don’t mind historical settings to your mysteries, try Paul Doherty. I particularly like his ‘Brother Athelstan’ series, the first of which is ‘The Nightingale Gallery’, and the series based around the Canterbury Tales. The first one of those is ‘An Ancient Evil’.
And if you like a good dose of humour with a slightly surreal twist, try Jasper Fforde.