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Simonium
214 posts
21 months
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Julian Barnes for sheer virtuosity, Tolkien for breadth of invention, Clive Barker for vividness and boldness of imagery. Jonathan Swift and James Wilmot for bravery, Stephen Donaldson for characterisation, Stephen King for involvement and detail, Lloyd Alexander for truthfulness.
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TwigtheWonderkid
6,046 posts
19 months
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Simonium said: Julian Barnes for sheer virtuosity, Tolkien for breadth of invention, Clive Barker for vividness and boldness of imagery. Jonathan Swift and James Wilmot for bravery, Stephen Donaldson for characterisation, Stephen King for involvement and detail, Lloyd Alexander for truthfulness. Barbara Cartland failed to make the cut!
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Simonium
214 posts
21 months
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b  ks! Knew I forgotten someone! :-)
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SO27
51 posts
80 months
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A current favourite of mine is Jasper Fforde. Well worth a look for the Pratchett fans. The inventiveness of stories is outstanding.
And if you're after a good bit of Pratchett, the assassins' test in Pyramids will make any PHer howl
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Xaero
2,766 posts
84 months
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Steven Leather is my favourite author. I've only read a few of his books but they are very easy to read, the pacing is good and they are full of action.
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MacW
696 posts
45 months
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Peter F Hamilton is among my favourites for sci-fi.
Sir Pterry obviously for humour.
I tried to like Stephen King for my horror fix but after The Stand and It (which were both superb) I thought the rest of his stuff was severely lacking. Currently trying out Brian Lumley for the horror stuff, after a few books I'm getting the feeling that his stories all follow the same path though.
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Tango13
2,602 posts
45 months
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rlw said: Iain Banks I started to like Iain Banks the day his Grandmother exploded 
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Jw Vw
4,042 posts
32 months
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Riley Blue
5,216 posts
95 months
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SO27 said: A current favourite of mine is Jasper Fforde. Well worth a look for the Pratchett fans. The inventiveness of stories is outstanding.
And if you're after a good bit of Pratchett, the assassins' test in Pyramids will make any PHer howl Another Jasper Fforde reader here, can't put his books down once started. I've never read Pratchett, perhaps I should.
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BenM77
2,109 posts
33 months
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It would be very hard to choose a favourite so here are a few  Robert Ludlum Wilbur Smith Harry Harrison Eric Van Lustbader I have just started reading again after a few years of not finding the time, reading Robert Ludlum at the moment.
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castex
1,967 posts
142 months
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Aldous Huxley for imagination. Kafka for insight. Steinbeck because nobody has mastered the language like he did. Awesome.
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DuncanM
1,809 posts
148 months
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Tolkien
Patrick O'Brian
Many brilliant authors but these two top my list.
Can't pick between them.
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soad
15,880 posts
45 months
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Xaero said: Steven Leather is my favourite author. I've only read a few of his books but they are very easy to read, the pacing is good and they are full of action. 
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AMacA
137 posts
70 months
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soad said: Xaero said: Steven Leather is my favourite author. I've only read a few of his books but they are very easy to read, the pacing is good and they are full of action. Another Leather fan here. Just had the latest Spider Shepherd novel delivered from Amazon during the week, will get it started soon. If you like Leather's work, try Vince Flynn's "Mitch Rapp" series of books, they're along similar lines, although can be a bit grating at times at just how good the main character is portrayed to be.
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coppice
618 posts
13 months
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Hemingway is at the top of my list; Annie Proulx very well placed too. Martin Amis writes like a god , his autobiographical 'Experience' is startlingly good. Graham Greene , of course and for one off utter brilliance 'The Living Mountain' by Nan Shepherd. Richard Ford- yet another US author is utterly superb- his latest'Canada' rightly got lots of acclaim.Sadly very few motoring books are worth reading - most are little more than picture books or ghost written pap - but David Tremayne's stuff is excellent - especially 'The Lost Generation' re the tragic loss of Brit GP drivers Brise, Williamson and Pryce in the early 70s .
Cars and racing apart my other passion is flyfishing and in this genre (a far richer one than cars sadly )John Gierach is utterly brilliant- funky zen tinged stuff- another Yank ! And two books you should buy(re flyfishing , life and the universe) are 'A Dream of Jewelled Fishes ' and 'The Glorious Uncertainty '. Why? 'Cos I wrote 'em and I need the royalties......
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g3org3y
6,836 posts
60 months
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Not a favourite as such but I am partial to the works of Irvine Welsh and Alain de Botton.
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Blatter
281 posts
60 months
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rlw said: Iain Banks + 1 although I pefer his earlier work. I'm not really a sci-fi fan, but as Iain M Banks he's produced some very readable books
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Bhuvsta
151 posts
31 months
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Terry Pratchett is ace, I really enjoy Alastiar Maclean books too.
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MillenniumFalcon
315 posts
52 months
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Simply for the Hitchhikers Guide series, Douglas Adams.
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havoc
20,157 posts
104 months
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Douglas Adams for the missed deadlines, certainly. Can't decide between him and Sir Pterry for humour - TP's writing overall is better, but DA predated him and really hit the intelligent, social sarcasm nail squarely:- DNA said: "They vote for a lizard because they don't want the wrong lizard to get in." Sci-fi: Greg Bear for hard sci-fi - stunning depth and breadth of imagination and conceptualisation. Read 'Eon' and I defy you not to be blown away! Probably Kim Stanley Robinson too, purely for his Mars trilogy...slightly* left-of-centre idealistic writing, but some of the best characterisation, story-telling, plot development and sheer scope/scale. Honourable mentions: Elizabeth Bear, Joe Scalzi, Richard Morgan, Jon Courtenay Grimwood. * OK, fairly, but no more so than Star Trek, and I cannot fault his ideology - liberal, genuinely social left not statist left!
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