The Unmistakable Cone of Ignorance

I have been asked to recommend reading material.  So  I am starting this page where upon I shall ramble about various authors I enjoy reading. In no particular order…

• Steven Brust –  Somewhat pulpy tales of assassinations and political intrigue in his Vlad Taltos and Phoenix Guard series.  The Phoenix Guard series is much denser and drier in style but still good.  To Reign in Hell is also great.
• Stephen Erikson — The Malazan Book of the Fallen series is great, but a huge time investment. Currently 7 of 10 books are out and he has a friend publishing 3(or 5) more books set in the same world.
• C.S. Friedman — I love her Coldfire Trilogy and strongly recommend it.  I really should get around to reading some of her other works.
• Robin Hobb  — Read the Farseer Trilogy, then the one about the ships then the Tawny Man Trilogy.  In that order.  Also Steve informs me her daughter is hot.
• Dan Abnett — I have been reading way too many Warhammer 40k novels lately and he’s probably their best author.  Gaunt’s Ghosts and the Eisenhorn series are fun.  Some hate his writing style but it’s easy to read and fun.  Guess they claim he’s ripping off some other author I haven’t read.
• Tad Williams — Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is a must read fantasy trilogy.  His stand alone books are also pretty good, but I haven’t been able to get into his Otherland series.
• George R. R. Martin — Song of Ice and Fire series is great.  Well at least the first 3 books… god knows if he’ll finish the series before he dies… and I need to read Feast of Crows.
• Mary Gentle — Chronicles of Ash series is some great alternative history style fiction set in the 15th century area.
• Bruce Sterling — Great cyber punk and speculative poltical apocalypse type sci fi.  Leggy Starlitz is just awesome.
• Carol Berg — She’s an ex software engineer who writes sorta sci-fi-y fantasty.  I really enjoyed her Rai Kirah series but haven’t been as much of a fan of her later works. They’re not bad but just haven’t held my attention
• Terry Pratchett — Discworld… ‘nough said
• A. Lee Martinez — Satirical humor almost mocking the genres of sci-fi and fantasy.  He plays on stereotypes within the genres so if you don’t know the genres well enough you probably wouldn’t enjoy it.
• Glen Cook — The Garret PI series is being republished and is a fun fantasy detective noir type series.  I enjoy them but the writing is light.  His Black Company series was alot of fun though I only made it through i think 6 of 10.  He started getting a bit kookier near the end and I just didn’t get into it.
• David Eddings — Here’s a high fantasy author that you either love or hate.  He can be repetative and certainly uses several of the same themes over and over and over…  I like the Elenium and Tamuli series better but I read them all young so they probably have a special soft spot in my heart.
• David Gemmel — Another repetative author who basically beats the same themes to death over and over and over.  His strength is the writing style and story telling ability.  In spite of it, I still really enjoyed all his stuff.
• Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman — Deathgate cycle… I tend to ignore most of their other work and I just can’t get into all the Dragonlance stuff.  In spite of the fact that I guess I really should’ve given my background
• E.E. Knight — Vampire Earth.  An enslaved future with humans as chattel.  Resistance fighter sci-fi style stuff.  Fun light reads.
• Karen Miller — High fantasy type stuff but her new trilogy seems pretty promising though I’m only half way through the first book.  Strong writing style though her first two books had a weakish ending on that duet.

Eh I think that’s pretty good off the top of my head for now.  I’ll add others as I think of them.