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A Terry Pratchett Fan! I knew there was something I liked about you, Del!

Joe R. Lansdale is a great storyteller, and would be really good as an audible book. He has some great short stories ("Incident on and off a Mountain Road" is one of my favorite scary short stories) and his Hap & Leonard series is also really good--not sure how you'd classify the series--buddy book/thriller?

Reading Donald Harstad right now, but he only has about 5 books--don't know if they're available as audio books. Police thrillers set in small town Iowa.

Christopher Moore was excellent for his first several books, but starting with Fluke they really went downhill IMO. First 5 or so are great.

Another vote for Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series. (And on a side note, if you own the first "Codex Alera" book in hard cover sitting around gathering dust, they've become collectable and you can sell them for $$.)

Tanya Huff is a great deal of fun, in spite of the fact that the Lifetime channel tried to destroy her "Blood" series (watched a few minutes of one episode, and stopped in disgust.) "Summon the Keeper" is good fantasy with a big dose of humor. "Stealing Magic" is a compilation of short stories, many of which feature Magdelene, the world's most powerful (and laziest) wizard, who likes sleeping, eating, drinking, and handsome men. Not necessarily in that order.

Neil Gaiman. Carl Hiaasen, although he might not be as funny if you've never lived in Florida ("Lucky You" is a good one.) Bill Fitzhugh (try "Pest Control".) Asimov is fabulous. Anne Bishop's "Tir Alainn" trilogy. (Her "Black Jewels" trilogy is also good, but if you read it stop after the first 3--follow-ons are dreck.) Spider Robinson's "Callahan" series. Patricia Briggs, Faith Hunter for Urban Fantasy.

If you don't mind books targeting young adults and being fairly predictable, there's a new author--Marissa Meyer--doing a pretty good (so far) 4-part series loosely framed on fairy tales. The first one is "Cinder"--only Cinderella is a cyborg. 3rd book in the series is coming out soon.

And one chick-lit, just because it's good for you--try Jennifer Crusie/Bob Meyer's "Agnes and the Hit Man."
 
Oh! I forgot to include Tom Sharpe's "Blott on the Landscape" as a good one to try. If you like Pratchett, Sharpe might make you laugh.
 
Yeah I love the Dresden files. Can't wait for the next book. Getting pretty impatient tho, this is the longest he's made us fans wait for a new book since I started reading the series. I'm sure that it'll be well worth the wait however.
 
I mostly read non-fiction, these days, but I always zip through the newest Alastair Reynolds, Scalzi, Brin, etc.
 
Not too much of an exaggeration, I think, but about 99% of the authors listed above seemed to be male. Not meant as a criticism of course, just something that struck me.

Lucretia was the only more balanced one, with a Tanya, Anne, Patricia, Marissa and Jennifer to counter her Terry, Joe, Donald, Christopher, Jim, Bill, Neil, Carl, Bob, Isaac and a 'Spider' who probably isn't female either. 1:2
 
Asteger said:
Not too much of an exaggeration, I think, but about 99% of the authors listed above seemed to be male. Not meant as a criticism of course, just something that struck me.

Lucretia was the only more balanced one, with a Tanya, Anne, Patricia, Marissa and Jennifer to counter her Terry, Joe, Donald, Christopher, Jim, Bill, Neil, Carl, Bob, Isaac and a 'Spider' who probably isn't female either. 1:2
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I've got nothing against female authors, I've just never been recommended a good fantasy one before. If anyone has any recommendations I'd be more than happy to give them a go.
 
More authors are male. Its not a balance of the sexes, its just there are, by the numbers, more published male authors than female. More female authors are being published these days but there are a couple hundred years of men being published over women. There were women that published under male pen names but it was by no means the majority.
 
Some popular female fantasy writers:

Ursula Le Guin
Andre Norton
P. N. Elrod
Mercedes Lackey
Margaret Weiss
Anne McCaffrey
 
Laurell K Hamilton I really like with her Anita Blake vampire hunter series. I just have a problem with how much sex is taken with her books.
 
The Anita Blake books are pretty good up through Obsidian Butterflies. Then they go downhill in a hurry.
 
Crothcipt said:
Laurell K Hamilton I really like with her Anita Blake vampire hunter series. I just have a problem with how much sex is taken with her books.
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gave up after "Blue Moon".

had no regrets when i later heard my wife exclaim "ahh! they put down a tarp!" while reading one of the later books. *shudder*
 
icanhaschzbrgr said:
Trust me, books are 10 times better. One good thing about this series — all the books are great, not only first 1 or 2 and they all continue one single story.
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Just finished Night Watch-great read, thanks for the tip!
 
Lucretia said:
Some popular female fantasy writers:

Ursula Le Guin
Andre Norton
P. N. Elrod
Mercedes Lackey
Margaret Weiss
Anne McCaffrey
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One of the things that's frustrating is that some of my favorites are not available in audio yet.
Sherri temper is an amazing author, and she is one of my favorites. I'm not biased at all, I just like great writing.
Del
 
Ok anyone interested in the civil war needs to read killer angels, by m. Sahara, about the battle of Gettysburg. The other books by him and his son are good, but KA is an awesome read.
 
Del, is that Sheri Tepper? I can't find Sherri Temper on Amazon. I'm always looking for a new (or old!) good author.

Michelle Sagara is another good one, although in the books I've read so far (her Elantra series), there seems to be a point about 2/3 of the way through the book where she gets kind of stuck and the pace slows down almost enough to put you to sleep before it picks back up again.

I confess I still read Laurell Hamilton. I check the book out from the library and skip the sex scenes, leaving about 100 pages per book to read. Then I go on Amazon and read the reviews and laugh myself silly.
 
lol some books less than 100. Still read her tho. Waiting for her to slow down with all that.
 
Crothcipt said:
lol some books less than 100. Still read her tho. Waiting for her to slow down with all that.
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Well, you figure she has to fill up the extra pages with something since Anita Blake can't fight any more. With going from sneakers to stilettos and having her bra size go up astronomically, if she tried to swing a sword she'd just keep spinning and auger into the ground... :D

On a positive note, just got an email from the library that "Nightwatch" is ready to pick up.
 
Just read David Benioff's "City of Thieves." A good, fairly quickly read. Also read John Connolly's "The Wanderer of Unknown Realms." Also a good, quick read. Sort of a mix of a John Dunning book mystery and HP Lovecraft.

My girlfriend has decided to dive into War and Peace. I started reading it years ago but didn't make it past the 400th page.
 
Lucretia said:
Del, is that Sheri Tepper? I can't find Sherri Temper on Amazon. I'm always looking for a new (or old!) good author.

Michelle Sagara is another good one, although in the books I've read so far (her Elantra series), there seems to be a point about 2/3 of the way through the book where she gets kind of stuck and the pace slows down almost enough to put you to sleep before it picks back up again.

I confess I still read Laurell Hamilton. I check the book out from the library and skip the sex scenes, leaving about 100 pages per book to read. Then I go on Amazon and read the reviews and laugh myself silly.
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Yes that was supposed to be Sheri Tepper. I use my iPad a lot here and it has the autocorrect, which is mostly helpful, but sometimes a pain in the rear.
Grass is my favorite novel by Sherri, humans on an alien world. There are few authors that write interesting aliens, I found hers very intriguing. This novel is not for the faint of heart, it's big.
If you want something lighter, read Family tree, my other favorite from her. It's smaller, sometimes hilarious, but well written.
My wife likes Hamilton, but I really don't, but I have read all the otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong.
Del
 
I have the first Kelley Armstrong Otherworld novel, and really liked it. For some reason I haven't gotten back to that series. Need to pull Bitten out and read it again, then check out the rest of the series. Right now I'm working on Andre Norton's Witchworld. The first chapter was great, the rest of it seems like it could have used some heavy duty editing. We've been purging our bookshelves--this one might be another one that gets donated to the library. I'll have to look into Sheri Tepper. I have a couple series that I'm reading coming out with new books over the next couple of months (Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles and Anne Bishop's Others series) and need something to fill in the wait. Just picked up Nightwatch today, and I'm 4th in the queue for the new Terry Pratchett book at the library. And the next Harry Dresden book is showing up on Amazon with a publication date of May 27!
 
I read cheesy bodice ripping historical romance novels :fanning:
 
Forgot to mention my current fave Peter F Hamilton. Try starting with The Reality Dysfunction, sweeping space opera with a bit of a twist
 
Prep lists
Ticket machine
compelling stuff especially when there's a bunch of mods. Some of the "authors" are way more creative and/or stupid than others.
 
knyfeknerd said:
Prep lists
Ticket machine
compelling stuff especially when there's a bunch of mods. Some of the "authors" are way more creative and/or stupid than others.
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Hah yes this, also sales reports, inventories and order forms.
 
i like reading fun stuff.

right now it is the Jack Reacher series of books written by Lee Child. cop stories.

helps me construct decent sentences at work. heheh..(not on forum post, unfortunately)
 
Erilyn75 said:
I read cheesy bodice ripping historical romance novels :fanning:
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Since you were brave enough to admit it, I do too.

Robert Crais has a fun Private Eye series (Elvis Cole & Joe Pike).

I also read the fine print.
 
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