16, but have most on my 'to do' list - i'm surprised at who isn't on the list to be honest - someone mentioned Moorcock, - William Gibson, Philip K Dick anyone? (unless they're defining fantasy as 'has magic and / or swords and stuff in it).
He only has the one full lenght novel so far - Road of Skulls which i really enjoyed - gives a tantalizing glimpse of Gotrek's earlier life. He has some short stories in various anthologies - Charnel Congress, Berthold's Beard which you can get individually as ebook versions from the Black...
1. Terry Pratchett
2. Douglas Adams
3. George R R Martin
4. David Gemmell
5. Dan Abnett
6. Graham McNeill
7. Not so much an individual author, but GW/Black Library's Trollslayer series (William King, Nathan Long, Josh Reynolds et al)
8. Michael Moorcock
9. Mary Gentle
10. Sandy Mitchell...
Michael Moorcock's The War Hound and the Worlds Pain A mercenary captain during the 30 Years War makes a deal with the Devil -I really enjoyed, haven't picked it up in a while though.
War Hound and the World's Pain: Michael Moorcock: 9780450056031: Amazon.com: Books
ThinkerX mentioned Mary...
I agree about people skirting around naming something they fear or don't understand. What about something like 'The Mysteries' or The Other Arts?
Is the beast one of kind, semi-mythical creature, or is there a species of giant cat you're looking for a name for? If it's one of kind, then how...
Master wouldn't seem right to me at all - Mistress would be a more (if not thecorrect form of address). How about Madam / Madame? I don't know if that implies a woman considerably older and / or married though.
Or if not kill, then regulate, control and exploit - various government and / or private agencies set up to utilize new sources of power and counter potential supernatural and paranormal threats.
New sub-cultures and underclasses composed of the refugees from the other realms - criminal gangs...
It's possible that even if they don't speak each others dialect of Scots Gaelic / Scots English they might share a common language in the form of either Latin or French, especially if they are both of noble birth