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Top 100 Fantasy Authors (How Many Have You Read?)

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
71 :D

In fact, I think I have at least one book from all seventy-one somewhere in the house or on my e-reader. There are some glaring omissions. Michael Moorcock? Charles de Lint? Robert Holdstock? Clark Ashton Smith? C.L. Moore, and so on.
 

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
71 :D

In fact, I think I have at least one book from all seventy-one somewhere in the house or on my e-reader. There are some glaring omissions. Michael Moorcock? Charles de Lint? Robert Holdstock? Clark Ashton Smith? C.L. Moore, and so on.

You're showing off!
 

Graylorne

Archmage
I came to 30, but I started life on SF and that doesn't count. And yes, I've got a real lot of SFF books.

I miss some names as well. Marion Zimmer Bradley? Andre Norton? Perhapes Robert Silverberg (Majipoor), Barbara Hambly?
 

Nihal

Vala
16. I am a shame! (In truth I'm surprised, I expected a lower score, I know how lazy I am.)

@Graylorne Marion Zimmer Bradley is on the list, number 13.
 

Alexandra

Closed Account
23, and I've works by everyone on the list in my digital library (I love my ereader) but whether I get around to reading everyone remains to be seen. The smart money says no.
 

Graylorne

Archmage
16. I am a shame! (In truth I'm surprised, I expected a lower score, I know how lazy I am.)

@Graylorne Marion Zimmer Bradley is on the list, number 13.


Ah yes. And I read the list three times... Must be the uncommon heat:) Anyhow, I'm glad she wasn't overlooked.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
71 Steerpike!!!!!????

I only got 29 and was feeling pretty good about myself until... well, never mind.

I notice that one of our Mythic Scribes members is on that list as well.
 

SeverinR

Vala
21.
I really didn't expect to have read so many.

I missed Sullivan. I figured he was the one when I read T.Allen.Smith's post about the mythic scribe on the list.

So lets throw down the guantlet, how many more MS can we get on the list? How many people can we kick off the top 100?
 
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Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I'm not sure how many I've read, but I own books by a good deal of them. Some I've read part of their books before randomly changing to another book. Yeah, that's a bad habit.

I have an idea, that could be interesting/fun. I notice on Fantasy-Faction they have threads dedicated to individual authors, which then the members can discuss. Why not do that here? We can start with number 1 on the list: Joe Abercrombie. 100 Authors, 100 threads. Perhaps Steerpike can even shed some light on some of these we haven't read?

Owned and/or Read All or Partly: 40

So maybe I'll make some new threads that highlight authors and we can discuss them and their body of work. I'd like to know more about some of the authors of which I'm not as familiar.

Sound good? Sounds good.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I hit 71. I'm a little unsure about that; there were some I thought I remembered reading but can't decisively say I actually did (I included those, maybe five or six all told), and there were others where I recognized the name, but no titles came to mind (I did not include those - shamefully, some of them appear to be fairly popular on this site). There were also a number where I know I read a tale or two but didn't particularly care for them.

Like another poster here, I'd point out that there are a *lot* of names missing from that list, including some of the old line greats: Lin Carter, Robert Bloch, Sprague DeCamp, Moorcock, well...the list goes on.
 

Ghost

Inkling
46

It seems like a decent number, but, tbh, I can't remember the stories for around 20 of those books. Some I read when I was very young, and others left little impression on me.

Not sure I've heard of Lauren Beukes, Dave Duncan, James Clemens, Alan Garner, Lian Hearn, Tom Holt, Richard Kadrey, Greg Keyes, Mark Lawrence, Naomi Novik, Martin Millar, or Cinda Williams Chima.
 
Does it only count if I remembered their names? I had no idea I'd ever read a Lauren Beukes book until I checked Wikipedia to see what she'd written.

Also, how in holy hell did James Clemens get anywhere on this list? I mean, I actually liked The Banned and the Banished, but everyone else I've ever met who's read it thought it was garbage. (On the other hand, I'm seriously impressed they were knowledgeable enough to list Sergei Lukyanenko.)

Counting ones I had to look up, and not counting ones I only got a few pages into, it comes out to 44.

Edit: I might as well add that two of them are ones I've only read in a non-fantasy context--I read Stephen R. Donaldon's martial arts thriller The Man Who Fought Alone (which was good), and David Eddings's, er, social tract* The Losers (which was really, really preachy.)

* What is the proper genre name for books like The Jungle and Uncle Tom's Cabin, anyway?
 
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Jabrosky

Banned
Charles R. Saunders (Imaro, Dossouye), Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane), Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park), and maybe David Anthony Durham (Acacia) are my favorites when it comes to speculative fiction.
 
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