I've read surprisingly little of the lists given here so far. (read a lot of fantasy and science fiction over the years) Apart from the rather usual suspects like Tolkien or Stephen King or Martin.
Given my current stack of books waiting to be read, I'm doubtful I'll be picking up many books in the remainder of the year too.
As for my favourite books:
"The Shining" by Stephen King. Lots of people would agree that King's better books are usually his older ones, I agree with that too. The Shining is still my favourite King and also one of my favourite all-round. If anyone is looking for a good book to start with King's oeuvre or just hasn't read this one yet, I'ld advice to do so. Don't be fooled by the movie or the series, the book is by far superior.
Jack Vance. Five series/books come to mind: "Chronicles of Cadwal", "Tales of the Dying Earth", "Lyonesse", "Demon Princes", "Tschai". "Emphyrio" was also pretty good. Apart from a couple of books that weren't good at all ("Lurulu" for instance), I can pretty much advice all of his books and short stories. Granted, I'm quite biased as I absolutely love this author's work. There's a mixture of fantasy work (Lyonesse trilogy, tales of the dying earth too up to a point) and science fiction (Chronicles of Cadwal, Demon princess series). It's all full of a rather peculiar style at times though, his views on characters can be rather simplistic, or seen as such anyway.
"Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny. He wrote several books based on different types of mythology, this one is based on the Hindu/Buddhist ones. "Eye of Cat" is pretty good too, but not exactly as good. "The Great book of Amber" is something completely different but about as good, straight forward adventure fun book. All from one person's point of view, which gives a special view on events I suppose.
"Carrion Comfort" by Dan Simmons. I've never read anything by him as good as that one. And that includes "Hyperion". (which is great too, don't get me wrong)
"Maze of Death" by Philip K. D ick. It's a typically D ick book I suppose, it just struck me as one of his better ones. (edited due to the censors! Can't even write a famous author's name anymore
)
"Discworld" by Terry Pratchett. Granted, the thrills are gone now, the new books fail miserably (mind you, always imo) compared to the older ones on all levels. And he should not have just forgotten about Rincewind! But the first ones are hilarious.
"To our scattered bodies go" by Philip José Farmer. Excellent concept, but only this first book (and the next two sort of too) is also excellent as a book.
"Forever War" by Joe Haldeman. Good story, unfortunately not so good sequel.
"Mists of Avalon" by Marion Bradley. Best Arthur story I've read.
I always liked the Lestat stories Anne Rice wrote, but I must admit that the last two books were absolute crap. There's no better word for it, a true waste of paper. The first three books of the series I like a lot, also "Blood and Gold" and "Merrick". "Memnoch the Devil" was good but it's also indicative of the problems with the series, Lestat is basically just too large a whiner. Her book about Jesus wasn't all bad either, quite surprised me actually.
Edited, Jul 5th 2007 12:10am by Zieveraar Edited, Jul 5th 2007 12:10am by Zieveraar