This is a list of my favourite fantasy authors and characters. I would have liked to have hit 20 at least, to be a nice round number. Sadly, I failed. If you can help me out - let me know who I have missed. Anyway - here goes and let me know what you think;
1. J R R Tolkien. I especially liked the Silmarillion and the tale of Turin Turambar. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings stand head and shoulders above all other fantasy. I loved the world and the background history he created in such magnificent detail. The films are outstanding and do Tolkien's work such credit. I would love to see the Silmarillion on the big screen.
2. Ian Irvine - Nish, a cracking character who first appears in The Geomancer, The Well of Echoes Novels. Ian creates several really good characters. A master of creation! Quite strange tales and very strange opposition. A little Science Fiction like rather than truly fantasy, but well worth a read. Very easy reading and highly skilled descriptions and characterisation.
3. George Martin's Games of Thrones. Brilliant series but where is it going and who will be left in it? Lots of good characters and Tyrion Lanister is definitely a favourite. What a great character, so cool and flippant under pressure. The TV series (i'm up to the second series) is excellent, but already taking short cuts!
4. Brent Weeks - Beyond the Shadows, my favourite character has to be Kylar. Very long books. Really good characterisation. Lightbringer is also an excellent series, although I've only read books 1 and 2 so far. Not as good as the first series in my opinion. Longer books again and lots of description. Very readable though and once again brilliant characterisation.
5. Terry Goodkind. The Sword of Truth series are cracking reads. No one character leaps out though. I liked the first few books but struggled with Soul of the Fire. It's worth reading up to that point and/or omitting that book.
6. Weiss and Hickmann - Raistlin is my favourite character and the Twins novels my favourite series. Very entertaining books and well worth a read. That characters are excellent.
7. J K Rowling - Harry Potter books. Many really good characters! Luna Lovegrove has to be high on the list! Great stories and very good films. I do think the books are better than the films though.
8. Edgar Rice Burroughs - Mars series. Nostalgic value for me as this was my first read. I loved the tales of John Carter searching for Dejah Thoris, but he lost her far too often! Was he just careless. Tarzan was his other offerings and if you haven't read them then I recommend them. Really good reads.
9. David Gemmell - Druss is my favourite character in the Legend of Druss. Well worth a read. Other books by this author are good but some less so. The Greek series, however, was poor.
10. Joe Abercrombe - The Blade Itself and in particular Glokta. One of the best characters for a while. Really evil character but surprisingly you feel sympathy for him. He was tortured and left crippled.
11. Michael Moorcock - He has written many good books, my favourite character were Elric, Hawkmoon and Corum. I really liked the eternal Champion concept, bring several heroes together for one epic battle. Jerry Cornelious series based at the end of time is a good read as well. Overall, excellent books.
12. Robin Hobb and the Farseer and Tawny Man Trilogies were excellent. I found the Mad Ship series was very difficult to get into.
13. Stan Nicholls, Orcs. Quite a brutal tale.
14. Raymon Feist and Magician and Talon of the Silver Hawk. Magician was very good and deals with parallel worlds.
15. James Clemens - The Wit'ch Fire series. I need to re-read these as I can't remember much. They were quite brutal from memory.
16. Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time series. Book 9 was a stinker. Nothing really happened and it was so bad I gave up on the series. I have since read book 11, having been persuaded to continue and again found much of the story to be too slow. Book 12 (by another author) is starting to look promising. this was a cracking series to start with and books 1-3 were really good. such a shame.
17. Christopher Paolini, Eragon, but I didn't enjoy later books as much
Three short of 20 - so annoying!! What's your favourites?
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