Recommend Me Some Fiction Authors

[Dinger1962]

Sven Hassel---Fredrick Forsythe---Gerald seymore i know they not fantasy but they are good blokey reading--

[Punkstig]

Ok, if it's a free for all then you absolutely must read 'The Princess bride' by William Goldman, yes the film has a massive cult following (because it's the best film ever!) but the book is perfect!

[esetest]

Conn Igguldens emperor series about Julius Caesar , or the series about Genghis Khan , Manda Scotts The emperors spy , Simon Scarrows Eagle series ,
Valerio Massimo Manfredi , David gibbins Atllantis , Pathfinder by David Blakeney , The Silent sea  , Robert Goddards  The ways of the world .

[Hedgetrimmer]

Ok, if it's a free for all then you absolutely must read 'The Princess bride' by William Goldman, yes the film has a massive cult following (because it's the best film ever!) but the book is perfect!

Don't know of it. Not heard of the film either. Ok, what's it about?

[pilgo]

Bernard cornwell, more known for his SHARPE books, does a series about Anglo saxon England and the viking invasions, tells you true English history from a bloody time set around fictional characters, think im about to start book 6 or 7, loved them all.

[lew600fazer]

A Game of Thrones just on the 3rd book now.
Ian Rankin Rebus series books crime thrillers.
Bernard Cornwell the American Civil war series
And if you need something to send you to sleep at night, War & Peace.

[Stupid Luke]

Ok, if it's a free for all then you absolutely must read 'The Princess bride' by William Goldman, yes the film has a massive cult following (because it's the best film ever!) but the book is perfect!

How long since you last read it? The reason I ask is I told my kids exactly the same thing, and forced them to read it. They thought it ok but little more. Determined to prove them wrong I re read it and proved them right instead.


William Goldman is a brilliant screenwriter involved in some of the epic films of our time, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the Presidents Men, Marathon Man, A Bridge Too Far. He also has two brilliant autobiographies (3 but I have only read 2) Adventures in the Screentrade and What Lie Did I tell?


I am a big fan of Goldman and I know he claims to be more proud of Princess Bride than anything else he wrote. I think his opinion is perhaps a little biased because of all the hassle he had getting it made into a film. The story had been picked up and dropped by almost every film company and would likely never have been made if Rob Riener (a family friend) wasnt looking for a first film to produce. The film suffers the constraints of low budget and the book is an imaginative story, with a thread of self depreciating mockery of its genre but these days neither really live up to the hype.

[darrsi]

Dean Koontz is similar to Stephen King except he doesn't go off on the massive tangents that king tends to, after reading Koontz I didn't go back to King and have now read the majority of his books, the odd Thomas series is good, I'd suggest intensity or fear nothing as a first read!

.....The Tank Engine? 

[Stupid Luke]

I am not usually a big fan of sci fi or fantasy writing but The Song of Ice and Fire Books from which Game of Thrones was made are excellent. Another vote too for John Connolly's Charlie Parker series especially' Every Dead Thing'.


The good thing about these series books is that Amazon will usually discount the early ones to get you hooked into the characters so bargains are out there.


I also like Charlie Williams Mangel series starting with Deadfolk. I reckon Royston Blake is a brilliant comic invention although some are put off by the language. These are being filmed now so read them first before some director ruins them.


I also really like the Jack Irish series by Peter Temple and Barry Eisler's Japanese books. The Power of The Dog by Don Winslow and Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

[Punkstig]

Ok, if it's a free for all then you absolutely must read 'The Princess bride' by William Goldman, yes the film has a massive cult following (because it's the best film ever!) but the book is perfect!

Don't know of it. Not heard of the film either. Ok, what's it about?

Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...

[Punkstig]

Ok, if it's a free for all then you absolutely must read 'The Princess bride' by William Goldman, yes the film has a massive cult following (because it's the best film ever!) but the book is perfect!

How long since you last read it?

June last year by the looks of it
http://foc-u.co.uk/index.php?topic=13575.0

In that particular book I just love the narrative side to the book, which you can almost believe, but to realise that is part of the fiction  just makes it even more enjoyable!

[mickvp]

Griff has already suggested this but Richard Laymon has a few good books worth a read - motsyl horror/thriller type stuff.

Clive cussler was another good suggestion - I especially liked the dirk pitt series of books.

[ChristoT]

Dirk Pitt and The Oregon files are my favorite 2 series. Again, a bit predictable, but quite good for wasting an hour or 3 without engaging brain.

[darrsi]

Ok, if it's a free for all then you absolutely must read 'The Princess bride' by William Goldman, yes the film has a massive cult following (because it's the best film ever!) but the book is perfect!

Don't know of it. Not heard of the film either. Ok, what's it about?

You must've seen the film at some stage, it's the one with ex wrestler Andre The Giant in it.

[Hedgetrimmer]

Ok, if it's a free for all then you absolutely must read 'The Princess bride' by William Goldman, yes the film has a massive cult following (because it's the best film ever!) but the book is perfect!

Don't know of it. Not heard of the film either. Ok, what's it about?

Who he? 


You must've seen the film at some stage, it's the one with ex wrestler Andre The Giant in it.

[darrsi]

As his name suggests, he was a giant!

[Grahamm]

At the moment, I'm reading 2 authors: Terry Pratchett for light-hearted silliness with a cynical sense of humour, or Clive Cussler for the penny thriller style. Writing is crap, storylines are all similar, but it whiles away an hour or three.

If you like well written action / thriller, I can recommend Alistair MacLean or Hammon Innes.

I'm a bit late to this, so a few comments:

Pratchett is always good, although his later work suffered a bit due to his Alzheimers IMO (The Long Earth books aren't that great). Also the first two Discworld books, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are really just spoofs of other stories in the Fantasy genre (eg Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and McCaffrey's Pern books), it's not until Mort that he gets into his stride.

Cussler is rubbish, Dirk Pitt is just Cussler's Mary-Sue style wank fantasy. It might have been good when I was a teenager, but much better to read Tom Clancy (but only the books that he wrote himself, avoid the stuff where he franchised out his name!)

MacLean and Innes are good too, although a bit dated.

Joe Haldeman (Sci Fi) - The Forever War, 3 books (I think) easy reading and good action, believable portrayal of long term space travel and the effects of relativity.

Worth a read, but a bit of a post-Vietnam American guilt trip. Compare and contrast with Heinlein's Starship Troopers...

Harry Harrison (Sci Fi) - The Stainless Steel Rat series, very good Thief turned Investigator type stuff.

Yes, but only the first three (TSSR, TSSR's Revenge and TSSR Saves the World) are really good. The next couple are ok, but after that they went downhill with TSSR is Born and then he started churning them out and ended up as rubbish.

Issac Asimov (Sci Fi) - Foundation series.

Might have been great once, but now I think they're over-rated and he ended up painting himself into a corner for 20 years after the third book.

Arthur C Clarke (Sci Fi) - Rama series. Also, get the Collected Short Stories, they are all in one (big) book, some really good stuff in there.

Excellent hard SF, but avoid the later stuff where he started co-writing with other authors because it's just not the same.

Julian May (Sci Fi/Fantasy) - The Many Coloured Land, 3 books (I think). People who chose not to fit in with society choose to be sent back to the Pliocene epoch on a one way trip. Good stuff! 

I read this series once and thought it was ok, then came back to it a couple of years later and thought "gods, what a bunch of *losers*!" and dumped the books off to a friend.

Have Read a lot of Ian Banks (AKA Ian M Banks), both Sci-Fi and general fiction only one book of his that I couldn't get to grips with called 'The Bridge'

I like Banks' Sci-Fi stuff, especially the Culture stories, but I could never get into his general fiction for some reason.

Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...

Inconceivable!

A few more recommendations:

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, but then read Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant which really continue that story.

For totally epic Sci-Fi, Frank Herbert's Dune books are very good (although long!). His son, Brian's prequels about the Butlerian Jihad and House Atreides, House Harkonnen and House Corrinno etc are quite good too.

Finally Philip K Dick and Roger Zelazny (especially his Amber series) are definitely worth a look IMO.

[Hedgetrimmer]

When you say "good" or "not good" about a book, are you referring to plot or what? What I'm really looking for are authors who will draw me in and keep me going. Stephen King does that for me, very few others manage it. I like SK's down-to-earth characters thrown into sinister situations that they have to deal with. I like that he gives you the information you need to make the story work, or make a character seem real, and not just endless drivel as page-filler. In actual fact, he strikes me as the kind of person I would probably hit it off with if we met (I've read his book "On Writing" and even enjoy his forewards; he clearly has good taste in music too!). In short, although I have of course enjoyed books by other authors, King is my favourite, and not even because he writes mostly horror. I reckon I'd enjoy him in whatever genre he did, if his writing style remained as it is. So genre is not the most important thing to me in this search.

So what I really need to find is other authors who can keep me engaged like SK has, and so far I haven't found much fiction work that'll do it. So really, it's kind of difficult asking for recommendations, cos you might like different things from your authors than I do. But all suggestions appreciated, and I will try to get around to trying most of them at some point.

[Punkstig]

Funny, I got out of King because of his endless drivel about non story relayed bollocks!

[Hedgetrimmer]

Funny, I got out of King because of his endless drivel about non story relayed bollocks!

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one 

[ChristoT]

Funny, I got out of King because of his endless drivel about non story relayed bollocks!

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one 

SK ain't got nothin' on Victor Hugo. One of the most exciting bits of "Les Misérables" (Jean Valjean escaping through the sewers with his adopted daughter's injured boyfriend on his shoulders), and he throws in a 30 page essay on the history of the sewers of Paris!!

Hugo's description of the battle of Waterloo can almost be considered a historical source, it is so well detailed. Just reminds you that he was paid by the word, not the book!! 

[Fazer Forever]

George McDonald Fraser - The Flashman Papers. Twelve books in total. Brilliant and informative if you read all the historical notes.

[FZSteely]

For me I love reading Lee Child books based on Jack Reacher. Most bikers could relate to his character in the books, he's a sort of wandering tough guy, hitch hiking across America aimlessly, he's a bit of a dark hero, but always does the right thing in the end and the action is awesome!