"I dare not post, but I will wink and hold out mine homepage.It is a simple one, but what though? It will waste time, and it will endureflames as another man's page will - and there's an end."
- with apologies to William Shakespeare
The list is alphabetic by author. In the case of authors with multipleseries, I've attempted to list their works in order of publication. Notethat the operative word in the preceding sentence is "attempted."Series are listed with a series title followed by the individual booksin the series. The listing will indicate if the titles are part of an on-goingseries or a limited series (trilogies, tetralogies, and the like), andif the books within the series stand alone. If the series has gone beyond10 books, the first several books will be listed, and maybe a few othersof particular interest.
THIS LISTING DOES NOT PRETEND TO LIST EVERY WORK BY EVERYAUTHORLISTED, nor is it intended to do so. In several cases, only specificbooks by an author are recommended (although that is generally noted inthe comments). Authors who write both science fiction AND fantasy (or booksin other genres) only have their fantasy titles listed.
This is NOT a listing of the FAQmaster's personal favorites.
Series titles are in bold italics, and titles within the series follow.Comments, if any, follow the listing. Authors/series listed by 10% of therecommenders are marked with an "*". Two "**" meansthat 20% or more have endorsed the author. The total number of recommendationsper author follows the List.
This listing was created in April 1994, following what seemed like the900th posting of "what other authors should I read?" in the alt.fan.eddingsnewsgroup. Originally, the tone of the editorial comments was intendedto be neutral, since this is a compilation of the recommendations of manypeople and not a list of one person's favorites. This policy has graduallyeroded, and the perceptive reader can probably make some pretty good guessesas to which books are particularly favored by the FAQMaster. Do note, however,that there are quite a few books on this list that I either haven't read,tried and didn't like, or wouldn't recommend to an enemy, let alone a friend,so don't blame ME if you spot an author that you absolutely loathe.
This list doesn't contain shared world novels and short story collections,except in those cases where I feel like including them (hey, it's calledEditorial Privilege.) I also tend to avoid books with multiple authors,mainly because I'm never quite sure which name to list them under.
The dividing line between fantasy, science fiction, and horror is indistinctand highly subjective. Inclusion on this list for those books that straddlethe border depends on three factors: How many people push for inclusionof the author, how the publisher markets the book, and, most importantly,whether it matches my definition of fantasy (remember that editorialprivilege I mentioned?)
I would like to note that most of the long-running, open-ended seriescontained herein do tend to have one major problem: They get weaker asthey progress (Piers Anthony is the prime example of this tendency.) Tryto start with the earlier books in the series, so you can get thoroughlyhooked and are compelled to keep reading even after the author just startshacking them out.
Many people made suggestions and offered aid and comfort in the creationand maintenance of this list. Many thanks to everyone who sent me listsof their favorite Recommended Authors.
Anthony Chan
Mike Loux
Paul Farris & Raj Shah
Jonathan Yen - who has almost as many books on his recommendationlist as I do
Donal Fellows - ruler of the Eddings home page (as well as allthat he surveys). View it at:
http://r8h.cs.man.ac.uk:8000/eddings/
Special thanks to all of the following, who helped to fill in the blanks,suggested new authors to add to the list, and/or sent me Real Nice Mail:
Tim Abicht (Eriond), Henry Andrews, Corinne Aragaki, Denis Aumueller,Krista Babstock, Zachary Mitch Binder, Elizabeth Blatt, Fredrik Blom, DougBowles, Jan Erik Breimo, Daphne Brinkerhoff, Edward Buckley, Andy Carlson,Simon Challands, Steve Christensen, Stephen Clark, Stevie Clifford (a.k.a.Gaspode Wannabe), Cyradis, Amy Darke, Nathan Daniel, Jessika Diamond, AsherDunn, Matthew Dworkin, Richard Faircloth, Paul Farris, Donal Fellows, MichaelCrist Ferguson, Maria Fox, David Geelan, Kevin Green, Jo Harrold, ClintHauser, Simon Hogley, Genevieve Hoog, Ironczar, Jani Joki, Glynne Jones,Mark Allen Jones, Scott Kessler, Gerard Kilgallon, Derrek Kirk, MichaelX. Koon, Jim Lahue, Glynis Long, Mike Loux, Dwayne MacKinnon, Peter Maranci,Beth Martin, Craig Meyer, Naomi, Barry Nelson, Ray Pugh, Tarja Rainio,Leigh Rooney, Kevin Roose, Steve Sams, Heather Sexauer, Joe "Uno"Shaw, Eric Siebert, Martin Slade, Dean Smith, Lars H. Tombre, Garry Turkington,Luke Vaughn, Michael van Acken, B.J. van Look, Elaine Walker, Wardley theWizzy, Brett Whinnen, Adam Wick, Ronan Willis, Pamela Wolff, Theresa Yoder
The listing was created and is maintained by Amy Sheldon. Permissionto reproduce this material for non-profit purposes is freely granted, howeverit would be really nice if you asked first. Not only can I then make surethat you have the latest version, I'll also have the chance to be tremendouslyflattered that someone actually wants this list. Any corrections, commentsor questions should be sent to:
Amy Sheldon at amy.sheldon@sff.net
[ | List Table of Contents|The Recommended Fantasy AuthorList Part 1]