Seems to me that at least some of you lot will be big readers, given that you're enjoying a text-based adventure game. I'll get the ball rolling.

Tied for first place - Terry Pratchett and Spider Robinson.

Yeah, sorry - my favourite authors aren't what you'd call heavy reading. That's probably why they're my favourites - their books are clever, and they ask questions and invite you to think about things, but they're still easy going and accessible enough to reach a mainstream audience in the disguise of light entertainment, which I think is a very, very good thing.

Pratchett needs no introduction - and if he does, then go read the "Guards" or "Death" books in the DiscWorld series. They're a good start. Don't bother with the RinceWind books - or if you do read them, read them only for the sake of completeness. They're not as good as the rest.

Spider Robinson - wonderfully optimistic, light-hearted science fiction. It takes its sweet time to get anywhere, but it's a good journey filled with fun characters, interesting questions and truly awful puns. Particular favourites: "Lady Slings the Booze," "MindKiller," "The Best of All Possible Worlds" (anthology edited by Spider). I think the only Spider Robinson book I didn't really enjoy was his most applauded work "Variable Star," adapted by Spider from a novel outline by Robert Heinlein discovered after Heinlein's death - it suffers from the pacing problems that Spider gets himself into every now and again, only amplified ten times over. Things Happen in the beginning. Nothing Happens for a few hundred pages. Things Happen at the end, and nobody really does anything about them. The Things That Happen at The End could have easily happened without the several hundred pages of Nothing Happening and in this case, the protagonist never quite manages to be interesting enough to hold my patience (in addition to being a bit of a jackass). I'd like to see more Spider Robinson in the next Spider Robinson book.

I digress. Who are your favourite authors, and why?

F'me: Douglas Adams (nuff said) and later Pratchett (just like you, I never could stand all of those Rince-Windy nonsense early works although Night Watch nearly had me sobbing), Michael Marshall Smith (fearsome fantasy horror, lots of cats), Iain Banks* (of The Bridge, The Crow Road, Complicity et al), Toby Litt, Jeff Noon (I'm sure he was involved in Madchester), Christopher Brookmyre (Because he's like a Scottish Carl Hiaasen), Will Self (for his pure surrealism) - the list goes on a while and whether it's heavy or light reading depends on whether I'm in the bath or not. Someone I've enjoyed also is Robert Rankin, who did one of the most surreal readings I've ever attended...

I'm also in love with Neal Stephenson. From Zodiac to the Baroque Cycle and all in between, however, I've avoided Anathem up to now, due to the subject matter that appears to head a little towards Iain M Banks* which never really appealed to me.

I'd also have to admit a certain love for two Canadians: Douglas Coupland and William Gibson. Both touch on the same prosaic, yet fantastical, yet bathetic worlds that have the capacity to inspire with the most banal description. I think that's a bit of a skill, that.

*Sorry Sessine.

Neil Gaiman ~especially "The Graveyard Book" and "Neverwhere"
Emma Bull ~ Urban fantasy at it's finest
Stephen Lawhead ~ I find his take on King Authur and Robin Hood facinating.
Orson Scott Card
Terry Pratchett? it depends on the day and the book. "Good Omens" is probably my favorite, but I'm guessing that's partly because it was co-written with Gaiman.

And, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien, who was really the one who started my love for fantasy.

On top of my list, there is to be found Neal Asher. He's got a nice way of building up a semi-paradise of a future with minor irritants for at least a decade with various short stories and books, just to tear it down into dystopia within two hundred pages of his latest work.

He's got a pretty fun way of writing, and though the style is usually light-hearted, there are bites in it to chew on for days. I got quite a bit of inspiration out of his works, especially the loose Cormac pentalogy.

Second there is Sibylle Berg. If one of you knows an unnerving, bitter, old-and-refusing-to-die, not to forget German relative, send them one of her books. And stay away for the next few days. They're morbid, dark, describe the big city life from the Worst Possible View while staying absolutely believeable, and should not be read in company. Especially not on buses or in trains. Depending on mood, one feels better about one's own life, or gets fairly misanthropic.

Aside from these two, I really can't decide on a ranking. Jeph Jaques, Trudi Canavan, Stanislaw Lem, Frank Schätzing, Felix Mitterer. Astrid Lindgren. Possibly in future Alfred Döblin.

Orson Scott Card - I really liked the Shadow offshoot from Ender's Game, but really only Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Hedgemon of that group. They were good novels in my opinion, but as of late, I've really come to appreciate the Speaker for the Dead trilogy, because of some of the thought it provokes for me.

Jim Butcher - Interesting Novels, and the Xanatos Speed Chess is always amusing. Though, he does get repetitive in some series.

Douglas Adams - Need I say more?

J.R.R Tolkien - LotR got me very interested in fantasy.

Michael Crichton - Andromeda Strain, Terminal Man, Jurassic Park - All good books.



Just depends on how I feel that day which order I'd put them in.

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The Island's Most Married Kittyjoker.

I'm starting to get into Pratchett, but my favorite author is (or was, rather. God rest his soul) Michael Crichton. I loved his ability to tell an exciting and suspenseful story. I was devastated when I learned he had died. I also like Douglas Adams, of which Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is my favorite novel.

Wait, you mean I have to actually elevate some above the rest? But the great majority of things I read are so good!

Anyway, ones that come to mind:

George Orwell

Herbert George Wells

Anthony Burgess

Ray Bradbury

A lot of classic literature, too. I've read almost everything by the immortal bard.

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A magpie's work is never done.

Dresden files. FTW.

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"You saved Pineapple!"

You've been reading Jeffrey Archer?

I think she means Shakespeare, sir.

Quite right.

Also, I heard that Orson Scott Card has another book that's a direct following of Ender's Game. I've yet to read it, but I'm told it's quite good.

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A magpie's work is never done.

Sorry, I'd read Rosin's quote as being the 'immoral bastard'. Easy mistake to make, that.

I like Terry Pratchett, and I liked the first few books of Raymond E. Feist. And I've read a couple Mercedes Lackey that were alright.

I dunno, I don't read as much as I used to. Most of my reading anymore consists of Dungeons and Dragons manuals :p.

Picking favourites out of a lifetime's reading is pretty much impossible, but, hm. In no particular order... some: Ursula LeGuin, Neil Gaiman (Coraline!), Emma Bull, Roger Zelazny, Jane Yolen, John M. Ford, Diana Wynn Jones, Poul Anderson, Samuel R. Delany, P.C. Hodgell, Fritz Leiber, Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Vance...

Oh, and Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, Arthur Conan Doyle, Margery Allingham, Lewis Carroll, Laurie R. King, Poppy Z. Brite...

Wait. This isn't working.

I've been really enjoying Richard Morgan at the moment. Futuristic sci-fi thriller type stuff (although Market Forces is set in a closer future). Oooh violent, clever and exciting, yay! I do like a good range of books though from Angry White Pyjamas (about an Oxford uni nerd learning Aikido from the Japanese riot police trainers) to Apathy and Other Small Victories (just so offensively hilarious) to The Idiot (wading through Russian classics FTW). In case anyone's interested, I have a Shelfari account, and would love some recommendations etc from any other islanders.

I like the cut of your jib, Angry White Pyjamas, yes, I've read and enjoyed that, and I also like the Russians - Master and Margerita is one of my faves.

@Sessine. Poppy Z. Brite - gosh, that's a blast from the past.

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation. I don't suppose you'd like to recommend an edition too? Looking on Amazon, a couple of the comments imply that some translations are a bit painful.

I'll confess to having read all Christopher Brookmyer and Carl Hiassen's books (in rapid succession). I've really got to try some Iain Banks as he came to a literary festival at work here (which I missed for some other work related crap otherwise known as a lengthy meeting), and gave a reading etc which apparently everyone loved (but then doesn't everyone love everything at these kinds of thing..?).

You know, sometimes only a bit of Brookmyre or Hiaasen will do, and once I read one, I too end up reading more, they're slightly addictive. For Iain Banks, if you like Christopher & Carl - go with Complicity for your starter for ten, then try out The Crow Road and the Wasp Factory. On the other hand, Espedair Street and The Bridge are slightly more dreamy/ dreamlike, and if you like those, then try out Magnus Mills (Three to See The King and All Quiet on the Orient Express) and Rupert Thompson (Soft and The Insult) and Haruki Murakami (South of the Border, West of the Sun and Norwegian Wood) - all of these, inexplicably, I missed from my list of favourite authors... That's what pressure does to a brain!

I quite enjoyed the Otherland series by Tad Williams. The books are long, and there's four of them, but they are an interesting cross of science fiction and fantasy. I also enjoyed Idlewild by Nick Sagan, (Yes, that Sagan). Also I enjoy the works of Alexander Jablokov and the short stories of Robert Heinlein. I suggest you read the short story All You Zombies. Very intricate.

"Just because you're Paranoid doesn't mean there isn't a demon trying to eat your face."

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The Island's Most Married Kittyjoker.