Writers

[Smeagollum]

I like scifi and fantasy a lot; read Raymond E. feist, Eddings, Goodkind, Brent Weeks (loved his writing), Clemens, Brooks, Markus Heitz (german), Bernard Hennen (german) and ofcourse tolkien. And I read the Star Wars novells.

Anyway, nothing feels such epic and is so intelligent written as Tolkien does. Can anybody advise me a (SF/fantasy) writer who has the same feel of intelect and write epic novells?

[putridbreath]

Dune by Frank Herbert

[Smeagollum]

Dune by Frank Herbert

I think you're right, but I don't dare to read his works, because I saw the film (which was bad). So I'm afraid that when I read Dune that I'll have this film in my head again or even worse the miniseries... I know sounds stupid... but hey I'm a stupid person

[Yanko Markovic]

My favs are: Tolkien, Grisham, Stephen King, Lin Carter, Lovecraft (love the concepts and writings, hate the author). That's all. Lovecraft has some writings that resemble a lot how Tolkien writes and feels, except for the horror thing (mainly The  Doom that came to Sarnath).

[Smeagollum]

Just googled lovecraft.... It seems interesting. But how come you hate the author; he died in 1937?

[Gate Troll]

Lovecraft was... eccentric, to say the least.

[Yanko Markovic]

When talking about Lovecraft, I prefer to say *everything* I think about him. I will not do it now. Anyway, he was a 20's American writer, so his terrible racism, sexism, anti-semitism and extreme rightism are kinda understandable.

Anyway, I still enjoyed most of the Necronomicon, and was pretty inspiring.

[Smeagollum]

I read wiki about him, but what I understand out of it he was inspired by his nightmares and that his word is nihilistic (if that's an english word for it) and that he knows to create a psycholgic fear and that one of his themes is how little humanity is. But I haven't read any of his work, so I can't judge the man and his reason for writing in the way as described. But I'm sure that after I've returned some books from Terry Pratchet to the library that Lovecraft is on my list!

[Smeagollum]

When talking about Lovecraft, I prefer to say *everything* I think about him. I will not do it now. Anyway, he was a 20's American writer, so his terrible racism, sexism, anti-semitism and extreme rightism are kinda understandable.

Anyway, I still enjoyed most of the Necronomicon, and was pretty inspiring.

But did he meant that or is it more that he did try to say something else by it?

[Yanko Markovic]

He clearly reflects his own ideology in his writings. Some of his descriptions, adjectives, etc regarding jews or black people pretty much reflect what he personally believed. What I meant was that he was a white American, in the 20's. That was pretty much what everyone believed and was the dominant way of thinking in the society that time. Scroll down a little bit more in his wiki, there are some pretty good examples of what I said before.

And yes, it IS of course an entertaining read. If you start reading him, start with simple but still frightening stories such as The Statement of Randolph Carter and Dagon (pretty disturbingly entertaining stuff!

[Elessar's Socks]

Dune is impressively far-reaching in scale. Star Wars novels have been hit-or-miss for me; I like the ones by Timothy Zahn (Thrawn trilogy) and Karen Traviss (Republic Commando series). And although background detail is needed since it's set in the midst of the New Jedi Order series, Traitor by Matthew Stover made for great philosophical discussion on the nature of the Force.

Other suggestions:

Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling:

- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Star Rigger series, by Jeffrey Carver:

- Dragons in the Stars
- Dragon Rigger
- Eternity's End

The Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander:

- The Book of Three
- The Black Cauldron
- The Castle of Llyr
- Taran Wanderer
- The High King

[Smeagollum]

He clearly reflects his own ideology in his writings. Some of his descriptions, adjectives, etc regarding jews or black people pretty much reflect what he personally believed. What I meant was that he was a white American, in the 20's. That was pretty much what everyone believed and was the dominant way of thinking in the society that time. Scroll down a little bit more in his wiki, there are some pretty good examples of what I said before.

And yes, it IS of course an entertaining read. If you start reading him, start with simple but still frightening stories such as The Statement of Randolph Carter and Dagon (pretty disturbingly entertaining stuff!

I read the Dutch Wiki about him; http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Phillips_Lovecraft
As you can see it's not that much information. But I'll check the english one tomorrow!

[Smeagollum]

@Elessar

I forgot to mention Harry Potter.. course I read them. I even read the ongoing series about him !

Will check the other ones tomorrow as well.

[TelTura]

Ann McCaffrey, Dragonriders of Pern, the entire series.  A bit promiscuous at parts but overall a very well-built universe. 

The Darksword Trilogy is a good read (but I don't hold the fourth book in high regard) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

[Ulmo]

In no particular order: Michael Moorcock(Count Brass, Elric), Robert Silverberg(Majipoor), Poul Anderson(boat of a million years and others), Frederick Pohl(Gateway), Philip Jose Farmer(To your Scattered Bodies Go, the other Riverworld novels), Roger Zelazny(Amber series), Robert Heinlein(anything of his), Philip K. #$&*@!(anything of his), Alfred Bester(anything of his)

There are others in my collection that I'm missing but can't remember right now.