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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv
From: Amy Sheldon <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.eddings,rec.arts.sf.written,alt.answers,rec.answers,news.answers
Subject: Recommended Fantasy Authors List - Part 5/5
Supersedes: <fantasy/recommended-authors/[e-mail]>
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Date: 19 Dec 1998 14:07:10 GMT
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Summary: Listing of fantasy authors recommended by readers of
            the alt.fan.eddings newsgroup. Contains descriptive
            listings on nearly 100 authors, forthcoming titles,
            book news, and numbers of recommendations.
X-Last-Updated: 1998/03/03
Originator: [e-mail]
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.fan.eddings:41954 rec.arts.sf.written:358293 alt.answers:38704 rec.answers:46014 news.answers:146888

Archive-name: fantasy/recommended-authors/part5
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1998/03/01
URL: http://www.sff.net/people/Amy.Sheldon/listcont.htm
Version: 3.0

        THE RECOMMENDED FANTASY AUTHORS LIST - ver. 3.0
                          Part 5 of 5

                NOTICE OF MAJOR CHANGE TO LIST
Beginning with the March, 1998 posting, only those authors with
six or more recommendations will have detailed listings. THE
FULL LIST, WITH TITLES AND COMMENTS ON *ALL* RECOMMENDED
AUTHORS, is available at the list web site:
http://www.sff.net/people/Amy.Sheldon/listcont.htm

Unfortunately, the Recommended Fantasy Author List has just
gotten too large to continue posting the entire thing.



TOTAL NUMBER OF RECOMMENDATIONS PER AUTHOR
The List contains every fantasy author recommended by seven or
more people. Some authors turned up on enough lists to gain
special status as either "Highly Recommended" or "Recommended."

Second on the list of Highly Recommended authors (appears on 20%
or more of the recommendation lists) is:
     Raymond Feist
Joining him are: Terry Brooks, Stephen Donaldson, Robert Jordan,
     Guy Gavriel Kay, Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, Terry
     Pratchett, Melanie Rawn, J.R.R. Tolkien, the Margaret
     Weis/Tracy Hickman combo and Tad Williams.
David Eddings is in the number one spot with 154 recommendations
(hardly surprising, since the List originated in
alt.fan.eddings).

Recommended authors (10% - 19%) are:
     Lloyd Alexander, Piers Anthony, Robert Asprin, Marion
     Zimmer Bradley, Steven Brust, Susan Cooper, Dave Duncan,
     David Gemmell, Barbara Hambly, Katherine Kerr, Katherine
     Kurtz, Ursula Le Guin, C.S. Lewis, Julian May, Michael
     Moorcock, R.A. Salvatore, Janny Wurts and Roger Zelazny

Following are the authors with recommendations from six or more
of those sending in lists and their total number of
recommendations (as of 1/31/98)

     Eddings, David. . . . . 156
     Feist, Raymond. . . . . .74
     Jordan, Robert. . . . . .72
     Tolkien, J.R.R. . . . . .68
     Donaldson, Stephen. . . .58
     Brooks, Terry . . . . . .50
     Pratchett, Terry. . . . .48
     Williams, Tad . . . . . .42
     McCaffrey, Anne . . . . .41
     Kay, Guy Gavriel. . . . .39
     Weis & Hickman. . . . . .39
     Lackey, Mercedes. . . . .32
     Kerr, Katharine . . . . .31
     Kurtz, Katherine. . . . .31
     Rawn, Melanie . . . . . .28
     Le Guin, Ursula . . . . .27
     Lewis, C.S. . . . . . . .24
     Zelazny, Roger. . . . . .24
     May, Julian . . . . . . .23
     Brust, Steven . . . . . .21
     Hambly, Barbara . . . . .21
     Moorcock, Michael . . . .21
     Gemmell, David. . . . . .20
     Bradley, Marian Zimmer. .19
     Duncan, Dave. . . . . . .19
     Alexander, Lloyd. . . . .18
     Wurts, Janny. . . . . . .18
     Anthony, Piers. . . . . .17
     Cooper, Susan . . . . . .17
     Salvatore, R.A. . . . . .17
     Asprin, Robert. . . . . .16
     de Lint, Charles. . . . .16
     McKillip, Patricia. . . .16
     Cherryh, C.J. . . . . . .14
     Beagle, Peter . . . . . .13
     Goodkind, Terry . . . . .13
     Card, Orson Scott . . . .12
     McKinley, Robin . . . . .12
     Cook, Glen. . . . . . . .11
     Lawhead, Stephen. . . . .11
     Roberson, Jennifer. . . .11
     Tepper, Sheri . . . . . .11
     Vance, Jack . . . . . . .11
     Wells, Angus. . . . . . .11
     de Camp, L. Sprague . . .10
     Hobb, Robin . . . . . . .10
     MacAvoy, R.A. . . . . . .10
     Modesitt, L.E.. . . . . .10
     Moon, Elizabeth . . . . .10
     Wrede, Patricia . . . . .10
     Cook, Hugh. . . . . . . . 9
     Foster, Alan Dean . . . . 9
     Saberhagen, Fred. . . . . 9
     Carroll, Lewis. . . . . . 8
     Hughart, Barry. . . . . . 8
     Jones, Diana Wynne. . . . 8
     Norton, Andre . . . . . . 8
     Rice, Ann . . . . . . . . 8
     Stasheff, Christopher . . 8
     Taylor, Roger . . . . . . 8
     Watt-Evans, Lawrence. . . 8
     Wolfe, Gene . . . . . . . 8
     Eisenstein, Phyllis . . . 7
     Friedman, C.S.. . . . . . 7
     Goldman, William. . . . . 7
     Green, Simon. . . . . . . 7
     King, Stephen . . . . . . 7
     Powers, Tim . . . . . . . 7
     Reichart, Mickey Z. . . . 7
     Rosenberg, Joel . . . . . 7
     Tarr, Judith. . . . . . . 7
     White, T.H. . . . . . . . 7
     Bradbury, Ray . . . . . . 6
     Cooper, Louise. . . . . . 6
     Dean, Pamela. . . . . . . 6
     Dunsany, Lord . . . . . . 6
     Edgerton, Teresa. . . . . 6
     Hodgell, P.C. . . . . . . 6
     Jacques, Brian. . . . . . 6
     Leiber, Fritz . . . . . . 6
     Russell, Sean . . . . . . 6
     Wylie, Jonathan . . . . . 6

The following authors have received recommendations, but they
haven't yet reached the magic "6 of those recommending" mark.
Full listings for them can be found on the List's homepage:
http://www.sff.net/people/Amy.Sheldon/listcont.htm

Abbey, Lynn
Ackroyd, Peter
Adams, Richard
Aldiss, Brian
Anderson, Poul
Aratyr, Risa
Attanasio, A.A.
Bailey, Hilary
Bailey, Robin
Barker, Clive
Barker, M.A.R.
Baudino, Gael
Baum, L. Frank
Bear, Greg
Bell, Clare
Bellairs, John
Blaylock, James
Blish, James
Blyton, Enid
Bova, Ben
Boyer, Elizabeth
Bradshaw, Gillian
Bramah, Ernest
Brenner, Meyer
Brin, David
Brittain, C. Dale
Bujold, Lois
Bull, Emma
Burroughs, E.R.
Butler, Octavia
Byatt, A.S.
Cabell, James B.
Caldecott, Moyra
Callander, Don
Carmody, Isobel
Carter, Angela
Carter, Lin
Chalker, Jack
Chant, Joy
Cochran, Molly & Murphy, Warren
Cole, Adrian
Cole, Allan
Cook, Rick
Crawford, F. Marion
Daley, Brian
David, Peter
Davidson, Avram
DeCarlo, Elisa
DeChancie, John
Deitz, Tom
Dexter, Susan
Dickson, Gordon
Downer, Ann
Drake, David
Duane, Diane
Eddison, E.R.
Edghill, Rosemary
Elgin, Suzette
Emerson, Ru
Ende, Michael
Fancher, Jane
Fergusson, Bruce
Finney, Charles
Finney, Jack
Flewelling, Lynn
Ford, Richard
Friesner, Esther
Furey, Maggie
Gardner, Craig
Garner, Alan
Garrett, Randall
Gentle, Mary
Goldstein, Lisa
Greeno, Gayle
Grimm, Brothers
Haggard, H. Rider
Hamilton, Laurel
Hand, Elizabeth
Hardy, Lyndon
Harris, Deborah Turner
Harrison, Harry
Hawke, Simon
Hildebrandt, Brothers
Hodgson, William
Holdstock, Robert
Holt, Tom
Hood, Daniel
Horwood, William
Howard, Robert
Huff, Tanya
Hughes, Robert
Jakes, John
Jansson, Tove
Jeffries, Michael
Jones, J.V.
Kaye, Marvin
Kearney, Paul
Kellogg, Marjorie
Knaak, Richard
Kushner, Ellen
L'engle, Madelaine
Lee, Tanith
Lindgren, Astrid
Lisle, Holly
Llywelyn, Morgan
Lorrah, Jean
MacDonald, George
Machen, Arthur
Martensson, Bertil
Martin, George R.R.
McGirt, Dan
McKenzie, Nancy
Merritt, A.
Moore, C.L.
Morressy, John
Morris, William
Morrison, Patricia Kennealy
Morwood, Peter
Mundy, Talbot
Munn, H. Warner
Myers, John Myers
O'Donohoe, Nick
O'Shea, Pat
Paxson, Diane
Peake, Mervyn
Pierce, Meredith
Pini, Wendy & Richard
Byron Preiss & J. Michael Reaves
Price, E. Hoffman
Pullman, Philip
Pyle, Howard
Rankin, Robert
Rowley, Christopher
Rusch, Kristine
Russ, Joanna
Sampson, Fay
Scarborough, Elizabeth
Schmidt, Dennis
Scott, Michael
Shea, Michael
Sherman, Delia
Sherman, Josepha
Shetterly, Will
Shilltoe, Tony
Shinn, Sharon
Silke, James
Silverberg, Robert
Simak, Clifford
Simmons, Dan
Smith, Julie Dean
Smith, Thorne
Snyder, Midori
Snyder, Zilpha
Springer, Nancy
Stevens, Francis
Stevermer, Caroline
Stewart, Mary
Stewart, Sean
Swann, Thomas Burnett
Tilley, Patrick
Timlett, Peter Valentine
Turtledove, Harry
Van Asten, Gail
Van Lustbader, Eric
Vardeman, Robert
Volsky, Paula
Wagner, Karl E.
Walton, Evangeline
Warrington, Freda
Wells, Martha
West, Michelle Sagara
Whyte, Jack
Willey, Elizabeth
Williams, Charles
Williamson, Philip
Wood, Bridget
Yarbro, Chelsea
Yolen, Jane
Zimmer, Paul

FINDING THESE BOOKS
Many of the books listed are currently in print, or were popular
enough that you should be able to track them down in a
used-bookstore or at the library. I have attempted to note those
that will be particularly difficult to find. This is written
from a United States viewpoint - those of you in Canada, Europe,
Australia, and elsewhere may need to put forth quite a bit more
effort.

The easiest place to start looking if you can't tear yourself
from your computer to go to your local bookstore is amazon.com.
They have a huge selection of books (just about everything in
print, so far as I can tell), are incredibly easy to use, offer
discount prices, and reasonable shipping rates. And, yes, they
do ship everywhere in the world. You can find them at
     http://www.amazon.com

Other well-regarded on-line bookstores include Book Stacks (a
personal favorite, since their physical location is my home
town) at
     http://www.books.com
and Future Fantasy at
     http://futfan.com
Future Fantasy has the tremendous advantage of being a science
fiction and fantasy specialty store, so if you have an obscure
request they are a lot more likely to be able to help you.

All three of the the above are U.S. based. For those in Britain,
Bookpages at
     http://www.bookpages.co.uk
has been mentioned to me several times. Another is the Internet
Book Shop, located at
     http://www.bookshop.co.uk
If anyone is willing to recommend some European and/or Asian
bookstores with a web presence, I'll be happy to list them.

Finding books that are out of print will take a little more
effort. For those of you in Britain, Dave recommends Fantastic
Literature. They only deal in mail order, and have a large
selection of out-of-print sf, fantasy and horror. Contact them
at: Fantastic Literature, 33 The Ramparts, Rayleigh, Essex, SS6
8NJ

Two of the best places to look for used books on the Web are
Interloc and A.B.E. Try them at
     http://www.abebooks.com
     http://www.interloc.com


DOWNLOADING THE LIST
Yes! You too can have your very own copy of the Recommended
Fantasy Author List on your very own personal computer! There
are a couple of ways to go about it:

1)   E-mail me at [e-mail]  Be sure to let me know
     whether you want the list in one big lump as a MIME
     attached file, or broken up into five separate messages.
2)   Via anonymous ftp to rtfm.mit.edu (and its mirror sites)
     from the directory /pub/usenet/alt.fan.eddings/
3)   If you don't have access to ftp, you can use the
     news.answers ftp-by-mail server. Send a message to
     [e-mail] with the following six lines in
     the body (not the subject) of the message:

send usenet/news.answers/fantasy/recommended-authors/part1
send usenet/news.answers/fantasy/recommended-authors/part2
send usenet/news.answers/fantasy/recommended-authors/part3
send usenet/news.answers/fantasy/recommended-authors/part4
send usenet/news.answers/fantasy/recommended-authors/part5
quit

ABOUT THE LIST
This listing was created in April 1994, following what seemed
like the 900th posting of "what other authors should I read?" in
the alt.fan.eddings newsgroup. Originally, the tone of the
editorial comments was intended to be neutral, since this is a
compilation of the recommendations of many people and not a list
of my personal favorites. This policy has gradually eroded, and
the perceptive reader can probably make some pretty good guesses
as 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.

Recommenders are encouraged to keep their lists updated - in
fact, I try to write occasionally to confirm that the choices I
have on record are what was actually sent.

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 called Editorial Privilege.) I also avoid
listing books with multiple authors, mainly because I'm never
quite sure where to put them.

The dividing line between fantasy, science fiction, and horror
is indistinct and highly subjective. Inclusion on this list for
those books that straddle the border depends on three factors:
How many people push for inclusion of the author, how the
publisher markets the book, and, most importantly, whether it
matches *my* definition of fantasy (remember that editorial
privilege I mentioned?)

I would like to note that most the long-running, open-ended
series contained herein do tend to have one major problem: They
get weaker as they progress (Piers Anthony is the prime example
of this tendency.) Try to start with the earlier books in the
series, so you can get thoroughly hooked and are compelled to
keep reading even after the author just starts hacking them out.


CREDITS
Many people made suggestions and offered aid and comfort in the
creation of this list. Many thanks to everyone who sent me lists
of their favorite Recommended Authors, and if any of you read
any *new* authors you want to recommend, let me know.

Three cheers for:

Jonathan Yen - who has almost as many books on his
     recommendation list as I do

Donal Fellows - ruler of the Eddings home page (as well as all
     that he surveys). View it (and this list too!) 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, Doug Bowles, 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, Asher Dunn, Matthew Dworkin, Richard
     Faircloth, Paul Farris, Donal Fellows, Michael Crist
     Ferguson, Maria Fox, David Geelan, Kevin Green, Jo Harrold,
     Clint Hauser, Simon Hogley, Genevieve Hoog, Ironczar, Jani
     Joki, Glynne Jones, Mark Allen Jones, Scott Kessler, Gerard
     Kilgallon, Derrek Kirk, Michael X. Koon, Jim Lahue, Glynis
     Long, Mike Loux, Dwayne MacKinnon, Peter Maranci, Beth
     Martin, Craig Meyer, Naomi, Barry Nelson, Ray Pugh, Tarja
     Rainio, Ronan, 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 the Wizzy, Brett Whinnen, Adam Wick, Pamela Wolff,
     Theresa Yoder

The listing was created and is maintained by Amy Sheldon.
Permission to reproduce this material for non-profit purposes is
freely granted, however it would be really nice if you asked
first. Not only can I then make sure that you have the latest
version, I'll also have the chance to be tremendously flattered
that someone actually wants this list. Any corrections, comments
or questions should be sent to:
     [e-mail]