Here we are at another Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the folks over at “The Broke and the Bookish.” This week was actually really hard for me to narrow down. The topic was “Top Ten Authors in ______ Genre” (fill in the blank with your genre of choice). At first I couldn’t decide which genre to pick, either Young Adult or Fantasy. There is a lot of crossover between those two, but if I was going to pick one, I wanted to be a purist. Example: if I was doing YA authors, I wanted to choose authors who didn’t write YA Fantasy. Or Fantasy authors who didn’t write for YA.
Am I overthinking this? Of course. I tend to do that, if you hadn’t noticed.
Once I narrowed down the topic, I had a really hard time picking my authors. Since I read so many books, I’m blaming my insomnia for this one. But here we go.
Top Ten (or Actually Eight) Favorite Fantasy Authors
1. David Eddings – I’ve mentioned him before, but I’ll do it again. The Belgariad series was the first real fantasy series I ever read. And I loved it, of course.
2. Mary Stewart – Many of you know that I adore King Arthur stories. Mary Stewart’s Merlin series was one of the first ones I read and it is amazing, telling the life story of Merlin the Enchanter.
3. Marion Zimmer Bradley – If we’re going to talk about Arthurian legends, then we have to put Marion Zimmer Bradley on the list. I still maintain that The Mists of Avalon is one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read.
4. Anne McCaffery – The Dragon Lady! The one who wrote the most definitive series about dragons that has ever existed. I really need to read all of those, but have you seen how many there are? Tons!
5. Guy Gavriel Kay – I discovered him from a Tavern Book Club long ago when we read Tigana. A fabulous book, with a great story world and a hopeful yet tragic ending.
6. George R.R. Martin – This is fairly recent discovery for me. I was given the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series for Christmas last year. I quickly bought the rest of them.
7. Mercedes Lackey – I haven’t read very many of Lackey’s books, just because there are so many of them. The ones I have read have been from her smaller series and I’ve enjoyed them quite a bit. I do plan on reading her Valdemar books when I have a chance.
8. J.R.R. Tolkien – You cannot have a list of the best fantasy authors without mentioning the granddaddy of them all. Do I need to say more?
So help me out here. I know I’m missing a whole bunch of really amazing authors. Please fill in the holes!
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
Life With No Plot 
J.K. Rowling – The Harry Potter series. This is my favorite venture into YA, although I’ve tried some of the authors you listed. It’s an interesting observation that few readers enjoy both J.K. Rowling AND J.R.R. Tolkien. Seems that there are two different camps on what one would think would a united front.
Yeah, I left off Rowling (and Collins) from my list since they were more along the lines of YA instead of straight forward fantasy. Actually, I’d list The Hunger Games as more science fiction than fantasy.
And that’s weird – most of the people I know love both Rowling and Tolkien. I know I sure do. 🙂
Oh yes, and my other favorite YA is Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games trilogy. Yummy, yummy that, especially read two or three time, which allows me to admire her writing expertise even more as I understand her cleverness in setting up her story so well.
Neil Gaiman, trying to avoid YA makes it hard for me… Have you ever tried Jim Butcher? Does Orson Scott Card count? More known for SciFi but Fantasy as well… though Gaiman and Card dabble in the younger audience. Okay I seriously don’t read enough Adult Fantasy possibly… ooooo Steven Brust! Guy Gavriel Kay is a name unfamiliar to me I will have to check it out.
Neil Gaiman would definitely count. Ordinary Scott Card as well, although I do usually consider him sci-fi.
Guy Gabriel Kay is awesome. Definitely check him out.
Terry Brooks! Much as I can’t stand to read his debut (The Sword of Shannara) anymore because it’s too blatantly “Let’s write like Tolkien!” I *adore* his later books, particularly the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy and the High Druid of Shannara trilogy.
Elizabeth Haydon is another amazing one… although her series is unfinished, and has been for years. I’m not sure what happened, but it makes me sad, because the Symphony of Ages cycle is awesome.
Raymond E. Feist – I LOVED these, I started with Magician and read all of the Riftwar Saga. I have others by him, I just haven’t gotten around to reading them yet. They’re on The List.
It’s hard to think of anyone else without venturing into the YA stuff… but definitely those three!
I’ve read one book from Mercedes Lackey (from the Kingdom series) and I loved it. I really need to get started in the other books.
I want to read George Martin’s work, but there are so many (huge) books. I’m planning to get part one for Christmas or something like that.
I also read some of the other authors you’ve mentioned, so great list!
TTT fairytales authors @thedailyprophecy.
George R.R. Martin’s books are huge, but the story is so captivating, it goes by really quickly. You should definitely read them.
Mercedes Lackey is always one of those authors that I know is out there and but I never read her stuff. I’ve read a handful of her books and really enjoyed them, but I never really think about her when I’m at the library or the bookstore. I have promised certain people that I will start her Valdemar books someday though.
Thanks for commenting!