top fantasy/urbanmythic/steampunk/scifi authors?

[immortalwife]

I need more authors! I have series by:

Maria v Snyder
Trudi canavan
Gail carriger
Robin hobb
Kevin hearne
Tamora pierce
Garth nix
Kristin cashore

Also read kate mosses historical fiction in between.

Any ideas? Tried p c cast,and Emily gee seems to take for-ev-err writing. Am at my wits end I keep re reading shit I've read four times already!!

[ShadowFall]

Seconding suggestions about Julian May, Neil Gaiman & Neal Stephenson.

I also like Elizabeth Moon, Connie Willis, Kelley Armstrong & Adam Roberts.

[pointythings]

Stay away from Julian May's Trillium series though - that's several weeks of my life I will never get back. Stereotypical female characters (the strong one, the sensitive one, the rebellious one) and not much else. Not worth your time.

[LornaGoon]

I'm about to start reading Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. Neil Gaiman gave it a good reviews.

Margaret Atwood's Madd Adam trilogy

Ursula La Guin

Philip K Dick

[ghostinthecanvas]

Katherine kerr
r a salvatore, Drizzt D'urden series. Dragonlance.
terry brooks shannara series. I really enjoyed the magic Kingdom series. Knight of the word series.

[ghostinthecanvas]

Stephen King The Dark Tower series. Recommended by my brother, he is very hard to please. I shall be trying them too.

[scrittrice]

I love Gail Carriger. I just read a couple of books by Bec McMaster, Kiss of Steel and Heart of Iron, which have a similar sort of feel, although I think they seem more romancey. I really liked The Silvered by Tanya Huff.

I am also loving The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. It starts with Cinder, the story of a cyborg Cinderella. Soooo good, though they are young adult, which isn't everyone's cup of tea. They are my new all-time favorite series.

I'll echo Diana Wynne Jones with a specific suggestion for House of Many Ways. And my oldest favorite books are Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede.

[nannynome]

Ilona Andrews - Kate Daniels series
Rachel Caine - weather Warden series
Mercedes Lackey - Valdemar
Elizabeth Haydon - Symphony of Ages series
Patricia Briggs - Mercedes Thompson series
Michelle Sagara West - Cast series
Piers Anthony - Aspects of Immortality series and Adept series
Anne Bishop - Jewels Series

Totally agree with the Dresden files being great. You could also start on the Dragonlance books, the first 6 were amazing.

[tumbletumble]

Nick Harkaway

[Foosyerdoos]

I would also recommend Neal Stephenson, I've recently read Anathem, it was very good.

I would also recommend Alistair Reynolds.

My absolute favourite sci-fi author is Kim Stanley Robinson. His Mars Trilogy is one of my top 5 (I count it as one book).

[BabyJakekissedPeppaPig]

Frances Hardinge. "Fly By Night" is bloody brilliant. (Quasi-historical Fantasy about a wily orphan who runs away with her pet goose. Just as mad as it sounds, and the descriptives are inspired. There's a sequel which is just as good, and she's written several other things since. Technically I think she's classed as a YA author.)

[Donki]

Lois MacMaster Bujold

Brilliant writer
Vorkosigan books - space opera
Curse of Chalion/Paladin of Souls - superb fantasy
The Sharing Knife series: rather slower, but I enjoyed the characters.

[ImAThrillseekerHoney]

I'd second / third Ben Aaronovitch, Neil Gaiman, Frances Hardinge, and early Tim Powers. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell also v good, but a very dense read so you might need a bit of a run-up. Neil Stephenson is good, but extremely big and dense so not for everyone. Temeraire series was fun but essentially fluff. Charles Stross's Laundry series (Len Deighton writes HP Lovecraft) is highly recommended to anyone who likes Rivers of London - I personally have never got on with his other stuff though.

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

If you are open to YA novels, I've just finished Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo which was quite good.

About to start All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill.

Teenage lovers of fantasy & post-apocalyptic / dystopian fiction are positively spoilt these days.

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

I have chain-read four cherie priest books recently, they are kind of American civil war steampunk with added zombies, much fun. Think the first is Boneshaker but they are not really sequential, they follow different characters.

Also love gail carriger but have only read two, which are all our library has, trying to avoid buying more books at the minute.

If you find you like neil gaiman, you should have a look at the Sandman series; don't freak out that it is a 'comic', you'll find an amazing fantasy tale. And once you've taken that graphic novel step, you can move on to Preacher

[BlueChampagne]

Totally second Sandman

[Donki]

Classic Authors of traditional sci fi

Robert Heinlein
Isaac Asimov
Arthur C Clarke
James Bliss
Robert Silverberg
A E Van Vogt
Harry Harrison

Space Opera
E. Doc Smith

SF/fantasy
Andre Norton
Anne McCaffrey
C J Cherryh
Roger Zelazny
CS Lewis (out of the Silent planet trilogy)

Fantasy:
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Michael Moorcock
Fritz Lieber

They should keep you going for several years!

[ChillieJeanie]

For steampunk, I really enjoy the George Mann series with his detectives Newbury and Hobbes ( The Affinity Bridge is the first one), and also Mark Hodder's novels featuring the 19th century explorer Sir Richard Burton ( The Strange Affair of Spring-heeled Jack is the first one there).

[MoominMammasHandbag]

Joe Abercrombie
Mark Lawrence
Also recently enjoyed the Wool series (can't remember the author).

Thanks for this thread; just been looking for stuff to load up the kindle.

[2kidsintow]

YY to
Ilona Andrews - my FAVOURITE
The Rivers of London
Piers Anthony (although a bit dated now)
Anne McCaffrey dragons. Brilliant.
Also the 'One Damned thing after another' series. First one's a freebie on amazon at the moment. Time travel fantasy. Just fab.