My favourite authors are James Herbert and Graham Masterton............in my opinion these two leave all other horror writers for dead...... oops excuse the pun......
the latest James Herbert novel  "Nobody True " is fantastic, has anyone else read it...???

Just read in the Herald, new kid on the block, Andrew O'Connor has won last night the $20,000 Vogel Prize for a manuscript by an author under 35.

For anyone interested, article here.

I can't name a favourite author. I read many different genres but mainly sci-fi.
Some of my sci-fi favs include Douglas Adams, Arthur C Clark, John Wyndham, Anne McCaffrey, Asimov, Piers Anthony and Jacqueline Lichtenberg. Some write serious stuff, others write entertaining stuff and yet others just write fluff. But I love reading fluff too.

I've probably forgotten some sci-fi legend in my above list. Robert Heinlein was deliberately left off the list. His books are very entertaining but I have found that evntually all of his characters end up naked at some point and some fantasize about incestual relationships. It doesn't appeal to me at all. Everytime I open a heinlein novel I'm waiting for the daughter to ponder about her father and then I wonder which of the characters is going to shed all his clothes.

I've read a number of James Herbert novels. They are very good. I haven't caught up with 'Nobody True' yet. I will look for it at the library.

Quoted Text

...then I wonder which of the characters is going to shed all his clothes...

! This read like something out of a Jackie Collins' novel.

My favorite author for an very interesting Genre, 'Historical Fiction'. Her name is Judith Tarr and her novels, some of them quite large books, take a time in history or an historical figure like Alexander the Great, and inject a fictional character or characters into her story about that famous person or time. One I remember well was about Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt and the last one I read (for the second time) was about Alexander the Great, although the main charcter was not Alexander. I have enjoyed learning history as I go along having not selected history at school. I enjoy other Genres as well but this is the flavour of the moment with me.
A good Fantasy writer is Elizabeth A Lynn who comes first in my books (excuse the pun). I am a voracious reader and read 2 to 3 books per week. I only read in bed.

I also like James Herbert and found  'nobody true' to be a good read. However I really love Dean Koontz's books, trouble is they never last very long as I have to keep reading until I'm done. I haven't read his latest one yet, I've bought it but I'm waiting until my exams are over with, that way I have a little treat to look forward to.
Any aspiring nurses out there might want to read 'Tending lives/nurses on the medical front' by Echo Heron and anyone interested in midwifery will love 'Baby catcher' by Peggy Vincent!

Definitely Dean Koontz is the best horror writer around. I will read anything that he has written.

Sci-fi has to be Mike Resnick hands down. I have all of his books written under his own name. Never been able to find out what pseudonyms he wrote under a number of years ago. The majority of his books take place within the same universe, at various points in time within that universe. He does outer-space western sci-fi like nobody else.

Douglas Adams is my favourite of all time I think.  I can still get a laugh out of Hitchhiker's Guide even though I read my copy so often I had to buy a new one 'cos the old one fell apart

But I love to read lots of stuff...history, literature, mystery, biography, travel are my favourites ... my ideal job would be to own a bookshop but I'd never make any money 'cos I would be too busy reading to do any sales work

I just finished State of Fear by Michael Crichton...very interesting take on the environmental movement and the way "we" are manipulated by "them" (politicians and media).  I'm wondering how much of it is true....very very interesting

love John Irving books. Mainly "A prayer for Owen Meanie" and "Son of the Circus."
Very Humorous in a dry kind of way ,and yet moving or thoughtful storylines.
In a completly different line i have been enjoying Laurell K hamilton and the Anita Blake Vampire series. A bit like Buffy meets Micky Spillane in the way its written i feel. OK i know its an odd description!  Picked one of these up from a recommendation from a friend and couldn't put them down.

Another of my favorite Authors is Robert J Sawyer. He writes excellent Science Fiction. I am about to embark on the final book in a series of three called (in order)
Hominids... Humans... Hybrids. It is based in 2 parallel Earths. One like we live in and the other where Neanderthals are the dominant species and are equaly as civilised and educated as we are. A rip occurs in the (whatever it is called) between the two worlds and one Neanderthal named Ponter Boddit comes to investigate our world.

This guy writes clearly and comprehensively and is a joy to read.
You can find more about the many books he has written at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....mp;Go.x=0&Go.y=0

My favorite authors would be agatha christie as i love old english murder mysteries and the bronte sisters/thomas hardy. Wuthering heights is my favorite novel..

I'm a HUGE Raymond E. Feist fan

im old school, graham greene, just brilliant, dickens, gogol, dostovesky, george johnston,

1: Milan Kundera (Undearable Lightness Of Being, Immortality, and etc).

2: Robert Musil (The Man Without Qualities, The Confessions Of Young Törless, and etc).

3: Hermann Broch (The Sleepwalkers, The Death Of Virgil and etc).

4: Mitch Cullin (Branches, Tideland, and etc).

5: Ryu Murakami (Almost Transparent Blue, Coin Locker Babies, and etc).