(aka The authors who write the best books you'll ever read, aka OMFG they released a book I have to read it cover from cover nonstop RIGHT NOW, aka I have read this book 10^23 times because they're so good and I have to refresh my memory before the next book):
Brandon Sanderson
G R R Martin*
Patrick Rothfuss
Jacqueline Carey
Jim Butcher*
N K Jemisin
*they are only gods when they write epic fantasy. As authors of all other books, they're just minor deities. (List of minor deities forthcoming)
Fallen gods (all fantasy):
Terry Goodkind
Laurell K Hamilton
At first, I thought Brandon Sanderson was simply a fluke of nature. How can a man write a novel that is more than the pure manly epic drivel I occasionally torture myself by reading? You want examples? Tolkien. Terry Brooks. Modesitt. Robert Jordan. The types of fantasy which are swordplay, wars, torturous politics, manly heroes who start as nobodies. But some male authors are finally catching on, I think. They're adding some depth to their main characters, so larger flaws, some actual 3 dimensional women, writing epics that have less to do with war and philosophy and more about richness. Character wealth. After reading their books you see a new light to the world, a feel little more poetry in your head.
There was a glimmer of it in Alan Dean Foster's books. Butcher and Martin write excellent books and they give women much more dimension but they still lack a bit of the sparkle and wonder that show up in the writing of female authors. Then I read Sanderson's books and I had to double check to make sure the author wasn't really a woman. And now there is Rothfuss.
I'm not saying women authors are all wonderful, but the majority of the books I read are by them because they usually make their main characters more identifiable to me. There's a little more beauty in their worlds, a little less pessimism and woe and all that. Granted, there are lots of books by women authors that make me feel like I've been eating nothing but chocolate and ice cream all day. Lackey, for one. No matter how hard she tries the make her heroic challenges, there's always a slight romantic sub plot that competes with every other plot. And don't get me started on Sharon Shinn. I will sum up her works like this: "Oh what a great world and story and ... wait... all that and it was really just a romance??" Anne Bishop. OMG and will someone please take away Laurell K Hamilton's computer!! She has no business writing anymore. What scut.
I should be packing and heading to VA now, so I'll get back to this later I hope.
