There are far too many people out there supposedly 'the heir to Tolkein's mantle' who should
never have been let loose on the world, but judging from some mudcatters' choices above I'm
in a minority in disliking certain authors so I'll leave that alone other than to say that I most
definitely don't share the almost universal adulation of C.S Lewis. I read his 'Narnia' series
along with my children and quite enjoyed them, given that they WERE children's books, but I
tried to read the 'Silent Planet' books as an adult and found myself choking on Lewis's
political assumptions, at least as I took them to be. It seemed to me that he equated any-
thing left wing, from British Labour's rather mild Socialism, to hardline Communism, with
his evil cloud and that was a bit to much for me.
      To authors I do like; Robert Jordan, in spite of all his faults which others have already
written about, Mercedes Lackey, ditto, EXCEPT her urban fantasy, UGHHH, Elizabeth Moon,
Katherine Kerr, and,though I don't care much for either author alone, in my opinion the
'Empire' trilogy by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts is excellent, however, to properly appreciate
what is going on you need to have read Feist's 'Magician', no particular chore, as it's
probably his best book.
                               John.