Top Five Novelists

[unforth]

Comment with the words "Top Ten" or "Top Five", and I will reply with a subject for which you will generate a top ten (or top five) list. Post the list and instructions in your own journal.


From arcana_mundi; I've put it off because this one is actually kinda hard for me, cause I don't read many novels. So these are my favorites. Which means I have to have read at least one of their books. :)

(In no particular order)

1. Arthur Conan Doyle. How can you wrong with Sherlock Holmes? You can't, that's how.

2. Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray = one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.

3. Junichiro Tanizaki. In Praise of Shadows = one of the other most beautifully written books I've ever read. :)

4. Patrick O'Brian. Anyone who can make me read through chapter after chapter about the detailed changing of tack and make it interesting deserves major credit.

5. Patricia C. Wrede. She's not a great novelist. But her books changed my life, so there it is. :)

If this seems like an incredibly strange list...it is. This is because I am actually surprisingly poorly read. I've hardly read any classics at all, and many of the books that are my favorites are in no way what I'd consider the work of excellent novelists. :) So oh well, it is what it is. I'd think of a better 5th, but I really don't have any more time to spend on this.

Comments

[nekomata.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I had to write a huge paper on In Praise Of Shadows.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

I loved In Praise of Shadows. And not just because it was only like 40 pages long and I made the mistake of waiting until the day my paper was due to read it. I actually voluntarily read it again after that. :)

[nekomata.livejournal.com]

It might have been better if I hadn't learned what a hypocrite Tanizaki was. ^_^;

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! I don't think we covered that part. But we might have. See, attendance wasn't mandatory for that class and I was freshman. I basically never went to that class. ;)

[nekomata.livejournal.com]

Basically he didn't want to practice what he preached. ^,^

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Hm...well, I don't know if I fully agree with that. In Praise of Shadows is an interesting book in that regard - I found it self-mocking in a lot of ways. Like, I didn't read it to mean that he really thought Japan aughta be that way; in some ways, I almost read it to mean the opposite. It makes a beautiful lament...but that's just what it is, a lament, not a request for things to go back to how they were, just regret for what is lost...maybe that's just me though.

i'll take some pain . . .

[mistress-sin.livejournal.com]

top 10 me woman! =)

Re: i'll take some pain . . .

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Hmm....how about romance novels with hot sex scenes? :) :) I need some reading material...

Re: i'll take some pain . . .

[mistress-sin.livejournal.com]

why do i open my mouth . . .

top ten coming up!

Re: i'll take some pain . . .

[unforth.livejournal.com]

You asked for it. :)

[closetgnome.livejournal.com]

Top five please! :)

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Hmm...game sessions you've played. :)

[kniedzw.livejournal.com]

Instead of asking for five, I'll answer your five, limiting it to living speculative fiction authors, as I find it to be an amusing and immediate diversion.

• Marie Brennan, because I'm sort of contractually obligated to do so, and because she is, in fact, pretty darn nifty.
• Guy Gavriel Kay. Well crafted, beautiful, bittersweet stories in a history that never quite was. How can you go wrong?
• George R. R. Martin. A Song of Ice and Fire is excellent epic fantasy. It's what Robert Jordan once aspired to, in my view, and failed to achieve.
• Stephen King. He was too long dismissed as a "popular" writer. He is, in fact, quite talented. Perhaps the best horror/fantasy novelist out there.
• Ursula Le Guin. Few people have so successfully blended science fiction and social issues with such compelling, simple prose. Plus, she, like swan_tower, is a 'Cliffie.
• Gene Wolfe. He writes some surprisingly dense stuff, but it's inventive, interesting, and alive. I've heard more than one person call him the greatest living American novelist, ignoring the genre boundaries.
• If I were offered a sixth choice, I'd probably go with Tim Powers. Perhaps the best secret history around, he's really keen. Of course, his endings, like Gaiman and Stephenson, are somewhat weak, but the ideas he tosses at you are just phenomenal.

There you go. Heh.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

I've read books by three of the 5 (or three of the six) so I guess I'm doin' okay. :) I need to read me some Martin, really....

My favorite fantasy novelist is probably Douglas McKiernan, though I'm rather fond of Daniel Hood. Neither one is all that well known, though.

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Okies, then...lemme think...manga/anime artists...

[drake-rocket.livejournal.com]

Zomg 5

[unforth.livejournal.com]

Okies....uh....how about bands? I can't seem to think of a really awesome one. :)