I have been reading fantasy books since my early teens, and as an avid reader, have clocked up quite a bit mileage on the old retinal muscles. Now the purpose of this section, if it needs one is to add my two cents worth to the billions of words out there, and to give credit where it's due (and slating where necessary). Firstly here is a list of my favourite authors, followed by a bit about their style, and maybe some of their best books. This is only my opinion (great though it is) and if you don't agree with it fine, it could be that I just haven't read your fav author and he could be a million times better NYAH NYAH NYAH, my dad is bigger than yours etc....... So here it is, the greatest fantasy authors is known world according to Chickenbane;
The best of bunch! David Gemmel (DG) has been my favourite author since i read his first book Legend in 1985. He writes heroic fiction with the emphasis on heroes fighting against insurmountable odds with only the tiniest glimmer of hope. DG prettymuch steers clear of orcs, goblins and trolls in favour of mankind being the monsters. He is never afraid to kill off his main hero. There is nearly always a strong love theme running each book, which doesn't always end well. To give you the name of his favourite book is far too hard so I'll give you the top ten;
His writing is very exciting and very hard to put down.
If he has one weakness in his writing is his love of sieges.
Worst Book: Morningstar (his only bad one).
My second favourite! I think Raymond Feist (RF) is the near-opposite of DG. He has created a fantasy world inhabited by all kinds of weird and wonderful creatures, both evil and good. His characters are rarely killing machines, but rather determined and to a certain extent lucky. His Riftworld saga is a truly astounding piece of writing and a must for all readers. RF's grasp of political intruigue amongst the noble caste are intelligent and well crafted. My favouite book of his has to be Magician, I would recommend it to anyone. My only gripe in his books is the tendancy for everything to work out in the end but then I suppose most books are like that.
When Terry Pratchet (TP) first started wrting about the Discworld (a flat world supportied by four huge elephants flying through space on a gigantic turtle - A'Tuinn) the whole fantasy world became a lot sillier.
Without doubt one of the funniest writers of any genre, as luck would have it he chose fantasy.
His personification of death has to be one of the all time greats of comic fiction - particularly when he became a fast food chef in Mort.
In short, bloody hilarious.
Favourite book:The Light Fantastic.
For a long time R A Salvatore (RAS) has been writing for TSR in the Forgotten Realms setting.
His settings were high fantasy with Orcs, Goblins, Elves and Dwarfs.
Generally using the D&D format of party composition (ranger, warrior, theif, but rarely a wizard) the party generally have to face evil mages, long dead artifacts of indescribable power.
His one, main niggle for me is his reluctance to kill off any main character.
Best book: Streams of Silver
The creator of Conan!
Robert Howard (REH) was an author in the thirties and one of the founding fathers of modern heroic fantasy.
I haven't actually read a great deal of his stuff but what I have read I've liked.
The main problem with him is his stuff is actually quite hard to get hold of.
He mainly wrote short stories but is a must if you want to see what fantasy was like 70 years ago.
Best book: Conan the Adventurer
I discovered Bill King's (BK) writing when I got into wargaming, he had a couple of short stories in White Dwarf, and as I was well into the Warhammer World, I loved them.
BK is probably best known for his stories about Gotrek and Felix.
Set in the Old World, Gotrek is a dwarf trollslayer and Felix is his human companion who after a monumental drinking session promised to accompany him on his quest and record his death.
Due to the fact Gotrek is harder than a masonry nail and has a rune-laden axe, his quest to seek death at the hands of a worthy foe is proving to be a lot more difficult than it looks.
They have battled daemons, dragons, vampires and chaos warriors and travelled across the world.
His writing style is excellant considering he is Games Workshop's pet writer.
Best book: Daemonslayer.
Robin Hobb (RH) is one of the finest exponents of writing from the first person's perspective around.
I know this as I generally hate this style of writing and believe it should be consigned to the 19th century.
RH wrote the Assasin's Apprentise trilogy, which in my humble opinion, is truly "off the hook".
Great dialog and vivid descriptions make it a great read and thoroughly unputdownable.
Best book: Assasin's Apprentise
Robert Jordan (RJ) is a prolific writer of fantasy.
I first found his writing when I read some of the later titles in the Conan series.
I found his writing to be exciting and visceral (as all Conan books should be).
He has also written The Wheel Of Time series which has mixed reviews (some say crap, others say not).
I actually quite like his stuff, but be warned, The Wheel Of Time is not a series to be taken lightly!
Best book: Conan the Magnificent
Stephen Lawhead (SL) writes mainly historical fantasy (Arthurian for one).
Nice descriptions, heroic characters, excitement.
I haven't read much of his stuff lately, so I could be a bit out of date, but I intend to remedy this shortly.
Best book:The Silver Hand
My other humorous fantasy writer.
Craig Shaw Gardener (CSG) has written quite a few books in A Malady Of Magics series.
These are basically about the adventures of a wizard's apprentice whose master has become allergic to magic, and his quest to cure him.
His forte is looking at traditional fantasy stereotypes and messing them up.
The militant union of magical creatures springs to mind from A Multitude Of Monsters.
Not as funny as TP but well worth a gander at the same time.
Beat Book:A Night In The Netherhells
So there you have it, my all inclusive view of the top authors in my own head.
As I am a voratious reader this list can and will be changed when one these writers upsets me or impresses me.
And to further open myself up to the criticism of others here is my own attempt at writing :Galadair's Quest.
This is a short story about a battle that I hope you will enjoy.
Like it or not I would value your opinion.