Few people write stories who don’t also consume them. Here are links to some of my favorite authors:
Patricia McKillip – Her writing is magical. The Riddle Master of Hed series burned into my adolescent brain the desire to change into animals, trees, wind. The characters and places still haunt me. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld gets better each time I read it. If I haven’t read all of her books, I’ve come close.
Diana Wynne Jones – Her humor, her characters, her imagination … she makes the most inventive places feel real. Again, I may have read everything she’s written. She’s amazing. Howl’s Moving Castle is my favorite, but the many books in the worlds of Crestomanci are a collective close second.
Anne MacCaffrey – She shaped my love of science fiction. She has so many books, I definitely haven’t read them all, but I’ve made a significant dent. Pern’s dragons were the Pokémon of my childhood. Lessa, The Rowan, the sentient Ships, The Crystal Singer — she featured the strong women who were lacking in most of the “classic” sci-fi stories I read.
Rebecca Chastain – Her gargoyles fill the void left by MacCaffrey’s dragons. The research she puts into the creatures, the places, even the names, add a depth to her writing that her imagination and flair for character-building exploit. Her other books are also great and I even recommend her newsletter.
Lois McMaster Bujold – Her Vorkosigan series is an amazing space adventure and her Chalion books are even better. Definitely a bingeable author.
Jim Butcher – My family loves his Dresden series, but my favorites are his Codex Alera and Cinder Spires books.