So fantasy:
Adrian Tchaikovsky - Brilliant. It's a Kinden Surprise (aha, aha, ah. No? mmm, fewer Kinden puns then I guess)
Pratchett, of course, and really looking forward to the new Watch series coming out on the small screen.
The Fionovar Tapestry Trilogy. So overlooked, but a delight to read. So emotionally well written that as a survivor, I've only ever been able to read sections of the end of the first book once.
N K Jemisin who's works are mind-blowing. . .1/?
...as are Robin Hobb's.
Elizabeth Haydon's Rhapsody books also hit the spot with me. Suitably myffic, and grand in scale. Love them.
Brandon Sanderson. Excellent. I've watched him improve leaps and bounds as a writer and I'm so impressed, especially with what is promising to be a truly epic-in-scale series, The Stormlight Archives.
...2/?
...Tad Williams. Love the Osten Ard books. Not so keen on the other series though (Otherland and Shadowmarch). I mean they're good, but to me they lack the spark that made Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn really work.
And there's so many other writers as well, far too many to mention, but there is one who I truly believe deserves special mention.
...3/?
...And that's J V Jones. Her first trilogy really showed that it was her first published work. It was okay, at best. The writing wasn't polished, the storyline was deeply formulaic, and the pacing was off. So it was readable, but it wouldn't have been something that would have been placed on my must-read again list.
But then she wrote a stand-alone book and the difference was amazing. I describe Brandon Sanderson as having improved leaps and bounds. Julie improves in parsecs...4/?
...The storyline in The Barbed Coil is markedly more unique (not fully unique, but much better than the first trilogy), so much better written, and has a much better tendency to grab you in the feels.
And then she started a new series. The Sword of Shadows. And you know how I said that Julie improves in parsecs? It feels like it's been written by a completely different author to the first trilogy, even though it's set in the same world. Really looking forward to its completion...5/?
...This is a series that is really dark, and really, really, really, well written. Also looking forward to Julie's re-debut (rebut?) with 'Sorry Jones'.