One thing that has always stumped me is the use of favorite authors. I’ve always felt critical of using it for authors if I only read a certain amount of books or anything like that. I guess for the most part I have just always been so worried that there is going to be a book that I am going to dislike by an author I called a favorite.
But someone on twitter (and I’m sorry I don’t recall who) mentioned that even if there is a book you dislike or like less than previous books, that doesn’t mean that this author can’t be your favorite anymore. One doesn’t have to have perfect favorite authors in that way. If you love the majority of their work that is enough to call them a favorite too. So here we are.
I also think there is a difference between authors that are a favorite and authors that you are keeping an eye on.
Terry Pratchett
Favorite Book: Tie between Going Postal and Hogfather
Before I started my blog I became acquainted with Discworld and Terry Pratchett through a friend on Livejournal. My first read, The Colour of Magic, might not have drawn me in but Mort certainly did. I was in love with the world and the character Death from there on out and it only grew.
Unfortunately Pratchett passed away a few years ago. But luckily for me he wrote an insane amount of books, even outside of Discworld that I still need to catch up on. A lifetime goal.
Jonathan Stroud
Favorite Book: The Golem’s Eye
I think Jonathan Stroud might be the author that you all know me for. Or at least at the start. Pratchett is also a pretty good one haha. I found The Golem’s Eye when I was waiting on my husband (then boyfriend) at a train station back in 2008 I want to say. I read it and I fell in love.
I love the whole Bartimaeus trilogy and his newer Lockwood books. I’m looking forward to his new book and I still want to go back to his older books. Those he wrote between Bartimaeus and Lockwood. I actually got to meet him in 2019 when he visited Castlefest. Dream come true people.
Robin Hobb
Favorite Book: Tawny Man Trilogy
I heard about Robin Hobb for YEARS but never really picked up their work initially. I was still in my must inhale all YA Fantasy at the time, lol. But I found two of the books from the first trilogy from The Realm of the Elderlings. When I had it complete I inhaled the farseer trilogy within a week and knew I had found a new favorite.
How she managed to create the whole of the realm of Elderlings and have all these trilogies be tied together in some way is done so well!
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Favorite Book: Mexican Gothic
I’ve only read two books by this author but I just know I’m likely to love all of her. I read Gods of Jade and Shadow last year and wanted to read all her work. Two older books are being rereleased next year and I am looking forward to because some of those older books are going high in price these days.
I love how she incorporates her own culture (Mexican) in her work and how she writes.
Naomi Novik
Favorite Books: Uprooted
Naomi Novik had been on my radar for a while before Uprooted came out. As a dragon lover her Temeraire series was of course on my TBR. But I ended up reading Uprooted and then Spinning Silver first and I fell in love with these books. Later I also read the first Temeraire book which I also loved.
I will say that I 100% stand behind the reviewers and readers who pointed out the racism in her recent book A Deadly Education. And no her apology was not enough if those affected say it isn’t.
Intisar Khanani
Favorite Books: Sunbolt
Both Jolien and Lala shouted about the Sunbolt chronicles back in 2016. I remember reading Sunbolt during my pregnancy I think and Memories of Ash in the hospital after having had a c-section to deliver Merijn. So I remember them vividly. I also loved Thorn.
But even more Intisar is just a super lovely person who tries to make contact with her readers, and who has worked hard with self-publishing her books and now getting a publisher. I wish her the very best.
Zen Cho
Favorite Book: Sorcerer to the Crown
I’d heard a bit about Sorcerer to the Crown so when I saw it in a local bookstore I picked it up. And when I read it I loved it. After that I caught some of her novella’s. While I haven’t read them all I could tell I’d found a new favorite. Her writing is splendid and I love the characters she creates.
So there you have it. Who would you call a favorite author?
A Dance With Books 
Terry Pratchett has been a favourite author for me since I was a young teen. And the more I read the more I loved him.
On the strength of Temeraire, I think I’m going to love most of Novik’s books too; and Zen Cho is my newest favourite author – even though I’ve only read Sorcerer and True Queen.
I think of favourite authors as people whose work I love to reread and who I am most likely to have faith in: even if they write something I think I won’t like, I’ll still read it because I like the way they write. Jo Walton is probably my all-time favourite author by this criteria – I have read almost everything she’s had published and enjoyed it all, even though it’s all very different. 🙂
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It is weird how we can have that kind of fate in people and not others. It is interesting to figure out what it is exactly that makes you trust that person.
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Interesting discussion, Annemieke! I sometimes struggle when it comes to naming favourite authors, too, and I think for me I have to have enjoyed two or three books by an author to consider them a favourite, and those books can’t be from the same series. I LOVED the Daevabad Trilogy, but I don’t feel like I can call S.A Chakraborty a favourite author until I read whatever she does next, whereas Alix E. Harrow I now consider a favourite because I’ve read and loved both of her novels so far.
I loooove Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s work – I can’t recommend her debut, Signal to Noise, enough! 🙂
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I really need to get on Signal to Noise. That is one of two that is getting rereleased next year, right?
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No, Signal to Noise should still be available. 😊 Certain Dark Things and The Beautiful Ones are being rereleased, which is exciting!
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Seanan McGuire is a favorite author of mine. I don’t like all her stuff (some of her work as Mira Grant, for example, is just too horror for me) but I like most of it. Diane Duane and Tanya Huff are also favorite authors, and have been for a while.
Newer authors who either are favorites or are quickly becoming favorites include Silvia Moreno-Garcia (I am also very excited about the re-release of her older books!), T.J. Klune, and S.L. Huang. I haven’t read many books by any of them, but I love their writing styles.
Also, I 100% agree that favorite authors are different from authors I’m keeping an eye on. I never really thought about it before your post, but it makes complete sense.
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I like Seanan McGuire but I still feel like even after everything I’ve read by her (though no Mira Grant yet) she still just stays shy of that favorite author stuff, you know?
I still need to pick up something by TJ Klune. I’ve heard great things about his work.
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I get it. I like her work, but she has a definite style even across genres.
I have only read the one book by Klune, but I own a second one and hope to get to it soon. I’ve heard great things about the rest of his work, too.
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I’d list Novik as a favourite author as well, even though I’ve ‘only’ enjoyed Uprooted and Spinning Silver and have no interest in her other books so far. Tolkien and Helen Oyeyemi are my top two perpetual favourite authors.
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I guess you can favour an author for specific kind of things that they do. Uprooted and Spinning Silver are very different from Temeraire and A Deadly Education.
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Die foto met Jonathan Stroud blijf ik echt super tof vinden. Zo leuk dat je toen even met hem hebt kunnen praten. Tja, she-who-must-not-be-named schreef mijn favoriete fantasywereld maar is al een tijdje geen favoriete auteurs meer. Doordat sommige auteurs soms uitspraken doen waar je het niet mee eens bent ook al hou je wel van hun boeken ga ik in de toekomst waarschijnlijk vermijden om het over favoriete auteurs te hebben. Misschien moet ik eerder iets zeggen als ‘van de boeken van de volgende auteurs hou ik enorm veel …’ Anne Bishop zou daar sowieso bij staan.
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Ja het blijft inderdaad ontzettend lastig als auteurs ineens blijken rare ideeën te hebben. En dat nu met Naomi Novik vind ik ook wel lastig. Je kan niet elk korreltje zout pakken maar sommige dingen zijn nu eenmaal erger dan andere. Daarom kan ik Roald Dahl niet meer een favo schrijver noemen omdat hij antisemitisch was.
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