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I don't know if anyone saw this but Pbfoot posted in Obituaries that Arthur C. Clarke died last week. Gonna miss him. I have several of his books including an original "Childhood's End".
Stephen Donaldson is the best fantasy author in history.
I can't begin to tell you how deep his characters are, or how wide the breadth of his imagination, it is enough to say that the 700+ pages of The Runes of the Earth flowed past in the last 4 days - sheer genius...
By the way, if you do want get into this, you must start at the beginning or it wont make sense...
Clave, you really should read Robin Hobb, her books are really remarkable. She's up there with Stephen Donaldson.
Gene Wolfe's 4 volume "Book of the New Sun" (Shadow of the Torturer; Sword of the Lictor; Claw of the Conciliator; Citadel of the Autarch) can be read over and over again. No description can do it justice. He's probably the best writer in the genre.