jpblade666 said:
I have 2. Darren Shan because I love the way he writes and I love all of his books. He creates such good characters and I love the twists in his books, the end of the Demonata series was brilliant and that entire series made you want to keep reading on and on and on. I also love every other book he has written.
Urgh, I hated the end of the Demonata series. Felt like a massive cop-out. Doesn't help that I'd just finished the last book in the Keys to the Kingdom series as well, which has an almost identical ending. All I could think was "Does nobody have their characters live with failure anymore?"
My favourite author is incredibly tricky. I love and adore Terry Pratchett, I've read every book in the Discworld series (bar I Shall Wear Midnight, haven't gotten around to that one yet), and own the entire City Watch series. I'd have to say that the character of Sir Samuel Vimes is easily my favourite character in any form of literature or other media ever.
On the other hand, the Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman is amazing. The Bloody Red Baron in particular just blew me away. The first book's premise being "What if Dracula won, married Queen Victoria, and turned a big chunk of England's population into vampires? And what if some crazed lunatic called Jack the Ripper then started killing vampire prostitutes?". And then the second, The Bloody Red Baronm, largely revolves around the exploits of the Red Baron Mannfred von Richtofen, who in this setting is a vampire capable of shapeshifting into a massive bat-thing and tackling planes in mid-air.
That series is just fantastic. If you know your Victorian literature and vampire movies, you can find dozens of little references that just help to complete the world. A hopping Chinese vampire, the Diogenes Club, characters like Doctors Moreau and Jekyll performing autopsies on the Ripper's victims, Count Orlock being put in charge of the Tower of London, Edgar Allan Poe being drafted to write the Red Baron's biography, the list just goes on and on and on. They're not the main focus of the setting, but they make for fascinating little touches that help weave the main plots into this strange world full of the supernatural. I love them, but they took forever for me to hunt down. They are coming back into print, however, and Kim Newman is writing a fourth book, which has me very excited.
