Originally posted by Steve in many threads about books
The Runelords
George Orwell!
Let me add:
Arthur Miller - The Crucible
Arthur Miller - Death of a Salesman
J.D. Salinger - Catcher in the Rye
Since people havne’t been too detailed, I’ll tell you what I’ve seen from my experience with the authors I have experience with.
David Eddings has some humor in his books, but otherwises it’s straight fantasy.
Farland (the Runelords series) writes very dark, brutal fantasy that left an uneasy feeling in my stomach. It didn’t have any of the light points that so much wannabe-epic fantasy does.
Orson Scott Card is straight scif-fi, great stuff but not comic in the least.
Isaac Asimov, straight science fiction, most of it classic, but still just that.
<i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> is by Arthur C. Clark, easily the equal of Asimov in sci-fi stature. More hard science fiction.
Crichton is in no way an author of either comic fantasy or sci-fi.
Once again, I urge you to read Zelazny (Roger). Some of his stuff is serious, some of it is comic. His Chronicles of Amber series starts off as urban fantasy but quickly goes straight fantasy (very good series, by the way. It’s told in the first person, which is pretty rare in itself, and in such a way that makes it a great page-turner, but not merely for suspense). It does dip back into the real world every now and then, though.
Alan Dean Foster’s Spellsinger novels are comic fantasy. Not the highest calibur, but they have their moments.
more on The Once and Future King. It’s by TH White, who wrote it around the same time the other founders of fantasy (like Lewis and Tolkien) were writing. It’s considered (I think) to be the definitive telling of the Arthurian legend in English. It covers everything from Arthur’s childhood to the eve of his death. There’s a lot of surprisingly good philosophy discussion within it too, particularly during Arthur’s childhood when he learns about various aspects of being human from Merlyn and various animals. If you haven’t read it I heartily recommend it.
Oh yeah! Melanie Rawn is also a really good Fantasy writer. Almost as good as Weis in my opinion. She wrote a few series like The Sunrunner Trilogy and a trilogy in which the books are called Ruins of Ambrai, The Mageborn Traitor and The Captal’s Tower (I forgot what the series was called :P)
Sorc: You haven’t been paying attention. 8p I tried stuff like Wheel of Time and Arthur C. Clarke and I could barely keep my eyes open through them. I have a sneaky feeling the Arthur story Merlin’s recommending would meet a similar fate. -_- I don’t require hilarity in a book, but heavy prose and/or storyline tends to turn me off.
I did read Gormenghast just as a kind of dare to myself to see if I had the patience. I did, but only barely. -_- It wasn’t really enjoyable. Oddly enough, I enjoy Shakespeare far more than some of the more “modern” classics.
I’ve seen one or two Zelazny books but he’s not a particularly popular author in my library… I’ll have to try to get some of them on hold, I guess. 
You’re right, I haven’t been paying attention. I just figured that for someone who plays RPGs wordyness wouldn’t be a problem.
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King is excellent, even though I don’t like any of his other books, this series is just great. Slightly darkly humourous in places and it’s partly an urban fantasy.
I also highly recommend the His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman. Better than LOTR in my opinion.
Points to favorite book in profile
Feist’s works are serious but not overly serious. There are several breaks for comical relief and it’s just not all descriptions of fighting scenes. I like to describe him as one who makes an interesting plot and makes the reader want to know what happens next.
The Pitt series are all excellent books, but as of late, I tend to prefer the NUMA Files and Sea Hunters books a bit more. They’re definitely worthwhile if you enjoyed Cussler’s other works.
If you want more sci-fi hilarity though, Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series is great.
I dunno Cid, you go through LotR fine, and the Once and Future King is easier to surmount than that. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of amusing scenes as well (there’s this one knight who Young Arthur meets, I forget the name, but he’s pretty hilarious. Seems to be a bit of a Don Quixote parody now that I think of it). The dialogue is pretty keen too, as far as I remember. Anyway, it’s one of the foundations of modern fantasy writing, so you should read it 
I showed my older brother this thread yesterday and he told me to recommend Glen Cook’s Annals of the Black Company. I’d be reading them, if he would just stop loaning them to his friends.
Another recomendation is the Sevenwaters trilogy by Juliet Marillier. I also recomend anything by Gordon Korman, not fantasy and a kid’s writer, but really good, extreamly funny.
LOL, I remember Gordon Korman. I lived on him when I was a kid.
Anyway, I’ve gotten some good ideas, so maybe I’ll save this thread somewhere and keep ordering the books mentioned on it. Worse comes to worst I can just take them back.
/me loves libraries.