My favorite authors of all time! (first and favorite book from them) 

For all of you that are planning to do some of your own favorite author calculations, here's some spreadsheeting tips: - If you have a Goodreads/Storygraph, export your library of books to a spreadsheet - Use the Pivot Table feature to collate your authors > Rows = authors > Columns = Counts of your ratings of the books - Then, you can put the formula on the side of the pivot table to calculate for each author

Joe Abercrombie would definitely fare quite well on my list. I think all of his books are 4.5~5 stars for me. You should give him a chance, his character work is incredible. He has a way of making the worst types of characters you would ever think of and make them compelling, if not outright likable.

Love the formula. Ranking authors I've read using this formula will be my weekend project.

Oooh wait, actually, speaking of Barbara Hambly… maybe she *is* someone I’d suggest looking into in general. Just remembered seeing that you enjoyed the Farseer books and such by Robin Hobbs, so you’re up for epic fantasy - in which case I’d recommend *The Time of the Dark* by Barbara Hambly! It’s another one that I read a long time ago, so I don’t remember it super clearly, but I remember - again - being fascinated by the worldbuilding. From what I remember, the best way I can think of to describe it is that Hambly treats her fantasy settings in a way that feels very scifi - not in the way of them being closely built *systems* like Sanderson, but in the way that she thinks so intentionally about the consequences of any given concept. And I feel like I remember that her protagonists are often at least a bit unusual for the genre in ways that added nice depth. (Also, I mean, look at that cover. I always enjoy a bit of genre blending, and the image of a high-fantasy looking wizard sitting in a modern kitchen drinking a beer is just delightfully memorable to me.)

I won't presume to suggest a new favorite author for you (any person's list is far too idiosyncratic), but you might want to take a look at Glen Cook's Garrett, PI series if you haven't already. It's a fantasy noir detective series with lots of humor in the middle of stories that take themselves seriously. First book in the series is Sweet Silver Blues. Another that never gets mentioned is The Green and the Gray, by Timothy Zahn. Urban fantasy in NYC. It's been years since I read it, so I don't guarantee even that I would like it on a reread, but I know that I liked it the first time through. Also, I like Zahn's Cobra series, so I know i still like his writing, for whatever that's worth.

I am literally always in awe of how you use statistics to figure out some of this awesome stuff! I'm so intrigued to try this 👀

Yay book statistics! You have so many urban fantasy favorites 😂 I am just getting back into urban fantasy myself with Written In Red, the world building has some holes so far, but I am enjoying it a lot anyway. Putting nice dragons finish last on my tbr, it sounds great 😊

We have similar enough tastes that most of what comes immediately to mind for me as things to recommend is stuff you’ve already read, hah. And there also aren’t many authors with larger bodies of work that I’ve delved into to the point where I’d recommend authors rather than individual books… But! After digging through Goodreads, I at least found a few books that I feel are worth mentioning based on what you seem to like! (Several of them are also indie, queer, and/or female authors.) - A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske - Kind of a historical (Edwardian?) ‘urban’ fantasy queer romance. It was sweet, and I liked it well enough! Though it’s a bit like The Goblin Emperor in that what would often traditionally be the ‘main’ plot quickly becomes more of a background thing. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett - I assume you’ve read at least some Discworld, but since the Tiffany Aching subseries is theoretically aimed at children, I know a lot of people don’t think to give it a try! And they do hold a special place in my heart, so I wanted to be sure to mention it. The Wee Free Men is about a weird know-it-all little girl who was such an validating and important character for me to read as a kid. (And personally I think there are some shared thematic bones between The Wee Free Men by Pratchett and The Mountains of Mourning by Bujold! They’re both about taking action because these people are yours and you have a duty; about saying sure, maybe your motivation is selfish, but the impact of your actions sure as heck is not going to be; about someone who died and whose memory you refuse to betray.) Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly - I’ll be honest with you, I read this QUITE young and don’t remember it very clearly. But you seem to like dragons, and I feel like I remember that it had such a very neat take on dragons. Also always nice to have a middle-aged female protagonist! True Love Bites by Joy Demorra - Another ‘kind of urban fantasy but historical;’ queer romance in a historical fantasy setting focused on vampires and werewolves. (Plus someone who is not, for legal purposes, a necromancer or mad scientist. No sirree.) This book has a few flaws, including feeling a bit slow around the 50% mark, but overall it’s funny, sweet, and I enjoyed the personal and internal challenges the characters were facing. Strange Love by Ann Aguirre - A scifi het romance with a love interest that’s a bit more alien than, say, a human but with purple skin. This book is campy and ridiculous and sweet and fun. Just… don’t think too much about the worldbuilding? Or the plot. Or the shallow nature of the antagonist. If you can manage that, you’ll have a good time. xD Wolfsong by TJ Klune - Urban fantasy queer romance with werewolves and some creatively worldbuilt witches. This one isn’t very much to my taste, but it’s one of my friend’s absolute favorite books, so it might at least be worth looking into for you! Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw - Urban fantasy following a doctor for the supernatural. I enjoy the little bits of speculative biology and the varied perspectives. You may want to give a pass if deus ex machina (that does at least fit the setting and doesn’t feel too contrived) would annoy you too badly, but otherwise I think it’s possible you might enjoy it! (I… *am* mildly suspicious of some of the meta choices made around a main black character in a later book in this series, which has soured my perspective even on the first book a bit, but… those exact same choices involved themes that spoke to me and that I wouldn’t have even thought to question if they *hadn’t* happened to be given to said black character. So. Y’know. Life is complicated, alas.)

So, what authors should I check out?

🦩11 FAVORITE authors!? I can understand that, I have 6 FAVORITE kids! 😉