Everyone has that list of people that they would really love to meet. They could be movie stars, actors, scholars and authors.
This week on Top Five Wednesday, Chelsey and I decided to come up with a list of Top Five Authors that we would really love to meet. We came up with this list wicked fast. Instead of turning this into a top 15 or even a top 30, we decided that we would revisit this topic again at a later date. So stay tuned for that.
There is an interesting mix of authors for this list. Some of them we’ve been following since we were in high school, others we’ve only discovered in the last few years.
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5. Jonathan L. Howard
Johannes Cabal is one of my favourite characters of all time. At the time of filming this video, the fourth Cabal book comes out in a week. I may be tearing my hair out in anticipation.
Howard has a dry sense of humour that I just love. I like how Howard can write in many different styles. Each of the Cabal novels is thematically different from Faustian vignettes, to armchair mysteries to Lovecrafian cosmic horror, there is something for everyone. On the other hand Chelsey has only read one of Howard’s novels, but has been glued to his twitter for the past few weeks. Seriously, this man is hilarious.
They say never meet your heroes… but who are they anyway? Chelsey and I had a chance to chat with Jonathan L. Howard and it was everything we expected and more. You can check it out here.
4. Maggie Stiefvater
We had never heard of Maggie Stiefvater until our first trip to BookCon. We have only read one series from her: The Raven Cycle and we both love it. The writing style of this series is very dreamlike. Everything feels very vague until you reach the end and realize just how deep and detailed it actually is. The characters are interesting and the emotions are very raw. It would be so cool to sit down and talk to her about her writing process and all the myths and legends that so subtly inspired this series.
Not to mention Stiefvater has a great sense of humor. After listening to her talk on a panel at BookCon we were ready to read everything. EVERYTHING!
Check out our review of The Raven Boys and Dream Thieves here.
3. Garth Nix
Chelsey and I read the Abhorsen trilogy in high school. This basically makes Garth Nix the man who introduced me to necromancy.
I read Sabriel for a book report. I finished it, liked it and wrote the report. I thought it was a stand alone novel. Two months later I was in a book store with my mother and I found out it was a trilogy. These were the days before goodreads, after all.
Nix has written many other novels and series including The Keys to the Kingdom, The Seventh Tower and A Confusion of Princes. You should totally check him out.
2. Libba Bray
Libba Bray is another author that we have been following since high school. She’s put out a wide range of novels from victorian fantasy to beauty pageants meets Lost meets Lord of the Flies.
Bray’s most recent novel is The Diviners, her return to period fiction. This time she’s exploring the roaring twenties, supernatural powers and serial killer ghosts. All we can say is that it’s been a ride.
Check out or review of Beauty Queens here.
1. Chris Wooding
Poison was the first book we filmed a review for. Poison was so different from everything else we were reading at the time. It was my first really hardcore dark fantasy novel that both scared me and made me uncomfortable. It’s because of this book that I love that genre so much.
The cover is so off putting, Chelsey has no idea how she managed to get past the moody purple face that seemed to be staring straight into your soul.
Then she picked it up and got lost in the story. Poison unlike most others in it’s genre or age range does not have a romantic plot. Instead it focuses on the main character trying to find her sister and a better place for herself in one of the most miserable worlds you would never want to live in. Seriously, this place makes Westeros look hospitable.
We also read another one of his teen novels The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, which again managed to give us both nightmares. If we ever got to talk to Wooding, it would be a fun conversation talking about all the nightmare fuel he’s given us over the past few years.
There you have it, the first five authors that we really would love to meet. As I mentioned before, this is a list that we will definitely be coming back to a few times in the future. We’re always stumbling across new books and authors that manage to steal our hearts.
Are there any author’s who’s books have completely blown your world and you’d love to talk to them, tell us about them in the comments below. Or, if you have met your favourite author, tell us about how that went!
Until next week and next Top Five Wednesday, happy reading!