I have been thinking much about classics in science fiction and Fantasy. There are a lot of great books that can classified as Classics.
In science fiction when you think of classic the name Frank Herbert comes up for his Dune book and series. It is not an easy read and every time I go back to it I realize I still like the book but it doesn’t have the shiny new that it once did. If you like very large amounts of details and description this will definitely be up your alley. In some ways this seems to show a lot of great writing but it also shows what happens when we don’t have editing nearly as strict as it should be.
For fantasy it has to be Tolkien. He wrote a number of books all about a ring. While the Hobbit is a great young book the books after Lord of the Rings also was classic. As I read it more I find that they just aren’t for me anymore. I think a lot of it is because I have read it so often it has lost all meaning.
Marion Zimmer Bradley is another classic writer and wrote one of the all time top Arthurian book with The Mists of Avalon. While I didn’t enjoy this book it did show me a great deal as well about how authors help each other as it was after this book that I found sword and sorceress.
Terry Brooks and his sword of shanarra series. The first book was wonderful but after that I got quite tired of the series as I found that they needed to go back to what was so unique and amazing with the sword.
Piers Anthony is known to be a great writer of the classic humourous fantasy. His xanth books are considered top tier even if I myself found them lacking.
The best for me for humour is Terry Pratchett and his Discworld novels which were some of the most amazing stories written.
Crazy Canadian Writing 