I don't have a favorite book or author. I'll read all sorts of things if the mood strikes, but for pure entertainment, I usually reach for fantasy. I'm a world-building junkie. Once an author gets me past the basics of engaging characters and a plot that actually goes somewhere, the thing that makes a book or series unforgettable for me is the world the author creates. Whether it's traditional fantasy, like C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy which is set on another planet, or the newer classification of urban fantasy, like Ilona Andrews' Magic series that is set on a modern Earth that has slightly different rules than the ones we're used to, it's the world the author creates that determines if I'm going to love it or trash it before I finish it.
I'm enthralled by authors who can take a world, populate it with beings or abilities that don't exist on Earth, give it a history and customs that should be completely unrecognizable to me, and craft it in such a way that by the end of the book, it's not only familiar but comfortable. I love a good fantasy book so much that I feel shortchanged if the author doesn't follow up with another story set in the same universe. I enjoy the time I spend reading them, and I want to visit those worlds again, so I tend to stick with authors who write series, rather than one-offs.
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