My favorite authors for as long as I can remember have been James Mitchner and Taylor Caldwell. Heavy reading at times but one learns much about history, humanity and life in those pages. Tolkien is definitely high on my list too. My tastes go more toward fantasy than pure sci-fi. Ann MaCaffrey, Marion ZImmer Bradley (she co-wrote "The Black Trillium" don't recall the other two authors)among others. Reading opens another world...