I've just read the first ten pages of this thread, I'm fascinated to know what people are reading. Declaring a professional interest - I'm a bookseller, so a lot of the books mentioned I remember being published, and have sold, some in quantity. Fourth Wing I'm looking at you. After having said I didn't want to read it, I really enjoyed it. I'm currently reading 'The last gifts of the universe'by Riley August. It's soft SF, reads a bit as if it's YA. I read a lot of SFF, history, both fiction and fact. I haven't actually got a favourite author, though Dunnett comes close, but there are really too many to pick one. I like Stephen King (loved the Dark Tower),Terry Pratchett, Frank Herbert. Sadly a lot of the authors I really like are no longer with us - I was going to say Hilary Mantel and CJ Sansom as well. I'm very lucky as I get a lot of proofs, I recently read 'The Devils', the latest Joe Abercrombie,which was great. In places it made me laugh out loud, it's very character driven, which I like. On holiday I read 'Ordinary saints' by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin. It's superb, what happens when the Catholic church decides it is going to make someone a saint. The narrator is the would be saint's sister. She is gay, and there is a lot of family conflict. Surprisingly,it has a happyish ending, in that she ends up in a settled relationship, and reconciles with her mother. Another book which I would recommend is Antonia Hodgson's The Raven Scholar. Fantasy, but dark, about the succession to the throne of an empire. Hoping the sequel will be published fairly soon. The author has previously written historical crime, but I haven't read those.