[PeterSmith]

Me.

[WSN0W]

Neil Stephenson and Richard K. Morgan.

I hate to go with 'favorite' as that's like asking what your favorite food is. It's so circumstantial and conditional I find it too broad of a question.

But those two authors I think are my favorite writers for their prose and wordsmithing ability while still leaving me in a state where I can sit and ponder on some of the ramifications and philosophies they introduce in their work. There are novels by other authors I may have enjoyed more than theirs, to be sure. Some are epicly clever or just set with a pacing that is hard to set down.

I gotta go with Sir Pterry on that one. Butcher isn't bad but he's got a few problems that keep me from considering him on Pratchett's level. He's too heavy-handed in places, rather formulaic in others, relies too heavily on Harry being a cosmic punching bag, and he's got too many internal inconsistancies.

The last point, especially, irks me since he contradicts himself constantly on the relative power and abilities of the "NPCs" from Christian mythology compared to those from older religions, like the Faeries (Eldest Gruff vs Magog comes to mind) or Shagnasty The Skinwalker.

I'm not sure what it is with Modern Fantasy and Skinwalkers. The Iron Druid stuff has a similiar thing where the main character literally cuts through gods by accident (and some Irish ones) but some pissed of evil juju speed freak Skinwalkers are top class baddies that take a whole novel, several near brushes with death and lots of levels of uber-cheats to survive.

But I kinda find most multi-mythos drawing modern fantasy settings to be like 'Between DC's Superman and Marvel's Thor...who'd win?' 'Spiderman vs Batman' kinda debates. Sure, there are some match ups that make more sense, but at the end it really comes down to 'who is writing the conflict and what's their prespective.'

[ArkangelWinter]

As living authors go, I'm a Neil Gaiman nutjob and I'll fight about it 

But Tolkien, Heinlein, and Lovecraft are definitely my favorites of all time.

[Zilfer]

I like Orson Scott Card, Steven Erikson, Tolkien (before movies as well), and Christopher Paloni. There is also a few others i can't think of right now

[WellsIDidIt]

I'll have to side with Douglas Adams (Wrote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). There's a type of humor there that I've always been able to synch with.

[Gardensnake]

Have to throw another vote for Pratchett. I also really liked Nigel Findley. The man could write and it is a shame he passed before he gained the fame he deserved.

William

[emsquared]

Since my favorite writer to read changes with regularity (though these two are perpetually in the top 5), I'll have to say the writer who influenced my writing style the most; Bukowski. Though Hemingway is really part and parcel with that influence, I just found Bukowski first.

After reading them, not even consciously trying, I just kind of realized later - wow, I use way less words then I used to, and say so much more.

[Critias]

Since my favorite writer to read changes with regularity (though these two are perpetually in the top 5), I'll have to say the writer who influenced my writing style the most; Bukowski. Though Hemingway is really part and parcel with that influence, I just found Bukowski first.

After reading them, not even consciously trying, I just kind of realized later - wow, I use way less words then I used to, and say so much more.

For me, that sort of influential writer (who I later notice showing up in my work from time to time) would be John Steakley.  Ironically, and unfortunately, he's actually from Cleburne, Texas, where my wife is from (and which had part of the city showcased in the film version of one of his stories, Vampire$)...but he passed away before we moved here.

I would've loved to have bought him a beer and thanked him for his stories, few as they were.

[DWC]

Can't go wrong with Milton, Dumas, or Walter Jon Williams.  I'll also admit to loving the GW licensed work of Dan Abnett and Aaron Dembski-Bowden.

[Mad Hamish]

I find it hard to narrow it down to just 1
Terry Pratchett is up there
Robert Heinlein has been up there since I started reading him in 83 or thereabouts (I was around 10 at the time)
Fan of Jim Butcher (and hanging badly for the next Dresden book)
Think some of Tanya Huff's stuff is about the funniest things I've ever read (parts of the Keeper series for instance)
Charlie Stross does some amazing things (especially the Laundry series)
Tolkien is what got me started on reading a lot
still have a soft spot for David Eddings (repetitive but fun) and David Gemmell (he of the dimension hopping, time traveling bear)

[farothel]

I find it hard to narrow it down to just 1
Terry Pratchett is up there
Robert Heinlein has been up there since I started reading him in 83 or thereabouts (I was around 10 at the time)
Fan of Jim Butcher (and hanging badly for the next Dresden book)
Think some of Tanya Huff's stuff is about the funniest things I've ever read (parts of the Keeper series for instance)
Charlie Stross does some amazing things (especially the Laundry series)
Tolkien is what got me started on reading a lot
still have a soft spot for David Eddings (repetitive but fun) and David Gemmell (he of the dimension hopping, time traveling bear)

With a nickname like Mad Hamish, it's hard not to put Terry on the no 1 spot. 

[Wakshaani]

Jared Diamond, RIchard Scarry, and Dr Seuss.

Stan Lee, Kurt Busiek, and Mark Gruenwald.

Nigel F'n Findley.

...

Really, there's too many to narrow it down. I loves me some books.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

People I Want To Write Like:
Robert A. Heinlein.  Andre Norton.  Steven Brust.  Roger Zelazny.  Patrick Rothfuss.  J. R. R. Tolkein.  Jim Butcher.  Matthew Woodring Stover.  David Drake.  C. J. Cherryh.  Tanya Huff.  (Yes, Nigel Findley and Pratchett.)  Wm. Shakespeare, and Pretty Much Every Other Classics Author You Care To Name.  Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and Miyamoto Musashi - who all wrote the same thing with increasing levels of brevity and clarity (but Go Rin No Sho is still my favorite.)

Random Guilty Pleasures:
Steve (and Stephanie) Perry - who write novels out of movies, and into movies - if you want to write something incredibly formulaic that might get picked up and turned into a cash cow summer blockbuster explosion-ridden something-or-other, you couldn't do better.  David Weber - who is, compared to David Drake, a truly terrible writer, but I -do- want to see what he does to Honor next.  David Eddings - who turned a simple hero quest into two quintets and two trilogies, plus two or three add-ons - as far as I know.  Stephen R. Donaldson - who wrote something interesting, then wrote like he was getting paid by the word - and still made it interesting, even if I would have murdered the schmuck only a third of the way through the first book, and kicked his ass regularly throughout the others.  Alexandre Dumas, père - who, let's face it, created a story factory, stole their work, used every possible bit of novelization tripe in existence up to date, but still made it fantastic fun to read, and almost impossible to not imitate in some way.

There are literally hundreds of others ...

[CanRay]

It's an open secret that John Ringo is my own guilty pleasure.

[Black]

Alexander Dumas, David Gemmell, Neal Gaimen, Mark Waid, Charles Dickens, Tolkien, Canray