Christopher Paolini

Smilla's Sense of Snow, which I mentioned, which actually is speculative fiction, although it doesn't appear it on the surface –

Some of Ray Bradbury's works.

And then on the more fantasy side of things, The Worm Ouroboros by E.R.

Edison.

I always recommend this book and almost no one's read it because it's written in faux Jacobian English.

It's actually a pre-Tolkien work.

It's rather difficult to read, but the breadth of imagination and the generosity of spirit and just the sheer energy of that story is

takes my breath away and is absolutely wonderful.

And I'd also probably throw in the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.

Tolkien, the Mabinogion Tetralogy by Evangeline Walton, which is a retelling of the Welsh myths and legends, just sort of a novelized version.

But her prose is so gorgeous.

And again,

Most people have never read her books.

So the Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Waggerin Jr., which is a talking animal allegory, but it's a good talking animal allegory.

So I could go on.

There are so many, and there are so many good ones out there if you really dig.

That's an interesting question.

I think I'm going to say no, actually, because there aren't any real books that have changed what I think the field can do in speculative fiction because I think I've always adhered to a rather philosophical view about speculative fiction that anything is possible within this field.

And

If we aren't seeing that in the final results, then it's a failure of imagination on the part of the writer, not the reader.