. I'll try to keep spoilers not available in the blurb away from you folk.
Stephen King - I would really recommend this author. Currently my #1. Great horror stories, and just about everything he writes is creepy as hell.
The Stand - A post-apocalyptic story with basically two parts: First, how a man-made virus ravages humanity and leaves only one out of every few hundred thousand people alive, and second, how the people still alive in America form into two communities that pretty much go to war with one another. I advise getting the unrevised edition - after reading the whole thing, I put it as my #1 favorite book of all time.
It - A horror story in which two timelines are told parallel, telling how a group of children met and set about planning their destruction of a monster killing the children of Derry. Also, at pretty much the same time, it tells a story of how, years later, the monster returns and they return as well to finish It once and for all.
The Long Walk - I like most of the Bachman novels (except Thinner - I can't really recommend that one), but this instantly shot up to #1 (of the Bachman novels). A hundred ~17 year old boys registered and were accepted to a competition called the Long Walk. Basically, they walk to the death. Winner gets anything he wants in the world - all losers die. If they stop or go less then four miles an hour, they get warned. They get three warnings and still don't continue properly, they get killed. There are no breaks, period. Some die because diarrhea forced them to sit down, others get to shoot a soldier before dying. In the end, only one survives.
Desperation - A story of how a group of people are gathered by a crazy policeman in a town devoid of all human life (yet containing hundreds of fresh corpses) called Desperation. They escape while the policeman is doing something, meet a few surviving villagers who tell them what happened to Desperation, and find out what evil is truly behind it.
Dan Brown - A great author of thrillers. All of his books I've read so far have kept me guessing at who the antagonist really is, and I was always wrong (though, once it was because it seemed a bit too obvious. But only once.)
Angels and Demons - Robert Langdon is called by CERN to illuminate the director, Maximilien Kohler, about the identity of the Illuminati, who have left an imprint on the flesh of a murdered scientist, Leonardo Vetra. On a tip, they travel to the Vatican, where he must follow a path laid by the ancient Illuminati before all of Vatican City and it's estimated 46 billion in assets is destroyed by an antimatter 'bomb'. Great book, and the ending... The identity of the antagonist is really.. surprising.
Deception Point - Rachel Sexton is called out to Ellesmere island to the north because of an event that would make NASA history. However, after she and a group of civilian scientists finds a flaw with the data, she and the others are on the run, with the falsifier of the data after their lives.
R.A. Salvatore - A great fantasy writer. I particularly enjoy his fighting scenes.
Promise of the Witch King - Artemis and Jarlaxle have gone far in their search for adventure and power, and here's a new turn: An ancient castle is reanimating in the Vaasa, and they, along with selected heroes from Vaasa, must venture in and destroy the castle and it's demonic inhabitants before the nearby town of Palischuk is overrun and before the castle grows in power enough to beat down any armies sent against it. Believe it or not, it's not a simple killfest (though there IS a lot of killing) - betrayal and a lot of other stuff make this a very good read.
Note that these are just my favorites - I really enjoyed almost every book Stephen King wrote (I didn't like Gerald's game, for instance - borefest), and enjoyed every book Dan Brown wrote immensely (Well, he wrote like four). I just didn't want to do a review containing thirty King books and four Brown books - that would be weird. Post your favorites. If I think of some other authors, I'll add 'em on.
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