favorite science fiction/fantasy authors - what are yours?

[Carol]

Going back to the original question stated in the subject line, What are your favorite science fiction/fantasy authors, I'd have to say none except LOTR (which I reread annually from the time I was fifteen till I was about thirty-five and still return to occasionally) and, of course, the harry Potter books. I've tried other scifi or fantasy authors and just can't get caught up in their worlds or their writing, possibly because I don't care to think about the future and am intrigued by the real past (historical and prehistoric). For me the great mystery of all time is how and when we became human (how could something like homo habilis evolve into *us*?)

So let me turn the tables a bit and ask the rest of you: Why read scifi or fantasy or both? What's the attraction of those genres, and do you prefer one over the other?

Carol, who is back on a nonfiction kick and trying (futilely) to read all the books she owns and figure out which ones to sell for a bit of extra cash