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Stephen King is my all-time favorite author.
I also really adore Isabelle Allende.

My favorite books?
Mrs.Mike
Pride and Prejudice
Wuthering Heights
The House of the Spirits
The Long Walk

I'm a fantasy fan. beware... mrgreen
Despite being a primarilly D&D author (officially...) R.A. Salvatore is my favorite author. He's simply amazing. The way he writes fighting scenes is just... incredible. So descriptive, it's like you're actually there, one of the characters. How he forms his characters is also just... wow. burning_eyes The descriptions he can write... amazing. Who needs movies when his descriptions are detailed enough to know the characters as if you see them on a daily basis? ALL of his characters are dynamic, and the most insignificant of persons will end up being a major criminal. At the begining of the clerical quintet, for example, Rufus is just an emo type boy jealous of Cadderly, the protagonist, who tries to snitch on Cadderly as often as possible to bring attention to himself. By the end of the quintet, however, Rufus is an extremely powerful vampire seeking to kill Cadderly, controled partly by the chaos curse and seeking something near world domination. Which by itself sounds outrageous, unbelievable. Yet, the way Salvatore builds up Rufus's character throughout the novels, it's entirely possible and believable, especially from what readers see of the chaos curse. And Salvatore's provoking prologues for each part/section of a chapter's insight on life and humanity from the perspective of his character Drizzt, can both be humorous and seriously making a statement that prods the mind into thinking about things that normally wouldn't come to mind, deep philosiphical statements. ALL of his characters are very realistic, down to the lowlyest of peasants that appear once in a novel. I do wish that he'd stray from his D&D world though.

I also like authors Robert Jordan and Patricia Briggs. Great authors in their own rights, though Jordan's a bit odd. O_o The begining of his series The Wheel of Time starts incredibly innocent, but by the current point the main character is married and having sex with four girls who each apparently love him and are willing to 'share him' o_O Jordan is not quite so realistic in his books.. XD He certainly plays out a unique interpretation of fantasy, though. (HIS fantasies.)
Seriously though, the world he created and the way he's defined magic is unique, and the way he has created realistic war movements and cultures as a whole outweighs his odd choices of character qualities. He's pretty well-known.