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Some very good choices JF. I'm a big fan of most of those authors as well. Zelazny's Nine Princes of Amber and Lord of Light being particular favorites.

And MZB's Darkover novels were to me just as fascinating as the Mists of Avalon.

Another author who could've done well at writing Xena would've been L. Sprague de Camp, he and Fletcher Pratt showed that they had a good hand at mixing ancient mythology and modern anachronisms in their Incompleat Enchanter series.

Although I have some issues with de Camp in his treatment of REH, I must admit that the Incompleat Enchanter was a great book. As a side note I would like to mention that L. Ron Hubbard of Scientology fame once wrote a short story in which he killed off the hero of the Incompleat Enchanter. This was back in the 30's when L. Ron was a science fiction writer and not a cult leader. Anyhoo de Camp and Pratt were none too pleased with this and considered doing a rebuttal piece but in the end decided to ignore it.

If we're talking about a comedy episode I don't think you could find a better writer then Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

Another author who would have an interesting take on the series would be Norman Spinrad. An author who's been banned in Germany can't be all bad.

Another author who has shown that he can write convincing warrior women, IMHO, is S.M. Stirling, he and Shirley Meier's 5th Millenium novels written in the early 90's actually have a duo, Megan and Shkai'ra, that are very Xena and Gabrielle like.

One final plug is for Guy Gavriel Kay a fantasy author of such works as the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy. I think he would brought a whole new level and depth to the emotional scenes and the love story between Gabrielle and Xena.

Luv

Alena

Spinrad definitely march's to the beat of his own drummer. One novel of his that I would recommend would be Child of Fortune.

Another novel that I hesitate to recommend is The Iron Dream for fear of being misunderstood. This is a satire, a parody, but as Joe Bob Briggs found out at the Dallas Times Herald not everyone "gets" the satire. This was the case with Spinrad's The Iron Dream and the Federal Republic of Germany. I say check it out but remember that it is a parody and one that operates on more then one level. It is not The Turner Diaries.

I'm also a fan of Asprin's Myth Adventures and I was in on the ground floor on Thieves World. The first of the shared worlds books. I thought it was great for the first few books but the quality began to decline towards the end, plus there were ego clash's between the authors. You weren't supposed to be able to kill off each others characters but Offut got around that by killing off the patron diety of another character that was an integral part of what made him who he was.

Another author that I'm fond of is Elizabeth Moon, the author of The Deed of Paksenarrion series. A trilogy chronicaling the adventures of a young woman warrior who becomes a Paladin. A holy warrior-knight dedicated to the Light. Think a kinder and gentler Najara.

Luv

Alena