I have just finished The Last Apprentice/ Wardstone Chronicles book saga (the best) and I was wondering what your favorite book series is? PS: This is not a poll since their are a lot of series.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series.
Game of Thrones
LotR
The Adventures of Tintin

The Riverworld Series by Phillip Jose Farmer.

Everyone on Earth wakes up on a giant planet consisting of a river in a mountainous valley with a large river in the middle of it. They quickly find they're immortal, and are resurrected the next day if they die. Hijinks ensue.

The Damned trilogy by Alan Dean Foster
Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series.

The Ring Trilogy by Koji Suzuki

Original BattleTech Novels

Also Iron Druid

Paratwa Saga

The Darktower series all the way. Really great story and very gripping.

Also, have not finished it, but the Dragonlance trilogy looks promising.

Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia
Dune (the prequels and Dune) by Frank Herbert
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Horus Heresy books

 Musashi363 wrote:
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia

Read his Warmachine/Iron Kingdoms stuff yet?

Taylor Andersons Destroyermen Series is my favorite series

The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind.
Anything from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
David Eddings' Malloreon and Belgariad series.
Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series.
The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (More for personal reasons than because they're good)
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series.

Actually, just any series I've read and enjoyed really. If I didn't enjoy a series, then I wouldn't have read it all.

Also, the Dresden Files, although I've yet to complete that series too. And the Harry Potter series was fine up until the Order of the Phoenix. I found it too boring to continue

Deadpool Classics
"Complete Deadpool" By Daniel Way
A Song of Ice and Fire, by GRRM
The "Hannibal Lector series" by Thomas Harris (seriously, the movies are pretty good/great, but the books are much better)


Once upon a time I did like the Wheel of Time series, but after I quit reading (I stopped after book 8, because I had to wait 2 months for book 8 to be released, then forgot about the series after reading that one until a couple years ago, and attempting to reread all those books is skull numbing drudgery... even worse than reading/decyphering the lineage of Norwegian kings from the time of Othin )

I have read Larry's Warmachine fluff and it's amazing. He also co - wrote a book with author Mike Kupari called Dead Six, which was freaking awesome.

Bar none...

-Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
-Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

sandman slim series by richard kadrey
chronicles of matthew swift by kate griffin
Alex Verus books by Benedict Jacka
Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch
the previous mentioned iron druid series
the laundry files by charles stross
plus a ton of others i may list later if the mood takes me
(i spend several years working night shift and basically got to spend each night reading and doing a small amount of paperwork)

 whembly wrote:
Bar none...

-Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
-Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

I have to admit, although I love the series as a whole there are huge parts of it that are boring as all hell, repetitive, ridiculous, and various combinations of the three. Personally, it was all downhill until Faith of the Fallen (Soul of the Fire was and continues to be a painful reading experience), which vaulted it back up only for it to plummet at the Pillars of Creation, back up a bit during Naked Empire, and then a smooth ride back downhill again from Chainfire.

That's not mentioning all the rape. I swear the guy has a bit of an unhealthy obsession with it. There are so many near acts, implied acts, and actual acts of it that you could probably compile all of them into a book of all the rapes that happened during the series and have it come out longer (and unfortunately in some cases, better written) than a lot of novels you see around today.

 Avatar 720 wrote:

 whembly wrote:
Bar none...

-Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
-Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

I have to admit, although I love the series as a whole there are huge parts of it that are boring as all hell, repetitive, ridiculous, and various combinations of the three. Personally, it was all downhill until Faith of the Fallen (Soul of the Fire was and continues to be a painful reading experience), which vaulted it back up only for it to plummet at the Pillars of Creation, back up a bit during Naked Empire, and then a smooth ride back downhill again from Chainfire.

That's not mentioning all the rape. I swear the guy has a bit of an unhealthy obsession with it. There are so many near acts, implied acts, and actual acts of it that you could probably compile all of them into a book of all the rapes that happened during the series and have it come out longer (and unfortunately in some cases, better written) than a lot of novels you see around today.

The last book actually turns out okay.

It's a very, very dark series. A certain gritty style too.

I really like the fact that while some of the magic scenes in the book are awesome, most of the time, it wasn't the reason why they succeed.

I'd still say the first book is great on its own.

For me the last book was a complete anti-climax, and felt like a "this series has gone on a bit too long and I can't think of another way out of it" ending in its execution. Later readings (I've read the series + the first two R&K books after it 3 times) of some books and some specific parts just forced me to skip over entire chapters (or in the case of the Pillars of Creation, pretty much the entire book) because they were just... crap.

Pillars of Creation was the worst of the series.

I'd advocate just skipping it altogether.

*shrugs*

He's a writer... needs to keep the gravey train going.

It's rare to see an author end a series and start up a new one successfully.

Not everyone can be Stephen King.

I'll throw in another good series:
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.

You'll either love it, or hate it.

Too bad Jordan passed away, his last book was supposed to "end" the whole series and he was allegedly working on a brand new series.

The farseer/assasins books by robin hobb are among. My favourite fantasy books.

I'm not that big on series, but off the top of my head:
Discworld, naturally
The Culture, by Iain M Banks
Doppler, by Erlend Loe
The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, by K.W. Jeter

Pending:
The Farseer trilogy, by Robin Hobb

 whembly wrote:
I'll throw in another good series:
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan.

You'll either love it, or hate it.

I started reading this a few years ago and I hated it, but I might give it a second chance sometime.

Discworld was the series of books that ignited my love of reading when i was but a youngster.

The Flashman Series by George Mcdonald Fraser is, i think, my favourite series as an adult.

The Black Company.


Because it can't be my favorite series if it isn't done, which precludes the only reasonable competition which would be Dresden Files.

Also a huge fan of the First Law Trilogy and the follow up novels, as well as the Oath of Empire series, the various Posleen war books, The Last Rune series (even though it kind of ended on a low note), Hammer's Slammers, the Thiefworld Books, Wildcards, The Sprawl Trilogy, The Northworld Trilogy, The Myth Adventures and Garret P.I. series, the Ring of Fire series (although I have fallen behind in recent years) COBRA series by Timothy Zahn (the first actual novels I ever read way back in second/third grade, so maybe a bit of nostalgia in there), the Bolo Series, the Nightside Series, Destroyermen, the Monarchies of God, the Culture novels, The Second Apocalypse series, The Deepgate Codex... and probably others I can't think of.


- remembered Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere - counting all those as a series, Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory Series - for sheer scope if nothing else, and the Riftwar Saga.

The Culture novels by Iain M Banks, no question.

Too many to pick one, but here goes with the top 5:

Inheritance by Paolini
The Icemark Trilogy by Stuart Hill
The Mortal Engies Quartet (and prequels) by Phillip Reeve
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness

I could add in a dozen others that I really, really like, but these are the best of them.

The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

The Black Blade series by Micheal Morcock

The Iron Tower Trilogy/series by Dennis Mckeirnan(A complete rip-off of the Lord of the Rings but with a much darker ending)

The Black Company by Glenn Cook

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson (Inspirational and sad, Donaldson shows a Stephen King-esque style of detailed story development. Some might say he is a bit long winded.)

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The Bourne Trilogy by Robert Ludlum

The Dragonlance: Legends Trilogy by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman

Also, Tolkiens The lord of the Rings and David Eddings The Belgariad are right there withe the Chronicles of Narnia for my childhood favorites. I learned to read by my mom reading the LotR to me when I was 3.

Later,
ff


Edit to correct incorrect author. Thanks Paradigm

 focusedfire wrote:



The Chronicles of Narnia by T.S. Elliot

I'm sure you already know, but Narnia was CS Lewis!
But yes, Narnia are great books, everyone should read them at least once!

 Paradigm wrote:

 focusedfire wrote:



The Chronicles of Narnia by T.S. Elliot

I'm sure you already know, but Narnia was CS Lewis!
But yes, Narnia are great books, everyone should read them at least once!

Good Heavens, Thank you for catching that. I transposed the name because of conversation with the spouse. Will correct it now

I'm just finishing book two in the Kingkiller Chronicles (Wise Man's Fear) and I really recommend it. It has single handedly revitalized my interest in fantasy settings.

^ This man speaks truths. It is Phenomenal. I look forward to him finishing the first Arc and moving on to the second Arc in his world. Have you read any of the Novellas? I think the one about Bast is out in an Anthology and the second one comes out this month some time.

Favorite Series of all time is easily The Black Company by Glen Cook. Amazing read. He needs to step up his writing speed, he is almost as bad as G.R.R. Martin, except in his time between books about The Black Company he writes Fantasy Detective Novels which are also awesome. As good as The Dresden Files in my opinion.

Probably ASOIAF/Game of Thrones. Cliched, sure, but I don't care, I like what I like.

'Imajica' by Clive Baker
'The Furys' series by Jim Butcher
Of course Discworld, but really it's the Guards series of books that I love. Closely followed by the Witch's.
'The Amtrak Wars' by Patrick Tilley
'The Mars' books by Kim Stanley Robinson
'Foundation' by Arthur C Clark

I have all of 'The Sword Of Truth' novels on my kindle but as yet have not read any. I'm cautiously looking forward to it.

 Dreadwinter wrote:
^ This man speaks truths. It is Phenomenal. I look forward to him finishing the first Arc and moving on to the second Arc in his world. Have you read any of the Novellas? I think the one about Bast is out in an Anthology and the second one comes out this month some time.

No, I haven't read anything else in this universe I only just picked up "The Name of the Wind" because it was highly recommended by a podcast that I listen.

I'm going to have to look the novellas up after I finish this.

http://www.bernardcornwell.net/series/the-saxon-stories/

happily the new one is out this month.

Much love for the previously mentioned Drgaonlance, Thomas Covenant and Lawhead's Pendragon trilogy.


Big soft spot for Blyton's Famous Five ( and to a lesser extent the Secret Seven et al) when I was younger.

Any series by Brandon Sanderson, I will consume without remorse.

A lot of the series I've been reading aren't finished yet, so it's hard to pass judgement.

Brandon Sanderson.

PhantomViper wrote:

 Dreadwinter wrote:
^ This man speaks truths. It is Phenomenal. I look forward to him finishing the first Arc and moving on to the second Arc in his world. Have you read any of the Novellas? I think the one about Bast is out in an Anthology and the second one comes out this month some time.

No, I haven't read anything else in this universe I only just picked up "The Name of the Wind" because it was highly recommended by a podcast that I listen.

I'm going to have to look the novellas up after I finish this.

Neither have I, was hoping to get a review!

 whembly wrote:
Pillars of Creation was the worst of the series.

I'd advocate just skipping it altogether.

*shrugs*

I'm gonna go ahead and hand in one of my Nerd cards: Pillars of Creation is the only book from the series I've read.

I don't even know how I ended up owning it, I think I got it free from work. I ended up with a lot of free books working at Barnes and Noble, including a number of advance copies and several books I'd never actually spend money on because it either amused me to no end that it existed(such as a book that's essentially a romance novel about a priest and an altar boy) or that transcended the stereotypes of their genre("Urban Fiction" tends to use a lot of improper grammar and slang as though it was being spoken rather than written and gets a lot of flak for it from the literary community, but there's a few authors who write it more traditionally but have been tarred with the broad brush that writes off the genre as a whole).

The two Claudius books by Robert Graves, 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius the God' are still my favorite historical fiction books.


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 focusedfire wrote:
The Iron Tower Trilogy/series by Dennis Mckeirnan(A complete rip-off of the Lord of the Rings but with a much darker ending)

I thought I was the only person alive who read those books. I read them when I was in middle school, and, even though a HUGE ripoff of Tolkien, I thought they were the so cool....and so dark. I'd love to reread them...wonder if they are any good to read as an adult.

*puts on IOTV and ACH*

Twilight series

Yes I said it because Garrett in the book cracked me up

I read kind of alot, so in no particular order..

Chronicles of Prydain: A real classic
Harry Potter: Deceptively well developed and deep
Original Battletech Novels: Pure mecha fun. A bit uneven (lots of authors) but good fun all around
Eisenhorn/Ravenor: the best 40k fiction ever and some of the only 40k fiction that can hold it's own in the wider fiction market
Gaunt's Ghosts: Footslogging good fun.
Dune: Need I say more
Redwall: Talking animals are go! (though they get a bit repetitive after 10 or so)
Honor Harrington: I normally don't go for "hard" sci-fi, but I've enjoyed all these, even the side series'.

I'm sure there are more...

Well there are two series that really shaped my love of fantasy and science fiction

Lord of the rings (and really any of the other books like the hobbit and the unfinished tales etc)

Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (someone else mentioned it above sooooo happy someone else read them!) Tough books to read with some very slow parts but that's what I liked about it. Every time I read it I get swept away for some strange reason. I've heard people call it one of the hardest series to get through but for me its just great. I like the authors writing style a lot and picked up 2312 should be a similar style.

Also I recently picked up Name of the Wind. Been looking at it every time I go into the book store for over a year now but finally decided to grab it but I have no time to read it right now.

Also have heard great things (as well as bad things) about the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe I have the first half but haven't touched it yet either.


Wow I just realized my collecting of books and not reading them is nearly as bad as my consistent buying of new models and rarely painting....
....
Just kidding I already knew that

 jasper76 wrote:
The two Claudius books by Robert Graves, 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius the God' are still my favorite historical fiction books.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 focusedfire wrote:
The Iron Tower Trilogy/series by Dennis Mckeirnan(A complete rip-off of the Lord of the Rings but with a much darker ending)

I thought I was the only person alive who read those books. I read them when I was in middle school, and, even though a HUGE ripoff of Tolkien, I thought they were the so cool....and so dark. I'd love to reread them...wonder if they are any good to read as an adult.

I've read a good chunk of those.. and... meh? They were okay. I liked the Shannara stuff way more and didn't include those in my favorite series. Although now that I think about it, I liked the Word and the Void books enough to maybe qualify.

Honor Harrington

Megghhhh... I hate Honor Harrington. The whole series annoys me. The Honor series and basically everything by SM Stirling fall under the same nebulous category of unreadability where something about them strips away my suspension of disbelief. It's probably about how AWSUM they make their protagonists and their respective societies even in the face of their own universes internal logic.

Ender's Game Series by Orson Scott Card.
Bob Lee Swagger Series by Stephen Hunter (Although only Point of Impact and I, Sniper were really great imo)
Dark Tower Series by Stephen King.

Speaking of sci-fi, I also enjoyed the 2001 series of books (it was 2001, 2021, and another one IIRC)

Hanskrampf wrote:
Ender's Game Series by Orson Scott Card.

That's one I forgot. I even liked the later books that some folks poo-poo'ed.
Enders Shadow is an absolutely brilliant retelling of the same time period as the original book but from a very different perspective.

Percy Jackson
The Black Company
Women of the Otherword

I searched for The Black Company at an online book store, and apparently the series is collected in some pretty sweet omnibuses. That might be what I'm gonna read next, backlog be damned.

 LordofHats wrote:
Percy Jackson

I have to say I prefer the sequel series, Heroes of Olympus, in terms of how it's written and the character work. And the last one that just came out was awesome! Shame it's the end of the series, but 10 books across the two series isn't bad (and I'm sure there'll be some crossover between them and the Kane/new Asgard series at some point down the line),

The Dune series is a little lackluster IMHO. The first book is a classic, and should be read by everyone. The second is not bad, but not nearly as good. Books 3-4 are mediocre at best. The last two get better, but don’t justify the investment of the middle books. The new stuff put out by his son (and other writers) is acceptable, but also skippable.

I’d add to the list:

most of William Gibson’s work (Neromancer being the big one, but he works in trilogies and his others are good as well)
David Brin’s Uplift series.
Lois Mcmaster Bjuld’s Vorkosokin works.
Kieth Laumer’s Bolo series
David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers.

Probably more, but I’d have to clean the clutter off of my bookshelves and see what’s up there.

 Paradigm wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Percy Jackson

I have to say I prefer the sequel series, Heroes of Olympus, in terms of how it's written and the character work. And the last one that just came out was awesome! Shame it's the end of the series, but 10 books across the two series isn't bad (and I'm sure there'll be some crossover between them and the Kane/new Asgard series at some point down the line),

I consider them all to be one series, but I agree. Heroes of Olympus is great (haven't read the last book yet). I kind of felt like the first few books (Lightning Thief up to Titan's Curse) were just okay, but not great, but once we got to book 4 I think each new entry has been better than the last.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:
Percy Jackson

I have to say I prefer the sequel series, Heroes of Olympus, in terms of how it's written and the character work. And the last one that just came out was awesome! Shame it's the end of the series, but 10 books across the two series isn't bad (and I'm sure there'll be some crossover between them and the Kane/new Asgard series at some point down the line),

I consider them all to be one series, but I agree. Heroes of Olympus is great (haven't read the last book yet). I kind of felt like the first few books (Lightning Thief up to Titan's Curse) were just okay, but not great, but once we got to book 4 I think each new entry has been better than the last.

Agreed. The first few suffer from the same '11-13 year old kids just couldn't do that, even with superpowers' syndrome that kills the first couple of Potter books, but after about the fourth of the first series, the tone got much more mature, and especially the last couple have been pretty dark in places (not to mention better written once he switched to te 3rd person/multiple narrators structure).

Read the last one as soon as you can, it's great!

I never liked Harry Potter, so I'm probably a little bias, but I see Rick Riodan as a perfect Children's Author. He manages to tell good tense stories, but diffuse the dark tension with some of the most creative humor I've ever read in kids books. Seriously, if how grim dark would these books be without the utter ridiculousness of how he translates Greek myth into the modern world XD

Oh man....Ok. Finished series:

-Reluctant Swordsman by Dave Duncan
-Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher
-Mistworld Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
-David Gemmell's Troy Series that his wife finished for him
-Empire of Man by John Ringo and David Weber

Series that are ongoing:

-Dresden tops the list
-Honor Harrington Universe by David Weber
-Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson
-Council Wars by John Ringo
-Black Tide Rising by John Ringo
-Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo
-Secret World Chronicles by Mercedes Lackey and others
-Safehold by David Weber
-Heirs of Alexandria by Dave Freer, Eric Flint, and Mercedes Lackey
-Iron Druid by Kevin Hearne
-The Change Series by SM Stirling
-The Drood Chronicles by Simon R. Green (Guilty pleasure)
-The General Series by David Drake and whoever is writing it with him at the moment
-The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

I'm sure I missed some. I couldn't doTerry Goodkinds series after I wanna say book 4 or 5. Couldn't do Wheel of Time either.

 LordofHats wrote:
I never liked Harry Potter, so I'm probably a little bias, but I see Rick Riodan as a perfect Children's Author. He manages to tell good tense stories, but diffuse the dark tension with some of the most creative humor I've ever read in kids books. Seriously, if how grim dark would these books be without the utter ridiculousness of how he translates Greek myth into the modern world XD

Very true. The only comparisons between him and Rowling are that they write for the same audience. Beyond that, Riordan writes better, has better plot and characters and as you say, the humour is excellently counterpoised with tension to keep the whole thing interesting. I still enjoy Harry Potter and re-read them every few years, but beyond being fun reads there's not as much to them as some people claim.

It's just a shame that the Percy Jackson film was an absolute tragedy...

Not really a "series" per se, but James Lovegrove's "Age of" series of books has been fun thus far.

Some of them dont get high reviews on places like Amazon, but having read Age of Odin, and just picked up Age of Shiva, I will say that I personally enjoy them, as there are things in Age of Odin that kind of make you wonder, or put things a bit into perspective.

Misplaced Legion

Can't believe that I left this one out.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. (A mandatory primer for anyone just getting into the sci-fi genre.)

Normally I'd get docked a sci-fi geek point but seeing as I am the first to mention the series in this thread, I think that I am safe.

Later,
ff

 Aesop the God Awful wrote:
I searched for The Black Company at an online book store, and apparently the series is collected in some pretty sweet omnibuses. That might be what I'm gonna read next, backlog be damned.

I would check Barnes and Nobles, they always have them on the shelf when I go in there. The Omnibus are nice, they even have The Silver Spike in them. Which honestly you do not have to read unless you really hate loose ends.

ohhhh tricky question.

1.the hunger games (debatable.)
2. the ranger's apprentice. (for pure fantasy inspiration.)
3. the HALO series.

 Dreadwinter wrote:
I would check Barnes and Nobles, they always have them on the shelf when I go in there. The Omnibus are nice, they even have The Silver Spike in them. Which honestly you do not have to read unless you really hate loose ends.

Thanks man, but I think I'm gonna take my business somewhere more... local

Grimnoir: Hard Magic series by Larry Correia
Honorverse series by David Weber
Trading in Danger series by Elizabeth Moon
Mardock Scramble trilogy by Tow Ubukata
Dune
Byzantium a three part history series by John Julius Norwich.
Foundation series by Issac Asimov
Iron Dragon Series by Paul Genesse
Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson

 Aesop the God Awful wrote:

 Dreadwinter wrote:
I would check Barnes and Nobles, they always have them on the shelf when I go in there. The Omnibus are nice, they even have The Silver Spike in them. Which honestly you do not have to read unless you really hate loose ends.

Thanks man, but I think I'm gonna take my business somewhere more... local

Based on the mentions in this thread I just grabbed the first omnibus on papeback swap. Alot of the individual novels are there too, but if I like the first one, I'll get the others omnibusses at half-price books or one of the local used booksellers.

Gaunt's Ghosts.

I enjoyed Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series:
On a Pale Horse (1983)
Bearing an Hourglass (1984)
With a Tangled Skein (1985)
Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
Being a Green Mother (1987)
For Love of Evil (1988)
And Eternity (1990)
Under a Velvet Cloak[2] (2007)

 whembly wrote:
I enjoyed Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series:
On a Pale Horse (1983)
Bearing an Hourglass (1984)
With a Tangled Skein (1985)
Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
Being a Green Mother (1987)
For Love of Evil (1988)
And Eternity (1990)
Under a Velvet Cloak[2] (2007)

A question about those. Is the third one better than the second? I liked the first but not so much the second. I'm debating whether to try the third.

 Eilif wrote:

 whembly wrote:
I enjoyed Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series:
On a Pale Horse (1983)
Bearing an Hourglass (1984)
With a Tangled Skein (1985)
Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
Being a Green Mother (1987)
For Love of Evil (1988)
And Eternity (1990)
Under a Velvet Cloak[2] (2007)

A question about those. Is the third one better than the second? I liked the first but not so much the second. I'm debating whether to try the third.

Yeah... Hourglass is the weakest of the series imo. The best was "For Love of Evil".

 Aesop the God Awful wrote:

 Dreadwinter wrote:
I would check Barnes and Nobles, they always have them on the shelf when I go in there. The Omnibus are nice, they even have The Silver Spike in them. Which honestly you do not have to read unless you really hate loose ends.

Thanks man, but I think I'm gonna take my business somewhere more... local

I was meaning for online ordering, the book series is not super popular so it might be difficult to find in a Mom and Pop.

Completely forgot!

The Belisarius Series by David Drake & Eric Flint

Amazing 7 book series. Ends beautifully. Very well done.

 whembly wrote:

Yeah... Hourglass is the weakest of the series imo. The best was "For Love of Evil".

Thanks, I'll give the series another shot.

Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Funny, Intelligent, and stupid alll that the same time. The most brilliant author I have ever read.
LOTR
Do I really need to say anything
Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
This is the series that got me into reading fantasy/sci-fi

i came very close to crying altough, i must admit i found the ending dreadfully ambiguous.

I'd have to say that Angelia makes everything amazing.

would have been better with werewolves. then again, everything is better with werewolves.
so, everyone, what do you guys look for in a fantasy book? what makes you go "i should enjoy this" without it being suggested.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
i came very close to crying

Spoiler:

when brom died

altough, i must admit i found the ending dreadfully ambiguous.

The ending wasn't so much ambiguous as too long, I felt the 150-odd pages after the Final Battle bit would have been done in half that, to be honest. Also, read Page 81 of Eragon, that's the ending right there! Werewolves? It has Were-cats, who needs Wolves. I do eagerly await more from Paolini, though, it's been years since the last one and he promised more stuff in Alegasia, damn it!

As for books that made me sad, the endings of the His Dark Materials, Chaos Walking and Mortal Engines series all tugged most painfully at the heartstings. Anyone who can read the end of The Amber Spyglass without feeling utter despair is not human!

And what I look for in a book varies, but it's generally a mixture of a decent setting and good (not neccessarily nice, but interesting) characters. The best, such as Dark Materials and Mortal Engines combine the two, both having hugely original settings and exceptionally deep, moving and engaging characters.

Damn, I forgot about His Dark Materials. One of my cats is called Lyra (a feisty little girl, fittingly)

his dark materials, he he, also known as the only book to collectively hurt every catholic in the feefees. again, the ending to those books pissed me off, and drove me to fanfiction. *shudders.* oh the things we do when we are in those innosent years before turning fourteen.

A lot of Philip Pullman's books attack the use of organised religion for personal gain.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
his dark materials, he he, also known as the only book to collectively hurt every catholic in the feefees. again, the ending to those books pissed me off, and drove me to fanfiction. *shudders.* oh the things we do when we are in those innosent years before turning fourteen.

See, at the time, I hated the ending, I couldn't believe that fate (and authors) could be so cruel to characters that did not deserve it, but over time, I've come to see it as pretty much the perfect conclusion. Yes, it's utterly tragic, but that's the beauty of it; in that final chapter, you come to realise just how much you've grown to care about the characters and how much the whole thing means.

I liken it to killing the gallient knight after he has selflessly saved the princess. after poisoning everyone he cares about.

 the shrouded lord wrote:
his dark materials, he he, also known as the only book to collectively hurt every catholic in the feefees. again, the ending to those books pissed me off, and drove me to fanfiction. *shudders.* oh the things we do when we are in those innosent years before turning fourteen.

Oh, the ending was sad... but I wept more manly tears over . They felt like the heroes from a book that Pullman almost wrote, and then rolled into Lyra's tale.

 Gitzbitah wrote:

 the shrouded lord wrote:
his dark materials, he he, also known as the only book to collectively hurt every catholic in the feefees. again, the ending to those books pissed me off, and drove me to fanfiction. *shudders.* oh the things we do when we are in those innosent years before turning fourteen.

Oh, the ending was sad... but I wept more manly tears over

Spoiler:

Lee Scoresby and Hester's last stand.

. They felt like the heroes from a book that Pullman almost wrote, and then rolled into Lyra's tale.

Oh, that is a great moment from a literary standpoint, such badassery mixed with real humanness. Interesting you make that last comment, as he did write a book about those two some time after HDM, a prequel of sorts, called 'tales from the north' or something like that. It's a pretty good read, and also features a certain irate/awesome Panserbeorn...

I really liked the Night Lords trilogy by ADB. It was refreshing to look through the eyes of CSMs.

It doesn't have a sequel yet, but The Athena Project by Brad Thor was pretty good.

Lots of good suggestions here so adding some that have not been mentioned

The Rusalka trilogy by CJ Cherryh (I'd also recommend her Chanur and Merchanter Alliance series)

Witch World series by Andre Norton (other writers are now dabbling in the world many of them just don't get it)

The Saint-Germain vampire chronicles from Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (from long before vampires got popular again)

HP Lovecraft's Mythos tales

Conan by Robert E Howard (just one novel, The Hour of the Dragon and a few short stories.... Try and pick up editions that have not been edited/modified etc)

and leaping away from SF/F

The Mary Russell series beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R King (Sherlock Holmes)

I'll second Elizabeth Moon's trading in Danger series as well- I happen to prefer Once a Hero and Esmay Suiza, but that series is linked to another series and its heroine is less approachable,

And for my own additions, primarily in the fantasy realm-
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud(a story of a magician and his snarky demon)
The Secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flamel (more obscure mythological references than you can shake a stick at)
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness ,non-sparkly vampires, witches, and demons)
David Weber's Path of the Fury Trilogy is brilliant, compact, and has a total lack of Treecats or plot armor. Plus it come sin a nifty omnibus- In Fury Born.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L. Howard is f'ing brilliant.

 Bromsy wrote:
Oh, I almost forgot. The Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L. Howard is f'ing brilliant.

yep, and the 4th book just hit a bit ago

Just remembered a couple of fun ones....if they fit ones sense of humor or style.

Christopher Stasheffs - The Warlock of Gramerye series.



Peirs Anthony's Xanth series. ... Careful, this can be a PUNishing series to read.(Honestly my favorite by Mr Anthony are the Incarnation and the Blue Adept series)


For teenagers in particular, while not as silly or humourous I'd recommend:

The Tales of David Sullivan by Tom Deitz. (Riders of the Sidhe {ancient celtic faefolk} in spotted in 1990's Georgia, usa).

This series is a real good way of introducing young readers to some very interesting ancient folklore.

Later,
ff

For light comedy, the Myth-adventures books by Robert Asprin are a fun time.

The Trilogy (better known by the name of it's first book: With Fire and Sword) Awesome story and based on real historic events.

His Dark Materials and A Song of Ice and Fire spring to mind.

 Jihadin wrote:


Paratwa Saga

Didn't you think the ending was a little weak?

Can't believe nobody's mentioned the 'Ex ... ' series by Peter Clines. Superheroes fighting to survive in a zombie-infested post-apocalyptic Hollywood. Tremendous fun.

Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, by far. There is very, very little I actually dislike about the books, and those few things are mainly related to individual titles (Fool Moon and Ghost Story, predominantly) than anything else. The characters are memorable, the writing style is fantastic, and it's got some amazing world-building that gets expanded on in every new book.

Wildcards series (just finished the whole series and I'm quite dissapointed that the journey is over)
Discworld (glad to hear there are more guuards focussed ones, I rather enjoyed, Guards, Guards, Guards)
Tailchasers song and war of the flowers by tad williams ( though i like them i would be rather open to burning the rest of his novels )
Robin Hobbs series
enders game and companion books from after the war (not the xeno books though)
Alvin maker series.
A game of thrones
Illusion - a book i got from a budget bin and read pretty much every year. A world based on feudal france with magic illusions and revolution thrown in.

Most hated series Wheel of time. Jesus, what a convoluted drawn out collection of claptrap. I read 7 of them and gave up, most overrated series ever.

The Dune series, which...isn't really a series, but I liked them nonetheless.

Jack Reacher stuff is pretty good, cheesy, but good.

And...I can't remember the series names, but it starts with: Patient Zero cool, anti-monster, xcom-ish-without-the-aliens sort of books. Badass main character.

 Frankenberry wrote:
The Dune series, which...isn't really a series, but I liked them nonetheless.

Jack Reacher stuff is pretty good, cheesy, but good.

And...I can't remember the series names, but it starts with: Patient Zero cool, anti-monster, xcom-ish-without-the-aliens sort of books. Badass main character.

Would that be the Joe Ledger series?

 Avatar 720 wrote:

 Frankenberry wrote:
The Dune series, which...isn't really a series, but I liked them nonetheless.

Jack Reacher stuff is pretty good, cheesy, but good.

And...I can't remember the series names, but it starts with: Patient Zero cool, anti-monster, xcom-ish-without-the-aliens sort of books. Badass main character.

Would that be the Joe Ledger series?

It would be indeed! Thanks for the assist!

Love those books.

The Sten Chronicles by Alan Cole and Chris Bunch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sten_Chronicles

In which you can see where a LOT of 40K's background was...acquired.

The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos

An amazing SF series with one of the most satisfying endings ever - even if it is guaranteed to get a little dusty wherever you happen to be when you're reading that ending!

 Alpharius wrote:

The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos

An amazing SF series with one of the most satisfying endings ever - even if it is guaranteed to get a little dusty wherever you happen to be when you're reading that ending!

True words right there! The whole Merlin sickness thing is a real emotional gut punch.

On the plus side, the Shrike is one of the coolest creations in sci-fi baddassery.

 Musashi363 wrote:
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia

I made the mistake of picking up the first two books on this series and boy how do I regret it.

The books read like libertarian gun porn! I hadn't read that many technical specifications for guns since a Tom Clancy novel, only these ones don't have the good writing and interesting backstory to go along with it. Every time a character reaches for a gun we are treated to the full specs for that gun along with a description of any personalization / modification that someone made to it, its freaking ridiculous!

The plot is week and filled with "Deus ex Machina" moments, the motivations of the characters are laughable, the "love interest" is forced in the extreme... Frankly I'm appalled that this was the same writer that made "Into the Storm" and I have no clue how this actually made it into the NYT best seller list.