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The "Elric Saga" by Micheal Moorcock. Most of his stuff (ie: the stuff worth reading) is out of print and hard to find, these days, but if you stumble across Stormbringer or the History of the Runestaff, snatch 'em up. They're simply fantastic reads. | |
Frank Herbert's Dune. The series of books that followed the original are great, they expand the mythology of the Dune universe and it's just plain awesome to read. I've been a fan ever since I was in High School. | |
Pendragon is a very nice series around the Teenage level, and so is the Seventh Tower series. Havent really read too awefully much else, except some books that barely anyone has ever heard of (like a book titled "2150", based on Macrophilosophy). | |
Dune, nothing else comes close. | |
Dune, and the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones, as the series is more commonly and falsely known). It's amazing. | |
Ya'll are spice addicts? Lot'sa Dune fans, here. | |
The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks To go in the opposite direction, tried George Martin's stuff, found it extremely boring | |
I've been anxiously awaiting the end of the Keys to the Kingdom series, by Garth Nix (Sabriel, Lirael, Shade's Children, et al.) For a series filed in the Youth Section of Borders, it's getting very dark. -A | |
I don't really rate my books as "Best" ever, each has its own appeal, but the series I'm reading currently is rather intriguing. The Vampire Earth series by E.E. Knight The basic premise of the series is that Earth and all its nations has fallen under the heel of an invading race known as the Kurians, or Kur. Long ago there was a race of super-advanced beings who created a gateway between worlds known as the Interworld Tree, and data storage devices called touchstones which download their information directly into the brain of any who touch them (provided they are advanced enough mentally, otherwise it kills the user). This ancient race, known only as the Pre-Entities found a way to extend their lifespan by absorbing life energy (called Vital Aura) from other creatures. All living things produce Vital Aura proportional to their size and intelligence. While an Elephant may have more aura than a dog, a human has tremendously more than a herd of elephants due to human sentience. Despite all their technology, the Pre-Entities did eventually die out, leaving relics behind which would be later found by a race called the Lifeweavers. This new race learned to use the Interworld Tree and had visited many planets, including Earth. Some of the Lifeweavers learned the Pre-Entities' way of extending their lifespan and began a schism between the Lifeweaver race, the deviant life-stealers to be known as the Kur or Kurian Order. The Kurians and their minions came to earth both in the past and in the late 21st century to harvest the plentiful Vital Aura from the human race. While they were defeated in their attempts back in the dark ages, and in the 30's/40's, they succeeded when they invaded in what is our near future. Society collapsed, the Kurians gained control over the entire world and have rebuilt civilization under their direction, only as a means to keep humans breeding as livestock. Creatures from other worlds, and abominations created by the Kur work alongside traitor humans known as Quislings. Now the remaining true Lifeweavers are neither militant nor plentiful, and could not fight off the Kur when their own homeworld was invaded, let alone save Earth. However, a small number of Lifeweavers have made their way to Earth and have guided humans in resisting the Kurian overlords. Using their mystical technology, the Lifeweavers "enhance" volunteers, turning them into a military force known collectively as the Hunters. There are three branches to the Hunters, each with their own enhancements and purpose. The Bears are virtually tanks. Not very plentiful, but most powerful of all Hunters, Bears work together as powerful defensive or strike forces. There is no human alive who is a match for a single Bear, let alone a squad of them. The Cats are the least plentiful form of Hunter, reclusive scouts who literally have the agility and reflexes of a wildcat. Trained to kill swiftly and efficiently, and masters at deception and stealth, a Cat is the eyes and ears for the human resistance. Lastly, The Wolves. Wolves are an inbetween of the Cat and Bear ways. Meant to work in groups like the Bears, stronger and faster than normal humans, but with some of the enhanced reflexes of the Cats. Wolves are the mainstay Hunters, who patrol the lands of the free peoples of Southern Command. Both Wolves and some Cats possess a special ability, a way to turn their mind off, and assume a more primal consciousness. This allows them to mask their lifesigns from their most deadly enemies... ... the Reapers. Reapers are the vampires of legend, specially created puppets of the Kurian lords. Each Lord can create twelve Reapers, their Avatars in the lands they rule over. Reapers feed off the lifeblood of humans, and though a psychic connection to their Lord, at the same time as the Reaper feeds, the Kurian siphons off the victim's Vital Aura, which grants the Kur an extension on his lifespan. Usually only active at night, Reapers sense all creatures by the Vital Aura they possess, making humans stand out like a lantern in the dark. The Wolf ability to mask his Aura makes the Wolves the ideal tool to hunting down Reapers. Well that's the backstory. Nothing much revealed that one wouldn't pick up by the second chapter in the first book. The story so far revolves around a single Hunter, David Valentine, who joins the human resistance and becomes a Hunter. The novels are one part horror, two parts action, one part science fiction. A pleasant mix of the Vampire mythos and alien invasions, deeply rooted in the post-apocalyptic. Two and a half books into the series, I still find every chapter gripping and the storyline is far from going stale. There's a sick humor within that definitely makes this an older reader's fit, with just the right mix of adult situations and intellectual concepts that differentiate this series from the more general-audience type of novel. In addition, the books to give a harsh look at human behavior, including the depths to which we can fall to if pushed, and the corruption that can surface in mankind. A definite must-read series. | |
I love The Deathgate Cycle, written by Dragon Lance veterans Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman and it's easily my favorite series of fantasy novels. Why? It's definately got some of the best overall plotting, characters and world building I've ever seen. Secondary favorite is The Belgariad by David Eddings... I just REALLY love his writing, everytime I reread my tattered copies of his books it's like visiting an old friend. | |
Song of Ice and Fire. | |
Shannara by Terry Brooks | |
the bible, lawl | |
The Manifold trilogy, rereading that for the 3rd time. Awesome. | |
Thieves world series edited by Robert Asprin, It's a series of short interlinked storys about a scum riddled, cut throat town called Sanctuary. The series is fairly gritty with no real heroes. Each author writes there own characters stories and then interlinks them with other authors in the book. The Inquisitor trilogy and the Horus Heresy books from the black library also come to mind. They are about the Warhammer 40k universe but are fairly well written and interesting. | |
The bible, taken out of it's religious context, is a fascinating read. It's chock full of more murder, magic, sex, and infamy than many books of the modern day. As for L. Ron Hubbard.....uhm, I attempted to read through Battlefield: Earth and stopped halfway through. His writing is long, drawn out, and juvenile. I've read High-school student's short stories more well written than his garbage. Terry Brooks is a wonderful read, descriptive, vivid and very visual. And I'll have to go with the crowd and say Hickman/Weiss as well. Richard Paul Russo wrote a book titled "Ship of Fools" which you may also like. And the inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini is decent if you are looking for a lengthy series. | |
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. The seconded one is not so good, but it picks up again. Its funny, intresting, and a great read (So far). | |
The problem with series is finding ones that don't get progressively worse as they go on. Song of Ice and Fire lands firmly in this category, and so does Wheel of Time. My list: Discworld books by Terry Pratchett I could do a much longer list of series NOT to read, however. Maybe I'll make up another thread. | |
The Vampire and Demonata series by Darren Shan are great, as well as Procession of the Dead. | |
Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, pretty nice fantasy series. Magic, mayhem, large scale battles, lots of WWII style going on's, and even a weird holocaust type of action towards all things magical. Touches on a lot of humanities dark side and a lot of our own stupidities. Down side is that Goodkind can be kind of an ass, keeps saying the series has this whole deeper meaning, but won't say what it is, and says that anybody that doesn't get it just isn't intelligent enough, and yet shoots down every single theory as to what it is. | |
One thing to be forewarned about the Sword of Truth series. Every book follows the exact same formula, so much so that if you read just book 1, you can predict the entire outcome of every subsequent book after just 2 chapters. Not exaggerating. Richard is recovering from previous book's situation. New situation arises that if he doesn't fix within X time, either he or his lover Kalahn, will die. Tons of chapters about him being prevented from completing an otherwise simple task, last few chapters he succeeds, and on to the next book. | |
WHYYYYYYYY?!! | |
hmm for me lord of the rings by Tolkien would have enjoyed the avatar series more if friends hadn't ruined it for me | |
Cleverly... Try Forgotten Realms' Elminster saga. Elminster: Making of a Mage, Elminster in Myth Drannor, The Temptation of Elminster, Elminster in Hell, and Elminster's Daughter. He is essentially the Forgotten Realms' version of what you'd get by mixing Fizban the Fabulous and some surly grandpa sitting on his porch with a shotgun telling the young whippersnappers to stay off his lawn. EDIT: If you want a real collectors item, and to save yourself the trouble of finding all five novels, there's a hardcover compilation called "The Annotated Elminster". Not quite so pocket sized, but also has extra insights into the creator, Ed Greenwood's mind. | |
Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea series (was a trilogy for the longest time, now five books total) | |
Tolkein, Dur Oh, and Lloyd Alexander's Black Cauldron trilogy (or whatever it's called is good, if a bit YA) On a similar vein of appealing to kids but still good would be Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest books. | |
lord of the rings for a serious fantasy | |
oh and also stuff by my favorite man Jules Verne ie 20000 leagues under the see, journey to the center of the earth, round the world in 80 days, to the moon the sun and back etc. a very prolific writer and an excellent one | |
Hawkmoon, no doubt. By Michael Moorcock. Awesome in depicting darker sides of us and the world. Then 'The Wheel of Time' by Robert Jordan. A lot to process, yes, but it's worth it. So very magical. After that, Conan the Destroyer, surprisingly. Yes, you may laugh. Also by Robert Jordan. I was surprised to find that this was a very enjoyable read. | |
michael crinchton is also a good author wrote the jurassic park series | |
Dune. Nothing beats Dune. | |
david gemmell's rigante series is excellent beyond any praise i am able to lavish upon it | |
I should add the March Upcountry novels (March to the Sea, March to the Stars, and We Few) by David Weber and John Ringo. They are good solid military SF, although the battle scenes get pretty repetitive after a while. There are an entire slew of writers that all write very similar military SF/F and all seem to write books with each other: David Weber, John Ringo, David Drake, Robert Asprin (while he was alive), Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, plus a few others. A large portion of their stuff is good but it shares the Excessive Combat Descriptions problem. Eric Flint's 1632 is top notch and he's turning it into a series, unfortunately he started some sort of big web forum community so the books increasingly read like they were written by a committee. The Deed of Paksenarrion (three books) by Elizabeth Moon is very good. I recently read two of Lois McMaster Bujold's books and I enjoyed them, but my recommendation of her Miles Vorkosigan stuff is only partial because I only read those two. If you like dark (i.e. slightly erotic) fantasy then the Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop is highly enjoyable. However it's quite feminine. | |
Wow, a lot of love for song of ice and fire. Great series though. To add - Dark tower series by stephen king | |
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Personally, I'm trying to get through (one of) Ian Irvine's book quartets.
The quartet is called "A view from the mirror", and I'm into the second out of four books - "The tower on the Rift".
I won't go into describing details as you can Google it, but each book has nice tiny little text with a good 600+ pages in each. They'll keep me occupied for a long time.
Besides that, what other book series as such has captivated you?