Fantasy and SF Recommendations: Series

[seeyouintee]

Probably all been mentioned, but these get my gold seal of approval:

The First Law Trilogy (Joe Abercrombie) - Great characterization. Lots of morally grey characters and a solid plot. Has kind of a Conan meets Pulp Fiction feel.

The Dark Tower Series (Steven King) - Solid main characters, and a good plot. This series traverses just about every genre and there are some really clever and surrealistic moments.

A few good stories:

The Lies of Loch Lamora (Scott Lynch) - A few good characters and the book had style, but wasn't interested enough to read the second one.

Ender's Game (Card) - It's a classic. Orson Scott Card is obviously a good writer and the concept of Ender's Game is brilliant, but I think Card lacks style. Ender, (and none of the kids in the book for that matter,) don't feel at all childlike. Despite factoring into the story, when reading his child characters, I get the distinct feeling Card does not know much about the minds of children. Still, I enjoyed the first book enough to finish it, if not continue the series.

Mistborn (Brandon Sanderson) - I've only read the first one of the series, but Sanderson does magic systems well and his imagery is fantastic. His overall writing style has its flaws and he has a somewhat naive and/or innocent style of PG13 storytelling reminiscent of his influences, (Card, Robert Jordan, etc.)

I prefer to think of these stories like fast food; I realize they aren't all that good, nourishing, and are sometimes talentlessly made, but I still enjoyed them for one reason or another... (get your tomatoes ready to throw, I'll try to duck):

The Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan) - After reading the series, looking at the story (minus the last book) it is a good story as a whole. The whole is much better than its parts. There are a few good characters, there are emotional moments and moments of badassery, the magic system is fantastic, and the books are absolutely FULL of (sometimes not so obvious) parallels to everything from King Arthur to Taoism and Norse mythology. The problem is that several of the characters are the same character on a very 2 dimensional level, the emotional moments are somewhat ruined by a lack of chemistry in a lot of the relationships, moments of badassery are absolutely ruined by an old magic lady threatening to spank the main BA character SEVERAL TIMES!! and the really obvious parallels start to seem like cheap inspiration at times. That said, I enjoyed The Wheel of Time. If you like fantasy you should definitely read it. But it is the epitome of what is a classic but is not the peak of the genre.

The Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind) - This book had some really cool ideas and some nice battle scenes. A few of the characters were solid. The overall plot was pretty weak and, most infuriatingly, there were a few times when one of the main characters did something COMPLETELY out of character and just left me going "WTF? (S)he wouldn't have done that." Overall I still enjoyed the series.

Legend of Drizzt (RA Salvatore) - The epitome of fast food quality entertainment, but sometimes you want a fucking Big Mac. <shrugs> Drizzt is pretty two dimensional, but the character has serious style. If I'd read these when I was 12 I'd have thought they were the best thing since McDonalds. Semi-relatedly, I just finished Kingdoms of Amalur (video game that RA Salvatore was involved in.) It was actually better than his books.

[Tavar]

The Codex Alera by Jim Butcher

The same author that brought us the Dresden Files. Should be enough right there. The codex is more of a typical epic fantasy with heavy magic, though in that world it isn't really considered magic. I don't think a ton of people have read this series but it is certainly one of my favorites.

[Ylva]

Patrick Rothfuss - Kingkiller Chronicle. It's not finished, and it took a long time to put out book 2 for a series that is allegedly already written, but this is the best fantasy around.

I completely agree there. Patrick Rothfuss is great with language, and I like the way we get to look at the man behind the myth/how myths come to be.

Zamonien Novels by Walter Moers; It's not a series strictly speaking, as the books don't feature the same characters throughout, however, they are similar to Terry Pratchett's Diskworld novels as they all play on the same fictional continent 'Zamonien'. Moers' books are so great because they explode with imagintaive story writing as well as great creatures. Also, Mr. Mores illustrates his books himself (though I'm not sure if the illustrations are in the English translations, you'd have to check on Amazon or somewhere). For anyone inclined to start I'd suggest The 131/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear About a blue bears adventures. (Captain Bluebear is also a German TVShow for kids, where the Captain narrates unbelievable tales to his nephews and nieces, so there was double enjoyment there for me)

Otherworld by Tad Williams; A Steampunk tetralogy set in the future. When her brother falls into a coma while surfing in the future version of the internet, hacker-turned-professor Renie delves into the net to find out what happened to him. The picture of a golden city draws her further and further in and soon she's joined by other people who have seen the same picture. When they all get sucked into a second version of the net maintained by the richest of the rich, and cannot log off again, a hunt across different worlds begins in a desperate attemt to safe the earth's children.

The books are really captivating and exciting, especially because so much is kept well veiled until the end. Also, the intertextuality is great (there's allusions and quotes from the Illiad to The Wizard of Oz).

Discworld by Terry Pratchett; Anyone who likes fantasy with a good dose of satire and irony is right with Pratchett. There's also a great variety of different characters and view points which makes it all the more fun to read.

[Davos55]

The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix

I read this trilogy when I was younger, but I still remember it to this day. It is definitely young adult in nature and easy to read, but the books are epic, have great characters, and the final battles are quite amazing.

[Prince Aegon VI]

Have tried a few things since finishing ASOIAF:

Rec

Joe Abercrombie - . Have just finished Book 1 of the The First Law and am about to begin the second. Would highly recommend him to anyone who liked ASOIAF. Best thing I've read in ages and that probably includes Dance. Brilliant. Could well develop into my favourite author. Sand Dan Glokta is one of the best characters in my recent reading memory.

Scott Lynch - First book of the Gentlemen Bastards was good. Second was a tad less engrosing. Has potential but a lack of main characters i.e. it's about one person and an accomplice, make it feel a bit limited in it's "epicness".

Non-Rec

Bakker - Gave me a headache.

Rothfuss - Hated the style i.e. the central character telling his own story. Felt like I was getting the story twice. Once from the author and again from the Kvothe. Just didn't click with me.

[Evamitchelle]

Carried over from the obscure thread since it isn't as obscure as I thought :

The Spiritwalker Trilogy by Kate Elliott is worth a shot. Only the first 2 books have been released so far, but the third one should be well on his way since the author finished a complete draft of it about a month ago.

It's steampunk fantasy, in a world where the Ice Age didn't end, where the Romans didn't fall and dinosaurs evolved into sentient beings. Also all the main characters are people of colour and the protagonist is a 20-year-old woman (of colour too).

The first book is called Cold Magic, the second Cold Fire and the third should be Cold Steel.

[The Last Reyne]

Raymond Feist's Midkemia series---A number of three or four book series with some stand alones that connect groups that spans generations. Magic, dwarves, elves, intrigue, romance, and really just a lot of fun.

[Stickemwiththepointyend]

Since it's been a while anybody mentioned them and I absolutely love them, I need to bump Robin Hobb`s Farseer, Liveship Trader, Tawny man trilogies. Character driven, neat magic system, world building; I`d say flawless. The Rain Wild Chronicles are her latest series, set in the same world, but aren't as good. Still very much enjoyable though.

However, I'd advise you to stay well away from the Soldiers Son trilogy from the same author. I found the first book very very boring and predictable. It's basically a girl's boarding school drama, only for boys, set in a military academy. I barely finished the first book and started in the second but I had to give up very soon. Nowhere near as imaginative and original as Hobb`s other works.

[Currawong]

Raymond Feist's Midkemia series---A number of three or four book series with some stand alones that connect groups that spans generations. Magic, dwarves, elves, intrigue, romance, and really just a lot of fun.

Agree - I was surpriised that no one had yet mentioned Feist's series. Although they span two different worlds at times, read them in the order they were written starting with the Riftwar trilogy - Magician, Silverthorn, A Darkness at Sethanon - and then move on to the others. Note: If you are borrowing the books or buying secondhand, make sure you get the later updated version of Magician (it's a big thick paperback, LOL). Full list of series books is here: http://www.crydee.co...-order/written.

Also support the recommendations for Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel and Naamah series - medieval world that will be familiar in style to ASOIAF readers, and characters you love/hate (or at least want to hit over the head at times).

In the list of absolute 'classic' science fiction, I am very surprised that no one has mentioned Isaac Asimov's name, as he is one of those writers (like Arthur C Clarke) who has had a major impact not just on the world of sci fi writing, but also on 'real' hard science. Read both his Foundation and Robot series.

ETA: There doesn't seem to be a thread for sci fi / fantasy short stories (a genre in themselves), so I will just mention Asimov's classic 1964 one Nightfall, consistently in anthologies of the best ever sci fi short stories and one of my all-time favourites. What happens to society where there are several suns, and night comes only once every few thousand years? Asimov later enlarged it into a novel, but I strongly recommend you read the original short story first, because IMHO it packs more punch than the book.

[SkynJay]

I gave the thread a once over again, and realized that Kate Elliot's Crossroads series is no where to be found.

So consider it recommended. Strong characters, a quick moving pace, yet it still has a fairly epic feel. One story arc stands out, because in the early goings I saw it as a Dany rip-off, until it went in its own, very cool, direction. Also, it is a finished series(or at least story arc), so you can read it all at once. Right now.

[Ben's Raven]

Don't know if this is really that obscure, but:

Sara Douglass - Wayfarer Redemption trilogy

Usually surprised this never gets any mention cause I thought it was an engrossing read, and more importantly, very well paced. Unlike other authors, Douglass doesn't get too bogged down or fall overly in love with her characters to the point that her "trilogy" ends up taking more than 3 books.

Also found the ending to be very well done (and bittersweet).

The series is at 5 I believe. One of my first, and still a very special series. I initially found it because my favourite Luis Royo piece was used to serve as the cover for the primary book - Azhure looking over the Stargate while the sentry watched on. Truly a beautifully done work of art, far beyond his normal big-busted robot-warrior-women. At any rate, it's incredibly interesting how the series tied together, and how she was so utterly indiscriminate about killing characters. I learned very quickly to love nobody, though the growth of Azhure was still hard to deny - until about the fourth book, when - well, you'd need to read them.

Anyways, Douglass also brought elements of the Starman characters into her next series, the Darkglass Trilogy (which is actually a trilogy, to my knowledge). Unfortunately her passing means no more cameos.

It seems people here don't like Eddings' work, but I happen to enjoy his candid style of writing, so I'll say the Elenium Trilogy is a good one. A customer/friend bought the actual single-book trilogy for me as a surprise and brought it by work. I read it in only a few days, and immediately went to purchase the next trio in the set. On the contrary, I have tried dozens of times to enjoy Mercedes Lackey's work and can't. Just... can't do it. My best friend adores her.

[nickg]

Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear. Book one of the Eternal Sky trilogy. Only the first book has been published, but it's my favorite of this year so far.

Also, her Edda of Burdens series consisting of All the Windracked Stars, By the Mountain Bound ( prequel ), and The Sea Thy Mistress. A post apocalyptic trilogy based on Norse mythology. Can't go wrong with that.

[nickg]

Going kind of YA with this, but definitely not a bad thing.

The Hero and the Crown

The Blue Sword both by Robin McKinley. Both have good female protagonists, and are very well written. Read both of them numerous times. They are also relatively short at under 300 pages.

[hirosum]

Sci Fi: Peter F. Hamilton quickly became my favorite sci fi author, if not my favorite author altogether. The first book I read by him is called "The Fallen Dragon." After that read I decided that I have to read everything he wrote and didn't touch another author until I was done with all his work.

It lead me to his absolute masterpiece: "The Nights Dawn Trilogy" consisting of "The Reality Dysfunction," "The Neutronium Alchemist," and "The Naked God"

The above trilogy is an epic space opera that tops out at nearly 4000 pages. It contains a ton of main characters with different story arcs that come together towards the end. A kick ass main character and a villain that makes your skin crawl. Now the author does use a lot of physics to explain how things work in space and at certain points I was like "I'll take your word for it Pete"

But he is incredible at creating worlds, creating species(there's one chapter in the book that details an entire evolutionary cycle of a particular species, and not just from them being bacteria that grew up, the guy starts with the formation of the Solar System of that species and how it facilitated the creation of those organisms over millions of years, very detailed).

I love all his books in general and like I said, he's my favorite author, but The Night's Dawn trilogy is his best work(although fans of the Commonwealth Universe books might disagree and they wouldn't be wrong, I love that compilation too)

Definitely agree. Haven't read the Night's Dawn Trilogy yet but I've read all the commonwealth saga (including misspent youth, which wasn't great but I still enjoyed because of tech background) and the void trilogy. I have reality dysfunction but its hard to find time to read these days.

The Dark Tower series is also amazing. Brilliant characters and story with a healthy dose of a good sci-fi/fantasy mix.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, hilarious situations and characters. Definite must read.

Has anyone else read Chris Bunch' dragonmaster series? I haven't read it in years so I can't really say much about it besides I liked it at the time, his Star Risk and Seer King series' I also enjoyed.

[Lady Tenar]

I'll add a few. I see Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series has been mentioned, but the Gifts/Voices/Powers trilogy is new and fantastic. The protagonists are young, navigating a world where tribal and slave owning societies sit uncomfortably close to democracies.

Laurie Marks' Elemental Logic series is unfinished, but I love the first three books. "How are we going to rebuild a society and live together after this whole mess?" seems to be the question she's trying to answer in the series. Includes one of the best families I've ever seen develop by choice in a fantasy series. Awful things happen to her characters, but they're balanced with a lot of successful attempts at love.

Another series with a great family-by-choice is Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint & Privelege of the Sword. Game of Thrones writ small and intimate, with wonderful sarcastic, self-destructive characters.

I also love Lev Grossman's unfinished series beginning with The Magician and The Magician King. Gen X goes to Narnia. Dirty Harry. (Potter.) Derivative in a good way.

Derivative in the best way is Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - currently a standalone followed by the short stories in The Ladies of Grace Adieu, but I hope and pray for a sequel. Really the best take anyone's had on what English magic looks and feels like. (Tolkien's magic was much more Norse.)

[RedEyedGhost]

Thunderer and Gears of the City by Felix Gilman: This is a highly imaginative duology set in the CITY of Ararat. Wonderful characters, intriguing plot, and dream-like prose. What more could you want in a book? Here's what I wrote after reading each of them

Thunderer

Great book. I have a really hard time classifying this book: it's very epic in scope, but wouldn't qualify as what most people consider "epic fantasy", while there is enough to classify it as secondary world fantasy it may just be a different manifestation of our own world, it also has strong elements of steampunk - so, I guess the best way to describe it would be as it is described on the front cover "A Novel of High Fantasy". This is a quite vague classification, but it works, as does the wonderful mishmash of styles. If you read my other comments you may be surprised that I enjoyed this so much considering Felix sites Viriconium as a major influence, and that was very recognizable throughout the book (I also got a strong Perdido Street Station vibe). I've been pretty verbal in my loathing of Viriconium, and while they share some of the same themes, I think Thunderer succeeds where Viriconium fails miserably - character development, plotting, and coherence. In Viriconium's defense (... omg I can't believe I just typed that) Thunderer tells just one tale, and not even all of that, where Viriconium attempted to tell several. It's not the best novel I've read this year, but it's definitely in the top 10. I realize this is just a rambling mess, but Viriconium gives me involuntary diarrhea of the mouth (or fingers as the case may be).

Now I should probably talk a little bit about Thunderer The story has three main POVs: Arjun - a foreigner that comes to Ararat a city of gods to search for his god that has gone absent from his home far in the south, Jack - a 15 year old boy that, while breaking out of the workhouse he has been trapped in, harnesses the power of a god, and Arlandes - the captain of the Thunderer, an airship that harnessed the same power that Jack did. In the massive city of Ararat (with all of its infinite possibilities) this tale focuses on the Countess Ilona's small corner as a god becomes corrupted, and as the Countess becomes mad with the power of the Thunderer.

It wasn't a perfect book, and in particular I wish that the corrupted god had been portrayed in a more menacing manner, and the pacing could have been a bit more even.

Gears of the City

It's my favorite book of the year thus far. It was just an amazing book, and as much as I loved The Half-Made World this is now my favorite book by Gilman. It has great characters, an absolutely amazingly detailed atmosphere, very interesting plot, and the ending was just perfect. I preferred it quite a bit to the first half of the duology, Thunderer, because the plot threads and POVs wove together much more tightly. I doubt I'll read a more enjoyable book this year, but I'll count myself very, very lucky if I do.

Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet by Gregory Frost; really just one book split into two, but it does break at a logically point so I can't complain about that too much. It tells the tale of a puppeteer gaining fame and companions as she travels across the magnificent world of Shadowbridge. The prose is lovely as are the stories that they tell as they perform.

[Howling Mad]

The first fantasy series I ever read Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony. The premise of the series is that a person ascends to a supernatural office (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, Good, Night) and has to administer the office. Ask youself, what would happen if death went on strike? The series was written in the 80's so there should be plenty of used books out there. I didn't know PA added an 8th book in 2007, until I went to the wiki to copy the booklist. Glad I looked it up.

• 1 On a Pale Horse (1983)
  
• 2 Bearing an Hourglass (1984)
  
• 3 With a Tangled Skein (1985)
  
• 4 Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
  
• 5 Being a Green Mother (1987)
  
• 6 For Love of Evil (1988)
  
• 7 And Eternity (1990)
  
• 8 Under a Velvet Cloak (2007)
  

[Stenbuck]

Wow, lots of well read people here, will definetly have to try many of these out :D

Just to add my 2 cents, I can recommend The Dark Tower series; I really love books 1-4 (3 especially, just like ASOIAF) and books 5-6 are decent (haven't read 7 just yet due to widespread criticism).

I'd also recommend the Artemis Fowl series, which despite being quite simplistic, is a pretty fun read nonetheless. Just don't expect to get your mind blown.

However, the real reason I posted here is that to note I was glad nobody posted His Dark Materials. I remember reading this series as a child (about 10 years old), being quite engrossed in books 1 and 2 and just thoroughly hating book 3. I gave it a second chance when I was about 19 and found exactly the same thing, except this time I could see why it was so bad. Pullman just takes a very promising story and takes a giant shit all over it, pardon my language, and forgive me if you liked the book. It is filled with horribly, horribly contrived situations, author filibusters, ridiculous plot devices (seriously, there's a moment in the story we're introduced to machine that can do literally anything at all - which is then used to move a character from point A to point B and break instantly after that, which just screams laziness and lack of respect to the reader so hard I felt ill), clichéd dialogue, and worst of all, the destruction of all the interesting elements introduced in the previous books. The main girl, Lyra, goes from being an interesting free-thinking rogue to an extremely lazily written, apathetic, boring love interest/Eve metaphor or whatever. Seriously, most of the book reads like a horribly corny pamphlet for the author's views, very different from the pointed criticism found in previous books. In case it isn't apparent, big no-no from me. If you want, read books 1 and 2, they are quite interesting, but book 3 just shows such a lack of respect for the reader that the author deserves to be shat upon. Again, please forgive me if you like the book, but I don't think I've ever been this offended by a bunch of paper before.

[ogarrr]

Pullman just takes a very promising story and takes a giant shit all over it

FIrstly: woo first post!

Secondly: Stenbuck you are so wrong. Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' is a work of utter genius and muct be read by absolutely everyone. The themes and connotations behind the book are incredibly interesting and the series is perhaps one of the best I have ever read. I would go as far as to say that they are literature not fiction, worthy of being studied at university and beyond. To say that the author deserves to be shat on is like comparing Pullman to Meyers and that is something that should never be done. The great Christopher Hitchens himself said in one of his essays that he approved of Harry Potter only because it might lead children to read Pullman's fantastic series.

I recommend that they graduate to Philip Pullman, whose daemon scheme is finer than any patronus.

The Mortal Engines quartet written by Philip Reeve is also a must read, the Americans call it 'the hungry cities chronicle' although Reeve himself dislikes that title. The books themselves are very well written and the idea behind them is awesome; moving cities that capture and destroy other moving cities on a vast wasteland in the future, with factions that dislike the whole moving cities idea, a journalist who's a dick, a group of lost boy types and weapons of ultimate doom. Shenanigans ensue. Worth picking up and having a go.

For lighter reading I've always liked a bit of Trudi Canavan, and although she's not in the league of Pullman (probably one of the greatest writers of this day and age) or Reeve her books are good fun.

The Abhorsen trilogy is quite good and has already been mentioned, Garth Nix is a writer worth looking into.

I did read Terry Goodkind's 'Sword of Truth' series, and give you guys the advice to not touch it.

Darren Shan's vampire series is always worth picking up, although perhaps more for younger readers. I loved it when I was younger, and it helped to get me into the world of fantasy. Picked up the books again recently and I still enjoy them. His demonata series is also very good.

For those interested in historical fiction you should read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

[nickg]

The Tower and Knife series by Mazarkis Williams.

The Emperors Knife was another excellent debut from Nightshade last year ( probably my favorite after Gods War ). It has a compelling plot, great characterization and prose, an intriguing ( but vaguely described ) magic system, and some well done intrigue/politics. What worldbuilding there is works well, and there are intriguing hints at more but book is a bit short for too much to be covered in great detail.

The next book, Knife Sworn, is out in November.