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What’s your all time favorite book series?


Mwm

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2 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

*blink*

Goodkind?

I didn’t a double take too...

 

shocking precisely no one, my favourite is also Realm of the Elderlings.

The Dagger and the Coin is also a good contender for me, as is the Broken Earth

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Despite its incomplete state, A Song of Ice and Fire. No other series has made me grow so attached to both its universe and the characters. The Wheel of Time came close, but it has diminished somewhat in my eyes in the last few years.

I've only read the Farseer Trilogy out of Hobb's books, and while it was great fantasy, there were moments when I felt she was too sadistic with Fitz.

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On 7/3/2018 at 6:17 PM, maarsen said:

One of my favourites also. And such an easy step to another of my favourites. Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey and Dr Maturin series. I wish I could rediscover both. 

So much on the O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin.  I don't know of another series that covers so much of the human experience through such a narrow window.  And he does it so breezily but with such weight and resonance.  Probably my favorite reading experience is reading O'Brian.  

Like people do this Myers-Briggs personality tests- really it should just be two percentages and they should be Aubrey-Maturin.

PG Wodehouse and the Jeeves/Wooster novels are also right there.  Guess I have a thing for British buddy books.  

Cynthia Voight's Kingdom series is awesome and would be high on my list.

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Difficult one. In SF, Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy and Stephen Donaldson's Gap series are up there, along with Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. In fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books and Jack Vance's Dying Earth and Lyonesse series. ASoIaF, of course. JV Jones' Sword of Shadows and Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars are up there. Acts of CaineWheel of Time warts and all.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series may have to take the #1 slot for its impressive tonal variation over the course of the series, its fantastic dialogue and characters, and the way you can see the characters grow over many books.

12 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

*blink*

Goodkind?

Well, his writing has given many people on this board great pleasure for over a decade, so from a certain point of view that could be seen as true.

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13 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

*blink*

Goodkind?

Have I spelled it correctly? :D 

He is one of those that I have swallowed in the years of my fantasy-book-series phase. 

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On 7/7/2018 at 4:20 AM, larrytheimp said:

Like people do this Myers-Briggs personality tests- really it should just be two percentages and they should be Aubrey-Maturin.

PG Wodehouse and the Jeeves/Wooster novels are also right there.  Guess I have a thing for British buddy books. 

Some should (probably someone already has) design a personality test to establish to which percentage you are Jeeves, Bertie, Aunt Agatha, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Honoria Glossop or Barmy Fotheringay-Fipps

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Iain M. Banks' Culture series is probably my favourite  'pure' science fiction series, though the books vary in quality a lot (I think The Player Of Games, Use of Weapons and Look to Windward are the best, and that Matter and Excession are -- by some distance -- the worst, for what it's worth).  Much more of a single shared setting than a series with recurring characters and plots though.

The same caveat applies to my second favourite science fiction series, C. J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union setting.  This includes not only the relatively near-future space opera of Cyteen and Downbelow Station but also the Morgaine books (starting with Gate of Ivrel) which I guess are more in the science fantasy genre.

In the same science fantasy vein I really like Gene Wolfe's Solar Cycle.  My favourite sub-cycle is The Book of the Long Sun but I think the general critical consensus is that this is the weakest bit.

Among (completed) fantasy series, my favourites include China Miéville's Bas-Lag / New Crobuzon books, Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, particularly the run between Moving Pictures and Jingo.

Outside speculative fiction, I like Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books (particularly the short run from Have His Carcase up to Gaudy Night) and Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time (though I think the last book, Hearing Secret Harmonies, is not so good).

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15 minutes ago, Plessiez said:

In the same science fantasy vein I really like Gene Wolfe's Solar Cycle.  My favourite sub-cycle is The Book of the Long Sun but I think the general critical consensus is that this is the weakest bit.

The Solar Cycle would be my pick as well. I probably gravitate more to New Sun, but I really, really love Long Sun, too. There's just something about Patera Silk that speaks to me for some reason.

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Pern. Not the stuff after Anne though.  That stuff is drivel and terrifying 

If we're talking favorites, and not best, then I do enjoy Turtledove's Timeline 191 series.  Also Mccullough's Masters of Rome.  ASOIAF is a given.

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Well, the song of ice and fire obviously.

Apart from that I've found myself to be oddly fond of Nesbo's Harry Hole series. It gets a bit easy to predict (admittedly), and it's no high class literature, but those are fun books (and not as demanding as AOIAF), if you just have to kill some time on the train or while relaxing in the sun.

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1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

Nice to see love for Crown of Stars. I didn't think anyone here read that.

Are they good? Been meaning to try them, but heard negative things.

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15 hours ago, Jo498 said:

Some should (probably someone already has) design a personality test to establish to which percentage you are Jeeves, Bertie, Aunt Agatha, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Honoria Glossop or Barmy Fotheringay-Fipps

Or Roderick Spode.

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18 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

Or Roderick Spode.

I think I'd test our as Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright.

11 hours ago, Plessiez said:

Iain M. Banks' Culture series is probably my favourite  'pure' science fiction series, though the books vary in quality a lot (I think The Player Of Games, Use of Weapons and Look to Windward are the best, and that Matter and Excession are -- by some distance -- the worst, for what it's worth).  Much more of a single shared setting than a series with recurring characters and plots though.

The same caveat applies to my second favourite science fiction series, C. J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union setting.  This includes not only the relatively near-future space opera of Cyteen and Downbelow Station but also the Morgaine books (starting with Gate of Ivrel) which I guess are more in the science fantasy genre.

In the same science fantasy vein I really like Gene Wolfe's Solar Cycle.  My favourite sub-cycle is The Book of the Long Sun but I think the general critical consensus is that this is the weakest bit.

Among (completed) fantasy series, my favourites include China Miéville's Bas-Lag / New Crobuzon books, Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, particularly the run between Moving Pictures and Jingo.

Outside speculative fiction, I like Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey books (particularly the short run from Have His Carcase up to Gaudy Night) and Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time (though I think the last book, Hearing Secret Harmonies, is not so good).

Good call on Bas-Lag and also on Wolfe, although I have only read through Urth of the New Sun.  

Not sure if McCarthy's border trilogy counts but I really liked Cities of the Plain.

Bakker's Prince of Nothing  is something I've reread a couple times so I should probably mention it.  

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On 7/7/2018 at 12:05 AM, Risto said:

Well, someone really has to say "A song of ice and fire" :D There is just something wonderful about characters that I find uniquely captivating. It's not perfect but I truly love it. 

My childhood years belong to Tolkien, Lewis and Rowling, I have a special place in my heart for "Wheel of Time" due to numerous people around me loving it. Prattchet's Discworld remains one of the best fantasy things I have read and King, Erikson, Sanderson, Abercrombie, Lukyanenko and Goodkind are among favorites. 

Man, you really have a LOT of favourite series and authors. :lol: 

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