Best Fantasy/Sci Fi series you have read, or are reading?

[Rocksa]

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.

 

[fulano]

but i think anything by L Ron Hubbard, im not a scientologist!!!!

WHYYYYYYYY?!!

 

[cleverlymadeup]

hmm for me

lord of the rings by Tolkien
dragonlance chronicles and legends

would have enjoyed the avatar series more if friends hadn't ruined it for me

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea series (was a trilogy for the longest time, now five books total)
Naomi Novik's Temeraire series - Napoleonic Wars + Dragons = WIN
Not everyone can get into them, but any of Joanna Russ' books. Picnic on Paradise got a Hugo or a Nebula or something.
Virginia Hamilton, the Justice and Her Brothers series
Anything by Octavia Butler

 

[GyroCaptain]

Tolkein, Dur
Discworld, Dur Dur
Song of Ice and Fire, Pern, and Wheel of Time are all somewhat impenetrably written, but (mostly) rewarding.

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.

 

[crepesack]

lord of the rings for a serious fantasy
as for a comical fantasy i recomend ANY book by piers Anthony he is a comical genius and a bit of a pervert but they are great books

 

[crepesack]

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

 

[Higurashi]

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.

 

[crepesack]

michael crinchton is also a good author wrote the jurassic park series

 

[pieeater911]

Dune.

Nothing beats Dune.

 

[badassteaparty]

david gemmell's rigante series is excellent beyond any praise i am able to lavish upon it

 

[JMeganSnow]

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.

 

[Chasington]

Wow, a lot of love for song of ice and fire. Great series though.

To add

- Dark tower series by stephen king
- The Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card (AWESOME SERIES)

 

[Zaleznikel]

I loved the Hyperion series, by Dan Simmons, and I recommend (at least) the first book to anyone.

The first book is Hyperion, Second: The Fall of Hyperion, then Endymion and finally, the Rise of Endymion.

I liked the first one, second is my least favorite, and the last two were good, but very different.

Also, the Earthsea series is good, and so is the Ender's game series.

 

[blaze96]

I'm another of the Ender's Game faithful though I have only read the first and that was awhile ago I should get back to reading that series.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

In no real order:

Discworld
Dune
Dark Tower
Alastair Reynolds Revalation Space-universe

Oh, and for some reason I really enjoy Abnetts Gaunts Ghosts series. Dunno why. Guess I just like war and IG.

 

[BigKingBob]

The Drenai and Saga of Skilgannon books by David Gemmell are beyond good, let me explain...

You know when you read normal fantasy books (you know, orcs, elves, dwarves, big battles, bad guys etc) and it is billed as an epic saga with fanciful heroes. But when you read it you just get told about abstract numbers of troops fighting and a hero with a few special bits of kit that make him a killing machine.

These books tend to give you a bit too much detail and over analyse things, as a consequence you never feel part of the larger battles and the hero just seems a bit too powerful.

Well the drenai books manage to convey what these books wish they could. The heroes are tragic, believable and absorbing. The battles feel epic and you really get a feel of the human struggle going on. Despite this Gemmell manages to leave such mystery around the world and its characters and you get sucked in.

The series starts with "Legend" and features some of the most epic heroes you ever meet, i really recommend you check them out.

In a similar vein, if your a fan of 40k and find the books good but slightly lacking then I recommend the "Legacy of the Aldenata" series by John Ringo. Truly epic warfare.

 

[Jamash]

The Necroscope [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necroscope] Series by Brian Lumley.

I also really enjoyed his Cthulhu Cycle Deities novels, Titus Crow [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Crow] & a space-time-travelling inter-dimensional flying grandfather clock for the win!