Favorite book series

[Kahunaburger]

Book of the New Sun for me, although I'm also a huge fan of the Latro books. Gene Wolfe FTW, basically.

 

[applesandoranges]

edit

 

[Aur0ra145]

Brotherhood of War series by W.E.B. Griffin.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy books just make my smile whenever I read them .

 

[Vladimir Stamenov]

Aiedail and TheSuperiorXemnas that's the funniest thing I've ever heard. Eragon's system is illogical. How can you heal internal injuries and be cost the same amount of energy when there;s more than one way to heal that? I suspect you haven't read Mistborn or Prince of Nothing. Now those are intriguing magic systems that work perfectly and logically, especially in Mistborn.

 

[Ytomyth]

Shadows of the Apt, picked up the first book in the series almost by accident a couple of years ago and now I can't get enough of it. It's a whole new style of fantasy for me outside of the boring elves, dwarves and orc-like creatures I've seen thus far.

 

[Slowpool]

The Dresden Files, hands down. The characters are flawed and capable of mistake, yet absolutely ooze life. The settings are so well described that you can see them in your mind's eye, as if you remember them first hand. And the narration makes me picture Harry sitting there, in some post series room, casually describing the best and worst moments of some of the worlds brightest and darkest days to me.

Also, Mouse.

 

[Puddleknock]

I loved the Millennium Series by Steig Larrson. Yeah there was a considerable hype surrounding them but I sat down to read them without knowing anything substantial concerning the books and really got into the series.

I've seen the Swedish films and they were are fairly good representation of the books, I wonder if the up coming US version will be to.

 

[Tokeism]

The Lord of the Rings

 

[Slowpool]

Eragon's magic system is by far the best in any fantasy story EVER, though.

Why? How does it work?

It all begins by the source of your magic. Some get help by potions, some can conjure spirits, some are sorcery, and Riders (Like Eragon) gain the ability to use magic when they form thier bond with the dragon.

Then the use of magic is based on your knowledge of the ancient language (The elven tongue where everything has a "True Name") So the more knowledge you have of the language, the better capability you will have to use it.
There are some exceptions to this as it is possible to cast magic without knowing the "True Name" of an object, but it is incredibly difficult and must have perfect concentration of the task at hand.

The laws of magic are then that ANYTHING that you do with magic, will take the equal amount of energy needed if you perfromed the tast physical and/or mentally. Do a task you are too weak to perform or an impossible task (Like riasing the dead for instance) and you die.

I can't remember all the details, it's been a year since I read it, but it is one of the most interesting ways of performing magic I have ever read.

The magic system in Eragon is a ripoff of True Name magic (fom D&D, Earthsea and I don't even know how many other books/settings) and Psionics (general psychic abilities; the mind probing, the telekinesis, the mind EVERYTHING). Also, despite what the books say, it does not take an equal amount of energy to accomplish something through magic as it does to do it physically-mentally. The more powerful a magician you are, the more you can accomplish- even Eragon could barely lift a pebble when he first tried. Either he's a flimsy bastard, or things don't work the way Paolini describes. There's nothing original or particularly intriguing about it, or the rest of the books.

That is not, of course, going to stop me from reading the last book, just to see how the mess ends.

 

[pearcinator]

The Jack West Jr. series by Matthew Reilly

Seven Ancient Wonders (7 Deadly Wonders in the USA)
Six Sacred Stones
Five Greatest Warriors

The Scarecrow series by Matthew Reilly is also awesome!

Ice Station
Area 7
Scarecrow
Hell Island (short book only in Australia)
Scarecrow Returns (recently released in Australia, will be released early next year in USA)

Yeah, in fact ALL of Matthew Reilly's books are nothing short of epic!

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Obviously I'm going to say the Discworld, Terry Pratchett's long into a serious case of Alzheimer's disease, unable to type or write, and he's still knocking out books better than 99% of 'serious' writers, in my opinion. (Which bugs me too, because he (a) mentions dragons and swords, he's written off by anyone into 'literature', and (b) that he's actually funny, he's not allowed the respect of being serious too.)

Admit to not really getting on with the Tiffany Aching books, but Snuff is a sterling return to form I think, and from a man who's tragically slowly losing him mind, it's amazing.

Aside from him, I guess it's not particularly a series, but I have a few books by Charlie Higson, formerly co-creator of the Fast Show among other comedy classics. Turns out he's a really good dark thriller author, and on top of that he's started writing for kids/teens, but he's not patronising about it. I'm currently reading the 2nd in his 'Dead' series, where something has wiped out all the over 14s in the world, except that some of them have come back to feed on the living.

Yes it's zombies again, but he really puts across the blend of fear and excitement, of having the world to yourself without rules, but the terror that could cause you as a kid whose lost every adult in their life.

 

[SirDeadly]

The Ranger's Apprentice series, eleven books at not a dull moment yet!

 

[Zhadramekel]

Harry Potter, Philip Pullman's Dark Materials when I was younger (Harry Potter still kinda applies now). But more recently than that probably the Women of the Otherworld series.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Since they are connected via a few reoccuring characters, I'm gunna say

Slaughterhouse five
Breakfast of Champions
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut

 

[DirgeNovak]

The Dexter novels are very good. I'm reading the newest one right now and love it.

 

[Barry93]

Hunger Games

 

[TheAceTheOne]

Discworld series by Terry Pratchett because they're insightful and fun to read and make me laugh no matter how many times I read them.

Seconded on that one, my friend!

Dresden Files are also tied in first.

Finally, the Dexter books... I don't know why, but they really appeal to me. Must be the sarcastic, intelligent writing style.

The Dexter novels are very good. I'm reading the newest one right now and love it.

You mean Double Dexter? Or is there another one that I missed?