Greatest Fantasy/Sci - Fi Series? (Books)

[jrhamilton]

First, I would recommend The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Both books are part of the Kingkiller Chronicle and are great books with excellent characters and story lines. Also, The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson is a personal favorite, it has a great story and a twist at the end that will make you want to pelt the author with s'mores. I would recommend the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks. Lastly, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. These are great authors and series that have kept me entertain for years.

oh year last one Glenn Cook's The Black Company series is amazing.

 

[jrhamilton]

David Gemmel is the man excellent recommendation.

 

[Mugen]

The Rigante series by David Gemmell. That, or his drenai series. Or his Troy series. Actually, just anything by David Gemmell.

wow i cant believe i forgot about the Rigante! i read the first one years ago.....thankyou! i will def finish those. Celtic warriors vs Roman legionaries + magic = so much win

David Gemmell was the first truly dark fantasy writer i was ever introduced too. do you happen to know the name of the book he wrote, i think it was standalone, about an invasion of bone monsters that couldn't be killed, had blades for arms? i LOVED that book

 

[Mugen]

First, I would recommend The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Both books are part of the Kingkiller Chronicle and are great books with excellent characters and story lines. Also, The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson is a personal favorite, it has a great story and a twist at the end that will make you want to pelt the author with s'mores. I would recommend the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks. Lastly, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. These are great authors and series that have kept me entertain for years.

oh year last one Glenn Cook's The Black Company series is amazing.

The Night Angel trilogy was epic, i finished those just a few weeks ago.

i dont know if you have played Skyrim, but in the theives guild they have an elite sect called the Nightingales, which i truly believe they blatantly plagiarized straight from Weeks.

Brandon Sanderson keeps popping up, ive only read his continuation of the Wheel Of Time series. might have to look into his original stuff

 

[Mugen]

The Rigante series by David Gemmell. That, or his drenai series. Or his Troy series. Actually, just anything by David Gemmell.

wow i cant believe i forgot about the Rigante! i read the first one years ago.....thankyou! i will def finish those. Celtic warriors vs Roman legionaries + magic = so much win

David Gemmell was the first truly dark fantasy writer i was ever introduced too. do you happen to know the name of the book he wrote, i think it was standalone, about an invasion of bone monsters that couldn't be killed, had blades for arms? i LOVED that book

Did the main character have a split personality? If so, then that would be Dark Moon.

hmm was too long ago. i will look into it, either way. i know he was rocking dual-swords? funny the things that say with you, i think i read at least a decade ago.

 

[Mugen]

Just want to say thank-you everyone, ive gotten some amazing ideas and allot of hours of reading ahead of me. i just got Temeraire, the first book in the His Majestys Dragons series, a book i would never have found if not for this thread. im only 2 chapters in, and loving it!

i have this thread bookmarked, and will be checking it regularly. I hope others find some great series to lose themselves in, so if you have a recommendation, speak up.

Keep it up, i may never have to go looking for a new book again!

 

[Olivia Faraday]

My favourite fantasy series is ASOIAF by George Martin which you've already put on your list, so I won't mention that. I also love anything by Robin Hobb, especially the extremely underrated Liveship books. You'd probably like the Mistbook trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, too. I think they're a bit overrated, but definitely worth the time spent on them regarldess.

Also, they're full of very intense female sexuality, which makes a lot of male readers uncomfortable, but I know a lot of dudes who loved the Kushiel novels by Jacqueline Carey as much as I did. They're dark and rich and elegant and brutal, a great combination of lush corrupt politics and harsh unforgiving warfare. Anyone who enjoyed the King's Landing storyline of ASOIAF more/as much as the North/Dany storylines would probably enjoy them. But yeah, be warned, there's a LOT of dark sexuality in them and a lot of men find them "girl books," though I don't think they're any more for girls than most fantasy is for boys.

 

[spartan231490]

I will suggest the only fantasy series I have ever suggested since I read it(unless that person has already read it): "The Sword of Truth" series, by Terry Goodkind. go to a library and read the first couple of chapters, if you don't like it, you're not out anything, but I very very much doubt that you won't like it, despite all the hate it gets on the internet. It's a fantastic series with great characters, and an amazing story. It's also very similar to Wheel of Time from your list.

 

[Henriot]

*I've read through this, so if I repeat what others have said, I apologise now.*

-Dan Simmons. People have mentioned Hyperion series (possibly my favourite series of all time), but his later series Illium is also pretty amazing. Imagine Homer's Illiad, but the gods are humans who just have superior technology... And there are robots... and alternate realities... (Hard to describe Simmons' plots)

-Roger Zelazny. The Amber Series is just amazing in terms of imagination, characters and the scope of it all. A guy wakes up, finds out he's a member of a royal family who can create worlds at their whim... Can't say much more.
Most of Zelzany is pretty awesome, actually. To name the standouts would be Wizard World (two books in one, Changeling and Madwand), Lord of Light and Jack of Shadows.

- Clive Barker. Mainly known for horror (and he's good at that), Weaveworld and his Imajica books are both incredible fantasy books. A world preserved in the threads of a carpet? Come on...
His Abarat series are also AMAZING, but only really if you have the hardcover copy with his paintings in it. Story of a girl who travels to a place (with a guy whose 7 brothers live in the antlers on his head) with 25 islands, each representing an hour of the day. At the island of Midnight lives the Carrion family, who want to wage war on the islands of the day... And yes, there is a 25th hour...

- Harry Harrison. Stainless Steel Rat! While not that heavy on the "science" part of the sci-fi, it is an awesome character driven series about a distant future where interstellar travel is possible, most worlds are law abiding... Except for Slippery Jim diGriz, a professional thief, con etc... Who never kills, which I think is a great restriction to have on a character. (Ok, yes, once or twice he kills someone, but he never WANTS to kill anyone...)

-Fritz Leiber. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. A big barbarian from the north with a big sword, a little guy, once apprentice to a wizard, with a little sword, adventuring...

- Robert E Howard. Has anyone mentioned Conan yet? I'm not a Conan-purist like some, but if you DO want to read the good Conan the Barbarian books, focus on the ones written JUST by Robert E Howard.

On the subject of old sword and sorcery...
- L. Sprague DeCamp and Fletcher Pratt. Together they wrote a series called the Magical Misadventures of Harold Shea... First book being The Incompleat Enchanter. The adventures of a guy who has figured out the mathematics of magic, so to speak, and with the right formula can transport himself to other worlds (first one he visits is a world based around Norse mythology). Bit of an antithesis to the idea of Conan, big burly guy solving problems with muscles, Harold Shea tries to solve things with logic, intellect... though he does have to fence to solve some problems.

-Julian May. Saga of the Exiles series is... well, initially set in the future, someone discovers a one-way gate to the Pliocene period, hoping to escape various things in the present. But when they get there, they find a race of human-like aliens have taken over the region, having been exiled themselves from their own galaxy.



Enjoy researching.

 

[RandV80]

I'm kind of surprised no one's mentioned it yet, but from what George R.R. Martin brought to the fantasy genre the #2 suggestion to read next has always been The Malazan Book of the Fallen (Steven Erikson) series. I think it's 10 books long, and finished.

I haven't read it myself yet, but am expecting I will add some of these to my collection this Christmas. Apparently the first few books start off a little slow, but by the 3rd or 4th book it really starts to take off.

 

[Zakarath]

I'm glad you've picked up Temeraire, awesome series .

I'd also STRONGLY recommend both of Jim Butcher's series, The Dresden Files and The Codex Alera. Dresden Files is about a wizard fighting supernatural crime in modern-day Chicago, and The Codex Alera is basically about a roman empire trying to survive on an alternate world full of wolf-men, yeti, elementals, and the Zerg. It's pretty awesome.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

I made a thread just like this the other day, so there's a bunch of recommendations there as well. Although, they're mostly the same thing as here, http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.331524-Book-Recommendations-You-know-the-things-with-words

I haven't read much so I can't really recommend anything, although I'm loving The Hunger Games. Although it's really short since it's a Young Adult book.

 

[Aisaku]

Once you're done with the big series if you like time travel stories, I wholeheartedly recommend "To say nothing of the dog" by Connie Willis. Victorian time travelling hijinks. It's a riot.

 

[pyers]

I really like pretty much everything from Brandon Sanderson, creator of The Mistborn Trilogy, Elantris, and he even finished the Wheel of time series.

"The Warded Man" and "The Lies of Locke Lamora" are two of the best books I have ever read.


"The old mans war" is a sci fi that is really good too.

 

[Kuranesno7]

sci-fi:
anything by William Gibson

Anything by Neal Stephenson

most stuff by Phillip k. Dick

I'm not sure because I haven't read his stuff, but I've heard good things about this English author named China mieville. His stuff is either urban fantasy, Steampunk, or Lovecraftian weird fiction, sometimes their all rolled into one.

 

[javelinstark]

i was gonna say a song of ice and fire but seeing as you have already read it try the eternal champion series. it can get super confusing at times but its worth while if you stick with it.

 

[Kesimir]

Ender's Game - Science Fiction novel about a boy genius with a knack for military strategy in three dimensions (the enemy gate is down) who gets enlisted into playing war games in preparation for an assumed impending attack by a mysterious alien species who devastated earth once and then mysteriously left. There is a whole series but I only read the first one. This is a classic and a must for anyone that considers themselves a purist in the science fiction genre.

The Once and Future King - One of my personal favorites, this is a very quirky and often anachronistic take on the King Arthur tale. This is not a series but one novel split into four shorter sub-novels the first of which, "Sword in the Stone" was the basis (loosely) for the Disney film of the same name. This is also the book Professor Xavier is teaching the class of X-Men at the end of that movie: the overarching theme of the book is what should be done by those with great power,i.e. "Does Might make Right?"

The Dark Tower - This is going to be a love it or hate it pick but I have to include it if no one else will. It is a seven tome series about the quest of the last gunslinger (and knight errant) Roland Deschain, to seek the eponymous Dark Tower in a post-apocalyptic western like setting. As the novels progress they explore themes of time travel, demons, cross dimensional interactions with the world of the author himself (Stephen King), robots, Nazis, mutants, witches, palantir like objects and just about everything else you can think of. He steals plotlines from Kurasawa movies and props from Harry Potter (used with deadly effect). After having read it I cannot decide whether it is the mark of genius or insanity.

 

[Polarity27]

I'd tell you my favorite fantasy series, but you'd probably hate it. The Kushiel's Legacy series (the first trilogy) by Jacqueline Carey. Yes, yes, it's about a prostitute for whom BDSM is a religious imperative, and there's a bunch of sex scenes, but that's not why I like it. Why I like it is that the characterization is great, she does a brilliant job making you understand all the characters (even, or perhaps especially, the villains), I love how her world is an askew version of ours, and it has some of the best fantasy theology I've ever seen. (I cannot, however, recommend the second or third trilogies. Phedre's books are amazing, the rest are very pale imitations.)

But on to something I think you'd actually like, my favorite SF series. The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Good action, great space opera, very interesting commentary on technology and its effects on an isolated civilization, at times absolutely hilarious and at other times incredibly tragic, and absolutely fantastic character development. I recommend it highly. You can start either with the first Miles Vorkosigan book, Warrior's Apprentice (free from Baen if you have an e-reader), or, which I recommend, start with the duology about his mother, Cordelia's Honor.

 

[Mordekaien]

The Witcher saga- go read it... seriously, it's awesome

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

Yup, that would be Dark Moon.

Indeed, it is a good book, I enjoyed david gemmells stuff as a whole.

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Though recently i read a series called mortal engines that i would recommend, its by phillip reeve and its about cities that roll around on giant tank tracks eating each other.

Its set in a post apocalyptic world(but a long time after), so its not 'aliens and spaceships' style sci-fi, more almost steampunk like i guess, in that some ways they're less advanced (eg. airships because no one knows how to do heavier than air flight) while more advanced in other ways due to 'old tech' which they manage to dig up.


It was a pretty good series. I enjoyed some of the tongue in cheek references to modern things, the world with its moving cities and alternate technology is novel and interesting and the story as a whole is a good read.