Your favorite book/book series?

[Xpwn3ntial]

I'd have to say Foundation is my favorite books series. It set up quite a lot of science fiction concepts that are still (and somewhat increasingly) used today.

Though my favorite book is probably The Fall of Reach. It's like Ender's Game, but hardcore.

 

[Adept Mechanicus]

Neuromancer, Slaughterhouse 5, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[404notfound]

Any book by Bernard Cornwell, but in particular the Saxon stories. Historical fiction for the win!

This, except for me the Sharpe series in particular instead of Saxon

 

[Guffe]

I've liked the books I've read about LiverpoolFC so far.
Also Count of Monte Cristo is a very good book or series depending on in which format you buy it.

 

[Smiley Face]

Damn, these ones are always hard. So many good series - A Song of Ice and Fire, Kingkiller Chronicles, Dresden Files, and those are only ones I've read recently. I'll have to get around to comparing them to Rowling and Pratchett some time.

At the moment, however, I'd have to pick Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastard Sequence. It may not quite have the political intrigue of ASOIAF, the prose of Kingkiller, or the intriguingly modernized mythos of Dresden, but what sets it apart is that it has thieves and con men as protagonists, with the wit, ballsyness, and healthy appetite for revenge that entails. And crime. Ingenious crime.

I can't fucking wait for Republic of Thieves, whenever it's coming out (Hopefully it won't get pushed back AGAIN).

 

[Skeith2005]

Favorite Book: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Favorite Series: The Belgariad by David Eddings

 

[ninjaRiv]

I'm a slow reader so there's a lot I haven't read. I need to read the Witcher books, the rest of the Ice and Fire series, Philip K Dick's books, the Splinter Cell books, and a whole bunch of others (Hunter S. Thompsons work keeps getting pushed back for some reason).

But right now, I'd say... Ubik.

 

[kyuzo3567]

Every single answer I would have given has already been ninja'd by the end of page 1... So ill go with the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. So far it hasn't been Ninja'd as I've seen but I don't like repeating things that other people have posted

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Absolutely loved Kingkiller Chronicle. Can't wait for Book 3, though I have serious reservations about it. Up until the end of Wise Man's Fear, Kvote was still only 17-18 years old. We know he's about 28 years old in the present. The first two books together accounted for only about 4ish years, and there're still at least 10 years to go, including his business with the academy, how he got the name Kingkiller...so much more. I don't see how Rothfuss could include it in one book; I would rather he made it 4 or 5 (and I'd buy every one of them!) instead of trying to tell too much and skipping over the detail in one.

Other cool news I learned about Patrick Rothfuss....he's going to be involved in the writing of Torment. That's write, the Kickstarter record-shattering title I already backed because of how incredible it is going to be, has an equally incredible fantasy novelist involved in writing it. If I could back that baby twice, I would've!

Anyway, as for favourites, Jennifer Fallon probably. Tide Lords series is probably my all time favourite, though I like her other series very much too. Like Fiona McIntosh a lot but didn't like her Valisar trilogy.

 

[Mr_Universal]

Favorite books series? the Discworld of course. Favorite book is a harder choice though, it´s not even one of the Discworld books/novels.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Out of curiosity what is your favorite book or book series? Personally current favorite would have to be the kingkiller chronicles, for so many reasons, but my personal favorite being the realism of the world itself.
So what about yours?

Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey is my absoulute favorite book series ever. Sadly, it has ended, but Jacqueline Carey's other books are good too. I highly recommend Kushiel's Dart (book 1) to anyone.

Other series' in my top 3 include:

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (who has been mentioned already in this thread).

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold (the most award winning sci-fi/fantasy author of all time).

 

[Smiley Face]

Other cool news I learned about Patrick Rothfuss....he's going to be involved in the writing of Torment. That's write, the Kickstarter record-shattering title I already backed because of how incredible it is going to be, has an equally incredible fantasy novelist involved in writing it. If I could back that baby twice, I would've!

WHAT? Dammit, this is one of those days where I fucking hate linear time. December 2014.... graaagh...

 

[mayney93]

currently? on the last book of the 4 part world war series by harry turtledove, its quite good stuff, aliens invade during WW2, nazi's and jews fighting for a common cause, all that sorta stuff, it's plenty good reading, planning to read jeffery archer's kane and abel afterwards

 

[PunkRex]

These, by open sky tell me im not the only person who reads these!?!

 

[serious biscuit]

Favorite book, ahhh there is so many but Id have to say the top two have to be American Gods by Neil Gaiman and World War Z by Max Brooks. And favorite and the best bar none boo series has to go to The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy: A Trilogy In Five Part, by Douglas Adams.

 

[Newtonyd]

The Sword of Truth seres - can't really pick only one book out of it. A close second would be Sword Art Online, not the anime but the books, which are much better.

Would it be better to read the sword of truth series chronologically, or the order the books came out?

Do yourself a favor and don't read the Sword of Truth series at all. I've read the entire thing, and I can tell you it is the series I've most regretted reading. I continued to read it mostly because I kept getting them for my birthday from people who didn't know better, so I felt semi-obligated to continue.

If you must read it, read only the first 3 or 4 books. I'd hesitate at that, because the first few books might convince you that I'm wrong and that maybe the series is worth reading after all. After that, it turns into an extremely thinly veiled rant against socialism / communism, in which the socialists are an endless faceless army of serial rapists. Speaking of which, you'd better like reading rape and torture scenes, because rarely do a few chapters go by without some village or caravan being raped to death.

Anyway, the author's political motivations are ridiculously transparent. Just as an example, he has the main character drop what he's doing and get yanked, through plot construct, to the heart of the socialist empire, where he takes up a trade and then builds up an enormously successful business while showing everyone the limitless power of capitalism. This is an actual part of a book series that was previously all about beheading villains and using magic to fight satanists.

The last book of the series is literally just a bunch of pseudo discussions about socialism being a soul-crushing system, with the socialists essentially throwing up strawman arguments for the capitalists to demolish. The ending is a ridiculous hole to sweep the remainder of the plot into. At this point, it's not even offensive. Just lazy and uninspired.

Also, the socialists enslave and demonstratably out-evil the satanists.

Just WTF.

TL;DR Don't read it.

On topic, for fantasy, most recently I enjoyed Tigana, Way of Kings, and Book of the Long Sun. For more science-fiction stuff, I loved Neuromancer and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. These are just the books I've read most recently, I'm sure I could dredge up more favorites.

 

[The Night Angel]

Few people have already beaten me to it, but 'The Night Angel' trilogy.... little bit of a hint in my username I guess...

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Damn, these ones are always hard. So many good series - A Song of Ice and Fire, Kingkiller Chronicles, Dresden Files, and those are only ones I've read recently. I'll have to get around to comparing them to Rowling and Pratchett some time.

At the moment, however, I'd have to pick Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastard Sequence. It may not quite have the political intrigue of ASOIAF, the prose of Kingkiller, or the intriguingly modernized mythos of Dresden, but what sets it apart is that it has thieves and con men as protagonists, with the wit, ballsyness, and healthy appetite for revenge that entails. And crime. Ingenious crime.

I can't fucking wait for Republic of Thieves, whenever it's coming out (Hopefully it won't get pushed back AGAIN).

If you like Martin and Lynch you should check out Abercrombie.

If I could put the three stand alone novels set in the same universe and starring many of the same characters in with the trilogy, I'd put Abercrombie's "First Law" series in first place, followed closely by ASoIaF and the Kingkiller Chronicles.

Dresden Files are fun, but they're more of a guilty pleasure than great literature.

 

[luke10123]

The 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman - an absolute masterclass in storytelling (although we can all agree the most recent movie adaptation sucked ass (Getting the name of the first book wrong was probably a sign of things to come))
But yeah 'Northern Lights', 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass' are all absolutely wonderful books
('Marzipan' gets me every time...)

 

[SckizoBoy]

I guess you're right. It's less a series and more of a shared setting, I suppose. While we're on the topic, what did you think of Tides of War? I found it to be pretty lackluster compared to his other ones. It just seemed to be too wide and complex an event for it to be put down into a single book, and it left me confused in places. Furthermore, he went just a tad crazy with the narrations. I believe it was a narrator narrating a narrator who was narrating the narrator of the whole story, or something to that degree. It felt less focused than Gates, Virtues or even Amazons.

To be fair, it is sequential, after a fashion (Gates - Graeco-Persian Wars, Tides - Peloponnesian Wars & Virtues - Conquests of Alexander), but since it's of the historical fiction (the proper sort, that is) ilk, I just call them 'the Pressfield Antiquities' for want of a better description.

Anyway, the whole narration of Tides did my head in from time to time, because it goes from vet storytelling to his grandson, and somehow winds up with Alcibiades. And I think you summed it up in one: unfocused. Gates was pure poetic brilliance, and IMO the best of the lot, and Virtues, while well-written, I thought the story was a bit... wrong, perhaps because of my own mental image of Alexander the Great. Though I haven't read Amazons.