Put down another vote for the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. I sure hope Martin finishes it in a timely manner. It's unpredictable, realistic, and gritty, major characters die, there are "bad guys" that you fall in love with, every character develops quite a bit of complexity and depth... there are no one dimensional bad guys (or good guys) in this series. It's very mature and graphic as well.

Brian

Dune
Austin

A lot of good recommendations so far:

Song of Ice and Fire is absolutely phenomenal. Hands down, the best fantasy I've ever read.

Robin Hobb is decent. In some ways, she's more depressing than George R.R. Martin, and the books drag sometimes. In the end, though, they are worth the read.

Tad Williams is very dense. It takes a lot of work to get through his stuff, but I enjoyed both of the series I've read from him -- Otherland and Memory, Sorrow & Thorn. His latest work, The War of Flowers, is just a single book, but it's a big book -- it's sitting on my shelf, but I'm still working my way through Erikson

Steven Erikson wrote The Malazan Book of the Dead. Another extremely dense and confusing book, but I'm enjoying it. I think he's written about 5 volumes, but only the first is available in the U.S.

Terry Goodkind sucks. Big time. Stay very far away. His first book includes a 100 page sequence where the main character gets kidnapped and tortured with S&M sex games that is thoroughly superfluous to the plot. There's also a sequence in which the people of the hero's home village outlaw fire. Yes, you read that right. Stay away from these books.

Robert Jordan was great once. While I disagree that nothing happens after Book 6, it's clear that the best books are the first 6, and the subsequent books do not live up to their potential.

Dragonlance is good. The Chronicles (the first Trilogy) is somewhat derrivative of Tolkien, but has some orriginality. The second trilogy (Legends) focuses on a few of the characters from the original trilogy, and is also spectacular. After that, it became a cash cow for TSR, and the quality becomes very hit and miss.

Others I'd recommend: Guy Gavriel Kay. He initially wrote a trilogy called The Fionavar Tapestry, which was a warmed over LotR/King Arthur story. OK, but nothing great. His next books, Tigana and A Song for Arbonne were more original, though they drew a lot on European history. Finally, his most recent books -- The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantine Mosaic, and Last Light of the Sun -- are blatant rip offs of European history (the legend of El Cid, Justinian's Byzantine Empire, and pre-Norman England, respectively), but they are beautifully written and absolutely worth reading.

Neil Gaiman is best known for his Sandman comics, but his prose is also very good. I recommend American Gods and Stardust.

Del Rey is re-releasing the works of Robert E. Howard. There's a COnan volume out, and a Solomon Kane volume is either forthcoming or recently released. You can't go wrong with the classics.

Man, that was my favorite part of the series.


Everyone's already mentioned most of my favorites: Hobb, Martin and Wolfe.

An author that hasn't been mentioned is Glen Cook, who wrote the Black Company novels, which follows a band of professional mercenaries who are not what you would call the Good Guys. Somewhat dark stuff, but he does have a good sense of humor.

The Discworld books by Terry Pratchett
If you loved Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, you'll love Discworld.

The Stainless Steel Rat books by Harry Harrison
The later books lack the fun, but the early ones are da bomb.

Yay! These are my favorites! I'm reading them again actually. I just follow the seven core books. The chronicles (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, and Spring Dawning), the Legend series (Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, and Test of the Twins) and Dragons of Summer Flame. I never get tired of these books!

I would recommend:

The Song of Ice and Fire by Goerge R.R. Martin my favorite series

A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson second favorite series, might be my favorite soon if Martin doesn't hurry up.

The Dark Tower series great stuff

Yeah, those are the only ones I ever bothered reading, too. I might have to re-read that series again soon... it's been 8 or 9 years. Don't they have a new trilogy out now that takes place after Summer Flame?

I love these:

Dragonlance by Weis & Hickman (Legend of Huma is great also)
Song of Ice and Fire (just started but loving it)
Wheel of Time (on book 3)

Will read:

Robin Hobb's books
The Dark Tower

The new trilogy (War of Souls) takes place after all the fifth age stuff, which was what Summer originally set up. Many fans felt fifth age ruined DL, both as a book series and game world. Sine they were planning to rerelease DL into the gaming world with the new DnD rules, the War of Souls books kind of takes the world back more to its roots.

As for the books themselves, they are OK, good and bad parts here and there.

And everyone is entitled to their opinion. Books, like movies, music, and anything else, mean different things to different people. Whether it is purely for entertainment, or because a book strikes a cord with us, we will all have our own opinions as to what is the "best" (for us). For some it will be sci-fi, others will argue for "pure science fiction" and more still will stick with fantasy. Different strokes ...

That said, currently I'd say my favorite is the Dark Tower books.

Yep. That's all you need. Gene Wolfe has been called the best living writer in the English language. Best thing about Gene is that he never releases a book in a series unless they're all done! No waiting years inbetween books.

Some of Guy Gavriel Kay's stuff is good, especially Tigana.

R.A. Salvatore's dark elf series.

Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series (sci-fi)

This is a neat thread and there have been many titles listed here that are really great series. And since my opinion is as good as anyone else's here is a list of my favorites.

"The Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin

The "Shannara" series by Terry Brooks and most anything else he has written.

The "Enders" series by O. S. Card

The "Dark Tower" series by Stephen King one of the best story tellers of all time

The "Earthsea" series by Le Guin

The "Darkover" series by Zimmer-Bradley

And here is one that goes back aways but I've been thinking I need to dig them up again to re-read them:

The "Horse-Clan" series by Robert Adams

Well thats my two cents in this poll.

Good post. Never read Adams ... I'll add it to my list.

Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials Trilogy:
- The Golden Compass
- The Subtle Knife
- The Amber Spyglass


one word: outstanding :thumbsup:

Overly presumptious?
 

<small></small>Methinks 'tis time to make this here beastie a "listings-only" thread and split off the contrary opinions/arguments/discussion etc: <A HREF="http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=372661" target="_blank">What *is* "the best"....? [companion thread]</a>

Although not a series and not quite fantasy, more mythology, Juilene Osborne-McKnight books are quite good. They are set in the time of and leading up to St Patrick in Ireland. Definitely, worth a read.

I know I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed the first Dune "prequel" trilogy (House Atreides/House Harkonnen/House Corrino). I certainly enjoyed them more than any of the Dune sequels by Herbert, although none of them can touch the original novel (still a masterpiece.)

I've always been partial to Asimov. The original Foundation trilogy, while a little silly at times (Golden Age science fiction), still holds up as a masterwork. But my favorite Asimovs have always been his robot short stories (in "I, Robot", "Robot Dreams", "Robot Visions", and elsewhere) as well as the Robot novels. I wasn't a fan of tying the Robot and Foundation universes together, but there you are.

I also enjoyed the first two books of "Hyperion", all the books in the "Ender" series except "Ender's Game" (I think Xenocide and Speaker For The Dead are infinitely superior), some of Pratchett's "Discworld", and Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" and "American Gods" which, while not part of a series, are two amazingly well-written fantasy novels.

Another nod to "A Song of Fire and Ice", although I haven't finished book two yet. I'm loving everything in it so far. Has anyone mentioned "The Chronicles of Narnia" yet? It's absolute religion to me. What about L'Engle's "Time Quartet"? Definitely worth a mention. And then there's gay porn!

re:
 

Neat thread. Many many great books mentioned in here.

I would like to add Spiderworld Saga by Colin Wilson.

ohhhh, so many good books, so little time =)

hmm, if it's not too late, I'd like to mention a few books.

I usually like to read for amusement, so it's not as classic for some of the books to follow, but I think they'll be worth some fun at least.

Robert Asprin "Myth" series, mentioned in another thread, but fun and light take on fantasy stereotypes and puns.

Christopher Stashaff "The Warlock in Spite of Himself" series, several other spinoffs, but pretty fun stuff, likes to use alot of word play too, also good with this is "Starship Troupers" -- about a band of actors and their adventures in space.

Spider Robinson "Callahan's Saloon" series, actually more fiction than fantasy, but uses fantasy elements in the stories, they're actually collection of short stories put together, but written pretty good IMO.

Piers Anthony "Bio of a Space Tyrant," "Incarnations of Immortality," "Battle Circle," and the first series of "Robot Adept" series. Different stuff, but bound to be something good in there, and you can find them all cheap at used bookshops or library sales.

Terry Pratchett "Discworld" series, takes a new spin on fantasy, his series are actually divided into many parts, "Nightwatch," "Witches," "Death," and the "Unseen University." Start with Mort and see how that goes if anything, or Small Gods which stands on its own because it's in the others section of the universe within the series.

Micheal W. Gear "Forbidden Borders," I'm hesitant to recommend this becasue of the bad reviews on Amazon, and also because it's been a long time since I've reread the series, but I liked it when I was 14 and 17, so, give it a try I suppose if you can find it cheap.

Hope some of these can help you out, or if you've read them before, sorry for the repeat recommendations. Not really more of the introspective, deep fantasy/sci-fi, but for fun reading type of material.

d'oh, sorry missed the remove opinions items in the posts above. Sorry.

My all-time fave is Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. They're out in one big volume now, so you don't have to worry about getting them in the right order.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Ender's Game series. The Shadow series is an entertaining read as well.

Both Anne Bishop trilogies are very good. The Black Jewels one I think is better and definitely worth reading.

Once there was a man who created a thread and immediately forgot all about it...

Actually, I just spent an amusing 45 minutes reading this and the companion thread, and I'd like to thank everyone for their suggestions. I was surprised that I forgot to laud Song of Ice and Fire, and that people either haven't read or don't like Kate Elliot.

I've never read any dragonlance books for one good reason:they are written by Weis & Hickman (yup I read the Death Gate Cycle). I'd have to say I generally agree with mgbfan, though. It causes me pain every time someone who never or barely reads the genre calls Harry Potter fantastic. I also remember how much I enjoyed Eddings' Belgariad as a 12 year old, and how little I enjoyed reading it again (or reading the Mallorean, talk about regurgitation) at 25.

The Dark Tower rocks, but that's partially because King has managed to tie it in with nearly every book he's ever written, a luxury most authors don't have before finishing their series.

Tad Williams' Otherland is great. Don't think Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn cut it though.

I'm appreciate the input, but Feist? On a "best of" list? :p At least there was no mention of L.E. Modesitt or Anne McCaffrey. Then someone would have to die!

Heh - even Pern would beat the snot out of some of what I saw listed here. And that ain't sayin much. Never read Modesitt ... probably never will. Agreed also on Eddings. Another set of books that don't hold up for a mature reader.

Since we seem to be talking mostly fantasy at the moment, what's your opinion on Bradley's Darkover?

Great thread! I'd been meaning to try some new sci-fi authors but didn't know where to start...

I agree that George R.R. Martin's books are hands down the best. I used to feel the same way when Robert Jordan's books first came out but they have totally lost their steam... at least the series will be ending soon!

My top 3 list would go like this
1. George Martin
2. Tad Williams
3. Robert Jordan(only for the first 5 books or so)

I tend to prefer darker books. I have read some great books that have not been mentioned here that I just cannot remember. I wish that publishers would reprint some older books. Several of my favourite fantasy authors are not available anymore. I really would prefer to see some great older stuff reprinted than a stack of David Drake books that will end up in the bargain bin for $1.50 a month after they come out.

I have just finished 2 of Steven Baxter's Manifold books, Space and Time. And now I'm going to start on the 3rd one orgin. Fasicinating Stuff, I haven't read any other books like these.

Adding Darkover to my list right now, mgbfan, thanks!

Nighthawk, if you like dark, there's almost no anti-hero writer better than Stephen R. Donaldson in sci-fi or fantasy.

I tried the Elric Saga, but got tired of all the side (read other incarnations or elric, etc, etc) stories.

And for the record, Terry Goodkind is fantasy's Ayn Rand meets Dr. Laura. Will he every give it a rest? Spring 2010, Wizard's 27th Rule: Stop Making Excuses and Stand Up For Yourself part 3:
Spoilers!!!!!!



and Terry Brooks' Shannara series is the most unoriginal ever.

omg, how many books are in that Darkover series? Looks like I'm going to have to pay my library fines...

I've only read a couple, but thought they were well done. Very dark.

I have to second Tad Williams' Otherland series. Don't let the sheer length of the volumes scare you away (4 books, averaging 700-800 pages each), the story really pulls you in and the characters make it one of the best series I have ever read.

then as soon as I can figure out the order of the books and find them, I'll get to reading. I once read a Heinlein (pseudo)series (one of the boooks is called "the Cat Who Walks Through Walls") that I found really enjoyable. Can't remember the name of it, if there was one. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, anything along those lines to recommend?

Also, there's only two in the series, but Russell's "The Sparrow" should certianly be on everyone's must-read list.

Actually…just about all Heinlein's works are part of a single gigantic "Future History" series that runs from about the turn of the 1900's to about 4000 years in the future. The series is ultimately tied together (sort of) in his novel "The Number of the Beast."

I suggest getting a copy of "The Past Through Tomorrow" which contains most of the short stories that formed the beginning of his "Future History" series. Find one with the timeline showing how stories and characters relate to each other.

I'd second Farmer's "World of the Tiers" series, and his River World series. However I must say, I've never read the River World stories, but a lot of people I know highly recommend them.

If you like humor and satire with your SF, I recommend Keith Laumer's "Retief" series about an intersteller diplomat.

I started reading the Wheel of Time several years ago, my favorite book/series EVER by far..freakin loved it. Got to book 7 A Crown of Swords, read them all straight through..I think it was wearing me down reading the same story for so long..and didn't think that one was as good as the others...the next book had just came out, bought it, but never read it..took a break and eventually the break was so long that I would have had to re-read through the rest to jog my memory on everything. I won't go back to them until every book is out, because I don't want to have to re-read the last book to remember what's going on. I really want to read the Mazalan and Song of Fire and Ice series, they sound great...but am going to wait until every book is out.

I'm reading the Goodkind books now. I wouldn't recommend starting them. I'm on Faith of the Fallen now. These are DECENT but not good enough. I actually prefer reading what's going on with the side characters more than the few main characters which I don't find interesting. Problem with this series is I think he'll be writing them FOREVER and it will never end. Each book is self contained then the start of the next book presents a new problem..so it can go on forever.. Don't think that's a good thing. I got a big pack of these books cheap and since I have them I'm going to read them(last one I have is the Pillars of Creation) and will probably quit after that..

Good thread all in all though I have some pretty strong disagreements with some folks here. :)

Jordan's Wheel of Time. It started out not-horrible but has degenerated into utter trash. All the males are the same character and all the females are the same second character. If I never read about a woman tugging on her braid again it will be too soon! If you enjoy it, more power to you, but I strongly recommend that if you have not yet read it DON'T! *IF* not when he ever actually finishes the series then look at whether you want to read it or not.

Hobb's assassin series, decently written but I had to force myself to finish. This is a series where I just hated the protagonist, and that's not pleasant reading.

George R.R.Martin - in my opinion the best written fantasy I have ever read, wonderful love all of it!

Ender's game by Card - my favorite book of all time. However, the followups: Speaker, Xenocide, Children I disliked and was rather bored to tears with. My only interest with them is how each book is a metaphor for one of the Wiggins.

David Gemmel - love his drenai series, decently written and VERY entertaining...highly recommend these!

Terry Brooks - Shannara series. The first one is awfully similar to lotr, but the series as a whole is pretty damn good!

You might like the second series then, as it takes place when Fitz is a lot older and wiser. In fact, he often reflects on the passion of youth and how it made him act impulsively sometimes. Older Fitz is a lot wiser for his errors in his youth.