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-   -   best sci-fi/fantasy series ever? NOT LOTR!!! (https://forum.dvdtalk.com/book-talk/366552-best-sci-fi-fantasy-series-ever-not-lotr.html)

atreyue 05-27-04 02:43 PM

best sci-fi/fantasy series ever? NOT LOTR!!!
 
I've run out of books to read and I'm looking for suggestions. Some of my favorites are:

The Gap Series (Stephen Donaldson)
Crown Of Stars Series (Kate Elliot)<------still one left to publish!

marka351 05-27-04 04:01 PM

I recomend "A Song of Fire and Ice" series by George R.R. Martin

ktrek 05-28-04 04:46 PM

I think the best fantasy series next to LOTR is Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. Mind you it is now at 12 books and still is not completed but they are a lot of fun.

littlefuzzy 05-28-04 07:11 PM

As I recall, the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov was voted best all-time sci-fi series (Hugo Awards, maybe?)

Joem 05-28-04 10:05 PM

Orson Scott Card and the Ender's Game series is great. L. ron's Mission Earth 10 book line is good. Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake is also great, though I'm not sure if you would classify it as scifi/fantasy (I would, but you might not). Have you tried any of these?

mgbfan 05-29-04 01:09 AM

If you haven't read them, Dan Simmons' Hyperion books are fantastic, especially the first two (which are really one book).

The second two are okay, but forgettable.

gusamo 05-29-04 10:41 AM

I recommend "The Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin and "A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen" series by Stephen Erikson.

leeta 05-29-04 07:47 PM

I've read a lot of fantasy... and enjoyed this series of books more than any other.


By Robin Hobb


Farseer Trilogy

Assassin's Apprentice
Royal Assassin
Assassin's Quest


The Tawny Man Trilogy

Fool's Errand
The Golden Fool
Fool's Fate

Beaver 05-29-04 09:33 PM

Another vote for George RR Martin A Song of Ice and Fire. Robin Hobb's series were good as well.

NZ_DVD_Freak 05-29-04 10:43 PM

I really enjoyed the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams. I don't see it mentioned much though? Has anyone else read this?

I actually emailed Tad Williams once I'd finished the series and he was kind enough to reply.

Michael Corvin 05-29-04 11:13 PM

sci-fi: gotta give love to the Zahn Star Wars trilogy. A great read every time.

fantasy: The Dark Tower series.

leeta 05-29-04 11:17 PM


Originally posted by Michael Corvin
sci-fi: gotta give love to the Zahn Star Wars trilogy. A great read every time.

fantasy: The Dark Tower series.

Agree on the Timothy Zahn SW trilogy...

Have you read any of the New Jedi Order books yet? They really change the SW universe. I'm on the last bookin the series, "The Unifying Force."

wendersfan 05-29-04 11:34 PM

Foundation.

Ephemeral_Life 05-30-04 03:48 PM

Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

n0fear88 05-30-04 06:44 PM

David Gemmell's Drenai Tales (kinda heroic fantasy :)) ACE!

mytzplyx 05-30-04 07:44 PM


Originally posted by Beaver
Another vote for George RR Martin A Song of Ice and Fire. Robin Hobb's series were good as well.

They are the knights of summer...and winter is coming...


HELL YEAH! Song of Ice and Fire.

MrBob 06-01-04 11:38 PM

I don't know weather to be happy or sad, as I have read virtually every one of the series listed. My favorites include Song of Fire and Ice and Hobb's Farseer Books. I have never read books so obssesvily as I did with the Farseer Books. Also for fans of ASOFI George wrote 2 novellas Hedge Knight, and The Sworn Sword, which take place about 100 years before those books.

Comments on other series:

Fiest's Riftwar Saga: Good stuff, but The Empire Trilogy Cowritten with Jainy Wurtis might be the best Trilogy I've read. But Read the Riftwar books first.

Card's Ender Quartet Ender's Game is one of the Must read books in the SciFi genre, with that said I rate it near the bottom of the whole series. After Ender's Game, there is a trilogy stating with Speaker for the Dead, that takes place in the distant future on the otherside of the Universe with Ender as an adult (it all involves light speed travel, read the book for specifics but it makes sense). This trilogy is different from EG, as it is much more cerebrel, and philosophical, and deeper. The first 2 books Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide are my favorites of the series.

Card also is writting another series invoving other characters from EG, starting with Shadow of the Hedgemon which is a retelling of Ender's Game from Bean's (who was Ender's right hand man) perspective. I liked this book better than EG. The next two books in this series involve Ender's Generals and how they take their place in the changing World. These 2 books are like high tech, espionage type novels, and so far they have been pretty good.

Tad Williams's Memory Sorrow And Thorn I had trouble getting into this series, and it took about 200 pages for me, but I'm glad I stuck it out as it turned out to be a great series. This is long long Trilogy I belive the first 2 books are around 700 pages, and the 3rd book is around 1600 pages. It was good stuff.

Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind Books in this series are very hit and miss. Some of the books are excellent, and others are just bad. Terry borrows a lot from Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks. However this series is very mature and not for kids as Goodkind seems to have a love affair graphic descriptions of perverse torcher scenes. Faith of the Fallen was my favorite books of the series and Goodkind went and pissed me off with the next book Pillars of Creation focusing on a new character, and not even involving the maincharacters until the last few pages. This just killed all of the momentum for me, and I haven't read anymore of the series since.

It's late, and I'll list more opinions on several other series later.

mikehunt 06-02-04 12:14 AM

Elizabeth Moon has a few good ones. I think Once a Hero is one of them in the series, can't remember for sure. But don't let my forgetting the name imply anything about the quality, they are good books

Kal-El 06-02-04 12:20 AM

My personal favorite of All Time has always been and probably will always be the Dragonlance Saga by Weis & Hickman.

msdmoney 06-02-04 03:52 AM

Another vote for A Song of Ice and Fire, although its still not finished.

After reading ASOIAF I tried reading Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule, About half way through I realized how boring and one-dimensional the characters were.

MrBob 06-02-04 10:32 AM

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams This 5 book Trilogy is ripe with Brittish Humor. It is a wacky series that is pretty damn funny, and pretty damn good. It starts out with a Girl who figures out the meaning of life, only to have the wolrd destroyed a second later by the Vogons, because it was in the way of their new Intergalactic Highway. You will follow the adventures of Aurthur dent as he travels through time and space. This series is well worth a read.

Well World Books by Jack L Chalker There are 9 books in this series and there are 3 different stories told in those books. Unfortunetly most of these books are out of print so you will probably have to hunt them down. This is a shame as these are excellent books that are highly original and very entertaining.

The premise is this, one species of aliens evolved into god like beings, and eventually they got bored so they created every othere species in the universe, and used them as a great experiement to see which species would evolve first. They created these beings on Well World, which is a giant computer that governs this experiment. The Aliens themselves they either died out or changed into a different species, but they left one man Nathan Brazil, to be the maintenece man for the experiment. Basically Brazil is immortal, and it is his job to reset the experiment if something goes wrong. Reseting the experiment invovles killing off every being recreating the universe. The lone exception is Well World which is outside the parameters of the experiment. Very good stuff

Early Starwars books The early Star Wars Books are really good. Especially Timothy Zahn's trilogy, which I belive Lucas should have made into movies instead of the prequels. The jedi Academy Trilogy, which is about Luke setting up a new jedi order, was a great read. I used to read these books regularly, but then they just exploded in number and I gave up on them.

What is great about these books is that they add much more depth to these popular characters. Also with the early ones, since the books were written one at a time, this allowed the author's to form a continuety with theirs books. You would find one author refrencing events from another author's book, if something happened to a character in one trilogy it happened to them in another author's trilogy.

Windhaven by George RR Martin and Lisa Turtle This book is really 3 novellas spanning the life of one person Maris of Amberly in a world of small islands distances away from each other. They communicate with each other by gliding on the wind currents with Metal wings. Due to the lack of metal wings on the planet only a select few can fly. The first novella is about Maris changing the world so that she and everybody can have a chance to fly. The second Novella takes place with an older Maris as she is helping with a new struggling flying school. The 3rd novella involves a old maris who nearly dies in a crash and has to cope with being grounded for the rest of her life. This is a great book, with a bittersweet ending.

Nighthawk 06-02-04 10:43 AM

The first few Anne McCaffery were entertaining. I agree, the first 3 dragonlance books were great. Then they turned it into a franchise and everything since then has been crap. I'm still hoping Robert Jordan will finish the series before he dies, but am caring less and less each book. Raymond Feist has turned out a few good ones. Tad Williams's Memory Sorrow And Thorn was also great. But I would have to agree with everyone who votes for A Song of Ice and Fire.

milo bloom 06-02-04 11:20 AM

I read the first book of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and had to force myself to finish that. Same with the first book of Tad William's Otherland series. I had high hopes for both after falling in love with Tailchaser's Song which I've read probably a dozen times.

Agree with Zahn SW trilogy, Hitchhiker's trilogy, Dragonriders of Pern.

And along the lines of Tailchaser's Song, Watership Down is a great read.

Kal-El 06-02-04 11:30 AM


Originally posted by mgbfan
He said "not LOTR," so I presume shameless LOTR rip-offs are also out. ;)
Meh, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. :)

resinrats 06-03-04 09:36 AM

I enjoyed the Tripods trilogy. "White Mountains", "City of Gold and Lead" & "Pool of Fire". Have read them multiple times since I was around 10. Would love to see them adapted to film.

tasha99 06-03-04 09:46 PM

I really liked Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Series:

Cordelia's Honor
The Warrior's Apprentice
The Vor Game
Brother's in Arms
Borders of Infinity (short stories that fit in somewhere)
Mirror Dance
Memory
Komarr
A Civil Campaign
Diplomatic Immunity

And Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy:

Dawn
Adult Rites
Imago

mllefoo 06-04-04 01:06 PM

Fun stuff:

World of Tiers - Philip Jose Farmer
Spellsinger - Alan Dean Foster
Flynx and Pip/Commonwealth - Alan Dean Foster

mllefoo 06-04-04 01:08 PM

Landover series by Terry Brooks is also good.

Lastblade 06-04-04 11:11 PM


Originally posted by marka351
I recomend "A Song of Fire and Ice" series by George R.R. Martin
This is the best I have read so far. And it is better than others by far (including LoTR).

MrKen 06-05-04 01:24 AM

I just started Speaker for the Dead, and I think I can already agree that the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card is one of the best, esp. if you are like the philisophical side of things.

I'd also agree with those who mentioned Feist, Martin, Williams, Jordan, and Goodkind. A lot of the comments were dead on IMHO. Goodkind is hit and miss. Feist was good, but I barely remember it.

Since this was supposed to be about the best ever, I'd say the first 4-5 books of Jordan's stuff are the best, but I wish he would have stopped shortly thereafter.

The only major series I've read that haven't been mentioned previously was Katherine Kerr's Deverry series, and the Drizzt stuff by Salvatore. I thoroughly enjoyed them both.

dettam 06-06-04 11:06 AM

Another vote for Stephen King's Dark Tower Series. However, The Wolves of Calla was kind of a letdown.

dettam

Mordred 06-07-04 03:51 PM


Originally posted by resinrats
I enjoyed the Tripods trilogy. "White Mountains", "City of Gold and Lead" & "Pool of Fire". Have read them multiple times since I was around 10. Would love to see them adapted to film.
I think Spielberg has repeatedly expressed interest in doing a Tripod movie. Not sure what exactly is happening on that front but I wouldn't be surprised if he did one in a few years.

Recca 06-10-04 02:24 PM

I've always been partial to Michael Moorcock's Elric saga. It's very dark and unconventional. It's often overloocked which is a shame.

Chim 06-13-04 12:52 PM

A Song of Ice and Fire, by far. I have also read all of the Farseer books by Robin Hobb and they are completely engaging

Fladnag 06-16-04 05:48 PM

Donaldson's Covenant Series...Brooks Shannara Series...Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow and Storm...

Deke Rivers 06-17-04 07:52 AM

Raymond Feist - The Riftwar Novels(Magician Apprentice, Magician Master, Silverthorn, and Darkeness at Sethanon)
Isaac Asimov- The Robot Novels (Caves Of Steel, Naked Sun, RObots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire)

Ginwen 06-17-04 03:33 PM

Not sure about best ever, but I've really enjoyed Isaac Asimov's Empire, Robot, Foundation series
Spoiler:
since it's really all just one series in the end
and the Ender series.

Xander 06-18-04 12:32 PM

Hmm...I'm going to have to branch out a bit. I started out liking Terry Goodkind a lot. Really loved the first three books. Liked the fourth one. And it was pretty much downhill from there. He seems to be suffering from Robert Jordan syndrome, in that all this ancillary bullshit keeps popping up that has little to do with the characters we really want to read about.

Speaking of Jordan, I totally agree with whomever said that nothing happened in the last book. We've had two books and only one major thing has happened between them. It's driving me crazy!

The Dragonlance novels are definitely hit or miss as well. There are six that I would consider outstanding: the Chronicles series (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning) and the other set I can't remember the name of (Legends, maybe?) but the books are about the twins, mainly. Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, Test of the Twins. Something like that. Great stuff, IMHO.

The Dark Tower has to be my favorite fantasy series. I really wasn't sure about things at the end of Wolves of the Calla, but I liked Song of Susannah a lot and can't wait for the last book. I also can't believe that it's been like 15 years since I read the Gunslinger! Longest...series...ever. But worth the wait, IMO.

X

GreenMonkey 06-19-04 02:37 AM

Just throwing in another BIG recommendation for Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy (but absorb the three Ship books in the middle before moving to Tawny Man). I would say they have become my favorite books at this point.

I personally have enjoyed Raymond Feist's riftwar novels (Especially Magician). The Empire trilogy co-authored with Janny Wurts is, and has remained, one of my absolute favorite trilogies ever. Think fantasy in a sort-of-Japanese-style Feudal empire. Great stuff..


Also, the Weis & Hickman Dragonlance novels are great (no promises for any of the other ones). They aren't LOTR ripoffs at all - the storyline is in NO way similiar. The story, although appearing to be typical, D&D derived fantasy, is really about the characters. Nothing like a good falling-into-darkness character story :D

Now, if you want to label something a LOTR ripoff, Terry Brooks' Sword of Shanarra - although I like Terry Brooks' stuff, Sword (his first novel) does share an awful lot of similiarities with LOTR.
Ditto with the [decent until book 6 or so], overrated Jordan books.


If you haven't ever read them, David Eddings's Belgariad & Mallorean is a good read - good fantasy with a sense of humor. Not "best", but a worthy read.

RA Salvatore's Dark Elf books are a good read. A favorite of mine, with some predictable tendencies, but good.

Dr. Mantle 06-21-04 12:50 AM

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

Originally published as four books:
The Shadow of the Torturer
The Claw of the Conciliator
The Sword of the Lictor
The Citadel of the Autarch

They are now collected as two:
Shadow and Claw
Sword and Citadel

Wolfe tells a great tale, but BotNS is really set apart by it's prose. It's a pretty simple thing to tell a reader what's happeneing, but it's quite another thing to make them feel it. The Book of the New Sun takes place so far in the future, that the sun is now a red giant and on the verge of dying. While reading it, the reader really gets a feeling of how timeworn the planet is. The very soil of Earth is decaying:

"I have no way of knowing how old those tunnels are. I suspect, though I can hardly say why, that they antedate the Citadel above them, ancient though it is. It comes to us from the very end of the age when the urge to flight, the outward urge that sought new suns not ours, remained, though the means to achieve that flight were sinking like dying fires. Remote as that time is, from which hardly one name is recalled, we still remember it. Before there must have been another time, a time of burrowing, of the creation of dark galleries, that is now utterly forgotten."


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