Good Book series (I need suggestions)

First, some comments on books already mentioned:

Second on Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion. However, there's two more after that, isn't there? Endymion and...whatever. I hated those two. The first two are definitely worth reading. Consider stopping there.

Second on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I recently reread it (and it's a huge tome) and it was wonderful. Fans of Neil Gaiman's work (such as the aforementioned American Gods and Good Omens) ought to check it out.

I recently reread the Foundation series and it's still a good read. It's really dated, though, in a lot of ways.

Now, some suggestions I haven't seen:

Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents. I love Octavia Butler's work, and this is a rare achievement. Parable of the Sower was already a great book and didn't need a sequel, but years later Butler went and wrote one and it's worthwhile. Depressing and optimistic at the same time.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). Captivating reality-based science fiction about terraforming Mars. I wouldn't read them one right after another, as I got a little tired by the time Blue Mars is over. But they're great reads, and more than a little scary.

Mike Resnick's collected Kirinyaga stories, and the Oracle/Santiago/Soothsayer series. Kirinyaga is sci-fi fable-like stories, and all the stories are collected in one book and make a great story arc. Oracle is a terrific book, a little bit in the vein of Foundation but with a twist on that idea.

Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea series. Liked the TV version? Read the real thing, which is 1000x better. Read The Left Hand of Darkness and The Lathe of Heaven while you're at it.

Tad Williams' Otherworld series. Definitely the most detailed virtual reality saga. It's really overlong, though, and could be edited judiciously -- definitely another one to not read one after the other. But I'm glad I read them.

Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. Dedicated Babylon 5 weenie that I am, I picked up all the (real-life) Bester books when they were reprinted several years ago. They have nothing to do with B5, but they are astonishingly good science fiction.

Melissa Scott's Dreamships and Dreaming Metal. For most of her books, Melissa Scott creates a mix of intriguing (and typically clashing) social structures and technology, and then goes and creates a totally different world in her next book. Dreamships and Dreaming Metal are an exception, being sort-of sequels with mostly the same characters. These books are about AI. Burning Bright, another good one of hers, is (in a way) about online gaming.

Finally, the most astonishing book I've read lately is Susan R. Matthews' "An Exchange of Hostages". It's an examination of torture (but not torture-porn) in a sci-fi setting, and it's totally unsettling and yet totally captivating.
 
[quote name='wubb']If you're gonna do a CYOA book you gotta go with one of those that have you track hit points and inventory with a pencil. I mean you might as well geek out all the way right?

Lone Wolf FTW! http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Dark-Lone-Wolf-Book/dp/0425084361/[/quote]

Oh man Wubb -- I have almost all of those. I used to love them. There was even a better series though, that pre-dated this ... cant remember the name. And then there was Wizards and Warriors which predated that even :)

I would like to add to the recommend the Avatar Trilogy, Shadowdale, Tantras and Waterdeep -- very action packed and exciting books set in the Forgotten Realms universe.
 
[quote name='wubb']If you're gonna do a CYOA book you gotta go with one of those that have you track hit points and inventory with a pencil. I mean you might as well geek out all the way right?

Lone Wolf FTW! http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Dark-Lone-Wolf-Book/dp/0425084361/[/QUOTE]

Wow, I'm going to the 'rents to dig out those books. I had some of the original ones from the UK with different covers and content.
I didn't know they went past #16, you should see those prices on Ebay.

Oh, about Dune, did I read right that they finally got back to the main series and finished it? Is it really over?
 
My favorite series of all time is the Bourne Trilogy (Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum) by Robert Ludlum. I cant even count the number of times I've read this series and the story telling is 10x better than the movies (completely different too, so you wont know what happens).

I also liked the Rogue Squadron series (multiple authors) and the original Thrawn series by Timothy Zhan (which I'm sure youve read).
 
Lemme toss out the Coldfire Trilogy by Friedman.
-Not one of my favorites, but it was a good trilogy and worth the read. It had some interesting unique pieces that made it worth the read.

Well since people are mentioning some unfinished series, I'll toss some out....

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (currently 7 books)...
- The first 3 books were some of my favorites when I read them so long ago, but it has been a long time. Very Tolkien / usual fantasy stuff. Absolute evil, giants, etc. etc. The main character is a bit of anti-hero, a deush, and a coward for most of the first few books.

I also recommend the Gene Wolfe short story collections. Great, Great, Great Stuff.

Prince of Nothing series (currently 3 books)
-You can find this real cheap on the internet right now. Pretty good stuff. I really hated the main character, despised him the entire way through, and hate him more at the end of the third book than I did in the first.
-Currently 3 books released, and 4 more are coming. I was tricked into thinking it was done when I saw it was listed as a trilogy. I then finished, went online and saw two more duologies are coming.

Kushiel's Legacy by Carey
-Looks like it is going to be two trilogies. I thought the first three books were really good, but I did feel odd reading them with so much being about sex, BSDM, etc.

I'm gonna have not recommend Brooks Shanra (sp?) series. I've tried reading it twice but I just can't get into it. It just seems boring and feel rehased to me.
 
[quote name='Dokstarr']I'm gonna have not recommend Brooks Shanra (sp?) series. I've tried reading it twice but I just can't get into it. It just seems boring and feel rehased to me.[/QUOTE]

The original trilogy was good, and the prequel First King of Shannara is still a great read. I still remember an LOTR fan from high school who hated Shannara for "copying" LOTR too much.

All the books after those (chronologically) definitely feel rehashed. They weren't bad books by any means, but not quite at the level of his earlier works. Once he started doing a "mini-series" approach to every story arc, the book quality started to dwindle. At least the original trilogy consisted of self-contained stories.

And while I am enjoying the new trilogy that binds together his Word/Void and Shannara stories, it has that same damn "I'm writing a mini-series full of shorter, incomplete, unsatisfying novels to milk more money out of the fans!" feeling. The first one was just awful in that regard; at least the second one went somewhere and ended with a decent cliffhanger.
 
Another one of my series in the Black Company by Glen Cook. Really good military sci-fi/fantasy. Just don't get to attached to any specific character in the series. They are all up for grabs for the chopping block at any time.
 
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