I consider this forum a fairly consummate fantasy sci-fi literary database so I'm here to pose a question: which series should I try to get into next? My basic reading MO is that I pick an author, read a book at random, then read everything they've ever published and move on. I'm just looking for a new series to fall into, preferably something fairly modern, and I try to steer clear of "artsy" fantasy, ie: anything with "dragon" or "faerae" in the title. Thanks!

Completed thusfar:

Robert Asprin - MYTH Series finished - read a couple of the the "phule" series, wasn't impressed
Asimov - Short stories - robot dreams series - (hated foundation)
Heinlein - cleared
Christopher Moore - cleared
Ray Bradbury - cleared
Vonnegut - cleared
Terry Pratchett (Discworld series)
Jim butcher (Dresden Series)

Sticking with the sci-fi and what you seem to like, I'd say try Dan Simmons.

The Hyperion Cantos is great and I just finished Olympos (sequel to Ilium). Two thumbs up!

I was going to say Discworld, until I saw that you already read it, so...

How 'bout the most classic fantasy of them all? Reading some Tolkien won't do any harm.

Also, read some Lewis Caroll. He's sorta Fantasy, and his books are really good.


As for New Stuff... Err...

I know! Read the Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix. I can't possibly express how good/awesome these books are. (They were written in the Nineties... That's New-ish).

I'm a big fan of Terry Brooks' Shannara series. The nice thing about it is, each book works well as a stand-alone novel, but when put together with the rest in the series, a world is formed that's absolutely spectacular.

If you're looking for something a little more amusing and really just a quick read, Piers Anthony's Xanth series is quite humorous.

And, if you want something a little out of the ordinary, read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. I cannot describe this book--it's that good.

Personally not a fan of Tolkien, Nix or Brooks - though I have read them all. I used to enjoy the Shannara series when I was about 6-10 years old. I found the Abhorsen trilogy to be aimed at younger readers as well. Tolkien, despite all his details, never really excelled at character development.

How about Frank Herbert's Dune series? That looks like it would suit your list as well.

Neil Gaiman is also a good read. Or is his stuff also aimed at 6-10 year olds? I don't know. I've never been a good judge of quality.

I enjoyed American Gods. Enough to make me want to read some more Gaiman. I think his sexual and cultural references are aimed well above the heads of children.

Just because a book doesn't have sexual and/or obscure cultural references does not make it aimed towards children.

Star Wars Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn.
'Nuff said

Asimov has his own bimonthly publication of the same name(been reading them since the late 80's, though I have a collection extending all the way back to the 70's from picking up back issues at flea markets, and yard sales). A sci-fi magazine of sorts, containing novella's, etc from various other authors as well as articles on the future of technology. You can still find them online from a few places, at yard sales, etc.

Same with Analog, another such sci-fi paperback released bimonthly.

http://www.asimovs.com/

http://www.analogsf.com/0806/issue_06.shtml

And of course, the best adult option if you're into comics.

Heavy Metal Magazine

If you prefer your sci-fi/fantasy in a more contemporary setting, read the Memoirs of the Jaguar and the Eagle by Issabel Allende, they're a very interesting read.

Chromosome 6 by Robin Cook is awesome, you have to read it.

Going on with Neil gaman, I loved The Sandman. And no, his novels are not for 6-10 year olds, even though they don't have that many sexual/obscure cultural references.

Yeah, but the incest vibes in the fourth book were fun for all.

Fecking depressing that the author's own website hasn't been updated in years and doesn't list his newest stuff. Agreed though, the man sure can write!

Wait, what fourth book? You mean the new one coming in 2010? Or that one 120 Page Novella?

There was the original three and then a fourth one set later.

I'm pretty sure of that.

I've been thinking about getting into Gaimen a bit after I read good omens. As for Frank Herbert and Tolkien, I really hated dune, and hated the lotr series for the same reason, I found them incredibly dull. In all fairness i skipped a hundred pages in LOTR because they were talking to trees.

It's not a series, but a book I recommend if you want to stick with scifi but get a little closer to reality is Adam Fawer's Improbable.

I recommend The Wayfairer's Redemption series or The Shadow Saga. Can't remember the authors off the top of my head though. Both were very good series

Hehe, I have much the same approach to books. Find myself an author I like and devour all his books before I continue to the next.

For sciene fiction I would recommend Peter Hamilton. His books are really well written and enables to creative a realistic view of the future. The books are written to a mature audience.

For an author as a mix between fantasy/science fiction and normal fiction I would recommend Neal Stephenson. I loved Cryptonomicon which is set in WW2 and present time, and also his "Baroque cycle" series set in the middle ages. Furthermore Snow Crash is a scary and well described view of the future. Written in 1994 its a interesting read as we already start to see some of his envisions in todays society.

Finally for fantasy I would recommend Stephen Erikson "Malazan Empire" Series. Each book is a novel in itself, but combines together to get a larger picture. You should be aware that the books are long, and you will have to get about 1/3 into the first book "Gardens of the moon" before it gets truely addictive. But after that I was hooked. I now swallow each new book in days. His world is very well described and he has a sense for details I find truely unique while at the same time making sure the overall story progresses.

I myself also felt terribly bored with LOTR. For me it seemed like 80% of the books were about walking...

If you look for some shorter books than those mentioned above which are all heavy as bricks. I would recommend Glen Cook for fantasy. His Black Company books are all well written, and its not the normal fantasy where its easy to see who are the good and who are the bad. Here its a mix and the hero is sometimes the villian

Wheel of Time seems like a good series... But I don't really know... I'm only on Chapter 8 of the first book.

It's The Wayfarer's Redemption and it's by Sara Douglass. She's not a bad author.

Australian, too, if I remember correctly. I keep meaning to pick up some of her newer books but they're all set in the world of some of her older books I haven't read in nearly ten years. My memory's good but not that good.

Not bad I agree. David Eddings in style. Only problem is that Robert Jordan has passed away, someone else is set to take over finishing the series (can't remember the name right now is in another thread in here). So when you get to book 11, you will be put on pause till they finish the series. Especially the last two books seemed just as fillers, and one really looked forward to him ending the series.

I always read the dutch fantasy serie "Muriël/Zuiderland" (first three of the serie were called Muriël, the last three were called "Zuiderland")...I cannot remember much of the books, because I only read it as a kid. It's very obscure and rare, and most likely not translated in English..I cannot even find the books on Dutch sites.....if I'm home, I'll give a description of the books...

Glen Cook's "The Black Company" Series
Richard K. Morgan's "Takeshi Kovacs" Series
Anything by William Gibson

And in order for your edification
"Freakonomics" by Levitt
"Undercover Economist" by Harford
"Health Economics" by Phelps

His stuff is good if you want a drama story with a lotta jokes, gags and one-liners woven into it.

I started her Troy Game series, but was not all that impressed. Might try that one some time.


Umm....David Eddings and Robert Jordan are completely different in style if you ask me. The only similarity would be writing long (epic in Jordan's case) fantasy series.

Brandon Sanderson is writing the final book in the Wheel of Time. His own novels, Elantris and the Mistborn series are pretty good. Jordan had all of the last book planned out and large parts of it already written - I'm sure Sanderson has the skills to pull it off.

Give S.M. Stirling a while. Alternate timelines and some serious WTFery. Quite entertaining and great discussions on humanity.

Anything by Jim Butcher will entertain you for hours.

Simon R. Green has a very noir feel to him with his Nightside series and his version of James Bond as a shaman. He also dabbles in religious iconography in his stories in a most irreverent manner.

If you're feeling epic and most old world style (instead of Wheel of Time) go ahead and give L. E. Modesitt a try with his Chaos/Order series. I recommend starting on "The Magic of Recluse" or "The Towers of Sunset". He does NOT go in chronological order but all the stories are vastly interconnected and it's very interesting how he finally gives it all away.

I just read [acronym="Of the Trial of Blood & Steel series"]Sasha[/acronym] by Joel Shepherd and was pleasantly surprised. I picked it up in morbid curiosity - every bookstore I frequent was selling his work because he's a new Australian author I suppose - expecting horrible things. After all, the blurb promises a story about a royal princess who ran away to be a swordsman.

Amazingly, he didn't ruin it. Oh, sure, the heroes were a little too pristine and the villains are a little one-note but he manages to steer clear of the worst of the possible offences. What's more, he manages to present a religious dichotomy without relying on shoddy and ill-fitting Christian symbology. That always wins points in my book.


Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to care about that series. I liked the Axis trilogy much better and a lot of her books are set in that world.


Yeah, they really don't have much in common at all.

Eddings tends to idealised archetypes while Jordan goes for a more gritty and "realistic" sameyness in his characters. Not that they're not they're own, it's just that - like in real life - the same experiences tend to bend people the same way.

A few authors that have not been mentioned that I personally like:

John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons - 1st book in a series that combines scifi tech, with low tech fighting
Laurell K. Hamilton - the Anita Blake series - 1st ten or so are good for modern, alternate timeline setting
Rob Thurman - Nightlife - Only 3 books out so far, but pretty good modern time setting
Anne Bishop - Black Jewels trilology - interesting take on magic in a fantasy setting
James Clemens - Banned and Banished series - fantasy setting
Mickey Zucker Reichart - Renshai sereis - Norse mythology fantasy

That is just a few off the top of my head

Stephen Pressfield's series of historical fictions are always worth a read. Gates of Fire and The Last Amazon were both really good.

Well probably we will have to agree to disagree
For me Jordan's books were better as he gave it more depth but overall the story is the same. Kid(s) who doesnt know his/their magic potential goes through a lot of quests and discover more and more of his/their power. Along the way he gathers a following and confronts the BIG BAD "insert name of vilain". And all rejoices.

For me they are still good reads, but I have to say they are brewed over the same recipe. If I should come with some fantasy standing out I would probably choose Steven Erikson sMalazan world. He has here I feel managed to create a truely unique world where he really explores where the fantasy genre can be taken, and is building an amazing universe.

You just described Star Wars.

If using an archetype of a story is being the same kind of author, the range of different books suddenly shrank to around ten.

Another good author not on this list is Michael Stockpol. Does mostly Sci-Fi with the odd Star Wars book, but they're a very good read.

God skip Laurel K. Hamilton. You will save yourself some brain cells. If you want alternate timeline with vampires and werewolves give Patricia Briggs or Carrie Vaughn a whirl. Both do it better than Hamilton.

Patricia Briggs in lieu of the early books of the Anita Blake series? Briggs stuff now is better than the tripe Hamilton is releasing, but I really liked the first 8 to 10 of Hamiltons. I read the 1st 2 books in the werewolf/coyote series by Briggs and I was not overly impressed....but that's just me

They are fluffier and lighter. But that's what Briggs has always said they were.

Hamilton's world building is built ENTIRELY on ambiguity. Not on actual facts and her creating ideas. All laws and rules for vampires and lycanthropes are left up to the imagination. Concepts that should have been followed to the end were dropped and never heard from again. In short, she's got pretty poor writing skills. HOWEVER if you take her stories like they were singular soap opera episodes, they make more sense.

Kim Harrison put out another similar alternate timeline which was far better put together, in terms of world building. Kelly Armstrong also put out the Women of the Otherworld series (still going) which was quite good and she was very specific in her world building. Both are leaps and bounds above Hamilton in terms of quality. Another good one is C. E. Murphy's Coyote/Shaman series. Starts with Urban Shaman and has 2 after that. She's got another series starting with "Heart of Stone" that was quite interesting as well.

For the best Urban Fantasy/ alternate timeline I'm still going with Jim Butcher. His world and characters are far and away the best out there. Granted it takes about 3 books for him to get into his groove but it's there.

I totally agree Butcher is that way to go, I don't under stand how it takes 3 books to get into his series, I started reading his stuff and was addicted right off the bat.

I like Kim Harrison's stuff, but there is a lot of redundency in her works, which would be good if you jump right into the series in the middle, but bad if you have read from the start. Is her newest one like that?

I agree, Erikson is great.

Don't get me wrong, but the "quest" is typical of the fantasy genre. Coming-of-age is a major theme in many different pieces of fiction. This does not mean 2 authors write in the same style. I've read all of Eddings' and Jordan's books (yes, even the Conan ones).

Eddings follows many different scenarios in his books - not just the comin-of-age quest - but I do not feel that they come anywhere near the detail, epic span and character development that Jordan manages. Eddings is generally more lighthearted and witty (the Troll gods were always good for a giggle) whereas Jordan imposes a seriousness to his characters and is much better at the suspension of disbelief that allows you to genuinely feel for the characters and the situations in which they find themselves.

I should also add that I felt the Redemption of Althalmus was like being repeatedly stabbed in the eye with a hot needle...I mean, Jordan can get a little long-winded sometimes, but an entire book that kept me asking "when is this going to end?" - just shoot me now.

On a lighter note, I have picked up Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained from my local library. Thanks for the suggestion (author Peter F. Hamilton, btw.) I'll let you know what I think.

Indeed. So if I can choose the 10% writing like Eriksons or Hamilton (Peter that is) that goes full indepth in world building I am all for it, less choises to make

I don't say I dont like the Eddings/Jordan/"enter author name" quest setup but I do have a feeling you have seen some of it before. I therefore get pleasently surprised when some authors go out of the way to choose a less walked path, so the reads get a bit more variated. Furthermore a load of the "enter quest here and randomize kid name" books are written towards kids/teenagers, and I find myself demanding a bit more of books these days. I loved Dragonlance, Eddings etc. in my early teens, but in the late 20s I do ask for a bit more (Love my Jim Butcher though)

That said I just read a book so different and increadibly bad that it already selfdestructed the braincells storing the name of the book......guess I can find it in my pile if someone wants to see if it caters to their taste

Ohh and suggested reads - The Road by Cormac McCarthy is sort of a must read I guess (near future SF)

Hmm if it's sci fi, can't believe no one posted Orson Scott Card yet. Ender's Game series starts off adventure sci-fi, and then gets a little more philosophical and emotional as Card's writing matures. Also it's cool because the sequels split off into different time lines, and are not just a chain of stories. If you're looking for action sci-fi, John Stenley's (think that was his name) Armour was a thrilling read.

In terms of fantasy, though they may be a little too "fairy" and "dragon" for you (none in the title), Symphony of Ages by Elizabeth Haydon was a good read. You may be bored with her attention to details, but the story does move with a good pace so I'm sure you won't mind. Also as someone mentioned, the Wayfarer Redemption series by Sara Douglass was fun. If you don't mind kiddy type fantasy that's still funny, Brian Jaques' Redwall series is amusing. Hmmm also Jennifer Fallon has a fun series, but I fergot the name of the series... First book of that series to come out was "Medallon". Recently I've read Karen Miller's "Kingmaker, Kingbreaker" series. Writing style wasn't that great, but she's a great story teller. Oh, also, if you're looking for a twisted tale of sordid politics, betrayal, and masochism, check out Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel series. Magnificent series.

You've essentially described what Joseph Cambell called the "MonoMyth". For an in depth look on why this basic story is set up this way (and to some extent why it keeps getting repeated) I'd recommend his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Its not fiction, but rather a study on the hero archetype. The Power of Myth is another of Cambell's work in the same vein.

The ironic thing is that people like Erikson and Martin who write differently to this still aren't being original. They're just weaving the archetypal stories into complex patterns.