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Book Series
Random Chaos
Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
in Zocalo v2.0
So...what fiction series (and stand alones) have you people read and what do you think of them? Oh - and if you pick a major genre (Babylon 5, Star Trek, Star Wars, BattleTech, etc) don't pick the whole genre - pick a series of triliogy out of it.
I'll start out.
-------------------------------------------
Lord of the Rings (Tolkien): Excellent ;)
Sword of Truth (Goodkind): Very good. The characters and story really tie together and the author does an excellent job incorperating magic into this world. Though this is a huge numbre of pages to read...but hard to put down. First book is Wizard's First Rule.
Wheel of Time (Jordan): Good, but very drawn out story. I just wish he would wrap it up and actually make something happen. First 3-4 books were excellent, but then it went down hill. Lots of pages to read and hard to put down.
Song of Fire and Ice (Martin): Very good. Tracks the path of a number of important characters. Very different in that each chapter is viewing the world from the view of just one character and each chapter changes which character. Lots of twists and turns and backstabing. Hard to put down. Only 3 books right now - first one is Game of Thrones. Only on it's 3rd book now, A Storm of Swords, with the 4th book coming out hopefully in a couple months (though I'll still have to wait a year for the paperback version).
Magic of Recluse (Modesitt): Poor. This is a series that takes place over thousands of years. The first book, The Magic of Recluse is set toward the end of this time period. I haven't finished the series as it got very repedative...all the books followed basically the same format. One or two from this series is good - they don't have to be read in order. More is boring.
Runelords (Farland): Good. Lots of destruction and battles and lots of unanswered questions. Hopefully Lair of Bones (not yet in paperback) will help tie up some loose ends. Overall it is a good series though, but only up to it's 4th book (Lair of Bones). The first book in this series is The Runelords: The Sum of All Men.
Riftwar Saga (Feist): I've only read the first two books of this series, but from what I can tell it is quite good. First book is Magician: Apprentice.
Battletech: Blood of Kerensky (Stackpole): Very good. Stackpole does great books no matter where he writes.
Battletech: Warrior Trilogy (Stackpole): Excellent. A very good political intreague with plenty of battle to help time pass.
Foundation (Asimov): Very good, though I haven't quite finished the series yet.
Robots (Asmiov): Very good. Been a long time since I read it though.
Note: I have also read quite a few of Stackpole's other books (Talion Revenant, the Rogue Squadron books, and Eyes of Silver) - they are all very good.
I'll start out.
-------------------------------------------
Lord of the Rings (Tolkien): Excellent ;)
Sword of Truth (Goodkind): Very good. The characters and story really tie together and the author does an excellent job incorperating magic into this world. Though this is a huge numbre of pages to read...but hard to put down. First book is Wizard's First Rule.
Wheel of Time (Jordan): Good, but very drawn out story. I just wish he would wrap it up and actually make something happen. First 3-4 books were excellent, but then it went down hill. Lots of pages to read and hard to put down.
Song of Fire and Ice (Martin): Very good. Tracks the path of a number of important characters. Very different in that each chapter is viewing the world from the view of just one character and each chapter changes which character. Lots of twists and turns and backstabing. Hard to put down. Only 3 books right now - first one is Game of Thrones. Only on it's 3rd book now, A Storm of Swords, with the 4th book coming out hopefully in a couple months (though I'll still have to wait a year for the paperback version).
Magic of Recluse (Modesitt): Poor. This is a series that takes place over thousands of years. The first book, The Magic of Recluse is set toward the end of this time period. I haven't finished the series as it got very repedative...all the books followed basically the same format. One or two from this series is good - they don't have to be read in order. More is boring.
Runelords (Farland): Good. Lots of destruction and battles and lots of unanswered questions. Hopefully Lair of Bones (not yet in paperback) will help tie up some loose ends. Overall it is a good series though, but only up to it's 4th book (Lair of Bones). The first book in this series is The Runelords: The Sum of All Men.
Riftwar Saga (Feist): I've only read the first two books of this series, but from what I can tell it is quite good. First book is Magician: Apprentice.
Battletech: Blood of Kerensky (Stackpole): Very good. Stackpole does great books no matter where he writes.
Battletech: Warrior Trilogy (Stackpole): Excellent. A very good political intreague with plenty of battle to help time pass.
Foundation (Asimov): Very good, though I haven't quite finished the series yet.
Robots (Asmiov): Very good. Been a long time since I read it though.
Note: I have also read quite a few of Stackpole's other books (Talion Revenant, the Rogue Squadron books, and Eyes of Silver) - they are all very good.
Comments
sword of truth:
real nice, made me read through the first 7 books in just 2 months, still have to read the latest
wheel of time:
i'm stuck in #5 of it, frankly that's the point where it got dull for me. might have to try it again at some point. up til that it was a nice (but not very imaginative) story.
riftwar:
superb. i'm through the original riftwar series and looking forward to the follow up series of it (serpentwar, legacy, etc)
the black company (glen cook):
oh boy, i really loved this series. gripping story, good characters and a dry sense of humour mingled in. it was a sad feeling when i finished the last book...
the last legion (chris bunch):
if you haven't read it, do so. good action sequences, and good humour (scifi)
the thrawn trilogy (timothy zahn):
a classic, if you love star wars then it's a must read
RC: wheel of time was easy to put down in the middle of book 5.. turn a page and boredom slaps you in the face ;)
you made it to book 5 without being bored?
i got bored in book 2
although i somehow made it all the way to book 9
heh...me too
but after that, i just lost momentum
I swear, Robert Jordan doesn't know how to write an ending
any ending...
name ONE story line in those books that was resolved...just one
up to that point they were being forced on me by a friend, but after 9 i had to wait a year for 10 to come out
Phi: Spoiler: that witch lady?
althoguh that isnt even resolved really
Spoiler: moraine?
no way
that's the pone
Spoiler: she's not dead...she's just somewhere else :P
Spoiler: moraine is a pain to be honest
but that's about as close as he came to ending a thread
and Spoiler: she's going to pop up again, you just know it
i just got me "orcs" by stan nicholls..
yeah Spoiler: i was waiting for her to just magically appear and fix some disaster all the way up to where i stopped
i wonder how far ahead he's planned the books
probably up to the next comment on necklines/sniff/whine by rand
probably up to #20
nah i think he has the big outline of "keep rand runnign around with mother figures until he dies of old age"
That about explains it. :)
As for myself, I quite enjoyed the [i]Exiles[/i] trilogy by Melanie Rawn... well, the first two books anyway. I wish she'd hurry up and write the third. :) They have their drawbacks (like a huge number of characters that can be difficult to keep track of, and some rather annoying characters), but they are very good for escapist fantasy fiction, particularly as the author focuses less on describing every leaf and more on advancing the story.
I'm also really (slowly) enjoying the [i]Twelve Kingdoms[/i] (十二国記 ) novels. They're apparently based on a chinese legend, which the author took the basic idea of and ran a very long way with.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by wiseguy [/i]
[B]the thrawn trilogy (timothy zahn):
a classic, if you love star wars then it's a must read [/B][/QUOTE]
Zahn also did the Conquerors Trilogy, which is also excellent...:)
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Random Chaos [/i]
[B]So...what fiction series (and stand alones) have you people read and what do you think of them? Oh - and if you pick a major genre (Babylon 5, Star Trek, Star Wars, BattleTech, etc) don't pick the whole genre - pick a series of triliogy out of it.
I'll start out.
[/B][/QUOTE]
Oh lets see. my fav series of all time hmmm.
Piers Anthony - Xanth
the Xanth series is a LOT of fun, albiet a lil silly
Frank Herbert - Dune
the Dune series is one of my all time fav series, Granted it's a little dry, and gets very wierd when you get into Heretic of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune.
C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia
What can i say, a classic series.
and, for something a little different
Robert Ludlum's Covert One series.
Good spy type novels, a lot of fun even if the main character's name IS Jon Smith.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Entil'Zha [/i]
[B]Frank Herbert - Dune
the Dune series is one of my all time fav series, Granted it's a little dry, and gets very wierd when you get into Heretic of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune.
[/B][/QUOTE]
I've looked into buying the Dune books before...but I've never been able to figure out what order to read them in...and thus what order to buy them in. Any help?
I'm currently working my way through a whole pile of Niven and Pohl courtesy of Jack as time permits. :) I've just finished [i]Gateway[/i], definitely a great book.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Random Chaos [/i]
[B]I've looked into buying the Dune books before...but I've never been able to figure out what order to read them in...and thus what order to buy them in. Any help? [/B][/QUOTE]
I think you start with "Dune," but after that I'm at a loss. :D
Oh, yes:
[i]Discworld[/i], Terry Pratchett.
Anything Orson Scott Card wrote, ever.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Random Chaos [/i]
[B]I've looked into buying the Dune books before...but I've never been able to figure out what order to read them in...and thus what order to buy them in. Any help? [/B][/QUOTE]
Frank Herbert, Chronicles of Dune
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse Dune
Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson- Dune House trilogy
House Atreides
House Harkonnen
House Corrino
Brian Herbert & Kevin Anderson - Legends of Dune
The Butlerian Jihad
The Machine Crusade
The Battle of Corrin
I've only read the actual dune books by Frank Herbert, Some people i know like the other 2 series, but most people seem to think they are crap.
Rendezvous with Rama series - Arthur C Clark and Gentry Lee
Oh and if your reading just for fun: Anything about BOLOS...
Jake
terry pratchetts discworld novels, especially the guards books (guard guards, men at arms, feet of clay, nightwatch)
Snow Crash/Zodiac/Cryptonomicon/etc (Neal Stephenson) -- Excellent cyberpunk author, plenty of crazy plots and memorably badass characters. Prone to thousand-word digressions. The plot descriptions of his work that you'll get at Amazon.com vastly understate how bizarrely plausible his stories are. Won a Hugo for [i]The Diamond Age[/i].
Hyperion (Dan Simmons) -- My personal favorite science fiction series, The [i]Hyperion[/i] Cantos is a very literary space opera tale borrowing from [i]The Canterbury Tales[/i], Shakespeare, Keats, and more. Difficult to fully understand if you aren't well-versed in your famous literature (or don't have Wikipedia on hand), but some of the best stuff out there, IMO. The first book in the quarter won a Hugo
Dune (Herbert) -- The series that got me serious about writing; I actually liked the final three books best. My internet alias is KwstzHdrchX. ;)
Robots/Foundation (Asimov) -- An astoundingly great author, I love stea--ahem, borrowing Asimov's ideas for short stories. [i]The Bicentennial Man[/i] brings me to tears every time--the most moving pieces of fiction I've ever read.
A Fire Upon The Deep/A Deepness In The Sky (Vernor Vinge) -- Really frickin' long and sometimes tedious, but highly original. Both novels won the Hugo, and he's won it for two novellas as well.
I know there's more, I just can't think of it. Not much of a Fantasy fan.
as in, fine UNTIL Elayne gets pregnent. Then it gets boooooring. Book 11 BETTER have some action. He's been setting the stage for two books now!
*hopes they will be less boring*
[B]One series that hasn't been named yet that is a must read:
Rendezvous with Rama series - Arthur C Clark and Gentry Lee
Oh and if your reading just for fun: Anything about BOLOS...
Jake [/B][/QUOTE]
Space Oddessy series by Clarke is also good, 2001, 2010, 2063, 3001 (2063 is the weakest if you ask me)
[B]Space Oddessy series by Clarke is also good, 2001, 2010, 2063, 3001 (2063 is the weakest if you ask me) [/B][/QUOTE]
Actually, 2061 was my favorite. Probably because it involved the least amount of "All-Powerful Alien Being Knows Best". And, I admit, I thought to zany famous people on the ship were fun, too.
:eek:
What's wrong with you people! :p
[B](2063 is the weakest if you ask me) [/B][/QUOTE]
Probably because it's 2 years late... :p :D
[B]or David Brin's Progenitors series, or Orson Scott Card's Ender series?
:eek:
What's wrong with you people! :p [/B][/QUOTE]
[url=http://forums.firstones.com/showthread.php?postid=118000#post118000]Nothing. :)[/url]
[B]Probably because it's 2 years late... :p :D [/B][/QUOTE]
Dammit, i ALWAYS do that.
[B]Timothy Zahns Thrawn trilogy is one of the best, if not The best star wars book series there are... After the original original trilogy that is. [/B][/QUOTE]
I loved the Thrawn series, i always hoped that Lucas would decide to make them Eps 7 8 and 9, and it COULD be done using the orig cast, because even tho the books take place 5 years after ROTJ, there is no reason it couldn't take place 20 years after.
But it'll never happen
[B]But it'll never happen [/B][/QUOTE]
NEVER say "never"... ;)
With Lucas you just can't call it for certain.
:)
You just get used to them and then they are mutated into something else! :D