Okay, so nowhere near my favorite series, but the one I finished most recently that I thought was awesome:
The Skaith books by Leigh Brackett
Start here and prepare for awesomeness!
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien (technically one book)
Foundation Trilogy - Asimov
Whatever We Call the Radovan and Jeggare Series - Gross
Narnia - Lewis
Dot. I need to read more.
I tend to like dark stories so most of my choices are fairly grim stories.
In no particular order:
The Black Company by Glen Cook
Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R Donaldson
The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin
Some less grim series I enjoyed:
Vlad Taltos by Steven Brust
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
The Incarnations by Piers Anthony
Well World by Jack Chalker
So much great material out there. Reading through these I have read a significant number of them, but still lots of great suggestions.
I'll add a few more that I really like that haven't been mentioned.
1). Julian May's Saga of the Pliocene Exile and its follow ons.
2). Janny Wurts Wars of Light and Shadow. really anything by her.
3). Simon hawke's Time Wars series just because.
4). David Brin's Uplift Cycle.
5). John de chancies Skyway series
Other authors worth pursuing.
Guy Kay of course
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro chronicles of st Germain.
Robert Lynn aspirin
Fred Saberhagen
Mike resnick
Patrick Rothfuss
Carol berg
Harry Harrison stainless steel rat series
Amber by Zelazny
Conan by Howard
Fu Manchu by Rohmer
Cthulhu et al by Lovecraft
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fantasy
A Song of Ice and Fire - Martin
Lyonesse - Vance
First Law, Heroes, Best Served Cold - Abercrombie
Bas Lag - Mieville
sf
Books of the Sun - Wolfe
Hainish - Le Guin
Hyperion - Simmons
Dying Earth - Vance
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Some good series I have not seen listed yet:
The Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (great pulp adventure)
A great sci-fi series that is more recent is The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell.
The Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne shows some promise. It's what I'll call modern fantasy... a little like the Dresden Files.
Historical mentions:
Aubrey/Maturin series mentioned earlier in the thread is fantastic.
If you like swash & buckle I recommend Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez Reverte.
The Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs (great pulp adventure)
I only read the first four of these and that was only recently and they were pretty awesome. I don't know if I'll get around to any of the others, but I read they don't feature JC and DT anymore? That they passed the torch, generation-wise?
Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey (I never realized the romantic libertine doctrine of their patron deity Elua: Love as thou wilt was related to occultist Aleister Crowley's Do What Thou Wilt motto until recently).
Foreigner series by CJ Cherryh (The Chanur series is a close 2nd, but I didn't want to double down on a single author).
Jhereg series by Steven Brust (gotta love a multi-class assassin/witch/sorcerer/chef/criminal mastermind with an even more sarcastic familiar).
Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (gotta love a multi-class gunslinger/detective/evoker/master craftsman with an even more sarcastic familiar).
Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Illuminatus! - Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
Swords Series - Fritz Lieber
Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Reggie
The Prince of Nothing/Aspect Emperor series by R. Scott Baker - he's crowded everyone else out of the top slot for my favorite fantasy novels, singular or plural, bar none. I don't think I've ever talked out loud so much while reading at night ("holy s#%t" and "sonofab#%&h", mostly), or made my girlfriend listen to so many passages of anything while she was trying to get to sleep. Just amazing stuff. Get it and read it.
Well, here are mine:
- A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
- Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
- Dragonrealm - Richard A. Knaak
- The Dark Tower - Stephen King
After finishing a Dance with Dragons from George RR Martin and finishing MidnightTides from Steve Erickson, the winner is...
The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erickson.
For easier reading, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.
1/2 Incarnations of immortality and xanth series by pierce anthony
3 Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy of course... (cant believe nobody's mentioned this one yet)
4 Dirk Gently (only a series of 2 books also by Douglas Adams but for a 2 book series they're still pretty awesome)
Some people would argue that Dirk Gently isnt very sci fi or fantasy but between the 2 books we have
Ghosts
Discovering the mystical/alien origins of the inspiration to classical music
The birth of a new god of darkness
Dimensional Gates to other worlds
Time travel and...
Thor, God of Thunder, whose powers have been revoked as a result of a typical temper tantrum tries to buy a plane ticket at Heathrow airport without the aid of any legal tender or proper form of identification... I wont spoil it for you but it's classic Douglas Adams
And that's about it. I don't read many series—mostly just stand-alone novels.
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In no particular order:
Lord of the Rings
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Black Company
Belgariad
Honorable mention
Piers Anthony He has a lot of good ones(Xanth well the first 7, Incarnations of Immortality and the Apprentice Adept series? at least I think that what it's called. The one where the protaganist goes between a magic world and a tech world. I seem to remember him having a unicorn named Neysa
Anne Bishop The Black Jewels Trilogy for those who enjoy a walk on the dark side
Brust Jhereg Series again I stopped reading after about 7 books
Weis and Hickman Dragonlance the first 3 I think it was autumn, winter,spring.
harry potter by rowling,
memory, sorrow, and thorn by williams,
gord the rogue by gygax,
and i have a love/hate relationship with a song of ice and fire by martin.
Fantasy: Malazan Books of the Fallen by Steve Erikson (Something as violent and graphic as this series would normally turn me right off, but the characters are so engaging, and the world is so well-crafted... This series has made me cry SO many times.)
Sci-fi: Jinx on a Terran Inheritance by Brian Daley (Also a well crafted universe, with an intriguing over-arcing plot through the series, with some crazy conspiracy stuff running along-side.)
Urban Fantasy: Songs of Earth and Power by Greg Bear (The protagonist is a poet. Also? The Loch Ness Monster. Sorta.)
YA: Tiffany Aching Diskworld Series by Terry Pratchett (When my neices get old enough, I will read these to them.)
Coming to the thread late. Haven't read through the choices yet. Hoping to find new series to read, of course...
Here are mine;
Song of Ice and Fire - GRR Martin
Black Company - Glen Cook
Discworld - Terry Pratchet
Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Brian
Honorable mentions to;
Tales of the Otori - Lian Hearn
Gentleman Bastards - Scott Lynch
First Law Books - Joe Abercrombie
Damn... I forgot about The Kingkiller Chronicle - by Patrick Rothfuss and the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust.Malazan Books of the Fallen by Erickson. So many good reads!
Brian
All my favs have already been mentioned by others...except maybe Niven & Barne's Dream Park novels? I didnt see them on the list, but I might've missed them.
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Barry Hughart's: Bridge of Birds, Story of the Stone, & Eight Skilled Gentlemen. Read 'em people!
Barry Hughart's "Story of the Stone" got me through a very depressed and troubled time in my life! It was only later I found out the links and motifs to the larger body of Chinese literature called "Dream of the Red Chamber." It is a Damn Shame that his editors didn't let him go on with the series; he had planned to write way more than only 3 Inspector Li novels.
Damn... I forgot about The Kingkiller Chronicle - by Patrick Rothfuss
So far I have loved the heck out of that series, but I didn't feel I could add it yet, because I haven't read The Doors of Stone yet.
I am a weirdo. But honestly, that is the book I'm most excited about for 2014.
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I'm mostly a science-fiction fan so most of my favourite series' of books are either some kind of space opera or have a futuristic theme.
In no particular order:
The Well of Echoes Quartet by Ian Irvine (I haven't read all of the Three World Cycles yet so can't comment on how well the rest stacks up).
The Forever series by J. Haldeman
The Gentleman Bastard Sequence by Scott Lynch (there's only been two books released so far, but I'm eagerly anticipating the release of the third book in October).
The Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson
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Most of my favs from the more popular authors (Zelazny, Butcher, West, Brust, & Rothfuss) are mentioned above ... for slightly more obscure...
Katherine Kurtz' Deryni Books (not obscure, I guess, but didn't see mentioned)
Paula Volsky's oddly connected books (Wolf of Winter, Illusion, etc.)
Daniel Keys Moran's "Epic Series Which Shall Never Be Done" (Emerald Eyes, The Last Dancer, etc.)
C.S. Friedman's books on the Hunter
-TimD
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan (Mostly because one of the books involves saving a basically-viking cieftain from the middle of an Arabia-esque desert)