Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Any good sf and fantasy series 2 read (like inheritence trilogy n ringworld series)?

the earthsea cycle by ursula k. leguin, his dark materials by phillip k. pullman, the foundation series by issac asimov...





i'm not really that into series, so i can't suggest anything else though, sorry! all three of those are very popular and asimov and le guin are both classic and highly regarded in their genres (sci-fi and fantasy, respectively.)Any good sf and fantasy series 2 read (like inheritence trilogy n ringworld series)?
Sooo many series' so little time.


Dennis L. McKiernan


Raymond Feist


David Weber


John Ringo


Eric Flint


Robert E. Howard


Edgar Rice Burroughs


H.G. Wells


H. Beam Piper


Jane Lindskold


Mercedes Lackey


Marion Zimmer Bradley


David Drake


and the list is growing larger every day.Any good sf and fantasy series 2 read (like inheritence trilogy n ringworld series)?
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (and Second Chronicles and Final Chronicles) by Steven R Donaldson





The Dark Tower series by Steven King





The Novels of Dune by Frank Herbert





The Foundation Series by Asimov





The Novels of the Jaran by Kate Elliott





The Wheel of Time Saga by Robert Jordan





Any Dragon Lance, Star Trak, Star Wars series if interested





and, yes, Harry Potter by JK Rowling
For a great combo of sci-fi, fantasy and action try the ';Dune'; series by Frank Herbert.





Also the ';Fellowship of the Ring'; series by JRR Tolkien; even if you saw the movies, the books as usual are better.





There are two fantasy series by Anne Rice, one starting with ';Interview with a Vampire,'; a wonderful book nearly ruined by a poor movie...and the vampire books that follow it; ';The Vampire Lestat'; and another...





and Rice's series about Egyptian rulers and gods, starting as I recall with one called ';Ramses,'; maybe ';Ramses and Isis,'; and continuing.





Ursula K. LeGuin wrote a very good series about Earhsea, starting with ';The Wizard of Earthsea,'; but I like her book ';Left Hand of Darkness'; more, and that may have a follow-up, too-- she has written several short series so you might want to check them over at the library or bookstore.





Anne McCaffery wrote a good series in ';The Pendragon'; run, quite a run of solid action books-- fantasy.





T.H. White wrote a masterpiece of fantasy called ';The Once and Future King,'; a quite large book to be read in sections, like a series, about Camelot.
depends wat u want outta it.





the underland chronicles-some adventure, and its really cool. has the air of harry potter to it.





twilight, new moon, and eclipse-romanc, action, and vampires. really good!!!
I highly recommend George R.R. Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire. If you're tired of cliched, black and white characters and predictable plots, this is your book. The first book in the series is called A Game of Thrones.


http://www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Song-鈥?/a>





Here is one reviewer's list of reasons to read this series:





(1) YOU ARE TIRED OF FORMULAIC FANTASY: good lad beats the dark lord against impossible odds; boy is the epitome of good; he and all his friends never die even though they go through great dangers . . . the good and noble king; the beautiful princess who falls in love with the commoner boy even though their stations are drastically different . . . you get the idea. After reading this over and over, it gets old.





(2) YOU ARE TIRED OF ALL THE HEROES STAYING ALIVE EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE UNDER CONSTANT DANGER: this gets even worse where the author kills a main hero off but that person comes back later in the story. Or, a hero does die but magic brings him back.





This sometimes carries to minor characters where even they may not die, but most fantasy authors like to kill them off to show that some risked the adventure and perished.





(3) YOU ARE A MEDIEVAL HISTORY BUFF: this story was influenced by the WARS OF THE ROSES and THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR.





(4) YOU LOVE SERIOUS INTRIGUE WITHOUT STUPID OPPONENTS: lots of layering; lots of intrigue; lots of clever players in the game of thrones. Unlike other fantasy novels, where one side, usually the villain, is stupid or not too bright.





(5) YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BIASED OPINIONS AND DIFFERENT TRUTHS: GRRM has set this up where each chapter has the title of one character and the whole chapter is through their viewpoint. Interesting tidbit is that you get their perception of events or truths. But, if you pay attention, someone else will mention a different angle of truth in the story that we rarely see in other novels. Lastly and most importantly, GRRM doesn't try to tell us which person is right in their perception. He purposelly leaves it vague so that we are kept guessing.





(6) LEGENDS: some of the most interesting characters are those who are long gone or dead. We never get the entire story but only bits and pieces; something that other fantasy authors could learn from to heighten suspense. Additionally, b/c the points of views are not congruent, we sometimes get different opinions.





(7) WORDPLAY: if you're big on metaphors and description, GRRM is your guy. Almost flawless flow.





(8) LOTS OF CONFLICT: all types, too; not just fighting but between characters through threats and intrigue.





(9) MULTILAYERED PLOTTING; SUB PLOTS GALORE: each character has their own separate storyline; especially as the story continues and everyone gets scattered. This is one of the reasons why each novel is between 700-900 pages.





(10) SUPERLATIVE VARIED CHARACTERS: not the typical archetypes that we are used to in most fantasy; some are gritty; few are totally evil or good; GRRM does a great job of changing our opinions of characters as the series progresses. This is especially true in book three.





(11) REALISTIC MEDIEVAL DIALOGUE: not to the point that we can't understand it but well done.





(12) HEAPS OF SYMOBLISM AND PROPHECY: if you're big on that.





(13) EXCELLENT MYSTERIES: very hard to figure out the culprits; GRRM must have read a lot of mystery novels.





(14) RICHLY TEXTURED FEMALE CHARACTERS: best male author on female characters I have read; realistic on how women think, too.





(15) LOW MAGIC WORLD: magic is low key; not over the top so heroes can't get out of jams with it.
apart from those already mentioned (anne macaffery also has the pen-name 'Mercedes Lackey', BTW) which i wont bother repeating, although some of them are definately worth reading...


i would suggest Garth Nix (In particular the old kingdom trilogy - Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen, and stand alones: The Ragwitch, Shade's Children) or Isobel Carmody (The Obernewyton Series, The Gateway Trilogy, the Legendsong Saga - Darkfall/Darksong/Darkbane, as well as stand alones: Scatterlings, Alayzon Whitestarr, Green Monkey Dreams and Greylands) or Chris Wooding (The Haunting of Alizabel Cray) Sarah Douglas (The Battleaxe Trilogy is exceptional)... Robin Hobb is also brilliant (Assassin's Trilogy - The Liveship Traders Trilogy - Fool's Errand Trilogy and the Forest Mage Trilogy)... China Melveille is superb (New Crobuzonian Series - Peridilo St Station/The Scar/Iron Council, and stand alones: King Rat, UnLunDun) or Tad Williams, who has done a lot of different types of fantasy (War of the Flowers, and the Green Angel Tower series are my favourites) ...um... Laura/Laurell Hamilton is not bad, particularly if you like more erotic/Crime/vampire/wereanimal style fantasy (The Anita Blake Series, The Merry Gentry Series) there is also terry pratchett's Discworld series (30 something books, i prefer the ones with Sam Vimes as the lead character), if you like comic fantasy thats perfect for you. Who else? umm... Janny Wurts, Susan Cooper, Elizabeth Cooper, Eoin Cofer, Margaret Atwood, Raymond E Feist, Tamora Pierce, Emily Rhoda, Sean Williams, Terry Goodkind and Gene Wolfe all have some great series/trilogy works... but these are just off the top of my head - i dont have my bookshelf in front of me, so its just what i can think of...
Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer.





They're the best books I've ever read...

No comments:

Post a Comment

 
viruses