Why does everybody always go straight to a series when someone is looking for a good intro to the fantasy/sci-fi genres? I'm just curious about the phenomenon more than anything... no rancor intended. I would think that someone who is admittedly a noob when it comes to the genre would be looking for something with very little overall investment (time/money/sanity). So I always tend to recommend stand-alone novels. You know... see if you like the milk before you start buying herds of dairy cows.
