Need help finding a certain type of series - Help please!

[damican]

I'm looking for a certain type of book series. I'm trying to find a series that covers one character from beginning to end on a path to greatness. Somewhat in the vein of Bio of a Space Tyrant (I found the series to be awful, but it had a good concept). I do of course want it to be fiction, no real biographies please.

I don't really care about the setting of the series. I just want to read about how someone goes through their life from beginning to end and ends up being one of the most powerful people alive. Like from School > Job > world domination or some so and such.

Appreciate any help.

[pdurrant]

Not a series, but you might enjoy The Sky is Falling by Lester del Rey.

[damican]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Not a series, but you might enjoy The Sky is Falling by Lester del Rey.

I'll give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation.

The reason I ask for a series is simply because I like to have a ton to read about the character/world/etc. Single books just end too quickly for me.

[darryl]

I'd recommend Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. Each of the books focusses on and follows a particular great character. For instance, the "First Man in Rome" focusses on Gaius Marius and also the early life and career of Lucius Cornelius Sulla who is the focus of the next book in the series, "The Grass Crown".

[damican]

Originally Posted by darryl

I'd recommend Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. Each of the books focusses on and follows a particular great character. For instance, the "First Man in Rome" focusses on Gaius Marius and also the early life and career of Lucius Cornelius Sulla who is the focus of the next book in the series, "The Grass Crown".

I've read that series. It was very good, though I put it down during antony and cleopatra.

[John K]

Take a look at:

Empire of Man series by David Weber & John Ringo

Enders Shadow series by Orson Scott Card

[DrNefario]

Flashman?

[damican]

Originally Posted by John K

Take a look at:

Empire of Man series by David Weber & John Ringo

Enders Shadow series by Orson Scott Card

Read those. Not exactly what I am looking for though. Hoping for something a little more cerebral. Something that showcases the main characters growth from a nobody to top world status.

Thanks for the input though, I do appreciate it.

edit: Caught a quick over view of flashman. Have no idea if its what I'm looking for, but gona pick up the omnibus and check it out.

[AlbertaCowboy]

David Edding's "The Belgariad" follows a classic Hero's Journey from obscurity to greatness in an epic fantasy setting.

[damican]

Originally Posted by AlbertaCowboy

David Edding's "The Belgariad" follows a classic Hero's Journey from obscurity to greatness in an epic fantasy setting.

I've read almost all of Eddings work. The mightiest knight on life and such. Again not what I'm looking for though.

Not trying to be picky or anything... Just don't think I can articulate what I'm looking for any better. If I had anything to point out other t hen Bio of a Space Tyrant as an example I would.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by damican

I'm looking for a certain type of book series. I'm trying to find a series that covers one character from beginning to end on a path to greatness. Somewhat in the vein of Bio of a Space Tyrant (I found the series to be awful, but it had a good concept). I do of course want it to be fiction, no real biographies please.

I don't really care about the setting of the series. I just want to read about how someone goes through their life from beginning to end and ends up being one of the most powerful people alive. Like from School > Job > world domination or some so and such.

Appreciate any help.

Try David Weber's Dahak series, the complete series can be found in the Empire From the Ashes omnibus. Baen, Amazon B&N.

Spoiler:

WE HAVE A JOB FOR YOU ...

Just a routine day in lunar orbit. That's all Lieutenant Commander Colin Maclntyre, USN, expected. Only a simple training mission to test a new survey instrument intended for the first manned American-Russian interstellar flight.

What he got was just a bit different.

First, there was the fact that Earth didn't actually have a Moon.

Then there was the three thousand-kilometer diameter alien starship pretending it was the Moon. And the millennia-old cybernetic intelligence that shanghaied him to serve as its crew.

Colin might have been forgiven for thinking that those were enough surprises for any one man, but there were a few other small problems.

Like the deadly mutiny which had been raging longer than the human race had existed on Earth ... and still wasn't over.

Or like the millions of other starships, crewed by genocidal aliens dedicated to the extermination of all possible competing life forms, which just happened to be headed straight towards Earth.

Or like the interstellar empire whose aid offered humanity's only hope for survival... except for the minor fact that its last emperor and all of his subjects had died forty-five thousand years ago.

Add in the occasional homicidal terrorist, religious fanatics convinced that the only good Maclntyre was a dead Maclntyre, a bic-weapon capable of killing every living thing on any planet, a super-bomb which could take out whole worlds, a starship drive which could destroy complete solar systems, and the need to organize the entire planet Earth— and all of its warring, mutually murderous factions—for a probably hopeless last-ditch defense, and Colin was convinced that things were just about as bad as they could possibly get.

Until he found out whose job it had just become to fix all those problems, of course....

Also look at The Sten Chronicles Book Series by by Chris Bunch and Allan Cole.
Amazon

Spoiler:

This is the first book in the action-packed science fiction series, Sten. Vulcan is a factory planet, centuries old, company-run, ugly as sin, and unfeeling as death. Vulcan breeds just two types of native—complacent or tough. Sten is tough. When his family is killed in a mysterious accident, Sten rebels, harassing the Company from the metal world’s endless mazelike warrens. He could end up just another burnt-out Delinquent, but people like Sten never give up.

bernie

[Brazen_NL]

Sounds like something my daughter is currently reading: The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini.

[damican]

Thank you gbm. This sounds like what I want!

gona check sten out

[crich70]

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.

[owly]

"Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan, "Sword of Truth series" by Terry Goodkind.