Favorite book series?

[peterwardgd]

wow, so many. I love a good caper so the Dortmunder books by Donald Westlake or his Parker novels are also great (they do drift a bit towards the end though).

Lawrence Blocks Bernie Rhodenbarr books are always fun.

I also enjoyed Margaret Atwood's 3 books that start with Oryx and Crake.

[wayspooled]

Dorothy Dunnett's - "The Lymond Chronicles"
Patrick O'Brian - "Aubrey/Maturin" series
Alexandre Dumas "D'Artagnan" series
P.G. Wodehouse - Blandings Castle books
C.J. Cherryh - "Chanur" series
J.R.R. Tolkien - Hobbit/LOTR books
Dorothy Dunnett - "House of Niccolo" series
Robert Jordan - "The Wheel of Time" series
Dorothy Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey books
Terry Pratchett - The first 32 Discworld books
Michael Connelly's - Harry Bosch books
James Mitchener's books
Herman Wouk's Winds of War series

[soulfuldog]

I like my crime thrillers, so my absolute favourite series are all from that genre:

Henning Mankell - Wallander
Lee Child - Jack Reacher
Jo Nesbo - Harry Hole
Peter May - Lewis Trilogy

Originally Posted by crich70

Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta books. A former neighbor (now deceased) loaned me several of the books some yrs back.

I used to love those books, but started to go off them later in the series, last one I read was Blow Fly (#12) and I hated it. Its been a few years since I've read any, and the mixed reviews of more recent books don't really make me want to go back and try some more!

[Victoria]

I love many of the ones already mentioned. A few that aren't mentioned:
-Liaden books ( which the authors describe as a universe - not a series),
-Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey
-Inheritance Cycle (Eragon).

[taosaur]

If we're going with "open" episodic series as opposed to multi-volume epics, I mostly shy away from them, but my favorites are Butcher's Dresden Files and C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner.

Originally Posted by curtw

Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe.

Everything else I've ever tried has eventually gone down in a death spiral (I'm talking to YOU, David Brin,

Surely you don't mean Uplift? For me Heaven's Reach really, how would you say, uplifted the whole series.

[Nothingness]

My favorite series:

Belgariad and Malloreon by David Eddings
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Vampire serie by Anne Rice (a classic)
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
A Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams
Symphony of Ages by Elizabeth Haydon
The Tamír Triad by Lynn Flewelling
The Farseer Trilogy and the sequel The Tawny Man by Robin Hobb
The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay (his other books are good too)

One of my friends suggested to me Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, because she has a thing for the main female character to be a nurse or doctor, but I did not like it at all, felt the entire time I was reading an Harlequin book. Got to admit I read it after the really good novel The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, which was so good and moving that I cried at the end. So when I read the much inferior Outlander after it left me cold.

[John F]

Some newer series I'm enjoying:

Cormoran Strike by Robert Galbraith
Bill Hodges by Stephen King

and some older ones:

Michael Connelly's (Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller)
The Hollows by Kim Harrison
Rick Riordan's series
Kensie-Genarro by Dennis Lehane
Jurrasic Park by Michael Crichton
Cassandra Clare's series
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
The Dark Tower by Stephen King

But I really like just about any series I read.

[peterwardgd]

Also the lesson known Donald Westlake Mitchell Tobin series is better than fair and worth a look. I enjoyed the books quite a lot.

[Rbneader]

Most anything by:
Andre Norton (Witch World novels, Scent of Magic, other sci-fi and fantasy)
Georgette Heyer (hilarious romances and murder mysteries)
Lloyd Alexander (thoughtful kids books and fantasy)
Joan Aiken (ditto)
Jane Austen (Romances and social commentary)
Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles and Sorcery and Cecilia (Romances, social commentary, fantasy)
Diana Wynne Jones (Humor, great friendships, adventure and social commentary)

Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy and it's followup Paladin's Legacy by Elizabeth Moon (epic and thoughtful fantasy)
Lord of the Rings & the Hobbit
Harry Potter
Miss Marple by Agatha Christie
The War God's Own series by David Weber (standard epic fantasy done solidly, kind of a guilty pleasure)
Jurassic Park & Timeline by Michael Crichton
Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Narnia by C.S Lewis
Blackcollar series, or Icarus Hunt, and the Star Wars series by Timothy Zahn (sci-fi adventures). It's hard to go wrong with Zahn, just avoid his Cobra series, the science is really laughable in them.

Comic series with exceptional writing:
Order of the Stick (epic fantasy adventure with humor, good plots and characters)
Avatar the Last Airbender (epic fantasy following a great award-winning TV show)

Also DM of the Rings(gaming and Lord of the Rings parody) and Darths & Droids(gaming and Star Wars parody), but they're not the same caliber as the others.

Note about Cassandra Claire - I read her stuff back when it was Harry Potter fanfics, before it turned out she'd plagarized a bunch of other people's work and then took everything down to go pro. I also picked up one of her books on a whim. I don't think she's a great writer, and I do think she's got terrible professional ethics (to put it mildly).

[timebug]

All of the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes canon,
The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian,
The Silmarillion/Hobbit/Lord of The Rings cycle,
The Jack Reacher series by Lee Child,
The Peter Diamond series by Peter Lovesey,
The Jeeves and Wooster series by PG Wodehouse,
The MC Beaton 'Agatha Raisin' series
Also the MC Beaton 'Hamish Macbeth' series,
Neil Munro's trilogy of 'Para Handy' books,
All Of Dick Francis thrillers
and many many more!

[curtw]

Originally Posted by taosaur

If we're going with "open" episodic series as opposed to multi-volume epics, I mostly shy away from them, but my favorites are Butcher's Dresden Files and C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner.



Surely you don't mean Uplift? For me Heaven's Reach really, how would you say, uplifted the whole series.

Yep, Uplift. I'm looking for a continuation of the story of Herbie.

[Xanthe]

Sharon Lee & Steve Miller's Liaden Universe series
David Weber's Honor Harrington series
David Weber & John Ringo's Empire of Man series
Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire series
Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series
C. E. Murphy's The Walker Papers series
Seanan McGuire's October Daye series
Terri Reid's Mary O'Reilly series
Jean Johnson's Theirs Not To Reason Why series
Tanya Huff's Confederation series
Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chan series
Elizabeth Peters' Vicky Bliss series

Ann Aguirre's The Dred Chronicles series
Carol O'Connell's Mallory series
Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series
Tony Dunbar's Tubby Dubonnet series
Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series
Judith Rock's Charles du Luc Mysteries
C. S. Harris' Sebastian St. Cyr series
Ariana Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series
P. D. James' Inspector Dalgleish series
Pip Ballentine & Tee Morris' Ministry of Peculiar Occurences series
Gay Hendicks' Tenzing Norbu series

[bshar489]

I enjoyed the Jay Leicester Mysteries Series by J C Simmons. It has some aviation/airplane references as the main character was a former pilot. It's been awhile since I read the series, but if I remember right, there is a bit of violence and some graphic passages, but on the whole I thought it was good and the the ending of the last book was well done.

Bergette

[Rbneader]

I had already replied to this thread and forgot. Oops.

[49Kat]

Originally Posted by niveous

I second Outlander! On The Fiery Cross now, and 49Kat, you're right, it's sooo tough to wade through...

Sorry, I'm late getting back to this thread.

Don't give up! If memory serves (it's been a few years since I read this book, though), it gets better after the first couple of hundred pages or so. .