Favourite Book Series

[lifesapity]

I've always been an avid reader, ever since I first entered my high school's library many many years ago.
I have read many novels and thought I might share some I love with you, and I thought you may do the same. Perhaps I will pick some of your favorites up when I get the chance.

Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss

Spoiler

An autobiography of a once famous now reclusive musician, arcanist and adventurer named Kvothe.

If you like fantasy novels, I'm sure you have heard of this book series or the author who created it, if you haven't read it head down to your local library and pick it up. You wont regret it.

The Three Worlds Cycle by Ian Irvine

Spoiler

A Darwinian Fantasy where 4 races fight for survival.

It's a lot harder for me to recommend this series to other people without knowing them first. To start with it is 11 books long each being quite long, Secondly the plot is quite slow paced (mainly due to the writer liking to describe every detail of everything) and lastly because it's not your average story.
If none of that puts you off give it a shot and tell me what you think.

 

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Spoiler

Harry Dresden works as the world's only "consulting wizard", accepting supernatural cases from both human and non-human clients, as well as the Chicago PD's Special Investigation unit.

The book series I used to lure my partner into reading fantasy novels, and that should be praise enough.

The Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks

Spoiler

The people in this world who are capable of magic are called Drafters. They draft light from their surroundings and turn it into tangible luxin. Each colour of light creates a luxin with unique properties. Most people can only draft one colour of light, some can draft two, even fewer can use three or more colors. The Prism can use all of them. There is only one born to each generation and they keep the magic of the world in balance.

A series I just finished recently that I could not put down, reminded me a lot of the Avatar in some ways.

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks

Spoiler

The story of a young boy trained to be an assassin by the best in the business.

A great read, some of it a little on the dark side but enjoyable none the less.

The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist

Spoiler

An old classic, that still shines bright today.

The book series I'm in the middle of reading right now, thought I better have a look since it is the father of many modern fantasy novels.

 

Jack West Jr Series by Matthew Reilly

Spoiler

Indiana Jones meets The Da Vinci Code in a totally over the top non stop nitrous fueled race all around the globe.

Over the top in the most glorious fashion.

PS: Thank you @Lugruf for giving me the idea.

Edited March 26, 2017 by lifesapity

[Wolfox]

mine would be Cronicles of Ancient Darkness. I started reading one of them in the worst year of my live and it was one of the things keeping me from going completely insane

[Daniel Blackworth]

Most of my favorite series are listed in my profile, but there are some I haven't mentioned due to the interests part of my profile being a bit outdated. I'd also like to promote my favorite books, so I'll give a short description.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

This series is a fantasy series that shows the adventures of teenage Greek demigods as they try to save the world from destructiom. The Greek mythology stories are incorporated well and the characters of Greek mythology blend in well with the modern setting. I really enjoyed the series as it incorporated good plot devices and the adventures of the characters were quite interesting.

The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

This series is a continuation of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. In this series, the author incorporates Roman mythology and how it connects with Greek mythology. This time, there are 7 main characters who are on a mission to stop the Earth Mother Gaea from destroying humanity. I loved this series more because it had a deeper story, more diverse characters, and the places they explored was a much greater range as it featured not only North America, but also Europe and Africa. My personal favorite character in this series is Leo.

Endgame Series by James Frey

This series is kind of an odd selection of mine. The story has a bit of similarity with the Hunger Games series wherein a number of people are selected (this time 12), one from each ancient civilization, and they are asked to do a game, which is Endgame. Unlike the Hunger Games which asks that they murder each other until one is left, Endgame was all about finding three 'keys' which can be found in virtually anywhere of the world and killing was only secondary, although it was important in order to reduce competition. I enjoyed the dark story it featured and it was sad when some of my favorite characters died esepcially when I got attached to them.

Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer

What if you can go to a world wherein fairy tales and stories come to life? The Land of Stories was quite an interesting read, although it's not yet finished. It was an amateur author's work, but I really loved the way the author portrayed fairy tale characters like Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Goldilocks. The way he connected different characters and stories with each other was quite well done, and he also added original characters which further developed the story. In later installments, classics were also explored while new stories were also shown, and these segments were quite as good as the first few installments.

Mortal Instrument series by Cassandra Clare

What if angels and demons existed in this world, hidden from all humanity except for a select few people? This was one of those series that I read because I felt interested at the cover. I expected that it would just be a plain fiction story, but I didn't expect that it would pull me deeper into it. I loved the way the main characters who were teenagers deal with the supernatural phenomenon they experienced (as they fought with fairies, warlocks demons, and other creatures) while also dealing with common teenager stuff like love. This series is romantic, comedic, and serious at the same time.

Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

For some reason, I liked this series even though it was a series wherein people were forced to kill (quite brutally even) each other until only one survived. The concept of this series was quite interesting wherein only a select few of humanity was privileged to live a good life and the greater majority lived in poverty, and every year 24 people will be selected from this majority to play in the Hunger Games. The first part was a prelude to how the majority intends to rebel to the Capitol which was the great power at the time. The second and third especially showed how the people tried to fight the Capitol and they were able to succeed, although it came at the expense of many other people who died for this cause.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

What if magic is true after all, only that it's only given to a few people? The Harry Potter series was quite a marvelous series. Magic was its main thing and made it different from other series. It showed how the main character, that is, Harry Potter, was different from other magic given people and how he grew as the series continued. His valiant mission against Voldemort who was the one who ended his parents' lives alongside his friends served as the main driving force which made his school life different and aside from this mission, I really loved the normal interactions of the characters with each other as they were explored in tiny yet significant tidbits of the story.

And before I forget.... the book series which served as an inspiration for my username, Mr. Divergent
The Divergent series by Veronica Roth

What if people followed a single trait and embodied it as their way of life? In the Divergent series, people pursued a single trait i.e Amity (Kindness), Candor (Honest), Dauntless (Brave), Erudite (Intelligent), Abnegation (Selfless) and they embodied this value in every aspect of living. They lived in different factions and helped each other to grow with their virtue. This kind of division was brought about by their ancestor's belief that conflict existed because people lacked a certain kind of virtue and the difference in the belief of these ancestors led to having 5 factions (can't explore much on this one because spoilers). The Divergent were people who did not only have this one trait and instead, they had two or more traits within them. The conflict of this story involves the people who did not want the Divergents to be the catalysts of change and improvement in society and the Divergents and their supporters who wanted to make mankind better by trying to make individuality and uniqueness a thing once again in society.

These are my favorite book series. I could write about a few more series, but I'm a bit exhausted from writing descriptions, so I'll just give it here as text.

- Maze Runner series by James Dashner
- Gone series

I hope you try to read these books. I love deep fiction books, mostly because, I like to explore concepts that do not belong to reality, which may have been brought about by an unconscious desire to live in a world of fantasy. Fiction is quite interesting, and I hope you may try to delve into its deep waters and hidden crevices.

[Lugruf]

Nobody's going to mention a song of ice and fire? Really? Well, I guess it'll have to be me

 

A song of ice and fire by George R. R. Martin

 

The story happens in a late medieval / early modern age based world, with some fantasy elements. A song of ice and fire is mainly the story of the noble families of one of the kingdoms of this world. The element that makes it noteworthy in its genre is that each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character. Thus, the reader gets the perspective of each side in the conflict, and all characters appear as real human beings acting towards their interests. A song of ice and fire kills the concepts of good and evil, there's no black and white, everything and everyone is grey. If you're interested in giving a different twist to a genre saturated with Tolkienish stories in which infinitely good characters will fight an infinitely evil villain for the fate of the world, this is your saga.

There's also a TV series based in the books called Game of thrones but I haven't seen it so I won't give an opinion about it.

 

[Anti_Hero]

For me there are a few that I love

The harry potter series

Spoiler

Because they were the books that made me love reading, and thus have a special place for me

 

As you all may know its a story about a boy who survived against the dark lord and thus his destinity is to defeat him in a magic world

 

The books from Agatha Christie

Spoiler

She isnt the crime queen for nothing

 

All the books that I had the pleasure to read were unpredictable to some degree (or all of it) they are quite interesting even if they were written so many years ago

 

As stated above the Song of Ice and Fire

 

 

And soon I will read the Lord of the rings series and I hope I will love them

[Tartar]

@Anti_Hero You could've mentioned the Hercule Poirot series of books, since most of her other works are one-offs.

But yeah, Agatha Christie (AKA the poor man's Phoenix Wright) are always great fun. I've only read 3 of her works, all of them were great, but solving them sadly takes too long,  for me to read them too often. My conscience simply won't allow me to read the solution before solving every part of the mystery myself, which can easily take two readings, writing several essays worth of notes, and furiously wandering across my living room carpet pondering the intricacies of life death.

 

 

On that note, this thread kinda reminded me that I've practically read no book series, as I mostly read older works. Welp uhm... Do books in volumes count as a series? No... Uhm, okay, i've got it. Foundation by Asimov was a fun read...

if only for the fact that it was a sci-fi series written over the course of 50 years, and showcases the way people thought about the technological developments of the future and how said perception evolved from the beginning of the last century to the end of it. It is a seminal piece of art that has greatly influenced the development of the modern sci-fi genre, if not practically inventing the way it's written.

[Miss Kitty]

My favorite book series is Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter. They're simple reads, but I really love the story. Right now, Erin's got three sets for Warrior Cats. Each series revolves around the four wild cat clans and their struggles to survive. In the first set, the clans face an antagonist cat who's trying to take over/destroy all clans because the cat wasn't getting things his way. The second set is about the four clans having to leave their forest due to human destruction of it. 1-2 cats of each clan travel together to find the new home and finds trouble along the way. It follows after the first set with a new generation of cats. I haven't been able to finish the third set yet, but it's about after what happened in the second set, following a new generation of cats.

 

The series has a lot of spiritual influences due to StarClan, the deceased cats of the four clans that help guide the living cats through prophecies.

 

http://www.warriorcats.com/ <--- if ya'll are interested in it. o:

 

 

Edit: Holy wowzer smokes. I went to see what else the author is doing for Warrior Cats and it turns out there's like, 6-7 sets now. >.< I need to buy them all. lol

Edited March 25, 2017 by Miss Kitty

[Jinan B]

Yay for books.

 

Top series most def A Song of Ice and Fire, mostly because even when I'm reading sample chapters for the 6th book the series is still throwing rediculous curveballs out of absolutely nowhere. (I mean really, anyone who's read a very particular WoW sample chapter will understand what I'm talking about). It's also got an absolutely beautiful amount of worldbuilding, really only second to the Lord of the Rings in my opinion. Lugrif gave a good enough description of it that I don't think I can add anything else really.

Spoiler

Unlike Lugrif, I have watched (some, up to the end of season 4 cause no spoilers please) of Game of Thrones and generally think very little of anything outside of season 1.

 

I haven't really gotten very far in it, but Stephen King's The Dark Tower is also brilliant.

Spoiler

Essentially, it tells the story of a Roland, also known as "The Gunslinger" and his persuit of the man in black (At least that's how the series starts, I'm not all that keen on saying much because a lot of clarity surrounding the events of the books are spoilers really). The series is generally notable for its pure grit, as well as how it combines the genre of fantasy and western into something really amazing.

 

Out of the other series on display, I would recommend Harry Potter; Warriors; Percy Jackson and all related literature; The Hunger Games (far more so than the movies, in this case); and Mortal Instruments.

[The darn 4th chaos emerald]

Harry Potter. Probably cliche, I know, but those are some great books. Rowling really should've just stopped with Deathly Hallows though. Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts were trash imo.

[ZEL]

I'ma just let you know that I clicked this thread for the sole purpose of mentioning the Lightbringer series, and I'm delighted to see you put it on your list.
It's my absolute fave. An honorable mention goes to Andross as a character because damn if I didn't enjoy every single scene involving this terrible badass asshole. He's an awful person, but my favourite character of the series exactly for how amazing he is at being just that.

 

I'm too lazy to summarize well, but let's try, because I wanna add anyway.

 

The Black Magician trilogy / Traitor Spy trilogy - Trudi Canavan

Spoiler

In the Allied Lands, where learning and using magic is a privilege reserved for members of the noble houses, the high society, a street girl by the name of Sonea causes the Magician's Guild of Kyralia trouble when her magical powers awaken without assistance - a feat only possible to those with enormous power.
The first book follows the guild's wild goose chase as they try to find her in spite of her increasingly desperate attempts to evade them (believing the magicians want to do her harm), whereas the second deals with her education in the guild.
Being the first commoner to have been taken into the guild in centuries, she faces incredible amounts of prejudice and finds it hard to adjust to living among the people she's despised her entire life. But she gets pulled into greater trouble when she witnesses the High Lord of the guild practising forbidden Black Magic, ultimately learning there are much worse things at play than anyone expected.

The second trilogy is a sequel to the first, but I'd be spoiling the entire first if I summarized it. There's a prequel as well - 'The Magician's Apprentice', which tells the story that leads to the creation of the Guild.
Tbh Sonea is probably one of my favourite protagonist characters I've ever followed in a series.

 

Edited March 25, 2017 by ZEL

[Candy]

I like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.

I also love the Earthsea series by Ursula Le Guin

Now that I think about it, I don't seem to read many series books...

[Felicity]

You want a fantasy book that subverts traditional heroic protagonists, go read The Travellers Gate trilogy.

 

When protagonist Simon's village is attacked by the big bad goobidy gobble Empire a new hero is revealed... and it isn't Simon. A resistance force swoops in to take this new hero away to train him and an epic saga begins, a battle between the empire and the resistance forces. But what the fuck does Simon do? His friend was abducted in the raid and he can't leave it all to the hero!

 

He goes to an eldritch abomination/location and seeks training from a mentally deranged man on how to harness that locations powers to become someone altogether stronger.

 

The story does a fantastic job of highlighting what happens when power is given to those who don't deserve it. It has a very well fleshed out magic system, which isn't quite magic per se, but the worldly lore is somewhat lacking. The trilogy definitely has a big focus on the main events and doesn't bog you down with details about the world at large very often, this is remedied in the few side stories the author has published though if that's what you like. The dialogue is snappy and engaging if not humorous and the writer uses a very clever and interesting conceit to maintain that dialogue with a lot of variation to keep you interested. It's also one of the few fantasy series that has the characters take several levels in bad-ass and keep the power scaling feeling natural thanks to the series' short length. Also it has some awesome fucking fights which, dunno if you noticed, is hard with books.

[Samtale]

3 books series

 

Lemoney Snicket My reasoning: I personally feel strongly for my siblings and these book series get that down that when your all alone that they can be the strength you need when dealing with vile individuals that would like nothing more to make your life a  living hell. I've heard it said people didn't like seeing the children go through such a vile world but for me the style of world and siblings taking care of each other made me not even notice how bad things were. My favorite characters were Klause and Justice Strauss

 

Percy Jackson,heroes of Olympus My reasoning: Not many books across in young adult books tackle greek mythos and these series just do it right. Greek myths are messed up and the books don't cherry coat that people die and the Greek gods weren't exactly moral. All the characters were unique multicultural in the case of Heroes of Olympus and you get the sense that when characters felt things for each other they also had bond before that which was refreshing. Finaly I was glad to see a greek story not depicting hades as some devil like being which I hate from other forms of media with a passion. My favorite Characters were Percy and Frank Zhang.

 

Lastly one book series I highly recommend

Howls Moving Castle trilogy My reasoning: Well as of now I've only read two books but the characers are amazing. I didn't like the protagonist of the second book at first honestly because of his views on love being a bit simplistic and he was bit of jerk. The draw of this series is they function as a fantasy mystery both books have secrets that slowly reveal themselves keeping things exciting. Also as the two books I've read so far they come off as coming of age stories that your suroundings you are born into are not the things that define you. The first one is my favorite as there is more emphasis on sophie who is

just amazing one of the best female characters I've personally ever read. My other favorite character is Calsafer 

 

 

[Ironbound]

Is this restricted to novels? Any particular genre? 

 

If not, and if it's about my general taste in books:

I tend to prefer histories, chronicles, biographies, epics, Indic mythology and works on philosophical and factual theory, especially in economics or polity. My favourites would be Chanakya's Arthashastra, Tiruvalluvar's Tirukkural, the works of Vivekananda, the original books of the Mahabharata and the historical chronicles of Antony Beevor. In literature and fiction, I've read classics in English and Indic culture in both prose and poetry (my preference being to Kalidasa, Keats, Frost and Longfellow), and works in several other genres, but I tend to prefer thriller and deduction series (in particular the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Frederick Forsyth, Jeffrey Archer, ES Gardner, Alistair McClean, etc) to romance or usual fantasy (though I appreciate the Lord of the Rings series). I also like certain styles of humour, such as the works of Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, PG Wodehouse, RK Laxman, Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, and the Asterix series of comics by Goscinny and Uderzo.