Best fantasy series....

[vanye]

This is the point where I am tempted to add the Deverry series (Katharine Kerr) to the list.

Upps - doneit.

Well ... then, The Dagger and the Coin (Daniel Abraham) ain't so bad, either.

 

[Heather Myst]

I know it is not a part of a series but I just wanted to mention how much Best Served Cold by Abercrombie kicks ass. His style is always gritty but with lots of humor.

 

[BAYLOR]

What? nobody has mentioned Discworld yet?

 

[svalbard]

This is the point where I am tempted to add the Deverry series (Katharine Kerr) to the list.

Upps - doneit.

Well ... then, The Dagger and the Coin (Daniel Abraham) ain't so bad, either.

A brilliant series. Happy it was mentioned. I would also add Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series. Barbara Hambly's Darwarth books are also a firm favourite from my youth. The Deryni and Darwath series would both make my top twenty. I say twenty because if you make it a top ten you are leaving too many great series out.

 

[vanye]

And no list of fantasy series could ever be complete without David Eddings. Start with the Belgariad, follow up with the Malloreon and if you are minded to read more, take the rest chronologically.

 

[BAYLOR]

Fafhard and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber . A very quirky and excellent series.

 

[SilentRoamer]

I never really gelled with Malazan - I have all the books in the series on a shelf but never made it past GotM for some reason - it just felt flat to me. Although based on a number of recs from people with similar tastes I will try it again.

My favourite single fantasy author has to be David Gemmell.

My favourite fantasy series is probably The Second Apocalypse by R. Scott Bakker - so dark and bleak it makes Abercrombie look like a teddy bears picnic. The philosophy and prose is fantastic throughout. This is a really under read series IMO and could become a cult classic.

 

[Bugg]

^^ Bakker's books are the only ones I thought were going to come close to Erikson - for me - but they fell short in the end. The Warrior Prophet was awesome, though.

The series has so many unique elements that all work in very unpredictable ways. You really can't fully expect anything from anyone. One repeating complaint that I have noticed, and which I could partly sign myself, is that pretty much every character often goes through this philosophical monolog that some people may find tedious and ponderous. Sometimes it slows things down, but you may get used to it and start to enjoy it after awhile, as I did.

I also appreciate the merciless manner in which Erikson cultivates clues that can be resolved thousands of pages later. And BTW, this is probably the only series for me that has been better as a reread. Erikson has this great skill to generate characters that are full of mysticism and epic-ass coolness. Once in a while, these characters encounter in an earth shattering way, or in a way that makes your brain hurt from thinking about all the possible plot derivates. And foremostly, the world feels alive because everything seems to affect everything, sometimes it's prominent and sometimes it's something minor, but it's always there.

I like this series so much that I have started to distance myself from it to give other books and series a chance. It really has become the thing to which I compare every other fantasy book in my life.

Same for me I loved Malazan first time around, second time through was a revelatory experience, picking up on all the foreshadowing that came to fruition several books down the line. Unfortunately I've never been able to get on with Esslemont's Malazan Empire series, and I wasn't keen on Erikson's last one (Forge of Darkness) at all, either.

 

[WaylanderToo]

And no list of fantasy series could ever be complete without David Eddings. Start with the Belgariad, follow up with the Malloreon and if you are minded to read more, take the rest chronologically.

I'd agree and disagree - I'd have Eddings in there, however I'd make it the Elenium

 

[vanye]

That would be ... the rest chronologically. They're all somewhat interchangeable in my book. Fun reads, though, every single one of them.

 

[SilentRoamer]

^^ Bakker's books are the only ones I thought were going to come close to Erikson - for me - but they fell short in the end. The Warrior Prophet was awesome, though.

The Great Ordeal is out later this year - the first part of the concluding volume for the Aspect Emperor series. According to some articles I have read it blows the lid open on a lot of the series mysteries.

The Warrior Propher is probably my favourite of the series to date but The White Luck Warrior from the Aspect Emperor Trilogy is also good. Have you read all 5 of the volumes so far?

I will say this is one of those series that isbetter on a re-read. I expect when I start Malazan again I will probably end up picking it up a lot more.

 

[BAYLOR]

I'd agree and disagree - I'd have Eddings in there, however I'd make it the Elenium

The Belgariad is his best series , I found it to be quite good.

 

[Randy M.]

Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith: One volume collection of a series of short stories set in the mythic future land of Zothique.


Randy M.

 

[BAYLOR]

Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith: One volume collection of a series of short stories set in the mythic future land of Zothique.


Randy M.

I read that collection sometime ago . Magnificent volume.