Best series

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The Eternal Champion Series.
Micheal Moorcock is a genius! A genius, I say!

 

i thought it was Irene and Dor, the guy who could talk to inanimate objects.

 

Although I haven't read the complete series, because they are a little hard to find, my favorite series of late is the Necroscope series by Brian Lumley. Strange thing is that I don't read a lot of horror but this series is fascinating. The concept is original and the characters are believable. The fact that the main character is able to talk to any dead person is not creepy at all...just think of the possibilities Einstein, Plato, Dante, Vermeer, Picasso....the list goes on.

 

Wow, that brings back old memories. It has been years since I last picked up a Xanth book. Anyways, Irene and Dor were a couple. Bink was married to Chameleon. If I remember correctly the first six books were good and the series tanked after that. Actually, I think there was one later book in the series about a regenerating barbarian that I remember liking. However, given that I probably have not read the last fifteen or so books I really can't say if the series ever got better.

 

I'll second Rick Cooks Black Company and add the Garret PI series. They're the ones that have a type of metal in the title, you can read them out of order but they make more sense if read in order as they do refer back to events in previous books.

Bujold and the Miles series

L.E. Moddest and the Ecologict series

James Alan Gardner and his Expendables. I got Trapped on the recommendation of a friend and then had to go get all the rest. The thing about Trapped is that you have a Monk, Paladin, Cavalier, Psi, Cleric, Mage and Rogue as the main characters but set in a SF world rather then fantasy.

Elizabeth Moon and the Paksenarrion series

 

What I've read:

Tad Williams - The Dragonbone Chair, this one is very good

Frank Herbert - The Dune, etc... (last one is Chapterhouse Dune) I won' waste my keyboard to write it's a masterwork.

JRRT-LoTR - waste of words either

Elrik of Melnibone by Moorcock - I haven't read all of it, but the beggining is quite good.

Gibson - Neuromancer, Count Zerro, Mona Lisa Overdrive - what I've read from them is great

Eddings - Belgariad, Elenium - My God! These books are so boring with their predictable and simple plot, no thrill and allmighty characters you can't get worried about, and still I managed to read three of them! Interesting...

Ursula LeGuin - Wizard of Earthsea etc... - very good.

Andrzej Sapkowski - Wiedzmin - great but not translated in english, friends...

Terry Pratchet - Discworld - some are greatt (fun). Some are not very great however. And there's abou thirty of them.

Salvatore - Drizzt - Not bad, it is interesting and entertaining (but it's only simple reading - no great literature).

 

Robert Jordan-wheel of time
terry goodkind-sword of truth
melany rawn-dragonpirnce
margaret weis and tracy hickman-annotatated chronicles
and of course lotr

 

Tad Williams' Otherland series is an incredibly well written blend of SF/fantasy. Depth of characterisation is unprecedented - but then again he does have about 4000 pages to use. Some parts of the middle two books feel a bit like padding but certainly contribute to the overall feel and character development. Also, unlike wheel of time for example, it is clear that the plot for the entire series has been thought out well in advance. Indeed, some off-hand remarks in the first 20 pages are only explained in the later half of the last book! Great fun!

 

Has anybody ever read Sara Douglas? Her first trilogy was called The Battle Axe trilogy which extended into another trilogy called "something"? However the name of the Books in the second trilogy are called Sinner, Crusader and something else. I personally think that Sara Douglas had something going seeing that that was her first major publication (I could be mistaken). However her second series underwent something I like to call "David Eddings syndrome" which was repitation of a stale idea and reduncy in the storyline. However I thiunk her first series is worth a read.

As to other series, The wheel of Time is my all time Fab. However if I have to be honest about it, I think that Farseer trilogy is most probably the best series that was ever written and thats excluding LOTR (That series is sacrosanct). The Liveship Traders was a dissapointment. The Tawny Man series... I'm still formalating an opinion since I havn't read the last one.

Other series that I liked were, Cronicles of Thomas Covenenat as I just hated Covenant's "guts".

 

The Riddlemaster Trilogy by Patricia McKillip. People are always saying something's as good as Tolkein, but this really is, while being totally different.

The Taran books by Lloyd Alexander are also phenomenal. The Black Cauldron's probably the best in it - do not think of the Disney movie here, totally different from the book. The 1st book in this series is The Book of Three.

Mercedes Lackey's books are fun as well, but IMO she's been losing it for a while. The Talia and Vanyel trilogies are her best, along with By the Sword, an independent novel which fits in the same world.

 

If we're talking about great series, mention would have to start for me with The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson. It's basically a must-read, with a weaving of fantacy and human nature to put Tolkien to shame. Speaking of which, I have to say that LOTR was "good". Meaning that, though the story and fantacy were nice, the author's style bored me to tears... but tat is to be borne, for that did father fantacy, I guess.

Another excellent series is Mordant's Need , also by Donaldson.

Let's see, what else... oh, don't forget the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Personally I didn't particularly like it, but if you're hard-core fantacy and into unbeatable heroes, it's a good choice.

Next is Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy, beginning with The Assassin's Apprentice. Good story, not a bad style, annoying lead character (I take this as normal in most books), with some magic too.

Beyond this, I can't think of much really good fantacy (in the usual sense) that hasn't already been mentioned. Also, I"m tired of typing... so, two more series to leave you with: Harry Potter by JK Rowling (trust me, despite all the hype and the fact that it begins as a child's novel, it gets better and is quite a good, light read); and the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice (which I'm sure most of you have already read). Oh, and The Mayfair Witches also by Anne Rice.