I’m gun shy because I didn’t know that the Eragon series had become a quartet till I finished book 3. I was expecting ting closure and I didn’t get it. Took me years to get around to reading 4 because I was so ticked off. So I am happy for the third to be the end of this story line but I want to know going into it lol
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Eragon… I get the feeling on that series that someone pointed out to the author after the first two books that he was basically writing Star Wars with dragons, so he did major rewrites for the third book to make it not end up being Return of the Jedi. But the rewrite ended up causing it to be two books. (Although really, those last two dragged… much too long with nothing interesting happening.)
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Here are a few of my likes.
- The Expanse sci-fi series is a lot of fun. I honestly think they try to do TOO much… it is part noir detective, part Lovecraftian horror, part Larry Niven hard sci-fi with fusion drives and an Earth/Belt conflict… but it’s still a gas. Recommended for any SF fan.
- No love here for the Chronicles of Amber? Zelazny was one of the greats, though the stories have some moments that seem pretty awkward to modern sensibilities. (I am pretty sure he slaps women to calm them down once in a while!) But the story and the setting are epic.
- The short story Luminous by Greg Egan is something I re-read once a year or so.
- A Colder War is a Lovecraftian/SF/cold war mashup novelette by Charles Stross and you can read it free at that link.
A few of my dislikes:
- I thought the Dresden books started strong and then got weaker as they strayed from more restrained “urban fantasy” into plain old “fantasy.” The coolest part of those books was Dresden being an unusual guy in the normal world. Once he was just another supernatural figure the books lost their charm for me.
- I thought the Kingkiller books were mediocre. I appear to be the only one though!
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If you look at it, he seems to have a mashup of a bunch of Sci-Fi and Fantasy stories in there. He’s got influences from Dragonriders of Pern, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings just to name a few that I remember right now. On the one hand I don’t like that he didn’t have a completely original set of ideas, I credit him on the other hand to weave other people’s ideas into a story that I truly enjoyed (at least as a whole, there was a lot of slogging through unnecessary details, but hey he wrote these as a late-teen, early 20s author just starting out).
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I’m a Zelazny fan! Doorways In The Sand is my favorite although I also loved the Nine Princes in Amber series, at least the earlier ones.
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Hey no one said you had to agree 
personally I’m a sucker for a stubborn witty hero who throws down with big nasties. I think the Dresden files have gotten better the further into the series we get but I’m not going to throw mud if you don’t agree
I forgot Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis.
Sure, ok, they are graphic novels, but they are a series and they are incredible.
If you enjoy Hunter S. Thompson, comics, and dystopian futures, it is an absolute must-read.
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Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams
Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams
Sleeping Late on Judgement Day by Tad Williams
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
War After Armageddon by Ralph Peters
and one I have read several times, Armor by John Steakley
and a lot of the others mentioned above,
including The Darwath Series by Barbara Hambly
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- Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
- Kingkiller Chronicles - Patrick Rothfus
- Dirk Gently - Douglas Adams
- Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
- Harry Potter - J.K.Rowling
- American Gods/Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
- Discworld - Terry Pratchett
- Dune - Frank Herbert
- Shadow Saga/Enders Game - Orson Scott Card*
- Drizzt Do’Urden books - R.A. Salvatore**
Another couple book series I read recently that were good:
Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie.
Takeshi Kovacs novels by Richard K. Morgan
*I liked Enders game a lot, but not the rest of the series as much. I liked the Enders Shadow series better then the main series as a whole.
**Fun story. A guy I used to work with knew I liked D&D. He was telling me how his friend Bob on his softball team writes D&D themed books. His friend Bob is R.A. Salvatore.
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You seem to have many if the same ones on you list that I have. Have you tried Brent Weeks or Brandon Sanderson books yet?
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@jbv already recommended The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I wholeheartedly agree with that recommendation.
Another favorite of mine is the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. I recommend reading them in the order they were written not in the story’s chronological order, this way you get to experience Asimov’s progression as a writer over 50 years.
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2000 AD, Does that count? Especially Rouge Trooper and Slaine.
Gemmell and Eddings (everything).
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (just awesome).
Neal Stephenson (again, everything).
Ernest Cline (esp. Ready Player One.)
Raymond E. Feist.
Richard Dawkins (The Ancestors Tale and The Blind Watchmaker).
Noam Chomsky
Anne McCaffrey
James A. Mitchener
My guilty secret…
Harry Harrison! They’re bad, but so, so good.
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OOOOooooo, second guilty secret.
I’m listening to Battlefield Earth on Audible.
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No, but I’ve been looking for some new books to read. Which do you recommend I start with?
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I’m rereading The Lightbringer series right now since the newest one just came out and I really like them. Mistborn was an incredible series and the first trilogy is finished if you’re looking for a set of books with an ending
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yea, my problem with the series in the end I think was you were witnessing his maturation (both personal and as an author) and that can get rather painful 
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William Gibson: I wait for his books more than any other at the moment.
Neal Stephenson: I enjoy reading his books more than any at the moment
John LeCarré: He described what I feel more than anyone else, working for an institution that compromises individual freedom and moral choice.
Harry Potter: I found out that my childhood was not over. Yeah!
Dragonriders of Pern: read them all and loved them all.
The two books that most recently blew my mind and altered my consciousness of history, the human person and the absolutely breathtaking range of English vocabulary in the hands of masters. Evidently somebody thought I needed to wait to grow up before I could read these. I’m so glad I had turned 50 before reading Gravity’s Rainbow and Infinite Jest.
I haven’t finished a novel since the Glowforge project began. Can you believe it? I have the Three Body Problem, Seveneves and The Water Knife all unfinished.
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Both on mylist 
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You what now!
You haven’t finished Seveneves?
Love that book.
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I like that one too – by far the best book that LRH didn’t write. 
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