# "10 Book Series So Addictive, You Never Want Them to End" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680 "2013-11-24T17:15:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/21 "2013-11-24T23:15:49Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Robert Anton Wilson’s [Historical Illuminatus Chronicles.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Historical_Illuminatus_Chronicles) Three novels, intended as a pentalogy (because, you know, Law of Fives), but came down with a critical case of [Author Existence Failure](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AuthorExistenceFailure). ☹ There was more than 15 years between the last book and his death. I don’t think there would be a 4th one if he lived another 20. ---
**Author:** ![Wednesday\_Evening](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Wednesday\_Evening](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wednesday_Evening)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/22 "2013-11-25T00:06:00Z")
I **love** the Company series by Kage Baker. I forget how many novels there are (eight, plus two short-story compilations?), but she manages to tie everything up nicely in the end, if with the help of some deus ex machina in the last book. The first book, In the Garden of Iden, is a little slow, but the series picks up after that. The premise is that in the 24th century a company invents time travel and immortality, but both have glitches. The result is that The Company sends operatives back in time to recruit natives, who are made immortal and given certain augmentations. The immortals now travel through time “the slow way” and live and work for The Company throughout history. The Company knows everything that happens in recorded time until July 9th, 2355. So the mystery is: who is the Company, what is their ultimate objective (besides making money) and what happens on July 9th, 2355? Since it is a time travel series, some of the novels are set in the past, and some in the future, but with generally the same overall cast of characters. Kage Baker passed away in 2010 so there will be no more Company stories. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/23 "2013-11-25T00:20:47Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > **2) The Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold** > I got through four of these, and while I was entertained for a while, even by book four (following Bujold’s recommended order) it started to feel like each book was going to have the same format. I’m not sure I’ll continue them. There are major shifts in format as you continue through the series. It’s definitely not just “Miles Has Another Adventure”. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/24 "2013-11-25T00:35:22Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > A very very silly series, in my opinion, and not very well-written. It the Napoleonic Wars with fighting dragons. A big part of my problem was due to me being a biologist, and the author clearly hadn’t spent even a moment considering how the existence of a species of very large, flying, _intelligent_ predator would have changed both evolutionary and human history. If you can choke down the gigantic wad of disbelief, you might be able to enjoy it. I read the first two or three. The stories weren’t bad, but I couldn’t swallow the main premise: That these dragons existed, and yet history was unchanged to the point that England was fighting Napoleon. Bleah. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Lurker\_Above](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Lurker\_Above](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lurker_Above)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/25 "2013-11-25T00:46:51Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Plus, the intelligence of the dragons varies, and their impact varies, depending on where they live. They’re simply weapons in England, but they influence policy in China. But imagine what kind of economic effects having such enormous carnivores would have on society. You have to wonder if humans would have domesticated sheep/cows/pigs in a world with these dragons! Even if you somehow got a world that looks kinda-like Napoleonic-era Earth your agricultural productivity is pretty low to sustain many dragons. They’d have to be displacing a pretty serious percentage of you non-agricultural population and I never got a sense that the author addressed this. I haven’t read the entire series though. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/26 "2013-11-25T01:35:03Z")
In Temeraire’s defense, the world doesn’t have a lot of dragons, and breeding is controlled, except in the wild. And in the wild, the dragons ate wild animals. Novik does talk about the difficulty and expense of keeping the dragons supplied with meat. Their diet was supplemented with grains and fish, when available. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/27 "2013-11-25T03:31:20Z")
I see no mention of Zelazny’s **Amber** series, so I’ll mention it. Really enjoyed them. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/28 "2013-11-25T03:58:48Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > In Temeraire’s defense, the world doesn’t have a lot of dragons, and breeding is controlled, except in the wild. And in the wild, the dragons ate wild animals. > > Novik does talk about the difficulty and expense of keeping the dragons supplied with meat. Their diet was supplemented with grains and fish, when available. Yeah. I agree with AuntiePa here - there are lots of details scattered through the books (and, particularly, in the ‘appendix’ to book 1) which address this pretty clearly. In particular: #1: There really AREN’T that many wild dragons. #2: Wild dragons are MUCH smaller than their domesticated counterparts, due to both differences in diet (a dragon that gets fed a cow every day while it is growing up grows up much bigger than a dragon that doesn’t) and breeding (Humans have been doing controlled dragon breeding programs for some time, and have quite deliberately selected for larger breeds in a number of cases.) All that said, I felt the series as a whole was somewhat uneven; I greatly enjoyed book 1, books 2 and 3 were okay, 4 was kindof weak, 5 was pretty good, 6, not so much, 7, up from six, maybe on the scale of 3. So read the first book, anyway. As for the general gist of these recommendations, I’m familiar with a few of the others as well - Discworld really needs no introduction, though it’s certainly uneven. (Though it’s mostly that the earlier books aren’t as good as the later ones). Miles Vorkosigan is generally a lot of fun, but I wouldn’t want to ‘binge’ on the series. It’s much more fun to just pick one up from time to time. I also agree with **Saintly Loser** that this list is grossly incomplete without Aubrey/Maturin. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/29 "2013-11-25T04:05:34Z")
I wish it was still going Peter F. Hamilton - Night’s Dawn Trilogy. Pure Space Opera with souls coming back from the dead. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/30 "2013-11-25T11:48:33Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Yeah. I agree with AuntiePa here - there are lots of details scattered through the books (and, particularly, in the ‘appendix’ to book 1) which address this pretty clearly. In particular: > > #1: There really AREN’T that many wild dragons. > #2: Wild dragons are MUCH smaller than their domesticated counterparts, due to both differences in diet (a dragon that gets fed a cow every day while it is growing up grows up much bigger than a dragon that doesn’t) and breeding (Humans have been doing controlled dragon breeding programs for some time, and have quite deliberately selected for larger breeds in a number of cases.) I seem to recall a scene in Africa where the dragons swoop down and effortlessly snatch a few elephants here and there for their dinner - this despite there having been wild dragons around, presumably, since forever. There’s no way something as large as an elephant would have evolved in a world with dragons as predators without some sort of defense. If nothing else, dragons would provide selective pressure against size. The largest elephants would be the most tempting targets, so over time, we’d predict elephants to shrink - small, agile elephants who can run and hide would do best. Just one example of what bugged me. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/31 "2013-11-25T12:47:43Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Before I bother looking all of these up, what is the genre? If it’s fantasy/SF, I likely won’t waste my time. Well, this is SDMB, so fantasy/SF is nearly a foregone conclusion. I looked up a couple, and that’s what they were. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/32 "2013-11-25T14:48:30Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > **6) …The Watch Series by Sergei Lukyanenko** > I just downloaded the first of these. A personal favorite; I can geek about the Others and the Treaty with the best of them at this point. IMO, this is another instance of a series that has weakened as it goes on; YMMV, of course. The two movies (Night Watch and Day Watch) are rather loose adaptations, but visually stunning and worth watching; if nothing else, they’ll give you visual/auditory stand-ins for Gesar, Anton and the rest. Also, there’s a sly little joke in one of the later books about the excesses of the films that you would never catch if you’ve never read them. > [@](#): > > 1. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe Surprised to see this here–it’s fairly rough sledding. Wolfe is a DENSE writer; you have to work for your literary dinner with him. That said, it’s worth it. I recently (finally) finished this one off, and aside from feeling like I only got maybe 25% of what was going on, I quite enjoyed it. > [@](#): > > 1. The Temeraire books by Naomi Novik Count me in with the others calling this one good but uneven. I adored the first few books, slogged my way through the next few, then we seemed to get back to form for another book or two until we hit the most recent book, which I couldn’t force myself to finish. We’re looking, I believe, at one more in the series; I’ll just read the wikipedia summary of this one when that one comes out. 😛 I’ll specifically recommend the audiobooks here–that’s how I experienced most of the series, and the narration/voice acting is excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/33 "2013-11-25T15:15:21Z")
Pterry’s Discworld also has another advantage. It is really five series built into one. You have the Death-centric books, you have the Witch centered books, you have the Rincewind/Wizards/Unseen University centered books, you have the Watch books and, most recently, the Moist books. All of them have their own story arcs an most don’t intersect completely so you can follow the lines you want and skips books you don’t and not miss much. There are also a few that are “standalone” stories that don’t really intersect with the other lines at all (_Moving Pictures, Small Gods, Pyramids, Monstrous Regiment_) ---
**Author:** ![Dioptre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dioptre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dioptre)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/34 "2013-11-25T15:57:39Z")
How about “The Laundry Files” by Charles Stross? Hopefully hasn’t ended, but would be very disappointing if it did. For those who haven’t read it - think “IT Department” meets “Call of Cthulu”. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/35 "2013-11-25T16:05:00Z")
I wouldn’t use the name “Dendarii Dame” if I wasn’t a major fan of Bujold. I also admire Pratchett tremendously. I’ve only read one of the Company novels, and thought it was just okay. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/36 "2013-11-25T17:02:52Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > FWIW, the only one of these series I’ve started to read is Terry Pratchett. I began with The Color Of Magic and found the text so unreadable, I quit after about five pages. You are me and I claim my five pounds. I was suckered by the mention of “Hitch-hikers” on the back cover. Bad mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/37 "2013-11-25T17:21:17Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Surprised to see this here–it’s fairly rough sledding. Wolfe is a DENSE writer; you have to work for your literary dinner with him. That said, it’s worth it. I recently (finally) finished this one off, and aside from feeling like I only got maybe 25% of what was going on, I quite enjoyed it. I read Wolfe’s series back in high school thanks to a relative offloading his SF book club purchases on me - it did take me lots longer to read than most of the books I received that way, but I loved it, and found myself wanting to revisit the series recently. I will reread books just to get more out of them, but I suspect I’ll get much more out of them this time around! ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/38 "2013-11-25T17:31:17Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > [http://io9.com/5972411/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end](http://io9.com/5972411/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end) > \*\* > 4) Seanan(corrected) McGuire’s October Daye novels\*\* > Other than title, author, and this article’s recommendation, I know nothing about these These are good - some of the better urban fantasy I’ve read, and I’ll definitely buy the next when it comes out, but for me they don’t fit the description of “so addictive you never want them to end” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/39 "2013-11-25T17:37:44Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > You are me and I claim my five pounds. > > I was suckered by the mention of “Hitch-hikers” on the back cover. Bad mistake. Yes, bad mistake to stop reading. The earlier books were not as well written and tended to try to be more zany and humorous. Although there are some uneven books in there he quickly grew into a brilliant author. Some of the books in the series are stunningly good. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680/40 "2013-11-25T18:12:26Z")
Is there a specific definition of “series” that I need to know about; because I’m a really big fan of Michael Connelly. I will continue to read any book that has the character Mickey Haller or the character Harry Bosch. Heck, even with Bosch’s character I’d be OK with him continuing the series with his daughter as the lead. Too bad I can’t add Stephen Hunter’s character Bob Lee Swagger. That series has really derailed. I wish he would have followed the above idea and just changed the story to be about Bob ‘The Nailer’s’ daughter. That would have been much better than what really happened to the series. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-book-series-so-addictive-you-never-want-them-to-end/674680.md?page=3)