# Favorite novel series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 6, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191 "2023-12-06T19:04:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/22 "2023-12-07T05:38:16Z")
Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series is great. They are space opera set across a period of several decades. The two main characters are Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan and her son Miles Vorkosigan. ---
**Author:** ![jadielyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jadielyn/32/8808_2.png) [@jadielyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jadielyn)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/23 "2023-12-07T05:43:43Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Steven Brust’s Jhereg / Dragaera series, which is mostly high fantasy, with lots of heist-style hijinks, romance, detective and spy capers, political unrest and social commentary, along with the (un)helpful presence of numerous gods or similar beings. It’s quite the thing. Seconding this. Thirding if possible. 🙂 And I will argue that while the Jhereg series all have the same central character (even if told from another’s POV), the greater Dragaera series have a different but same central character who is the author but not the writer…or perhaps that should be the other way around. 🤣 I wish under the “central character” premise that I could recommend the Wild Cards series, edited by George R. R. Martin, but the closest one can say is that there is one character that appears or is mentioned at least once in nearly every book, but is only sporadically the lead or focus of the myriad stories and/or narratives. The series as a whole is still one of my favorites though. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/24 "2023-12-07T06:04:29Z")
Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat books were lots of fun. Second the Repairman Jack novles. The Joe Pickett books are my wife’s current favorite series. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/25 "2023-12-07T12:54:23Z")
I have fond memories of the Swords Trilogy (featuring Corum) and History of the Runestaff (featuring Hawkmoon) by Michael Moorcock. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/26 "2023-12-07T13:02:27Z")
I really couldn’t get into the Patrick O’Brian books, even after reading three of them. On the other hand, I LOVE C.S. Forester’s _Horatio Hornblower_ series, and have re-read it countless times. In fact, I like all his fiction It’s his history of the War of 1812 I find unreadable. Of course, I love Arthur Conan Doyle’s _Sherlock Holmes_ books. And Rex Stout’s _Nero Wolfe_ stories (although it took me longer to get into them). And Robert Hans van Gulik’s _Judge Dee_ series. (Nicholas Meyer made a great TV movie out of onr of them, and I’d love to see more. The Chinese marrtial arts “Dee” movies don’t count – they’re a different animal). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/27 "2023-12-07T13:15:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Of course, I love Arthur Conan Doyle’s _Sherlock Holmes_ books. That makes Ghost Conan Doyle sad. > **[Arthur Conan Doyle secretly resented his Sherlock Holmes creation, says...](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/04/arthur-conan-doyle-secretly-resented-his-sherlock-holmes-creation-says-historian)** > > Author blamed literary success of the fictional detective for his highbrow historical novels ‘lying unread’ ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/28 "2023-12-07T13:26:02Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Lee Child _Jack Reacher series_, comprised of 28 novels, not including short stories and novellas. The novels are from 1997 - 2023. Jack Reacher is a retired army officer, loner and drifter of intimidating size 6’ 4" 240 lbs. He normally finds himself involved is some sort of investigation where he sees some sort of injustice that needs to righted. You can stick a fork in that series. The latest entry, _The Secret_, written entirely by Lee Child’s younger brother, is uninspired dreck. If someone set out to prove that anyone could do it by following a formula, they were wrong. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/29 "2023-12-07T13:39:07Z")
Let’s see Pratchett’s Discworld Banks’ Culture books Miéville’s Bas Lag books Peters’ Brother Cadfael series ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/30 "2023-12-07T14:14:49Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > That makes Ghost Conan Doyle sad. That’s okay, the dead can just learn to live with it. I don’t care for his fairies, either. Or his bogus explanation of the moving coffins in the Chase vault. I do like many of his other stories. But not as much as his detective. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/31 "2023-12-07T14:33:04Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > You can stick a fork in that series. The latest entry, _The Secret_, written entirely by Lee Child’s younger brother, is uninspired dreck. If someone set out to prove that anyone could do it by following a formula, they were wrong. Seconded. ETA Holy shit this thing is more than four out of five stars on Goodreads. I guess it still works for some folks. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/32 "2023-12-07T14:40:29Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > That makes Ghost Conan Doyle sad. I’m convinced 90% of authors and other artists who have one wildly successful creation are resentful because they think other stuff they did was better. ADC and Holmes, Anthony Burgess and Clockwork Orange, Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland, etc. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/33 "2023-12-07T14:41:06Z")
Jonathan Stride series - Brian Freeman Cork O’Connor series - William Kent Kreuger The Walk series - Richard Paul Evans ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/34 "2023-12-07T14:48:56Z")
I’m enjoying Allison Montclair’s [Sparks & Bainbridge mysteries](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0853C3B7D?binding=hardcover&ref=dbs_m_mng_wam_sft_thcv_tpbk). ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/35 "2023-12-07T15:04:45Z")
If LOTR counts as a novel series (I don’t think so, it’s just one book in three parts) then LOTR. If not, the Vorkosigan Saga, the Dresden Files and 1632, in that order. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/36 "2023-12-07T15:05:36Z")
I have a great love for the following guilty pleasures, which I admit are comparable to comic books in their relation to literature. And not even really good comic books Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs’ _Agent Pendergast_ series Clive Cussler’s _Dirk Pitt_ books Clive Cussler’s _Numa Files_ series Clive Cussler’s _Oregon Files_ series Clive Cussler’s _Fargo_ series Clive Cussler’s _Isaac Bell_ series I’m impressed that all Cussler’s series seem to be continuing at a rate of a book every year or two, even after his death. Various other thriller authors keep grinding them out, either using the stack of plots Cussler left, or some plot-generating software, or their knowledge of his plotting. I find them entertaining as audiobooks on my long commute. And, of course, I like the **James Bond** series. Even if he is a sexist, racist, colonialist dinosaur. Long after Ian Fleming’s death, his estate has authorized a selection of authors to keep grinding them out. Two came out last year, from different authors, and another is due out next year. I think they’re a step above the Cussler and Childs/Preston books. I also liked Edgar Rice Burroughs’ **Tarzan** books, although after a while they got too similar and repetitive. Trying to read them all in one year was like trying to live onm a diet of cream puffs. And then I read _Tarzan and the Valley of Gold_ by Fritz Leiber (the first authorized Tarzan novel by someone other than Burroughs) and realized how much better a writer Leiber was. Burroughs had a hell of an imaginatiuon, though. So I liked his other series, as well – John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, Pellucidar, etc. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/37 "2023-12-07T15:07:42Z")
Just yesterday I was thinking about Dejah Thoris. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/38 "2023-12-07T15:18:27Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark) _Parker series_, Yep, the chiselled Parker is a fun read. I’ve read them all. Actually, anything Westlake wrote is worth reading. > [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Max Allen Collins _Nolan series_, Another favorite. ++++++++++++ No mention of [Phillip Jose Farmer’s _Riverworld_ series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverworld)? Love the books. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/39 "2023-12-07T15:21:46Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > No mention of [Phillip Jose Farmer’s _Riverworld_ series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverworld)? Love the books. I loved the first 2 or 3, the ending… not so much. (I still quote Philip Jose Farmer quoting Sam Clements when the occasion merits it) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/40 "2023-12-07T15:42:36Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > No mention of [Phillip Jose Farmer’s _Riverworld_ series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverworld)? Love the books. I liked them, too, except for _Gods of Riverworld._ If you like the series, you might want to look up two anthologies of _Riverworld_ stories by other authors – **Tales of Riverworld** and **Quest to Riverworld**. There are also two more short Riverworld stories by Farmer in his anthology **Riverworld and other Tales** Don’t watch the two Syfy channel adaptations. They’re awful. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191/41 "2023-12-07T16:05:55Z")
Another mostly forgotten series I ought to mention – Fredric Brown’s _Ed and Am Hunter_ series. He kicked it off with his novel **The Fabulous Clipjoint**. It was his first full-length novel, and it won the Edgar Award in 1948 for Best First Novel. It’s been described as “proto-Catcher-in-the-Rye” as a gritty coming-of-age story about a boy (Ed) investigating the murder of his father with the help of his carny uncle Ambrose. It’s a great read. Brown wrote several other novels about the pair, who set up a detective agency in Chicago. There were six more novels, and some short stories, taking the series into the mid 1960s. The quality declined with time, but any Fredric Brown mystery (or science fiction, or fantasy) is worth reading. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-novel-series/994191.md?page=3)