Eve, didn’t the Mormons find the third book?
As to the OP, what does everyone here seem to have against Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy?
I’ll take the loser’s side and put in a word against Hitchhiker’s Guide. They just aren’t funny.
If it was mentioned I missed it:
I really enjoyed the Darksword Trilogy from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (but I haven’t read it since I was around 15, so that may not be true anymore).
Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Earthsea” cycle; “A Wizard of Earthsea”, “The Tombs of Atuan”, “The Farthest Shore” and “Tehanu.” The original trilogy was written in the late 60s and Le Guin wrote the final volume almost twenty years later. Le Guin is a great writer who weaves complex and compelling mythologies. Indeed, throughout the Earthsea cycle one detects everything from Norse mythology to subtle homoeroticism (“The Farthest Shore”). Highly recommended from someone who doesn’t know anything about sci-fi/fantasy literature.
I would just like to say that my respect for everybody has gone up because no one has recommended Brian Jacques’ Redwall books.
Those were recommended to my in the highest terms by someone whose opinion I trusted implicitly. That person is no longer on my Christmas card list.
Somebody yell at me if I’m wrong here, but is Orwell’s 1984 considered science fiction? I always considered it to be, so it has claimed a seat on my throne along w/ Dune and Hitchhiker’s.
::hijack/rant/soapbox::
What’s with everything in SF and Fantasy having to be a series?
Where are the good stand-alones?
What’s wrong with starting and finishing a story in one frickin’ book?
::all done::
i have read some of piers anthony’s work, althought not recently.
i own the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxyand
the Belgariad by David Edddings.
i have some of Anne McCaffrey’s books, and a copy of DUNE.
I especially enjoyed Marion Zimmer Bradley’sDarkover books, and the Trillium series, also authored by Julian May and Andre Norton.
has anybody read any of the Acornastories?
I notice a lot of people have read David Eddings Belgariad and Malloreon series.
Have you read the Elenium and Tamuli series?
I liked them better, probably because I liked the Sparhawk character so much. He just seemed much more ‘human’ than most protagonists.
The first three or four Redwall books were great . . . in 5th grade. They’re excellent preadolescent reading material, but I would certainly never recommend then to an adult, and I doubt I would enjoy them very much if I re-read them now.
But The Hidden Fortress was released already . . . (joke, joke)
Walter Jon Willam’s Metropolitan/City on Fire. And might as well throw on HardWired/Solip:System/Voice of the Whirlwind. Not REALLY a series, (the first two are, the last one is kind of set in the same world, but not really) but anything to get them mentioned. Hardwired is a bit dated (80’s, you know) but still great.
Actually, just throw on everything that he’s ever done. The man is a tiny god.
George Alec Effinger’s Marid Audron books. (When Gravity Fails/A Fire in the Sun/The Exile Kiss) May the health problem that caused him to stop writing all those years, and the publisher that prevents him from writing any more of them both be damned to the blackest hell. No one seems to have ever heard of them, but they’re loads of fun, in the unlikly event that you can find one.
Who would have thought that when I picked up Cyberpunk 2020 all those years ago that it would lead me to my two favorate authors? Of course, it also forced me to read Wetware, so I guess it balances out.
C. S. Freidman’s Coldfire trilogy was very good, I thought, and George RR Martian’s Song of Fire and Ice, while unfinished, is amazing thus far.
–
“Am I Kirock now? Is that how this works?”
Though I’m suprised that Dune is showing up so much . . . as far as I’m concerend, that, along with Highlander, would have been much, much better had they not been part of a series . . .
D’oh!! I really should read all the posts before writing mine . . .
Unfortunatly, after The Vampire Lestat, it gets much worse. I thought Queen of the Damned was terrible, The Body Thief only marginally better, and Memnoch the Devil was so bad I’m never reading another Rice book again, ever. I’m talking Scrappy Doo levels of badness, here.
There might have been another book or two in there, if so I’ve blocked it out.
general SF - Foundation
humorous - Myth Adventures
Fantasy - Conan, Howard
Juvie - Burrough’s Barsoom
alt history - Worldwar, Turtledove
These choices are for the originals only - no Foundations after Second, no Robert Jordan Conan, etc.
Honorables:
Wild Cards (15 books, right?)
Uplift
Narile - I understand they have the next Phule’s book titled and publish date set early 2001 - will try to research…
Myth doesn’t look good.
Bumbazine - Leiber’s was Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser - pretty good, but I can’t put it ahead of Howard.
Ender…IMO, GREAT book 1, Speaker was good, but notably less, Xenocide…
I’ve bought every volume of L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future that I’ve seen. Basically, it’s an ongoing contest for SF/fantasy writers and illustrators, with the winners and (I think only first) runners up getting published. No entry fee, a prize for the winner and 3 runners up in each quarter, another prize for the Grand Winner each year, and the stories are judged by established authors/illustrators IN THE FIELD. It’s limited to people who are not pros…yet. I’ve read at least a dozen of these anthologies, and I think that there were a grand total of THREE stories I didn’t like. And that was because I didn’t like that type of story (I don’t like Because It’s There stories, for instance), not because of poor writing. I highly urge everyone to pick up a copy. I think that you’ll be amazed at the new talent. The only drawback is that you’ll sometimes get snippets of L. Ron’s writings, and you WILL get a lot of ads (including cardboard inserts, VERY annoying in my eyes) for L. Ron’s books. I find that it’s an excellent buy, in terms of enjoyment.
As for other series…too many to list. And my favorites change over time, though usually I’ll go back and reread the best of them. I must say, though, that I’m amazed that no one has mentioned Barbara Hambly’s books, either the ones in series or her stand-alones.
Actually, I’ve recently moved to the Bay Area and am looking to meet some SF/fantasy/horror fans and gamers. Do you know of any local organizations other than BASFA (whose website I’ve already checked out)?
-Ben
Lurkernomore - I’m supposed to remember how to spell Fafhrd after twenty years? 
I should have remembered how to spell Leiber, though.
Lynn - I had forgotten the Barbara Hambly books, I can heartily recommend them.
I am reminded that my all time favorite Sci-Fi author, Hal Clement did have at least one nominal series - ‘Mission of Gravity’ and ‘Star Light.’ One of the first ‘hard’ science writers. He created some great characters. Not a lot of blood and guts though, if that’s your passion.
Looks like it’s time to start re-reading some books.
Momcat:
The “Bad Blood” between Heinlein nd Panshin evidently dates to the publication of Panshin’s book “Heinlein in Dimension”, a critique of the Master’s work. I rather like the book, which is clearly the work of a fan (nobody else would go to the trouble of comparing the magazine versions of his work to the book versions), and the book is regarded by many as a classic. But it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, including Heinlein himself. One reason Heinlein gave for disliking it was that he himself was never contacted by Panshin. But the book is also filled ith sentences that, taken by themselves, read like severe put-downs of Heinlein. Spider Robinson was sufficiently moved to pen a counter-slap in the essay “Rah, Rah, R.A.H.”, a response to critics of Heinlein, but especially Panshin (The essay appears in several places, including “Requiem”).
Pansin’s work, aside from “Rite of Passage”, is difficult to come by these days. This is too bad, because his other books are a hoot, and “The World Beyond the Hill” is a lengthy and interesting history of science fiction. “Heinlein in Dimension” is out of print. I bought my copy from Panshin himself.
I like the Tom Swift classics. Lots of loony inventions! But impossible to find many titles any more.
No biggie - you and I are the only ones who seem to mention it. Been like 15 for me - didn't they release a posthumous short, though?In the same vein, the “Lost Regiment” series by William R. Forstchen, is pretty good.