Good, Deep, Fantasy/Sci-Fi Series (for Older Readers)

[Jamougha]

Gibson's stuff is a good pick, especially his later books IMO.

[Benholio]

<u>Science Fiction:</u>

Anything by Alastair Reynolds. Start with Revelation Space. 'Space Opera' or 'Hard Sci-fi' is how you would describe his work. My favorite Sci-fi hands down, though I am open to recommendations in the genre. He also has lots of good short story collections.

<u>Fantasy:</u>

Robin Hobb's 3 related trilogies; The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders, and The Tawny Man.
All 9 books listed here.

While not as grand in scope as the G.R.R.Martin books, these are among my favorite fantasy reads ever, and as a bonus, they are COMPLETE.

[Shoot59]

If you haven't read Gibson give Neuromancer a try. I had to read the first few chapters twice to get used to his writing style its a unique read.

[Badger]

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Stephen R. Donaldson: Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (series). The second series is not as good.


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I really liked the series. Another one I didn't see mentioned yet was all the books by Raymond Feist.

[Clarkmeister]

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Stephen R. Donaldson: Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (series). The second series is not as good.


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I really liked the series. Another one I didn't see mentioned yet was all the books by Raymond Feist.

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Yes, Magician by Feist and the rest of that pseudo trilogy are great.

Loved the Thomas Covenant books. Anything by Donaldson is great. His best work is IMO a two book series called Mirror of her Dreams. Outstanding stuff.

Another great series is Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams.

I love anything by Stephen Brust, especially the Vlad Taltos stuff.

[swingdoc]

<u>Fantasy</u>

<ul type="square">[*]Farseer Trilogy - The series begins with the introduction of Fitz, the eldest prince's bastard son, who has come to the attention of the king. Taken under the king's wing, he is trained by the court's assassin and becomes a politcal thorn as the succession to the throne nears. This series is really well written and engaging. Lots of politics, murder, treachery and some use of magic. After reading this series I was left with a very bleak feeling. It is much, much bleaker than Martin.
[*]Discworld Series - This is very different from the other books in this thread as it's more humorous fantasy along the lines of Hitchhiker's Guide. It's also not truly a series but a collection of books all set on a planet which is a disc, riding on the back of 4 elephants, riding on the back of a turtle. There are, however, main characters who recur in some of the subsequent books. These books are ridiculously light reading and not srictly "adult". The books are small enough that you can sample it and not lose much if you end up disliking Pratchett's style of writing.
[*]Lies of Locke Lamora - The story of Locke Lamora, an orphan who has a particular ability for theft. Trained by the priest of thieves, he is no mere pickpocket or street hustler. This series is just beginning (only 2 books so far) and is written by Scott Lynch. Character development is amazing in this and it definitely does not follow a tried and true method of plot development. I'm really excited to read more from this young author.
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[SmokeyRidesAgain]

Lanark

It's kind of fantasy, deep and [censored] weird.

[Potvaliant]

Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun - Amazon Link to the first two books.

Smart, nuanced literary science fiction/fantasy, definitely geared towards adults. It's a first-person narrative of an apprentice torturer exiled for showing mercy to a "client;" the torturer eventually becomes the sole ruler of a far-future Earth whose sun is dying. (No spoiler; the fact of his future rule is announced early in the first book.)

The writing is a little stiff and self-conscious (it's supposedly translated from a future language into present-day English, and Wolfe uses outdated words to show the difficulties in translation), and the first-person narration is often unreliable and frequently assumes knowledge the reader doesn't have.

So in some ways it's a demanding read; but on balance, it's worth it.

[renodoc]

Dan Simmons has been mentioned, but not "Hyperion" or the three sequels. I remember liking all of them, but it could be because I don't go to church.

[Vilica]

Let's see, going through my bookshelves.

Steven Erikson's Malazan series (also stuff by Ian Cameron Esslemont, co-creator) is good epic fantasy, sort of a combination of the best elements of Jordan and Martin. Book6 just got released today in the US, Bk7 already out in the UK. 8th book of 10 due in Jun08.

Patrick Rothfuss "The Name of the Wind", first in an already-written trilogy (Bk 2 due out Apr 08), first person retelling of a legendary "hero" and his upbringing and accomplishments.

Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, books 1&amp;2 out in UK, book 1 just got released here. The Blade Itself, very dark, very character driven sort of middle ages themed, but not historically based. Bk3 Mar2008 in UK.

Gentleman Bastards sequence by Scott Lynch, first book Lies of Locke Lamora, second book just got released, Red Seas Under Red Skies, main characters are thieves, really intriguing world and well-written. 3rd book in sequence due out Jun08.

I just bought two of the newly released books from Orbit, who just opened their printings to the US, Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley and The Electric Church by Jeff Somers. Looking forward to reading both of those shortly.

Mistborn, Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson, unique magical system and pretext. Very quick, enjoyable reading. 3rd book May08.

The Bakker series was pretty good, he's got another book set in the same universe coming out in Mid 08.

Couple other genres, Scarlet by Stephan Lawhead just came out, sequel to Hood. Retelling of the Robin Hood story in a different manner. Keeping It Real and Selling Out, first two of a trilogy by Justina Robson, melding of sci-fi and fantasy elements. I'd say they make for quite light reading, something you wouldn't really be embarrassed reading on a commute.

Finally, the last two on my shelf are Blindsight by Peter Watts and Infoquake by David Edelman. Blindsight is very hard sci-fi, really dense, but I enjoyed it. Infoquake is sort of a futuristic thriller, I guess. Trying to think how to describe it is hard, but it is definitely lighter-toned, not really hard sci-fi.