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

[Jamougha]

Also, the Scottish school; Iain M. Banks and Ken McLeod, though more their earlier work.

[jalexand42]

One author that I did not see mentioned that is one of my favorites is Janny Wurts.

Her Wars of Light & Shadow series is my favorite fantasy series, up there with Tolkien, Feist, etc.

Also, her collaboration with Feist on the Empire series (Daughter, Servant, Mistress) is freaking great, with lots of fantastic political intrigue.

[sethypooh21]

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Couple other genres, Scarlet by Stephan Lawhead just came out, sequel to Hood. Retelling of the Robin Hood story in a different manner.

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<3

[Dids]

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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.

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I thought Hyperion was good, if not strange. The sequel/2nd half was slightly worse and I couldn't tolerate the next one.

Terry Goodkind's first book was [censored] horrible nad hackish and had a weird chapter long S&M bit that was staggeringly out of place. Just trash.

[AceLuby]

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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.

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I thought Hyperion was good, if not strange. The sequel/2nd half was slightly worse and I couldn't tolerate the next one.

Terry Goodkind's first book was [censored] horrible nad hackish and had a weird chapter long S&M bit that was staggeringly out of place. Just trash.

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OK, this is my favorite series. The first one is good and the 2nd takes off from that. The 3rd and 4th books go together in the same way, but aren't really sequels. But by not reading them you really missed out on how well everything goes together. It was obvious by the end of the last book that he knew the entire story before even writing the first book.

I can't suggest these books enough. Very good, very deep in politics, religion & literature and by the end really gets you thinking. Epic and great and I have to say that if you read one and don't read them all you are missing out on a lot of the story.

This thread has inspired me to read these again.

[ChipWrecked]

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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.

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I thought Hyperion was good, if not strange. The sequel/2nd half was slightly worse and I couldn't tolerate the next one.

Terry Goodkind's first book was [censored] horrible nad hackish and had a weird chapter long S&M bit that was staggeringly out of place. Just trash.

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OK, this is my favorite series. The first one is good and the 2nd takes off from that. The 3rd and 4th books go together in the same way, but aren't really sequels. But by not reading them you really missed out on how well everything goes together. It was obvious by the end of the last book that he knew the entire story before even writing the first book.

I can't suggest these books enough. Very good, very deep in politics, religion & literature and by the end really gets you thinking. Epic and great and I have to say that if you read one and don't read them all you are missing out on a lot of the story.

This thread has inspired me to read these again.

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The third book imo amounted to a very long chase scene, but it was worth it to get to the last one.

[ChipWrecked]

AceLuby's mention of deep politics reminded me of another good one, the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. At least one of these won a Hugo for best novel.

If and when Mars is colonized, I can see it panning out just as it does in these books.

My enjoyment was dimmed a bit by Robinson's Berkeleyite politics; but only a bit.

[kazana]

[ QUOTE ][*]The Farseer Trilogy - Have heard it's very good and is probably the next on my list. Would love to hear more about it.


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The Farseer Trilogy isn't terribly deep, but it is very, very entertaining. It's got all you may look for except for a deep, thoughtfully created background. Nevertheless, my favourite fantasy read in the last few years.

As for sci-fi, I really love Ian M. Banks' books. No big sagas or series as far as I have read, but the book "The Player of Games" alone was for me so remarkably different, I got all hooked on his books after reading it.

Currently, I'm scuttling through some of Peter F. Hamilton's trilogies (Night's Dawn at the moment). They're also semi-dragging at times, but (imo) with more thought put into the background events, history, etc, than Bank's books. Might be more your type?
Don't get me wrong, not terribly deep, but probably on par with Tolkien's level of details.

[ChipWrecked]

Heechee series by Frederick Pohl.

[ardubz]

re: Terry Goodkind...

I read his first five books, only because I hadn't heard of Robert Jordan first. I then switched to Jordan's books, which were written years prior, and found way too many striking similarities (read: Goodkind ripped off Jordan huge, just huge). It's pretty gross when you sit down and start examining the parallels in both series.