The Sword and Laser discussion
What Else Are You Reading?
>
Big, Long Series to Fill Gap Left By WoT
I dunno if anything is that long except for serials. If you're willing to go old school, the Barsoom series stretches out to seven books and is free. All of Tarzan is also available.For SF, the first three Foundation books are good. There are lots of followups that are not so good for older fans, although younger ones have been known to like them. The four Robot books eventually tie in, so you could do an Asimov fest of Foundation and Robot.
For lengthy newer stuff the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy is fairly well done.
Peter F. Hamilton's extended Commonwealth series is fairly long - only 7 books (so far) but each book is probably the length of a standard trilogy so it should keep you busy for a while.
It's more episodic than a straightforward narrative, but Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is up to about two dozen installments.If you'd consider fantasy again, Steven Brust has two series in his Dragaera setting that currently total about 20 books between them.
The Malazan book of the Fallen series is 10 books long and they're all over 800 pages each. Not for the faint of heart though.
Dara wrote: "The Malazan book of the Fallen series is 10 books long and they're all over 800 pages each. Not for the faint of heart though."And then there are the Malazan Empire series (6 books, I think) by Ian C. Esslemont in the same universe, and both Erikson and Esslemont are working on additional series & trilogies. Lot of stuff going on there.
If you've not read it, Gene Wolfe's Solar Cycle is a series of series:
NEW SUN - Fantasy in a future world
The Shadow of the Torturer
The Claw of the Conciliator
The Sword of the Lictor
The Citadel of the Autarch
LONG SUN - Discovering one's generation ship
Nightside the Long Sun
Lake of the Long Sun
Calde of the Long Sun
Exodus from the Long Sun
SHORT SUN - Continuation of Long Sun on destination planets
On Blue's Waters
In Green's Jungles
Return to the Whorl
CODA - Ties all of the above together
Urth of the New Sun
DUBIOUSLY LINKED - Same universe? You decide
The Fifth Head of Cerberus
Empires of Foliage and Flower: A Tale From the Book of the Wonders of Urth and Sky
and others...
Dune. Even if you just stick to the original series by Frank Herbert it's 6 books that are really complex and the world is enormous in scope. The rest of the books by his son are very different in style and tone, but aren't terrible despite what many say - weaker overall yes - but if you like the world of Dune you may want to test them out. There are a lot of them.The Otherland series by Tad Williams is 4 books but they are each enormous doorstoppers. 1st book is City of Golden Shadow.
Anne McCaffery's Pern is a huge series (each book isn't extremely long however) that starts out like fantasy but adds more SF as it progresses. 1st book is Dragonflight and there are 11 main storyline books, 3 others set in the past of the main series, and also some short stories. Her son has continued the series but I haven't read those.
CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series, 1st book is Foreigner, has about 15 books and her other universe, the Alliance-Union books are in loosely connected series - there's a lot.
Katharine Kerr's Deverry series. It is fantasy and the first book is called Daggerspell, there is 15 books in the series.
Some awesome suggestions from everyone. Thanks for helping me out on thisI'm giving a go to the Gene Wolf Solar Cycle stuff and CJ Cherryh's Foreigner books. I'll see how I get on with them.
If they don't work out, or even if they do, I think my second wave will be the Pern books (provided there's less throttling after the first book - I mean, seriously, how is that girl not brain damaged by the end of Dragonflight?), Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga stuff (I've had the first one sat there since a Humble e-book bundle ages ago) and possibly the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy.
This is great thread. Taking note of a lot of these. Thanks!
Joe Ambercrombie's stuff should fill your WOT hole. First Law Trilogy, Best Served Cold, Red Countries, The Heroes are all set in the same world....for SF, I'd concur on Dune
My impossibly prolific writers are Terry Pratchett's Discworld and Isaac Asimov's entire Foundation, Robots etc which chronicles an entire universe's existence.
I'm also a fan of Jacqueline Carey's multiple series that occur in the same universe.
I'm also a fan of Jacqueline Carey's multiple series that occur in the same universe.
If I might threadjack a bit, Anja, what did you think of The End of Eternity?
I finished with WoT and realized I don't necessarily want another one to take its place... I'd rather have books with shorter series spans to take up less of my time. I loved WoT, it's perhaps my favorite fantasy series and it's been a direct influence on my own writing, but I don't know that I want another. That said, Dresden's getting up there, and it's close to second on that list of Fantasy Series. I think I let it slip by because it's relatively light fiction. It's the Guardians of the Galaxy to WoT's Lord of the Rings (this is probably an awful analogy).
John wrote: "If I might threadjack a bit, Anja, what did you think of The End of Eternity?"
Ah sorry John! I didn't read that one yet. No spoilers please. : )
Ah sorry John! I didn't read that one yet. No spoilers please. : )
I'm working through the Earthsea series right now but even though its 6 books they're pretty short, so it isn't taking long. Tombs of Atuan I did in an evening because it was way too good to put down.
Posting from my iPad, which insists on refreshing the browser every time I switch tabs, so I'll have to add separate entries.David Weber has a couple long sci-fi series. The Honor Harrington series is older and therefore larger, but the Safehold series will likely rival it soon enough.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_...
A pulp sci-fi adventure series that I like is Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen. It's about a US destroyer and Japanese battleship fighting during WWII when they encounter a weird storm that sends them to an alternate Earth where dinosaurs never went extinct and giant lemurs evolved sentience instead of humans.The first book is Into the Storm and the tenth installment is going to be released in May.
I've only ever read his stand-alone novels, but it seems like Harry Turtledove has some long-ish sci-fi series. It seems like every other month there's a new installment in his "aliens invade during WWII" series.The first one is In the Balance.
Of course, the all-time champion in "long series" is probably Perry Rhodan. This series is like the sci-fi version of The Hardy Boys, where multiple people write short installments, but it's been going for 50-some years now and I believe they are somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,800 novellas.
Trike wrote: "I've only ever read his stand-alone novels, but it seems like Harry Turtledove has some long-ish sci-fi series. It seems like every other month there's a new installment in his "aliens invade durin..."Actually, the "Tosev" series (aka Worldwar/Colonization series) is a completed series! 4 books in the Worldwar series (in the '40s), 3 books in the Colonization sequel series (in the '60s), and a final book (Homeward Bound) to cap it off in the future. It's been finished since 2004. :D
I really liked that one, though I probably won't reread it like I have his Videssos series (3 subseries and a final for 12 books).
Ah, I see that he has another alt-history WWII series, hence my confusion. I thought they were the same.
Trike wrote: "Of course, the all-time champion in "long series" is probably Perry Rhodan. This series is like the sci-fi version of The Hardy Boys, where multiple people write short installments, but it's been g..."Any idea how many of those are available as English translations? I lived in Germany for almost 11 years so I read quite a few of them when I was learning the language.
Trike wrote: "Ah, I see that he has another alt-history WWII series, hence my confusion. I thought they were the same."I counted it up, and Turtledove has at least four alt-history WWII series:
1. The 8-book Tosev series (aliens invade during WWII)
2. The 12-book Southern Victory series (series starts in 1880s, goes through WWI & WWII)
3. The 2-book Days of Infamy series (Japan occupies Hawaii)
4. The 6-book War That Came Early series (WWII starts in 1938 with Czechoslovakia)
There's also a fantasy version of WWII (the 6-book Darkness series).
And some WWII-related novels (such as After the Downfall about a German Wehrmacht officer transported to a fantasy world or the upcoming Joe Steele about an American-born Joseph Stalin who's nominated for president in 1932 instead of FDR).
WWII is really popular for alternate history stuff, but it actually semi-bores me. That's why I like the Videssos series so much more--alternate Byzantine fantasy! Woot!
AndrewP wrote: "Any idea how many of those are available as English translations? I lived in Germany for almost 11 years so I read quite a few of them when I was learning the language. "I have no idea. I encountered them at my uncle's sometime in the late 70s/early 80s and he had an entire box of them he'd gotten from a neighbor, which must have been about 30 books or so. I would assume there are tons more now.
David wrote: "WWII is really popular for alternate history stuff, but it actually semi-bores me. That's why I like the Videssos series so much more--alternate Byzantine fantasy! Woot! "I like actual WWII history because it's a war that keeps on giving. Even all these years later it seems like we're still discovering these interesting little side stories no one ever talks about. For a conflict that lasted for all of 8 years, there are a lot of tales still untold.
I looked at Turtledove's book covers and a lot of them resemble each other, too. Publishers should help a guy out and make really different covers so I'm not walking around in a state of confusion.
You might also try Pier's Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series. Not as long as WoT, but a good set of books in addition to those already mentioned above.
Trike wrote: "I like actual WWII history because it's a war that keeps on giving. Even all these years later it seems like we're still discovering these interesting little side stories no one ever talks about. For a conflict that lasted for all of 8 years, there are a lot of tales still untold."True, there's a lot of stuff to explore with WWII, but there's so much stuff other than WWII, and I want a change of pace, you know? I'm sick of American Civil War alt-histories, too, for the same reason. Pick another war or something, authors!
Jonathon wrote: "Some awesome suggestions from everyone. Thanks for helping me out on thisI'm giving a go to the Gene Wolf Solar Cycle stuff and CJ Cherryh's Foreigner books. I'll see how I get on with them.
If ..."
This makes me really happy. Even if you hate him, please share your thoughts on Wolfe when you read that story. It is absolutely massive.
None of the words are made up. None of the mysteries in the plot cannot be solved. It's all there, and more, for the ambitious reader.
Wolfe trusts you. He doesn't want to explain everything to you because he believes in your power as a reader to figure it out, and to draw your own conclusions.
Nobody has mentioned Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. That's 11 books in the main series, 1 prequal and 3 additional novels.
AndrewP wrote: "Nobody has mentioned Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. That's 11 books in the main series, 1 prequal and 3 additional novels."Just curious if anyone enjoyed the entire sword of truth series. The first book was excellent, the second was so so, but thought the next 9 were complete crap. I don't know why I kept reading, but I did. I swore I would never read Goodkind again, so I've ignored the latest 3 books.
Did anyone enjoy the entire series? Are the latest 3 any better?
I felt and did the exact same thing as Sky with Goodkind, though I don't think I rate either of the first two books quite as high as excellent. For SF series, David Brin's Uplift books are really excellent. The first, Sundiver, is a great stand-alone, The second, Startide Rising, is even better but definitely more of a series book and the series continues pretty well from there. I don't think any of the later 4 books are quite as good as Startide Rising but there isn't a clunker in the lot either.
Sky wrote: "Just curious if anyone enjoyed the entire sword of truth series. The first book was excellent, the second was so so, but thought the next 9 were complete crap."Your experience with it was also my experience, except I only made it through 6 or so of the books before dropping the series. I was also a teenager when I read them so my tolerance for bad books was higher back then.
I read the entire main series but none of last 3 or the prequel The First Confessor. Like a lot of books of this type I got more attached to the characters than the stories themselves.
Sky wrote: "Just curious if anyone enjoyed the entire sword..."That was my experience as well - I really enjoyed the first book (which I started while I was waiting for the 10th Wheel of Time book to come out, so quite a few years ago now), and was less impressed with each book that followed. I would always get to a point where I would tell myself I was going to stop, but then the next book would be just compelling enough for me to go on. I ended up reading all of the main series and the prequal as well. I also watched the TV show while it was on - the first season was fairly close to the first book, and was actually not too bad, but then it deviated quite a bit from the books after that, which wasn't a good thing for the story line or the continuity of the show. I haven't read the new novels in the series, and I doubt I'm going to at this point, but I would be curious to hear about them as well.
As a big WoT fan I don't know if Sword of Truth is the best series to use as a follow up - I don't think it holds up as well, and might be a bit of a disappointment if you are looking for that satisfying long term investment. The first book is definitely worth a read though.
I haven't really found another epic series I have enjoyed as much after finishing WoT, but Sanderson's Stormlight Archive is probably the series I consider to be my favorite follow-up, at least in terms of epic-ness and how much I am enjoying it. There aren't a lot of books yet (2 out of a planned 10), but if you want another 20-year series to follow, this might be it. Sanderson writes super fast, but he also has a lot of projects going at once, so, with 2-3 years between books it's going to be at least 20 years to finish the series. Maybe not the best if you are looking for a completed series, but so far it's pretty awesome.
Sky wrote: "Just curious if anyone enjoyed the entire sword of truth series. The first book was excellent, the second was so so, but thought the next 9 were complete crap. I don't know why I kept reading, but I did. I swore I would never read Goodkind again, so I've ignored the latest 3 books.Did anyone enjoy the entire series? Are the latest 3 any better? "
I thought the first couple Sword of Truth novels were OK and I even managed to stick with the series for a little while, hoping that it would improve over time (perhaps naive of me, but I figured Mr. Goodkind would become a better writer with time and experience) but I gave him up completely after I read the awful Faith of the Fallen.
A friend of mine (who worhsips at the alter of Ayn Rand) loves Goodkind because he sees Goodkind as an objectivist writer and is willing to forgive the flaws because of it.
I find Ayn Rand to be an extremely boring writer and I have no sympathy for Objectivsim which probably leads me to be less forgiving of Goodkinds flaws.
Is Faith of the Fallen the one where he defeats communism by unveiling a statue? Ha! Yeah that's the one that did me in too.
Heh, I managed to make it past the statue defeating communism and into the book where evil pacifists actively cooperated in their own rape and degradation until the hero "proved" their "philosophy" "wrong" with a lecture that would have been laughed out of a Freshman intro course. That one slaughtered what little remained of my interest in finding out how the series ends.
I wish I had been that aware. I powered on to the 11th & final book. I'm always afraid that one of my relatives will think to get me a Goodkind novel for Christmas. I stress to my wife every couple years: No Goodkind!
hahaha...glad I am not alone. I have no idea why i masochistically bowled through the entire series and all of it's thinly veiled ayn rand plot drivel. That's a goodly chunk of my life I will never get back.
And that killed any interest I had left in starting that particular series. Thanks. :p
Sky wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "Nobody has mentioned Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. That's 11 books in the main series, 1 prequal and 3 additional novels."Just curious if anyone enjoyed the entire sword..."
I thought the first book was good, and then it went steeply downhill into political rhetoric under a thin veneer of a thinner-still plot. The other comments above are also my thoughts.
While it's not exactly super deep, Brin's Uplift is thought provoking and well written, worth a read.
For those interested in the political, China Mieville's nonfiction dissertation "Between Equal Rights" is the educated Marxist bitchslap to Goodkind's freshman politics.
Sky wrote: "AndrewP wrote: "Nobody has mentioned Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. That's 11 books in the main series, 1 prequal and 3 additional novels."Just curious if anyone enjoyed the entire sword..."
I read them all several years ago and now I'm not sure how I made it. They kept getting worse. Maybe it was just inertia that kept me going and the fact that I never would admit fault with a book that I'd invested so much time in. I'm a little more critical now.
Also, if no one else has mentioned it, Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive has two books out, both are pretty awesome. It is slated to be a 10 book series.
As the OP was looking for SF book series, how about Ben Bova's Grand Tour series. That's around 20 books all set in the near future solar system. I would second Tad Williams Otherland and Weber's Honor Harrington too.
P.S. Funny how most people who say they hate Goodkind's books have read most of them :)
AndrewP wrote: "P.S. Funny how most people who say they hate Goodkind's books have read most of them :) "I was a teenaged boy when I read them, and to be fair to Goodkind, he is really good at writing things that appeal to teenaged boys.
Perhaps Iain M. Banks Culture novels will be of interest. The first book is Consider Phlebas.Peter F. Hamilton's Nights Dawn trilogy consists of 3 novels, but each book is 1000+ pages in length. The first novel in the series is The Reality Dysfunction.
AndrewP wrote: "...P.S. Funny how most people who say they hate Goodkind's books have read most of them :) ..."Well, if you only read a couple of them, there wouldn't have been much to hate ;)
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Curse of the Mistwraith (other topics)The Steel Queen (other topics)
Faith of the Fallen (other topics)
Consider Phlebas (other topics)
On Basilisk Station (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Raymond E. Feist (other topics)Terry Pratchett (other topics)
Terry Brooks (other topics)
Janny Wurts (other topics)
Ben Bova (other topics)
More...
I'd prefer a sci-fi series because my shelf's getting a little lop-sided with all of the fantasy stuff I've been reading but it's not an absolute must. Any help on this would be great