Big, Long Series to Fill Gap Left By WoT

[Brendan]

Dharmakirti wrote: "Perhaps Iain M. Banks Culture novels will be of interest. The first book is Consider Phlebas."

Love these books but is it really a series? There's no overarching narrative and no real order they need to be read in. Are mostly unrelated books that share a common universe a "series"?

[Dharmakirti]

Brendan wrote: "Love these books but is it really a series? There's no overarching narrative and no real order they need to be read in. Are mostly unrelated books that share a common universe a "series"? "

I was questioning myself as to whether or not I should mention the Culture for the same reasons you put in your comment. I decided to mention them anyway and let the OP (and other commenters/lurkers) take a look and decide for themselves.

Personally, I do consider the work to be a series, not just because the novels all exist in the same universe, but because the Culture is the tissue that connects all the stories.

[Brendan]

Alan wrote: "Well, if you only read a couple of them, there wouldn't have been much to hate ;)"

I bet if people were trashing them without having read them he'd have complained about that as well. Cannot win.

[Cappy]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it but the enderverse is one of my fave multi book series. there are also some short novels that bring back story.

[Amanda]

What about CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series, beginning with Foreigner?

[Kevin]

Also Janny Wurts's War of Shadow and Light has 11 books right now. Like Malazan it is a complex series in the writing.

Also Drizzt, which has over 25 books, but only around 350 pages each.

The Riftwar books by Raymond E. Feist has 30 books and Shannara by Terry Brooks has over 25 books , but they were started over 30 years ago, and about 400 pages each.

Also Discworld by Terry Pratchett, which has 40 books so far.

[Koji-San]

If you want a long series that has a more military sci-fi bent you may want to try the Honor Harrington series by David Weber that starts with On Basilisk Station. I haven't read the entire series but the ones I have are pretty good. They feature strong female leads and are up to 14 books by my last count.

[David H.]

Koji-San1225 wrote: "If you want a long series that has a more military sci-fi bent you may want to try the Honor Harrington series by David Weber that starts with On Basilisk Station. I haven't read the ..."

14 in the MAIN series, perhaps, but there's 6 anthologies of Honorverse stories, as well as two spinoff series that are pretty integral to the plot, and another spinoff trilogy for the "YA market." There's also a fun reference guide, hehe.

Also, Kevin mentioned the Wars of Light and Shadow series by Janny Wurts, but there's actually only 9 books out for it so far--we're still waiting on the final two.

[E.M.]

I would second the recommendation for the Dune series, can't really go wrong with that.
Also Kevin J. Anderson's Saga Of The Seven Suns, that's a really good series, and if memory serves, it's about 7 books, all about 500 pages.

[Jason]

Brendan wrote: "Dharmakirti wrote: "Perhaps Iain M. Banks Culture novels will be of interest. The first book is Consider Phlebas."

Love these books but is it really a series? There's no overarchin..."

While there is no overarching plot, occasionally a book will reference events in another other. The events of "Excession" are mentioned a few times in others, if I recall.

[Rik]

Brendan wrote: "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."

LOL

That is exactly the book I lost interest on the first time I read the series. Many years later I decided to give the series another go but I had to start over and again made it to that book and again quit. I get to listen to audio books at work so I keep thinking if my library ever stocks the whole series (the only have the last two on CD) I'll give it yet another go but I'm not going to ever try to actually read them again.

[Rik]

My suggestions for long series depends on the type of read you want:

R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt series: its not technically called the Drizzt series but thats an accurate name. Its up to something like 20 books now. All are easy reads and fun if not particularly deep. If your not aware its set in a D&D type world and is about a group of adventurers, the main of whom is Drizzt a good drow elf.

Stephen King's Dark Tower series: the main series is 7 books long but many of King's other books touch on the series to either a large or small degree, a couple are essential even though they aren't part of the main series.

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series: Its four books in total so far with the fifth coming out this year. Its truly an awesome read: the first three books are basically superheroes in a fantasy setting. The fourth and fifth book takes place a few hundred years later in a steampunk type of era. Sanderson is writing it in trilogies with the third trilogy planned to be set in a futuristic sci fi type setting.

[E.M.]

Rik wrote: "Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series: Its four books in total so far with the fifth coming out this year. "

That sounds like a good read. I'll have to check it out. Thanks!

[Jonathon]

I'm kinda surprised at how many of the suggestions I've already read/tried out or are already on my list

Going through in order:

Foundation - wasn't that keen, prefer characters to ideas carrying the story.
Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth - Just finished Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained and I think I'm happy to leave them there.
Dune - Didn't particularly enjoy the first book and haven't ever felt inclined to revisit it
Joe Abercrombie's First Law universe - already read them all, kinda sad because there's no new ones.
Dresden Files - already working my way through (just finished book 11, so almost caught up)
Iain M. Banks' Culture novels - I read Consider Phlebas a while back and couldn't make up my mind as to whether or not I actually liked it. That might be one I revisit later.
Legend of Drizzt - Already on my list, I checked out the free anthology of short stories last year and I quite enjoyed them despite having no prior knowledge so they seem promising.
Sanderson's Mistborn - Already read all of the ones out there and I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in the Wax and Wayne set.

As a bit of a check in - I've read C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner and I think it's definitely got potential to be a series that I carry on with, but I've got a couple of other ones that I want to try out first before I settle in for the long haul.

[E.M.]

Oh yeah...another series that isn't as well-known is the Stone Soldiers series by C.E. Martin. It's an interesting mix of mythology and technology with a lot of action and adventure.

[Aaron]

If you aren't against the common-setting series (DragonLance, Star Wars, Forgotten Realms, Star Trek, etc), you can have hundreds of books, spanning tens or hundreds of thousands of pages. It's also a way to find new authors.

[Melissa]

I would suggest the Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts. I've only read the first book so far, but its pretty epic. I believe there are a total of 11 books, divided into 5 arcs. The first book is The Curse of the Mistwraith. It definitely fits the "big, long series" criteria!

I am also enjoying the Silk and Steel Saga by Karen Azinger. Its not the most compelling or original work, but its entertaining. The first book is The Steel Queen. You can definitely tell that she has read A Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time, etc. It looks like there will be 7 books in that series.

[Robert]

I marathoned the Wheel of Time series myself not too long ago, just in time for the final book's release.

I think the only reason I was able to get past the third Sword of Truth books and finish them off was because I was listening to the audio books in the gym. It was easy not to pay attention as soon as somebody started speechafying.

Actually if you strip out the blatant anti-union, anti-communism, anti-peace, you'd get the core of a decent fantasy series. Too bad it was filled with so much thinly veiled Randian views which I already don't agree with.

I'll have to chime in with Dune as well, all the Frank Herbert ones at least and maybe a couple of the Brian Herbert ones.

Mercedes Lackey's Valdamar books tell an large overall history though they don't follow a specific arc. They are usually told trilogy by trilogy.