Five Sword or Laser Series You Should Read This Summer

[Philip]

Inspired by this post:
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2010/05/1...

I heard the idea for this thread on the most recent podcast and didn't see it started, so here goes:

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern- Full of awesome!

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter(if you've shied away for one reason or another, give it a go- you may be pleasantly surprised)

C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia- light, quick, and outstanding!

Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain if you enjoy YA

And Robert A. Heinlein's Future History- ambitious, I know. Here's a link to the wiki page that gives the chronology and info needed to hunt down the books, since it wasn't published as a straight forward series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_H...

[Dan]

Isaac Asimov's Foundation series

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series is disturbing in its scope

I never could get anyone else to read Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger books, but they are very entertaining.

Bonus points for reading everything Terry Pratchett has written about Discworld, starting with The Color of Magic. My personal favorites are Monstrous Regiment, Going Postal and Making Money.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I didn't realize there were up to 8 books connected to the Madeline L'Engle books, I might have to go back. The first three were a set I'd read every year as a child.

[terpkristin]

Jenny wrote: "I didn't realize there were up to 8 books connected to the Madeline L'Engle books, I might have to go back. The first three were a set I'd read every year as a child."

I knew about the 4th, too (Many Waters). Didn't realize there were any others.

I too read and re-red them when I was younger.

[Sean]

I reread A Wrinkle in Time last year. Maybe it's because I listened to the audiobook, narrated by L'engle herself in a craggly old woman voice that really grated on me, but I didn't think it held up very well. Things I remembered as being really creepy, like the old woman explaining about tesseracts and the planet where everyone behaves exactly the same, come across as silly now.

By comparison, the Chronicles of Prydain have held up remarkably well for a kiddified Lord of the Rings. Even the filler book where Taran goes off to find himself and nothing happens for 200 pages is pretty good.

[Ix]

I'm glad to see some Prydain love on here. I loved these books when I was younger and re-read them about five years ago. I didn't remember them being so short when I was a kid. You could probably read the whole series in a few dedicated nights.

[Alan]

Prydain is a very under-rated YA series; it is very readable by adults.

I am going to read the Melanie Rawn DragonStar trilogy this summer.

[Skip]

I'd add:

The Dresden Files - You got your Hammet in my Tolkien!

Cyteen - Bonus for reading all of the series, but the three Cyteen books make for some real thoughts about what makes us "us".

The Wheel of Time - if you are spending the whole summer at the beach. They are coming out as e-books with new covers. If there was ever a series that benefits from the format it is this one.

[Brian]

Dan Simmons' Hyperion/Endymion Series OR Ilium/Olympos


Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap Cycle isn't bad either but it has been a long time since I finished those.

[Doug]

1.) The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. This series follows Miles Vorkosigan, a young man on a mission to prove himself on a Galactic setting with a penchant for getting into and out of death-defying scrapes. It starts with The Warrior's Apprentice.

2.) The Conquerors Saga by Zahn Timothy is a trilogy about first encounters, mis-communication and predjudice.

3.) The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher is a series set in the present where magic is real, and Dresden is a Chicago wizard trying to eke out a living dealing with the weirder side of life.

4.) The Garrett Files by Glen Cook is a series of hard-bitten film noir detective novels in a fantasy setting.

5.) Phule's Company series by Robert Lynn Asprin is an enjoyable romp through a science-fiction universe alongside Willard Phule, a futuristic version of Sergeant Bilko.

[Jay]

Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber series. I read this series every two years, and always find some new mythological twist that I never noticed before. It starts when an extremely devious and powerful man wakes up with amnesia and has to piece together his life. Full of swords with a little bit of lasers.

[Rick]

Christopher Moore's vampire trilogy of Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story, You Suck: A Love Story, and Bite Me. Or better yet, just read everything from Moore. You won't be sorry!

[terpkristin]

Rick wrote: "Christopher Moore's vampire trilogy of Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story, You Suck: A Love Story, and Bite Me. Or better yet, just read everything from Moo..."

Is he the guy that wrote the books about Christ's best friend (Biff?)?

[Rick]

terpkristin wrote: "Rick wrote: "Christopher Moore's vampire trilogy of Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story, You Suck: A Love Story, and Bite Me. Or better yet, just read everyt..."

terpkristin, yes he is! Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal is hilarious and blasphemous and several other "ous"es all rolled into one.

[Nathan]

I love Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series, but as was mentioned on the podcast the later books in the Ender series do get very philosophical. Personally I love this aspect of them. The later books in the Bean or Ender's Shadow series are good, but they're a little too focus on political intrigue for my taste.

I'd add the LiveShip Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb to your summer reading list if you're not read it yet. It's very much on the sword side, but is also a bit swashbuckling with pirates and sea monsters. I really love creative magical system that Hobb creates here.

[Aeryn98]

Well, it will take you the whole summer but I recommend Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Excellent dark fantasy series, but the books will be way too heavy for the beach.

Someone already mentioned Zelazny, so I'll also throw in Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine Mozaic series (really any Kay novel).

Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series.

Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy (book 3 out in August).

For the sci-fi side I'd recommend John Scalzi's Old Man's War series. And also Charles Stross' Laundry Files novels.

All the other authors I would have recommended (Butcher, Cook, Hobb) are already listed.

[Alissa]

Aeryn98 wrote: "Well, it will take you the whole summer but I recommend Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Excellent dark fantasy series, but the books will be way too heavy for the beach. "

Per your recommendation I just bought Gardens of the Moon. And, it won't be too heavy for the beach because I downloaded it to my kindle. ;) *kindlelove*

[Aeryn98]

Alissa wrote: "Aeryn98 wrote: "Well, it will take you the whole summer but I recommend Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Excellent dark fantasy series, but the books will be way too heavy for t..."

Great. I hope you like it as much as I do. I have the hardcovers, but I also have been getting them for my kindle. I'll read the hardcovers again when I need to work on my muscles.

[Vvxn]

Eeep. I picked up the first of Naomi Novik's Temeraire books on Veronica's frequent recommendation and now I'm totally addicted, to the point where immediately upon finishing one, I rushed to the nearest bookstore to pick up the next. I also wholeheartedly agree with recommendations of all of Robin Hobb's books starting with Assassin's Apprentice (or at least the first 3 trilogies - I haven't really gotten into the Soldier's Son trilogy), Scalzi's Old Man's War trilogy, and the Dresden Files. All quite fun and perfectly capable of maintaining my attention at the beach. And not exactly a trilogy, but also William Gibson's Pattern Recognition and Spook Country are a lot of fun. I haven't read Zero History yet. A really quick, fun summer series if you don't mind YA is the The Queen's Theif series by Megan Whelan Turner. They have a lot in common with the Assassin's Apprentice series but they're a lot of fun.

[Jeremy]

Well, I'm new here, but i thought i'd give you guys an insight into me with my own list of 5 that are always in my recommendations.

1. The Dark Tower (Stephen King) *****
2. The Farseer Trilogy (Robin Hobb)****1/2
3. The Codex of Alera (Jim Butcher) *****
4. The Paradise Books (Ted Dekker) **** 1/2
5. The Way of Shadows Trilogy (Brent Weeks) ****1/2

All of these are being pulled out of my bookshelf yearly it seems like.

[Philip]

Vvxn wrote: "Eeep. I picked up the first of Naomi Novik's Temeraire books on Veronica's frequent recommendation and now I'm totally addicted, to the point where immediately upon finishing one, I rushed to the ..."

I just put His Majesty's Dragon on hold with my library. I saw Peter Jackson has optioned the series, so it ought to be good. Thanks!

[Alissa]

Heads up! I just looked up "His Majesty's Dragon" in the kindle store and it's free!

[Jordy]

Alissa wrote: "Heads up! I just looked up "His Majesty's Dragon" in the kindle store and it's free!"

Thanks for posting that Alissa!

[Peter]

http://www.suvudu.com/2010/06/free-li...

"His Majesty's Dragon" in .pdf form. It is also free throught the Kobo ebook store if you want it formatted for your device (iphone/touch, blackberry or kobo reader). The first book is free to promote the sixth book in the series released soon.

I am only a third or so into the book but so far I would highly recommend it.

[Christian]

For some light and fun reading try the first two Dragonlance series, Chronicles and Legends. They might not be considered serious fantasy, but give them a try.

I reread them a few years ago and enjoyed them. They are a quick read. Also, it did bring back memories of playing the D&D campaign.

Chronicles:
Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Dragons of Winter Night
Dragons of Spring Dawning

Legends:
Time of the Twins
War of the Twins
Test of the Twins

[Chris]

Jeremy wrote: "Well, I'm new here, but i thought i'd give you guys an insight into me with my own list of 5 that are always in my recommendations.

1. The Dark Tower (Stephen King) *****
"

I would give 5 stars to The Dark Tower too. I remember reading these as they were released, with each new one in the series, I'd go back and re-read the ones prior.

[Josh]

Doug wrote: "1.) The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. This series follows Miles Vorkosigan, a young man on a mission to prove himself on a Galactic setting with a penchant for getting in..."

I second the Vorkosigan Saga.

My other recomendations are:

The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton -- a space opera of sorts based around a commonwealth of wormhole connected planets and humanity's in counter with a race that only knows how to destroy.

and

The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell -- a very military tail of a long lost hero who returns to lead a long retreat from deep in enemy territory.

[terpkristin]

I haven't read the Vorkosigan books yet, but I would definitely recommend Bujold's Chalion books, a fantasy trilogy starting with The Curse of Chalion. I'd at least recommend reading the first book, it stands well on its own, even if you don't read the 2nd and 3rd books (they weren't quite as good in my opinion). Her Sharing Knife series is also on my "to read" list, along with the Vorkosigan books.

[Jeremy]

Chris wrote:
I would..."

Same here. I even made my friends sign them out when they wanted to borrow one, just so I always knew where they were. S.K. created one of my favorite worlds when he wrote the Dark Tower series, especially when you consider that nearly all of his works include references to the tower.

[Lee_grehan]

I'm late to this discussion, but I would recommend one or both series by Julian May, either The Saga of the Pliocene Exile series or The Rampart Worlds series. In addition, Jack McDevitt's series, either the Academy stories or the Alex Benedict series are wonderful reads. Finally, a series I always enjoyed was Jack Chalker's The Rings of the Master.

[Ix]

Jeremy wrote:
Same here. I even made my friends sign them out when they wanted to borrow one, just so I always knew where they were. S.K. created one of my favorite worlds when he w..."

I wish I would've used a signing sheet before I borrowed out my Neil Gaimen signed copy of Stardust.

A series that I'd recommend reading over the summer would be Tad Williams Otherland series. Each visited world was extremely vivid in my mind and I put off reading the last book for a long time, just because I didn't want the series to end for me.

For some good old fantasy hack and slash adventuring, you can't go wrong with Gotrek & Felix: The First Omnibus. I thought the series was great fun and included everything from dragonslaying, to dungeon crawling to epic city sieges.

[Michael]

A recommendation I frequently make is The View from the Mirror quartet by Ian Irvine. Rich backstory and world with vivid characters and an interesting plot. I need to reread them soon I think. Perhaps A Shadow on the Glass could be a Sword and Laser pick?

[Eric]

Since most of my favorite laser series are already listed (Commonwealth/Revelation Space, Old Man's War, Hyperion, Lost Fleet, Dresden), I'll throw out a sword series. I will always be extremely partial to Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. I've reread them multiple times and they're enjoyable, quick reads.