Let’s do the ten best scifi/fantasy series (can’t go with 5)

[Mike Veitch]

Guy Gavriel Kay The_Lions_of_Al-Rassan

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Edgar Rice Burroughs, both the John Carter, Warlord of Mars series and Tarzan.

 

[Bretagne]

Among the authors which are already cited:

The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
Dune (the first books only, after the 5th I got bored), Frank Herbert
EarthSea, U.K. LeGuin. But also books in her other universe, as The left hand of Darkness, etc...
Daughter of the Empire, Raymond Feist & Janny Wurts
The mri series, C. J. Cherryh + a lot of other books
The Fionvar tapestry, Guy Gavriel Kay + a lot of other books, too.

I wouls add Marion Zimmer Bradley Darkover serie. Inequal, some books are better than some others, but I like the serie in general

 

[Walter]

Some excellent works there....

Off the top of my head (with some reminders from others' lists), in no particular order.....

Foundation series - Issac Asimov
Oz series - Frank L. Baum
Amber series - Roger Zelazny
Starwolf seris - Edmund Hamilton
Lensmen series - E. E. "Doc" Smith
Earthsea cycle - Ursula K. Le Guin (I'm not generally a fan of Le Guin, but these are exceptional)
Ender series - Orson Scott Card
Elric of Melnibone saga - Michael Moorcock
Dorsai series - Gordon R. Dickson
Mordant's Need - Stephen R. Donaldson

Robert A. Heinlein is my absolute favorite author of all time, but he wasn't particularly stong when it came to series. Number of the Beast, where he tied his earlier works together, was, IMO, his absolute worst work ever.

Lynn, how'd you know I'm a fan?

 

[ReefGuy]

Marvel, the 12th and final book of the Wheel of Time will be finished in late 2008 for publication in 2009. It's called "A Memory of Light".

Wheel of Time - Jordan (#1 by a longshot, replacing the Tolken)
Hobbit/Lord of the Rings - Tolken
Narnia - Lewis
Elric - Moorecock
Dune - Herbert
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Adams
Dr. Who - Various
Ender - Card
Foundation - Asimov
Xanth - Anthony

 

[plsander]

10 best...

Have not seen Heinlein mentioned -- Have Spacesuit, will Travel was what got me hooked on the classic SF genre. He managed to tie pretty much all of his stories together in the end.

Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars and the rest of the John Carter of Mars series.

Asimov - Robot series and Foundation series

Prachett - Discworld

Eric Flint (et al.) - 1632 -- Take a West Virginia coal mining town from 2000 and drop it into Germany in 1632, in the middle of the 30 years war.

 

[Walter]

Have not seen Heinlein mentioned -- Have Spacesuit, will Travel was what got me hooked on the classic SF genre. He managed to tie pretty much all of his stories together in the end.

Heinlein was mentioned twice prior to your post, but Have Spacesuit Will Travel is not a series. For me, it was Time For the Stars.

 

[TSandM]

Walter, you said something about it on the board once before, and I even PM'd you to talk about SF, because I love it!

Another obscure series is David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series. The problem is that he never got the last book published.

David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series.

Peter F. Hamilton's series that begins with The Reality Dysfunction.

I've really been enjoying a new British author, Alistair Reynolds.

Eric von Lustbader's Beneath an Opal Moon series. The first book begins like THX 1138.

 

[ReefGuy]

Have Spacesuit, will Travel was what got me hooked on the classic SF genre.

Junebug to Peewee...

And who could forget Mother Thing

 

[Marvel]

Marvel, the 12th and final book of the Wheel of Time will be finished in late 2008 for publication in 2009. It's called "A Memory of Light".

Wheel of Time - Jordan (#1 by a longshot, replacing the Tolken)

One can only hope. From what I understand,Robert Jordan has some serious health issues that have not only slowed down his writing (never the fastest) but are life threatening.

OH, & as much as I love Tolkien (I've probably read the trilogy 20 times over the years), WOT is even better.