[Fist Gamet]

SalokinX, on 10 June 2010 - 01:39 AM, said:

High Mage Quick Ben, on 10 June 2010 - 01:34 AM, said:

Malazan book of the fallen is my favorite series, and for the rest i'm really not sure. I liked a song of fire and ice, I also have liked some others like the name of wind and lots of others. So malazan is just my favorite so far, but really end up liking most fantasy im not really picky.

Oh God, please fix that.

The Name of the Wind is actually the next book on my fantasy-to-read list. I've seen very good reviews on it and I can't wait to get there, but right now I'm stuck on book 3 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and I can't get past it. I already bought the rest of the series so stopping isn't an option, but it will take quite a while.

Good grief (best Charlie Brown accent)...MoI is the best in the series, imho.

Anyhoo, for best series I thought for a few years it would be WoT until it didn't end in book seven. ASoIaF is a strong contender but the delays only serve to dampen my enthusiasm. MBoTF is a clear winner for me, although The Black Company series is also terrific. Also, Book of the New Sun and the entire Conan series by Howard. And one to throw back a few years - The Videssos Cycle by Turtledove
Oh, a Sci-fi entry would be the Night's Dawn Trilogy (possible because it consumed sooooo much of my life!) and the Hyperion books are brilliant. Best Sci-fi is, for me, Morgan's Kovacs series.

Stand alones...where oh where to begin? Ok, short version then.
Perdido Street Station
Prince of Nothing
Rubicon
Waylander
Lonesome Dove
For Those I Loved
A Christmas Carol
Cloud Atlas
The Great Transformation
River of Gods
Revelation Space
The Name of The Rose
and so on...

[rhulad]

 Excluding unfinished series, my current favorite series would have to be The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy... I don't care what anyone else says, that series is f***ing awesome. One of my favorite books has always been Uther by Jack Whyte which I haven't read for probably 10 years (which is likely why it's still a favorite). Favorite fantasy probably Mistborn or The Sandman. 

This post has been edited by rhulad: 10 June 2010 - 02:01 PM

[Use Of Weapons]

Favourite fantasy series? Discworld.

[Salt-Man Z]

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun
Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap Cycle
Matthew Stover's Acts of Caine
and
Richard Adams' Shardik

[alt146]

After Memories of Ice, my favourite books of all time would be

Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
The Scar, by China Meiville and
Galilee, by Clive Barker

It's very rare that a book will leave you in breathless anticipation from a couple of pages in, all four of those did that to me.

[polishgenius]

The Scar by Mieville is my favourite book, so I second that motion.

Memories of Ice is my second favourite, and as a series Malazan has to be up there, though it goes a bit downhill after MT for me.

Hal Duncan's Book of All Hours duology is up there. Currently doing my second reread of Vellum, which is difficult, fragmented, maybe pretentious, and so, so worth the effort. My second read of it made so much more sense. I'm told Wolfe's book of the New Sun does something like that but I've only read that once so far, but I thought I'd mention the comparison.

I'd have to stick Abraham's Long Price Quartet in there, it's fantastic. In terms of prose he's maybe the best fantasy writer going and he's good with plot and character too. It's kind of like a condensed, Eastern-culture influenced aSoIaF.

[D'rek]

Hard to say, but I'd probably go with Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Those who know me well on this forum already know that I have a slightly biased and pseudo-encyclopedic knowledge of that book, and love to obsess about it. Nevertheless, I can't think right now of any other novel/series that has the sheer magnitude of the scope, the many, many well developed themes and the vividness of the events placed into a beautifully and convincing setting such as this.

Plus it's rife with little asides that range from cannibalism to men transmorphing into sheep. Some may find that there's a bit of a pacing issue around chapters 95-107, but those chapters also have machine-gun-crossbows, thumbprint-identifying supply wagons shaped like wooden horses with wings, and taxidermied dead people scaring off armies. Such things simply cannot be criticized.

[Coco with marshmallows]

agreed with D'rek on Three Kingdoms......

Also, why no love for the Baroque cycle by Stephenson? Absolutely epic in every sense IMNSHO.

There are quite a few bantering interactions in Stephenson's work that remind me of Dumas, which leads me to - the three musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas.

Shogun, by James Clavell.

Gates of Fire, by Stephen Pressfield.

Legend, by David Gemmel.


Also second (or third? fourth?) Dresden - they aren't great literary works, but damn if they aren't amazingly entertaining.

In terms of classic fantasy series, Malaz (obviously), ASoIaF (when it's finished. I hope), WoT (up to book 6/7 in my opinion - some go later)

[Slow Ben]

Favorite series- We're gonna call a tie for first place with Malazan and Dresden Files. They're completely different, but equally awesome. It used to be just Malazan, but the last few Dresden books, especially Changes, have moved it to the top.

Favorite book- Wizard and Glass-Stephen King. Love me some gunslinging action. Probably read this book 15 times and i never get tired of it.

[Beezulbubba]

I would also add Michael Moorcock's "Elric of Melniboné" series.

I see a lot of similarities between Elric and Anomander Rake and the swords they wield (Elric=Stormbringer / Rake=Dragnipur).

[Gwynn ap Nudd]

Hmm, my favourite standalone works don't include fantasy. I would go with The Brothers Karamazov by Doestoyevsky, 1984 and God Knows by Joseph Heller and Live from Golgotha by Gore Vidal.

Favourite series would include MBotF, Dresden Files, The Black Company (all of which have been mentioned above) and C J Cherryh's Fortress series.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's read Bakker. But while he's good, and definitely has got promise, he's not best-read material.

Obviously forum membership might insinuate a certain deification-level of the Malazan series...

SalokinX, on 10 June 2010 - 01:39 AM, said:

High Mage Quick Ben, on 10 June 2010 - 01:34 AM, said:

Malazan book of the fallen is my favorite series, and for the rest i'm really not sure. I liked a song of fire and ice, I also have liked some others like the name of wind and lots of others. So malazan is just my favorite so far, but really end up liking most fantasy im not really picky.

Oh God, please fix that.

The Name of the Wind is actually the next book on my fantasy-to-read list. I've seen very good reviews on it and I can't wait to get there, but right now I'm stuck on book 3 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and I can't get past it. I already bought the rest of the series so stopping isn't an option, but it will take quite a while.

Dear GOD man! MoI is, is... I can't describe the state of utter incredulity I'm in, over somehow not finishing MoI.

This post has been edited by Adjutant Stormy: 11 June 2010 - 02:23 AM

[Chance]

Fist Gamet, on 10 June 2010 - 12:03 PM, said:

Anyhoo, for best series I thought for a few years it would be WoT until it didn't end in book seven. ASoIaF is a strong contender but the delays only serve to dampen my enthusiasm. MBoTF is a clear winner for me, although The Black Company series is also terrific. Also, Book of the New Sun and the entire Conan series by Howard. And one to throw back a few years - The Videssos Cycle by Turtledove
Oh, a Sci-fi entry would be the Night's Dawn Trilogy (possible because it consumed sooooo much of my life!) and the Hyperion books are brilliant. Best Sci-fi is, for me, Morgan's Kovacs series.

Cool someone else who remembers Videssos...a great series you rarely hear a word about.

As to bestest book/serie its fairly impossible this days for me at least and getting harder the more you read. Most re-read would be MBoTF but hey the last couple of books (except for Toll) hasn't been that great, Name of the Wind is great but hey its the first novel in a series I've read a lot of those who disapoint in the second installment, Black Company is one of the top fantasy fare, I've always had an irrational like for the Shadow of Arrarat series Roman fantasy simply is very intriguing with some semi-history thrown in but some SF probably overshadows them at least for the moment Use of Weapons, Excession, the first and last of the Kovacs series (the second ain't bad just not as good).

/Chance

This post has been edited by Chance: 11 June 2010 - 07:13 AM

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Well,as the best fantasy seriesI definitely say Malazan Book of the Fallen, closely followed by Bakker's Second Apocalypse.
Best fantasy book is hands down Memories of Ice.
My favorite non Fantasy book is The Count of Monte Cristo while for series I'll have to go with McCullogh's Masters of Rome sequence.

[goldmill]

The Black Company by far is my favorite series.

First law trilogy is awesome as well. Haven't finished Malazan yet but love the first few books.

[Fist Gamet]

I am loving the love for MoI

Also, as Chance mentioned, I have fond memories of the Videssos Cycle, and, whilst not perfect, they are well worth it if you can find them. There are four in the series as I recall.

Always meant to getting around to reading Shogun. It has been sitting in my Amazon "save for later" list for about three years!

[acesn8s]

Best standalone: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Best series: The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan with ASoIaF and TMBotF both running a close second.

[teholbeddict]

I hate this kind of question it's nearly impossible to answer! There's no way I can do just one. I'd have to go with Shantaram, Infinite Jest, Sunne in Splendour, Count of Monte Cristo, and Mists of Avalon. Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series is probably the best series I've read. Not many fantasy books rank at the top of my best ever list, but I've definitely read some excellent books withing the genre.

[Harvester]

Hmm... I'll have to go with every single story written by Lovecraft.

[stone monkey]

Infinite Jest may well be my favourite novel... Closely followed by House of Leaves

My favourite single book is probably the edition I have of Jorge Luis Borges Collected Fictions

As far as fantastic literature goes, I'm a big fan of Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos and I'm also very fond of China Mieville's Bas Lag Novels and Alastair Reynolds' Inhibitors Sequence I'm also getting that way about Charles Stross' Bob Howard/Laundry Series

I do love me a bit of Lovecraft, though, especially At the Mountains of Madness

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 11 June 2010 - 07:34 PM