Book Series

I'm currently looking for a new series to start reading. I will read anything so if anyone has any suggestions... please let me know.

Mystery, SciFi, Fantasy, Romance, Westerns...

You might want to narrow it down a little bit, picking just one of those genres will get you more than you can read in a year very quickly.

I'll read anything. Anything at all. I just prefer to read series instead of individual novels.

Mysteries > Sue Grafton, Peter Tremayne, Ellis Peters

Crime > John Sandford

Fantasy > Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, Raymond Fiest Midkimia, Ann McCaffrey Dragon books, Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl, David Eddings

Sci Fi > Orson Scott Card Ender Series, Isaac Asimov, Robots, Foundation series,

added
Westerns > Louis L'Amour Sacketts

Just to name a few off the top of my head, these are authors with at least one series and sometimes several.

Great... I've done the Sue Grafton series, Harry Potter, Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, etc etc. I'm re-reading the Outlander series yet again, so looking for something I haven't already read.

I second Ellis Peters, I love her Brother Cadfael mystery series. Also, the Joe Grey mysteries by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, about talking, crime-solving cats.

I really like the books by Alan Furst They are all separate stories set in various countries in Europe just before and during the Second World War. Some events cross all the books and one or two characters appear in a number of them. They are part history, and mystery.

One of my fave genre is the paranormal/urban fantasy genre. Here are my faves:

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. First book in a series. Five books are out so far (the latest in hardback).

Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake vampire hunter series. Guilty Pleasures is the first book. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. A Kiss of Shadows the first book.

The Southern Vampire series. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris is the first book.

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I haven't read these books but I've heard they are very good (you may have heard of the sci-fi tv show based off these books).

Military sci-fi:

On Basilisk Station by David Weber. First book in the Honor Harrington series.

Romance/crime/mystery:

Not sure what to categorize these series as. The author writes mostly romance. The Eve Dallas series by J.D. Robb (also known as Nora Roberts).

I don't think you can go wong with Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series. Stuart Woods has a series, but not all his books are series.

If you like westerns or history the Dana Fuller Ross Wagons West series is really good. She has several other spin off series.

I have a friend who swears by J. D. Robb otherwise known as Nora Roberts The series is something In Death such as a couple are Naked in Death and Born in Death.

A couple of lesser known series I have enjoyed are byJudy Mercer. Double Take is the first one.

I also like Robert W. Walker His character is Jessica Coran. She is a forensic investigator. All the titles in the series are something Instinct, such as Killer Instinct.

Elizabeth Peters has a good series of Victorian/Egyptology books. Ms. Peters has her PHD in Egyptology. The first in the series is Crocodile on the Sandbank. Laurie R King has a series with Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes which starts with The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

When it comes to mysteries, there is a website called: stopyourekillingme.com which lists many authors and titles. Under the authors, such as Laurie R. King you can find the order of the books they have in a series.

punxsygal:

I love that site. Let me know of any others you or anyone else may have!

ALl time favourite authors SF and fantasy

Stephen Donaldson two major series' Thomas Covenant 7 published 2 or so more to come.
The Gap 5 detailed SF opera novels.

C J Cherryh
Who has written many different series.
Foreigner is 9 books with 3 more under contract
Fortress in the Eye of Time which is 5 books
Chanur saga is 5
Morgaine saga is 4
and the whole Alliance/Union universe of books which is many including a couple of Hugo winners.

Alistair Reynolds another SF opera stunning series starting with Revelation Space

Mystery wise
No. 1 Ladies detective agency is now 8 books long I think, charming descriptions of life in africa

P. D. James well appreciated inspecter Dalgliesh novels.

Go touchstones ! iodd one for james that I can't get right.
also as mentioned but not touchstoned
Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series starts with Storm Front

How about Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser - nice long series there.

Or for naval fiction how about the Aubrey/Maturin books starting with Master And Commander by Patrick O'Brian. That is 20 books long - note the film jammed a number of books together.

For crime (as opposed to mystery) I like Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus - a dozen more books there.

For mysteries, I would suggest Anne Perry's William Monk and Charlotte and Thomas Pitt's series.

Robertson Davies and The Cornish Trilogy beginning with Rebel Angels, then What's Bred in the Bone and finally The Lyre of Orpheus.

How about John Updike's Rabbit books?

I really enjoyed the Weather Warden books by Rachel Caine. They are urban fantasies about a group of people who can control the weather and elements that try to protect the every day world from being ripped apart by Mother Nature. They use dijinns to help them. The main character in the first book Ill Wind is framed for the murder of a fellow Weather Warden and the series kind of moves along from there.

edited to add:

There are five books in the series so far and the next one is due out in August.

Another great series which I should have mentioned in my other post is The Mediator books by Meg Cabot. Although they are young adult books I totally loved them and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to adults as well.

The first book is Shadowland and the series is about a girl who has the power to see, speak to and touch ghosts in order to help them move on to their next plane of existence.

Other good mystery series: Elizabeth George's books about Lynley et al.; the all-too-short Sarah Caudwell series; the V I. Warshawski series by Sara Paretsky, the Matthew Scudder books by Lawrence Block, and of course Dorothy Sayers and Rex Stout.

A good light, humorous series is the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Her 13th book in the series Lean Mean Thirteen will by out in June, I think.

Thanks for all the suggestions.... keep em coming!!!

I absolutely second the recommendation for The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies; What's Bred in the Bone is one of my very favourite books. The Deptford Trilogy is also worth checking out; I liked World of Wonders best out of those three, though Fifth Business was also pretty wounderful.

Margaret Drabble's unnamed trilogy of A Natural Curiosity, The Radiant Way, and The Gates of Ivory are also really good, though I found that they didn't reread very well.

On a more fantastical note, I love Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. It consists of a whole bunch of trilogies and the odd single book, all set in the same fictional country. I get a big kick out of them. And, though they're definitely not to everyone's tastes, I love R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books. They used to be a whole bunch of different trilogies and quadrologies, but they recently started publishing them as one big series.

So far as other fantasy goes, I've recently started reading Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar-related/Midkemia books, and I'm enjoying them so far. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is good, but it's very long, (and very long-winded), so it's not to be embarked upon lightly.

For mysteries, I love Agatha Christie's titles about Hercule Poirot and Tommy and Tuppence. Miss Marple is okay, but I don't like her quite as much as the others. Tommy & Tuppence are definitely my faves; they're a husband-and-wife sleuth team who grow older as the books progress. (Poor Poirot just kind of stays in limbo; sensible, as he'd be something like 150 by the time he finally dies, otherwise).

If you like graphic novels, Elfquest by Wendy and Richard Pini, The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Bone by Jeff Smith and Thieves & Kings by Mark Oakley are among my favourites.

Lastly, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches books are very good, though again they're not to everyone's tastes.

You might like the "Miss Julia" series by Ann B. Ross - I believe Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind: a novel comes first. A "traditional" Southern widow comes to realize that her life is her own to live, not caring what her priggish-though-philandering late husband might have wanted, nor what her friends and townspeople might think.
I'm off to the library later this week to pick up a copy of the latest: Miss Julia Strikes Back.

Ok... now I have no clue where to start after I finish my tbr pile (about 50 books right now).

If you like historical fiction, you might like the series by Rebecca Pawel (the touchstone isn't working for her); they're mysteries set in Madrid right after the Spanish Civil War. The first in the series is Death of a Nationalist.

Also, Olen Steinhauer has a really original series that is set in an unnamed E. European city, beginning not long after WWII ends. Each book is set in the same police station, but each novel is told from the POV of a different character, although each character is present in every book. The first one (I think) is The Bridge of Sighs, although I wouldn't say you have to read them in order.

I'll second the suggestions of Michael Connelly's books and also The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.

I've read a couple of both of these, but never read the entire series.

Here's the website for the Elizabeth Peters books cited above. There are 18 books about Amelia Peabody, an intrepid woman married to an irascible archaeologist. The time frame goes from 1880 up through about 1925 and uses some of the famous archaeological finds of that period as a backdrop for the series.

In the sci-fi area there's the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold, which I've just found and am enjoying very much.

Mysteries could include Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books, all of which are standalone.

In police procedurals there are Ed McBain's 87th precinct books, Dell Shannon's Luis Mendoza books, and J D Robb's Eve Dallas books (mentioned above).

Any series that is Harry Potter-ish that anyone would suggest??

How about Lemony Snicket's 'Series of Unfortunate Events' ? The Bad Beginning is the first book in that series.

I've been told that and Chronicles of Narnia we like Harry Potter. Not sure.

The closest Harry Potterlike series I've read though quite a bit lighter is Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl

I've seen people compare the Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones and the Young wizards series by Diane Duane to Harry Potter. Both those series are excellent and (in my opinion) much better than HP.

If we're still talking about YA, I would also recommend the Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo. Midnight for Charlie Bone and the rest.

YA is something that I've just ventured into with Harry Potter, but I absolutley loved the series. I would love to further my reading into those types of books though. Thanks for the suggestions.

punxsygal: I read my first Elizabeth Peters book and absolutely loved it.. Thanks for the suggestion.

I reserved Storm Front by Jim Butcher at my local library. I think there's a sudden interest in the series here, as I'm number fifteen (15!!) on the list.

hmm... I'm gonna have to try that series out soon, too.

I can't believe Jasper Fforde hasn't been mentioned yet. His books are put in fiction in Borders, but it really should be in science fiction. It's hilarious and strange. If you like historical fiction at all, try Gore Vidal's series that includes Burr, Lincoln, etc. There is also a great two book series by Herman Wouk: War and Remembrance and i forget the other title. Great WWII series. I love Harry Potter, too but am not really a sci-fi fan. I couldn't really get into Unfortunate Series. I was amused by the Princess Diaries series. I liked the Tillerman cycle by Cynthia Voigt and the Wrinkle in Time series. I did enjoy the Elizabeth Peters series, too. You would probably like the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.

#40, the other Wouk book is The Winds of War.

That always reminds me of the controversy among avid fans about the mini-series' casting, with an aging Ali McGraw playing a young (early twenties) Natalie Jastrow and Jan-Michael Vincent playing her lover.

I imagine both TV series are out on DVD now, so you younger folk can rent and judge for yourselves. ;)

If you like vampires, try the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

I've been really enjoying Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's books that feature Agent Pendergast. They are sort of a series that can be read out of order.

Although, the last three, (Brimstone, Dance of Death, and The Book of the Dead) are a trilogy and are to be read in that order.

If you like Vampire romance here a few
Twilight (so far there's only two books of that series) :(
New Moon (Sequal of Twilight, thrid is coming this year.) :)
Vampire Kisses(The author is now working on her 5th or 6th Book of that series)
Then if you're more a magic, tragic, thrilling book try
InkHeart(sequal is InkSpell)(Sould be another coming!) :)

I've taken many suggestions from you all on the series. I've only been able to read a book from a few series.. but as of right now.. I think I'll say my favorite so far is the Holt Series by Dana Fuller Ross. I'm gonna keep plugging through and hopefully I'll find some more favorites in the suggestions you've all given me.

Another mystery series I am finding very good is Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon books. I'm trying very hard to read them in order. It's not precisely necessary, at least for the first four or five, but after that I think it would help.

The strong points of the series are 1) good mysteries and 2) wonderful nature writing. Anna is a National Parks ranger and each book takes place in a different park. The first one is Guadalupe Mtns in Texas, the second is Isle Royale in Lake Superior, and the third is Mesa Verde in Colorado.

Actually, I think I just picked up one of those books at Borders. I'll have to check and see if it's the first one.

Track of the Cat is the first one. The correct sequence can be found at the author's website.

#45- I just finished "Blind Descent", my first Anna Pigeon. I started with that one because I have been to Carlsbad Caverns and it piqued my interest. I enjoyed the character of Anna a lot, and I thought Barr did a great job conveying the claustrophobia of Lechuguilla Cave. However, I don't know if I will read any more because I guesss I'm not really that much of "nature" gal :-P But I think she's a good writer.

I collect books on Italy. One of the more rewarding series of intercoonnected books I have read are these, in the order I read them, but not necessarily in the order best read. The first book was "A Tuscan Chidhood" by Kinta Beevor. It is a luminous account of Beevor's chilhood and later years growing up in coastal Tuscany (Lunigiana) during the early 20th century. After that book, I discovered a book written by Beevor's mother, Lina Waterfield, entitled "A Castle In Italy". During WWI , the family left Aulla in Lunigiana for the safer venue of Florence where Lina and her daughter lived with her sister Janet Ross. "Aunt Janet" was an imposing woman and a recent biography is available: A Castle In Tuscany". Not only do these books interconnect, but they took me on a wider journey. For example. the movie "Tea With Mussolini" appears to be based on the family with Ross being one of the "scorpioni" living outside Florence and Cher playing the role of Waterfield who as a journalist won a rare interview with Mussolini.

More epic fantasy

Wars of Shadow and light starts with Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts I've only read her standalone books so far, but if the series is anywhere near as good this will be excellant.

wow. This is a long list.
Sorry(I had to?)