The Sword and Laser discussion

...courtesy of io9. I haven't read any of these (although I'm sure I should).

http://io9.com/5972411/10-book-series...

What do you guys think? What are they missing?

Abercrombie and Steven Erikson. Actually I did want Erikson to end so I could start again.

I09 Left off the Dresden Files (books), by Jim Butcher

There are two I wouldn't have put on that list. Authors that I would have put on the list: Roger Zelanzey, Steven Brust, David Eddings, Anne McCaffrey, Orson Scott Card, Janny Wurtz, & Tad Williams.

Those are authors right off the top of my head. =)

Eric & Elizabeth wrote: "I09 Left off the Dresden Files (books), by Jim Butcher"

Agreed. And the Black Company series by Glenn Cook.

As with any "best of" list, they always leave off what seem to be obvious choices to me, and include items I've either never heard of or disagree with.

Invariably, though, they lead me towards something new and and interesting to read. So I always still read them. :-)

What about the Wheel of Time or Sword of Truth or Robin Hobb's books?

Robin Hobb's series for sure. Also agree with the Abercrombie mention above. If Rothfuss and Peter Brett had more than 2 books out in their series, they would also be a must.

The article has intrigued me with the Vorkosigan series...may have to give that a go. If anyone has thoughts on these books, I'd love to hear them.

Robin Hobb/Elderlingd is definitely a big yes for me. Same with Jim Butcher/Dresden.

Wheel of Time is a big no. As a whole I really like the series, but there were several times I wanted to stop, but powered through (and I'm glad I did).

Daryl wrote: "The article has intrigued me with the Vorkosigan series...may have to give that a go. If anyone has thoughts on these books, I'd love to hear them."

Reading that series now.

Not bad, but nothing outstanding either.

Dan Abnett has several addictive series between Eisenhorn, Ravenor, and Gaunt's Ghosts in Warhammer 40k.

They seem to list series people might not already be familiar with, which I appreciate. Some of the more popular titles are really addictive too.

Just realised Abercrombie isn't 10 books. It's hard to count when you're missing a finger.

Any of the Sanderson books. The Way of Kings is without question top read, Mistborn equally good, we all wait for Elantris sequel, Emperor's Soul is epic... Hmmm, anyone noticed slight addiction to Sandersons work by yours trully? :-)

Ooops just realised Sanderson does not have 10 book series. Missed that number at the begining of topic name. Well, The Stormlight Archive should have around 10 :-)
Back to topic, The Malazan Book of the Fallen. I'm at book five and it's really, really good.

They're not referring to series with at least 10 books each. Just a list of 10 series. Some on that list only have 5 books.

Can someone please post the list in this thread so as to allow those of us annoyed by clickbait don have to pander to it?

I don't know that I have 10 series I can think of. I love ASoIaF and have reread it a few times. WoT, while there are books in it I really liked, I don't think the complete series holds up. What I've read of Feist's books intrigue me, but I've only read the Riftwar Saga and the Krondor's Sons books. I started the Serpentwar books but have been distracted. Same with Dresden...I like what I've read but haven't read them all. I liked Harry Potter a lot...up to the epilogue of the final book.

I don't mind when series end, but I like it when they do it well. I'd rather a series end well than when a series drags on without anything new. I have high hopes for Sanderson's Stormlight books...but we shall see.

1) Mike Carey's Felix Castor Novels
2) The Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold
3) Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels
4) Seanan McGuire's October Daye novels
5) Iain M. Banks' Culture novels
6) The Watch Series by Sergei Lukyanenko
7) The Company books by Kage Baker
8) The Patternmaster series by Octavia Butler
9) The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
10) The Temeraire books by Naomi Novik

I have heard of Naomi Novik but none of the others... most of those are Sci Fi.

I've read a couple Vorkosigan books, the New Sun books, and many Discworld novels. Of those I've gifted the first New Sun book once and I gift and recommend Discworld books regularly. Vorkosigan was ok but not that memorable for me.
Other series that stick with me are Pern (Ann McCaffrey), Belgariad (David Eddings), Riverworld (Philip Jose Farmer), Ender (Orson Scott Card), Hyperion (Dan Simmons), Hitchhiker's Guide (Douglas Adams), and Thomas Covenant (Stephen Donaldson),

I just started reading the first book in this series and literally cannot put it down.

So glad that Orson Scott Card isn't on the list. I've always though that the other books in the series didn't quite live up to Ender's Game. I guess in one sense, reading Ender's Game did make me want to keep reading in the universe, but once I did the execution didn't keep me there.

I'm really surprised the GRRM's Game of Thrones series and Tolkien's LOTR are not on the list. As for Gene Wolfe, I would have left that off, as I didn't think it was that addictive.

Aaron wrote: "So glad that Orson Scott Card isn't on the list. I've always though that the other books in the series didn't quite live up to Ender's Game. I guess in one sense, reading Ender's Game did make me w..."

Ender's Shadow is a great book in my opinion, but most of the rest are lacking. Especially in the Ender series. I liked the next few Shadow books.

Looks like John Norman's Gor series got omitted again :)

Harry Potter!!!

I haven't actually read too many series books other than the HHG (all the ones Douglas Adams wrote anyway) and Discworld. I sometimes get behind with Discworld but will always go back and catch up at some point. Starting to get into a few other series (A Song of Ice and Fire and Old Mans War) but only onto book 2 so don't know if they will last.

I have more graphic novel series I am into than novel novel series.

For me, it's David & Leigh Eddings' Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli series.

There must be something wrong with me because I've never ever heard of any of those series except for Discworld.

I also can't believe Frank Herbert's Dune series, Douglas N. Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series, C.S.Lewis's Narnia series and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series are not mentioned. These are classics; these should be the first names that comes to mind!

Weird...:/

I'd agree with the above mentions of: Discworld, Hitchhikers Guide, Harry Potter, and Pern. Some other must-reads for me are the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey, the Change books by S.M. Stirling, the Kingkiller series by Pat Rothfuss (though I'm frustrated that there only two books so far), and Thomas Covenant.

Going back to the basics of the question... What are the most addictive series I've read and didnt' want to stop? Here's my list...

1) Riddle-Master: The Complete Trilogy
2) A Man of His Word series by Dave Duncan, Many of his other series would qualify as well.
3) The Night Angel Trilogy
4) The Belgariad Boxed Set
5) The Last Herald-Mage
6) The Deed of Paksenarrion
7) The Blade Itself and the rest of the First Law series of course. Very Addictive.
8) Harry Potter Boxset
9) The Foundation Trilogy as well as all the surrounding books like the Robots, and prequel books.
10) Jim Butcher Dresden Files.

And many many more. Dave Duncan doesn't seem to get much mention here on S&L though so he'd be my biggest recommendation.

Sometimes YA series really do it because they go so quickly anyway that it's easy to blitz through to the end. thinking of The Hunger Games, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, there have to be others. Especially trilogies where book 2 doesn't really end.....

Aaron wrote: "So glad that Orson Scott Card isn't on the list. I've always though that the other books in the series didn't quite live up to Ender's Game. I guess in one sense, reading Ender's Game did make me w..."

The "Ender's Shadow" series is awesome though. It's like reading a game of Risk.

Can someone tell me please what YA or NA stand for??? I've asked this so many times, please....

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ender's Game, Dune-only Frank Herbert, Elric of Melniboné-I'm surprised nobody mentioned Michael Moorcock. On that note, there's also The Dancers at the End of Time and The Cornelius Chronicles by that same author. The Lord of the Rings, of course. Oh yeah, more Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow series is good. I'll stand behind my comments from the previous post. I liked the The Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks. That still leaves one. Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire series was awesome. Thrawn is such a cool villain, or whatever he is.

Foram wrote: "Can someone tell me please what YA or NA stand for??? I've asked this so many times, please...."

YA is young adult. I'm almost 40 and I just found out about Ender's Game this past year. I had to go to the Young Adult section at my library for a couple of the books. Oh well. As far as NA goes, I dunno.

NA is probably Night Angel trilogy but I don't see it mentioned anywhere other than Foram's post...

In the right context, NA can mean "not applicable."

NA is probably short for "New Adult", which is just another market for people who feel they're too old to read YA. In my opinion, they're only vaguely useful for deciding if I want to read a book, since I'm a 40-something guy who enjoyed Harry Potter, thought Hunger Games was okay, and loved Ender's Game. The fact that the main characters are all young has no bearing on my decision to read it, but the marketing for them being "kid's books" does make me feel a bit odd picking the books up; then I quickly get over it and enjoy my occasional forays into this "young adult" fiction.

I believe 'NA' stands for 'Naked Adult'.

Tamahome wrote: "I believe 'NA' stands for 'Naked Adult'."

Ah ha.. so what I mentioned back in message 23 must be an NA series then :)

I can agree that the Seanan McGuire October Daye books are very addictive, once you get past the first two, that I found pretty hard going. Other than the Discworld books, I've read several of the others, but not really seen anything very addictive about them at all. Also, hearing the hero of the Lois McMaster Bujold books compared to Tyrion Lannister is the first thing I've ever heard that makes me think that maybe I do want to read some of them, after all.

They should put Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series on there, Kim Harrison's The Hollows series, and frankly, anything written by Ilona Andrews. Now those are addictive books.

I'm certainly addicted to staring at the Mercy Thompson covers.

The Culture books by Banks are addictive if you like them but in the sense that you want to read one as soon as it's out not in the sense that you read them right after one another. The Dresden books were like that for me... I read the entire series in 3 weeks. The Banks novels are weightier and stay with you more.

Butler was an outstanding author who, like many, didn't get her due in terms of popularity. I've only read Wild Seed but I think anyone who reads in S&L should try her.

Miles Vorkosigan is an interesting hero - he breaks the "best military hero in his world" mold by being smarter than anyone else but physically fragile. In a genre that's dominated by kick ass heroes who prove they're the best by being tougher and deadlier personally, Miles is a fun twist. He's deadly but because of his mind, not his body.

Needs more Prydain. 'Cause I know I never wanted that series to end.