Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

I’ve recently picked back up on the Powder Mage series (finishing up Crimson Campaign and ordered Autumn Republic).

Books I’ve struggled with....

I’ve tried reading The Fifth Season (the long chapters seem to bog me down, I do like the book though...). I’ve tried reading Malice by John Gwynne and I only got two chapters in before I set it aside for another day.

Books I’ve enjoyed....
The Powder Mage series (got the final on the way)
Kings of the Wylde
Senlin Ascends and Arm of The Sphinx
Foundryside
The Night Angel trilogy
And.... of the past....
The Wheel of Time (started that awesome and infernal series when The Dragon Reborn just came out.... )
The Belgariad series
The Mallorean series (waited two years for the final book... rather frustrating)

I’d like to avoid....
Incomplete series.... yeah, I know. Starting the 14 book series when the 3rd just came out felt like madness). I’ve been wanting to start the Stormlight Archive but it doesn’t pass the “Wheel of Time rule”.

My latest favorite author is Marc Alan Edelheit:

https://www.amazon.com/Marc-Alan-Edel...
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

All of his books are part of the same series.

A few that I’ve enjoyed, which are complete:
Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn (actually two trilogies)
Death Gate Cycle (Weiss & Hickman of Dragonlance renown, which are also good high fantasy D&D style books which would fit the criteria)
The Riftwar Saga (R Feist but he does seem to keep adding to it) which also includes the superb Empire trilogy with Janny Wurts
There’s a few Drizzt trilogies which start with The Crystal Shard (R A Salvatore)
The Wars of Light and Shadow is 1 book shy of being complete (Janny Wurts, 10 books so far)
I’ve just started Miles Cameron’s Traitor Son Cycle which is complete at 5 books - good so far

I can recommend Hell Divers currently at 5 books with a 6th due in Oct. Same author as Night Angel series starting with The Black Prism at 4 books with nbr 5 coming soon. Other series to check out: Terry Goodkind with Sword of Truth; I read up to around number 6 but there or 15 or so. David Weber with Honor Harrington at 14. Lois McMaster Bujold with Vorkosigan saga at 16.

L.E. Modesitt Jr. has written several good fantasy series. Recluce is up to over 20 books now, but they're usually in duologies scattered through a 2000 year time span so you can stop pretty much any time you want - if you want. I haven't yet. You can find all the books & decide whether to read them in published or chronological order if you read my review of the first published The Magic of Recluce here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

He's also written the Imager, Corean Chronicles, & Spellsinger series. The last is my least favorite. I really like all the rest. I'd try any one of the series. If you like his style of writing, read the others. His style doesn't vary much, although the stories & powers do.

Does it have to be specifically a 5-Book series? If so, I'd suggest:

-The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. It's a YA series, but very well written and paced.

-The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski. It has 5 principal books, with two short-story anthologies and one prequel most recently published in English.

If you're just looking for a series with a lot of books:

-The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
-Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan. Another YA series, but well crafted and with engaging plots and characters.

-The Elric Series by Michael Moorcock. There are something like 8 books in the series, but they're difficult to find and, even by the author's own estimate, hard to organize into a chronological sequence. Very good stories, though.

-The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steve Erikson. 10 books on the main series, plus a prequel trilogy and a short, supplementary series written by Ian C. Esselmont. Plenty of material for the avid fan. The main series is complete, but one of the prequel trilogies is missing the last book.

-Dune by Frank Herbert. 6 books in the original series, plus three (and counting) prequel trilogies written by Herbert's son, as well as two sequel books which complete the story.

-The Dark Tower by Stephen King. 7 books originally published, plus an interquel written later, which takes place sometime during the main narrative.

Saul the Heir of Isauldur wrote: "Does it have to be specifically a 5-Book series? If so, I'd suggest:

-The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. It's a YA series, but very well written and paced.

-The Witcher by Andrzej Sapk..."

It doesn't have to be 5 books. I was ideally looking for a bit more than a trilogy.

Wheel of Time - Already done.
Dark Tower - I've got a thing against Stephen King books only for the fact that Tommy Knockers bogged me down to the point of it being unreadable. Taking a chapter to describe a table (exaggerating a bit, but, long drawn out I can't handle).
The Witcher - I'm actually going to order the three book box set this week.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Not sure if I could get into that series. I've heard mixed reviews.

John wrote: "I can recommend Hell Divers currently at 5 books with a 6th due in Oct. Same author as Night Angel series starting with The Black Prism at 4 books with nbr 5 coming s..."

Black Prism.... I might explore that.

Discworld
Mistborn
Dresden Files
Michael Vey (seven books; YA)
Lockwood & Co. (five books; YA)

Spellslinger series by Sebastien de Castell has 5 books with one more to come.

I agree with reading the Lightbringer series. The fifth and last book, The Burning White by Brent Weeks comes out October 22, 2019. The Black Company series by Glen Cook is at eleven books with Port of Shadows released on September 11, 2018. The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson is at six books now with The Bands of Mourning released on January 26, 2016. There is supposed to be a seventh book to finish the second cycle of novels in the series with a third cycle planned. The Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny was ten books.

Also the Saga of Recluse by L. E. Modesit Jr. There are 22 books, I believe, or something close to it.

The Dumarest saga by E.C. Tubb has over 30 novels and the Perry Rhodan series has 126 novels in English - far, far more in German - a new 66-page novella has been published every week since September, 1961.

If you're looking for a prolific writer who writes some of the very best characters I've ever encountered in a book as well as some incredibly detailed world-building and lore, please pick up the The Sun Sword series by Michelle Sagara West.

The Sun Sword series which starts with The Broken Crown is a complete 6-book series. There are 2 other complete series set in this world and concerning this overarching story. The first is a duology starting with Hunter's Oath, the second newly completed (this year) series is 7 books beginning with The Hidden City. So far, there are 15 complete books in this world, she is planning another 6 book series for this same universe.

I'll give you fair warning, this isn't an author to read if you require everything to be spelled out for you as soon as you get curious. She always has so much story that she doesn't actually write. You are always wondering about this side character, and that allusion, and wanting to know more about this piece of lore. There is no "fish out of water" character who has to learn the world with you, the story starts in a world that existed before you start reading. Personally, I love that.

Michelle Sagara West is my very favorite fantasy author that no one has ever heard of.

Nevada wrote: "If you're looking for a prolific writer who writes some of the very best characters I've ever encountered in a book as well as some incredibly detailed world-building and lore, please pick up the T..."

I read her for her Chronicles of Elantra which started with Cast in Shadow, book 15 of that will be coming out next year. It's not a series that has a destination or goal the characters need to get to, so she can keep writing until she decides she doesn't have anything else to say about those characters. I will add the caveat, that after a certain number of these books things do get a bit repetitive, not in plot but in the way secondary characters treat the main character (you'd think people would change over time) but Sagara does do amazing world building and deep magics.

Andrea wrote: "not in plot but in the way secondary characters treat the main character (you'd think people would change over time) "

I understand what you're saying but it doesn't bother me so much when the person continuing to treat her the same is someone who is either a) immortal or b) damn-near close to immortal. lol

I'm about 6 books in on the Elantra series. I like to have them waiting in the wings when I'm in a book slump.

Nevada wrote: "I'm about 6 books in on the Elantra series. I like to have them waiting in the wings when I'm in a book slump. "

I like to be 2-3 years behind her publishing pace so that if she misses a year I don't have to. So I think I'm around #13 right now. I guess my main issue was that the immortals just refuse to ever tell her anything useful until the world is on the brink of destruction, even though she is clearly key to all the events and having a little info would probably stop things going quite so bad in the first place :) I mean the first few books they're thinking "well she's just this dumb mortal", but by book 13 you'd think she'd earn a little respect in that regard (she gets some, but they still hesitate to tell her anything). But I think that's the "formula" of those books, and hey, I'm still reading them so it obviously doesn't bother me that much! Just figured I toss out the warning since new readers might hate that kind of thing. Just as you warned in the other series that you won't get all the answers...in fact that's true in Elantra also...or if you do get an answer you won't understand it. But oddly the not understanding part actually makes me like this book series more, I don't feel like I *should* understand the magic, after all I'm just a mere mortal myself :)

As Andy mentioned above, The Wars of Light and Shadow series by Janny Wurts. Those books are supremely immersive. There's just one more currently being written.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I’ve actually started The Witcher series and plan on picking up the Spellslinger series as well (the Kindle sample was very good).

I do plan on checking the Black Prism and a few others mentioned as well.

Let me reccomends Reality Benders the best sci-fi+litRPG series by Michael Atamanov
Countdown
Game Changer
External Threat
Web of Worlds
A Jump into the Unknown

You could start reading the DragonLance books by Weis and Hickman. With a little googling, I'm sure you could find the order of all those series they have. They have a lot of trilogies and tetralogies, but my friends who have read them say it tells a larger story if you read all of them.

Here are some urban fantasy series for you:

The Dresden Files Collection 1-6 (this is the first six books, but there is a total of 17 books) by Jim Butcher

A Subtle Agency by Graeme Rodaughan (five book series right now - but in the process of still being written - book series will eventually be a nine book series total)

Shadow Detective Books 1-9: The Complete First Series Box Set by William Massa - I am actually in the midst of reading this series now. The author has other series out there too besides this one.

There is Jeanette O'Hagan's Nardva series. Her Heart of the Mountain series has five books, although they're only novellas. She has also done a full-length novel called Akrad's Children which was set in the same world. It was phenomenal. There are more coming, apparently.

There's also N.R. Eccles-Smith's Dragon Calling series. She currently has four books in the series, with another one still to come.

Juliet Marillier's Sevenwater series has more than five. I haven't read them yet but I've loved her other books, so they're probably good too.

Though neither are series in the exact sense, I'd suggest either trying Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels or Terry Brooks' Shannara series. Discworld is a set of interconnected books set within the same universe and crossing over characters while Shannara follows the events of a fantasy world over the course of centuries in a series of sets of three or four books. The final book is due out this year so will probably be around by the time you've finished the other thirty-ish stories!

Core Reality Volume 5 Control Subject
Core Reality Volume 1 Centennial Guard
Core Reality: Volume 2 Fortuna Encounter
Core Reality Volume 3 Dark Awakening
Volume 4 Is with the publisher with a 2022 release date.

I looked at the completed series that I have read on my book lists and the most books I have read were:
All 10 of the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
All 10 of Mission Earth series by Ron L. Hubbard
10 of the 16 Pern Novels by Anne McCaffery
9 of the 11 John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs
All 7 of the Foundation Novels by Issac Asimov.
I recommend them all.

I commend your determination in getting through all of the Mission Earth series by Hubbard. I read them back in the early 80s, and the only reason I finished was that I was too stubborn to give up 😆 I didn't really enjoy them, but Hubbard was never one of my favoured SF authors. I thought Battlefield: Earth was OK, but probably could have been half the size.

The other problem I had reading the Mission Earth series was that I kept getting approached by people who wanted to talk to me about Dianetics 😣