SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Dear All,
I'm fed up reading fantasy series where there are long gaps between books. Therefore decided to read series that are complete.
Based on this decision, if anyone can recommend complete fantasy series, I'd be very grateful.

Kind Regards

Ian

You could give The Great Book of Amber a try.. Havent come around to read it myself yet, so cant personally say whether it's good or not, but i have heard so much good about it, that i has added it to my imminent TBR list.. AND it is complete..

Mistborn Trilogy. The 4th book in that series isn't actually part of it, and is apparently set several hundred years later.

First Law Trilogy. The other two books there are standalones in the same 'universe'.

Night Angel Trilogy.

Otherland Series. Four books. I've only read the first, but it was really good. I hear the others are as well.

Robin Hobb has two trilogies completed about the same group of characters(Farseer/Tawny Man) which are worth the read.

If you like the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, might want to give his Codex Alera series a shot.

I can back up the Codex Alera recommendation.. That was really great stuff :)

I'm not sure trilogies really qualifies as "series" as such ? at least i have never really thought about them that way..

Many thanks to you both.

I've read some of your suggestions, but others have given me food for thought.

I'll have to do some research! :-)

Thanks again.

Ian

The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson is complete - and absolutely massive, too, with some of the later books being 1200+ pages in mass-market paperback form. I've only read the first book so far, but liked it and plan on continuing.

Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series is divided into trilogies - the second trilogy follows a different main character in the same world, and the third one follows a character several generations removed. The last book in the third trilogy comes out next month; I'm not sure if she has more books planned in that universe after that.

And the main thread in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is complete (though there's another coming out this year, and I don't really know if it's a spinoff or continuation)... though I stopped after book 8, so I can't really recommend it. Heh.

There are so many... I can't look up the series links, 'cause I'm on slow dialup this holiday:

Fiona Patton's Banion Series
Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald Mage and other Valdemar series, Bardic voices, Halfblood Chronicles, Dragon Jousters, Owl series
Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters, Bridei Chronicles
Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles
Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion trilogy
RA Salvatore's Cleric Quintet, Crimson Shadow, Dark Elf, Demonwars... series
Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars, Jaran series
Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinth's series
Anne McCaffrey's multiple Pern series
Harry Harrison's Eden trilogy
David Eddings's Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium
Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry
CJ Cherryh's Fortress, Morgaine series
Terry Brook's several Shannara series
John C. White's Golden Age triology
Raymond White's several Riftwar series, including the Empire Trilogy with Janny Wurts
Tad William's Otherland, Shadowmarch series
David Drake's Lord of the Isles
Ricardo Pinto's The Stone Dance of the Chameleon trilogy
Stephen Lawhead's King Raven, Song of Albion, Pendragon series
Gene Wolfe's Litany of the Long Sun
Storm Constantine's Wraeththu series
KJ Parker's The Scavenger trilogy
Stephen Donaldson's several Thomas Covenant series
Sara Douglass Wayfarer Redemption...
Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame

etc

Katherine Kurtz has written several trilogies set in an alternate, medeival Wales called "The Deryni series.

Barbara Hambly has several trilogies. I recently read the "Sun-Wolf" Trilogy 1)The Ladies of Mandrigyn: The Sun Wolf and Starhawk Series2)Witches of Wenshar and 3)The Dark Hand of Magic.

Many thanks all, should keep me going for a while! :-)

I'll second the Amber recommendation above - one of the first things I read after I discovered the genre. I also like Robert Silverberg's Majipoor books - especially the first one, Lord Valentine's Castle. Valentine was one of my first imaginary boyfrields.

For now I'm just here to nitpick ... I may list some completed series later, if I think of any that haven't been mentioned.

Mercedes Lackey's Halfblood Chronicles can't be considered complete, I don't think. There was one more book planned, but then Andre Norton (the co-author) died and there was a rights issue concerning her estate. It dragged on for four years, apparently. Not sure if there's been any word on that book since the settlement.

Also, it felt like Lackey simply stopped writing in the Free Bards universe (rather than wrapping things up), but it's been a while and I forget.

Oh ... and there were two more books planned in LMB's Chalion series. I don't know why exactly they haven't appeared. (Guessing it has to do with either lackluster sales or her desire to switch gears and focus on her romantic fantasy series ... but I don't know.)

Snail in Danger (Sid) wrote: "Oh ... and there were two more books planned in LMB's Chalion series. I don't know why exactly they haven't appeared. (Guessing it has to do with either lackluster sales or her desire to switch gears and focus on her romantic fantasy series ... but I don't know.)"

I asked her about that one time and she said that there weren't any others planned. I hope she gets back to it as there are two more gods to write about, but given the rather drastic way the third novel diverged from the storyline of the first two I'd rather wait until she had a proper story to do.

Dave Duncan's Seventh Sword trilogy is one of the best examples of primitive cultures encountering tech that I've ever seen.

I could swear I read that there were 5 planned. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find that.

Snail in Danger (Sid) wrote: "I could swear I read that there were 5 planned. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find that."

That's why I asked. With five gods I expected five books but there weren't any more.

On her list she's still talking about maybe writing books for the Mother and the Father if good ideas present themselves to her, but she'd rather not pin herself down, in case they don't.

Hey everyone. I know this is an old thread, but does anybody have any new recommendations?

Hadi wrote: "Hey everyone. I know this is an old thread, but does anybody have any new recommendations?"

I too prefer to limit myself to complete series. Below are a few fantasy series I can think of that I’ve enjoyed and that are currently* complete -- none of which I see listed in the thread previously.

(*Note the keyword: Currently. Who knows if an author will end up revisiting a storyline again? Take, for example, Robin Hobb’s new The Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Technically her earlier series could be considered complete, and they are very good – among my favorites. But my definition of “complete” is pretty narrow so, if I hadn’t read her previous books already, I would have chosen to wait knowing she has another trilogy coming.)

* Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet, starting with A Shadow in Summer.
* Carol Berg’s Rai-Kirah trilogy, starting with Transformation.
* Kate Elliott’s Crossroads trilogy, starting with Spirit Gate.
* Jennifer Fallon’s Second Sons trilogy, starting with Lion of Senet.
* Karen Miller’s Godspeaker trilogy, starting with Empress. This one is a little outside the norm and probably not for everybody. You’ll hate all of the main characters by the end of the first book. Things get a little more “traditional”, with a mostly different set of characters, in the second book.
* Brent Weeks’ Night Angel series, starting with The Way of Shadows.

And of course, I guess everybody knows by now Robert Jordan’s very long Wheel of Time series is complete. Starting with The Eye of the World. I haven’t read all of it myself. I got bogged down around book 4, more due to lack of time than lack of interest, and will have to go back to it at some point.

Carol Berg has several complete series:
Rai-Kirah: https://www.goodreads.com/series/4402...
Bridge of D'Arnath: https://www.goodreads.com/series/4245...
Lighthouse: https://www.goodreads.com/series/4245...
Collegia Magica: https://www.goodreads.com/series/4737...

I love her worlds and characters, and her writing is gorgeous. The Lighthouse duology is especially a favorite of mine, among the very very few books I re-read. Though I do want to re-read the rest of her books sometime, too.

ETA: I see YouKneeK also suggested the Rai-Kirah series, and I'll also second Karen Miller's Godspeaker trilogy. Loved that one, and loved the idea of following the villain's rise to power in the first book.

I've only just started, but The Inheritance Trilogy seems promising. The daughter of a disinherited heiress returns to the central city of the hundred thousand kingdoms only to find herself named as one of the contenders for the throne. There's an interesting magic system consisting of the power of deposed gods and human magicians who try to access the same power by using sigils. There's probably a lot more I'm missing, since I'm only a sixth of the way into the first book, but it's already rich and fast-paced, and the trilogy is complete.

Thank you everyone! I haven't checked everything yet, but most of these look great :)
I don't like to read an incomplete series because, most of the time, I read all the books in a row. =)
I have already read the Wheel of Time and Night Angel.
Also, YouKneeK, thank you for informing me that Robin Hobb has a new series planned. She is one of my favorite authors, but I often forget about her.

Lighthouse, Rai-Kirah, and Godspeaker all seem very interesting. In fact, all of the Carol Berg books seem promising. I tried the Inheritance Trilogy a few months back, but I remember being tired at the time and giving up on it after a few chapters. I should try it again sometime.

R.J: That book seems interesting as well. Only, I'd rather wait until all of them were published so that I could read them in one go. =)

Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince/Sunrunner books (two trilogies)
Jennifer Roberson's Chronicles of the Cheysuli
Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria Revelations
Michael A. Stackpole's DragonCrown War
Galen Beckett's Mrs. Quent trilogy/Mark Anthony Last Rune series
Lynn Flewelling's Tamir triad

already mentioned above, but not for these particular series:
K.J. Parker's Engineer & Fencer trilogies
Janny Wurts' Cycle of Fire trilogy
Storm Constantine's Magravandias trilogy
N.K. Jemisin's Dreamblood duology (although each of these books can be read as a stand-alone)

I don't know if it's officially finished, but there haven't been any new entries for a while, and most of L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Recluse books can be read as stand-alones or pairs. I found some of the later entries in this series a bit slow, so if anyone is interested, I might recommend trying publication order instead of strict series-chronological order. {Edit: Looks like this series is still ongoing, with a new coming out in 2014.}

& I always like to toss in Geraldine Harris' Seven Citadels tetralogy because it's a favorite of mine

My suggestion: Kernos mentioned the excellent Gene Wolfe.

But don't start with Long Sun. Start with "The Book of the New Sun" - two volume omnibi (plural of omnibus? I love plural discussions, but I digress...)

Then read Long Sun, and finally Short Sun.

That'll keep you busy for a long time. 11 books in 7 volumes, all published and complete.

deleted user wrote: "Mistborn Trilogy. The 4th book in that series isn't actually part of it, and is apparently set several hundred years later.

First Law Trilogy. The other two books there are standalones in the same..."

Robin Hobb also has The Complete Liveship Traders Trilogy: Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship, Ship of Destinywhich I loved.
The Green Rider series by Kristin Britain has 5 in her series [book:Green Rider|147843. She just put out the fifth this month. With all of these recommendations maybe the sixth will be out by the time you finish the lists! (Yes I know your request was completed series but had to recommend the books.)

deleted user wrote: "Mistborn Trilogy. The 4th book in that series isn't actually part of it, and is apparently set several hundred years later.

First Law Trilogy. The other two books there are standalones in the same..."

Robin Hobb also has The Complete Liveship Traders Trilogy: Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship, Ship of Destinywhich I loved.
The Green Rider series by Kristin Britain has 5 in her series [book:Green Rider|147843. She just put out the fifth this month. With all of these recommendations maybe the sixth will be out by the time you finish the lists! (Yes I know your request was completed series but had to recommend the books.)

The adventures of conrad stargard was a discontinued series but is really great still.

The tales of alvin maker and farseer trilogy by robin hobb are also really immersive

Watch out for Melanie Rawn's Exiles series. She wrote the first two and has left everyone on a cliff hanger for over a decade so far. That being said the dragon prince and sunrunner series are interesting and complete as far as I know. If you don't mind George Martin's style of loads of characters and unknown possibility of your favorite characters surviving then read it. Brent Weeks was good from what I remember. I read through a lot of Steven Brust but I'm not sure if that series is finished (Vlad Taltos series). I just read scattered books from my brother's collection. I enjoyed Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionvar Tapestry but that is a trilogy.

Lynn Flewelling also finished the Night Runner series this past April 2014.
7 books.

This series is hundreds of years after events in the Tamir Triad. (Trilogy)

I second the Sevenwaters Series by Juliet Marrillier

Brandt wrote: "You could give The Great Book of Amber a try.. Havent come around to read it myself yet, so cant personally say whether it's good or not, but i have heard so much good about it, that i ..."

I'll second the Amber series, but just the first series as Zelazny had a couple of series in the same universe.

Not sure if the Shannara series is finished, but it's worth a read.
The Wheel of Time series is interesting, a little boring at times, but definitely a good read.
Then the Death Gate Cycle is probably the first full fantasy series I read about 18 years ago, and it still remains my favorite.

I'll second The Death Gate Cycle. Awesome series.

Kriss Erickson's Brodantia series is currently on sale.

Brownbird's Luck is 99-cents.

And the other two are marked down to $2.99 each.

Journey to Brodantia and Inner Unicorn.

Hope that helps.

As far as Amber series by Zelazny goes only first three books are really good. Later books in the series are a little tedious to get through.