[dimik]

If you like Fantasy and humor/satire, read Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.
You'll wet yourself with laughter as well as interesting storylines.

[tubercle]

I've got the entire Louis L'Amour paperback series I inherited from my dad. I think they are called the Frontier series. Must be about 75 of them. I need to get started

[akr71]

David Eddings 'The Belgariad' and 'The Malloreon' are a great series.  I consider it one series because they have the same characters and same general story arc.  Each one has 5 books in the series - the first time I read them, I burned through all ten in a row and was left wanting more and relieved it was over.  I think that's what may have turned me sour on series that have more than 6 books, unless each book can stand by itself (like Piers Anthony's Xanth series).

I'll have to re-visit The Belgariad soon, my wife has read all 10 at least twice since I introduced them to her.  I haven't re-read them in about 15 years.

[jds]

David Eddings 'The Belgariad' and 'The Malloreon' are a great series.  I consider it one series because they have the same characters and same general story arc.  Each one has 5 books in the series - the first time I read them, I burned through all ten in a row and was left wanting more and relieved it was over.  I think that's what may have turned me sour on series that have more than 6 books, unless each book can stand by itself (like Piers Anthony's Xanth series).

I'll have to re-visit The Belgariad soon, my wife has read all 10 at least twice since I introduced them to her.  I haven't re-read them in about 15 years.

Great choice! Even though the Belgariad is 20+ years old, it's still a great choice. I re-read it a few years ago. it was interesting to see how differently I felt about some of the characters now compared to when I was a teenager.

Here are a few more great sf series I've read and enjoyed the hell out of:

Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga (the first book is Magician: Apprentice
Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders (starts with Ship of Magic) and Farseer Trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice)
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series (Red Mars starts it off)
Jacqueline Carey's Legacy series, which starts with Kushiel's Dart

There's a good six months of reading in that list, if not more.  Enjoy!

[akr71]

...
Here are a few more great sf series I've read and enjoyed the hell out of:

Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga (the first book is Magician: Apprentice
Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders (starts with Ship of Magic) and Farseer Trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice)
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series (Red Mars starts it off)
Jacqueline Carey's Legacy series, which starts with Kushiel's Dart

There's a good six months of reading in that list, if not more.  Enjoy!

I absolutely loved Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series, and not because we share the same last name   At times through the second and third books, it gets a little tedious and the plot moves slow but worthwhile when you reach the end.  It seems to be a trend with some of his stuff (Antarctica, Icehenge, The Years of Rice and Salt) - he seems to get bogged down and the plot slows somewhere in the last third to last quarter of the story - IMO anyway.

[blatz]

David Eddings 'The Belgariad' and 'The Malloreon' are a great series.  I consider it one series because they have the same characters and same general story arc.  Each one has 5 books in the series - the first time I read them, I burned through all ten in a row and was left wanting more and relieved it was over.  I think that's what may have turned me sour on series that have more than 6 books, unless each book can stand by itself (like Piers Anthony's Xanth series).

I'll have to re-visit The Belgariad soon, my wife has read all 10 at least twice since I introduced them to her.  I haven't re-read them in about 15 years.

+1

I'm personally a Dark Tower fan as well...

[narcout]

Then Robert Jordan, God rest his soul, realized that his books were all best sellers and that with every passing volume the size of his bank account grew by exponential numbers.

I've heard people say that before. Personally, I think he just got more and more ambitious concerning the scope of the story, and things began to spin a bit out of control.

Read The Song of Ice and Fire.  Now those books are phenomenal.

Seriously. 

If you're going to read the series, I would say buckle down and read it all.

Definitely...

I'm personally a Dark Tower fan as well...

Me too. I wouldn't normally consider myself a Stephen King, but that series was amazing.

[dbeechum]

I'm not really much of a Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan (more of a mystery dood, myself), but I have been enjoying the following series (one of which is supposedly concluded and the other one is apparently about to)

Old Man's War's by John Scalzi - Think a more modern Starship Troopers with more sophisticated politics behind it. Should be done, there's 4 books in the sereis that I've read - Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Zoe's Tale. There's also a novella called the The Sagan Diary, but I couldn't bring myself to spend $13 for 100 pages that I'll read in an hour!

The Codex Alera Series by Jim Butcher (Starts with Furies of Calderon) - Imagine a world founded by a lost Roman legion where humans access magic via spirit incarnations called Furies. (What I think is the final book is about to be published in two weeks)

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher - This is what restarted me looking at Fantasy/Sci-Fi recently. It's a series of books that deal with a modern day wizard in modern day Chicago. He acts like a PI, but gets entangled in the ongoing war between humanity and creatures from the NeverNever including the Fae and the Vampire courts, etc. Lots of fun.

And like I said I'm a big old mystery buff. Lvoe the damn things.

One series I'm working my way through right now is the Beekeeper's Apprentice series by Laurie R. King about a young woman becoming Sherlock Holmes apprentice in the years following his adventures chronicled by Watson.

Also, I find myself constantly returning to Raymond Chandler's works as well as the Travis McGee novels by John D. MacDonald.(Deep Blue Goodbye  is the first of them) - Those novels are direct influences on the whole "Florida" genre of crime writers that exist today.

[brookspn]

Yeah, the Dark Tower is really great.  Plus, when you think of it, King created a world far more intricate and intriguing than many authors of the style, with several of his books taking place in the Dark Tower universe.  They guy made a mechanic to support the Tower and intertwines it into many of his books (Insomnia, 'Salem's Lot, Heart in Atlantis etc.) to create a tapestry of the world beyond the pages of a single series. 

After reading the Tower and the other books that occur in the same world, I was hard pressed to read anyone else's style of writing.  King is a genius.

[tesla_hv]

In my opinion, "The Stand" is King's greatest work followed closely by the short story "The Long Walk" when he published under Bachman.

[brookspn]

I just read The Long Walk.  That was awesome.  Crazy story, great character development, perfect ending.  The Stand was also great...oh, Randall Flagg...what an amazing character

If you haven't read the Dark Tower, he plays a huge part in that book.

[tesla_hv]

Dark Tower eh?  I might just have to check that one out.

[dimik]

Dark Tower is good.

[tygo]

The Tower series is possibly one of the greatest fantasy epics I've ever read.  As someone mentioned above it's a lot different from the normal (if you can use that word with him) King novels.  I highly recommend it.

And I'll also concur that The Long Walk was a good read.  I picked that one up only recently after having read a lot of King over the years.  It's disturbing, but his best work is.

[tomthebrewer]

Lots of great suggestions on this thread! I've read most of them and I'll add Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series to the mix.

WOT is still my favorite though. That may be because I started reading it in 1993 while in the 6th grade. I'm like Denny, halfway through book 6. I think by the time I get caught up, the whole book 12 trilogy will be out. I think I read that each book will be a year apart.