I need some good reading for my holiday... (in Off-topic)

I read a lot of books across all genres however I've not really gotten "into" anything in a big way for quite some time now.

I'm going on vacation soon for a couple of weeks and it's the type of holiday where I'm going to be able to get thru a few books. Every so often I will venture into the Fiction/Fantasy world and I like nothing better than a great series that I can lose myself in for a couple of months. Trouble is, the last few times I bought Fiction/Fantasy books they've been longer (much longer) than just a trilogy and I've found myself waiting on the last one or two being published.

Can anyone suggest a good Fiction/Fantasy series that is already complete (or will be this year) that I can get my hands on.

3 examples of the kind of thing I'm looking for (and have already read) are:
Julian May: Saga of the Exiles
Stephen R. Donaldson : Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Robert Jordon: Wheel of Time

Pfft. Ulysses. Why read a few, when you can read just one?

not a series but still a great book...Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

Try this, its a sort of funny fantasy genre:

Steven Brust: Jhereg is the first of I think 9 novels. Quick reads very funny at times and a great universe to read about.

Best series ever: Sword of truth, by terry goodkind.

heres a list of some im reading/read

War of Souls by Weis and Hickman
Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
The Legacy of the Drow by R.A. Salvatore
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Synmphony of Ages by Elizabeth Haydon

ill also post my top books to read/have read:

1984 – George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
The restaurant at the end of the universe – Douglas Adams
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
To kill a mockingbird – Harper lee
Atlas shrugged – Ann Rand
Dune – Frank Herbert
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
The Grapes of Wraith – John Steinbeck
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
The Sun also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
A Room with a View – E. M. Forrester
The Magnus – John Fowles
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
Ulysses – Janes Joyce
The Fountainhead – Ann Rand
The Stand - Stephen king

enjoy your summer of reading! :D

i would really suggest Sword of truth, by terry goodkind

possibly the best series EVER. its up to like 10 books now, and i believe chainfire was the last one, so it should be finished. they are the best books i have read in my life, ill probably read the series again :)

If you're into tech stuff, try reading anything Gibson... Start with "neuromancer".. Moreover, "catcher in the rye" is a good book, and the other book by salinger, "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenter"...

Not sure about carpenter one, but if its anything like catcher, it should be a decent read...

Also, you can pick up the Da Vinci Code, if u haven't already, and maybe even The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy.

Bukowski (off Genre and his name is almost non-pg considering his subject matter, but eh he owns words like fb/dm teams own AS/FB)

I REALLY like Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker Series, but any one of his series is awesome, and I think a new book just came out for the bean/shadow series.

Gotta disagree with SC about the Sword of Truth... I find Terry Goodkind is *too* close to Robert Jordan.

I started reading the Wheel of time, and have every book so far, but he's dragging it out.. I've forgottee most of what's hapened, and have *no* desire to re read them..

For my 'Fantasy' suggestions;

James Barcley: The Raven, Six books, starts with Dawnthief. Very good to read.

David Gemmel: My favorite autor. Has numerous smaller series, I'd suggest 'Legend' if you prefer clear cut good/evil fanatsy, or 'Morningstar' for a (standalone) shades of gray read.

The Horse Lord, Demon Lord, Dragon Lord (forgot Author..) read these along time ago, and they really hooked me. I've found out there were a few other written (Star Lord I think..) but I've not tracked them down yet...

Historical Fanatsy;

Bernard Cornwall's (of Sharpe fame) Grail Quest trilogy. Revolves around Thomas of Hookton, and English archer. Isn't easy to read, Bernard is more historian than fantasy writer I feel, but great for it's historical setting.

Also (I forget the author...) 'Kings Champion'. A great Historically based romp about William Marshel. Greatest Knight Eurpoe erver had. It's sad he has faded from history... :(

Modern Fantasy:

Charles de lint's two book series, Moonheart and Spiritwalk.

Douglas Adams for his two book series: 'Dirk Gentlys Holistic detective agency' and 'Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul'.

Sci Fi: Ian Banks: Complicity, any of the 'Culture' books (all can be read stand alone, player of games is good), or walking on Glass.

Oh, of course there are the standrards like Pratchett, Robert Ranikin etc, but I wanted to give a few other ideas. (And I'm sure I've forgotten loads!)

:)

I hope this helps!! If you want any other info on any of these, just drop me a CM.

Sabriel by Garth Nix
Lireal(sp?) by Garth Nix
Abhorsen bye Garth Nix

The above three are a trilogy that i found really good

A Wizard of Earth Sea by Ursula K. LaGuin

Some may be spelled wrong so bear with me
There are more that i found good but i have forgotten what they were ^_^

Don't forget the new Harry Potter book comes out next week.

i liked these books but i dont know how you are but i enjoyed them. the seires is called Pendragon here are the books that are out.
The Merchant of Death
The Lost City of Faar(and thats how its spelled)
The Never War
The Reality Bug
Black Water
Im in 7th grade so not sure if they are the right reading level but they are pretty cool fantasy books

I can't believe no ones mentioned this?

Have you read any of the Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore? Granted it's based on D&D, but it's by far the most popular series of books based on Dungeons and Dragons, and every book is a best seller.

If you choose, start with the Dark Elf Trilogy. The books are Homeland, exile and Sorjurn. You can easily find the complete saga by searching the web (about 18 books long, give or take).

;) Bah.. I grew fed up of Drizzt after his original trilogy. (Crap, I've forgotten the names..)

He's everywhere... He seems to be the F.R. poster boy (after Elminster...).

But, I have today picked up the new F.R. comic 'Homelands' which is about Drizzt. And it's very good! :)

oh and the pendragon book writer is D.J. MacHale

One of the "lost classic" series in fiction/fantasy: The 7 Fafhrd & The Gray Mouser "Swords" series of books by Fritz Leiber. Brian Lumley's Necroscope series is good, also.

And this sentence is for no other reason than to get past the lunacy that is the Carnage Blender spell checker, which doesn't seem to like the authors' last names...

I totally forgot about the Pendragon series, i loved them too, im also going into 8th grade. The Merlin series is another good one that i just remembered

The Lost Years of Merlin
The Seven Songs of Merlin
The Fires of Merlin

The whole series is out and it is all about Merlin's childhood.

oh and the author is T.A.Barron

how bout Jim Butcher - the Dresden Files (series)

and Simon R. Green - forgot the titles :\

Any books by John Grisham are awesome, i'm reading "The King Of Torts" right now, and it's amazing!

I read this small series once. It was rather good and was divided into only three books, which are all out mind you. Granted it was originally one book and the publisher decided to divided it into three smaller books. Ever since then people have had the silly notion that it's a trilogy. I think they even made a movie or three about it too. Well, if you haven't read "Lord of The Rings" may I suggest the you do that. It's by this guy J.R. something-or-other. If you have read this book, well then I guess I don't actually have a suggestion other then I like Bast's choice.

Well, I don't know fantasy novels, but on the odd chance that you like sci-fi, here are some amazing hard science fiction books - the ones that describe everything with real science:

• Greg Bear, "Eon", "Darwin's Radio", "Darwin's Children"
• David Brin, The Uplift Saga: "Sundiver", "Startide Rising", "The Uplift War"
• Stephen Baxter, "Evolution"
• Gregory Benford, Galactic Center Series, especially "Tides of Light"
• Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, "The Light of Other Days"
• David Brin and Gregory Benford, "Heart of the Comet"

And here are some great books that everyone should read, in no particular order:

• Samuel R. Delaney, "Dhalgren" (see my description in SaintMichael's thread.)
• Austin Tappan Wright, "Islandia"
• Walter M. Miller Jr., "A Canticle for Leibowitz"
• John Wyndham, "The Chrysalids"
• Hermann Hesse, "The Glass Bead Game"
• Mikhail Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
• Michael Ondaatje, "In the Skin of a Lion"
• Yann Martel, "Life of Pi"
• John Kennedy Toole, "A Confederacy of Dunces"

Finally here are some authors who are unable to write a book that isn't amazing:

• Kurt Vonnegut
• John Irving
• Tom Robbins
• John Barth

I really liked:

• Elizabeth Moon: The Deed of Paksenarrion (Following a sheepheerder's daughter who runs away to join the army in a traditional fantasy setting) and Legacy of Gird (Showing that the demi-god of the first book, was actually just a good guy trying to stay alive). She's written a ot of other good stuff too
• Eric Flint: 1632 and 1633 Which sends a small American town through time to the middle of Germany in 1632. This has since spawned a whole shared universe of stories but these two can stand alone as a set
• David Weber: Oath of Swords and War God's Own. A look at what might happen when one of the "evil" races turns out to be not so evil. Pretend that these two are the only ones in the series.
• Patrick O'Brian: Aubrey/Maturin Series. Adventures of a British Navel Captain and his friend/Doctor/Spy that inspired the (surprisingly well done) movie "Master and Commander"
• Fred Saberhagen: Books of Swords. In a traditonal fantasy world, the God Vulcan forges 12 great swords of power to be used in a game with human pawns.

michael chriton :D

here are some good short stories that stick out in my mind, in case you like those as well:

the short story by Isaac Asimov, Nightfall.
Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" (i'ts a book really, but each chapter is somewhat a short story)
"Fire and Ice" also by Ray Bradbury i believe
"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas", by Ursula K LeGuinne (sp?)
also, go to a used book store, find the sci-fi section, and look for the oldest-looking collection of short stories you can find - It seems to me at least that the really old-school scifi is the best. (at least when it comes to short stories)


another fun thing, if you know more than 1 language, find a book thats been translated and read it in both (or more) languages. I've read the first Harry Potter book in english, spanish, and french - very interesting to see what things translate and what doesn't.

Here are just a few of my favorites.

Author	Series
Raymond E. Feist	Riftwar Series
Roger Zelazny	Chronicles of Amber
Robin Hobb	Assassin Series

I would suggest either the Robot series or the Foundation series by Issac Asimov. Both are very easy to get into and both are complete (or as complete as they ever will get as Mr. Asimov has passed on-- rest in peace).

I would also suggest a piece of non-fiction, but only because it's about pirates. "Under the Black Flag" is a fine book, if not a very informative piece, on the life and conditions a 16th-17th century pirate truely lived under-- with distinctions made between 'movie pirates' and what the times were actually like. It surely made for some interesting reading... that is if you're interested in mystery and intrigue on the high seas.

i have a whole library of books.. and anything from weiss and hickman are awesome.

i think everyone has read the chronicles of dragonlance, but if you haven't... you got to read those.

Well thanks for the input folks.

I've read a lot of the stuff mentioned but there were still a few interesting ones for me to look at.

SoulCalibur pointed me in the direction of Salvatore and I've just ordered some of his stuff from Amazon.
The Dark Elf Trilogy and The Icewind Dale Trilogy will hopefully keep me going for a little bit and came with good reviews from Amazon UK.

Of course I also took the opportunity to order the Harry Potter book as well :)

Roll on the holidays...

I'd advise anybody to read any book by Jonathan Carroll. He has a really good website if you want to check him out. Not everything is in print but if you can get any of his books do so. They kind of fit into the modern fantasy/magic reality sort of field and are quite simply the best books I have ever read. Start with the first 'Land Of Laughs' and work your way through to his latest.

If you like fantasy/Fiction then I recommend the "A Fortress Of Grey Ice" trilogy by J.V.Jones.
I have book 2 "Sword Of Shadows" which I found utterly compelling and read it near non-stop, all 654 pages of it and was hooked throughout.
Addmittedly I should have read book 1 first but the market stall I went to only had this one and it was cheap.
RRP is £10.99 though if you want it from the shop.

Correction, the trilogy is called "Sword of Shadows".
The 1st book is called "Cavern Of Black Ice"
The 2nd book is called "Fortress of Grey Ice"
Unfortunately the 3rd installment "A Sword From Red Ice" is not due until December :(
I'm a failure, you know you want to tell me that.

Don't know if you're already gone on your vacation, but here's my input... I didn't read all the posts, so im not sure if these were already suggested:

Eragon by Christopher Paolini. Only one book out right now, but its around 500 pages long, and a <b>very</b> good book. My favorite

Pendragon Series by D.J. MacHale, not complete but has 5 books out, each about 300-400 pages long, also <b>very<b> good, almost as good as Eragon.

Then of course, there is the Harry Potter series (also not complete, but 5 books, last two are really long) and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I'm sure you've heard of those :-)

By the way, Eric Flint started the Baen free library a few years ago. They have quite a few novels available for free download (in several popular formats). The interface isn't the greatest but if you look around you can find all sorts of great stuff. I love the free content but wish the site wasn't quite so annoying to navigate Baen free library