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Douglas Adams' four of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Mary Stewart's Merlin series of four book. She understood: "A slave is not trained to arms like a free man's son". (The Hollow Hills)

--Bob

#1 - Harry Potter
#2 - Chronicles of Narnia
(Both are excellent adult fiction masquerading as childrens' literature)
#3 - LOTR

And I'd add Cryptonomicon, too. It's not a series, but it's so flippin' long all by itself that it oughta count. There's nothing else like it in the world.

And I don't count Sherlock Holmes as a series either, but it's a hoot to read as long as you do so kinda light-heartedly.

+1 Just read it again a couple of weeks ago.

James Lee Burke, Robert B. Parker...any of their character series. McMurtry's Lonesolme Dove related books, Cormac McCarthy's border trilogy.

Frank Herbert = Dune

+1 I've got all of his books. All the the Louis La'Mour books too.

Several of my favorites mentioned. I've been a die hard Clancy fan since reading Red Storm Rising as a kid. Vince Flynn is good too. I wind up listening more than reading lately. Here's some others:

Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Rifles and all the other Sharpe's books. I really like most of Cornwell's stuff.

Dean Koontz has many good ones. A few duds, but mostly good.

Clive Cussler is a bit hoaky, but they're usually a good read. I find his new Isaac Bell series better than a lot of his old stuff. His are clean enough we can listen to the audiobooks on road trips with the kids, they enjoy them too.

I enjoyed W.E.B Griffin's Officer series, The Lieutenants, The Captains, etc. But I really didn't much care for any of his others outside of that series. Lots of dialogue and posturing but not much action.

sd

I like the Matthew Scudder books by Lawrence Block. A lot. There are a few of Block's books that are so weird they are not worth reading for free much less paying money for them.

Must add the Harry Bosch novels by Michael Connelly. First rate detective novels.

Harlan Coben - Myron Bolitar series. Good reads, doesn't stray off to much and has some comedy in it. "Ugly as a monkeys armpit" line made me laugh out loud. I'll look up some of the authors others have mentioned.

Re: Clancy

As a kid, teen, and young buck I used to really, really like his original books - the ones that started with The Hunt For Red October, then (outside of the Clancy universe) Red Storm Rising, then Patriot Games, etc. Still have 'em all, up to about The Bear and The Dragon, or thereabouts.

At about that point, something went weird. I dunno if he got tired of doing them, or had a spat with his publisher, or what. I even heard it was divorce-related. But about then it seemed like he started mailing it it. As in, you'd be reading something and were suddenly struck with "didn't I just read this 100 pages ago?". It was like he didn't clear his "snippet file" as he went through the outline, or like NOBODY edited it. So I lost interest hard. Never did read the paperback stuff.

Oh my, How could I have forgotten Frank Herbert.

Dune, it has been thirty five years since I read it, and yet it is one one the most memorable stories I have ever read.

Some quotes are immortal:
�I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.�
― Frank Herbert, Dune

The subsequent five volumes pale by comparison, but are still quite good. I have not read and can not speak for all the related tomes authored by Frank's son Brian.

"White Plague" by Frank Herbert also stands out in my memory, but it is not among the several series he wrote.



Oh yes, another author who's books are impossible to put down once the spine is cracked. I read these in the order as they are listed, except for the last, which I have not read. They certainly paint an interesting image of the Asian mindset and society.

Asian Saga
1. Shogun (1975)
2. Tai Pan (1966)
3. Gai-jin (1993)
4. King Rat (1962)
5. Noble House (1981)
6. Whirlwind (1986)


And what? We no longer have any fans of the immortal Zane Grey. Talk about painting an image with words. He was the master.

I'm partial to the Rogue Warrior series by Dick Marcinko, the founder of Seal Team Six.

That was about the time he started making a frikken fortune on the video games. It seemed as though his books simply became a vehicle to promote the related video games. It seems as though his newer books are targeting a semi-literate audience.

The Vince Flynn, Mitch Rapp series recently; James Fenimore Cooper's Leather Stocking Tales, The Sacketts series, though not really a series, most of James A. Michener's books.

MM

As a young nerd science fiction was my main read.

Wandering off track as most threads do, I tried reading some science fiction or fantasy a few years ago and it was pathetic. Juvenile and hackneyed, it read more like a bad soap opera than the speculative fiction of earlier decades. One dimensional characters were the norm.

Seems like now that we've been to the moon and can't afford to go back, science fiction relies on three story lines and only three - Star Trek, Star Wars and a huge Sword and Sorcery genre. Now include vampires for the kids and that's it.

I understand some of the S&S can be pretty good, apparently Game of Thrones is a good line, but I'm just not into dragons and witchcraft and such.

Maybe a lot of it was bad sci-fi back then but I didn't realize - there were a lot of space operas with "flickering purple beams burning holes in men and metal alike..." and now I've just grown up and recognize bad as bad. But if not, please someone tell me there is a ray of light in there and I've just missed it.

I read a lot of Hunting/Africa/Rifle Books. This is about 1/2 my collection

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Anything by Robert Ruark or Jim Corbett.

I like to read the Swagger series from Stephen Hunter.

I like the Saxon series by Bernard Cornwell. The grail series by him is proving good also.

James Rollins sigma force series is good also.

Lovecraft is the only author who creeped the heck out of me.