What is your favorite series, other than YW

[Zirsta]

Yeah Emi. I was reading at 9:40-ish, which is 40 min pas my bedtime, and I read the end of the book and was like "NOOOOO!" because of that awful ending. Frewin Jones should have just made it a series and let us get a fourth book about how her parents adjusted to Faerie, and how she traveled around Faerie again and went across the sea to Alba, Erin, Brassail, and Tirnanog. That would be great, but unlikely. Luckily, Frewin is writing some other books. The Faerie Path: Lamia's Revenge #1: The Serpent Awakes, a graphic novel set in Faerie, and Warrior Princess, a book outside of the Realm of Faerie, so far as I know.

Oh yes, I can add to my very large list of books: Magyk, and all the other Septimus Heap books, by Angie Sage; The Great Good Thing and it's sequels, by Roderic Townly; Dragon Rider, Inkheart, and Inkspell by Cornelia Funke; The Legend of Holly Clause, by Brittney Ryan; The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia C. Wrede; Drift House and The Lost Cities, by Dale Peck; The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme, by Elizabeth Hayden; Guardians of Ga'Hoole, by Kathryn Lasky; The Warrior Heir, by Cinda Williams Chima; The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall, The Mistmantle Chronicles, by M.I. McAllister; the Redwall series, (Redwall, Mossflower, Mattimeo, etc.) by Brian Jaques; H.I.V.E., by Mark Walden;The King in the window, by Adam Gopnik; Children of the Lamp, by P.B. Kerr; anything fantasy by Robin McKinley; The Gideon Trilogy, by Linda Buckley Archer; Mrs. Frisbey and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien.

And that's pretty much the entire contents of my first book shelf...

EDIT:
Has anyone read the Rewall books? I read all of them last summer, and they're classics, so... just wondering. There's a new one coming later in October, Doomwyte. It looks awesome.

[kk]

Zirsta: I just started Brisingr, and am only about a chapter into it. I have so many other books to read, and I'm in the middle of so many!

I'm going to add another book, that I really love now! Actually, three books!

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI> The Princess Bride
<LI> Shadowmagic, by John Lenahan -- For a free audiobook of this, visit www.podiobooks.com
<LI> The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch -- this book, I read about a quarter of, and then had to return to the library. So, I'm reading it again, and it's amazing![/list]

[Zirsta]

Cool kk, one of my friends is reading The Last Apprentice, and loves it. And, I haven't actually read the Inheritance Cycle, but I'm planning on it. I was going to read it before I saw the movie, but my friends told me the movie was really bad, so I decided to wait. But then I got distracted, and forgot to read them... My standard for movies to books are now: If the movie is from a book I haven't read, then I wait to read the book until after I see it. If the movie is from a book I have read, I re-read it, and when I watch the movie, criticize all the mistakes they make, and make comments about the favorite scenes that get cut, and the lines they warped. Usually I have a lot of fun and drive my family/friends crazy. Okay, I'm getting a bit off topic, so I'll quit for now...
Dai stiho!

[bookgirl]

Zirsta: I do exactly the same thing. When I see a new movie is coming out that is adapted from a book, I read the book before I see the movie. And when its a book I've read I pick the movie apart. Drives my friends crazy. lol. Except for the movie Passage to Zarahemla, if any of you have seen that. It has to be the best book movie I've seen. Some of the lines are word from word from the book. (it probably helped that the author was also the director)

[Zirsta]

The author was the director? Sweet! I wish D.J. MacHale would do that with Pendragon, because D.J. is a director, and his books would be great movies. But bookgirl, remember to try to stay on topic... No offense, just trying to help. Maybe I should get back on topic too...

So, what are your favorites? And, is Passage to Zarahelma a good book?

Oh yeah, you might want to talk to someone experienced (another member who's been here for a while, because I certainly haven't... check the "Register" date) because I think your Avvi is too big. It is, BTW, cool, so maybe you could downsize it?

[kk]

Yeah, Bookgirl, I think Zirsta is right. The avvi size limit is 100 pixels by 100 pixels, last I checked, although animated avatars of that size are also allowed.

Now I feel like an oldbie...

Back on topic:

Another book by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (I think it was her who wrote it) was also a favorite a couple of years ago. It was called "The Magic Nation Thing" and was really weird, yet amusing.

[Emi]

Zirsta: Frewin Jones is writing more based on the Faerie Path universe? That's pretty cool...

There's another series I read is the Island series... by Gordon Korman. It's like a series for juveniles but I thought it was really good.

[Zirsta]

Cool Emi! Huh, maybe I'll look for those on my next book excursion...

Have you read Inkheart and Inkspell? I mentioned them earlier. They're by Cornelia Funke. There is a third one, Inkdeath, which I am reading right now. Well, I'm off to read myself into the Inkworld.

[bookgirl]

Hey sorry about all that, I didn't know how big the pictures were until after I'd posted. ANYWAY back to the subject, (I'll make sure I stick to the subject from now on. hehe)
Zirsta Yes Passage to Zarahelma is a really good book!

[Zirsta]

Thanks bookgirl, for getting your avvi smaller and for for getting back to topic (sorry actually, because I was off topic too, and I started this).

Anyone read Redwall and the rest of the series? There's a...20th book, Doomwyte, and I'm starting is as soon as I get done with Inkdeath. For those have have read Inkspell SPOILER: Notice how InkHEART, InkSPELL, and InkDEATH all have the three words that need to be written in the Book that makes the Adderhead immortal to make him die. heart, spell, and death? Cool, right? And, question. Did cornelia plan the titles that way to match, or the other way around?

[bookgirl]

Anyone else read the "Peter and the Starcatchers" series? They are really good!

[Kathy Li]

In case anybody else was a Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan, I did want to mention that BBC Radio 4 is currently doing an adaptation of the second Douglas Adams "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" book, The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul. You can listen over the internet with streaming Real Audio from the website for a week after each episode airs. There will be six episodes, iirc.

And if anybody else was a Patrick O'Brian, Aubry/Maturin fan, the BBC4 Afternoon Play is adapting HMS Surprise (the third book) in three episodes this week.

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by kli6:
And if anybody else was a Patrick O'Brian, Aubry/Maturin fan, the BBC4 Afternoon Play is adapting HMS Surprise (the third book) in three episodes this week.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

*dives for the download button*

*doesn't find it, dives for the Listen Now button instead*

One of these days, I have to backtrack, re-read the first half of the series, and finish through 21. I'd say that this is my second favorite series: the first favorite, of course, is the Vorkosigan saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold.

FORWARD MOMENTUM!

[Kathy Li]

You're welcome, Garrett! I ended up reading the entire series when that idiot Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World movie was announced. Given the mixmastering of the titles alone, you knew it was gonna suck. And then the casting sort of made it obvious; Crowe and Bettany weren't bad, but they just weren't Jack and Stephen. (IMHO, Anton Lesser was born to play Stephen.)

Worse than the idea of a bad movie version, though, was the fact that Far Side of the World is #10 of 21. :eyeroll: So, I had about half a year to get through 10 of the books. And then, by the time I'd done that, I just kept on going.

John M. Ford once said to me that reading C.S. Forester and Hornblower is getting the top-down view, while reading Patrick O'Brian and Aubrey/Maturin is getting the bottom-up view. My friend Jan says that she tries not to read Jane Austen and O'Brian at the same time, because then she can't read certain scenes with sea captains or red-coated soldiers in the same way...

For anyone who is now considering picking up the first of the Aubrey/Maturin novels Master and Commander, I do have a warning. It's definitely the weakest of the lot. You can kind of see O'Brian learning the ropes of writing a historical novel, and trying to dazzle you with his knowledge of the era (the catalog of the ship's masts and rigging is particularly excruciating to me as a technical writer). But stick with it, and don't make a decision about giving up the series until you've also made it through the second book (Post Captain). You have to read the first one to figure out where you are with the second, unfortunately, but the second is closer to the flavor of the entire series.

It's like reading Lord Peter Wimsey. Whose Body? doesn't seem like anything special, but you will be richly rewarded for sticking with it. Oh, another sidenote wandering: with both Hornblower and Wimsey, stick strictly to publication order. You'll be happier if you do. I was stupid with the Hornblowers and believed the numbers printed on the spines, only to find myself stalled out when I hit the first-written Hornblower (The Happy Return/Beat to Quarters), which was the weakest-written.

For me, O'Brian is #2 to Dorothy Dunnett when it comes to historical fiction; but then, I'm heavily Rafael Sabatini-read. I remember being in conversations with lots of people and talking about Dunnett, and they'd always ask me, "have you read Patrick O'Brian?" so there's a definite affinity among readers of the two authors.

I think the only Dunnett fan I know who didn't ask that (George R.R. Martin) asked me "have you read Nigel Tranter?" instead. Martin had been thrilled by the fact that Tranter and Dunnett had both obviously been influenced by the same source materials on the real Macbeth, but both had gone off into completely different directions from the source stuff to write King Hereafter (Dunnett) and Macbeth the King (Tranter).

[smile]

I don't exactly have a favorite series, because I love so many books. It depends on what mood I'm in.

All of the books by Shannon Hale.
well, The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets is one set (soon to have more - Forest Born). Others are stand-alone The Princess Academy, Book of a Thousand Days. That first one sounds very girl-ish, and I suppose that it would gravitate towards girls - but it is not at all about princesses, not really.

I love the Bloody Jack series. No, it's not violent. A girl is an orphan and joins the British Royal Navy, and it goes from there. Set at about 1802. It is not at all like Young Wizards though.
by L. A. Meyer

Airborn and Skybreaker are also wonderful. There is just something about them that I love. About a boy, Matt Cruse, that lives on an airship. Lighter than air, that's out Mr. Cruse is said quite often.
by Kenneth Oppel

Magyk, Flyte, Physic, and Queste are... I don't even know. I just love them and I don't know what it is that makes me love them. There are numerous characters, in a different world, that seems farther back in time than ours. Magic is involved, but there's nothing I could say to describe it...
by Angie Sage

The Named, The Dark, The Key are another series. People with magical powers, protecting Order against Choas. Involves realistic time-travel.
by Marianne Curley

The Farsala Trilogy. Fall of a Kingdom, Rise of a Hero, Forging the Sword. All three books rotate between three characters.
by Hilari Bell

I also love the books Firebringer, The Sight, and Fell. The first is about deer, the second about wolves.
by David Clement-Davies

The Faerie Wars Chronicles. Faerie Wars, The Purple Emperor, Ruler of the Realm, Faerie Lord. It is slightly like an alternate universe sort of thing. You can travel in portals from Earth to the other Realm. The other Realm is similar - humans, forests and such, but more magical.

Most of mine are young adult, though I do read adult. It is partially because I continue to love books that I have read years ago. I can forgive so many things that would annoy me currently in a new book (like only using the word said) though the ones I listed don't really do this.

And I completely forgot Harry Potter.

But that's my list for now, the ones I was thinking about.