During the recent discussion of science fiction writer Philip José Farmer, Mark Brown wrote in the comments, "The Riverworld series is actually my all-time favorite science fiction series."
I like the first two books of Farmer's Riverworld series very much, but I never finished the series. But Mark's comment made me think about my favorite series, here are what comes to mind for me:
1. Illuminatus!, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Yes, I know it was meant to be a single work, but it was first published as a trilogy. I also like Wilson's Schroedinger's Cat and Historical Illuminatus series.
2. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien. I have read it several times.
3. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe. I also have read this several times.
4. The Culture novels, Iain Banks. I have one or two left to read.
5. The Matt Scudder novels, Lawrence Block. My favorite modern detective series. But everyone loves the Sherlock Holmes stories, right?
Many science fiction fans would likely cite George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire Ice novels, but I tried one and couldn't get very far. Other fans would likely mention N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series, but I thought the first book, The Fifth Season, was much better than the other two. Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy also is famous, but as a teen, I thought Foundation and Empire was the only really good novel (I have not read them since). I really like Philip José Farmer's World of Tiers series. Jack Vance is another favorite of mine, his Lyonesse series is very good and in fact most of his books are connected in one way or another. I love Roger Zelazny, but the Amber series is not my favorite works of his. There are probably other SF or fantasy series I should mention. Most of my favorite mainstream writers did not write their fiction as part of a series, but Tom Perrotta wrote two Tracy Flick books, both excellent, Election and Tracy Flick Can't Win.
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