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Bingeable book series - light reads for summer.
You know the kind I'm talking about - a series of fiction novels (generally falling into urban fantasy/sci fi/straight fantasy) based around a main character (or small group of characters), nothing overly serious, though they may sometimes touch on serious topics. Fun, fluffy reads with engaging characters that leave you wanting more. The main drawback of a lot of these series is that the starring characters can turn into Mary Sues REAL FAST (Looking at you, Harry Dresden), but I'm ok with that.
A few examples:
- Jim Butcher - The Dresden Files
- Kim Harrison - The Hollows
What series have you enjoyed?
Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series, starts with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. The second book is a bit darker but it's still pretty light and her writing style is really nice and light and enjoyable to read.
Caveat being I haven't read book three yet but I'm fairly sure she's not going to tip over into full psychological horror at this point.
I might also recommend a book by an acquaintance of mine, The Minus Faction which is the closest thing to a graphic novel I've read in prose form. It's not amazing - it's a bit in need of heavy editing, as self-published books often are - but the characters are really well drawn and the story is generally both tense and engaging. His writing is generally tight and well assembled. I think the first ebook is free so you can always not carry on if it doesn't work out, but it's by no means a bad book.
Yes! I just ordered the 3rd Wayfarerers book and I can't wait until it gets here. I once read her writing style described as "Cozy sci-fi", which I definitely agree with.
I really enjoyed it because it had far less focus on international politics and galaxy spanning events, instead having more focus on personal character development and interactions that just happen to occur with an interesting sci-fi backdrop.
Haha, I came to the comments to recommend the Wayfarers series. Its super enjoyable, reminds me a lot of Farscape, in that its focused on "slice of life" style plot as opposed to hard sci-fi or super dramatic plots.
I really enjoy them.
Have you read Rick Wayne's Fantasmagoria, too?
No, not yet. It's on the "maybe one-day" list, which realistically means probably never because there are more books I want to read than life I had left to live. I have a copy of the first four parts of his upcoming new book, Feast of Shadows which is on the to-read pile. The bits I've read so far suggest it's much more accomplished than The Minus Faction so I'm quite looking forward to it.
Discworld, for sure. Got into the series a couple weeks ago and I've already got 3 books down.
I recently read Nora Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy and I really loved it. If I remember right they're all in paperback too, perfect for summer reading.
I also like Robin Hobb's backlog because it is very popcorn-y fantasy and there's just so much of it to read.
The Spellsinger Series by Alan Dean Foster. Recommended if you're looking for giant talking animals, drug use, and light-hearted/amusing fantasy that's not meant to be taken too seriously.
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. Recommended for YA fans that like teenage characters who act like actual teenagers and are interested in seeing familiar characters from mythology. (Take care that you don't go in to this series with preconceived notions from the HP version of Flamel, though.)
The Johannes Cabal series has been pretty fun for me.
I just got Orconomics so we'll see how that goes.
The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons is very bingeable, but also pretty great. It's not overly long, it's easy to consume, but relatively deep, and is just generally very enjoyable. I definitely recommend it.
I would recommend Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series (15 books published, 19 planned). Vlad is a human assassin living in the Dragaeran Empire with his psychically linked, reptilian flying familiar, Loiosh. Vlad is wise-cracking and sarcastic, yet he is vulnerable and has emotional depth — and he grows immensely over the course of the books.
Each book tells an episodic story in Vlad's life, but they are all interlinked by a continuity that is continually building upon itself. As you learn more about his history and his adventures, the story becomes more serialized. Sort of Dresden Files-y in that regard.
In fact, I think Harry Dresden and Vlad Taltos are comparable in many way — but Brust is a much more talented and inventive writer than Butcher (no insult intended, I love the Dresden Files!). With each new Vlad book, I don't know what I'm going to get — they're never predicable. They always play with some new element — sometimes in the plot, sometimes in the dialogue, sometimes in the prose — and sort of reimagine high/low fantasy.
I thought Charles Stross' Laundry series was eminently bingeable fluff, but it's a bit dark.