List of some series of books I'm enjoying

[libra_traveller]

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum number novels:

The latest was Fearless Fourteen. My mom was reading these before I did, and actually I started by reading Janet Evanovich's Metro Girl, and then started the Stephanie Plum books. What I like about both of the stories is the humor. She has the wittiest lines I've ever read. In the Stephanie Plum books, the characters are so outrageous and fun. Stephanie is a bond enforcer, which means she has to bring in the crazy people who skip their court dates. And often times between all the funny ones, like a naked guy covered in something sticky, or just the weird things that the people had to go to court for, we also get the dangerous people, and Stephanie's life is on the line. It's always quite the ride, and definitely a series worth reading.

Nora Robert's In Death books:

Okay, I'll admit, my whole family was reading this series and I wasn't. They'd talk about it, and I'd say I wasn't interested. That could be because they never truly explained what it was about! But I was also busy. So now I've read a bunch of them, though I still need to get my hand on the first ten I think?

Anyways, it's about a police Lieuenant 50 years in the future in New York. Though it takes place in the future with advancements in technology, it's really about solving homocides. I find the character enticing, and the mysteries enthralling. She knows how to do her job. I definitely recommend them.

Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books:

I'll just say this, I loved the show that was based on them, and I watched it first. Though I still mourn that it was canceled, the books themselves are awesome. Harry Dresden gets beat up quite a lot, and has many enemies. He's always trying to do what's best for himself and others, and sometimes he's forced to do things and make decisions others would wince at. I also love the character's sense of humor, and his narration is enjoyable. For anyone who loves urban fantasy, definitely go for it.

Diane Duane's Young Wizards series:

I enjoy these books very much. We start off with two young kid learning to be wizards and using advanced math for their magic. One of them can talk to trees, and another can talk to inanimate objects. Some animals can talk to them, their are wizards in the ocean, whales and dolphins are wizards. Their are other planets populated by wizards. It's definitely a science fiction / fantasy mix. I find the stories compelling, and am eagerly awaiting the next one.

Tamora Pierce's series:

I've read all of her quartets, "Song of the Lioness", which though not the first I was introduced to, but a favorite. I loved the character of Alanna and how she learns to be a Knight while pretending to be a boy, but proving herself, when her gender's revealed. "The Immortals", which the first book Wild Magic, my sister introduced to me when I was young, reading it to my sister and me. There's a lot of fighting with magical creatures in the war. "Protector of the Small" was pleasant too. "The Trickster - two books" And "The Beka Cooper book". The ones I mention here all happen in the same world.

Another world, has two quartets and some books afterwards. "The Circle of Magic" and "The Circle Opens". These stories I liked too, because the intracies of the magic they used is fun, and descriptive. I really like the ideas. The stories I think are for a younger audience, but I still enjoyed them.

Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books:

I like these vampire books, because the way that Sookie comes to be embroiled in their politics and fights works. Sookie is telepathic, but she can't read vampire minds, so she feels more comfortable with them. There are also wereanimals in this series. Worth the read I think.

MaryJanice Davidson's Undead Series:

For anyone who thinks that vampire stories don't need to be all serious? This is the series for you. It's hilarious. Queen Betsy loves shoes, she didn't want to be queen of the vampires, and honestly, she's not very good at it. But she is really hard to kill. So yes, go read this. Also read her Mermaid series, that was fun too, different, but fun.

Katie MacAlister's Aisling Grey Guardian books:

They are really fun, Aisling hooks up with a Dragon and their politics, she becomes a Demon Lord. Worth picking up I think.

Maybe I'll do some finished series in a future post.

Comments

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I am apparently the only person in the whole world who doesn't like The Dresden Files. I read Storm Front and hated it, then watched the TV series anyway. Many of the things I hated about the book carried over to the TV series, and I wound up hating that, too. I liked Blood Ties (the books too, but especially the TV series) much better.

[libra-traveller.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're not the only one who hates it. But yeah I loved it, saw the tv series first, then read the books. Out of curiosity what aspect of it made you hate it the most? (It's probably will be the same thing that made me like it.)

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

It wasn't really any one thing, it was a whole accumulation of things.

I hated how Murphy, who heads a unit that specializes in magic-related crime, could be so ignorant and disbelieving about the magic she encounters every day. Seriously, her budget can't be that huge, so why keep paying a consultant whose opinion she continually blows off? I had the same issue with the crack reporter who worked for a paper that covered magic and the supernatural and yet didn't know the tiniest little thing about it and wouldn't listen to Harry.

I hated that he had no friends and that every single person wanted something in exchange for any little thing they did for him--and he just let them walk all over him like that all the time. Harry really needed to grow a spine. He also had far too many mortal enemies to suspend my disbelief for.

I hated how his Watcher watched him so closely that he was always there the second Harry used magic to accuse him of something nefarious, and yet not closely enough to see the actual circumstances in which it was used.

In the TV show, I hated all of the above, plus how Harry wound up having a sexual attraction to pretty much every single damsel in distress of the week (and somehow, they always managed to be female). Even the male clients had stunningly attractive sisters in danger or something. For a guy who was supposed to be so shy around women, he sure managed to get his mojo working in every single episode.

And now I want to go see if I still have the book so that I can throw it really, really hard at something.

[libra-traveller.livejournal.com]

I get you on the tv part, but the book, not so much. Murphy in the books just didn't want to believe, but over the series and pretty fast too, she accepts it, and fights very hard against the magical bad guys. And the reporter? Becomes part vampire in one of the books, so yeah she ends up believing. Oh and his watcher? That's because he's an asshole, willfully believing what he will.

I like that in the books we get a lot of different supernatural beings, the fairies and vampires, plus werewolves, and we even had the fallen angels (I think they're the most interesting). I'm not going to tell you to keep reading, cause then if you didn't ignore me you'd probably be mad if you did keep reading, but I'll say this, I think they do get better. But then I liked the first one too.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Back when the TV series was about to debut, I read an interview with Jim Butcher that contained a lot of spoilers for the whole book series, including the bit about the reporter becoming a vampire. None of the plot points I read in the article made me any more inclined to read any of the other books. I'll just keep my fingers crossed for Wen Spencer to write another Ukiah Oregon book and for Rob Thurman to write another Cal Leandros book.