Good Authors who write Novels in a Series.

pookie82

I'm short on good books to read at the moment - seem to have exhausted all of my favourite authors (Jodi Picoult used to be a firm favourite but her latest are just churned out repetitive junk - but that's another thread altogether). I really love novels written in a series with sequels and prequels and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on a good author who has written a number of related books? I tend to get into an author and can't move on for ages and particularly love if the books are related.

Any ideas?:)

Tusky

Try the Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy.

All the Pretty Horses - The Crossing - Cities of the Plane

You can get them all in one book or separately.

pookie82

Cheers, I'll give those a go!

h8red

How about Stephen King's Dark Tower? Seven books. And then there is a short story that takes place before the first in the Dark Tower series.

http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/the_books.html

Gnar

The Artemis Fowl series is excellent,there are 6 or seven out so no long wait until the next one.I started the series about a month ago and i have gone through about a book a week on average.very enjoyable

macrubicon

Orson Scott Card seems to have mastered the art of the series down with the Ender Saga, Alvin Maker etc.

Dan Simmons has the hyperion series

Louis McMasters Bujold has the The Vorkosigan Saga

All good reads...

Lizzykins

I'd second the Artemis Fowl recommendation. They're hilarious.
Try C.S. Sansom's Dark Fire, Dissolution and Sovereign. They're Tudor murder mysteries and extremely well written.

pookie82

Thanks a million guys - lots of material here to keep me going for a while!!!

John

I heartily second both The Border Trilogy by McCarthy and The Dark Tower.

Have you read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials or his Sally Lockhart books? The former is possibly one of the finest series of books on earth and the latter are good, enjoyable page turners.

Tolkien of course wrote one or two books that are connected to each other

gogo

Second the Dark Tower, also give philipa Gregory a go, she wrote "The other Boyeln Girl', she has loads of books of that time line and they can all be read as a series. All her books have two or three books in a series and they are all a really good read.
Enjoy.

HalloweenJack

James Ellroy.

Lizzykins

I loved The Other Boleyn Girl. It was very well written and really brought the characters to life. Fascinationg.

herbieflowers

Jay-pay Sartre

Shan75

Not a series as such but John Connolly's Charlie Parker books.I enjoyed these and he does make references to earlier ones and a couple are connected.To be honest I enjoy all Connolly's stuff whether Charlie Parker or not.

pookie82

gogo wrote: »

Second the Dark Tower, also give philipa Gregory a go, she wrote "The other Boyeln Girl', she has loads of books of that time line and they can all be read as a series. All her books have two or three books in a series and they are all a really good read.
Enjoy.

Actually The Other Boelyn Girl is one of about five tudor court books by Phiippa Gregory and I've already devoured all of them. She writes from Catherine of Aragon right down to his last wives and goes on to deal with Elizabeth and Mary too. It's an excellent series and so well written. Couldn't put them down. I did notice recently that she has other books from the same era written in trilogy's too so I must get my hands on them.

Thanks a million for all the suggestions guys.

buck65

Reading the border trilogy myself too - excellent.

Black Swan

Sherlock Holmes (collected works) by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Miguel_Sanchez

John Updike has the Rabbit series.

Rabbit, Run
Rabbit Redux
Rabbit is Rich
Rabbit at Rest
Rabbit Remembered

gogo

pookie82 wrote: »

Actually The Other Boelyn Girl is one of about five tudor court books by Phiippa Gregory and I've already devoured all of them. She writes from Catherine of Aragon right down to his last wives and goes on to deal with Elizabeth and Mary too. It's an excellent series and so well written. Couldn't put them down. I did notice recently that she has other books from the same era written in trilogy's too so I must get my hands on them.

Thanks a million for all the suggestions guys.

I have read all gregorys books, and if youve liked the tudor books you'll love the 'Wideacre' series.

First one is 'Wideacre', then 'The favoured Child', the 'Meridon'. They are brilliant, seriously highly recommended. Also she has a new one out this month called 'The Other Queen' - its about Mary Queen of Scots, I'm really looking forward to it.

pookie82

gogo wrote: »

I have read all gregorys books, and if youve liked the tudor books you'll love the 'Wideacre' series.

First one is 'Wideacre', then 'The favoured Child', the 'Meridon'. They are brilliant, seriously highly recommended. Also she has a new one out this month called 'The Other Queen' - its about Mary Queen of Scots, I'm really looking forward to it.

Didn't know about this - you've made my day!!! *rushes off to queue for it*

I did see the wideacre series in easons one day and almost bought all three but the OH was in a rush and I didn't have time to line up and pay. Will be buying them soon though.

john77

You could also try Richard Ford's The Sportswriter, Independence Day & The Lay of the Land which I'm pretty sure are part of the one series of novels (i've only read the first one so far). Also, there's Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy. On a slightly different tone, there's Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (a trilogy in five parts!!)

leprechaun47

Try the Darren Shan series. There are like 12 books. They were brilliant

DesignLady

Shan75 wrote: »

Not a series as such but John Connolly's Charlie Parker books.I enjoyed these and he does make references to earlier ones and a couple are connected.To be honest I enjoy all Connolly's stuff whether Charlie Parker or not.

I have to back this one up. Love the Charlie Parker books. Every Dead Thing is the first, I think.

Also agree with His Dark Materials as a recommendation. I couldn't read anything for about a month after finishing those, nothing could compare to them.

ReacherCreature

Lee Child's 'Jack Reacher' series is incredible.

You'll burn through them, I'd recommend 'Killing Floor' to begin with. It's the first in a ten or so book series.

fated2pretend

pookie82 wrote: »

I really love novels written in a series with sequels and prequels and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on a good author who has written a number of related books? I tend to get into an author and can't move on for ages and particularly love if the books are related.

Any ideas?:)

Jasper Fforde was just made for you

He has 2 series currently on the go - the Thursday Next series and the Nursery Crime series - and his next book will be the first in a new series, the Shades of Grey series. And they're all bloody brilliant!

Mr Benevolent

Ironically I was just going to mention Jasper Fforde - he was even kind enough to respond in detail to an email I sent him (he probably responded because I wasn't asking about writing or his books).

I'd highly reccomend Tom (or Thomas) Holt, his comic fantasy is brilliant, but his historical fiction is even better!

Honourable mention to Robert Rankin too.

iguana

pookie82 wrote: »

Didn't know about this - you've made my day!!! *rushes off to queue for it*

I did see the wideacre series in easons one day and almost bought all three but the OH was in a rush and I didn't have time to line up and pay. Will be buying them soon though.

I read all her Tudor books and quite enjoyed them. Though you have to take the history with a giant pinch of salt. But I couldn't get through the Wideacre books. I thought they were completely turgid. She has another book The Wise Woman set in the Tudor period which is awful. I've also read two other of her book A Respectable Trade about the 18th century slave trade and Fallen Skies set in the aftermath of WW1 which are both quite good. I'd suggest maybe picking up her books on amazon, so at least that way you aren't paying full whack if you don't like them.

If you enjoy Tudor history Alison Weir's Innocent Traitor about the Lady Jane Grey is very good, with the added bonus of being as close to historically accurate as you can get. She also released a book this year Elizabeth, about Elizabeth 1 before her reign. But I haven't read that, so can't say if it is good or not.