Looking for a Good New Fantasy Book Series to Read?

Have you been looking for a good new fantasy series to read? With so many out there, of which some run in a series of a half dozen or more books, it is almost sheer luck when you find a really good one. In this article, I will discuss two of my favorite long-running fantasy book series.

Vampire Earth

If you like post-apocalyptic stories where humans are struggling for survival against a more powerful foe, I think you should check out author E.E. Knight's Vampire Earth series. The series is set a couple hundred years into the future where a race of vampire-like alien invaders has essentially taken over the earth. Like the tagline says, 'earth is under new management'. It's sort of like Mad Max meets Resident Evil, with plenty of Nazi undertones to keep it interesting.

The main character of the Vampire Earth series is a soldier named David Valentine, and each book explores his time working his way up the ranks of the human resistance movement. The author spends plenty of time developing this character and some of the other regular cast members, and it is easy to root for this tormented hero who is constantly up against greater odds. I have always enjoyed that author E.E. Knight manages to avoid a lot of clichés associated with this genre, and he puts some good twists in each book.

As of this writing, the Vampire Earth series contains seven books, with the eighth one to be released in the summer of 2009. I would love to see these books turned into a series of movies, or even a TV show.

Drizzt Do'Urden

If D&D-style magic and elves is more your thing, then I highly recommend you check out the many books in author R.A. Salvatore's long-running series based around the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden. It all began with Drizzt being a sidekick character in Salvatore's Icewind Dale trilogy, but the author soon realized the potential of this character and has gone on to write over a dozen more books about him.

The Dark Elf trilogy is a prequel to the Icewind Dale trilogy, and it is the origin story of Drizzt. He comes from a society of Drow elves who live in an underground world called the Underdark, where they routinely murder each other in battles of power and politics. Drizzt refuses to go along with the acts of evil he sees around him, so instead he spends every waking hour training to be one of the most incredible swordsmen ever to walk the land. This trilogy chronicles his eventually escape to the surface.

What makes the Drizzt Do'Urden character so interesting is not just his amazing swordsmanship, but the fact that everywhere he goes there is racism and other issues he must deal with. The Drow have a nasty reputation the world over, and people instantly form an opinion of him the moment they see him. He really is a good guy, but constantly has to prove his worth to other people. His struggle is an ongoing issue throughout the series, and the books usually contain a few brief journal entry type passages where Drizzt explains his feelings about things he has learned since leaving the Underdark. These journals are often the highlight of the novel.

You can buy the first ten books in this series in bargain priced oversized paperbacks that contains several books in one. I recommend you start with the Dark Elf trilogy, then read Icewind Dale, then pick up the Paths of Darkness collection. The recent Hunter's Blades trilogy is also a great read. In addition, this series has spun off some books based on other characters, and those novels are just as great.