Help me find a new series here.  I recently picked up the "Saga of the Seven Suns" series by Kevin J Anderson.  I just finished book 5 "Of Fire and Night."  Next is "Metal Swarm" but I'm not going to go out and spend $30 on a hardback book.

Some other series I've enjoyed are:

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan (RIP)

The Deverry Novels by Katherine Kerr

The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind (before he became strangely preachy)

Every Dune Book EVER

Star Wars (before the books became dime store specials)

HELP ME!  I'm desperate for another good series to start!

Try Piers Anthony, the Xanth series, with about 30 books, or Space Tyrant

 Anne McCaffrey, with Pern, Planet pirates, The Rowan series.

 Louise Cooper, Indigo series.

 Stephen Lawhead,  Arthur(or Pendragon) series.

or David Eddingswith the Belgarion series.

I have lots more suggestions if these are not enough. I love reading sets like these.

Juniedoll

P.S. At the moment I'm almost finished the Anne Mccaffrey Planet Pirates set.

Ben Bova’s “Grand Tour” series?

I read them as they come out, but if you want to read in chronological order:

• Powersat (2005)
• Empire Builders (1993)
• Mars (1992)
• Moonrise (1996)  
• Moonwar (1998)  
• Return to Mars (1999)
• The Precipice (2001)  
• Jupiter (2001)
• The Rock Rats (2002)  
• The Aftermath (2007)  
• Saturn (2002)
• Titan (2006) (John W. Campbell Memorial Award)
• The Silent War (2004)  
• Mercury (2005)
• Venus (2000)
• Tales of the Grand Tour (2004) (short story collection that span much of the timeline of the Grand Tour)
• Mars Life (Coming out August 2008)

The Sword of Shanarra was the first series i ever read. Or the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card (super reads!!)

My favorite sci-fi series of all time was Stephen Donaldson's "gap saga" which started with the Real Story.  I would call it a space-opera, but the term seems to imply something more light-hearted.  This is definitely much darker and deals with man's darker nature.  The series really raised the bar on what I should expect from good writers.  By the last couple of books, I couldn't put them down.  Every free moment was dedicated to reading them.   Give them a try. 

I strongly recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series to everyone. Seriously. They are all pretty much stand-alone, and of course different people have different recommendations for what order you should read them in, but I really prefer internal series chronology if you're coming to a series late, but I'll also add the publication date if you prefer that order.

1. Shards of Honor (1986)

2. Barrayar (1991)

3. The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

4. The Vor Game (1990)

5. Cetaganda (1995)

6. Brothers in Arms (1989)

7. The Borders of Infinity (1989) -- three novellas with framing story that places it at this point.

8. Mirror Dance (1994)

9. Memory (1996)

10. Komarr (1998)

11. A Civil Campaign (1999)

12. Diplomatic Immunity (2002)

The books written in the 80s are definitely space opera, albeit of a very high quality, but in the 90s Bujold started to really mature her characters in ways that made the whole series significantly richer and more textured than any other I have ever read. Memory and Komarr, in particular, are incredible, and if you've read the whole series A Civil Campaign is a fantastic "comedy of biology and manners" as Bujold puts it, bringing nearly all of the characters back in for romance and political intrigue and barbed witticisms. She truly sets the standard for this sort of long SF series, in my opinion, and her tally of Hugos and Nebulas would seem to indicate that I am not alone in that.