I’ve belatedly decided to join a group of bloggers, led by Caitlin at Realms of My Mind, for the Great Series Read Project, including Jason at Off the TBR, Lisa at Dear Geek Place, Imyril at There’s Always Room for One More, Susy at Susy’s Cozy World, among other brave souls. So I am posting the series I have been working on, completed or hope to read and review at some point.

Since I regularly miss self-imposed deadlines, I won’t give a schedule for my own Great Series Read but instead offer a list of must-reads and in some cases, must re-reads. Since I’ve started blogging about science fiction, I have realized that the important series bear much deeper attention than I may have given them in the past. And some are just so great that they demand a second, even a third look.
Below is my personal Great Series Read list, which is itself a work in progress since so many amazing new works are coming out all the time. Who can keep up with it all? Please let me know your thoughts about possible additions – or subtractions if you feel strongly either way.
Here are the series I want to read or have already started. This is a comparatively short list, given the wealth of science fiction out there, because I want to have a good chance of actually finishing it in a reasonable period of time. (But no fixed deadlines!) I’ll set up a page to track progress soon.
- Martha Wells: Murderbot Diaries
- Rebecca Roanhorse: The Sixth World
- Derek Kunsken: Quantum Evolution
- Tade Thompson: The Wormwood Trilogy
- Aliette de Bodard: Dominion of the Fallen
- Emma Newman: Planetfall series
- Christopher Brown: Dystopian Lawyer
- Sue Burke: Semiosis Duology
- N.K. Jemison: The Great Cities Trilogy
- Gareth L. Powell: Embers of War
- Yoon Ha Lee: Machineries of Empire
- Ada Palmer: Terra Ignota
- Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli: Red Desert
Here are the series I have completed but will never be done with because I learn more each time I look back at them. They are all must re-reads. I’ve added links for the few reviews I’ve published so far.
- Linda Nagata: Nanotech Succession and Inverted Frontier (Edges and Silver with more coming.)
- Iain M. Banks: Culture Novels
- Doris Lessing: Canopus in Argos – Archives
- NK Jemison: Broken Earth
- Ian McDonald: Luna trilogy
- Alastair Reynolds – Revelation Space
- Jeff VanderMeer – Southern Reach trilogy
- Ann Leckie: Imperial Radch
- Cixin Liu: Remembrance of Earth’s Past
- Octavia Butler: Xenogenesis trilogy
- Malka Older: The Centenal Cycle
- Stephen Baxter: Xeelee
- Isaac Asimov: Foundation
- Frank Herbert: Dune
- Douglas Adams: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series
What are your favorites and must-reads?
Welcome aboard the Great Series Read! Love your options – Murderbot and Sixth World are great places to start because the books are nice and short. Planetfall and Dominion of the Fallen are on my list as well!
Thanks for your inspiration lead on this. You’ve opened a big door for a lot of us to enter.