You all should know I really am an avid reader, especially when I have time. The series I came into long before Harry Potter would be the Wheel of Time (which is currently up to book eleven of a theoretical 12 book series.)
The book series is fantasy/sci-fi/adventure, dealing with a different sort of magic and an oncoming war of good versus evil. The author is positively excellent with his details, and as the series is set in a pre-industrial era, he builds his world exquisetly around entire cultures and histories he has created. Mr. Jordan tends to follow many characters, but the three that are the lead Characters are three young men from the same origional small town each with an interesting aura that tends to bend the world to help them (Ta'veren, Robert Jordan names this power).
It's realy quite impossible for me to describe the books, but I recomend them to anyone after a good read, and I also say don't be intimidated by the size. A big book doesn't matter if the story is good!
The First book of the series, The Eye of the World, starts like this:
| QUOTE |
| The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth return again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, when the World and Time themselves hang in the balance, a wind rises in the mountains of mist . . . |
Now, not only am I recomending the series, but I'm hoping someone else on the forum here has read them, as I do love discussing WoT with willing people!
:no: It looks like we may be the only two (yet again) to know the Wheel of Time. How sad... I really do love the series, even if Robert Jordan's verbosity tends to scare most people away. I know so many people who actively hate him, considering him the DBZ of fantasy writers for simply dragging a good thing on too long.
...at least I know one other person out there's got the patience to stick it out until the end with me.