Forum: Story Recommendations

Hi everyone,
I'm currently working through intemperance at a very fast pace.

I like well plotted story lines with complex characters who develop over time. Generally speaking, I like books with a romantic vibe, not really into fantasy, do enjoy hard sci fi.

Looking for list of: if I could only pick one story to recommend type collections.Are there some hidden gems with lower scores that deserve a read? An inactive author with a concluded must read status?

My reading list is mostly caught up once I've finished the intemperance books. Curious to see what the response will be to being forced to choose just one series to recommend. And forced is a terrible term, admittedly.
Thank you in advance!

Curious to see what the response will be to being forced to choose just one story.

Sorry, I refuse to choose just one story or series or universe.
I'm 78 now and was – still am – an avid reader since my early teens. While I haven't saved all pulp magazines and paperbacks I've bought over more than six decades (I got rid of thousands just to get space for more), I still have more than 8000 printed books, over 5000 eBooks and over 14000 story chapters in HTML, downloaded from here and other sites.
As genres I prefer SF&F, Western, Crime, General Adventure, some Historical Fiction and even Romance, but no Horror.
Many of those thousands of books I've read twice or even more times.
While nearly all older books I own are translations to German or originally written in German, I switched to the English originals in the early eighties. Since about 2000 I tried to get the original English versions of my most cherished books.
With this as background information, my taste in stories changed over the years, I found books I loved reading back then now rereading them not so compelling.
Given the vast amount of stories I've read I can't select just one story or series or universe.
If someone insists and tries to force me to select only one, I would need to look into all possible candidates and thereafter maybe I'm able to select one. Even if I would do this full-time, ask me again in November to get your answer.

HM.

Looking for something long, the Stupid Boy Series by G Younger is a coming of age series of books.

Worlds of Light series by Sea-Life… or anything else of his!

My top two favourite series are Jade Force by Lazlo Zalezac and Clan Amir br Ernest Bywater.

The Eric Olafson series by Vanessa Ravencroft.
https://storiesonline.net/series/1548/erica-olafson

I suggest starting with the Foreword, then Chapter one of the first book and skipping the Prelude chapters- that way you learn what is going on in the first couple of books along with the main character.
Reading the prelude means you already know, and it detracts from the story IMHO (it was originally posted without the prelude, and that's how i first read it, and continue to do so when re-reading it).

2 come to mind John Carter universe by Lazlo Zalizec and Grim Reaper by Rlfj

To me it's a coin toss between the Stupid boy series by G younger or the Eric olafson Neo viking series by Vanessa ravencroft, fair warning Vanessa's VERY long series does feel unfinished but she was very ill when she wrote and published volume 10 and passed away soon after and is absolutely worth the read regardless.

Horny Monsters — A Universe from the Mind of Annabelle Hawthorne
This universe is home to all the sexy monster tales written by Annabelle Hawthorne. It's a lot like the one you live in now, except monsters are real and down for some dirty sex.

I think the Smart Girls Universe by oyster50. I'm reading it again for about the 6th time. Every time he completes a new story, I go back to the beginning and read through them again.

A Golfer's Dream series by TheCaddy. A great coming of age story, well written, and lots of golf and Ice Hockey. And a cameo from Summer Camp.

Picking JUST one is nearly impossible - depends on audience, context, mood etc... Depending on the preference in taste of crayons, here's some possible options for you:

- For "Star Was" nerds, any Zahn books in Star Wars EU featuring Thrawn. They were the height of SW franchised books, and haven't been surpassed even by now despite their age.

- If you like technothrillers, Tom Clancy's "Jack Ryan" series (actual Clancy, not garbage ghostwritten with his name after he died) - starting with "Hunt for Red October" (yes, the Sean Connery movie was based on that book - in total 4 of the books in the series were made into movies, 2 great and 2 crappy).

- For SciFi, "Dune" series? Or pretty much anything by Greg Bear.

- For space opera subgenre, anything from David Weber, but my fave is "Dahak" series (aka "Empire from the ashes"). "Honor Harrington" series is always great (and with tons of books - think "Horato Hornblower" in space), "Safehold" is also good though quality dropped a bit in later books.

- For alt hist/time travel, Eric Flint's "Ring Of Fire"/"1632" series is pretty amazing. While on Flint, his debut book "Mother of Demons" is amazing and "Pyramid Scheme" is a must read for anyone with a sense of humor and even a passing interest in Greek mythology.

- For general SciFi, Card's Ender series (started with "Ender's Game" obviously; but personally I like "Ender's Shadow" even more and the rest of Shadow arc).

- If you want more old-timey classics, can't go wrong with Duma's "The Count of Monte Cristo".