No rules. Personally I'd say AWLL by Michael Loucks.
Heroes, by Don Lockwood. (Favorite story, favorite author)
Favorite series, either The Donaldsons or the Misera stories, both from Lazlo Zalezac
If including dead-tree stuff, then the Recluce novels by Modesitt, Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and of course the Discworld novels, and the Hitchiker's Guide trilogy, and Asimov's Foundation novels.
Depends on my mood, but:
BarBar's Bec series for an emotional rollercoaster COA
Hermit's Jake Fielding series (book 4 coming 'Real Soon Now') for a well built development of a concept COA
Wes Boyd's Dawnwalker/Spearfish Lake tales (not all here) for satisfying slices of life
Gina Marie Wylie's Tangent series and Federation Space (no longer here), both concept development COA
John Ringo's series starting with Ghost (off the Baen CDs mostly) - action adventure
C.J.Cherryh's Chanur series, Cyteen series, and Foreigner series (dead-tree, Foreigner being 18 full novels),hard SF
Terry Pratchett's Diskworld (I've run out of pink)
For (relatively) lightweight fluff, Larry Niven's Known Space, including Ringworld. (more hard SF)
Anything with a reluctant/NC teen impregnation theme. Krosis and Geek of Ages both are great. Phil Phantom had some great ones (although his protagonists were too young for my tastes sometimes). I also miss Goddess of Porn and NoNoNo69.
It went off the rails pretty quick. When you have a main character with near-infinite power, unless you can make the conflict something where that power doesn't come into play (or all the other characters are similarly powerful, a la Zelazny's Amber Chronicles) you've got issues.
It went off the rails pretty quick.
Pug (Milamber) and Tomas didn't gain their full powers until much later in the series, though.
Also, for series:
Honor Harrington
Ghost
Legacy of the Aldenata / The Posleen Wars
The Safehold Series
Black Tide Rising
Yes, I have all of the books in all of those series, and re-read them.
@StarFleet CarlHow about Bujold's VorKosigan saaga?
Another ditto.
That's almost the opposite of the "infinite powers" complaint upthread. Miles had brains, but he was quite limited, physically.
It went off the rails pretty quick. When you have a main character with near-infinite power, unless you can make the conflict something where that power doesn't come into play (or all the other characters are similarly powerful, a la Zelazny's Amber Chronicles) you've got issues.
Actually, that is not quite true at all.
Rather quickly, Pug and Tomas (Milamber and Ashen-Shugar) quickly became relatively minor background characters. Characters would go to them for advice, but other than almost a cameo they were rarely seen again.
And the few times they were, often they were fighting fores that were as powerful as they were, or even more powerful. Not unlike how Gandolf was simply not present for much of the Hobbit-LOTR series.
And their powers were hardly "infinite". No more than Thor in the Marvelverse is an "Almighty God". Yea, compared to regular humans he is a beast, but he still gets smacked around regularly by other beings (including humans).
And as Carl said, they also gain that power over a long time (centuries as they both use life extending magic), and only really get their full powers at the end. And by the end of the last book, both Pug and Tomas are dead.
One of the things I loved in the series is that it takes place over more than a hundred years. Characters that were children in the first book are dying of old age less than half way through the series, and new characters are brought in to continue it. One even the great-grandson of a child from the first book.