Top 5 Trilogies I Want to Read

This Top 5 series started back in October 2018 and I kind of lost motivation for making it every week. But it’s back! This is a series of books that I want to read that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for every Saturday.

The Upcoming Schedule Is:

2/29/20 — Books inspired by Mythology

3/7/20 — Trilogies

3/14/20 — Books with Beautiful Covers

3/21/20 — Magical Realism

3/28/20 — Murder Mystery

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Rules!

• Share your top 5 books of the current topic– these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
• Tag the original post (This one!)
• Tag 5 people

Trilogies!

I love a good trilogy! Sure, sometimes it’s great to have a standalone book, but other times it’s wonderful to know that there is more to the story. I love when you read a book and then at the end you find out it’s the first book in a trilogy and that you can continue to read about characters that you love. I love picking up a new series, but I have a hard time starting series that are longer than 3 or 4 books, but I can almost always commit to a trilogy! I did have a really hard time creating this list because there are SO many trilogies out there that I’m dying to read. I almost made this list all about trilogies that I need to finish, because I am halfway through SO many series, but I felt like it would be more exciting to talk about series I haven’t even touched yet. These are all trilogies that I really want to pick up and I have really high expectations for each series that made it onto this list.

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The Illuminae Files Series by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the worst thing she’d ever been through. That was before her planet was invaded. Now, with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating craft, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But the warship could be the least of their problems. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady plunges into a web of data hacking to get to the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: Ezra.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents–including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more–Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

I have heard nothing but amazing things about this series. The reason I haven’t picked it up just yet is because I really want to listen to these on audiobook! I know that these books have unique formats and are supposed to be really cool.

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Arc of a Scythe Series by Neal Shusterman

Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

This has gotten bumped up on my TBR because it’s been recommended to me several times by different trusted friends who have similar taste in books. I keep eyeing this series at work and I think it’s time that I buy the series already.

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All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness

Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

The reason I’m dying to read this trilogy is because it sounds like it has incredible world building and all of the books are pretty long. It seems like the world is pretty intricate and this series sounds like one that I could find myself obsessed with. I have been waiting to read this until I’m in the mood for a long fantasy with an intricate and fascinating world. I’ve been in the mood for lighter reads lately, but I already know that I will probably be obsessed with this series.

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Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Aren

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

This series made the list because of recommendations. Everyone I know who has read this series is absolutely crazy about it. I know that it’s filled with folklore and mythology and it’s also got a Russian setting. Apparently the writing is lyrical and the story is magical. All the high praise has me excited for this series.

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The Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin

This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She’ll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

This originally made my list because I saw that each book in the series won awards for best fantasy. But then several of my coworkers also recommended it, so now I own a copy of the first book. I really don’t know much about this series at all and I’m trying to go in blind!

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Tagged!

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Let’s Chat!

What are some of your favorite trilogies? Have you read any of the ones that I listed? What did you think? Do you prefer standalones or series? How long do you prefer a series to be? What trilogies are at the top of your TBR?