This is a sort of specialized list. I took a list of books my girlfriend has liked and a list of books that I have liked and fed them into the internet and came out with a list of Fantasy Series that we may both enjoy together. The reason is that we had so much fun while I read Harry Potter and then again while she read The Lord of the Rings. We want to recapture that kind of feeling by reading a whole new series that neither of us have read and discuss it while we read the series. My girl goes more towards the fairy tale side of things as she's a fan of Robin Mckinley and Gregory Maguire. My tastes are varied, but I generally like a lot of magical weaponry and questioning what makes us "human".
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
Ever watch that rare Disney movie "The Black Cauldron"? Well that was a movie based on the second book in the series. My girl and I have watched "The Black Cauldron" and while it had problems, it was really cool for the era it was made in. Did you like how the Harry Potter series "grew up" with Harry? Well this series does that, as we follow the protagonist from childhood to maturity. There are 5 books in the series, but if you've read through Harry Potter, then these will be pretty easy to get through as they are not huge tomes. It is NOT like Harry Potter as it takes place in a new fantasy world instead of our world. Its really pure fantasy.
The Books of Swords by Fred Saberhagen
One of my all time "needed to have read" series. This series was passed around the theater when I worked there in my teens and early 20's. Plenty of female co-workers read it as well and seemed to like it. Basically there are magical swords forged by the gods that each have something special. One will make it possible to defend a town, but the townsfolk will always hate you. Each of them have that one drawback. It is fairly short, usually the trilogy is collected into a single tome. The cast of characters is very large, and this is the real reason I would like to share this with my girl. We loved talking about the lesser known characters in Lord of the Rings, and when we talk about our favorite Harry Potter characters, we gravitate to the B-cast. I think this will be great, not only because of the large cast, but the philosophical questions the swords present.\
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
A youth finds out he is actually a magical person in our very real world. That's right! A Harry Potter analogue from the 1970's! Well, this is here because of that, and because this series won so many awards as they were written. From what I have read in reviews, this series focuses much more on European Mythology than Harry Potter does, but doesn't get into myth to the extent of Percy Jackson(which I haven't read). Harry Potter is very "Raul Doll" inspired fantasy, and The Dark is Rising is more epic fantasy, so I think it will be plenty different enough.
Previously Talked about Books
Generally if I'm interested in it, I'm interested in sharing it with someone. So here are my previous links to my previous lists. Of particular interest of reading with my girl is "The Dragonriders of Pern", "The Magicians", "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn". I just did not want to repost what I said about them here in this post, head over there and check them out maybe.
Epic Series Candidates
Stand Alone Novel Candidates
