which series should I start reading?

somewhere in my excessive stacks of unread books I have:

- the first ten Anita Blake novels (by Laurell K. Hamilton)
- the first six Women of the Otherworld novels (by Kelley Armstrong)
- all five Rachel Morgan novels (by Kim Harrison)

I don't want to read all three series concurrently but as all three authors are new to me I can't decide where to start.

Which series should I go with first?

Of those three I've only read the first two of Kelley Armstrong's books, Bitten and Stolen. They were very good and I would recommend them.

I love all of those books! Maybe you should start with the Anita Blake books, because there are so many of them. That way if, along the way, you need a break you can read one of the others. And if you like Hamilton's stuff, her Merry Gentry books are great too! The first one is A Kiss of Shadows.

I would start with the Rachel Morgan books. Of the three authors she has the most cohesive story line and steadiness to her writing.

The Otherworld novels are a bit disjointed---you can read them all as standalones.

The Anita Blake series shows serious changes in writing style, from urban fantasy novels with some romance at the beginning of the series to what is essentially paranormal erotica. I know people will disagree with me there, but if you're a regular fantasy with mild romance reader (ie, Patricia Briggs), then the later Anita Blake books will come as a shock.

Start with the Rachel Morgan books by Harrison, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

The Anita Blake books follow in second place for me BUT stop after you read Obsidian Butterfly because the books begin a serious decline in form and the plots become nearly nonexistent. (The books after OB seem to be appealing to some because of the large number of explicit sex scenes which in themselves may not have been too bad except they were written to the exclusion of any plotline and unfortunately, are pretty boring IMO.)

I have found that the Kelley Armstrong books are usually divided amongst two camps: the readers that liked the were stories (Bitten, Stolen, Broken) and the ones who like the witch stories (Industrial Magic, Dime Store Magic, Haunted). I personally liked all of them except Broken, and I just couldn't get into it. Now she has the 7th book out called No Humans Involved, but I haven't read it yet.

Truly, whichever series you start with you can't go wrong.

PS- If I could make a suggestion? If you like these types of books, check out Pactricia Briggs Mercy Thompson series, Lilith Saintcrow's Dante Valentine series, and Jeanne Stein's Anna Strong series. They each have two books so far and are very good. Happy reading!

thanks for the suggestion :)

I already have Patricia Briggs' first two Mercy Thompson books (as yet unread) and I'll look into the other two.

A note on the Dante Valentine series, which I'm seconding as well (after you read the Rachel Morgan and Mercy Thompson series, but before Anita Blake and the Otherworld series IMO): make sure you have the second novel on hand after you read the first. Read the first one and then move straight to the second! I was so bummed about the ending to the first that I almost didn't read the second. However, the bold moves at the end of the first novel really pay off in the second novel. She is an excellent author.

Neither Lilith Saintcrow or Kim Harrison shy away from taking bold steps to move the plot forward. I'm waiting with baited breath for the sequel to For a Few Demons More. I even liked it enough to buy the hardback. Anyway, a little OT.

Happy reading!