What is the single best science fiction or fantasy franchise?

[Zardnaar]

Lone Wolf is a GREAT series.

Dever wrote more than Lone Wolf though.

Some that come to mind are Combat Heroes (the first which is Black Baron, White Warlord, second Combat Heroes would be Scarlet Sorcerer and Emerald Enchanter), and the Freeway Warrior Series (like Mad Max, but written with UK sensibility with the setting as a nuclear Wasteland in the US).

For series that I love the best the crown for me would probably also go to Lone Wolf, but I don't think it probably would qualify as the best or greatest series for most people today.

I still have mine from the early 90's. The gamebooks are great as far as gamebooks go. Worlds great.

The novels not so much.

 

[Arakhor]

Doh, I have the Freeway Warrior books on my shelves and I still forgot about them when I wrote that post! Thanks, GreyLord.

(By the way, if you haven't already, check out the new Definitive Editions of the LW gamebooks that Ben Dever, Joe's son, is producing over at Magnamund.com.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

(By the way, if you haven't already, check out the new Definitive Editions of the LW gamebooks that Ben Dever, Joe's son, is producing over at Magnamund.com.)

Getting the first one on Thursday! Very excited. I am an old school Fighting Fantasy fan, but I've never touched Lone Wolf or Fabled Lands (also getting one of those on Thursday).

 

[Arakhor]

Fighting Fantasy was great too, but Lone Wolf had just one character (with a second  much later on) played across 30 different books, all with a continuing narrative. I'm sure you'll love everyone's favourite Kai Lord.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I admit to having a strong fetish for 1930ies and 40ies space opera. But the correct answer is of course EE Doc Smiths Lensman series, it’s filled to the brim with pulpy goodness!

 

[Mallus]

I could put some thought into answering this. Or listen to every fiber of my being which are currently reverberating with the words “Star Trek”.

 

[journeyman321]

I'm a big fan of the X-Men franchise. I love the complex characters and the exciting storylines that the X-Men comics and movies often explore.

 

[MGibster]

Two many duds in Trek. Trekkies just fairly fanatic with high tolerance of pain.

Voyager showed me that Star Trek fans would watch anything. Enterprise proved me wrong. As an Orthodox Trekkie myself, I'm going to have to go with Star Trek. It's a franchise that penetrated popular culture very deeply, the original series at least was socially relevant, and it inspired the most beautiful astronaut in the world, Mae Jemison, to get into science. I assume it inspired other people as well but I can look past those chubby cheeks and think of anyone else.

I don't particularly care for Dr. Who.

 

[MGibster]

Potter over anything is a huge question mark. From Earthsea to Free Lance to Rivers of London to Artemis Fowl, pretty much everything is better than Potter.

I haven't read any of the Potter books and I only saw the first 2 or 3 movies, but I would have to agree with those who put it in the running. Potter was everywhere when my nieces were younger, it's one of the things that got them into reading, and even after the last book was published it's still going strong. I've been to Potter Land at Universal Studios. I think Potter is going to cast a very long shadow on the fantasy genre for a long time.

 

[Zardnaar]

Voyager showed me that Star Trek fans would watch anything. Enterprise proved me wrong. As an Orthodox Trekkie myself, I'm going to have to go with Star Trek. It's a franchise that penetrated popular culture very deeply, the original series at least was socially relevant, and it inspired the most beautiful astronaut in the world, Mae Jemison, to get into science. I assume it inspired other people as well but I can look past those chubby cheeks and think of anyone else.

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I don't particularly care for Dr. Who.

I'm not a trekkie can't remember much but watched it as a kid.

Roughly every second movie was good (I really liked First Contact). New treks batting around 50/50 (I liked S2 Picard more than the internet it seems).

Voyager was really bad I've heard I got good later but gave up 6 or 8 episodes in.

DS9/SNW is good along with Picard S3, TNG is very hit or miss. S1 Picard wasn't that bad.

Discovery liked S3, S2 OK, S1 meh gave up S4.

All imho of course.

To scared to try Enterpise.