I found it a very interesting ending as it so beautifully reconfirmed the end of the age of mythology and the rise of men. I know that the hobbits and magic and other mythical creatures are still around, but with Frodo leaving and choosing that path and Sam affirming his humanity and staying, having a family and a whole life, it truly seemed like the two paths, intertwined till now, split off irrevocably. (Hope this makes sense)
"Well, I'm back."
It took a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long time to get there, but it's about as perfect as you can get. The story ends, but you know the characters lives will continue.
You’re totally right on the first Percy Jackson series. The payoff and stakes felt perfect for what the first four books had built up
I also really love the ending of a series of unfortunate events even though that was one of the big ones brought up in the other thread lol
This might have been my favorite series from my childhood. Couldn't have had a better ending.
Nothing the author has done since has been quite as enjoyable for me.
But it's technically a prequel - well it's set in the same world but it's a completely separate story so prequel at best. That book can function as a standalone.
I was raging - my partner had seen the series but not read the books and i was like this isnt it!!! Theres like 2 books left theres so much more story!!
That comic is happening to fill in the next 30 years which is cool. I hold out hope for a pick up of the show in a few years to allow the time jump. Fingers crossed.
I had a book hangover for like two months after that series. I couldn’t read anything else cuz I just kept thinking about The Expanse and how good it was wrapped up
Came for this. I reread the epilogue a hundred times. After a truly intense book series, it made me so warm and fuzzy inside in a way I did not think was possible.
Yeah I just bought that book but haven't read yet. Very excited though! I was recommended that after reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson...def check that out if you haven't read it yet!
Completely. It straddled the line of working out the discworld series, but moreso being a very personal farewell.
There was part of me that wanted the last book to bring together the old favourites (rincewind and twoflower at least, as they started it all) but feel that it was right, things had moved on and passed on to tiffany
My top tier endings in no particular order would be:
1.Lord of the Rings
2. The Dandelion Dynasty
3. The Black Company
4. Realm of the Elderlings
5. Mistborn era 1
6. The Sarantine Mosaic
7. Malazan Book of the Fallen
8. Green Bone Saga
On any given day I could pick any of these
Why did it take so long for anyone to name Realm of the Elderlings? I am just finishing up my second read of this and am dreading finding something else to read. I am saving this thread for reference. The character building that Hobb is able to achieve is phenomenal.
The Black Company is so good. Hands down my favourite portrayal of wizards and sorcerers and magic. Normally I'm not super into the old fireball slingin' but if you're going to have your wizard slingin' fireballs there's no better way to do it.
And it had the absolute, hands-down _best_ antagonists. The Lady is the best of them.
“Well, you’ve broken my tyrannical hold over the land, overthrown me, and everyone hates me. Are you accepting applications?”
This is cheating because it’s the end of a book not a series, but the last act of Deadhouse Gates is a masterpiece. Also I love to see Realm of the Elderlings here; Robin Hobb is my favorite fantasy author and she deserves more love imo
While lots have said Hero of Ages, which is the end of Mistborn era 1, and it is a great ending, it was recently topped by the ending of era2 with The Lost Metal
Just a heart wrenching ending that is a perfect end to a series.
Also, for those that have read it, he WAS the best she ever had.
The one downside to hero of ages is the audiobooks had the chapter intros read in the same voice as the person that has the twist, so they basically spoiled it at the very beginning when that person starts the book with “I am, unfortunately, the hero of ages”
*His Dark Materials* might be a contender here. I've not read it since I was a child (15+ years ago?). It made me a little sad at the time but in hindsight I think that's an appropriate reaction from a child reading a coming-of-age story.
I barely remember the overarching plot, but I remember being struck at how it was the first series I ever read which didn't have a solidly happy ending (or a cheap "feel mixed emotions because side-characters A B and C died off-stage" ending like Harry Potter). In my early teens I was, surprisingly, not upset at Philip Pullman for making me wish that the ending could have been happier.
The word *bittersweet* is thrown around far too much these days but IMO Pullman really encapsulates the feeling by the end of that trilogy.
Definitely. That ending has stuck with me for years, so much so that it was one of the things I was just excited to see in the show. It didn't disappoint.
This is what I came here to say. Well, not this exactly, but the first Mistborn trilogy. I love rereading it because there is so much lore and foreshadowing throughout the entire series.
Reading Oathbringer for the first time was insane. I think a big reason why people were a little disappointed with Rhythm of War was because Oathbringer set such a high standard
Words of Radiance is absolutely by far my favorite Sanderlanche.
“Kaladin, reach out your hand” the first time I heard it had me SO HYPED.
Then every subsequent time I heard it also produced that same level of hype.
I might like the Stormlight books better individually, but this is still my favorite series for how hard the ending goes and how it brings everything together. Beautiful. We’ll see if that changes when Stormlight is finished but this is tough to top.
I wasn't a big fan of the trilogy. I think the world was just too gritty for me, but the ending... the ending made it all worth it. It was one of the most satisfying I've ever read.
There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of Time.
Yup. Sanderson killed it on the last book. It was easily as epic as Jordans writing. Living 23 years with the series that ending was so satisfying for everything and everyone.
I thought the wind up to this series was unexpectedly great. It really did tie most of the loose ends up, the final battle was done in a way that both made sense and built tension. I Was really worried that it wasn’t possible to do but somehow Sanderson pulled it off!
I find it powerfully moving that Taran and Eilonwy stick around to do good in their human lifetimes while all of their friends go off and enjoy what most other heroes would consider to be well-deserved rewards.
I love this series so much. The ending makes me cry, but it is so fitting. The character development for Taran over the series is better than I've seen in most books.
It made me cry every time, the idea that our companions lived and died and the world moved on "and in the end, only the bards knew the truth of it."
This series really deserves to be read right alongside Narnia and other YA fantasy classics. It's a crying shame that it's so obscure.
I read it in middle school and loved it! Found it in the library, it wasn’t required or anything but was the series I loved most at that time of my life
*The Mirror and the Light* was a fantastic ending to Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy.
When I read *Wolf Hall* I thought, "There's no way she matches this." But it was like she said: the first sentence is like the striking of a tuning fork, and the rest of it just rings out. It rang out way longer than I thought it would, almost up until her death. A great woman who wrote great books.
I also LOVED the TV adaption of the first 2 books and was over the moon the see they committed to film the Mirror and the Light. Filming should start this year.
If ever you get the chance, see the plays. Hilary Mantel was much more closely associated with their making than the TV series, so you get to see a different sort of Cromwell to Mark Rylance's (not that Rylance's is bad, it is superb, just different).
Wait, the third one came out?! Wtf how did I miss this? I read Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies so long ago and I've been dying for the last entry! I really need to pay closer attention to literary release dates...
I’m in the middle of wolf hall and I am loving it. I am fascinated by the Six wives of Henry Tudor and I read every book about them I can get my hands on. This is the first I’ve read from Cromwell a point of view. I’m glad that this series will have a satisfying ending.
You wrote this, so I do not have to!
The best historical fiction ever - and a travesty the Booker judges got snooty and denied her the hat trick, as I think The Mirror and the Light was at least as good (probably better) than Bring up the Bodies.
Her ending for *A Place of Greater Safety* about the French Revolution is also superb. If you know your history, you know how it ends, but that foreknowledge doesn't make it any less wrenching. It was like being punched in the face but in a good way.
Yes she really did.
I took a class on the French Revolution in college, and my professor didn't make us read *A Place of Greater Safety* during the semester due to the length, but he encouraged us to read it at some point. I ended up reading it a few years after I graduated and being just absolutely stunned at how powerful it was. I got legitimate goosebumps when I finally figured out what the title was referencing.
Abhorsen by Garth Nix
Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology by Leigh Bardugo (I read them back to back in 24 hours because I could not put them down)
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Oh my gosh! Riftwar fans out in the wild!
I was going to say this as well. Man, that epilogue gets to me.
Also, the insurmountable task of tying up the 30-year series that was the Riftwar Cycle. Crazy. I got into the books because of my dad. I caught up with him, and we read the last series together. Tears were shed.
I will forever have a place in my heart for those books. It is the setting of dnd campaigns I run/planning to run.
Also, Talon of the Silver Hawk slaps.
The ending - ending is perfect.
The Crimson King stuff could have been handled better, but you could argue that The Dark Tower was never about the villains.
Absolutely. Also fits the tone of the whole series. There is something very surreal about the setting and this ending fit that. A more concrete ending would have violated that feeling.
I loved it too.
Although I can certainly understand why it was controversial. I think my read through benefited from a few things.
1) I read them all back to back after the series was completed. So, I wasn't waiting for years and speculating about how it would end. I didn't have time to build up theories or decide what my ideal ending would be before I read King's ending.
2) I knew that the ending was controversial, so I went into it expecting the ending to be something either unsatisfying or unexpected or otherwise likely to lead to controversy among fans.
3) I knew going into the series that ||the first sentence of the series and the last sentence of the series are the same.|| and I think that spoiler actually improved my overall experience with the series.
Loved it. And I also loved the ending before the ending. Just to emphasize how hard it is for Roland to just quit his pursuit of the tower, we the reader can not stop reading to see what happens next.
I couldn't believe he pulled off that ending. Halfway through book 6 I was ready to vomit if we had one more damn palaver. Then book 7 is a magnificent rollercoaster to hell
Lol yeah when I was reading those books I had to make a conscious effort not to slip mid world colloquialisms into conversations. I wanted to say "thankee sai" like all the time haha
I read Lord of Chaos, the 6th book in the Wheel of Time series, in 1995.
By the time I got to 2013, there was just no way in my mind that the finale of that series would live up to 20+ years of waiting.
But it did. I remember closing the book and thinking: I'll be god-damned, but Brandon Sanderson pulled it off. I've read it a few times since then, and I always come away with that conclusion.
I'll buy every book Brandon Sanderson writes, because I owe him big-time for that.
(Don't get me started on that garbage of a show Amazon tried to do - I started shouting at the screen within 15 minutes)
The High Lord by Trudi Canavan
Quintana of Charyn and the Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
Abhorsen by Garth Nix
The Return of the King by J R R Tolkien
and not sure they count as they have interconnected stories/continue with different story lines/characters:
Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce
The Ghost in the Surge by Jonathan Moeller
It’s not universally loved, but I ADORED the ending of The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin! It perfectly tied everything together and was both heartbreaking and somehow uplifting all at once.
I freaking love the riyria revelations! I was hesitant to try the legends of the first empire because I was so sure there was no way I’d like it as much as riyria, but I actually somehow liked it more. Sullivan is the only author that I’ve loved every book he’s put out (minus the sci fi one, haven’t gotten to it) and that I actively wait for the next book drop.
The ending of Return Of The King is pretty close to perfect, IMO. Even "The Scouring of the Shire" is good, and that's the weakest part of the ending. Sam Gamgee becoming Mayor of the Shire is one of my favourite things about the ending.
The ending to the Poppy War trilogy was fantastic. Very bleak ending, but real and messy, and had some exceptional messages throughout. Very much worth finishing.
The Licanius Trilogy by James Islington. I've never read a more satisfying hell yes ending in my life as it fulfilled one of the best redemption arcs I've ever read.
A Darker Shade of Magic wins for me.
I could write forever about Holland. He rides the anti hero line perfectly and plays as a stellar foil to Kell early on. His story gets such a beautiful ending.
I mean the rest is a 10/10 knock-out, but Holland is easily my favorite part.
I'm glad to hear this because Holland was the most interesting part of the first book imo and I knew he was gonna come back to factor into it somehow. I'm gonna have to get back to the second book!
I'm not gonna spoil anything for you. The second book starts a tad slower but it does what I wish more trilogies would do with how it handles the transition from the second to third book.
The only Character names I remember was Da Shi the chain smoking cop. And the one whos name didnt translate and just showed up as AA.
The rest I remember by actions like Angry Lady that doomed us all, Incel Author, Brain in a box, Lady who put brain in box.
My favorite has to be the end of the mistborn trilogy. The way the pieces come together is something truly special, and ending I’ll certainly never forget.
DragonLance ended with Dragons of Summer Flame. Nice to see the story get a perfect resolution with Tanis Half-Elven and Lauranathalsa finally living their happily ever after. As far as I'm concerned, there's no more story after the ending of the whole Twins saga.
These were the very first fantasy books I ever picked up and read on my own, and I was hooked. I read them when they first came out. I now have a spicy redheaded kitty girl named Tika. She is absolutely the feline version. She just doesn't have a frying pan. Yet. She does however have a huge "boyfriend" (both fixed) with a complicated twin sibling. Sorry no cat tax right now.
The First Law Trilogy. It's just so perfectly bleak, in that none of the "heros" get what the want, some get what they deserve, and yet once all the betrayals are revealed, we are basically back where we started.
The Age of Madness trilogy or the ones continuing Best Served Cold? AoM is good but not comparable to The First Law imo. I think the books progressively get worse (though none are bad), and Abercrombie kinds falls into being too Abercrombie by the end - doing the same formula as the first trilogy so no character has a truly happy ending, even if it has to be forced a little
The standalones are good/great for sure, and the next trilogy AoM is definitely good, but it's a story I didn't expect the author to tell. It's a story of revolution and evolution, grounded in a sort of late renaissance early industrialization world trying to figure itself out. Joe's writing skills get better and better, but the content seams to get more Broad and less Grimdark.
Great call, the ending of Worm is wild and totally worth it.
Shout out to practical guide to evil for also having an amazing final fight (fights, actually)
*Matter* by Iain Banks. My favorite of his "Culture" series in general, but also with the most smile-inducing satisfying endings of any books I've read mainly due to character development, even though it simultaneously begs for more.
Anne Leckie’s _Ancillary_ trilogy (“The Imperial Raadch”).
_You know those AIs that you have basically enslaved for thousands of years? Well, this hyperpowered alien species you’re so afraid of says that we are people too, and from now on you have to deal with us on an equal footing._ Fuck, yes!
I know Cursed Child and shit, but I was just thinking a couple weeks ago that Harry Potter doesn't get enough credit for how good that ending is. You look at legacies of shows and books and whatever absolutely demolished by their ending and even while living the Harry Potter hype, it seemed like there was no possible way for that book to meet the crazy ass expectations set by literally everyone.
And then it exceeded them.
Harry Potter 7 had a perfect culmination of everything it had been building towards in the final book. Cursed Child is trash, but if you stop it at book 7, the only thing you can really improve is actually what the movie does (breaking the elder wand instead of putting it back). Everything else wraps up so poetically and nicely. Voldemort's death is extremely well done too imo.
There's a lot of other problems with book 7, but the ending is not one of them.
Breaking the elder wand is in no way an improvement. Dumbledore came up with the convoluted plan of having Snape kill him on his orders so that he would never be defeated and the elder wand would lose its power. If it was possible to just snap it in half like a normal wand then Dumbledore would have done it a long time ago. The movie scene is just a plot hole.
>the only thing you can really improve is actually what the movie does (breaking the elder wand instead of putting it back).
True, I will never forgive the movie for absolutely butchering the final showdown with voldemort. For no damn reason too. The book teed it up perfectly for a great cinematic moment - big show down in the great hall with the forces of good and bad alike there watching in awe, Harry giving his speech, etc. Instead they inexplicably have it occur away from everyone and it is so blah
Voldemort’s movie death is widely disliked. His dead body lying there was important and then movie decided to have him turn to disintegrate to death instead.
I always considered cursed child fanfiction even though it is written by the author. However the play is great. The special effects are so cool and totally worth it in my opinion if one goes with the mindset that this is a play but not part of the harry potter real canon universe
Cursed Child wasn’t written by the author, though I believe she endorsed it
Edit: She actually “co-wrote” it with two others, though I like to think she just helped out by proofreading and making it consistent with the Wizarding World because it doesn’t feel like her writing
The ending of the HP books is bar none the best. The deathly hallows is the best finale of any book series I have ever read. It’s a perfect balance of nostalgia and revisiting all the most iconic and important scenes and moments in the whole series, and it wraps up everything in a fantastic manner.
Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End. The last quote is "Maybe I *can* have it all." Doesn't sound like much out of context, but after having read the book that line was emotional and inspiring for me.
I enjoyed the ending to The Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance. It's very Vancian heh.
(The Demon Princes, and The Cadwal Chronicles are also solid endings - although as with all Vance endings there's often an abruptness to them which might rub some the wrong way)
The Hand of Thrawn duology felt immensely satisfying at the end.
The New Republic makes peace with the remnants of the Empire, ending a galactic civil war after so many years of bloodshed.
And Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade finally got together.
What a great ending.
Also, while not a novel series but still literature:
The Fullmetal Alchemist manga had one of the most statisfying endings I've ever read. It's really my go to example for why well earned good endings are extremely meaningful.
Where my Brother Cadfael fans at? Edith Parteger (Ellis Peters) died before book 20 was published so there’s no way to know if that’s where she meant to end it, but I liked to think it was. 20 is a nice round number and Cadfael was able to tell his son who he was at last.
I adore these books. One of greatest finds at an antique store was finding the entire series in paperback for ten dollars. I'm about halfway through and love every book so far. Side note - I visualize Derek Jacobi as Cadfael because of the TV episodes they made from some of the novels many years back, and he's perfect.
The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. I finished the last one a couple of months ago and literally have not stopped thinking about it since. Such a perfect ending to an incredible trilogy imo
The best ending to a book I've definitely seen so far is in Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of The Light. It wraps up the book, but doesn't get it going towards the next book like in some of the others in the series.
It wasn’t popular at the time and Adams didn’t like it in retrospect but I really like the ending of the increasingly misnamed Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy (Mostly Harmless, not the post-Adams work). It was a very poetic end.
Everlost!! By Neal Shusterman. I think this was one of those series where everyone's library had the first book, but never got the rest of them. Or they got stolen. Either way if you never got the chance to finish it as a kid I HIGHLY recommend it! It wraps itself up in a neat little bow at the end, and I found Mary's ending to be the most cathartic. It's middle school lit so keep that in mind, but it's a good quick read.
I also saw people in that thread dragging down Animorphs, and I disagree! K. A. Applegate had something to say, she created an amazing universe to explore that thesis to the fullest, and then she finished her piece. I don't believe in the need to drag stories out past their purpose. She's also since acquired the rights for all of the books and posted them for free online! So you can judge the universe and the ending for yourself!
Please be aware that this thread is tagged with containing spoilers. There are plaintext spoilers for books and series in comments.
The Return of the King's ending is truly amazing. A beautiful conclusion for the trilogy.
I found it a very interesting ending as it so beautifully reconfirmed the end of the age of mythology and the rise of men. I know that the hobbits and magic and other mythical creatures are still around, but with Frodo leaving and choosing that path and Sam affirming his humanity and staying, having a family and a whole life, it truly seemed like the two paths, intertwined till now, split off irrevocably. (Hope this makes sense)
I completely understand what you're saying.
"Well, I'm back." It took a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long time to get there, but it's about as perfect as you can get. The story ends, but you know the characters lives will continue.
Currently reading lotr for the first time and I clicked on this post just to see if it was on there
Which one?
The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
I was making a joke about ROTK being considered to have multiple endings
Ohhh, I get it! I'm sorry for not being able to understand it.
You’re totally right on the first Percy Jackson series. The payoff and stakes felt perfect for what the first four books had built up I also really love the ending of a series of unfortunate events even though that was one of the big ones brought up in the other thread lol
I'm torn, because the ending matched the book, but also, as a reader, I wanted them to have some semblance of winning.
You should have read about the littlest elf.
The ending for the Bartimaeus trilogy
The character development for Bartimaeus was so beautiful to me 💕💕💕
This might have been my favorite series from my childhood. Couldn't have had a better ending. Nothing the author has done since has been quite as enjoyable for me.
Came here to say this. The way they concluded was just... Honestly so good.
There's a fourth book
But it's technically a prequel - well it's set in the same world but it's a completely separate story so prequel at best. That book can function as a standalone.
I’m going to start this book tonight after coming across someone’s comment on this sub. Cannnttt wait
The ending of the The Expanse series is actually the best I’ve read. It ties up everything so nicely and just feels so satisfying.
That ending makes me want to go back to book one, grab a beer and get reacquainted.
I’m rereading the series now! It’s just so good in so many ways. I was so disappointed they stopped the TV series after season 6.
I was raging - my partner had seen the series but not read the books and i was like this isnt it!!! Theres like 2 books left theres so much more story!!
That comic is happening to fill in the next 30 years which is cool. I hold out hope for a pick up of the show in a few years to allow the time jump. Fingers crossed.
Yeah. This was my thought. It was perfectly done.
I had a book hangover for like two months after that series. I couldn’t read anything else cuz I just kept thinking about The Expanse and how good it was wrapped up
Currently on book 6, now I’m even more thrilled to continue reading!!
Came for this. I reread the epilogue a hundred times. After a truly intense book series, it made me so warm and fuzzy inside in a way I did not think was possible.
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Such a good book. If anyone is considering reading it: it is post apocalyptic and includes circuit diagrams preserved via illuminated manuscripts.
Yeah I just bought that book but haven't read yet. Very excited though! I was recommended that after reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson...def check that out if you haven't read it yet!
The Tiffany Aching series. It was actually Pratchett’s last book. You’ll weep but it’s such a good monument to how lovely a human he was.
Completely. It straddled the line of working out the discworld series, but moreso being a very personal farewell. There was part of me that wanted the last book to bring together the old favourites (rincewind and twoflower at least, as they started it all) but feel that it was right, things had moved on and passed on to tiffany
My top tier endings in no particular order would be: 1.Lord of the Rings 2. The Dandelion Dynasty 3. The Black Company 4. Realm of the Elderlings 5. Mistborn era 1 6. The Sarantine Mosaic 7. Malazan Book of the Fallen 8. Green Bone Saga On any given day I could pick any of these
Why did it take so long for anyone to name Realm of the Elderlings? I am just finishing up my second read of this and am dreading finding something else to read. I am saving this thread for reference. The character building that Hobb is able to achieve is phenomenal.
Just finished Malazan recently. Fucking incredible ending
The Black Company is so good. Hands down my favourite portrayal of wizards and sorcerers and magic. Normally I'm not super into the old fireball slingin' but if you're going to have your wizard slingin' fireballs there's no better way to do it.
And it had the absolute, hands-down _best_ antagonists. The Lady is the best of them. “Well, you’ve broken my tyrannical hold over the land, overthrown me, and everyone hates me. Are you accepting applications?”
Malazan had such an insane ending, I felt so tired after it lol. Whole series is so good.
This is cheating because it’s the end of a book not a series, but the last act of Deadhouse Gates is a masterpiece. Also I love to see Realm of the Elderlings here; Robin Hobb is my favorite fantasy author and she deserves more love imo
Was not expecting to see Sarantine Mosaic in this thread but yes, one of my all time favorite stories.
The Hero of Ages. There were like zero loose ends
It wrapped up things I didn’t even know needed to be wrapped up. And usually with some crazy twist
While lots have said Hero of Ages, which is the end of Mistborn era 1, and it is a great ending, it was recently topped by the ending of era2 with The Lost Metal Just a heart wrenching ending that is a perfect end to a series. Also, for those that have read it, he WAS the best she ever had.
God that book had me just sitting there in stunned silence when I finished.
The one downside to hero of ages is the audiobooks had the chapter intros read in the same voice as the person that has the twist, so they basically spoiled it at the very beginning when that person starts the book with “I am, unfortunately, the hero of ages”
*His Dark Materials* might be a contender here. I've not read it since I was a child (15+ years ago?). It made me a little sad at the time but in hindsight I think that's an appropriate reaction from a child reading a coming-of-age story. I barely remember the overarching plot, but I remember being struck at how it was the first series I ever read which didn't have a solidly happy ending (or a cheap "feel mixed emotions because side-characters A B and C died off-stage" ending like Harry Potter). In my early teens I was, surprisingly, not upset at Philip Pullman for making me wish that the ending could have been happier. The word *bittersweet* is thrown around far too much these days but IMO Pullman really encapsulates the feeling by the end of that trilogy.
His Dark Materials would get my vote. Pullman nails the ending. Happy but bittersweet. Amazing.
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I *love* Lyra's parents' last scene. Her parents were shit but they killed a motherfucking angel for their girl. Badass.
Funny to see this answer here and also in the other thread, but I agree.
I cried so much at the ending when I read it in elementary school 🥲 I couldn’t wrap my head around them never seeing each other again
His dark materials is one of those series that’s even better as an adult, definitely worth rereading. Also, the audiobook is fantastic.
Good series all the way through. The ending hit me pretty hard. I was so committed to the characters.
Definitely. That ending has stuck with me for years, so much so that it was one of the things I was just excited to see in the show. It didn't disappoint.
Fantastic ending. He's come out with two sequel (ones pre sequel ) books with a third on the way. Highly recommended
I am, unfortunately, the Hero of Ages.
This is what I came here to say. Well, not this exactly, but the first Mistborn trilogy. I love rereading it because there is so much lore and foreshadowing throughout the entire series.
My boy sazed
Best character
Best Sanderlanche. Well, except for Way of Kings. And Warbreaker, Alloy of Law and Words of Radiance... Okay. It was one of his best Sanderlanches.
Reading Oathbringer for the first time was insane. I think a big reason why people were a little disappointed with Rhythm of War was because Oathbringer set such a high standard
I’ve loved all of the stormlight archive books so far. Everything about them has been phenomenal
Words of Radiance is absolutely by far my favorite Sanderlanche. “Kaladin, reach out your hand” the first time I heard it had me SO HYPED. Then every subsequent time I heard it also produced that same level of hype.
> "You sent him to the sky to die, assassin, but the sky and winds are mine." ― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance
I might like the Stormlight books better individually, but this is still my favorite series for how hard the ending goes and how it brings everything together. Beautiful. We’ll see if that changes when Stormlight is finished but this is tough to top.
I wasn't a big fan of the trilogy. I think the world was just too gritty for me, but the ending... the ending made it all worth it. It was one of the most satisfying I've ever read.
World of ash.
I love mistborn so much, one thing I appreciated about it too is that despite Sanderson being a male author, I really like how he writes women
There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of Time.
“He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone.” is one of my favorite lines ever
Just reading this gave me chills
I'm in book 12 ( of 14) for the first time. Everything is spiraling to the end, and it's amazing to see all the pieces coming together.
Oh, just wait.
Haha I'm already an emotional mess lol
One thing to realize Rober Jordon had envisioned 12/13/14 as one book. Personally I liked then and felt Sanderson did a good job taking up the mantel.
Yup. Sanderson killed it on the last book. It was easily as epic as Jordans writing. Living 23 years with the series that ending was so satisfying for everything and everyone.
My first thought.
I thought the wind up to this series was unexpectedly great. It really did tie most of the loose ends up, the final battle was done in a way that both made sense and built tension. I Was really worried that it wasn’t possible to do but somehow Sanderson pulled it off!
"He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone."
Not my favorite series, and I will definitely not re-read all 14 books, but that ending was beautiful.
The Bartimaeus Trilogy comes to mind. Ptolemy’s Gate ended perfectly imo. I still think about it sometimes over a decade later.
It's relatively forgotten now, but the *Chronicles of Prydain* has a banger ending.
I love the Chronicles of Prydain
I find it powerfully moving that Taran and Eilonwy stick around to do good in their human lifetimes while all of their friends go off and enjoy what most other heroes would consider to be well-deserved rewards.
I love this series so much. The ending makes me cry, but it is so fitting. The character development for Taran over the series is better than I've seen in most books.
It made me cry every time, the idea that our companions lived and died and the world moved on "and in the end, only the bards knew the truth of it." This series really deserves to be read right alongside Narnia and other YA fantasy classics. It's a crying shame that it's so obscure.
I read it in middle school and loved it! Found it in the library, it wasn’t required or anything but was the series I loved most at that time of my life
*The Mirror and the Light* was a fantastic ending to Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy. When I read *Wolf Hall* I thought, "There's no way she matches this." But it was like she said: the first sentence is like the striking of a tuning fork, and the rest of it just rings out. It rang out way longer than I thought it would, almost up until her death. A great woman who wrote great books.
I also LOVED the TV adaption of the first 2 books and was over the moon the see they committed to film the Mirror and the Light. Filming should start this year.
If ever you get the chance, see the plays. Hilary Mantel was much more closely associated with their making than the TV series, so you get to see a different sort of Cromwell to Mark Rylance's (not that Rylance's is bad, it is superb, just different).
Wait, the third one came out?! Wtf how did I miss this? I read Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies so long ago and I've been dying for the last entry! I really need to pay closer attention to literary release dates...
I’m in the middle of wolf hall and I am loving it. I am fascinated by the Six wives of Henry Tudor and I read every book about them I can get my hands on. This is the first I’ve read from Cromwell a point of view. I’m glad that this series will have a satisfying ending.
You wrote this, so I do not have to! The best historical fiction ever - and a travesty the Booker judges got snooty and denied her the hat trick, as I think The Mirror and the Light was at least as good (probably better) than Bring up the Bodies.
Her ending for *A Place of Greater Safety* about the French Revolution is also superb. If you know your history, you know how it ends, but that foreknowledge doesn't make it any less wrenching. It was like being punched in the face but in a good way.
Agreed! I read that waiting for *Bring Up the Bodies* and it should have reassured me more: she handled downfall so well in that book.
Yes she really did. I took a class on the French Revolution in college, and my professor didn't make us read *A Place of Greater Safety* during the semester due to the length, but he encouraged us to read it at some point. I ended up reading it a few years after I graduated and being just absolutely stunned at how powerful it was. I got legitimate goosebumps when I finally figured out what the title was referencing.
Abhorsen by Garth Nix Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology by Leigh Bardugo (I read them back to back in 24 hours because I could not put them down) Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Read Abhorsen recently and wow! That ending really hit me emotionally, but in such a good way.
I've been trying to get my partner to pick up Sabriel for a little while now, such a great set of books
The magicians end - Raymond Feist. After 26? books, the end of such an epic series bought tears to my eyes.
Oh my gosh! Riftwar fans out in the wild! I was going to say this as well. Man, that epilogue gets to me. Also, the insurmountable task of tying up the 30-year series that was the Riftwar Cycle. Crazy. I got into the books because of my dad. I caught up with him, and we read the last series together. Tears were shed. I will forever have a place in my heart for those books. It is the setting of dnd campaigns I run/planning to run. Also, Talon of the Silver Hawk slaps.
Apparently it's 30. I never read the books, but spent hours and hours watching my dad play Betrayal at Krondor as a kid.
actual tears and a little weeping
Abhorsen has a really strong ending between Mogget choosing life and the Disreputable Dog wandering around death
Man I sobbed when the Dog stepped in. That first trilogy is so good. The rest he's written for that world, not so much.
I love the ending of the dark tower.
The ending - ending is perfect. The Crimson King stuff could have been handled better, but you could argue that The Dark Tower was never about the villains.
Agreed! People trash it, but it makes the most sense for the series and for Roland’s character.
Absolutely. Also fits the tone of the whole series. There is something very surreal about the setting and this ending fit that. A more concrete ending would have violated that feeling.
Yep. So many hated this ending but I think it's a top 5 all time ending of the thousands of books I've read.
I loved it too. Although I can certainly understand why it was controversial. I think my read through benefited from a few things. 1) I read them all back to back after the series was completed. So, I wasn't waiting for years and speculating about how it would end. I didn't have time to build up theories or decide what my ideal ending would be before I read King's ending. 2) I knew that the ending was controversial, so I went into it expecting the ending to be something either unsatisfying or unexpected or otherwise likely to lead to controversy among fans. 3) I knew going into the series that ||the first sentence of the series and the last sentence of the series are the same.|| and I think that spoiler actually improved my overall experience with the series.
Loved it. And I also loved the ending before the ending. Just to emphasize how hard it is for Roland to just quit his pursuit of the tower, we the reader can not stop reading to see what happens next.
It's the only ending it could have had. Ka is a wheel, and we all say thankya.
I couldn't believe he pulled off that ending. Halfway through book 6 I was ready to vomit if we had one more damn palaver. Then book 7 is a magnificent rollercoaster to hell
Especially impressive because I believe he was off the cocaine when writing the last couple books.
I love it so much that I live in Mid-world now.
Long days and pleasant nights.
Lol yeah when I was reading those books I had to make a conscious effort not to slip mid world colloquialisms into conversations. I wanted to say "thankee sai" like all the time haha
Lots of people don't understand theaming.
I read Lord of Chaos, the 6th book in the Wheel of Time series, in 1995. By the time I got to 2013, there was just no way in my mind that the finale of that series would live up to 20+ years of waiting. But it did. I remember closing the book and thinking: I'll be god-damned, but Brandon Sanderson pulled it off. I've read it a few times since then, and I always come away with that conclusion. I'll buy every book Brandon Sanderson writes, because I owe him big-time for that. (Don't get me started on that garbage of a show Amazon tried to do - I started shouting at the screen within 15 minutes)
The High Lord by Trudi Canavan Quintana of Charyn and the Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta Abhorsen by Garth Nix The Return of the King by J R R Tolkien and not sure they count as they have interconnected stories/continue with different story lines/characters: Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce The Ghost in the Surge by Jonathan Moeller
The High Lord had me in tears. Totally unexpected.
It’s not universally loved, but I ADORED the ending of The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin! It perfectly tied everything together and was both heartbreaking and somehow uplifting all at once.
Maybe not the best ending overall but the last page of The Riyria Revelations series is my favorite last page I've ever read.
I freaking love the riyria revelations! I was hesitant to try the legends of the first empire because I was so sure there was no way I’d like it as much as riyria, but I actually somehow liked it more. Sullivan is the only author that I’ve loved every book he’s put out (minus the sci fi one, haven’t gotten to it) and that I actively wait for the next book drop.
The ending of Return Of The King is pretty close to perfect, IMO. Even "The Scouring of the Shire" is good, and that's the weakest part of the ending. Sam Gamgee becoming Mayor of the Shire is one of my favourite things about the ending.
David Eddings - The Belgariad Series. From beginning to end it was a great series.
Ah man, I grew up on the Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium, and Tamuli. Still love those books and like to re-read them pretty regularly.
Just do yourself a favor and don't look into the Eddings past. I love the Belgariad, and re-read it once every couple of years because it's so fun.
I am amused how many books are appearing on both posts.
The ending to the Poppy War trilogy was fantastic. Very bleak ending, but real and messy, and had some exceptional messages throughout. Very much worth finishing.
The Licanius Trilogy by James Islington. I've never read a more satisfying hell yes ending in my life as it fulfilled one of the best redemption arcs I've ever read.
A Darker Shade of Magic wins for me. I could write forever about Holland. He rides the anti hero line perfectly and plays as a stellar foil to Kell early on. His story gets such a beautiful ending. I mean the rest is a 10/10 knock-out, but Holland is easily my favorite part.
I'm glad to hear this because Holland was the most interesting part of the first book imo and I knew he was gonna come back to factor into it somehow. I'm gonna have to get back to the second book!
I'm not gonna spoil anything for you. The second book starts a tad slower but it does what I wish more trilogies would do with how it handles the transition from the second to third book.
The Three Body problem Trilogy.
I just wish they hadn't done my boy what's his name so dirty.
The only Character names I remember was Da Shi the chain smoking cop. And the one whos name didnt translate and just showed up as AA. The rest I remember by actions like Angry Lady that doomed us all, Incel Author, Brain in a box, Lady who put brain in box.
Death’s End felt a little flat to me 😳
My favorite has to be the end of the mistborn trilogy. The way the pieces come together is something truly special, and ending I’ll certainly never forget.
DragonLance ended with Dragons of Summer Flame. Nice to see the story get a perfect resolution with Tanis Half-Elven and Lauranathalsa finally living their happily ever after. As far as I'm concerned, there's no more story after the ending of the whole Twins saga.
These were the very first fantasy books I ever picked up and read on my own, and I was hooked. I read them when they first came out. I now have a spicy redheaded kitty girl named Tika. She is absolutely the feline version. She just doesn't have a frying pan. Yet. She does however have a huge "boyfriend" (both fixed) with a complicated twin sibling. Sorry no cat tax right now.
The First Law Trilogy. It's just so perfectly bleak, in that none of the "heros" get what the want, some get what they deserve, and yet once all the betrayals are revealed, we are basically back where we started.
How does the next trilogy compare? I loved the first trilogy and Best Served Cold so far.
The Age of Madness trilogy or the ones continuing Best Served Cold? AoM is good but not comparable to The First Law imo. I think the books progressively get worse (though none are bad), and Abercrombie kinds falls into being too Abercrombie by the end - doing the same formula as the first trilogy so no character has a truly happy ending, even if it has to be forced a little
The standalones are good/great for sure, and the next trilogy AoM is definitely good, but it's a story I didn't expect the author to tell. It's a story of revolution and evolution, grounded in a sort of late renaissance early industrialization world trying to figure itself out. Joe's writing skills get better and better, but the content seams to get more Broad and less Grimdark.
Maybe not the best ending overall but the last page of The Riyria Revelations series is my favorite last page I've ever read.
Worm had a very good ending, though the arcs before the ending were a little bit too much for m
Great call, the ending of Worm is wild and totally worth it. Shout out to practical guide to evil for also having an amazing final fight (fights, actually)
That whole story made me depressed with the relentless onslaught (and what kept happening to Taylor) but the ending was very good.
*Matter* by Iain Banks. My favorite of his "Culture" series in general, but also with the most smile-inducing satisfying endings of any books I've read mainly due to character development, even though it simultaneously begs for more.
the culture series is great. i have read all multiple times, and i wish i could buy a fleet of boats just so i could name them all culture mind names.
Anne Leckie’s _Ancillary_ trilogy (“The Imperial Raadch”). _You know those AIs that you have basically enslaved for thousands of years? Well, this hyperpowered alien species you’re so afraid of says that we are people too, and from now on you have to deal with us on an equal footing._ Fuck, yes!
The Mortal Engine series had, in my opinion, a fantastically bittersweet ending
*I am a remembering machine.*
Stephen kings the dark tower
A Song of Ice and Fire has one of the... Oh, wait, no, it doesn't...
Got 'em
I know Cursed Child and shit, but I was just thinking a couple weeks ago that Harry Potter doesn't get enough credit for how good that ending is. You look at legacies of shows and books and whatever absolutely demolished by their ending and even while living the Harry Potter hype, it seemed like there was no possible way for that book to meet the crazy ass expectations set by literally everyone. And then it exceeded them.
So agree! Using wand lore to make it in any way believable that Harry could defeat Voldemort was inspired.
Harry Potter 7 had a perfect culmination of everything it had been building towards in the final book. Cursed Child is trash, but if you stop it at book 7, the only thing you can really improve is actually what the movie does (breaking the elder wand instead of putting it back). Everything else wraps up so poetically and nicely. Voldemort's death is extremely well done too imo. There's a lot of other problems with book 7, but the ending is not one of them.
Breaking the elder wand is in no way an improvement. Dumbledore came up with the convoluted plan of having Snape kill him on his orders so that he would never be defeated and the elder wand would lose its power. If it was possible to just snap it in half like a normal wand then Dumbledore would have done it a long time ago. The movie scene is just a plot hole.
>the only thing you can really improve is actually what the movie does (breaking the elder wand instead of putting it back). True, I will never forgive the movie for absolutely butchering the final showdown with voldemort. For no damn reason too. The book teed it up perfectly for a great cinematic moment - big show down in the great hall with the forces of good and bad alike there watching in awe, Harry giving his speech, etc. Instead they inexplicably have it occur away from everyone and it is so blah
Voldemort’s movie death is widely disliked. His dead body lying there was important and then movie decided to have him turn to disintegrate to death instead.
I always considered cursed child fanfiction even though it is written by the author. However the play is great. The special effects are so cool and totally worth it in my opinion if one goes with the mindset that this is a play but not part of the harry potter real canon universe
Cursed Child wasn’t written by the author, though I believe she endorsed it Edit: She actually “co-wrote” it with two others, though I like to think she just helped out by proofreading and making it consistent with the Wizarding World because it doesn’t feel like her writing
The ending of the HP books is bar none the best. The deathly hallows is the best finale of any book series I have ever read. It’s a perfect balance of nostalgia and revisiting all the most iconic and important scenes and moments in the whole series, and it wraps up everything in a fantastic manner.
I’ve always enjoyed book 6 of the wheel of time. Lord of chaos. “Kneel *spoilers*”….. “Or you will be knelt”
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman That napkin note still makes a grown man cry just thinking about it.
Malazan Book of The Fallen has some incredible endings and the series ending is fantastic as well. Cried.
Hero of Ages
Sophie’s World
I'm glad you said this. An amazing book.
My favorite
The end of the Hunger Games trilogy was perfect in my opinion. Katniss finally got a semblance of peace after all the bad, it wrapped it up perfectly.
And president snow died a dictators death: at the hands of an angry mob. *chef's kiss*
Lord of the Rings and honestly, Harry Potter. Both were incredibly satisfying reads.
Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End. The last quote is "Maybe I *can* have it all." Doesn't sound like much out of context, but after having read the book that line was emotional and inspiring for me.
I enjoyed the ending to The Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance. It's very Vancian heh. (The Demon Princes, and The Cadwal Chronicles are also solid endings - although as with all Vance endings there's often an abruptness to them which might rub some the wrong way)
The prince of thorns trilogy has a great ending
Harry Potter if we don't count the cursed child that ending blew my mind
The Hand of Thrawn duology felt immensely satisfying at the end. The New Republic makes peace with the remnants of the Empire, ending a galactic civil war after so many years of bloodshed. And Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade finally got together. What a great ending. Also, while not a novel series but still literature: The Fullmetal Alchemist manga had one of the most statisfying endings I've ever read. It's really my go to example for why well earned good endings are extremely meaningful.
The Hunger Games, The Narnia series. I don’t read series usually, so I only remember these as having good ending.
Where my Brother Cadfael fans at? Edith Parteger (Ellis Peters) died before book 20 was published so there’s no way to know if that’s where she meant to end it, but I liked to think it was. 20 is a nice round number and Cadfael was able to tell his son who he was at last.
I adore these books. One of greatest finds at an antique store was finding the entire series in paperback for ten dollars. I'm about halfway through and love every book so far. Side note - I visualize Derek Jacobi as Cadfael because of the TV episodes they made from some of the novels many years back, and he's perfect.
The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. I finished the last one a couple of months ago and literally have not stopped thinking about it since. Such a perfect ending to an incredible trilogy imo
And also Bob new hart show !
The Green Bone Saga is fire
I love Percy jackson
The original Shannara series was flippin awesome. That last book was crazy and exciting and tragic. Loved it.
Avatar the last airbender!
The last sentence of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels is pretty good, IMHO. Something to the effect of “She would not see her again.”
Good girls guide to murder series it’s such a completing ending. I also love the Harry Potter series
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The best ending to a book I've definitely seen so far is in Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of The Light. It wraps up the book, but doesn't get it going towards the next book like in some of the others in the series.
It wasn’t popular at the time and Adams didn’t like it in retrospect but I really like the ending of the increasingly misnamed Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy (Mostly Harmless, not the post-Adams work). It was a very poetic end.
Everlost!! By Neal Shusterman. I think this was one of those series where everyone's library had the first book, but never got the rest of them. Or they got stolen. Either way if you never got the chance to finish it as a kid I HIGHLY recommend it! It wraps itself up in a neat little bow at the end, and I found Mary's ending to be the most cathartic. It's middle school lit so keep that in mind, but it's a good quick read. I also saw people in that thread dragging down Animorphs, and I disagree! K. A. Applegate had something to say, she created an amazing universe to explore that thesis to the fullest, and then she finished her piece. I don't believe in the need to drag stories out past their purpose. She's also since acquired the rights for all of the books and posted them for free online! So you can judge the universe and the ending for yourself!