Help, I need a new book series to get into!

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The Borrible Trilogy.
Underground, overground, murdering free...

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and The Dark Volume.
Weird stuff, frenetic pace, evildoers, heroes.

Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council.
Fast paced, exciting, unpredictable, check. Deliberately subversive. Horrible. Funny. Practical and impractical characters.

Night Watch, Day Watch, whatever else Watch.
Lots of different points of view, fast pace.

Also definitely the Prydain Chronicles and Pullman's Sally Lockhart books, Hitchhiker's which have already been mentioned.

DUNE by Frank Herbert. Please read the original DUNE books FIRST then you can read up the garbage books written by his son after the writer's death. the son just took dad's notes and wrote pop fiction with them. I read the sons books just to know what plots the father had in mind. Still, the originals are UNMATCHED in any fiction author. the man had an amazing writing style and a huge list of characters. the number of plots and subplots and plots within plots and how the original author weaves it all together is impressive.

so far theres almost 20 novels (800+ pages each on avg) on the series.

Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. (also known as The Reality Dysfunction books). These books have a huge cast of characters and its a sci-fi space epic. lots of different themes and human/tech/religion interaction.

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

The OtherLand books by Tad Williams.

Now a note the dark tower series after the 3rd book is a little confusing but worth it for die-hard fans to get closure I suppose, but the Otherland books are a must read, the series meets every single one of your requirements.

Oh, I forgot to say The Hunger Games. They are immensely popular, and pretty good.

Maximum Ride is also a good series, it's kind of complicated but easy to get into.

Julio Cortázar (link below)
Fast, check: some of his stories are one page long, and if you want long, he has some complete books.
Exciting, check. Lots of themes!
Unpredictable, check: His work is very unpredictable, you never know how a story is going to end.


Check
As i mentioned, unique, unpredictable, exciting, simple plots.

half check, you must see the outcome!
CHECK!
Honestly, grab a book or a compilation by Cortázar, I'd suggest you start with: Cronopios. Lots of little stories.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_Cort%C3%A1zar

The Magicians by Lev Grossman isn't a series yet, but I enjoyed it very much. Kind of like Harry Potter for the college age crowd, with sex and drugs and magic.

I have read many wonderful series but here is what ticks me off.

By the time an author has written the second or third book in a series the library has gotten rid of the first books and the bookstores don't stock them.

For example: You have read "The Wizard of Oz" but did you know that there were about fifteen books in the Oz series?

The "Mortal Engines" series by Philip Reeve. I've read 3 of the 5 books and they're great, especially the first one ("Mortal Engines"). There are parts which are action-packed and others which are slower but the tension never drops and he's good at handling the relationships which form between the characters. In addition you get multiple perspectives as almost all the main characters get a few chapters to speak for themselves. He probably isn't as good a writer as Rowling, but his work is gripping.

Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin

First book is a "Game of Thrones."

There are 4 books so far with the first in 1996, and three more forthcoming.

It is currently in production as a mini-series adaptation for HBO.

The extended Foundation Series, including the Robot novels, the Empire novels, and the Foundation novels.

Elric, Hawkmoon and Erekosë
They are three fantasy cycles from Michael Moorcock, each featuring an hero which is an Incarnation of the same being (the Eternal Champion). They are from different times and places, sometimes several incarnations meet (a part of The Sailor on the Seas of Fate is the same story as a part of The Quest for Tanelorn, each from the point of view of its hero ; there the reader saw not only Elric and Hawkmoon but also Erekosë and Corum).
Moorcock also wrote an other cycle in the same universe, called Corum ; I didn't read it.

The Elric Saga :
Elric of Melniboné
The Fortress of the Pearl
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate
The Weird of the White Wolf
The Vanishing Tower / The Sleeping Sorceress
The Revenge of the Rose
The Bane of the Black Sword
Stormbringer

Hawkmoon :
The Jewel In The Skull
The Mad God's Amulet
The Sword Of The Dawn
The Runestaff
Count Brass
The Champion of Garathorm
The Quest for Tanelorn

Erekosë :
The Eternal Champion
Phoenix in Obsidian / The Silver Warriors
The Dragon in the Sword

Terry Goodkind's first book I believe is Wizard's First Rule. I love that series. It has a little bit of everything.
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Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas series. I can't imagine anyone not loving Odd.
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F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack I love Repairman Jack. I would love to do what Jack does.
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Taupey

The Pendragon Adventure by D.J. Machale. Based on what you said you liked it would be perfect for you. It is 10 book series but is fantastic and a great read.

I was going to suggest His Dark Materials but already mentioned that lol.

holy crap, I'm so glad I saw this thread. I'm also looking for a new series to become obsessed with and now I'll have to read everything here that I haven't already