Epic Fantasy

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

So, I'm really needing a new epic fantasy series to read, and was wondering what some people's favorites were.

My favorite is A Song of Ice and Fire, so I'd love something like that. I just love Martin's characters. I have yet to read a fantasy series where I've become as attached to characters as much as I have with ASoIaF (save King's Dark Tower). I like world building and magic and swords and all that good stuff, but, for me, none of that, no matter how good, can make up for bland, uninteresting characters.

So, what are your favorites?

[MystyrMystyry]

Ah - so many good ones.

Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - excellent stuff.

But you want really good characters, how about characters that are genuinely funny? If so try Pratchett's Discworld series - it's a must read.

But you haven't given me enough to go on, I don't know what you've already read, nor what other 'epics' you might want to try.

But these two selections should keep you going for about six months if time's not an issue.

I should really recommend my own but it hasn't been published yet, and I don't know if it ever will.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Well, if it ever is published, let me know!

Discworld is on my to-read list.

And, as to what I've read. I've read two of the four Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham, which is really good, though I don't consider it epic fantasy. Definitely fantasy, but not much epicness beyond the world-building . . . it's more like political fantasy. Still, very good. I've also read Gregory Keyes's Kingdom of Thorn and Bone, which I also enjoyed. Ummmm, ASoIaF, as I said, which is my favorite. That's all I can remember off the top of my head. I've read Fellowship of the Ring . . . need to read the rest of LOTR. I know there's a few more, I just have a poor memory when it comes to remembering what I read. And, I'm not counting sci-fi.

[Lokasenna]

How about Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series - so far it up to thirteen books, I think, and all of them come in at over a thousand pages. It's all one story, so I think that counts as 'epic' stuff, and it's also very high quality in my opinion. Once they are all out (book fourteen is to be the conclusion), I'm going to take a fortnights holiday and just read them all.

[OrphanPip]

There's a good stretch in the middle of The Wheel of Time that's almost unreadable, in my opinion. Some of the stuff is good, in the sense of fun moderately alright fantasy writing. (The books got better after Jordan died)

I would recommend Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun

Edit: Wolfe mixes elements of fantasy and science fiction though.

Edit2: LeGuin's Earthsea Books are worth reading as well, they're young adult fiction, but are some of the best work in the fantasy genre.

[Silas Thorne]

I thought the Prince of Nothing novels by the Canadian author R. Scott Bakker were very original. Don't expect traditional 'heroes' though, you'll find few. Most of the characters are interesting, but not really likeable.

Read any Michael Moorcock? The Elric novels are excellent. Lost count of how many novels he's written in his Eternal Champion series, but these all seem to be tied together.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

How about Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series - so far it up to thirteen books, I think, and all of them come in at over a thousand pages. It's all one story, so I think that counts as 'epic' stuff, and it's also very high quality in my opinion. Once they are all out (book fourteen is to be the conclusion), I'm going to take a fortnights holiday and just read them all.

I've heard good and bad about Wheel of Time, and I'm honestly not sure I want to invest so much time into one series. Can the books hold up on their own, or do they all end with unfinished stories (like ASoIaF)?


There's a good stretch in the middle of The Wheel of Time that's almost unreadable, in my opinion. Some of the stuff is good, in the sense of fun moderately alright fantasy writing. (The books got better after Jordan died)

I would recommend Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun

Edit: Wolfe mixes elements of fantasy and science fiction though.

Edit2: LeGuin's Earthsea Books are worth reading as well, they're young adult fiction, but are some of the best work in the fantasy genre.

I've read Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (one I forgot to mention) and found it to be a bizarre possible-masterpiece I didn't fully understand. I may revisit it some day. It always seemed to me the product of what sci-fi/fantasy would be like had it been written by James Joyce.

Earthsea is another series I've been wanting to read.


I thought the Prince of Nothing novels by the Canadian author R. Scott Bakker were very original. Don't expect traditional 'heroes' though, you'll find few. Most of the characters are interesting, but not really likeable.

Read any Michael Moorcock? The Elric novels are excellent. Lost count of how many novels he's written in his Eternal Champion series, but these all seem to be tied together.

Prince of Nothing is one I've wanted to check out. I kind of like unlikeable characters. I'll also check out Moorcock's work.

[Lokasenna]

Edit2: LeGuin's Earthsea Books are worth reading as well, they're young adult fiction, but are some of the best work in the fantasy genre.

Ooh, I'd forgotten about LeGuin - yes, she's excellent.


I've heard good and bad about Wheel of Time, and I'm honestly not sure I want to invest so much time into one series. Can the books hold up on their own, or do they all end with unfinished stories (like ASoIaF)?

I read both series (as they stood at the time) in my mid-teens, and I thought Jordan was superior. One major criticism that is levelled at him is that the middle books in the series get bogged down in the politics of his world, but I actually rather enjoyed that. Maybe when I return to it, I won't like it as much, but certainly as an avid reader of fantasy in my teens, I would consider Jordan the best that I read.

[kasie]

It's an old one and may be out of print but you may enjoy Robert Silverberg's Lord Valentine's Castle and the books and short stories that followed it. It's a bit of a crossover between SciFi and Dungeons and Dragons.

[Mr.lucifer]

Jordan also really pads a lot in his later books with overly long descriptions of mundane things.

[togre]

Memory, Sorrow, Thorn, a four book trilogy (don't ask) by Tad Williams is a series I truly enjoyed. If you described it it would sound Tolkien-esque, but is actually a unique and excellent story in its own right.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I'm going to read The War of Flowers by Williams in the near future. If I like it, I'll check those out.

[Silas Thorne]

I loved 'The War of the Flowers'! :) A fusion of real world technology, faeries... and it has terrific goblins if I remember.

[OrphanPip]

I read both series (as they stood at the time) in my mid-teens, and I thought Jordan was superior. One major criticism that is levelled at him is that the middle books in the series get bogged down in the politics of his world, but I actually rather enjoyed that. Maybe when I return to it, I won't like it as much, but certainly as an avid reader of fantasy in my teens, I would consider Jordan the best that I read.

I think what Jordan does is a fairly adept modernization of traditional epic fantasy. He doesn't diverge too far from Tolkien, good and evil are largely still clearly marked out. Yet, he borrows some ideas from Eastern philosophy, adds a dash of pseudo-feminism, and has a bit more modern criticism of power.

Jordan is familiar to those of us who grew up with the Tolkien tradition, but he diverts just slightly enough to give him a slightly fresh feel. Personally, I don't find him nearly as original as those writers out there who break away radically from Tolkien.

[billl]

It's an old one and may be out of print but you may enjoy Robert Silverberg's Lord Valentine's Castle and the books and short stories that followed it. It's a bit of a crossover between SciFi and Dungeons and Dragons.

Hey, I had ignored this thread because I have only distant and unreliable memories in regards to epic fantasy (I've read some epic sci-fi in recent years, though), but I just now searched my brain and decided that this one was interesting and rich enough to promote. I couldn't get into anything after the first book (although I did finish the second novel, and it might've been something a more mature reader would've enjoyed more, idk), but the first one was great. It inspired me to get into juggling for a while. Anyhow, I will second this nomination.

[togre]

I'm going to read The War of Flowers by Williams in the near future. If I like it, I'll check those out.

I enjoyed War of Flowers but it is a lot different than Memory, Sorrow, Thorn. I hope you like them both (I do!), but if you don't like one, it's still worth checking out the other.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I probably will. I very rarely dislike fantasy literature (just to prove it to you, I actually [/i]enjoyed[/i] R. A. Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy--blasphemy, I know).

Also, maybe someone answered this and I missed it, but do the Wheel of Time books stand on their own, or is it one continuous story with no real conclusions occurring at the end of the books (as in ASoIaF).

Also, I always get Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth mixed up (similar titles, syntactically). SoT is supposed to be the bad series, right? I know I haven't heard anything good about one of them, and since many are singing the praises of WoT, I'm assuming it is SoT.

[Drkshadow03]

Also, maybe someone answered this and I missed it, but do the Wheel of Time books stand on their own, or is it one continuous story with no real conclusions occurring at the end of the books (as in ASoIaF).

Also, I always get Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth mixed up (similar titles, syntactically). SoT is supposed to be the bad series, right? I know I haven't heard anything good about one of them, and since many are singing the praises of WoT, I'm assuming it is SoT.

Wheel of Time is in the process of being finished by fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson. The last book is set to be published on March 2012. The original writer, Robert Jordan died of a rare blood disease.

It is or will be 14 books long. I read up to book 10 before I abandoned the series (maybe one day I'll re-explore it when I am much older). I first began the series when I was a junior in high school and was obsessed with it back then. The first three books were really good (at the time), although having re-read the first as I got older and had started delving into "serious" literature and other types of fantasy they seemed a bit silly and trite. But if you enjoyed Salvatore, I doubt that will be a major issue.

Even when I did really enjoy that type of epic fantasy, the larger plot of the series drags on for way too long without any real major plot developments. It gets bogged down by a thousand little sub-plots involving extremely minor characters. Basically book 7 - 10, nothing really happens, yet there are thousands of pages. It lacks focus through the middle books, which I think someone mentioned earlier on the thread.

On the other hand, it really is an interesting world in many ways. I love the magic system, which is gendered. I like the world's mythos and how time and legendary heroes work in the plot.

But I would be more worried about stomaching the really bad snail-paced middle books of the series.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Eh, doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy. As for Salvatore, my enjoyment of his works is definitely in the past tense . . . I can barely stand his writing now.

Has anyone read The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham? I've read 2 of the 4 on the series. Very interesting.

[Big Dante]

I enjoyed the "Fire of Heaven" trilogy by Russell Kirkpatrick.
It's a got a nice story, good characters and was an interesting read without being overly difficult.

[sonictheplumber]

Lord of the Rings bro.

[Night_Lamp]

I too vote for LeGuin's Earthsea cycle. In the same style- young adult fantasy- I recently read one on Susan Cooper's Darkness Rising novels and found it on nearly the same level. Anyone else read them? I saw online that the series is soon to be filmed.