The Wheel of Time was the first to bring me into the amazing realm of Epic Fantasies.
The Sword of Truth brought tears to my eyes with its celebration of the human spirit.
The Riftwar Saga continued to supply me with adventures filled with magic.
A Song of Ice and Fire blew my mind with its incredible diversity of unique characters and its merciless author.
The Farseer Trilogy and Tawny Man series may be some of the most touching tales I've ever read.
The Dark Tower introduced to me the twisted imagination of Stephen King.
The Runelords showed me how badly a fantastic series can end (at The Lair of Bones).
The Sword and Heritage of Shannara trilogies taught me that sometimes writers do not need to come up with new plots to sell well.
After all these, this is where I am now. And I need more. Are there any good series/books of this genre by other authors?
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Anonymous2008-05-20 19:51
i don't know if it's "epic" but i've been reading the earthsea books by Ursula LeGuin and they are beautiful
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Anonymous2008-05-21 1:10
Flesh and Spirit, as well as Breath and Bone, by Carol Berg was in my opinion a very entertaining fantasy duet that managed to have a plot deeply involved in spirituality and hippie philosophies without coming off as idiotic. And if you don't mind mixing steampunk with your fantasy (and since you listed The Dark Tower I don't think you do) you might want to check out China Mieville's Bas Lag trilogy for some victorian-era eldritch.
Another you might want to consider is Terry Pratchett's Discworld, which lampoons pretty much everything in the genre you've come to love.
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Anonymous2008-05-21 12:00
Paul Kearney - Monarchies of God
R. Scott Bakker - Prince of Nothing
Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen
Joe Abercrombie - First Law
Stephen Donaldson - Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
J. V. Jones - Sword of Shadows
Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn
You might want to wait on Kearney though, since he's going to partially re-write the last book of the series for the omnibus edition his new publisher is going to push out sometime in the near future.
Have fun.
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Anonymous2008-05-21 13:06
Discworld
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Anonymous2008-05-21 17:59
I realize it's already been said, but Steven Erikson's Malazan Books of the Fallen series has to be the best I've yet to see the genre offer up. It's more a matter of personal taste than anything else, but I find the way that it manages to be epic and earthy at the same time quite refreshing.
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Anonymous2008-05-21 18:29
Did someone say Belgariad?
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Anonymous2008-05-21 21:59
Because I think I didn't hear anyone say Belgariad when someone should have fucking said Belgariad.
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Anonymous2008-05-22 23:54
I'll second Bakker, Erikson, Abercrombie, and Donaldson with a vengeance.
And add The Gentlemen Bastards Sequence by Scott Lynch
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Anonymous2008-05-23 3:49
I third Erikson. Just finished Gardens of the Moon and have started Deadhouse Gates. Great books.
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Anonymous2008-05-23 9:12
If you want to try something new I recommend Ethna's Journel By Corinna Newton Downes.
"Ethna's Journal tells the story of a few months in an alternate Dark Ages, seen through the eyes of Ethna, daughter of Lord Edric. She is an unsophisticated girl from the fortress town of Cragnuth, somewhere in the north of England, who reluctantly gets embroiled in a web of treachery, sorcery and bloody war..."