Top epic novels

By epic I mean books that bring manly tears to your eyes.

So far items from /tv/, /a/, /jp/ and /v/ have had their share of epicness, but I personally have not read any novels that goes beyond just "hmm, it's an interesting story".


Any recommended title that from /book/ that can claim this category?

/v/? Seriously?

I'm still not sure whether this is a good book, moving book, or a manly sacrifice book thread.

OP here, probably books with very strong character development, as that seems to be the common trait all the epic items I've seen have in common.

>>3
There is nothing manly about sacrifice.

Malazan Book of the Fallen seems to fit all those points.  Also ASoIaF

God's Demon by Wayne Barlowe

Um, Lord of The Rings?

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens ... just one bit in it though. Honestly, my favourite book of all time.

>>9
Seconded, Great Expectations is decidedly awesome.

Bleak House, not so fucking much.

This is a good thread. We should have threads like it more often.

Let's think. What books are fucking incredible, apart from the mentioned Great Expectations?

Hm...

Well, I really, REALLY fucking loved the Romance of Three Kingdoms. God, it's a masterpiece. It's worth the ever-lasting, age-transcending praise it gets. How it leaps from historical textbook to magical fantasy, or to heroic epic, is at times outright mind-bending. It's completely different from a modern novel, of course, but it's artistry will always young and modern (I'm guessing, since it was written when Europe was wearing black and lived in mud, and it's still awesome and relevant). The ending ifs fucking marvellous, too. How the shit do you end a multithousand-page historical novel? Holy fuck, that was truly genius.

WHat else was epic? Hm. Decidedly not the shitty fantasy novels listed above. LotR, everyone read that already, and you better read it when you're really young, or poor writing will make you cringe at times. ASoIaF is shit, unless you're pulp-monging "fantasy" reader of the "I love wolfs!" variety that has no fucking taste.

>>11 here,
I would also heartily recommend Stanislaw Lem's "Observation on the Spot" is marvellous, but it may have not yet been translated into English (pure faggotry, I feel for you, guys). It's kinda-sequel "Peace on Earth" is good, but not AS good. Still, Lem is motherfucking hilarious.

Also, I think Gogol's "Dead Souls" would be a good recommendation for this thread.

>>11
If you think the thread is good, I don't think shitting on other people's recommendations is a good way to keep it that way.

I think I'd like to advertise Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond and Niccolò series. I wouldn't characterize the books as being very strong on character development, rather they are very strong on characters and plotting. You perhaps won't see a blank slate character be moulded in the course of the series, but you will have several strongly realized characters to read about. Dunnett is also excellent at handling her historical figures and weaving her fictional characters in and out of the fabric of history.

The books are historical fiction set in the 16th and 15th centuries respectively, and while I would not describe them as epic in scope, the books are about far-travelling characters (Lymond is a mercenary/agent and Niccolò is a merchant). The series are vaguely interconnected, but I sincerely recommend trying out the earlier written Lymond series before Niccolò, even if Game of Kings is a bit harder to get into than Niccolò Rising.

>>13
If you think the thread is good, I don't think shitting on other people's recommendations is a good way to keep it that way.
You are wrong

>>11

>LotR, everyone read that already, and you better read it when you're really young, or poor writing will make you cringe at times.

I read it when I was 21 and it didn't bother me at all. Am I just a tasteless philistine?

>>15
nah, he's just a pretentious ass

>>16
I think you have that poster and yourself mixed up, how did you even manage that??

There is a clear disparity in quality of prose between Tolkien and, for example, Dickens. If you can't see this, then you are a pretentious nerd who doesn't read many good books.

>>18

I don't think you know what pretentious means.

>>19
I will warp its meaning just as much as you do.

The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe

>my face when 4chan has a book board

eh, maybe you could try out Moby Dick, it's rather famous and seems the kind of book that would fit "epic". I haven't read it yet, but I read Bartleby and thought it was great. Melville's sense of humor really cracks me up.

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The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy, I just read it then reread it for almost three years now.

>>25
Ah good, somebody left that book for me to read.

>>23
Moby Dick is thoroughly epic. It's the definition of an epic book, seriously. But it has parts of it that are stretched out too fucking much and really take away from the experience. The author is meditating on his setting too fucking much.

The High Lord, last of the Black magician series from Trudi Canavan.

I really wish Akkarin would survive...


Spoiler alert.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest

Gravity's Rainbow
Infinite Jest
The Fountainhead

That should take you a couple of years.