It's pretty hard for other authors to even come close to Tolkien, I mean the man fucking made his own languages up and compared it to drinking wine. Not to mention he spent most of his life making up and writing down middle earth and it's history down before picking up the pen for LotR. So when you start to read Lord of the Rings is actually feels like a real place because it's so saturated with little details and filled with lore the author didn't make up on the spot. So honestly to get someone to rival his works you would need another author to put as much time and love into his material as Tolkien did. And even then it may fall on the spot.
TLDR: I would suck Tolkien's cock.
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Anonymous2009-11-04 19:42
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King i thought was better than LOTR. Maybe LOTR was just too far out there fantasy for my liking.
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Anonymous2009-11-04 21:48
The Dark Tower series died after book 4
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Anonymous2009-11-05 19:07
The Gormenghast Novels.
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Anonymous2009-11-06 6:42
Wheel of Time
inb4 trolls
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Anonymous2009-11-15 23:18
The Dune series, six books of pure awesome. Herbert is an amazing writer, and he successfully weaves a plot that spans thousands upon thousands of years.
The Dark Tower series is also REALLY hard to put down.
I've never been a fan of Tolkien, I really hate the "oh woe is me, how can I handle this responsibility I don't want" emo type character. Then through a series of lucky situations, and mainly through the work and sacrifice of others, the hero succeeds.
How about The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. Covers multiple races, thousands of years, well over 10,000 pages by now, will make you rage, baw, and feel for the characters like a proper epic should.
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Anonymous2009-11-23 21:52
Pick up some Robert E. Howard stories like Conan or Kull.
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Anonymous2009-11-24 0:40
>>I really hate the "oh woe is me, how can I handle this responsibility I don't want" emo type character.
That's not really book-Frodo at all. He only whines a bit at the start then sucks it up. Movie-Frodo on the other hand...
I second Dune. Isaac Asimov wrote it was the only series he knew that could rival LotR in epicness.
The Conan stories are also good but they're really a series of short stories and one novel.
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Anonymous2009-11-24 17:05
The Drenai Saga by David Gemmell
Fucking awesomely epic heroic fantasy, especially the tales based on Druss.
Also the pair on Skillgannon the Damned (white wolf & the swords of night and day)
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Anonymous2009-11-25 11:48
>>22
I don't know if you're trolling or if it's just bad typing. Isaac Asimov did NOT write the Dune series. It was Frank Herbert.
IMO he surpasses that pansy Tolken, and his 3 books about going for a walk.
LOLZOMG qualifier. I've read them, I understand he was first to really give modern fantasy a foot-hold within respectable writing. I just feel that most of the hype and circle jerking is from nostalgia. It's also really obvious that "Paradise Lost", "The Odyssey", and "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" are MAJOR influences on how he developed the plot, characters, and crafted his prose.
ALSO
Read the Magic: the gathering series. For being based on a card game, it's goddamn fucking epic. From what I can remember, this are the order of the books worth reading.
The Thran
Brothers War
Planswalker (my personal fav.)
Time Streams
Mercadian Masques
Nemesis
Prophesy
Invasion
Planeshift
Apocalypse
No, it's good, it's good all the way through. The first few books are MORE interesting than the final ones, because after book 3 Merlin is all grown up and he runs around being a mysterious faggot
Why would this be trolling? Great book series. Better than Lord of the Rings imo. Can't wait til next year.
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Anonymous2009-12-04 1:50
Fourthing "A song of ice and fire"
Tolkien invented an amazing world (stealing most of it from european myths) and filled it with tons of lore and backstory (oh gee, an extra book filled just with family trees) but that doesnt make it the best story every written. Possibly the most complete, but far from the one Ive had the most fun reading. Or discussing with other people. He gets bonus points for being the first of his kind, and the most complex, but that doesnt make him the best.
ASOIAF is just completely riveting from the first page, till the 4000th page, and Ive been eagerly awaiting the conclusion for years.
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Anonymous2009-12-04 10:19
I'm FURIOUS that I'm only seconding Malazan book of the fallen- especially when some of you guys are recommending things like MTG novels or paradise lost (canonical literature =/= enjoyable literature). I'm of the VERY FUCKING STRONG opinion that it complete surpasses LOTR in almost every way (it loses on the create-your-own-language side of things).
The series is epic in length, epic in scope, and epic in cast. The first few novels also have the benefit of being completely interchangeable, so you're able to read them in whatever order you can find the books in. The latest novel left me amazed at how well the author is beginning to draw things together, and I honestly can't wait to read the next two entries in the series to know how everything will end.
Try Steven Erikson out; I promise that you will not be disappointed by what he has accomplished :).
Side note: I don't hate paradise lost, but there's so much other stuff out there now that would make for a much better read. Milton's epic does have 12 books, but more than a few of them can be finished in 20-30 minutes, and that's while reading critically. The first few are pretty amazing though- satan makes for quite the charismatic general.
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Anonymous2009-12-04 10:51
Dark fucking Tower
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Anonymous2009-12-05 3:12
Im on Toll the Hounds. Its not very good. Lot of good times with some of the other books though.
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Anonymous2009-12-08 0:13
I can't believe that nobody here has mentioned the Dragon lance Chronicles.
If you have not read them yet, I suggest you do ASAP.
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Anonymous2009-12-08 3:40
Personally, I don't find Malazan that good. I'm only on book four but this guy seriously has diarrhea of the pen and not in a good way. I also recently just finished reading the first 3 books of The Black Company and I find Malazan MUCH to similar to it. I know Steve Erikson is inspired by Glenn Cook and GRRM but he needs to make it less obvious. I liked the 3rd book a bit more though, but holy shit the second book was tedious to get through. That fucking desert was the Malazan version of Freiza's 'lol 5 minutes'.
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Anonymous2009-12-08 8:32
>>45
Well, inspired by your post, started reading the first book (Moon something somehting).
What is this horrible pulp?
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Anonymous2009-12-08 11:48
>>50
Um, it's a fantasy book? What in the world were you expecting from it?
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Anonymous2009-12-08 14:50
>>51
Can't fantasy books be written by someone who actually is a writer?
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Anonymous2009-12-08 16:56
>>52
They could in theory, but that doesn't mean they are.