Suggest a good epic fantasy series

Ares2382 · Post by **Ares2382** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 10:24 am

The title pretty much says it all. I'm looking for an interesting epic fantasy series to start reading.

I've been a big fan of Dragonlance and own probably somewhere between 30-40 books. Also read the Lord of the Rings, and The Song of Ice and Fire series.

I tried getting into the Forgotten Realms, but somehow that never caught my interest too much.

I'm also a fan of sci-fi fantasy as well, so something from that genre would be welcome too. I loved the Barsoom books and also read the entire Dune saga.

I've heard good things about The Wheel of Time, but I'm not too sure about that one being that it's up to like 14 or 15 books now?

So what would you guys suggest? Remember the key word is Epic.

Bloodstalker · Post by **Bloodstalker** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:01 pm

I'm reading Steven Erikson's 'Malazan" series at the moment, and am enjoying it a lot. I think there are 10 books all told in the series. I
t fits the epic part of your description. For my money, it's better than Martin in that the story is just as epic, but the characters aren't as bland and it just has more grit to it in my opinion. There are also a lot of things going on in this series, wars, rebellions, conflicts between gods and humans and gods and other gods. But the world so far is very well done.

Joe Abercrombie's "First Law" series I also really liked, but it's darker than most standard fantasy. It's not your typical fantasy trilogy though, so if you like the standard high fantasy, good always triumphs, it might not be your thing. bad things happen to a lot of people in this series.

C.S. Friedmans "Magister" series is also one I enjoyed. Different take on magic altogether from what fantasy usually offers. Not to spoil it anymore than reading the back of the cover for you, but basically magic is powered by a persons own soul. Each time a person taps that power, they lose a bit of their life, ranging from second on up to days, weeks, etc for more powerful magic.

Brent Week's "Night Angel" trilogy is good I think. It has a couple of my favorite fantasy character from any series in it. The main protagonist is an assassin, and again, bad things happen to characters although it's not as rough a ride as Abercrombie is.

Chris Evans "Iron Elves" trilogy is also one I liked a lot. It breaks a bit from the standard fantasy by not relying as much on swords. The world there has progressed to muskets, so I guess Napoleonic era weapons with magic and monsters thrown in would be a good description.

Those are a few of my favorites off the top of my head anyway.

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:25 am

Ares2382 wrote:I've heard good things about The Wheel of Time, but I'm not too sure about that one being that it's up to like 14 or 15 books now?

So what would you guys suggest? Remember the key word is Epic.

I've started to re-read The Wheel of Time especially that an ending is now in sight. (Hooray for closure!)

I'd say get into The Dark Tower, its fantasy but involves a western theme, which I found to be quite refreshing. I mean after a while; elves, dragons and the likes start to feel a little stale...

EDIT: Heya BS, Napoleonic elves you say? I guess I'm going to have to check those Chris Evans books then

Nymie_the_Pooh · Post by **Nymie_the_Pooh** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:20 pm

Since you've mentioned Dragonlance there is the Deathgate Cycle by the same writers. It was actually one of the first fantasy series I read. If you like dragons then maybe Anne McCaffrey. David Eddings writes much the same type of setting as those mentioned by the OP. The problem with Eddings is if you've read one oh his series then you've basically read the others with some details changed. I haven't read anything of his in about ten years though so maybe that has changed.