Recommend me some epic fantasy

My choice for epic fantasy would be either Weber's War God series or (and I expect horror at this) David Eddings. You may commence firing............

You can get the first two of the War God series online.
 
I'm an avid fan of the Malazan books. I can heartily recommend them, even if the action is sometimes a bit over the top (I think that's an understatement actually.)) Erikson is the better writer but Esslemont isn't bad either, "The Return of the Crimson Guard" is pretty decent. The funniest part of the stories is actually the "mortals can whoop any hoary god's behind with raw tenacity" which isn't a bad message.
What really bothered me and shocked me are the Bauchelain and Korbal Broach stories by Erikson which came out recently in one book. A bit too much random maimings, mutilations and murders for my taste. You really need tar black humour for those. Even Abercrombie's trilogy comes off light by comparison.
 
George RR Martin - Storm of Swords/ Feast of crows/ Dance with dragons

Is probably one of the best fantasy in the past 10 years.
 
Elf Grinder 3000 said:
George RR Martin - Storm of Swords/ Feast of crows/ Dance with dragons

Is probably one of the best fantasy in the past 10 years.
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And likely to be some of the best fantasy in the next ten years, and the ten after that.....

(How long has it been since the last book? The one that was split fom a book that was much longer, so the book after it was supposed to come out right away because it was nearly finished? It's getting bad when Robert Jordan starts finishing his books at a faster rate than you do....)
 
I read the Chronicles of the Black Company (a compilation of the first three Black Company books) while on holiday. I was amazed that the first book contained tens, if not hundreds, of characters and the action took place in loads of differents cities seperated by thousands of mile from the tropics to the near-polar regions and there was one description of anything in the whole book. I was so disappointed that I thought about throwing it in, but I persevered.

I'm still not sure I enjoyed my reading or whether it was the challenge of ploughing through it that kept me going.
 
Filippo Lippi said:
I read the Chronicles of the Black Company (a compilation of the first three Black Company books) while on holiday. I was amazed that the first book contained tens, if not hundreds, of characters and the action took place in loads of differents cities seperated by thousands of mile from the tropics to the near-polar regions and there was one description of anything in the whole book. I was so disappointed that I thought about throwing it in, but I persevered.
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That was part of the appeal for me. The story was epic in scope, but told from a grunt's-eye view. It was refreshing not to have to slog through yet another Tolkienesque travelogue/genealogy.
 
Just like to add to the recommendations for China Mieville and Alan Campbell. Both produce wonderfully written fantasies that do not involve quests and macguffins (in the traditional sense) and create truly original worlds. Mieville has politically aware Cactusmen instead of elf analogues, Campbell a city founded on chains strung over the Abyss rather than Minas Tirith-lite. All great stuff.
 
I recommend Karl Wagner's Kane, though I confess to bias. He started writing them while Conan was largely forgotten in this country, before the Lancer revival, so his voice is rather unique, influenced largely by the original, real gothic novels of the Victorian era. After the sudden popularity of "sword and sorcery" after Conan and Lord of the Rings appeared he wrote one or two stories that deliberately mocked some of the newer conventions, though he did like the original Howard Conan stories once he discovered them (but NOT the de Camp and followers add-ons). His series character is a villain or Byronic hero (NOT an anti-hero, which would be someone like Portnoy). I'm developing a Wagner site, but I'm not allowed to post the URL here, it seems, so do a search for "Kane" and "East of Eden."
 
tomwaits said:
I need something else to read while I'm waiting for the next volume in A Song of Ice and Fire. My preference would be that kind of Fantasy/medieval fiction.
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If you like that I'd recommend Jack Whyte's series reinterpreting King Arthur. It's epic in scope (covering nine books and four generations) and it's realistic, gritty, and engaging. It's more about a potential "set up" for King Arthur, as the original series ends with him becoming king.

The books are:

The Sky Stone
The Singing Sword
The Eagle's Brood
The Saxon Shore
The Fort At River's Bend
Metamorphosis

Uther

The Lancethrower
The Eagle

(Uther is a stand-alone novel that parallels "The Eagle's Brood" and the last two are a two-part series that acts as a sort of sequel following Lancelot)
 
Just finished The First Law, by Joe Abercrombie. Really cool stuff, though the ending is a bit open-ended, with some loose ends still floating around a bit. It's kind of a deconstruction of typical fantasy, with things you'd expect in the most cliché'd stuff there is, yet somehow manages to break pretty much every cliché: a wise old wizard guiding the heroes (except he turns out to be a total *******, and that's putting it mildly), a barbarian warrior (who's actually fairly deep but still exceedingly violent, though he hates to be), a dashing highborn swordsman (who's actually a snivelling, insipid coward), and a warrior woman (who's actually so full of hatred that she lives for nothing else... yet somehow manages to be funny in a dark, morbid humour sort of way). And then you have Sand Dan Glokta, the most awesome, and darkly hilarious characters since Tyrion Lannister: a former soldier who spent two years in a foreign prison, he's now a toothless cripple who recycled himself as a "questioner" who blackmails people (when his victim is exceedingly lucky) or tortures them (which is the usual). He's really horrible, yet somehow, sympathetic and if you love black humour, you'll love that guy. I'd say the books are worth reading for him alone.
 
Deeds of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon if you want classic Tolkien-type fantasy.

The Odyssey translation by Rieu (Penguin edition) if you want some rip-roaring fun and something good for you.

The Mabinogion Tetralogy by Evangeline Walton if you want some absolutely spectacular retellings of Welsh stories that feel like Tolkieny-goodness but predate him by ages.
 
Alareth said:
I recommend some Eddings. The Belgariad and the Mallorean, then follow up with the Elenium and the Tamuli
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I'd say take the Eddings in the order that pisses you off the least, but yeah, Eddings. Especially if you're a teenager.
 
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ZirconBlue said:
Oh, good. An expert has shown up to impart their vast wisdom and tell us all how our tastes are wrong. Everyone else, pack it up. kbm99 can handle all the book recommendations from here on out.
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Another series to disparage... :)
Marion Zimmer Bradley's series on "Darkover".
Gothic sci-fi fantasy.
Great stuff, with vaporous maidens pining to do the nasty with the hero, but dreading the consequences... :)
Anne McCaffrey's "Ship Who Sang" series was reasonably good to, in addition to the Pern novels.
I gave up on most of the fantasy series published by most everyone, when they appeared to be clones of LOTR, with a bunch of misfits seeking a treasure over several novels worth of copying Tolkien.
 
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