Anyone else think that the picture of Robert Jordan on the sleeve of Winter's Heart looks... pimpish?

Anyone recommend any other fantasy epics? Also, if you do, please tell me whether they're completed yet!

Thanks.

A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin.

It is by far the best epic fantasy I have ever read. He takes no prisoners, it is raw and gritty and addictive. He is now currently writing book 4 but the first 3 are really long between 800 and 1000 pages a piece I belive. For another good epic is by Stephen Donaldson and I forget the name of the series but the first book is Lord Foul's Bane. This one is finished. Also I have to mention LOTR and Disc World Series, this one is continuing but if you start now you will probably not catch up to him, for light hearted reading this series can't be beat

meh. G.R.R.Martins saga is decent, I read the second book recently and IMO, the first one was a lot better. Maybe it gets better with the third book -- one can only hope.

A couple sagas I would recommend are: The Recluce Saga by L.E. Modesitt jr., and The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Neither of those are complete, but Modesitt's books are mostly self-contained novels in the same setting, though some of the same characters appear in multiple books.

Also, these've been out for years now, but Raymond Feist's Riftwar and Serpent War series are both excellent as well as the Two trilogies of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson.

Tuan Jim

It's Sci-Fi, not Fantasy, but the Lensmen series by E.E. 'Doc' Smith is great.

The Deathgate Cycle - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

Dragonlance Chronicles - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

Dragonlance Legends Trilogy - umm...Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

The Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, the Unbeliever - Stephen Donaldson

The Deverry Series - Katherine Kerr

Elric of Melnibone - Michael Moorcock

Amber Chronicles - Roger Zelazny

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series - Tad Williams

Mayniac

I would second the recommendation of the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Excellently written and definately an absorbinbg story. I would caution a little against the Dragonlance Chronicles though. I absolutely loved the books in elementary school but years later when i re-read them they were very very simplistic and i didn't enjoy them at all.

Wow, you & I have VERY similar tastes!

However, I think Martin's is one of the best out there. Yes, the second novel wasn't as good as the first (that's not necessarily an insult; the first is generally considered excellent by man), but the third is back to the quality of the first. I like how he portrays characters as 3 dimensional. The good guys can be bad, and the bad guys can be good. And he's very willing to kill off almost ANYONE in his stories. This leads to a heightened sense of suspense. In almost any other book, I KNOW that any main character put in danger will find a way out of it.

The Recluce Saga by L.E. Modesitt jr. - I also highly recommend this series. Like you said, each book can be considered self-contained. I enjoy the almost scientific method of his 'magic' as well as the history he created for the world (the angels and demons, which surprisingly happened to be almost EXACTLY the same as a basis for a history I had considered using if I wrote a book). However, I think I enjoyed the first 8-10 novels the best; The last few seem to be a little repetitive.

I'll also second you on Raymond Feist's Riftwar and Serpent War series and The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, although I don't enjoy them as much as the two above.

I'll also add "The Black Company" series by Glen Cook. Basically about a company of mercenaries. It's at about 8-9 books, and still going.

I second The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. A very entertaining series.

I'll second, or third, the Goodkind and Feist stuff. I think Goodkind is particularly.. well, good, I guess. I read the Feist awhile ago, but I do remember dropping out of college (temporarily) while reading it, so it was pretty good.

I too will caution against the Dragonlance stuff, it is good for Jr. High but generally you can spend your adult life a lot better. Ditto on Terry Brooks. I don't want to feel like I'm bashing Mayniac here (sorry dude) so I'll second his reccomendation on Katherine Kerr's Deverry works. Pretty good stuff if you like reincarnations and such.

Tad Williams' Memory Sorrow and Thorn is good, but nothing spectacular. Just long.

I'll be reading George RR Martin this summer on my dig, but so far my favorite of all the above authors is definitely Goodkind. Its pretty funny too- mostly because the character development is so good.

Thanks guys. I think I'll check out the George R.R. Martin books. It was recommended to me a long time ago but I couldn't find the first book back then and then I completely forgot about it!

Glad to hear it; he's my current favorite author. However, one word of warning; Don't get too attached to any of the characters, especially in the third book. In a thread here about the book, I think someone aptly referred to it as "a frickin' massacre!" :D

I met Robert Jordan at a booksigning and he looks EXACTLY like his picture! lol

lol.. Is he eccentric? I remember some of his other books from the same series had a drawing of him.

He looks so "pimpish!"

I'll agree on the Feist. Don't personally care for Donaldson, Zelazny, Jordan, or Eddings, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

The grandaddy of all fantasy epics is, of course, LoTR. Complete and being filmed, but you knew that. Not a favorite of mine but ya gotta read it sometime anyway.

An excellent recent fantasy series with real epic sweep is Mary Gentle's 'Books of Ash', 1 through 4. It is finished. Really good stuff: a gritty alternate history of a mercenary company in Burgundy. Educational and a real page-turner to boot!

Robert Silverberg's Majipoor books. The series begins with Lord Valentine's Castle, in which a simple-minded innocent begins a journey on a vast, fantastic world. Truly astounding in scope. I think I saw a new one out recently.

I consider Watership Down a great epic quest story. Perhaps one of the greatest of recent times.

Oddly, I haven't really cared much for modern treatments of my favorite epic cycle, the Arthurian legends. Mary Stewart's Arthurian series is probably one of the better ones, if you're into Arthur. It's finished as well.

Elizabeth Moon's 'Deed of Paksenarrion' series was pretty good. A female warrior in a rather gritty fantasy world. I believe the author fights in the SCA, so it had a feel of authenticity. It's finished too.

I third the Chronicles of Amber. I gave up on reading Fantasy a long time ago, and then picked this up. It's great. The individual books are OOP, I think, but you can get all 10 books in 1 now.

A great combination of fantasy and sci-fi, I really was sad when I finally got to the end of the series. I felt it could've gone on for another run.

Ah, good call. My very first "favorite book." I wholeheartedly second this reccomendation to anyone who hasn't read it. I read it two or three times when I was a kid, and then again after Stephen King has one of the characters talk about it in The Stand. Trippy movie too.

Speaking of trippy, they are children's books (more or less) but I remember actually reading all the Oz books, and liking them a lot when I was a kid. But boy were they were strange.

After earlier recommendations, I checked it out at a couple of sites (Amazon, etc.) Yes, you can get all 10 books in 1. Regarding your comment about how the series could have gone on, one of the reviews I read mentioned how the author died before writing more, probably explaining why the series might have seemed open-ended.

I really like David Eddings' "The Belgariad" and "The Mallorean." Very good stuff (although the ending of the Mallorean kind of falls apart in my opinion).

If you don't mind making the switch to comics, Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" series can eat almost anything else alive. It's available in 10 trade paperback editions, and is simply amazing. It is the only comic to every win the World Fantasy Award.

I agree, I really liked "The Belgariad," and "The Malleorean" was weaker. Have you read his latest, "The Redemption of Althalus?" That was one of the worst books I've ever read. If you want to see how far he's fallen, read it (although it's a little tortuous) and compare it to "The Belgariad."

I should qualify, though, that it was co-written with his wife, (as have other recent books by Eddings) which may or may not have been a factor.

[Edited by p1forest on 05-01-01 at 05:29 PM]

Jordan was very friendly and funny

Defenitely, defenitely check out David Eddings' the Belgaraiad and The Mallorean and then you'll want Belgarath and Polgara too. Mercedes Lackey is also great, I rather enjoyed Bardic Voices. And surprisingly, I'm deeply enthralled in the Harry Potter books as we speak.

~Scheherazade

I would consider Silverberg's Majipoor to be more sci-fi. I have a collection of short stories ("Majipoor Chronicles") and it's definitely more scifi than fantasy.

I keep forgetting about authors like Zelazny and Eddings, mainly because although I've read them, I don't own all their books unfortunately.

Also check out Guy Gavriel Kay -- the only trilogy I've read by him is "The Fionavar Tapestry" which is great, but I've heard his new one is even better.

Right now I'm reading book 2 in Melanie Rawn's "Dragon Prince" trilogy, which was very highly recommended to me by a friend at work. The first one was pretty good -- nothing spectacular, but I'm told it gets better. A lot of intrigue for sure.

Tuan Jim

David Farland's Runelord serie is very good. Only read the first 2 with the 3rd coming out a few weeks back.

I was amazed that it took so long for someone to
mention Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionivar Tapestry. Not
only my favorite fantasy but my favorite fiction
period. I've read tens of thousands or works of
fiction of various kinds over the last forty
something years and this is the best. With the
exception of Tigana I don't care much for his
other novels though, despite the fact that they're
obviously well written.

Michael Moorcock is the man. Long live Elric