epic novels

[Moon Rabbits]

I read It last summer (1100 pages) and feel like reading another gigantic book this summer. Suggestions?

[Vermachtnis]

If your not burnt out on Stephen King, The Stand is a good long read.

[XxSephirothxX]

A Song of Ice and Fire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_ice_and_fire).

[DK]

A Song of Ice and Fire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_ice_and_fire).

This, or Kings Dark Tower series.

[Carl the Llama]

A Song of Ice and Fire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_ice_and_fire).

I dunno about this, I think old George has lost some of his pace in the latest novel A Feast For Crows, I found it a really hard read.

If your looking for Epic then you could always try books by Raymond E. Feist, he writes wholesale destruction on an epic scale, there are many many books by Ray and they all delvier the ones to look out for are: Magician (his very first novel and my joint favorite) Rage of a Demon King, and his latest (the second joint favoite) Wrath of a Mad God.

[Spuuky]

Don Quixote.

And if you are in to self-mutilation, there's always Atlas Shrugged.

[Germ Hamee]

The usual. George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is wonderful. While Kaiser's right in that the latest novel was a difficult read, the previous three are well worth it and I'm confident the series will pick up again.

And, you know. Robin Hobb, starting with Assassin's Apprentice. The size is modest, but the novels grow in size with each installment and they're great books.

But if you liked Stephen King, you certainly can't go wrong with The Dark Tower.

I'm trying to think of more massive books, but after GRRM's A Storm of Swords, everything else seems pretty dinky. I hear a lot of good things about Tad Williams. Though I've yet to read them, the size of his books are pretty intimidating.

[Gilghamut]

I'll add my vote of A Song of Ice and Fire to the recommendation. While A Feast for Crows was a little difficult at first to get into, it does pick up near the end; plus all the real good characters are going to be in A Dance with Dragons, hence why AFFC was so slow.

[charliepanayi]

As said, Don Quixote is pretty epic. It's great as well. And if you really fancy a hefty challenge, try Ulysses by James Joyce.

[Ouch!]

I'm beginning to think that I'm the only person who loved A Feast For Crows. Sure, the beginning was slow, but the second half of the novel was absolutely fantastic. I'll also second Gilhamut's sentiments that part of the reason AFFC was so slow was due to the characters it contained (or, more specifically, those which it did not). Regardless, some of the things that happened in the end of the novel were ridiculously awesome.

[DK]

No man, I was pretty confused by all the haet for AFFC. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

[Moon Rabbits]

Don Quixote is what I was thinking of beginning. Or the Stand, but I don't really want to do another Stephen King. As for the others, they're all part of epic sagas, which isn't really something I'm down for. Fantasy novels = very no.

[Yar]

Are you talking epics, or epics?

An epic (i.e. Odyssey) is a long poem telling about a hero's deeds.

Or are you just talking about really long stories spanning books like the Lord of the Rings?

[I Took the Red Pill]

I'd definitely go with Dante's Divine Comedy. I went into it thinking it would be dry, but man, I loved it. I can only speak for the John Ciardi translation though, no idea how the others read.

[41-Inches-Wide]

Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Though it's not really that long, that's my favorite book to date.

[Carl the Llama]

The awesome thing about A song of Ice and Fire is the fact old George frequently goes out and does book signings all over the world (he did a book signing in woking (where I live) 3 days after AFFC was released... was awesome to meet the guy who wrote the series) so now I have all his books (which the exception of A Game of Thrones) in hardback with a personal inscription in each of them =D

[Moon Rabbits]

Are you talking epics, or epics?

An epic (i.e. Odyssey) is a long poem telling about a hero's deeds.

Or are you just talking about really long stories spanning books like the Lord of the Rings?

I just mean a book that is really really long. 1000+ pages? :)


I'd definitely go with Dante's Divine Comedy. I went into it thinking it would be dry, but man, I loved it. I can only speak for the John Ciardi translation though, no idea how the others read.

This was one of my "thinking about its"

[I Took the Red Pill]

I'd definitely go with Dante's Divine Comedy. I went into it thinking it would be dry, but man, I loved it. I can only speak for the John Ciardi translation though, no idea how the others read.

This was one of my "thinking about its"I definitely say go for it. The Inferno is easily the best part of the three 'parts' of it, but the others are spectacular as well. One of the neat things about it is that each Canto (basically a Chapter) is very short, so if you just feel like picking the book up and reading a Canto or two to kill 10 minutes, you can do it. This (http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Comedy-Inferno-Purgatorio-Paradiso/dp/0451208633/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214540200&sr=8-1) is the version I have, and I'd definitely recommend it, but the version you pick is up to you. I did a lot of research on the seemingly endless list of different translations that exist beforehand, and I ended up going with the Ciardi one. I'm glad I did, too.

[The Unknown Guru]

War and Peace. Seriously, read it. I went into it just trying to kill some time, but I got completely sucked into it very fast. Tolstoy pretty much defined what a novel is with that book; it seems like it could've been written just yesterday, and there are virtually no dull moments.

[sir helix]

i recommend the time quartet

both sides of time
out of time
prisoner of time
for all time

their good books. i used to think love nonels were horrible but after my librarien made me read the first book in this series i was hooked