Dragons & Jetpacks discussion

]'m on a desperate search for a new epic series. I've previously enjoyed The Foundation, Pillars of the Earth, Patrick Rothfuss, The Mayfair Witches, Mists of Avalon, Discworld, Gormenghast, E.R. Eddison's Zimiamvian, LOTR, I, Claudius, and I'm attempting Eddings' Belgsariad​. This is in no way restricted to fantasy, sci-fi, or historical fiction. I'm also very fond of authors like Bryson, Lewis Carroll, Ian Mortimer's Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England series, Stephen Jay Gould, Mary Roach, Lucy Worsley, Lord Dunsany, William Morris, along with books like Sapiens or Cosmos. I also love old folk and myth tales. My favorite authors are Dickens and Gaiman. My all time favorite series is Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast. I know this is a weird amalgam of genres, but any ideas of what series I should start next? Thanks so much.

Have you ever tried any Robin Hobb?

I did try one, although I can't remember which off the top of my head. It was very sad, all the dragons were traveling and dying. I know it's unpopular to dislike Hobb, but I don't think I do. :(

Too bad Robin Hobb didn't work for you. Yeah, she can be rough on her characters, though things tend to work out in the end. Mostly.

How about Brandon Sanderson? You could give the Mistborn trilogy a try and if you like it there's a follow up series. First book is The Final Empire. Or what about Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen? It's 10 books and I absolutely loved them. It redefined the epic fantasy genre for me. It has a bit of everything, magic, gods, military, action, philosophy, religion, romance, politics, some difficult subjects and spans several eons in places. However it's not for everyone and the first book, Gardens of the Moon, is rather rough. There's always A Game of Thrones. Even with the highly successful tv show, it's still worth a read. The series is still being written though who knows when or if GRRM will finish it.

If you want a really fun series that is a quick read I just read Luke Sculls The Grim Company and loved it. I will warn you that it is absolutely insane and you have to suspend disbelief numerous times but it is pack full of awesome stuff (at least I thought so)

I will also recommend The Faithful and the Fallen series by John Gwynne which is a four book epic fantasy series with great characters and action and all that jazz.

I don't know if I would class it as epic fantasy but Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy and follow trilogy of stand alones (all related to the first trilogy and has recurring characters) is one of my all time favourite series and settings ever. More closely classified as grim dark but still a fairly epic tale.

Many people enjoyed the Riyria Revelations and Riyria Chronicles (prequels) by Michael Sullivan in the group. Super fun reads, great characters and story. Another favourite of mine.

And I can't recommend things without mention The Tales of the Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding. It's a swashbuckling steam punk-ish series and is a lot of fun (I recommend it to everyone).

I could keep going but this is getting to be pretty long as it is.

I'd definitely try out the Riyria Revelations and Brandon Sanderson if you want epic. Maybe Terry Pratchett?

I also really enjoy Maria Snyder's Poison Study series and Richard Paul Evans's Michael Vey series (that one's more YA).

I also like Garth Nix's Sabriel series, Brandon Mull's serieses, Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus series, and Rick Riordan's serieses, which are all technically YA, but I prefer to think of them as ageless.

There are 16 books in the Dresden series...

I'm a huge Dresden Files fan, so I'd definitely suggest that.

Miles Cameron Traitor Son series is great. The first book is The Red Knight.

YES to Garth Nix!

(Also, Lancer... MacMillan have sent me the entire Faithful and Fallen series in pback :P)

If you liked the Foundation serie, maybe you could real the Robot's books of Asimov? Or 2001: A Space Odyssey and the following (2010, 2061, 3001).

Did you ever try The Wheel of Time serie?

In terms of folk tale / myth stuff - there's a lot which seems to be standalone books e.g. Faerie Tale or The Wood Wife.

A folk tale / myth triology I really liked (beautiful descriptions) was the Bitterbynde trilogy beginning The Ill-Made Mute. I am not sure if anyone has read anything by Charles de Lint as I think he has written a series or something based of folktale/myth stuff?!

For historical fiction I could recommend the Shardlake series by CJ Sansom or the Matthew Corbett series by Robert MCGammon starting with Speaks the Nightbird. Both series are excellent.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I did Rinn!

Freya wrote: "In terms of folk tale / myth stuff - there's a lot which seems to be standalone books e.g. Faerie Tale or The Wood Wife.

A folk tale / myth triology I really liked (b..."

I don't know if Charles de Lint did a series, but I have read several of his urban folktale/myth books and really enjoyed them.