Epicly Epic

Epics. Oh the Epics I have!

Historical Fiction Epics! Fantasy Epics! Sci-fi Epics! Classic Epics! I’ll read them all. Just let me get sucked into a huge, sprawling monster of a story for weeks on end. A whole WORLD that consumes me. Books that keep me up until all hours of the night reading because the world and the characters in it are so real. You get so invested, there isn’t really a good ‘pause point’.

I don’t even know how to choose my favorites for this category. Mainly because this is the majority of what covers my shelves.

Definitely The Dragon Prince series by Melanie Rawn. I remember, very clearly, the feeling of awe the first time I read the first three in this massive 6 parter. I’m not sure if this was the first book I ever read with a name directory in the back, or if it was the first time I’d ever USED the name directory in the back...either way. Holy Mother. The cast of characters in these books. But the surprising thing is that there is no real defining GOOD vs EVIL. Probably the first fantasy series I’d ever read like that. Incredible.

Diana Gabaldon’s Highlander series is another one that I keep turning back to. I’m not sure how a writer can put out consistently interesting books, with the amount of research involved at over 600 pgs each. But she does. Yes there are weak bits. Flawed plot points. But the massive scope and the character development, the dialogue. That’s one thing she can write. I can always tell who is talking in her books. She is amazing at voice. And the settings just suck you in.

Then there are the self-contained epics. Margaret George is amazing at these. Or really the classics, Les Mis, The Count of Monte Cristo, Gone with the Wind. Margaret George’s Memoirs of Cleopatra is an absolutely incredible book. Somehow she makes you feel as though you are living her life. She makes you feel as though all these little tiny details, that you realize later could only have been made up, are real. Time stands still when you read this book.

I could go on and on and on in this category...but I think you get the point!  

What epics do you read? Self-Contained? Long-spanning 10 volume monsters?

Oddly, I’ve never found any horror epics. Probably because everyone gets bumped in the first book...