Rose's List of the Best Epic Fantasy Novels Ever

If you like happy, fluffy, pretty little stories about chivalrous knights and ladies fair, if you like stories where good and evil are clearly delineated and the black-hatted fellows never win the day, then you won't care for Martin's books. Everything is shades of gray here, and it's brutal and ugly and dark as well. And freakin' brilliant. This is fantasy as it was meant to be written; as dark and bloody as it needs to be but no more, with characters so real it's hard to believe you won't run into them next Thursday (though in most cases, you'll be glad you won't).
Any epic series worth its salt is impossible to summarize, and ASOIAF more difficult than most. Most of it takes place in Westeros, a country made up of seven kingdoms which is similar to medieval Europe. In this world, seasons often last years...and as the series begins, winter is coming.
Take a mind-boggling array of disparate characters, mix them together with political intrigue, sinister legends come to life, and good old-fashioned war, and then toss in a bit of incest, murder, betrayal and mystery, and you've got A Song of Ice and Fire.

This is actually a duology, not a series, but the books are long enough that you'll feel as if you've read at least a trilogy (and will be heartbroken that there isn't more).

Guy Gavriel Kay wrote, in an essay about the writing of these books, "Fantasy is -- at its best -- the purest access to storytelling that we have. It universalizes a tale, it evokes wonder and timeless narrative power, it touches upon inner journeys, it illuminates our collective and individual pasts, throws a focusing beam on the present day, and presages the dangers and promises of the future."

From a review of the first book by Allie Sawyer: "Relative rarity, painstaking research, and meticulous accuracy combine to make Sailing to Sarantium (a historical fantasy of 7th century Byzantium) a rare gem for fantasy-lovers.
Amongst Crispin's people, the expression "sailing to Sarantium," meant that one was "on the cusp of change: poised for emergent greatness, brilliance, fortune--or else at the very precipice of a final and absolute fall as he met something too vast for his capacity". Crispin, a mosaicist from Rhodes in the hinterlands of the Sarantine Empire, journeys to Sarantium to fulfill an imperial summons declined by his partner. Accompanied by Linon, a mechanical sparrow invested with mind, soul, and voice, and a hired sword named Vargos, and entrusted with a secret message by a desperate young queen, Crispin encounters people and mystical forces that challenge his beliefs and sense of self. He reaches Sarantium, with a coterie of unlikely friends, only to find that his voyage has just begun..."

Jordan's Wheel of Time series is a huge, unwieldy monster of an epic tale that has sprouted so many tentacles and other weird appendages that even a diehard fan like me has trouble keeping up with everything. Be forewarned - this series WILL disappoint you. I am hopeful that the remaining book/s will be better than the last few, but there's no guarantee of that, and even if they are, you'll still have to slog through books 8 through 11.

But. But. The first four or five books, maybe even the first seven books, are really tremendous fun. Jordan has an easy, engaging style that hooks you right away, and most of his characters are sympathetic (especially Perrin Aybara, the fantasy character I'd most like to be stranded on a desert island with). If the series seems a bit simplistic when held up against the books of George RR Martin and Guy Gavriel Kay, it is neverthless well-written, well-planned (again, until it begins to derail later on) and a grand escape.

If you've only seen the movies, you owe it to yourself to read these - and the prequel, The Hobbit. By today's standards, Tolkien can be a bit dry at times, but the books are nevertheless a joy, and Fellowship in particular is a fantastic read (well, once you get past Tom Bombadil). The Two Towers is a bit of a slog, but the action picks up again with Return of the King. Tolkien will never go out of style.

One strong recommendation regarding Hobbs' work - read her trilogies in order. I didn't realize how closely they were entwined, and read the first book of the Fool trilogy before reading the Liveship trilogy, as it's not immediately apparent that they are all connected.

The Farseer trilogy is the first of the three series, and is a solid, well-written epic. It's written in first person, rare for fantasy, and that took some getting used to, but the characters are real and sympathetic and the storyline is never as predictable as you think it's going to be.

From the author's website: "The Farseer Trilogy is the tale of FitzChivalry Farseer. The discovery that this bastard son exists is enough to topple Prince Chivalry's ambition for the throne. He abdicates, ceding the title of heir to the throne to his younger brother Verity and abandoning the child to the care of the stable master Burrich. The youngest prince, Regal, has ambitions of his own, and wishes to do away with the bastard. But old King Shrewd sees the value of taking the lad and training him as an assassin. For a bastard can be sent into dangers where a trueborn son could not be risked, and may be given tasks that would soil an heir's hands..."