I'm just reposting this before I return to idle-idle land for several weeks at least.

So you've read WoT and/or George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and you want more. Perhaps you want tailor-made recs designed for you, rather than reading the almost-monthly OF Fantasy (and SF) Author Lists or the various permutations of readers' favorite reads listed in the link below. You want something else. You want your freakin' EPIC FANTASY, perhaps. Well, for those of you wanting that, below is a list of books that we commonly say read before asking us for more:

Epic Fantasy Books That Will Be Spouted Off Each and Every Damn Time (i.e. two weeks) That Somebody Asks The Same Question:

George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire series (#5 to be published in the near future)

Steven Erikson, Malazan Book of the Fallen series (#9 out of a planned 10 book sequence to be released January 2010 in the US, already out in the UK, September 2009 in Canada))

R. Scott Bakker, Prince of Nothing trilogy (complete); The Judging Eye (released February 2009)

Robin Hobb, Farseer trilogy and its related sequel trilogies, Liveship Traders and The Tawny Man (complete)

C.S. Friedman, Coldfire trilogy (complete)

Tad Williams, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy (complete)

Gene Wolfe, The Knight; The Wizard (complete duology)

Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora and its sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies, first two parts of the planned seven-volume sequence, The Gentleman Bastards

Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself; Before They Are Hanged, and the finale to The First Law trilogy, The Last Argument of Kings Standalone related book: Best Served Cold (July 2009, US, June 2009 UK)

David Anthony Durham, Acacia: The War with the Mein (first of a planned trilogy, with the second book, The Other Lands, out in the US in September and the UK around that time)

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind (first book of the Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy, second book, The Wise Man's Fear, being due in 2010)

Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn trilogy; Elantris (standalone released in 2005); Warbreaker (June 2009 US) - he's the one scheduled to complete RJ's WoT series in 2009.

Brian Ruckley, Winterbirth; Bloodheir; Fall of Thanes (completed trilogy)

Various Midkemia novels/series by Raymond Feist

Peter Brett, The Warded Man (US)/The Painted Man (UK) - debut for a trilogy that came out in late 2008 (UK) and early 2009 (US).

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If those do not meet your needs, please feel free to post below the exact type of story you want (urban fantasy, slipstream, Hard SF, Space Opera, Hentai, Animal Companion, etc.) and people here will respond. And that pretty much concludes reposting old materials on my part. Feel free to plunder the old OF post today and copy/paste the rest, if you want. I'm outta here.




I was going to wait for a day or two before posting this, but as Larry has very kindly copied across his original post in all its magnificence I'll just announce it now. Enjoy adding your suggestions!