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That's why I thought 50 was too many (although I haven't read The Stand, so can't say whether I'd allow it or not.) If you can afford to waste 10 entries on genre prehistory, and can afford to include blatantly ineligible books (CJ Cherryh's Faded Sun trilogy? Really? I mean, I liked it a lot, but it's plainly SF. Now the Morgaine series I could have accepted.) then it doesn't seem like you're going to end up with a very distilled list. I'd have gone for a top 20, maybe 30 at the outside.
Still there are some interesting recommendations in there which I'll be following up.
I would argue that to count as epic fantasy, the fate of nations - at the very least - needs to be at stake. That might allow The Hobbit, given that it includes the Battle of Five Armies, but would probably rule out something like the Lies of Locke Lamora, which has a narrower focus.
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