Looking for Epic Fantasy with Lots of Action

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Discworld books are written to be read in published order which is also timeline order. There's a definite beginning and a definite order. So nope, it isn't that series.

Exactly! The same with Star Wars!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Hitch

You know, I wish the OP would have responded with the names of some books that he likes, other than naming the old faithfuls as books NOT to name...

Hitch

What? And deny us all the pleasure of evangelizing about our favorite fantasy books?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Exactly! The same with Star Wars!

Not even close to Star Wars.

[Pizza_Cant_Read]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not even close to Star Wars.

Just wait until the Pratchett estate gets sold to Disney and the books are declared no longer cannon.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Pizza_Cant_Read

Just wait until the Pratchett estate gets sold to Disney and the books are declared no longer cannon.

I think fans getting into a tizzy about whether a particular story is canon or not is silly. But then I don't read many series. Even in comics, I always preferred indie comics and limited series where canon is no biggie.

[Pizza_Cant_Read]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think fans getting into a tizzy about whether a particular story is canon or not is silly. But then I don't read many series. Even in comics, I always preferred indie comics and limited series where canon is no biggie.

Fair enough. It was a legacy of my youth and I will never allocate so much mind space to a single franchise again.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

What? And deny us all the pleasure of evangelizing about our favorite fantasy books?

Yes, well...proselytizing is one thing; wasting time recommending books that the OP might never read, because they don't fall into his/her interest zone is another.

Hitch

[Pizza_Cant_Read]

Originally Posted by KyleSnyder

The title pretty much says it all. I'm looking for epic fantasy novels that contain lots of action, preferably those that aren't too over-descriptive with unnecessary details.

Please do not recommend The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia, seeing that I've already read those. Also, I'm not really interested in Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts.

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yes, well...proselytizing is one thing; wasting time recommending books that the OP might never read, because they don't fall into his/her interest zone is another.

Hitch

Yeah...KyleSnyder wants an 'epic' fantasy that isn't overly descriptive with unnecessary details. By most definitions an epic fantasy is world building and descriptive. The examples provided are abundantly descriptive making the way OP frames the request a bit contradictory. I don't want to be too critical because we are unsure of who KyleSnyder is, some people interpret brevity differently. I personally over-emote because I sometimes perceive brevity as not very friendly but whatever. I like talking about the books I like

As to recommendations I forgot to mention Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. The series provides thousands upon thousands of pages to read, involves a bit of action (not as much as Drizzt) and social commentary that adds depth

Tons of good quotes that nobody can fail to appreciate: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quote...ord-of-truth-1

[JSWolf]

I'm going to suggest the following books by Stephen R. Donaldson.

Thomas Covenant
1. Lord Foul's Bane
2. The Illearth War
3. The Power That Preserves

Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
1. The Wounded Land
2. The One Tree
3. White Gold Wielder

Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
1. The Runes of the Earth
2. Fatal Revenant
3. Against All Things Ending
4. The Last Dark

[Dr. Drib]

Here you go:

Roger Taylor - The Call of the Sword [The Chronicles of Hawklan, Book 1]

Not many people know about this series, but it's great.

https://www.amazon.com/Call-Sword-Ch...+taylor+kindle

and the series listing:

https://www.amazon.com/Roger-Taylor/..._cont_ebooks_1

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yes, well...proselytizing is one thing; wasting time recommending books that the OP might never read, because they don't fall into his/her interest zone is another.

Hitch

The OP has posted 18 times in 5 years. I'd assumed from the start that he (based on user name) would possibly never check this thread again. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Also, I think it's safe to say at best, the OP is unlikely to read half the recommendations here. But hey, Pajamaman and I had a nice talk about the Sunset Warrior books and I learned that the Discworld books are more action packed than I thought.

[Pizza_Cant_Read]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm going to suggest the following books by Stephen R. Donaldson.

Thomas Covenant
1. Lord Foul's Bane
2. The Illearth War
3. The Power That Preserves

Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
1. The Wounded Land
2. The One Tree
3. White Gold Wielder

Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
1. The Runes of the Earth
2. Fatal Revenant
3. Against All Things Ending
4. The Last Dark

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Here you go:

Roger Taylor - The Call of the Sword [The Chronicles of Hawklan, Book 1]

Not many people know about this series, but it's great.

https://www.amazon.com/Call-Sword-Ch...+taylor+kindle

and the series listing:

https://www.amazon.com/Roger-Taylor/..._cont_ebooks_1

I will surely research all of these books. Always looking for more fantasy books, thanks for the recommendations.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The OP has posted 18 times in 5 years. I'd assumed from the start that he (based on user name) would possibly never check this thread again. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Also, I think it's safe to say at best, the OP is unlikely to read half the recommendations here. But hey, Pajamaman and I had a nice talk about the Sunset Warrior books and I learned that the Discworld books are more action packed than I thought.

Yes, of course. I simply meant that while some of us--some of the more-pedantic amongst us--might stick with the idea that "epic" fantasy means just that, the dictionary definition (so to speak) including elves, dwarves, trolls, magical objects, swords and sword-fighting, magic generally, and all that, the fantasy genre has broadened widely over the years since Tolkien gave us LOTR. I mean, the first thing most people would think of, as someone here said, is the SOS (Sword of Shannara) and Shannara series, as those are, let's say, "homages" to LOTR. Less so as the series goes on, of course. But you have the basic Hero's Journey, plus all of the aforementioned elements--lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

But is that all there is? (Not to say that's limited) If we knew what elements of EF appealed to him, perhaps we could make other recommendations. That's all.

HOWEVER, everybody here has pretty much recommended what I would have, (within the stricture of EF), so...I'll shaddup. ;-)

Hitch

[Dr. Drib]

^ There's one writer I have yet to read, someone yet to be mentioned, I think:

Guy Gavriel Kay

Perhaps someone can comment on this author? He looks 'appropriate' for the thread, but is he?

[ATDrake]

^

Guy Gavriel Kay is certainly epic in scope. Most of his fantasies are thinly-veiled takes on real life history, tending to focus on pivotal events and personalities.

I'm not sure how over-descriptive they might be considered, since he does tend to go on narrative tangents telling the entire future of some minor character who has a brief but life-changing encounter with the leads. But IIRC he isn't quite as fond of expository infodump as many other sfnal writers. Generally when he describes something, ISTR it tends to serve an immediate storytelling purpose to keep a plot/character development thread going or explain some scene-relevant worldbuilding. YMMV.

If it's any help to the OP, apparently GGK got his start as a fantasy author helping out Christopher Tolkien do some stuff with J. R. R. Tolkien's literary estate, so if they enjoyed The Hobbit/LOTR, they might wish to give him a try.

Out of the ones I've read, I'd personally recommend as the best bets for their criteria:

• The Lions of Al-Rassan, loosely based on the Spanish legend of El Cid. IMHO, the best one he's written to date.
• The Sarantine Mosaic duology, comprising Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors, set in a Byzantium analogue during the reign of expy Justinian and Theodora. Also very good, and possibly second best work, quality-wise.
• The Last Light of the Sun, expy Viking-invaded Anglo-Saxon Danelaw under faux-King Alfred the Great. Actually not one of his better books, quality-wise, IMHO, but still a reasonably solid story with plenty of action in it. This might be of greater potential interest if one likes Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom series and wants to read a fantasy take.

Those are the ones I recall as having the most action and highest stakes to their plots, with impending or ongoing wars and other conflicts about to come into the open.

Also possible, but perhaps less to the OP's taste:

• A Song for Arbonne, political intrigue, loosely based on Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine's Courts of Love. I actually rather like this one and would consider it my personal favourite of his works, and Wikipedia says it was an Aurora Award winner. But it seems to be one of his less popular books, so I think it may be an acquired taste.
• Tigana, grand sweeping high stakes epic which is Renaissance Italy-ish, about the survivors of a conquered and magically-deleted city-state banding together to obtain revenge for the irrepairable destruction of their homeland. It's one of his earliest books and his writing has improved since then. In retrospect, this one feels somewhat bloated and meandering in comparison to his later novels.