I’m getting tired of the hero’s journey, and how it necessitates a lot of similar & sometimes predictable actions in the beginning and end, or any time a new character is introduced.
What stories are out there where the middle goes on for forever? Maybe wher the characters are working for a goal that’s really far away, or they aren’t working towards anything at all and it’s just exposition for days.
I think the lord of the rings is one example. I really think the climax is so much better because you get to know all the characters in so much detail by the time they finally reach it. By comparison a series like Game of Thrones would rank lower because it’s long, but has a ton of different plots beginning and ending all over the place (which I love, just in a very different way lol).
Honestly the longer the better. If there were a book with an exposition / rising action that took 5000 pages I’d read it.
(but it doesn’t have to be fantasy-specific, any genre is good)
by SuccotashComplete
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Bonus points for unique worlds / cultures
The Physician by Noah Gordon,
Patrick OBrian and CS Forrester series about the british navy
Lonesome Dove
Wheel of Time
Robert Jordan
The Gunslinger Series
Stephen King
Any series by [Tad Williams](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6587.Tad_Williams?from_search=true&from_srp=true). I have read his cyberpunk series Otherland and fantasy series Shadowmarch, but the characters seemed to me to be very same-y so I’d recommend picking one of those to read and not both. I have not read any of his other series.
Any series by [C. J. Cherryh.](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/989968.C_J_Cherryh) I’ve read the Fortress and Chanur series and they both have a lot of focus on character interactions and experiences rather than on a “journey.”
{{The Sharing Knife}} by Bujold
I’ve never been into comics but I’m starting to feel like they may fall in this niche slightly
I felt like the book Wicked was like this
Saga, the comic, is currently in the middle of an endless middle