As much as I love a short snappy book, there is something about an epic, chunky book with fully fleshed out characters that hits like nothing else for me. I’ll read any genre and have spent the last year and a bit reading the most often mentioned: Shogun, Tai-Pan, Musashi, Lonesome Dove, East of Eden, Hyperion cantos etc.
Well I finally got to Pillars of the Earth and am about 500 pages in. It is just brilliant in every sense of the word and I’m so thankful that it’s long as I need to know where else this story goes.
My question is what’s next? I’ve now read most of my most anticipated so I’d be curious to know what everyone else would recommend in a similar epic vein? It can be old, modern, any genre – I’m open.
Thanks!!
by johndrangus
9 Comments
There’s an entire Kingsbridge series by Ken Follett. I’ve enjoyed them all and I’m currently reading the most recent book in the series: “The Armor of Light”
https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/fiction/ken-follett-s-kingsbridge-books-in-order
Quo Vadis
– Canticle for Leibowitz
– Mahabharata
– Gone with the Wind
– Dune
(I couldn’t get through Pillars of the Earth. It was a bit too rapey for me)
Edit: I forgot LOTR in my pre-coffee haze
Earth abides by George R Stewart. Its not really an epic length, but it has a similar vibe in that it takes place over a long period of time
I hate to be that guy but how did you get past the sex scene(s). Reading how the main characters wife dies in childbirth and then hours later he is shagging some mysterious woman who instantly falls in love with him was so cringe-y and really felt like the author wrote out his own personally fantasy. For me after that I just couldn’t read anymore of it.
The Thorn Birds, Advise and Consent (both tragic in ways that are now out of date) Roots, the Physician by Noah Gordon, The Longings of Women by Marge Peircy, the Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, The Emperor of Ocean Park, the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
I loved *Pillars*, it’s one of my all-time favorite books.
You might be pleased to learn that there’s a sequel, *World Without End*. It’s set in the same town about 150 years later. Not quite as good as *Pillars*, but an awesome book in its own right.
The Count of Monte Cristo is definitely an epic
I’m not sure but I think there’s a second one? It’s been a long time since I read it.
Yeah I was hooked on this book, it really sucked me in. I tried reading book 2 not too long ago, I got about 25% in and I lost interest for some reason. If I remember it just felt like the characters arcs were more separate if that makes sense? But maybe I didn’t give it enough time.