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What are yer favs. I'm considering a series needs at a minimum of 5 thick ole books to be epic.

I'm reading Dune. If you consider all it has available, that's like I think 17 books.
Competing with that for me is Shannara. Which is like I think 32 books. Not easy keeping track

Yes, LotR is epic I suppose. But it's something you can hold in one hand.
I won't mention my numerous romance novel series They're fun, but hardly 'epic'.
I've really only got 3 epics I like. The last is the Sword of Truth series. 9 awesome books.

If I could only have one series of books to read, I think I'd pick Shannara although I'm mainly a Dune fanatic.

The Lensman Series by EE "Doc" Smith. There are seven Lensman books but the seventh is only marginally related to the Lensman universe. It's the first six books that comprise the main series. Classic and epic sci-fi.

The Belgariad and Mallorean by David Edddings is worth a mention if you like Fastasy.

Best wishes,
Steve

[Deleted by Admins]

My favorite only has eight books in the series. Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony.

I also like the alternative history series by Harry Turtledove that started with 'Worldwar: In the Balance'. I forget how many books it had.


RR

The Richard Bolitho series.

The Aubrey Maturin series gets my vote. Roughly 21 books, 7000 pages, but it's not the length, it's the quality.

Colleen McCullough’s Master of Rome series of historical novels. There are seven novels:

The First Man in Rome
The Grass Crown
Fortune’s Favorites
Caesar’s Women
Caesar
The October Horse
Anthony and Cleopatra

A grand total of 4951 pages covering the 84 years of the end of the Roman Republic (from 110BC to 27BC). Last time I went through them it took less than six months. All I had read before. Traveling through them again was great fun. She really immerses you in Ancient Rome in its most fascinating period, with a long string of titans across the stage.

And the characterizations of the principle characters (Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Marcus Licinius Crassus, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Gaius Julius Caesar, Marcus Antonius, and Gaius Octavius) are superb. (Although she clearly favors Caesar over all others, with Pompey & Anthony especially getting dumped on).

But the supporting cast is just as richly characterized (Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Quintus Caecilus Metellus Numidicus, Publius Rutilius Rufus, Quintus Lutatius Catulus Caesar, Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, Quintus Sertorius, Quintus Servilius Caepio, Marcus Livius Drusus, Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Quintus Caecilus Metellus Pius, Lucius Licinius Luculus, Publius Clodius, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, Marcus Porcius Cato, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus Junius Brutus, Titus Labienus, Decimus Junius Brutus, Gaius Trebonius, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Lucius Julius Caesar, Gaius Cassius Longinus, and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.

Principle women get fully fleshed out as well: Aurelia Cotta (Caesar’s Mother), Livia Drusa (Cato & Servilia’s Mother), Julia (Caesar’s Aunt & Marius' wife), Julia (Caesar’s Daughter & Pompey's wife), Servilia (Mother of Brutus and Mistress of Caesar), Octavia (Octavius’s Sister & Anthony's wife), and Livia Drusilla (Octavius’s Wife).

And foreign enemies too: Jugurtha (Numidia), Boiorix (Cimbri), Mithradates VI (Pontus), Gaius Papius Mutilus (Samnites), Spartacus (Slave revolt), Vercingetorix (Gauls), Cleopatra and Caesarion (Egypt).

Yet all of that is just the tip of the ice berg. It’s literally a cast of thousands!

And battles all over the place: Arausio, Aquae Sextiae, Vercellae, Nola, Colline Gate, Carrhae, Alesia, Pharsalus, Philippi, and Actium, among many others. Rome was basically in the business of War, and it shows.

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Masters ... B01HN4WGPC

Series guys, series

But I like seeing mention of occasional great works.

Has anyone else read the Brotherhood of War series by WEB Griffin? Really fun read series.
That and the series called There Will Be War edited by Pournelle Basically a series of short fictions divided into types.

Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series is my favourite (not counting the Lord of the Rings as a series).

In true Moorcock style, it is difficult to fully work out which of his books/series are Eternal Champion, but certainly the Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon and Erekose (John Daker) books are core Eternal Champion, plus Jerry Cornelius, Von Bek and Oswald Bastible are probably Eternal Champion. Moorcock's time travelling books often overlapped with the Eternal Champion series, but they are all fine works of imaginitive fiction.

I also like Harry Turtledove - particularly the Videssos, World War, Colonisation and Southern Victory series, although I haven't read all of his other series yet.

Cheers

"The Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. Fourteen meaty books in the series! Fantasy genre, a good galloping read!

ORIGINAL: Massattack

"The Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. Fourteen meaty books in the series! Fantasy genre, a good galloping read!

+1

I like the Lanny Budd series by Upton Sinclair.

Follows Lanny from the end of WWI
through almost 40 years of wartime intrigues.

I am surprised that it hasn't been made a mini-series for the TV.

ORIGINAL: Massattack

"The Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. Fourteen meaty books in the series! Fantasy genre, a good galloping read!

Plus the New Spring prequel, so fifteen books.

Also -

Roger Zelazny's two Amber quintets. Corwin wakes up in hospital after a car crash but discovers that his less than unified family are considerably more than human.


Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. Begins with Harry Dresden as a wizard/private investigator in modern day Chicago. Builds up into full scale wizard warfare. Seventeen books (out of an anticipated twenty five) published so far, plus two short story compilations.

ORIGINAL: RFalvo69

ORIGINAL: Massattack

"The Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. Fourteen meaty books in the series! Fantasy genre, a good galloping read!

+1

+2

My favorite series of all time. [&o][&o][&o]

The Chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis)

Told my mum I was reading them when I was about 10 but.... well I was a little boy and reading was for girls and was boring so didn't get much done....

Finally read them around 15 - and wished I hadn't left it so long. Then read them to my youngest little warspite many years ago.

Wonderful stories.

Not sure if they can be counted as a book series - but I'll count them anyway.

Four books by the wonderful Geirr H Haarr that centre on the naval campaigns of 1939-40 in and around the North Sea

No Room For Mistakes
The Gathering Storm
The German Invasion of Norway
The Battle of Norway

Stonkingly good reads

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

What are yer favs. I'm considering a series needs at a minimum of 5 thick ole books to be epic.

The Complete Hammer's Slammers. Only 3 books, but each is around 500 pages thicc.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Not sure if they can be counted as a book series - but I'll count them anyway.

Four books by the wonderful Geirr H Haarr that centre on the naval campaigns of 1939-40 in and around the North Sea

No Room For Mistakes
The Gathering Storm
The German Invasion of Norway
The Battle of Norway

Stonkingly good reads

Wow - the price of these books on Amazon is huge.

ORIGINAL: ncc1701e

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Not sure if they can be counted as a book series - but I'll count them anyway.

Four books by the wonderful Geirr H Haarr that centre on the naval campaigns of 1939-40 in and around the North Sea

No Room For Mistakes
The Gathering Storm
The German Invasion of Norway
The Battle of Norway

Stonkingly good reads

Wow - the price of these books on Amazon is huge.

warspite1

Believe me, everything about these books screams quality - particularly the two tomes that deal with Norway - a most interesting campaign for many reasons. The books are well written by a serious historian who provides a measured balanced view and has no dumb axe to grind. The page count is good (the writing is small too) the books are well put together too and well illustrated.

Believe me, these books quite simply scream sex at you very loudly, and if someone is in anyway interested in naval warfare in World War II then they should have these books on their bookshelves.

I believe you. Amazon states that The Battle for Norway is the second book in a series of two. Which one is the first one please?

Thanks