[carjug]

First time Poster, I have 3/8 of an inch left in Crippled God, and The Assail are getting spanked at the moment, but that's not why I am posting. A few books ago, I started looking for similar stuff to Erikson, and it simply doesn't exist. Amber by Roger Zelazny is close, I read it twenty years ago, and you might try Gaiman's Sandman Comics and you should try Tanith Lee's Flat Earth books as well as Glen Cook, (Who I haven't read, but everyone seems to like). So? Y'all got any books you would force down my throat? Bring it on!

[worry]

The Bible.

[Aptorian]

It really depends upon what you're looking for.

If you mean something equally long and intricate in scope, you might try out George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Series (The HBO series Game of Thrones) or maybe Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time.

If you want something as heavy in terms of philosophy or historical/anthropological emulation you could look at R Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series or maybe some of Guy Gavriel Kay's books.

[Adhara]

The Wheel of Time is adolescent reading compared to MBOTF.
Now beat me.I'm waiting.

[Abyss]

Erikson is a tough act to follow, and you still have the Esslemont MALAZAN books, KHARKANAS 1 and 2, and the BAUCHELAIN & KORBAL BROACH novellas if you haven't already read them.

That said...

Matt Stover's ACTS OF CAINE

Bakker's PRINCE OF NOTHING

...are pretty close.

I think GRRM's SONG OF ICE AND FIRE is actually very different from Malazan, and the endless delay is infuriating, but books 1-3 are pretty epic at least.

[Vengeance]

I would recommend that you read Cooks Black Company books.

[Slow Ben]

Nothing.

Period.




But if i had to recommend something awesome and large in scope to read after Malazan it would be Dresden. Butchers style is just so different than Eriksons you dont have to worry about the "Malazan hangover" (what is this?! this isnt as good as Malazan?! Nothing is?! I'LL NEVER BE HAPPY AGAIN!!!) And it is 100% Epic in a completely different way.

[HoosierDaddy]

Vengeance, on 08 February 2018 - 09:28 PM, said:

I would recommend that you read Cooks Black Company books.

This or Donaldson's Covenant Series. Equally rich in history in mythos, dark, but....

Whenever I read these titles I just think: There is no comparable series. Bakker is far to dark to compare as MBotF has so much humor in it.

[Andorion]

Erikson is unique. No one approaches him.

However, you can get similar military based epic fantasy in Glen Cook's Black Company books.

R Scott Bakker writes philosophical, dark, majestic epic fantasy.

Also, to be a bit unconventional, check out When the Heavens Fall by Marc Turner. Newish author, but the book reminded me very strongly of Malazan.

[shovelbum]

Nothing else I've read is as epic on macro and micro levels as Malazan is.

I suggest a few series by Tad Williams: Memory, Sorrow & Thorn, Shadowmarch, and Otherland.

Memory, Sorrow & Thorn is a traditional fantasy novel, but it's just done really well. I am not yet so thrilled with his return to the series, though.

Shadowmarch is also more or less traditional, but there is divine involvement and scale that comes closer to Malazan. When people talk about Tad Williams' influence on Game of Thrones, I think it comes from this book. I think Williams is a much better writer than Martin, though.

Otherland is sci-fi. Sort of a global grail-quest in VR.

This post has been edited by shovelbum: 12 February 2018 - 06:35 PM

[Babblezen]

The Broken Empire and Red Queen's War

Don't let the first book of the Broken Empire detract you.

[cliftonprince]

Quick fun romp on the internet ... just gotta mention this because I'm a fan ... not a set of novels though, sorry ... Almea. A fellow named Mark Rosenfelder has created his own fantasy world in great detail, with plenty of races history geology wars empires religions languages etc.. He details it on the websites http://zompist.com/ and http://www.almeopedia.com/almeo.html (Almea is the name of the planet). The world-building scale is as all-encompassing and epic as the Malazan "Wu-niverse" and it appears to me, that (I think?) Rosenfelder's worlds were up and running in his mind, and some of them were even on the internet, before any Malazan books were ever published. If you want to try your OWN HAND at making some worlds, Rosenfelder's "construction toolkits" (for language, planets, etc.) and his many links are useful. A bit dated now that the internet has moved beyond his early HTML, but great fun and I'm glad it's still up and available!

I tried to read the Donaldson Covenant series and really didn't like it. The pompous language and the holier-than-thou business about religion bugged me a lot. I don't know why the "moralizing" and the "heroic tone" in Erikson's Malazan books DON'T bother me similarly, for they could be seen as akin to Donaldson's language and attitude, but in Erikson they don't. I find Erikson enjoyable as classic potboiler entertainment should be, whereas I find Donaldson tedious even to the point of frustrating. Odd that my reactions are different when the works are so similar. Wonder what accounts for the difference.

What about Pullman's series His Dark Materials ? Not quite the same thing, since good ol' Planet Earth is pretty much the same layout, but there's some epic world-building and religion-twisting going on.

Also, ppl might be interested in John Hollander's novella The Quest of the Gole, a very SHORT version of world-building and epic scope.Out of print. My favorite book.
https://www.abebooks...+gole+hollander link

This post has been edited by cliftonprince: 26 February 2018 - 08:31 PM

[NefaraisBredd]

There is nothing like this excepting Homer (Illiad) or Shakespear. The depth of the series/characters/narratives is profound and SE's perspective (pre-history/anthropological) is in-line with the greatest fantasy writers out there. Anyways, here are my recommendations:

Memory, Sorrow, Thorn (Dragonbone Chair Series)-Tad Williams

Dune Series (Original Frank Herbert books, not the insubstantial books that his son 'wrote'). Ya I know its SciFi but it is profound and has similar depth of narrative and character development.


Otherwise, its a crapshoot. I liked a lot of the stuff already recommended by other users (when i was a kid/teen) but most of it is exactly what SE hates-formulaic repetetive fluff that kills me. Take RA Salvatore-loved the Dark Elf Trilogy and the Canticles but one soon finds it to be lacklustre. Martin is one of those-dont waste your time with Game of Thrones. They all sound so pretty in their shiny armour prancing around and being totally unbelievably good, evil, etc. Mary Sues abound. SE uses Mary Sues sparingly and kills them often and brutally-fugging dragons, much? Lmao. Raest, the Toblakai 'Gods', etc. The badder you are, the more likely you will get your ass handed to you. Not many series/books where that happens. Exceptions could be Dassem Swordtor, Kruppe, Mailce, Spite, etc. Love Kruppe but he is just too damn smart and slick. But he sure is amusing at times. Dassem is too damn moribund and wayyy too good a swordsman. The man is pretty much Paragon Level 1000000000 with the best sword other than maybe two weapons im the whole of Wu. Grief is pretty amazing and powerful (hundreds of thousands of years old). Only Karsa's sentient stone sword, Rake's Dragnipur, and perhaps Greymane's stone sword compare. Ya, Kalam's knives are cool but seriously.

Stephen R Donaldson is brilliant and tackles sime pretty harsh themes in his books. He grew up in India and his dad was a doctor who helped poor people who lived in a leper colony. He saw some cray-cray shit when he was a kid (leprosy, extreme poverty, rape, etc) and he wove them into his fiction. Powerful stuff not easily explored. In his Gap Series, Donaldson creates several amazing anti heroes in the true greek tradition, extremely despicable characters that have reasons (fully explored) for their despicable nature and are able to gain redemption of a sorts. Gap Series is based on Wagner's Ring Cycle. And the unbeliever series is ok but the Gap Seies is his Magnus Opus.

[LinearPhilosopher]

I found myself enjoying Tom LLoyds work. I found it rather malazan esque in terms of a massive story and tons of stuff happening. (granted i've only read books 3-4, so maybe if you had read 1 and 2 you would find it less confusion intially)

[Okral_Raella]

Death Gate Cycle -fantasy, from the same authors as Dragonlance.
Legion of the Damned -more military based... But pretty old and stale for cultural roles and relevance. It's 'candy' (easy to read, not always good for you)
Codex Alera -The rumor is (or confirmed?) this series got it's start from a boast of the author, saying "anybody can make a good book from even the worst 2 premises put together." The response was to write something combining the same idea as Pokemon, and the Lost Roman Legion.

But, the combination of unreliable narrators, depth of world development, and the sense of the world is still very much limited.

[cliftonprince]

Twelve best fantasy worlds ever created, by screenrant ... https://screenrant.c...eated-all-time/ (Malazan novels rank as third best)
Top ten fantasy fiction universes, by Manchester Guardian ... https://www.theguard...ction-universes (no mention of Malazan but interesting British point of view, more literary and less fanboy IMO)

This post has been edited by cliftonprince: 22 April 2018 - 08:21 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

If you want fiction that doesn't handhold the reader and richly rewards rereading, there's always Gene Wolfe.