Recommend me a page-turner of an epic book

[Sparrow]

Another SF epic: Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle.

[Mariemarie]

Originally posted by Shoeless
Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, although it really isn't sci-fi as such, just sorta hi-tech in places -- but half the story is set during WWII so there is some historical fiction as well.

I second Cryptonomicon. And now Quicksilver is out---I received my copy yesterday. Woo-hoo!

[Declan]

Originally posted by Mariemarie
I second Cryptonomicon. And now [BQuicksilver is out---I received my copy yesterday. Woo-hoo! [/b]

Please post opinion soonest

Declan

[Declan]

Originally posted by Mariemarie
I second Cryptonomicon. And now Quicksilver is out---I received my copy yesterday. Woo-hoo!

Bad formating on my original reply , I have already read cryptonomicon about three times already , but want the opinion on quicksliver

As for the poster who was curious about the other ayn rand book , it was probably Foundation.

Declan

[Dostromin]

I actually found "The Scarlet Letter" to be quite a good book, though I do admit that were it not for my newfound skills in analyizing lterature, I would not have enjoyed the novel.

[Pamlou]

I don't know if any of these are considered epics but they were page turners for me:

1. The Stand--Stephen King
2. It--Stephen King
3. Strangers--Dean Koontz
4. Thorn Birds--a VERY good book IMHO
5. The Other Side of Midnight--Sidney Sheldon--another favorite
6. The Sparrow--Mary Doria Russell--sci fi that is unputdownable
7. The Anita Blake Series--Laurell K Hamilton--my all time favorite series. I can't say enough about it
8. Swan Song--Robert McCammon
9. Wolf's Hour--Robert McCammon-my favorite werewolf
10. The Necroscope Series--Brian Lumley--these are not easy reading but they have the most horrific vampires I have ever read.

Pamlou

[Triskadecamus]

The Power of One
by Bryce Courtenay

A page turner. But in a different sense than you are used to. Very well written, down to the line by line, page by page process of reading. Characters you will come to know like your own family.

It's about love, and bigotry, being true to your self, and learning how much the world doesn't care about that. You won't be sure how much it is based on fact. It doesn't matter much. Oh, yeah, and boxing, too.

Twenty pages from the end, I realized that I had no idea how this book was going to end, and I didn't care.

Tris

[sublime]

I wouldn't say any of them are very epic in their novels, but the three writers I've been reading and enjoying lately would be Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude), Chuck Palahniuk (the guy who wrote Fight Club, I recommend Survivor and Choke), and Tom Robbins - probably my favourite author at this point, after the first book of his that I read I just had to find and read everything else he's published. I just can't get enough. I'd recommend Jitterbug Perfume or Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates if you're looking for 'epic'.

Originally posted by FilmGeek
It's not one book but a series.

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

So good.

don't start this if you don't like being left hanging. bastard will never finish the series at this rate.

One really good Stephen King book that I haven't seen mentioned yet is The Eyes of the Dragon.. his only attempt at fantasy.

[PillowPhat]

Chung Kuo by David Wingrove. It's actually a series of 8 books, most of which are now out of print, but absolutely worth hunting down at least the first few. For the entire summer last summer, I had my nose buried in these books when I wasn't actually sleeping or working.

[Chicago Faucet]

Hands down.

The Three Musketeers.

It's the only book I've read more than twice, and I learn something every time I read it.

[picker]

Almost anything by Robert Heinlein - some of the best that jump to mind are:

Time Enough For Love
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
The Past Through Tomorrow

Sure, Stranger in a Strange Land is powerful and fun, but not nearly as epic and compelling as the bulk of his Future History "Lazarus Long" series.

Oh, but "Number of the Beast" gets a bit tiresome, IMHO - but that's the only one that I've not re-read 5 or 6 times over the past 10 years.

[Baldwin]

I'd recommend Tyrant lo Blanc, the 15th century Catalan classic, sometimes called the first novel in the modern sense. Not translated till the 1980's.

Moby Dick. Sometimes there's a good reason books are required reading.

Check out Little, Big by John Crowley.

[Sinshine]

I find I get into an author's work, and follow them faithfully.

I have never gone wrong with these authors:

Sharon Kay Penman: Very well-researched historical novels. It seems like she's trying to put the reader eye-to-eye with the events.
Diana Gabaldon: A happy little romp through eighteenth century Scotland, Caribbean, and North Carolina.
Guy Gavriel Kay, especially the trilogy [u]The Fionavar Tapestry[/b]. Classified sci-fi fantasy, but a really good look at human attitudes at the same time.
Wilbur Smith: Just fun. Eighteenth-century fun set against how many different landscapes?
Jack Whyte: A re-telling of the Arthurian Legend, which sort of looks at the end of the Roman Empire, too, at the beginning of the series.

[Triskadecamus]

Oh, yeah, try"

Master and Commander

by Patrick O'Brian

Not long, but then if you really like it there are the other twelve books in the series. This is the first one, which begins the tale of Captain James Aubrey, and the Royal Navy.

Very good action books, soon to be hacked up into a movie. In the books you will find out what the phrase "by and large" actually meant, when it entered the language.

Bad romance though, if you need such things in an adventure.

Tris